Chapter 19 | The Assassin’s First Assassination
Our carriage bumped along the road.
Countess Venkaur had eagerly bit at the invitation Maha had sent her to see a new product, writing in her response that she definitely wanted me to come.
I’d dyed my hair black and put on glasses to take on the image of Illig once again. While in disguise, I had to make sure to act like Illig Balor all the time, even if no one was watching.
Maha was sitting next to me. She was cheerfully humming despite her usual reserved personality.
“We haven’t seen each other in so long, dear brother,” she said.
“It hasn’t even been a month.”
“For me, ten days is way too long a time to go without seeing you.”
Behaving like a spoiled child, Maha leaned on me.
“You didn’t need to come, Maha. As the true Natural You representative, I could’ve done this alone.”
“That may be true, but I wanted to see you. I was careful to make proper preparations to ensure the company would be fine without me for a day. Beruid is there, too, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Guess that won’t be a problem.”
“… By the way, Illig, it looks like I’ll be able to get one of those things you asked for.”
A while back, I’d asked Maha to look into finding a divine treasure.
In this world, there existed weapons and items that could not be forged by man and possessed unfathomable strength. They were made with technology and materials that exceeded current understanding. As such, they were referred to as divine treasures.
One such item was the magic spear Gáe Bolg, a weapon wielded by a man who was known by the nickname Kran’s Hound. Coincidentally, that guy was one I’d judged to have the highest probability of becoming the hero.
Another example was the magic blade Fragarach, an ancient sword wielded by a legend from a great war fought many years ago.
Such weapons were undoubtedly going to make killing the hero much easier. That’s why I’d been spending some of my excess funds in an effort to obtain at least one divine treasure.
I was also hoping that once I was able to set my eyes on a real divine treasure, I’d be able to study it in order to create stronger weapons and spells.
“I can always count on you to help me out, Maha. Thank you,” I said.
“You’re welcome… So, Illig. Have there been any developments with Tarte since you went home? In a girl-boy sort of way?” Maha asked.
“Of course not.”
Maha sighed in exasperation at my words.
“Really? Hasn’t it been difficult? Up until now, you’d been going to a brothel in order to relieve yourself, but isn’t it going to be torture for you without brothels in the Tuatha Dé domain? Every time you went to see Dia or went to a brothel, Tarte looked like she was going to cry, you know. I’m sure she’d be happy to help you out herself.”
I stifled a gag, both because Maha had found out about the brothel and because of the way she’d worded that last sentence.
“Why are you trying to push me into that kind of relationship?” I asked.
“It just bothers me that you’re trying to run away from your romantic feelings for us,” Maha explained.
“We’re family. We’ve been that way for years now.”
I’d been raising them for a number of years now. I could still vividly recall the early days after I’d first met them both. Surely Maha was mistaken.
“When we were younger, we definitely thought of you as our dependable older brother. But we’re growing up. And when you grow up, you develop these types of feelings. If a girl has a guy as attractive as you in her midst every day, how could she not fall in love? …The worst thing about it is how you continue to ignore us. Tarte is the type to bottle up all her frustration without making a single complaint. If you continue to take this attitude with her, she’ll explode.” Maha spoke in a serious and earnest tone.
Ah, I see. So she’s doing this for Tarte.
“Fine. Just once, I’ll throw away my preconceptions and give Tarte some attention. That doesn’t mean I can return her feelings, though,” I explained.
“Because of Dia, I’m sure. I don’t think that would be a problem, though. Tarte might always be second place for you, or a girl you only see occasionally, but she’d be fine with anything as long as you loved her. There’s no more convenient arrangement than that, you know. She’s also cute and well-endowed, besides. You’re a nobleman—it’s expected for you to take a few mistresses.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course it is. So are you finally able to wrap your head around the fact that you have two girls who love you?”
“Wait, two girls?”
“I’m in love with you, too, but my all-out attack is going to have to come a little later. I’m going to continue to grow the Natural You brand and perfect the information network, and once I become completely indispensable, I’ll use that as a pretext in my negotiation. It’s like you taught me, dear brother. You must be on equal terms with your negotiating partner, or you won’t get the deal you want.”
Maha certainly had put an astounding amount of effort into it all. The truth was that the girl was already a supremely vital asset. If she became any more important than she already was, I would never be able to get along without her.
