Inside one of the many hallways of the mansion, another group was already on the move. It was the third floor, and they, like many of the other teams, entered through one of the windows. Perhaps it was bad luck that they ended up in the hallways instead of one of the rooms of their targets.

Still, they couldn’t complain. As long as they got the job done, it didn’t matter how they got in. Their mission was to kill everyone. And that is what they were going to do.

“Jeez, it’s pretty chilly,” the Captain muttered, rubbing his hands together. But he quickly put that thought aside. “All right. Mission start. Begin the elimination process immedia-”

That is… until they ran into something… impossible.

“What are you… doing here…?”

The assassins looked around their surroundings, having heard just barely a sweet voice. 

“What was that?” one of them asked.

The group looked around, but they couldn’t see anything. The overly large hallway was only filled with some typical noble accessories, like vases and flowers or paintings. Yet there was no sign of life.

“I’m not the only one who heard that… right?”

“No, I heard it too.”

“Creepy…”

“But there’s nobody near us.”

“Should we keep moving?”

The Captain of the group looked around, down each end of the hallway. There were windows, and of course, there were doors leading to other rooms. If the voice they heard came from anywhere, it would have to be from behind the doors.

“Fan out… Check the nearby rooms.”

“““Right.”””

Obeying their orders, the assassins began to spread out. Some of them paired up with each other. After all, in a place this large, getting separated from everyone wasn’t at all an impossibility.

There was something ominous about that voice…

The Captain was the only one who didn’t move. He couldn’t place this feeling, but he knew that something wasn’t right. Perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but that voice, although somewhat sweet, was a little low. It was so low, in fact, that it should have come from somewhere close by. Within feet, or even inches.

Were we already seen? Is someone toying with us?

It wasn’t completely bizarre. Conjurings ranged anywhere from simple magic tricks to the most intricate, complex, and mind-boggling powers anyone had ever seen. In some cases, range didn’t matter, and even eyesight wasn’t necessarily required for it to take hold of someone. As long as they were present, then it didn’t matter.

“No escape…” the voice whispered.

“Geh!” The Captain jumped. This time the voice was practically in his ear. Startled by the sound, he drew his daggers and prepared to attack his creeper.

“Show yourself!” he called. The empty hallways around him merely answered him with silence…

Empty?! The Captain thought as he looked around. Indeed, not a soul, nor a single trace of one, was in the corridors. All of his men were completely gone.

“W-What? Where did everyone go?” The only thing he could see nearby was the windows and the doors… and the doors were open.

“Hey!” he called out.

Fwooo…

With a bitter bite, a cold wind blew down the corridor. Blocking his face from the wind with his arms, the captain pushed back as hard as he could until it suddenly stopped without warning. Why is it so damn cold… and creepy in this house?! And what’s with this wind?!

Ever since he entered the place, it had been rather chilly, but now, that cold had gotten much worse. The temperature was degrading, so much that frost was beginning to form on the windows, obscuring the view outside. Mist was forming on the ground, creeping at his feet.

Crrk…

Startled again, the Captain jumped, only to find the frosted window had cracked. Just h-how c-cold is it in h-here?!

His body was shaking. It was like every shred of warmth had been stolen from the area. Even body heat was fading away. None of his men were nearby, and it was eerily quiet. Only the sound of his chattering teeth, his blades falling to the ground, and his hands rubbing together reached his ears.

“W-W-W-Why…”

His head was down, looking, watching as he struggled to retain his own heat. He could only shiver, unable to fight back against this unprecedented winter.

“Are you the one… who brought these… with you…?” the voice asked him. How was this mysterious voice able to handle this cold? Why was she there? And what did she mean by “these”?

Barely able to lift his head, the captain looked in front of him, but… there was nothing… no one… His men had disappeared, and they didn’t answer his call. He couldn’t even produce the strength to stand on his own two feet to look in the rooms they were supposed to be checking.

Shouldn’t they have come out by now? Shouldn’t they have responded? The Captain wanted to think these thoughts. He was truly concerned. And yet, the only thing on his mind was, C-C-Can’t… m-m-move…

The Captain could only stare at the ground before him. The frost that covered the windows had already spread to his limbs and body, and his extremities had begun to turn black. The question he was posed before couldn’t even ring in his head. The cold had long since penetrated his body and entered his mind. It would only be a matter of time…

And yet before him, a single area of the mist seemed to move. The cold, cloudy fog before him was clearing itself, if only a little, in order to let him see past it.

