The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - Volume 1 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14 | The Assassin’s Little Sister 

Pondering my new store and its featured product, I returned to my home in Milteu.

I’d been renting a middle-class house in the suburbs and living with two other people. It was a fairly spacious place considering the price. It even had a courtyard, which was incredibly useful for training.

When I opened the door, I heard two sets of footsteps come my way.

“Welcome home, Master Illig.”

“Hello, dear brother.”

One of them was Tarte, my retainer who came to this city with me from Tuatha Dé. The other was Maha, a rational and composed girl the same age as me. She was slender and had distinctive, shiny blue hair.

Even in the house, none of us used my real name, and I never removed my disguise or even dropped my adopted speaking tone. I got a lot of work-related visitors, so there was never a moment when I could let down my guard.

“Sorry for getting back so late. Father assigned me a new task. I’m being entrusted with a store. One that will be completely different from the other businesses the Balor Company runs. It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s exactly why I’m so excited,” I declared.

“You’re amazing, Master Illig! You’ve only been here for half a year, and you’re already being given such important work,” Tarte praised.

“Your prowess makes me proud to be your little sister. I’ll have to brag about this at the store tomorrow,” Maha added.

“Actually, I’d rather you two keep this quiet until the project starts in earnest,” I requested. The two girls nodded in understanding.

Maha calls me her big brother, but she didn’t actually have any relation to the Balor family. She was a girl I rescued here in the city.

I’d been thinking for a while that I was going to need a team on my assassination jobs, and she was a candidate I’d picked out for that very purpose.

The minimum requirement for anyone on my team was that they had to be a mage.

Normally, mages were born only to two parents with mana, but there was a small chance a child possessing mana could be sired from parents who didn’t have any.

Milteu’s population far surpassed that of the Tuatha Dé domain, so the likelihood of finding a mage among the common folk was proportionally higher. With that in mind, I’d begun searching for someone with mana soon after I’d arrived, and I found Maha.

The orphanage she grew up in was run for the sole purpose of profiting off the orphans by collecting subsidies from the city. The children there were given the bare minimum amount of care needed to ensure they wouldn’t die, and they were even sometimes abused.

Adopting Maha turned out to be rather easy. The director of the orphanage took her in only to make money, so all I had to do was procure him twice the amount he would have received had he supported her until adulthood, and he quickly agreed to let me take her.

At twelve years old, I was too young to adopt an orphan, but given that I worked at the Balor Company, and Balor was willing to sponsor me, I was able to meet the requirements, and Maha, Tarte, and I had started living together.

“Allow me to take your jacket, Master Illig,” said Tarte.

“Ah, please,” I answered, and Tarte nimbly took my jacket  and put it away.

Tarte being here gave me more time to focus on what I needed to do, and while I’d never admit it out loud, her presence helped me relax, too.

My heart had been growing since I became Lugh, and I was beginning to feel new emotions that I’d never experienced in my past life.

Unfortunately, this also came with a weakness. There were times when I felt lonely, discouraged, and anxious. So long as Tarte was by my side, however, I was able to drive away those emotions.

Having a family truly was a wonderful thing.

“Tarte and I prepared dinner together tonight, Illig.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Your cooking never disappoints, Maha.”

“You’re right to look forward to it. This is one of my best dishes.”

Four months had passed since Maha first came home with me.

The abuse she’d suffered at the orphanage had left her feeling very weak. The poor treatment had also robbed her of the ability to trust most other people…which was exactly what made taking her in so easy. No one yearned for someone they could trust more than a person in that position.

I’d also been influencing her to instill affection and loyalty toward me using the same conditioning I’d employed with Tarte. As a result, she came to adore me as her older brother.

“Is work going well at the store?” I asked.

“Of course. I would never forgive myself if I did anything to sully your reputation, Illig,” Maha replied.

After seeing to her education, I arranged for Maha to work at the Balor Company during the day. She’d been born into a merchant family and had received a fairly decent education before her parents had been killed during a burglary, so she was already quite intelligent.

Unfortunately, Maha had no sense for combat, so she wasn’t suited for my assassination squad.

She was best put to use gathering information, procuring supplies, and offering logistical support. At the very least, though, I thought it best to train her to be able to defend herself.

“I think you have what it takes to become my right-hand woman as a merchant, Maha.”

“If that’s what you desire, dear brother, I promise I’ll live up to your expectations.”

Setting up Maha to work at the Balor Company was one step of my overall plan. After I left Milteu, I planned to have Maha stay behind.

I’d hand over to her the information network I was building, along with much of my work at the Balor Company. From then on, I’d be able to have her send me needed information and any goods I required while I was back in Tuatha Dé.

If Maha could learn the fundamentals of business, she’d be able to become my administrative assistant. There was a good chance that I’d entrust the operation of my brand to her in the future.

Maha placed soup, meat, and bread onto the table while humming cheerfully. She stared intently at me as the three of us started eating. It was obvious that she wanted to know what I thought of the cooking. I took a spoonful of soup to my mouth.

“Maha, the pork belly steak and the soup are delicious. Did you add the rendered fat to the soup?” I asked.

“That’s exactly right. This is excellent pork belly, so I couldn’t let the fat go to waste,” she replied.

“I was entrusted by Master Illig to look after Maha, but I’ve learned so much from her that I’m starting to lose confidence in myself. But I won’t lose. Especially not at cooking! Please try the pumpkin pie I baked!”

Maha and I laughed watching Tarte get competitive.

I’m glad I was able to find Tarte a friend her age.

