Chapter 175. A Secret Meeting between a Devil and Assassin. (2/2)

“Hmph! You think you can hold my daughter’s future over my head to get me to cooperate with your absurd little plan? There will always be hardships for people to overcome on the path they choose to walk. If that event is one of those hardships she has to overcome, then so be it.”

“Then… what about your own profession? You could lose out on a lot of potential jobs because of this event.”

“If that is the case, let it be. The only thing that matters is that I gain something of value in exchange for the completion of the mission I accept. You, boy, do not have the financial resources to make the acceptance of such a mission lucrative for me in any way.”

“You could become a hero who saves the world as an assassin. Does that sort of thing have no appeal?”

“Hero? Hah! And who would know of such a thing?”

“Your wife would. Maybe your daughter as well. Don’t you think your daughter’s respect is quite worth it? She would be the daughter of the man who averted a global economic crisis.”

“I don’t give a damn about that sort of thing. Look, boy, in the end, you have nothing to offer in exchange for such a daunting task. I’d be a fool to ever accept it.”

“Haaaaaah. Fine, I understand. I have one last trump card I didn’t want to play.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

“If I said I was a devil, would you believe me?”

“Pfthahaha! A devil? Are you an idiot? Who’d believe that?”

“Right, I didn’t expect you would. I wouldn’t believe in such nonsense either. But… in the off chance that I was, what if I said you could stop aging? You would still be able to die, but you would remain in your peak condition where your appearance remains as you are at present and you will continue to live so long as you do not suffer a fatal wound or die of illness. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

“Are you going to try and sell me some water from a sham fountain of eternal youth? You know, I’m not dumb enough to fall for such an absurd scam, boy.”

“No, there’s no water involved, all you would need to do is… sell your soul to the devil. It’s that simple.”

“Hahahaha! Sell my soul to the devil to stop aging? You’ve truly read too many absurd stories, boy.”

“Then… how about we let that be the cherry on top? If it works then great, if it doesn’t, then oh well. What I truly have to offer is a chance to repair your fractured relationship with your daughter should you sell your soul to me and accept this request of mine. I can even get her to completely forgive you for the time I almost died because of you. In fact… I could get her to say something like, ‘Daddy, I wub you’ in a cutesy tone if you really want.”

The instant he heard what I could get her to say to him his body froze up. 

“You… could really get my daughter to… say something so embarrassingly cute to me?”

“Oh? Are you suddenly interested?”

“Boy, I’ll be quite mad if you’re lying to me.”

“I’m not lying, I can definitely get her to completely forgive you and even say that awful embarrassing line to you.”

Rosa’s father closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

“Well? What do you say?”

“If you could truly get my daughter to say such an ungodly embarrassing line at this age to me, I’d be willing to slaughter as many institutions as you want.”

“Hahaha, really? Aren’t you too much of a doting father? You’d value something like this more than living forever?”

“Screw not aging, it can’t possibly compare to my daughter saying such an adorable line to me.” He made such a bold declaration without any shame as though it were a factual statement.

“Then, I suppose that’s what I can offer you. In terms of any concrete action, let’s wait until after the election. Only then will you take my words more seriously. What you said is correct, right now I just sound like a crazy kid making up some outlandish story.”

“I doubt whatever the contents of this envelope are will convince me of anything.”

“Good, that works in my favor, just treat it like that. Just take everything with a grain of salt. When it’s time to open it, do so and make your decision at that time.”

“If that’s how you want to go about it then sure. I’ll keep this safe for the time being and store it somewhere nobody will ever find it. If I forget about it don’t blame me though.”

“Sure, no problem. A couple million people in the world dying isn’t that big a deal when there are billions in it anyway. It’s none of my business what happens after this. I’ve already done what I can by making these arrangements with the very limited resources at my disposal.”

“You really think an assassin who kills for a living can be used to stop millions of deaths?”

“Killing only leads to more killing, is that what you want to get at?”