On the ground before him, though, was one… no, two… no. There were many chunks of ice scattered across the ground. Many of these pieces had some slight curve to them, and yet they all shared the same hue of icy white, as well as many cracks scattered along each piece.

But among the chunks, there were a few large pieces, some with such a perfect shape that one would think a professional craftsman molded them. They were shaped like arms, legs, weapons, and there were even a couple of heads, each covered by a unique mask…

!

Even with his mental functions being limited, the Captain was still able to recognize what this was. All of these chunks were his men. They couldn’t have been gone from his view for more than a minute when that whisper came along again. But in that tiny period of time, they had experienced a cold far worse than the captain’s. So cold that they’d turned solid and completely fell apart.

The disgust hit the Captain hard, like he’d just been shot in the gut. But even though he felt so close to vomiting, his body was not listening to his emotions nor his brain. It was too busy trying, and failing, to keep itself alive. He could only sit there on his knees and shiver.

“You shouldn’t have come here… Unlike the others… I don’t take prisoners… alive…”

As his vision was beginning to fail him, as his body began to stiffen in the bitter cold, he could only just barely make out a very light silhouette in the mist. There was no form, and yet, there was something there. Something most would look at and run in the opposite direction from.

But even though that’s what was in front of him, the Captain couldn’t tell if it was real. The only thing he could say for certain was real, was the shimmer of deep black eyes, piercing through the mist.

S-So… S-So… c-cold…

Finally, his shivering stopped. His body, still on its knees, was now the same icy white as the chunks on the floor. His body had succumbed to the cold. And it had become one with it.

