Chapter 16 | The Assassin Departs
Carriages hauling the entirety of Class S and the students with the highest grades from Class A departed from the academy.
Officially, we were traveling to the Holy Land for Dia, Tarte, and me to be commended for our triumphs against the demons. The invitation had come directly from the Alamite Church and the Alam Karla, no less. Naturally, the students were excited.
Unfortunately, that’s not the real reason for this trip. Thanks to the plot of the demon disguised as the hierarch, word was already circulating that I was a fraud who misappropriated the goddess’s name. That was a serious crime. I would be treated as a criminal not just in Alvan, but in nearly every country on the continent.
They really should’ve acted more naturally if they wanted to keep that hidden from me, though, I thought with an involuntary laugh. I’d been separated from Dia and Tarte and placed between Epona and Naoise, the latter of whom was in league with a demon. Many of the strongest teachers at the academy were also in our carriage. Every precaution was taken to ensure I didn’t run.
The reason they separated the three of us was not just to weaken me by removing my assistants but also to prevent us from trying anything. If one of us escaped alone, we wouldn’t know what might become of the other two. In that way, we were all hostages.
“This is gonna be a long trip, Lugh. I’ve been in the capital this whole time, so I haven’t ridden in a carriage for a while. It’s nice,” said Epona.
She was trying to make casual conversation, but her expression was strained. Epona had always been a bad actor. Actually, apart from her overwhelming strength, she was average or worse at most things. That lack of balance was actually typical of heroes.
“I’m the opposite. I’ve been racing all around the nation, so I’m sick of carriages,” I responded.
Epona looked remorseful. “You’ve been giving your all to protect the kingdom in our place… I’m sorry, Lugh.”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way.”
Epona reminded me of Tarte as she bowed her head in regret. Naoise looked at us and shrugged.
“I’m sick of the cowards in the capital only protecting themselves. They’re letting the hero go to waste. I get chills thinking about where we’d be if Lugh wasn’t around,” he said.
The demon’s goal was to create Fruits of Life and resurrect the Demon King. Ten thousand human souls were needed to form just one fruit. That made large cities likely targets, and because the government higher-ups feared that the capital would be attacked in the hero’s absence, resulting in the loss of their lives or fortunes, they had anchored Epona to the city. Had she been able to move freely, I wouldn’t have had to risk my life fighting demons.
That is exactly what is going to make things different this time around. According to the Alam Karla, the goddess said to the demon that “this hero is not being depleted enough.” Normally, even if the rulers wanted to confine the hero to the capital, they’d have to be sent out to deal with demons because they were the only one who could. This time was different, however, because I was present. I’d read all the literature I available, but I’d never found mention of a person other than the hero who had killed a demon.
“I’m fed up with them, too. I don’t want anything to do with this ‘Holy Knight’ title,” I agreed.
Naoise grinned. “Ha! That wouldn’t sound genuine from anyone else, but you really don’t care about stuff.”
“I’ll do something to convince those in power… I can’t let you shoulder this burden alone, Lugh,” said Epona.
I wanted the hero to join the fight, so I wasn’t about to stop her. The only advantage to fighting the demons in Epona’s place was gaining combat experience, and I’d been thinking lately that I’d acquired more than enough of that already.
We continued talking, our conversation turning fun and idle as if we were just three ordinary classmates. No one would have known we were a hero, a criminal, and the servant of a demon.
We made camp at night. Horses don’t have good vision in darkness, and even though we got fresh horses at a town along the way, they needed rest. The carriages we were traveling in were sleeping carriages; they were spacious and had foldable bunk beds, so we could use them to sleep in overnight.
I wanted to know how Tarte and Dia were doing, but I didn’t get permission when I tried to see them. I wasn’t worried about them, though. Given the strength they had gained from My Loyal Knights, there were only two people in this camp who could harm them—Epona and Naoise—and those two were by my side.
Dia and Tarte might not be able to win if all the instructors worked together, but they would still be able to run. They were my assassination assistants, and I had spent more time training them in covert operations than I had in combat. Between strength and survival, the latter was more important.
I finished my meal, and just when I was about to return to the carriage to sleep because I had nothing else to do, Naoise grabbed my hand. “Want to go look at the stars? My domain is nearby, so I know a spot with a beautiful view.”
The instructors watching me made startled expressions and readied themselves for action. Naoise settled them down with a glance.
“Yeah, that sounds nice. The sky will look different here than it does in Tuatha Dé,” I answered.
The suggestion of stargazing was an excuse, of course. Naoise likely had something he could only talk to me about alone.
We arrived at the shore of a lake after a little walk. The reflection of the starry sky on the water’s surface was beautiful.