“You really are an excellent apprentice,” I said.
“That’s right, so you’d better prepare yourself,” Maha replied, glancing up at me with a smile. Such a flirtatious gesture actually caught me off guard for a moment.
That young girl I’d found at the orphanage was becoming a woman. Failing to notice something that obvious meant I still had a long way to go.
We arrived in the Venkaur domain.
The region was quite lush, with farmland that stretched for miles. In some ways, it resembled the Tuatha Dé domain.
Apart from the dangerous-looking men carrying swords out on patrol, that is.
A few of those guards approached our carriage.
Count Venkaur was probably employing this kind of private army because he had something to hide.
One of them opened one of the carriage’s windows and greeted me with a wide smile.
“What business do you have in Venkaur?” he asked menacingly. I grinned in response.
“We are representatives of Natural You, good sir. We came to offer Countess Venkaur an exclusive look at a brand-new product. This is the invitation we received from her ladyship.”
Once I showed him the letter, he told us to follow them. It seemed like the guards had been made aware of our coming.
The sight of the estate took me by great surprise.
While the land felt similar to the Tuatha Dé domain, the manor could not have been more different. The building was grand and luxurious, different in every way down to the material used to build it. There was no way this kind of place could’ve been built on money from this domain alone.
“Oh, look who it is! Welcome, welcome, my dears. I’ve been waiting in great anticipation for this new Natural You product.”
The lavish front door to the mansion opened, and a short, round woman walked up to greet us wearing a glittering dress that brought to mind the image of a goldfish.
A number of rings clinked together on both of her hands, and a giant sapphire hung from her necklace. She was also wearing makeup so thick that gaudy wouldn’t even begin to describe it.
“Countess Venkaur, thank you very much for your invitation. I’m particularly proud of this new product, and I wanted a true lady as beautiful as yourself to be the first to use it,” I said.
“Ooh, you flatter me. Please come in! My skin has been in such great condition ever since I started applying Natural You’s moisturizer. I’m sure this next product will be just as wonderful.”
Just like that, we were in the house.
The new cosmetic product I’d prepared was actually a new form of moisturizer.
I’d added a smidge of almond oil to the olive oil that was used in the recipe. This helped to enhance the scent while also improving the coloring of the skin when applied. I’d also improved the medicinal ingredients.
They were admittedly minor changes, but with the kind of person the countess was, the special treatment of getting to try a brand-new product before anyone else in the world did was going to outweigh the quality of the product.
Maha and I complimented Countess Venkaur relentlessly.
“It is exactly because you understand quality, my lady, that I wanted you to be the first to try this product,” I would say.
“If it meets the approval of Countess Venkaur, other women will be dying to use it themselves,” Maha would add.
Throughout the conversation, we continually peppered in such comments. The countess fell hook, line, and sinker for the simple compliments and quickly became cheerful.
This really is too easy.
With the countess in such a friendly mood, all we needed to do was make idle conversation that would extract the information we needed via seemingly nonchalant questions.
When we asked her how the economy in Venkaur was so prosperous, the countess answered that it was because business with foreign nations had been going well. She said she didn’t know any details about the trade itself, however, and it didn’t appear that she was lying. The countess was truly ignorant about her husband’s dealings.
That came as a relief. If she’d known, I would’ve had to kill her, too.
Maha and I continued to gather information.
“My husband likes nothing more than to enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony at night before he goes to bed.”
Such a seemingly innocuous statement was actually an incredibly useful bit of intel.
“It’s truly great that my husband’s business has been so successful. It was only two or three years ago that we were a poor noble family that couldn’t afford much in the way of luxury. I’m so happy that I can dress so beautifully now. So happy indeed!”
“Yes, we’ll have to thank him as well. It is because of his success that we were given the privilege of seeing you in such exquisite form, Countess Venkaur,” I said.
“Oh, you’re making me blush… Oh-ho-ho-ho!” Countess Venkaur laughed jovially.
She really had no clue. This woman was utterly ignorant to how many soldiers had died as a result of the information her husband had sold to foreign countries. She lived unaware that people throughout the country had been reduced to hollow shells because of crippling drug addiction.
