Chapter 17 | The Assassin Kills a Friend
I told Naoise I was going to kill him. There was no going back now. I observed him with my Tuatha Dé eyes and saw his mana building. He was ready to attack at any moment but still wore his usual friendly expression. Even as he prepared, he searched for a method other than killing me.
“You’re a brilliant man, Lugh, but narrow-minded. I just gave you the whole picture, yet you still only think of Alvan. That’s your weakness as a noble assassin.”
“Didn’t expect to hear you call me that.”
It wasn’t surprising that Naoise knew the Tuatha Dé were assassins. His mistress had worked her way into the center of the kingdom, and the four great dukedoms were always close to the royal family. The only people who were supposed to know of our secret were the royal family and House Romalung, who served as our direct bosses, but it had spread further.
“You’ve always kept me at a distance, despite our friendship. I wanted to hear the secret from you.”
“That’s just how we Tuatha Dé are. No assassin worth his salt gives himself away.”
“Is it more important than our friendship?”
“They’re not comparable. That’s like a woman asking her man if he thinks his job is more important than her,” I joked.
I entertained Naoise’s conversation while looking for an opportunity to strike, although it was also partly due to a personal weakness. I wanted to stretch this out as long as I could.
“Ah-ha-ha, that is certainly annoying. Well, you may be ready to kill me, but I haven’t given up yet.”
“You’re telling me to sell my soul to a demon as you did?”
“Yes. I know you see the logic, Lugh. The world will be destroyed if the number of souls climbs too high. Killing demons to protect people is pointless. How do you know the next round of demons won’t appear immediately after you finish this one?”
He sounded like a parent reasoning with an unruly child.
“It’s possible. And everything we’ve done will be for nothing if the world crumbles because of too many souls.”
“As a noble assassin, you should understand the danger of fixating on the short-term benefit. Quit playing at justice and join me in saving the people who deserve to live. Or are you addicted to the praise?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. I’m an assassin—I couldn’t care less about accolades. I only serve as the kingdom’s shadow and wield my blade for its benefit.”
The desire to become a hero was innate, and I was no exception. Everyone craves fame and attention. But I was reincarnated into this world to save it and reared as a blade to safeguard national interest. I needed to prioritize country over any desire for recognition. I felt like I had done a fine job at that.
“Then you should join me. There will be many benefits. I’ll share with you the privilege of choosing who to sacrifice. That way you can ensure you won’t lose those you love. And if you hold that much pride in your role as the Alvanian Kingdom’s blade, we can cull populations abroad. You’ll be able to protect national interest however you like.”
That was an attractive proposal. I could protect my beloved Tuatha Dé domain, Milteu, and most importantly, my family and fiancées. I was no philanthropist. You wouldn’t hear me preaching that all lives are equal. If I was asked to choose to save someone I’d never heard of and someone I cared about, I would pick the latter immediately.
“I only have one hang-up. I love the Tuatha Dé domain with all my heart. It’s why your proposal tempted me for a moment. However, you’re the heir to a domain like I am. What made you able to sacrifice the people you loved?”
“Hah, the strength of my conviction. If I am going to thin the human populace, I need to know the pain I’ll put others through. Killing my beloved citizens will prepare me to command others to die for the sake of the world.”
He looked at me with a determined gaze, trying and failing to hide his sadness, just like the protagonist of a tragedy. His handsome features made him look picturesque in his pain.
“How absurd. You disgrace yourself, Naoise.” I voiced the first thought that came to my mind. Veins bulged in Naoise’s temple.
“There are certain things you shouldn’t say to a friend. Don’t you dare belittle my conviction. Do you know how much I suffered over this?! How much I wept?! You can’t possibly understand how hard it is to kill your own people!” he screamed.
“You think this is self-sacrifice, but you’re off the mark. The people of the Gephis domain bear the pain of this incident, not you.”
“I know my people are hurting. That’s exactly why this is so hard for me!” Naoise screamed, but I didn’t back down. As an heir myself, I couldn’t budge on this.
“Let me be clear. You’re nothing but a murderer… Your people are not yours to offer up. Nobles must protect the people and land entrusted to them. Losing sight of that fundamental truth is why you murdered innocents while believing you’re some tragic figure. Once again—they’re the victims. Not you.”
We nobles guided our people, protected them, and gave them comfortable lives in exchange for taxes. Nobles and their subjects had an equivalent relationship. They weren’t our property.
“I know! Yet I still drew my sword against them. I needed to know the agony I will inflict.”
This was sad. My words weren’t getting through to him.
“Your tragic act after massacring innocents proves you understand nothing… I feel bad for the people of Gephis for being saddled with such a clueless heir.”
“Shut up.”
“I won’t. Why did you believe the words of a demon so easily, anyway? Their kind is the enemy of humanity. Mina probably lied to you. Did you make any effort to verify her claim that the world will collapse under the weight of its souls?”