Naoise smiled at me and put a finger to his lips. Seeing that, I performed a spell using a special vocalization technique without moving my lips. No one watching would have been able to tell that I had done anything.
The spell created a thin boundary around us that interrupted the flow of the air. Sound was the vibration of air, and by stopping that, I could stop sound. Naoise and I were essentially in an outdoor soundproof room. We were being watched by the instructors, but they wouldn’t overhear us.
“We can say whatever we want now,” I told him.
“That’s a convenient spell. Could you teach it to me?” Naoise asked.
“You don’t have the wind affinity, so it’d be impossible.”
“That’s disappointing.”
The wind affinity had a great variety of uses. I chose all four basic affinities, but if I had to pick just one, I would’ve gone with wind.
“So, what did you take this risk to talk to me about?” I questioned.
“Yes, let’s get right to it. This is a trap. The instructors are going to drug you and put you to sleep before we reach the Holy Land, and when we arrive, you’re going to undergo a witch trial on the gallows,” Naoise revealed.
“I figured as much. Sounds about right for a villain who has lied about his connection to the goddess.”
Witch trials had occurred in this world as they had in my previous one. They resulted from a rumor that monsters were disguising themselves as humans and slipping into society. That a similar thing happened on two different planets said a lot about human nature. Suspicion made us lose our heads.
“…You knew that much already, huh?”
“Yep. Might as well tell you I also know that the hierarch is a demon.”
“It doesn’t appear as if Epona revealed this to you… I would really love to have you in my order of knights.”
Naoise’s order of knights was an organization he’d created to achieve his dream, and he only recruited young, talented people. My refusing his invitation led to Mina snaring Naoise with the temptation of greater power.
“My answer hasn’t changed.”
“And I know better than to ask again. You’ve risen so high. I couldn’t hope to contain you in my order… Especially not as things are now.”
“I see. Is that all you had to say?”
“No. I have some information for you. The nickname of the demon disguised as the hierarch is the ‘Puppeteer’ Mistress Mina told me to tell you that.”
“That’s helpful… I haven’t seen mention of anything like that in the books I’ve read.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised. It is a puppeteer, after all.”
That nickname suggested that the demon had the ability to manipulate marionettes. It had likely always remained hidden and made his puppets do the fighting for him.
This reminded me of something I’d observed in the books I’d read. Of the eight demons, seven of them were depicted the same way in every era. One of them, however, was different every time, to the point that each iteration seemed like an entirely different individual. If this demon had powers that the nickname “Puppeteer” suggested, then that checked out. The demons depicted in literature were not the Puppeteer, but his dolls.
“Is that all the information you have?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. Did I disappoint you?” Naoise responded.
“No, that’s enough. Not knowing that could have been lethal.”
Being put on a witch trial was one of the things I’d expected. I had a plan for that scenario that involved killing the hierarch during the trial and using his regeneration ability to show everyone that he was a demon.
Demon regeneration was a compulsory and automatic process. I used my fight with the orc demon to verify some theories. One of the things I’d tested was whether or not a demon would regenerate if its head was blown off. I wanted to see if regeneration depended on the brain, or if it bypassed thought altogether. My experiment proved that it was the latter.
If the hierarch regenerated after I blew off his head, everyone would realize it was a demon in disguise. However, if he was not a demon but a puppet, that changed everything. Killing him would make me a murderer, and I’d never regain my place in society.
“Mistress Mina will be delighted you said so. She said she wants to maintain a favorable relationship with you.”
“That’s good to hear. I’ll play my part as well.” At the very least, it seemed like Mina still intended to make use of me.
Finding out that the hierarch was a puppet took the strategy of killing him off the board. It also opened some new possibilities, however. I had to strategize to take advantage of them.
Killing the hierarch and making him regenerate hadn’t been very high in my plans anyway. Truthfully, new tactics I devised this late wouldn’t be my first options, either. They held too much risk. The best outcome would be for me to win the trial fair and square.
Even still, I was going to devote myself to working on fresh strategies. Any number of unexpected things could occur during an assassination. You needed to be scrupulous with backup plans. I polished each mentally, considering their chances of success, and compared them to my existing schemes to decide priority.
I need to fill Dia and Tarte in as well. We operated as a team, and there would be no point to my plans if I was the only one who knew them.
“Wanna head back, Naoise? It’s getting cold out,” I suggested.
He nodded. “Sure thing.”
I was being kept isolated from Dia and Tarte, but conveying information to them wouldn’t be hard. We had our radio communication devices, and they were the type that could send and receive broadcasts within two kilometers, even without a large terminal present. No one knew of radio correspondence, so we could use the tools in plain sight without issue.
I was going to check to see how they were doing and tell them about my new plans in detail.
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