“Of course. Once you kill one person, the people close to that person will want to get revenge and find the killer to kill them. In that process, they’re going to get innocent people killed as well, giving birth to more of such like-minded kill-happy people. If you only kill a single person, it may be possible to end the cycle, but when you kill everyone working at an institution like this… the repercussions would be no laughing matter. The process is an exponential growth function. For this very reason, assassins are trained to take an approach to minimize the number of unrelated kills. We are taught to only aim to assassinate the target when possible to minimize the effect of this positive feedback loop. Our rewards when at the academy were always deducted for extra people killed who were not targets on mock training missions.”

“Well, you’re not wrong, but in this case, it only takes a single person at this institution for something to go terribly wrong in the future. Any result where someone working for this institution escapes is considered a mission failure.”

“I see.”

“This mission would likely be categorized as an end of life mission for an assassin going by the academy’s standards. Fleeing from this country alive would be near impossible with the way they operate. Even for a veteran like me, my odds of a successful escape would be 20% at best with such a flashy mission that will draw so many eyes.”

“You actually have a 20% chance of escape? That’s a lot higher than I would expect. I was sure it would be 0%.”

“Tch. Who do you think I am? I’m the top assassin in the world, I’m a very busy man.”

“Aren’t you just overestimating your abilities?”

“I’m not the one who gave myself that title, that’s just the title other assassins dumped on me. The number of contracts offered to me on a daily basis is sky-high. On average it’s about 100 a day. I couldn’t even keep up with the demand even if I wanted to. I’m a pretty hot commodity, boy. The fact that my wife even convinced me to meet you is a miracle in and of itself.”

“Wow, no wonder it took so long to get a response back from her.”

“You think that’s long? I have such a large backlog that there are people on a waiting list that is several years long. They’re still patiently waiting hoping I’ll accept their mission to this date.”

“Wow. It must suck to be you. I’ll just kick back and enjoy my peaceful lifestyle in this dead city.”

“Damn brat. One day I’ll drag you by your ass and throw you in the middle of a battlefield and watch how you enjoy that peaceful lifestyle of yours there.”

“I will be sure to go into hiding before that ever happens.”

“Hahaha, you think you can hide from the top assassin in the world when he wants to find you? Good luck with that. If I want you dead, boy, it would be as simple as snapping my finger.”

“I don’t doubt that. Because of you, I’ve been skipping school afraid a transfer student who’s secretly an assassin will show up one day.”

“Hahahaha! Have you? Good. Good. Live in fear, boy. That transfer student you’re so scared of will definitely show up sooner or later. I’m sure they’ll cause lots of trouble for you and I’m looking forward to receiving reports on it.”

“Haaaaah. So you really didn’t completely dodge that time with such an objective in mind.”

“Yes, yes, I’m quite petty. It’s a surprise that you realized that it was done intentionally with malicious intent. I must at least make sure my future son-in-law isn’t completely useless. He can’t be someone who relies solely on my daughter to survive if put into a dangerous position. So if an assassin shows up, think of it as a challenge.”

“I’ll just run away with my tail between my legs. Don’t seriously expect me to confront an assassin.”

“Hahaha, well, that certainly is one way to go about it.”

“What? You think there is another way?”

“Of course there is. Such as seducing them.”

“I’m romantically involved with your daughter?”

“So what? From what I understand, you have two women already. Oh, wait, make that three now. I was quite shocked to learn you snagged such a celebrity. Aren’t you actually quite good despite your looks, boy?”

“Why do you even know about that? What’s with you? Are you a stalker?”

“Hahaha, I have eyes everywhere, boy. That includes eyes on you. The method you used to take care of that other celebrity was quite interesting. Even I don’t know every individual detail or how you did it and only have a vague general idea. You're just a high school brat with average grades after all, you shouldn’t have the knowledge at your age to pull off what you did. I know my daughter was involved and helped you with it, but you entered the room by yourself, all alone, where my eyes couldn’t reach.”

So there had been someone watching me the entire time. No wonder I always felt on edge despite nothing significant happening during the operation.

“You really are just a creepy stalker. Please stop stalking me, it’s extremely unpleasant.” 

“I am an assassin, it’s part of my job to be a creepy stalker.”