The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - Volume 6 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 | The Assassin Returns

After securing the Alam Karla in the safe house and instructing her not to go outside, I returned to the academy. The moon shone brightly in the night sky when I landed on the roof of my dorm. After confirming that I hadn’t been seen, I returned to my apartment through the window.

I then grabbed my study materials and got ready to depart. I was going to participate in our weekly study group. I’d originally started it to help Epona lift her poor grades, but now, nearly everyone in Class S participated.

Attending would give me an alibi. The concept of aircraft didn’t exist in this world. There was no way anyone could believe that I’d made a round trip to the Holy Land and back in just half a day. Even with Epona’s physical strength, it was impossible. At the very least, I wouldn’t be suspected of kidnapping the Alam Karla.

Epona called out to me the next day after class. She was the hero the goddess said would eventually destroy the world and was the person I was reincarnated to kill. Despite that, I was searching for a way to save everyone without having to take her life.

As always, she was wearing a male uniform and presenting as male. She only looked like a handsome young boy to me, but she had nice facial features, and I would have liked to see her as a girl.

I smiled at her. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

I’d initially approached Epona out of calculated self-interest to gain information about the hero and to ingratiate myself to her so that she’d let her guard down when I had to kill her. Now, though, I thought of her as a true companion.

“I don’t want to hide anything from a friend, so I’ll give it to you straight. This morning, some people from the church told me that you’ve been passing off your own words as the goddess’s and trying to throw the world into chaos. They told me many more bad things about you, too. They said it’s a lie that you are being invited to the Holy Land for commendation on defeating demons and that you’re actually going to be tried. I was given an order to keep watch over you so you don’t run, and to stop you by force if you try.”

The church moves fast. According to the Alam Karla, it was yesterday morning that she’d declared that the goddess didn’t speak to me. A carrier pigeon with orders for church members at the academy would’ve been too slow. They must have had this plan ready for some time.

This demon was quite intelligent. It was trying to deal with me using Epona and expend her energy by having her fight me. Nothing could serve it better than simultaneously eliminating the biggest threat to its plans and depleting the hero.

“I was honest with you, so I want you to be honest with me. Have you been lying?” asked Epona.

“No. The church is,” I answered.

Epona’s expression softened at my answer, and she let out a huge sigh. “That’s a relief. That means I can proudly support you.”

“I’m glad you trust me, but should you really do so that easily?”

Epona smiled and nodded. “You saved me. I would’ve been out of the fight for good if not for you. You’ve already killed multiple demons and saved so many lives. I trust you significantly more than those arrogant people in the cathedral. If you say you’ve been telling the truth, then that’s good enough for me.”

I grinned wryly. For better or worse, Epona had not been tainted by the church. Alamism was the world’s religion, and its influence was immense. No one could criticize the church, no matter how wrong its declarations were. Even a noble jeopardized their standing by speaking against the organization. People who took that into account were better off.

Those who had the belief instilled in them at a young age that the teachings of Alamism were infallible and never questioned otherwise were the worst kind of people. They didn’t listen to logic, and words couldn’t reach them. That was the problem with religion; it moved people with emotion rather than reason.

“Thank you for believing me. Having you as an enemy is a terrifying thought,” I said. I was still incapable of defeating Epona in a fair fight. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to escape.

Man, the church is extraordinarily powerful. The pigs in the royal capital had shackled Epona to their city out of fear for their own lives. That was why I’d been named a Holy Knight and tasked with the job of racing about the kingdom to deal with the demons. Despite that, Epona was being sent to the Holy Land now. That was proof that the church’s authority overrode the government’s desire for self-preservation. The church would make for a powerful enemy.

“You can’t relax yet, Lugh. You still have the inquisition! What should we do? Should I, um, help you flee?” Epona offered.

“You don’t have to do anything. I’m going to attend the hearing. I’ll clear my name of all charges by the book,” I answered.

The trial was going to attract a lot of attention. If I ran, I would never be able to remove the church’s accusations.

“Are you sure you can do that?”

Even Epona, as green as she was, knew what an inquisition meant. It wasn’t a real proceeding meant for discussion and finding the truth; it was a stage to convict and shame people in public view.

“I can. But just in case, will you rescue me if it looks like I’m about to be killed?”

“Of course I will.”

“…You know that helping me will make you an enemy of the world, right?” I asked, feeling a little concern for Epona. If she was underestimating the power of the Alamite Church, I needed to give her a firm education. Using her by taking advantage of her ignorance was not something a friend would do.

“I know that. But I have to protect my friends…and you need to uphold your promise. You said you’d kill me if I ever lost myself, remember? You’re the only person capable of that, Lugh. I don’t know what I’d do if you got captured or murdered.”

I made that promise to a tearful Epona during our battle against the orc demon when she said she didn’t want to fight anymore and that she was afraid of hurting other students and of forgetting herself.

“I know.”

“I’d be mad if you didn’t remember.”

“I’d never do that to you, Epona.”

That was the reason I was summoned to this world, after all. As her friend, I was doing all I could to prevent her from destroying the world. However, if my efforts failed, for the people I loved, and for Epona herself—for the girl who cried because she didn’t want to hurt anyone—I would kill her.

“All right, I’ll see you later, Lugh.” Epona walked off.

I watched her go and dropped my fake smile. “She’s a good kid, but still too naive.” I sighed and heard a loud thud behind me. The sound’s origin was a slender man, gagged and bound with rope, hitting the floor.