I always verified the information I received. Data was more valuable than gold in the criminal underworld, which led to a lot of falsification.
“I told you to shut up!”
“I won’t. I think Mina fooled you into thinking you’re saving the world, when in reality, you just butchered thousands for her.”
“No. No, I refuse to believe it. I—I became a true hero. I surpassed you!”
“And out slips your true motive. You talk about saving the world, self-sacrifice, and your conviction, but all you really wanted was fame. The world couldn’t matter less to you. You just couldn’t stand feeling inferior to me.”
“SHUT UUUUUUUUUP!”
Naoise extended his right hand, transforming it into a serpent that raced toward me faster than a bullet… But he was interrupted when his head was blasted off his shoulders, causing the snake to fall limp before it reached me. I’d sniped him.
“Sorry, but I’m an assassin. This is the only way I can fight.”
Once I confirmed that Naoise had survived Gungnir, I camouflaged multiple cannons and fixed them into the ground nearby. I controlled them remotely with magic. I couldn’t adjust their aim, but I could lure Naoise into their line of fire. I’d never fight fair against an enemy empowered by a demon to the point that he could survive a direct hit from Gungnir. I was an assassin, not a knight. Aesthetics and pride meant nothing to me in a fight. I simply killed.
That said, I couldn’t relax just because I’d cut off his head.
“Gun Strike.”
I drew my gun and shot the headless Naoise. This was a new gun I’d made for this mission; I didn’t trust my usual one to be powerful enough. The model was the same—a Pfeifer Zeliska, said to be the strongest revolver in my former world—and I’d made some modifications. The Pfeifer Zeliska ditched the portability and adaptability that handguns provided in favor of greater size and firepower. I used .600 Nitro Express rounds. They were typically used with rifles and were made for hunting large animals like elephants and buffalo, not humans. The result made the Desert Eagle, a powerful and famous pistol, look like a toy.
The formidable bullets were made even stronger because I packed them with Fahr Stone powder, which was significantly more explosive than gunpowder. Additionally, I used tungsten for the warheads to make them more penetrative. The recoil was so strong that my ribs would’ve shattered were I not strengthened with mana. It was a flawed gun that prioritized strength over everything else, but I didn’t want it any other way.
“…Sorry, Naoise.”
I fired until the barrel was empty, blowing a several-dozen-centimeters-wide hole in the ground. There wasn’t a trace of Naoise’s body left, yet I kept on guard. I used a wind spell to probe the area while quickly reloading. I didn’t trust for a second that this was the end of Naoise. If this were enough to kill him, Gungnir would have done the trick. I still didn’t know how he survived.
“Tch.”
I felt a small vibration under my feet. My probing spell hadn’t picked up anything, but I trusted my instinct and jumped. Immediately after, a white snake emerged from the ground and sped for me. That explained why I didn’t sense it—the wind probing spell couldn’t locate anything underground.
I couldn’t dodge, so I protected my vital points. The snake changed its trajectory without slowing and slammed into my open stomach, producing a dull crunch. That was the sound of my bulletproof vest being overloaded and breaking to absorb the impact, but it was unable to diffuse the entire attack, and I was sent flying.
That snake’s attack was as strong as a blow from Epona… One strike broke my jacket, which was resilient enough to withstand a hit from a truck. My ribs and organs would’ve been pulverized without it. I was right to repair it.
I rolled upon landing to lessen the impact, then looked around. Another snake burst from the ground, and then two more. The first charged at me from the front, and the others came from each flank. I quickly jumped backward and pushed myself with wind for greater speed, putting all three snakes in front of me. Then I threw a Fahr Stone engineered to create a directional explosion. The bomb blast and iron scraps flew forward, killing all three snakes.
I used wind magic to float and avoid any more surprise attacks.
“I know you’re still alive, Naoise. Come on out.”
Naoise emerged from underground in response.
“I’m surprised. I didn’t think a human would survive. Almost makes me suspect you’re a second hero,” he said.
“I’m just human, unfortunately. I try to make up for it with ingenuity,” I responded.
I observed Naoise. He was wearing different equipment than before. His armor set was an heirloom of House Gephis. Maha had included it in the list she put together of all known divine treasures. According to legend, it had survived over a hundred battles without a scratch. At his hip, Naoise wore a familiar black magic sword. So that’s why he was using the weaker weapon earlier.
“The Naoise I just killed was a fake,” I said.
“No, both versions you have killed were genuine. I suppose there’s no harm in giving away the trick. There were three of me. Snakes rule over rebirth and immortality. Mistress Mina gifted me with two special snakes that assumed my form, and both became a full extension of me. Only one of my three bodies can move at a time. If one dies, another version of me, sleeping in the estate, wakes up and switches places with them. Impressive, no?”