Tarte had excellent reflexes, vision, and body control, all of which made her fit for my task force. On the other hand, she wasn’t the best thinker, and she could be narrow-minded. As such, she was ill-suited for logistical support.

I found it quite interesting to see how cleanly she and Maha fit into their respective roles.

It was likely that during future assassination jobs, Tarte and I would carry out the actual strike, while Maha would provide support.

The three of us engaged in idle chatter as we enjoyed our  dinner.

“By the way, Illig, what kind of store do you intend to open?” Maha asked.

My decision had long since been made, but there were still some things I needed to get in order first. Specifically, I needed to meet two conditions.

First, I had to be sure the store would turn a profit. That much was unconditional. This business could not be allowed to fail.

Second, I wanted to sell products that appealed to nobility. That way the business would be valuable to my assassination work.

“My store is going to be aimed at women. I’m going to primarily focus on cosmetics, and I also want to sell confections that are sweet and keep well. That said, if I introduce too many products at once, it may hurt my sales, so I think I’ll just focus on cosmetics at first.”

The need to buy things was stronger in women than in men.

This was especially true for the daughters and wives of noble families, many of whom had a penchant for beauty products and sweet foods.

Beyond that, they loved being treated like they were special. If I became the representative of the world’s leading makeup brand, I’d be able to visit the homes of noble families under the guise of bringing cosmetics and confections. They’d welcome me with open arms without so much as a second thought.

“A store selling cosmetics and sweets sounds wonderful!” exclaimed Tarte.

“That sounds like a good idea. The economy has been in good shape lately, and demand for cosmetics is high. However, there are a lot of cosmetics stores in Milteu already. You will need a very strong product, and even then, it’d likely be difficult to make… Consumers are careful with beauty products because you can’t afford to be adventurous with what you put on your skin. Without a really enticing reason, most women are going to stick with the popular brands,” Maha explained.

The girls seemed to like my idea. Once I had some trial products ready, I decided to have them try the items for me.

Maha did make some good points, however. There was no more difficult market to break into than cosmetics. When it came to beauty products, brand was more important than quality.

“I’ve given that some thought already. I’m going to make a product so attractive, the barrier of entry is not going to be a concern,” I replied.

“Which means you’re keeping it a secret,” Maha deduced. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you have planned.”

“If we can help make it better, please let us use it!” Tarte added.

I was coming to enjoy our dinners here in Milteu. The liveliness reminded me of my dinners back in Tuatha Dé. Despite running an assassination trade, the Tuatha Dé were a very warm family. My meals here with Tarte and Maha were becoming a very similar sort of environment.

Things were certainly warm and cozy now, but when I’d first adopted Maha, she’d been depressed and afraid. Things were tough for a while. We had what we did now because of the struggles we’d endured during those rougher times.

As we were finishing up dinner, a knock came at the door, and I called for the visitor to enter.

“Hey, everyone, it’s me again! Sorry for dropping by so late.” It was Balor’s son, Beruid. He was my half brother, at least while I was still Illig, and was three years older than me.

The recent surgery I’d performed on Beruid had saved him from cancer, a disease that was otherwise a death sentence in this world.

Despite not yet being fully recovered, he still stopped by nearly every day with a box of sweets for Tarte and Maha.

“Good evening, Beruid. You have some excellent timing. We were just about to start class,” I said. The main reason he came over was to sit in on the class I regularly held for Tarte and Maha.

Assassination required no small amount of knowledge and skill. To that end, I’d been teaching Tarte and Maha lessons on pharmaceuticals, physics, psychology, economics, and law. Little by little, they were gaining the knowledge they needed to serve me.

When Beruid had come by the house for his treatment, he’d happened to catch one of the classes and took great interest in them.

“What are you teaching today?” Beruid asked.

“We’ll be continuing yesterday’s physics lesson,” I answered.

“That sounds fun. I really like physics. You can learn the reasoning behind the naturally occurring phenomena that we all  take for granted every day, and learn how to realize those phenomena deliberately.”

“That’s the thrill of physics.”

“Oh yeah, congratulations on being entrusted with a new store. I heard about it earlier today. That’s a job only given to the most promising young employees in the company. If you’re successful, you’ll guarantee yourself a spot in management one day. If you ever need any help, just ask,” Beruid said with a smile.

The only person who knew the secret of my true identity was Balor, so Beruid truly thought I was a bastard child. You would’ve expected someone in his position to feel jealous of a highly talented younger brother who suddenly showed up out of nowhere and received special treatment from his father. I’d expected some amount of resistance. Surprisingly, Beruid had taken quite a liking to me, even going so far as to seek out my instruction.

He was a difficult person to figure out, but adding him to the class didn’t really take any extra effort on my part. I couldn’t let him see the training that went on after class, of course, but I didn’t mind if he listened during the lesson.

I didn’t dislike him…and he could be useful.

Beruid was a skilled merchant, and he was the future head of the Balor Company. Being on good terms with such a person was hardly disadvantageous.

“All right, let’s start today’s lesson,” I said.

I gave them each some handouts with today’s material.

Teaching people in this manner was a lot of fun. My students were eager to learn, which helped make the lessons all the more rewarding. As I went through the day’s education, I continued to think about my cosmetics store and my featured product.

While the item had been relatively commonplace back in my previous world, no one had ever seen it in this one.

After I introduced it to the market, it would surely become an essential part of the beauty routines of all women in this world.

The profits I would bring in were guaranteed to be astronomical, and soon there would come a day when everyone knew the name Illig Balor.