Quiet footsteps approached from behind him.

“Wow, you were right, my lord. There actually was someone following you,” said Tarte, who was wearing her uniform.

I’d asked Tarte to follow behind Epona and me to capture anyone she saw spying on us. Essentially, I’d asked her to tail the person tailing us. When pursuing someone, it was easy to focus too heavily on your target and leave yourself defenseless—although any spy who allowed that to happen was second-rate. Unfortunately for the guy tailing Epona and me, he was that incompetent, and Tarte easily captured him.

I observed the collapsed man. Hmm. He’s actually better than I gave him credit for.

Looking at Tarte, I stated, “You’ve gotten stronger.”

“Huh?” she responded in confusion.

“I see only one injury on the back of his head. That’s proof that you rendered him helpless with a single blow, without him noticing your approach. This man is a professional, and you should be proud you succeeded against him. There aren’t many in the world as talented as you are at your age,” I explained.

Tarte caught the man because she was supremely adept, not because of any lack of proficiency on his part.

“N-no, I don’t deserve that praise. You’ve just taught me a lot, my lord,” Tarte denied.

“If that was all, you would not have come this far. You’ve worked very hard.”

Even before I was told to retire and focus on teaching in my previous life, I had experience training many students. I taught many who had greater intuition than she did, but I never knew a student who grew as much as she had. It was a cliché, but hard work trumped genius when genius failed to work hard.

I patted her on the head, and she blushed and leaned into me. Despite her efforts to prevent it, her face softened into a smile. I found that side of her very cute. She was reluctant to part from me when I removed my hand.

“Let’s deal with this guy,” I said. The spy glared at me reproachfully. Tarte wasn’t so foolish as to kill a source of information, so she left him alive.

I’d predicted that the hierarch would assign an observer to keep watch over me. He had no choice but to rely on Epona because she was the only person who could stop me, but she was also my friend. He must have considered the possibility that Epona would betray the church, and assigning an observer was a natural precaution—so natural that it was predictable.

“I taught you once in our classes about the dangers and practicalities of religion,” I began.

“Yes, I remember. Fanatics abandon thought and become convinced that their religion is right about everything. They hear no arguments because they refuse to think for themselves. They are very useful as tools, but if you end up in conflict with them, you should consider them more beast than human,” Tarte recounted.

“That’s exactly right. The man you caught is one such zealot.”

“Mmrgh, mmrrgh!”

The man struggled on the ground. He would never say that the Alamite Church had sent him. If a spy revealed their origins, it’d hurt their organization. There was no way he would allow that.

“How do you know that?” asked Tarte.

“His smell. The Alamite Church has a particular scent that is only given to followers who make vast donations or contribute greatly to their order in some other fashion. I smell it on this man,” I explained.

The scent was originally thought up as a way to give followers a sense of superiority. Every religion used rank as part of the process of creating devout believers. The echelons were also made as simple to comprehend as possible.

That sense of superiority led people to become even more engrossed in the religion. Nothing stirred up loyalty within an organization like a feeling that you contributed more than anyone else, and that you were appreciated more than anyone else. I thought it likely that this man was given his special rank for his service rather than for his financial support.

Unfortunately for him, the church represented rank in the form of scent. A smell was excellent as an easily recognized badge, but no spy should’ve carried a sign that gave away their identity that easily.

“You’re so smart, my lord! But if he’s a fanatic, even letting him live won’t get him to tell us anything… Should we just kill him, then? It would be bad if the church learned that Epona is supporting you, right? We could dispose of him easily enough using the furnace in the workshop you built at the academy,” Tarte remarked casually.

“Mmrrggh, mmrrrrrrrggh, mrrggghh!”

The man began to struggle again after hearing such violent language from the lips of such a beautiful girl.

“I’m not going to do that. They’ll think something happened if he disappears. Can you figure out what we should do here?” I challenged her.

A spy’s disappearance was important information in and of itself.

“This is difficult. The best option would be to make him our friend, but he’s not going to listen to us… Torturing won’t work, either, because he’ll take pride in suffering for the goddess. Sorry, I give up.”

“I’ll give you a sixty for that. Making him into our friend is the correct answer. He’s going to give us some useful information.”

“How are we going to do that if we can’t win him over or torture him?”

“I want you to watch and learn. It’s been a while since we’ve had this kind of lesson.”

So far, my fight against the demons had involved very little of Tuatha Dé’s secret profession. I hadn’t gotten my hands dirty like this in quite some time. That said, I was a Tuatha Dé assassin by heart. There was no way I wouldn’t put such great teaching material to use.

“Yes, my lord! I’ll pay close attention!”

Tarte was not a genius. She was, however, a hard worker and obedient. I was confident she would continue to improve herself.

Okay, I have some preparation to do. As Tarte said, this man wouldn’t listen to words and was prepared to endure any pain. This would be difficult playing by the book.

That was why I was going to use his body—more specifically, the structure of his brain—against him. That was the difference between emotion and bodily reaction. There were certain parts of a person’s biology you could use to get them to do anything. And by combining the magic of this world with the technology of my old one, the methods for doing so became all the more effective.

I did feel a little bad for the guy. But unfortunately for him, I was not so nice a person that I would go easy on the people trying to label me an enemy of the world and kill me in disgrace.