The Best Assassin 107 – The assassin foils a trap After finishing my experiment and returning home, I started launching my counterattack against the nobles who were trying to frame me. If I left this case alone, it would not only threaten my position, but also cause harm to House Tuatha Dé.
[Once my communication and intelligence networks work in unison, they’re a real force to be reckoned with.] (Lugh) My communication network was a massive infrastructure that connected twenty major cities and allowed for real-time communication. And my information network was made up of three circles of people operating as my intelligence agents. The first one was the network laid out by the mother organization of the Balor Trading Company, which I was borrowing from them ; the second one was Orna’s own newly established intelligence network ; and the third one was made up of talented people who admired me for being the Holy Knight. Each one of them had their own forte. The network of the Balor Trading Company was undeniably massive, while Orna’s network was smaller, but collected more in-depth intel. As for the network made up of Holy Knight fans, practically all of its members were aristocrats, so this allowed me to learn more about politics and the actions of aristocracy. The first two were just extensions of my business, and they were no more than the eyes of the citizens. However, only the last one was the eye that remained concealed within aristocracy. And it was the third one that came in handy this time. Also, the excellence of its personnel was outstanding. After all, it consisted only of people who were able to contact me, the Holy Knight. Meaning that from that point onwards, they possessed an unmatched family status, and the authority to use back channels. I interviewed each and every one of them, and only those I deemed trustworthy became my collaborators. Taking advantage of them was easy. In accordance with their wishes as Holy Knight fans, I let them bask in the euphoria of being heroes by assisting a hero. Additionally, I used brainwashing techniques to win over their hearts and minds, and by providing them the necessary benefits for each of their positions, I reduced the risk of defection. That way, it would loosen their lips about not only their friends, but also their homes. The problem was that though brilliant, there were many of them who were also immature. They were people who wanted to play heroes, so there was no avoiding that. That’s why I put a lot of effort into risk management in case the existence of that network was discovered. [I guess monitoring the royal capital intensively has paid off.] (Lugh) I put many watchers in the royal capital. That city was the center of politics, and the nobles who favored the metropolis over their fiefdoms were more vain and envious than others. That’s how I knew there would be many of them trying to sabotage me. Taking it from their point of view, no doubt they were hopelessly jealous of me. Even though I wasn’t the Hero, I had been defeating one demon after the other, I got the favor of the royal family, and they believed that I was even going to be taken in by one of the four major dukedoms, the Romalung. They were jealous of the glory and favor I was receiving. And they also believed… that House Tuatha Dé would eventually rise to power and threaten their own positions. Even though my father and I didn’t have the slightest bit of interest in that stuff. [If they thought about it for a second, even they would understand what would happen if they hindered me.] (Lugh) If there was no one left to defeat the demons, that would be like cutting their own throats. Right now, the Hero was stuck in the royal capital and unable to make a move, so if I didn’t deal with them, they would devastate the land of Alvan to their hearts’ content. And if I let the demons do as they pleased, the Demon King would be revived. There was even the possibility that not even the Hero would be able to deal with the Demon King, and a good chance that the latter would destroy every single country. At the very least, they shouldn’t get in my way while the threat of the demons was still present. And yet, they justified their barbaric acts of jealousy and vanity with some lame logic, and bared their fangs at me. [I was willing to overlook them if their actions didn’t amount to much, though.] (Lugh) …But this time, they did something exceptionally nasty. So it’s time to take some countermeasures. I intended to confront them head-on first, but at worst, I would have to carry out their assassinations. After all, what they did was so vicious they shouldn’t be surprised if this happened to them. So I wasn’t going to hold back either. The next morning, an envoy from Romalung arrived to pick up Nevan. The daughter of Romalung had a lot of work and responsibilities to keep her busy. Which meant that it was time for her to leave. We came to see her off. [Those last three days I spent in Tuatha Dé have been plenty of fun. I will be back again.] (Nevan) [You let us hang out in Romalung yourself, after all. I hope we can maintain a favorable relationship between us from now on.] (Lugh) [I pray for the same thing. The next time we meet, it will be at the academy, as your kindhearted upperclassman.] (Nevan) [Yeah. Likewise, we will behave as your charming underclassmen.] (Lugh) Come to think if it, the reconstruction of the academy should be over soon enough. Once we go back there, Nevan will be our senior. Back then at the academy, I was intentionally avoiding her, but now, I have no reason to do that anymore. [Also, I see you’re facing some kind of hardship, Lugh-sama.] (Nevan) [What do you mean?] (Lugh) [Please don’t bother trying to deceive me. Your facial expression and appearance may be the same as always, but your aura feels different.] (Nevan) Well I’ll be damned. My previous life included, it’s not often that someone sees right through me despite my intention to conceal my facial expressions and emotions. [I just ran into a bit of trouble.] (Lugh) [Should I lend you the power of Romalung?] (Nevan) [That won’t be necessary. I’ll figure out something.] (Lugh) I wasn’t trying to act tough. I just didn’t want to owe her for something I didn’t need. I had to save the power of Romalung for much later. [I see. If you ever change your mind, please let me know. …I’ll be sure to keep this little device on me.] (Nevan) My communication network had even been set up in every major city of the country. There was no way the city of Romalung wasn’t included in them. I had already told Nevan the location of the large communication device I had planted in that city. [Sure. When that time comes, I’ll be counting on you.] (Lugh)