I knew Mina had given him power, but I never thought he’d strayed this far from humanity.
“You shouldn’t have told me that.”
I used the wind holding me in the air to descend quickly. More snake monsters burst from the ground around Naoise. They must have been outside the range of the god spears, coming here after I destroyed Naoise’s force. Three of the serpents flung themselves at me like spears as I approached from the sky. I took position to hit Naoise and the snake monsters, throwing multiple Fahr Stones adjusted to produce directional explosions. They burst violently and pummeled my targets with iron scraps, but unlike before, the serpents moved through unharmed.
I studied them closely and noticed that their scales shone like gold. They were a new variety.
“Tch.”
I shot down two snakes with my handgun, used the recoil to dodge the third, and dropped it once I landed. So they can survive a Fahr Stone explosion, but not being pierced by a large-caliber bullet.
As the dust cleared, I looked toward Naoise. A giant snake was coiled around him, presumably for protection. That explained how he survived the Fahr Stone blast. Iron scraps had pierced the snake’s charred skin, but none of the injuries were lethal. This serpent was absurdly tough. It uncoiled and allowed Naoise to step free.
“Whew, someone’s in a violent mood. I don’t have any more spares, you know. That actually might’ve killed me.”
I attached a long barrel to my handgun to turn it into a rifle and fired four times. His snake monsters took the hits for him.
“It’s no use, Lugh. These monsters are special. Their scales are as hard as orichalcum. I know you want to kill me from a distance like an assassin, but it’s not going to happen… Let’s fight as proper nobles! Proper knights!”
Naoise charged. He was fast—I didn’t have time to cast my flying spell. I threw a Fahr Stone to stop him, but he raced past it, and the stone exploded behind him. He then drew the black sword and stabbed at me. Unable to dodge, I blocked his thrust with my handgun, unfortunately breaking it, but that afforded me the chance to kick Naoise in the temple.
The soles and tips of my boots were plated with metal for defensive and offensive purposes. Nevan began using metal-plated shoes after seeing me use these. A full-strength kick with the metal tip could easily break someone’s skull.
My boot connected with Naoise’s head with a clang like metal on metal. That’s when I realized his skin was blanketed with tightly packed scales. This didn’t stop me, though. I couldn’t hurt him, but I could knock him off-balance. I followed up by slashing Naoise with a large knife strapped to my thigh, but he parried with his sword.
Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t strong enough to defeat Naoise and his newfound demon powers in a straight fight. I needed distance, but Naoise moved faster than I could retreat. Left with no alternative, I traded blows with him like he wanted.
“I know the assassin in you must be fuming!” Naoise taunted between heavy breaths. He looked to be having the time of his life as he brandished his weapon. I defended myself silently. “You don’t have the opportunity for any cheap tricks or magic. Knights hold the advantage in close quarters!”
I’d been trained as a knight, but it wasn’t my specialty. Naoise definitely had the upper hand at this range.
His attacks turned more ferocious. The old Naoise would have been fatigued at this pace and given me a chance to attack, but he showed no sign of slowing down. Instead, I struggled to keep up despite my massively superior stamina. He was so fast that I only barely had time to defend.
“So you can handle yourself at a knight’s distance, assassin! I’m impressed by your skill.”
I needed to break out of this deadlock, but I couldn’t figure out how. Letting Naoise get this close with his physical advantage was a lethal mistake. No matter how many cards I had up my sleeve, they were useless if I couldn’t find the time or space to use them. He’s strong, fast, and skilled. This is harder to deal with than any special ability Mina gave him.
The only way to endure Naoise’s assault was to give up attacking and focus solely on guarding. And frustratingly, he wouldn’t go for a killing blow. He thought only of preventing me from moving away, an attempt to wear me out that banked on him winning because of this physical advantage. The way he ignored all my attempts to bait him into trying to finish me was proof of that. I’d only be able to withdraw if he got impatient.
At this rate, I was bound to lose. If he wouldn’t take a gamble, then I had no choice but to try one.
“…Reconsider, Naoise,” I implored.
“Cut the crap, Lugh. You said you were going to kill me.”
“You can still rejoin society.”
“It’s too late. I’d be executed as a traitor if I surrendered now… Getting killed earlier cooled my head and helped me realize that it doesn’t matter whether or not Mistress Mina told me the truth. It’ll become the truth once she conquers the world.”
Naoise wouldn’t budge. Nothing I said reached him. I suppose he’s standing his ground. He was right that history was written by the victors—if Mina ruled, her word would be truth.
“It’s time for you to die for the cause.”