Crrk…

~~~

Elsewhere on the third floor, another group was making their way further into the mansion. They had entered through a room window, but there was nobody inside. The group wasted no time in exiting, proceeding to check room by room for their targets.

The mansion was so large, though, that it took them a good amount of time before they’d managed to even clear one hallway. Having realized nobody was nearby, the group gathered together in the hallway to discuss their next move.

“There’s not a single person in these rooms.”

“I can’t say that I’m surprised. This place is enormous. I’d bet that even if they had a ball here, they’d only fill up the bottom two floors.”

“This place is more like a castle rather than a mansion.”

“How arrogant.”

“From what I understand, this guy was given this place by the queen of Keres.”

“That’s right. Apparently, it was supposed to be like a vacation home for her family.”

“What?!”

“Yeah. It was maintained by the nation’s princess until this bastard took it.”

This little tidbit of information had actually come from their employer. The man hated Riley, so he felt that he should give them all the information they needed. He told them how he came by his mansion, explaining how Riley had prevented disaster from rising in the Capital when a horde of monsters and simultaneous coup were approaching. He hadn’t seen any of it for himself, staying out of all business that didn’t bring himself profit. But just the rumors was enough for him to think of it all as hogwash.

The assassins could neither confirm nor deny this as it was considered top secret. The public was faced with the monsters while the coup was a silent, internal affair.

“So this guy has become the favorite of not just the guildmaster but also a queen?!”

“He’s called the Nonexistent and incredibly powerful, but I bet he abused connections. Paid off the right people even.”

“I don’t know how he got the guildmaster’s attention, but surely he must have threatened them!”

“““Right!!!”””

“We’ll be sure to not only kill him, but also everyone he loves! He doesn’t deserve to keep what he abuses money and connections for! It’s time we end them!”

“Right!”

“That said, sir, we need to continue with our search. This place is too huge, and we’ve only barely completed searching in one hall.”

“That is true, but with as many men looking throughout this place as there are, they’ll be found eventually.”

“It’s too bad the leader couldn’t give us any good locations. His blessing is great, but its limit sucks.”

The leader’s blessing, See Through, allowed him to peer through any solid object or being. This was practically a dream ability for an assassin, a thief, or a pervert. However, there was unfortunately a drawback. He could only use it for up to ten minutes per day. Since he had been using it on and off that day, he was pushing the limit. And when he confirmed that at the very least the people were scattered across the floors mostly individually, his power unfortunately shut itself off. He couldn’t even give proper locations. In fact, it was why he couldn’t use it to search for Sierra.

The assassins would be left to their own devices and would have to search themselves if they wanted to find their targets. But then, they were assassins. It was normal in this profession to look for the target yourself.

“Yeah. But it doesn’t matter much to us. We’ll just have to widen our search. Let’s go ahead and-”

“Sound Casting: Hushed Box.”

“Huh?”

Upon hearing these words, the assassins immediately readied themselves. Someone was there. They’d even said something strange.

“Whew!” came an excited voice. The assassins were looking at the presence of a new arrival. “Man, that took a lot out of me! I had to go around the entire building and set up all these spaces for you all. It was soooo exhausting, using up that much Ether. Jeez. Now I’m all tuckered out!”

The voice belonged to a young woman with golden brown skin and black and white hair. She was in a red butler’s attire and was wearing a black mantle over her shoulders that draped down her back. On the hanging side of her belt was a black and white umbrella, and on her wrist was a silver bracelet.

The face she wore as she made her way down the hallway was a mix of anger, anticipation, and exhaustion. Her footsteps were also quite loud. She certainly had made no effort to hide herself.

“One of our targets!”

“Get her!”

Two of the assassins charged her without hesitation, swinging their long blades at her neck and stomach.

“I just said that I was tired!” the woman yelled, taking a single back step. That’s all she needed for the two to lose their balance, swinging their blades at the air. When they stumbled, she quickly went in for an attack, striking one in the face with her fist and then kicking the other one hard in the chest, creating a very audible crunch from his bones.

“Heh!”

“Ah!”

Both of them were sent backwards. The rest of the men were taken aback watching as she just ever-so-casually knocked the living daylights out of them. It was like their experiences meant nothing to her.

“I said I’m tired! Don’t attack me until I’m ready!”

“Screw you!” a third man yelled as he charged at her, faster than the others.

Annoyed, however, the girl felt her veins throbbing in her head as she took a step forward and grabbed her attacker by the throat mid-charge.

“Gh-!”

The man had tried to swing his weapon at her, but as soon as she grabbed him, she squeezed tightly and raised him with one hand. The amazing pressure he felt forced him to drop his blade and try to fight back against her hands.

“What is this?!”

“What is she doing to him?!”

The assassins didn’t dare make an attempt to charge again now that she had one of them in her hands.

“Listen here you lot! I intend to make you all pay! I had something fun planned for tonight, and thanks to you all, we had to reschedule! I hope you’re all ready for this!”

None of the assassins could argue. Yeah, they had come here to kill them. That would most definitely ruin someone’s evening. Especially if they knew that someone was coming to kill them.

“Did you know about us coming from the beginning?” this group’s captain asked.

“Rrr, of course! Because of that, my night is ruined! I wanted to have myself some fun with someone tonight, but thanks to you all, I had to go all throughout this large-ass house and set up soundproof areas! Do you know how many times I had to cast Hushed Box tonight! I had to make enough for all of you so we didn’t wake everyone up in the neighborhood! Even out back!!!”

In the pressure of her rage, her hand squeezed tighter, causing the guy in her hand to fight back harder as he choked. Becoming annoyed with him, she brought the man down and brought her lips to his ear.

“Damn it. Shut up!”

Splat!

“Gah!”

“Aaaaahhhhh!”

The onlookers gasped, startled. As soon as she screamed in the man’s ear, the opposite side of his head exploded, painting the walls red. Naturally, his body immediately went limp and twitched.

“You’re getting on my fucking nerves!” She proceeded to toss the body aside like trash, letting the destroyed head splatter blood on the floor.

“Ahh!”

“What did you do?!”

Her fearsome gaze returned to the men before her. “What did I do? Have you never seen an Enchantment before? What a bunch of backwater hicks!” She sounded both disgusted and disappointed. These are assassins? They’re so hardly worth our time that we could have left them all to Hombell. These unlearned morons are the ones who ruined my night?!

The girl was gritting her teeth, letting her rage flow out. She had to be mindful to leave the leader alive, certainly, but when she was like this, her mind was becoming clouded.

The assassins in front of her began to express their own rage as well. They’d never been so insulted before. Backwater hicks she called them because they had never seen an Enchantment. They would make sure to make her take back her words.

“You’re insulting us?!”

“Who do you think you are?!”

“Let’s see just how tough you really are!!!”

Feeling her veins throbbing again, the girl shouted, “Shut up!” The sudden shockwave by her voice traveled down the hallway and knocked back everyone. Thanks to the distance, none of them had taken any real damage, but every single one of them was covering their ears, howling in pain as they had felt their eardrums burst.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

The girl walked forward, her footsteps heavy. None of the assassins could do a thing about her. None of them could respond, let alone hear. Her sonic attack had completely destroyed their sense of hearing. Now they could only writhe as blood trickled out of their ears.

Stopping in front of them, the girl kicked one onto their backs before stomping on their throat. “Hah!” The assassin could do nothing more than stare upwards at the demon who was breaking his neck.

“I may not be as skilled as Hombell in this department, but I swear to you,” she said in a low, angry voice, “that I will make you cry!”

Hushed Box was a spell that trapped all sound inside a specific area. Nobody outside of it could hear anything from inside, and the reverse was also true. That was why the screams that she would draw out of these men would never reach the ears of anyone else.

 