Those were my last words to her. Nevan was now on her way home. Being with her was nerve-wracking, but also fun and educational. Hopefully, we would maintain a good relationship. After parting ways with Nevan, I accessed the communication network from the portable device in my room. I had installed a large communication device in the Tuatha Dé residence as well. However, this one was a little special and not mentioned in any of my documents, and even Maha didn’t know about its existence. It also had a special function not found in the other communication devices. It was my insurance, so to speak. I had my reasons for going through all this trouble. This wasn’t a private channel for contacting the girls, but a designated channel to contact my operatives. [King, this is Silver…] (Lugh) On my private channel, the others and I called each other by our names, but on the channel that connected me to my agents, we used code names. ‘Silver’ referred to me, and ‘King’ referred to my agents in the royal capital. And so, I instructed them to set a trap for the guys who had set a trap for me. The next day, I set up some hang gliders. A two-seater for me and Dia, and a special one for Tarte. [Sorry about that. I was really hoping we could spend a little more time at home.] (Lugh) [Please don’t be, I don’t mind at all! As long as I’m together with you, Lugh-sama, I will go anywhere!] (Tarte) [But I have to say, they’re despicable. …For trying to denounce you as a murderer.] (Dia) [Yeah, they really are.] (Lugh) The people who were attempting to set me up were trying to frame me as a murderer. They weren’t wrong about me being one, but being condemned for murder was the greatest humiliation for an assassin. After all, it was equivalent to being branded as an incompetent killer who had been exposed. Even if I knew their accusations were false, it was still pissing me off. [Their method was crude. Their plan was apparently to kill one of their political rivals, have his corpse disposed of and found in Johnbull, and then have a false witness claim that I got him involved and killed during our battle with the demon.] (Lugh) [Um, is that truly something they can blame you for? I think it’s normal that bystanders would get caught in that battle. We couldn’t have faced the demon if we were worried about that.] (Tarte) [Well yeah, it’s in the Holy Knight’s right to not be held responsible for any damage he causes during battle.] (Lugh) That didn’t only apply to the Holy Knight, the Hero and some of the high-ranked knights could exert that same authority. Whenever powerful individuals were engaged in battle, the aftermath of their scuffle would cover a wide area. And whenever they were dispatched somewhere, their enemies were usually either really powerful, or a super urgent matter to deal with. And that’s why they were given the right to fight at full power. [Isn’t that odd, then? Because in that case, there’s no way they can use that to frame you.] (Dia) [No, as far as they’re concerned, it’s good enough. The guy they want me to be accused of killing was popular among the high-class nobles. Even if I’m innocent, it’ll still worsen many citizens and nobles’ opinion of me. In the worst case scenario, some of them might even show up to avenge him. If the sole purpose is to sabotage me out of jealousy, then this is enough of a negative campaign. …Not only that, but they made up some phony story about a feud between the victim and House Tuatha Dé to make it seem like I deliberately got him involved to kill him.] (Lugh) No matter how much of a legal immunity the title of Holy Knight could provide me, if I was accused of deliberate murder, it could be a problem. Even if I was innocent, there was no doubt that all kinds of nobles from every direction would impose sanctions on Tuatha Dé. [How disgusting. That’s why I hate aristocracy.] (Dia) Climbing up the hierarchy of nobility was all about tripping others up. If you lived in an era of war, you could succeed by earning outstanding achievements, but if there was no war, then it was hard to earn them. Therefore, not making any mistake and knowing how to cause the disqualification of your rivals and those who were above you were essential. Aristocrats who seeked promotion were experts at that. And that was what the bunch who were trying it set me up were doing. [Um… In that case, how do you plan to oppose them?] (Tarte) [I’ve tracked down that false witness. Now I just have to “persuade” him a bit to get him on our side. Then once it’s time to expose my sins, I’ll have him explain that it was the guy who tried to frame me who was responsible for everything.] (Lugh) [You’re going to make him switch sides?] (Tarte) [You think I can’t do that?] (Lugh) Tarte flinched. Persuasion was a specialty of mine. …Normally, I didn’t have the time to work on that. The trial process was as follows. When someone accused another of a crime, the first step was to deliberate whether to hold a trial. Once the deliberation was over and approved, the next step was to transport a letter by carrier pigeon, and at the same time, a government official with a letter departed for the accused’s territory in a carriage. The accused had to return to their territory within three days of the official’s arrival, and come along with them to the royal capital. And then, after arriving at the royal capital, the trial would be held at the earliest time that the schedules of the parties concerned would allow. It would take the official one week at most to arrive from the royal capital. And for the carrier pigeon, it would take two or three days. Normally, counting the five days between the arrival of the carrier pigeon’s letter and the official’s arrival, plus the three days the official would spend waiting for me, for a total of eight days, that would have been enough for us to make it back into the territory in time. However, in this instance , the carrier pigeon apparently had an “unfortunate” accident, and the letter wasn’t delivered to me. …In other words, if I didn’t return to Tuatha Dé within three days of the arrival of the official with the letter, I would be considered a fugitive and pronounced guilty from that point. Even if I made it back in time, the influence of the guy who accused me extended to various places, and he had made sure that the trial would take place the day right after I would arrive at the capital with the official. If I hadn’t known anything about it, I would’ve lost by default due to absence, or at best, I would’ve had to appear in court unprepared. [I swear, though. I didn’t build my information and communication networks for this sort of annoyance.] (Lugh) I cracked a bitter smile. This time, my network saved me. It seemed that the official with the letter had left the capital just this morning. Because I was able to find out about it yesterday, I could use the time until the official arrived plus three days to prepare my counterattack. [Yeah, I bet. But I’m relieved that we’ll be able to prove your innocence, Lugh.] (Dia) [Yeah. But I won’t let it end like that. I intend to make them pay.] (Lugh) Simply proving my innocence won’t cut it. I’ll make an example of them by giving them a complete beatdown so that no one else will be stupid enough to attempt the same thing again.
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