As in my previous life, I was an assassin. But this time, I was not a simple tool. Who I killed and when was up to me. If there’d been any doubt in my mind before, the conversation with the countess had erased it.
I was going to kill Count Venkaur.
Three days later, I returned to the manor with Tarte.
While Tarte had been absent during the initial visit, she was my assistant, and I was going to need her for the job.
The estate was in a fantastic defensive position, but as I’d expected, finding a spot to hide three hundred meters from the building proved to be quite easy.
The security was tighter than it was three days ago, which probably meant Count Venkaur had returned home.
I’d hidden in the thick grass of a small hill with a good view of the estate. Using earth magic, I’d dug a shallow hole in the ground, laid down in it, and then covered myself in grass.
The sun had already set, so no one was going to notice me at such a distance.
Without the information I gained three days ago, Tarte and I probably would’ve had to camp out for a few days while we waited for the count’s return, and killing him would’ve been much more difficult, as we would’ve had to sneak into his estate.
Thankfully, his wife had ended up happily volunteering both the day he would return and the information that would allow me to kill him without entering the manor.
I clutched a gun made from magic. It was already loaded with tungsten bullets.
Mages always had their bodies enveloped in some amount of mana, even when they weren’t intentionally doing so. This made them stronger than normal people, so normal methods wouldn’t be able to kill them.
Such was true of Count Venkaur, but even then, Gun Strike was more than enough to end his life.
My Tuatha Dé eyes allowed me to clearly see the second-floor balcony, even from such a great distance. Gathering my focus, I drove everything but that veranda from my field of vision.
Tarte was there to stand guard while I focused on the assassination. Her presence was what allowed me to concentrate entirely on sniping the count.
After about ten minutes, a fat middle-aged man wearing a bathrobe and holding a glass of wine walked out onto the balcony. He looked up at the moon with a contented smile. It was the face of a man who thought himself to be the happiest person in the world.
“My husband likes nothing more than to enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony at night before he goes to bed.”
The countess’s words had proved true. It was thanks to that unknowing woman that her husband was going to die.
Count Venkaur stood there just staring at the moon, totally still and totally defenseless. Admittedly, it made him a very convenient target.
There was hardly any breeze that night. At a distance of three hundred meters, there was no way I was going to miss.
I caused an explosion in the cylinder using fire magic.
There was a special cushion covering the barrel that acted as a silencer. As a result, my shot made almost no sound.
The extremely heavy and hard tungsten bullet rocketed from the rifle close to the speed of sound, reaching its target in less than a second.
With such overwhelming force that it took the count’s head off his shoulders, the bullet easily penetrated the skull.
“Time to withdraw.”
“Yes, my lord,” answered Tarte, and we escaped into the mountain.
No one would’ve thought to look for assailants along the mountain road, and it allowed us to easily emerge on the high ground from the other side of the peak.
This world was devoid of the concept of sniping. Shortly, they’d be looking for an assassin in the estate who was never even there. We’d be able to escape without issue.
The bullet penetrated both the target’s skull and the wall, so it wouldn’t even be found at the scene of the crime.
My first assassination in this world was a success.
I’d decided on my own that the assassination had been necessary, and I’d performed it of my own will.
My former self didn’t feel anything after a kill, but how did my new self feel?
Though only slightly, I could feel my heartbeat speeding up. Then, for some reason, I came to a complete stop, unable to move. It was a strange feeling, one I couldn’t understand.
Tarte turned around, concerned. She slowly walked toward me and gave me a hug.
“Tarte, why?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You just looked scared.”
“… Did I?”
I gave myself up to instinct and hugged her back.
Tarte grinned cheerfully and held me tighter. She smelled nice. Somehow the action calmed me down. Tarte’s softness and warmth enabled me to regain my senses.
… I finally understood what Maha meant when she’d said that Tarte was growing up.
I took a deep breath, and suddenly everything was okay. I was back to my normal self.
“Sorry about that. Let’s go,” I said.
“Okay!” Tarte replied cheerily.
The two of us promptly resumed our escape down the mountain road.
Count Venkaur’s wife would surely hate whoever killed her husband. He’d been an ideal husband in her eyes, and she’d known nothing of his many illicit activities.
I never came to regret what I did that night, but I made a point not to forget it, either.
That’s what was required of Lugh Tuatha Dé.
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