~~~

 

On the fourth floor, one of the teams was searching for their target. By this point, every team was already at work and searching, unbeknownst to them that there were already casualties.

Waiting for them on the fourth floor, guarding a very specific room, was a tall dark skinned man with short black hair, dressed like a professional. The sunglasses he had were resting over his eyes. What truly stood out on him, though, were the silver… accessories on both of his hands. They lined the length of his hands and seemed as though something was meant to be attached to them.

“So he was right. Even if she was being confined, it wouldn’t matter to you people,” he said, coming to an understanding with something.

The assassins didn’t care much for his demeanor and raised their weapons. After all, this was a target. His circumstances didn’t mean anything to this group. Only his life and whether it was still contained within his body had any worth.

“Hah!”

“Yah!”

“Ha!”

Several of the attackers pounced at him, not even attempting to hide their weapons. However, the man easily dodged a few of them and successfully blocked the last two with the things on his hands. They were clearly made of a very strong metal because the force that was being put behind the blades was incapable of cutting through.

“Hmm, you seem to have some experience, but your teamwork is sorely lacking. If you had spread out and attacked me from different directions, you might have done better.” The man swiped them away, but he didn’t attack further. Instead, he let them regroup.

“Who are you supposed to be?”

“Are you one of Murus’s servants?”

The questions posed by the assassins caught the man by surprise. He had assumed that they would attack with no questions asked. That’s what most assassins would do. After all, their job was to kill, not interrogate.

“No, I’m not.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Well, I’m here because he saved my life.”

“Saved your life?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The man sighed. He didn’t want to explain everything to them, but considering that the Caera Kingdom literally fell only days ago, and they were in a nation rather far from the kingdom, it was only natural that these people wouldn’t know the circumstances. Especially when Riley’s actions are taken into consideration.

“Maybe you aren’t aware, but several days ago, the Caera Kingdom fell.” The assassins let out shocked gasps. “Thanks to Mr Murus, many of us were saved. In fact, many of those who are in this place experienced that disaster firsthand.”

The assassins were speechless. Rightfully so. It was both so incredibly senseless and unbelievable that it was hard to take at face value. And yet the tone of the man’s voice and the looks in his eyes did not lie. He really did come from the Caera Kingdom.

Some of them were confused, though, considering the distance. What did Murus do to bring people all the way here from there?

Yet, there was also a more pressing question. If he had taken survivors from that distant kingdom, then why did he let this man reside in his own home? Did he serve some particular purpose? What was the story?

These questions ran rampant inside some of their heads. However, it was time to cut this conversation short. “Considering your job is that of an assassin’s, I suppose I cannot dissuade you from your current course.”

They responded to his question by readying themselves once more, surrounding him. Their questions would have to wait for another time.

“I thought not. It’s a shame, but at the very least, I’ll try to take you all alive as a show of respect.” The man clasped his hands together and began his chant. “~~~~, Creation: Predator.”

Releasing his hands revealed a pair of mechanical claws, each one with three blades. He took them in his hand and proceeded to attach them to the metal accessories on his wrist.

“You saw them earlier, but the devices on my wrists and legs can be called Foundations. They were specifically made for me so that I could attach any desired weapon onto them.” After taking into consideration how large the area around him was, he still made the decision to use short range weapons rather than something like chains. He wanted to minimize damages done to his surroundings as much as possible.

“~~~~, Creation: Martialist”

Similarly, he created a pair of metallic and almost mechanical greaves for his shins. “My name is Darius Watkins, a Summon of the Caera Kingdom. I appreciate your consideration for allowing me to prepare myself.”

Some of the assassins jumped at his introduction, but as soon as he was done, they didn’t hesitate to move forward. Two of them aimed high while two aimed low. They were aiming for Darius’s elbows and knees. 

“Good response!” he called out, performing a backflip to avoid the low attack and block the High attack. Due to the momentum, the blades he blocked were sent flying out of their hands. Meanwhile, as the low attack was passing him by, he used the claws on his hands to stand, trapping the blades and stabbing his own into the ground.

Darius continued by spinning, kicking those whose blades were trapped. The next attack came from a group of three, their own weapons ready to stab him from three different angles. “Good. You’re taking my advice to heart!” Their attack still meant nothing to Darius, though, as he continued his spinning, kicking away all the blades like he did the first two.

“Damn! So this is a Summon!”

Darius could hear one of the assassins shout out his awe. While he felt complimented, he knew he couldn’t let it get to his head. He promptly pushed up with his claws and stood on his own two feet. Standing in a fighting pose, one set of claws was held back by his waist while the other was set pointed to his enemies.

Then, like a lion hunting prey, Darius jumped forward, and began assaulting all of the remaining men. His claws shimmered in the moonlight pouring in through the windows. Every single time he swiped his claws, a flash practically blinded his opponents. Darius took full advantage of this to aim for his target’s tendons, effectively ending their agile movements, or even their movement in general.

Of course, his attacks weren’t limited to his claws. Like a true martial artist, he was also throwing in kicks for good measure. Being able to attack from four different directions gave him the advantage, making him less predictable in what he would do next. And it wasn’t just that. All of his swings were fast, and despite the intimidating size of his body, he had unbelievable agility. He was flipping back and forth between standing on his hands and feet, and he was getting past his opponents with ease, attacking from behind, from beside, from above, etc.

Using these kinds of wild attacks, Darius managed to successfully defeat and knock out seven of the assassins. They were laying on the ground, covered in bruises and cuts, some of them even had stab wounds in non-fatal areas.

“Hah!”

One of the assassins threw himself at Darius, his sword high in the air. It was for naught, however, as Darius merely deflected it with his grieves, sending the blade flying through the window. He followed up by stabbing his left claw into the attacker’s abdomen.

The assassin, though, grabbed tightly onto Darius’s arm, refusing to let go. “Now!” he called, blood protruding from his mask.

His words triggered the rest to move in all at once. Trapped like this, Darius would have much more limited movement. Taking advantage of this, they intended to run him through from all sides.

But Darius merely smiled and muttered, “Chain Casting: Binding Shackle!”

From the ceiling came a long and thick chain that attached itself to Darius’s opposite Foundation. He may have been trapped, but he wouldn’t allow himself to be killed so easily. And in the next instant, his noose yanked him upward with shocking force, enough that any man might break his bones.

All the assassins froze in shock. They could only stare up at the feet that hung limply from the ceiling. Even the man who fell off of his claws could only stare up in surprise.

“Chain Casting: Goliad!”

However, before they could recover from their shock, numerous chains burst forth from the ceiling and wrapped around the limbs, necks, and torsos of all those still standing. None of the assassins could dodge nor run. They could only attempt to struggle against the tightening chains.

In the next moment, Darius lowered himself to the ground slowly. In response, the rest of the chains began lifting the assassins, as if slowly luring them toward an inevitable execution.

Once Darius’s feet reached the ground, the rest were near the ceiling. Fortunately for them, they weren’t simply being hanged like ordinary criminals. They felt the pain from the strain of the chains, sure, but because they weren’t solely strangling them by the throat, they were merely trapped, hanging like chandeliers.

“I’m impressed at how quickly you all adapted to my words. You all did well to fight like you did. You are impressive warriors.”

Darius detached the chain from his arm and attached it to the ground, leaving his victims to hang. Above him were seven assassins, and beneath him were also seven…

Fourteen? Where’s the last one?

Looking around curiously, he noticed that the door behind him was creaked open.

“Uh-oh!”

He quickly put two and two together and rushed for the room. It was Darius’s responsibility to safeguard this room. After all, it held an important person of interest. Since she had come as a prisoner of the Caera Kingdom, the servants in the house were told to keep watch on this person until their master could interrogate her. He had clearly had some suspicions regarding certain occurrences.

The person who volunteered to guard her was Darius, deemed as the calmest and perhaps the most adaptable person of all in situations like these.

So when he burst through that door and saw a knife dripping in blood…

“What a guardian you are…”

…he was somewhat relieved to find that it was being held by Annika. The assassin was unfortunate this day. After all, Elice had given the Caera family slave an order that was unique for this evening.

“If you find anyone you haven’t seen before enter this room, you have free rein to defend yourself.”

Next chapter will be on December 30. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Hope you enjoyed this early present.