He cut my knife in two with his black sword and scraped my face, leaving a shallow wound that bled heavily. I jumped back with all my strength, but he caught up immediately. I’d been deflecting Naoise’s black sword at an angle because I knew it would break my dagger if I tried to block it head-on, but fatigue slowed my reaction, and my clumsy retreat only exposed me further… Or at least, that was what I wanted Naoise to think.
This was my gamble. I purposefully left myself vulnerable so Naoise would attack. I’d been doing the same thing since he engaged me at close range, but a swordsman as good as Naoise could tell when an opening was fake. This time I made myself truly vulnerable—I actually wouldn’t be able to dodge his next blow.
Naoise loosed a diagonal slash. Finally, the large swing I’ve been waiting for. His blade was headed for my left shoulder. Given Naoise’s skill and the sharpness of the black sword, I had no doubt the weapon would cut through armor. I rushed forward while watching the blade from the corner of my eye.
“Are you planning on sacrificing yourself to take me out? You’re too predictable.” A shining gold snake coiled around Naoise’s armor.
His sword landed on my left shoulder. I wore the same stab-proof clothes I’d made for Dia and Tarte. The robust fabric blocked his blade, but it couldn’t eliminate the impact, and my shoulder broke with a dull sound. I did my best to bear the intense pain while rushing forward. Using mana, I forced my broken left arm forward, a sluggish and weakened movement.
“You’re wasting effort,” he taunted.
That would have been true if I were trying to strike him directly. I had no chance of piercing the snake monster and his divine treasure, but I had a plan. I was holding a Fahr Stone in my left hand engineered to produce a directional explosion, and it overloaded and ruptured as I opened my fist. My left arm was already broken, so it hardly mattered if I injured it worse.
The explosion sent Naoise and me flying in opposite directions. While the stone was configured to give Naoise the brunt of the blast, I couldn’t protect myself from taking some amount of damage. My left arm was horribly burned from the elbow down. I also suffered a compound fracture, and my shoulder was still broken from Naoise’s attack. Rapid Recovery couldn’t mend this on its own. The arm would be useless for the rest of the fight.
However, my sacrifice won me some distance and managed to injure Naoise, too. Not even his divine treasure armor and scales could fully protect him from a point-blank blast. The heat scorched his body, and the sound and shock wave injured his sensory organs.
This was well worth sacrificing my left arm.
I stood and studied Naoise carefully. His eyes were burned, his nose was misshapen, and his eardrums had ruptured. Now I could use any weapon I liked. My next attack would definitely connect. This would be my first and last chance to kill him. The same plan wouldn’t work twice.
I need the firepower to break through his armor and the snake scales. Gungnir could have done it, but that required ten minutes to land. My next most powerful attack, Railgun, demanded half a minute of preparation, which was still too long.
Naoise’s burned face was healing quickly. His senses would return soon. I needed something strong and swift. A Fahr Stone with a directional explosion lacked the strength to kill him, and the same was true of Cannon Volley. Fortunately, I knew just the thing.
I’m basing this on Dia’s attack on the earth dragon demon. It utilized dozens of Fahr Stones positioned to force the blasts inward, crushing the enemy to death. In my previous world, weapons that used this technique were called cluster bombs. I created magic systemizing the process that normally required careful calculations and a precise combination of spells, and produced a special weapon to use it with.
“Cluster Bombing.”
I retrieved the weapon I produced for a spell I called Cluster Bombing from my Leather Crane Bag and threw it. It was shaped like a coconut and contained cushioning, gunpowder, and twenty special small Fahr Stones within its iron coating. Magic carried it above Naoise’s head, and that’s when the first blast went off. It wasn’t from the Fahr Stones but from the weakened gunpowder. The iron coating broke, scattering the Fahr Stones around Naoise in midair. They were in the ideal positions to concentrate force toward the center.
The small Fahr Stones reached their capacities and ruptured simultaneously, trapping the impact and heat of the explosions where Naoise stood. The result was a giant sphere that resembled the sun. It consumed the ground beneath.
“This is Cluster Bombing, a spell that weaponizes Dia’s sophisticated calculations… It’s the strongest attack I can use in direct combat.”
Cluster Bombing’s operating theory was simple. The shock waves and heat from explosions traveled outward radially. So a single target only received a small fraction of the total force. But what would happen if you positioned countless small bombs around the target and triggered them all at once? The heat and shock waves hammered the target from all sides, crushing them. This resulted in eight times more force than simply scattering bombs at random. Naoise was struck with octuple the power of twenty Fahr Stones. No living creature could endure that.
“Sorry, Naoise. I didn’t want to kill you, but I made up my mind.”
Even if everything Mina put in Naoise’s head was true, I couldn’t join in culling the human population. I would find another method.
Naoise only survived Gungnir because he used a duplicate, and if he spoke the truth, there were only two of them. Now he was dead for good. I exhaled and began stowing my equipment…
“Gah…”
…and that’s when a black sword sprouted from my chest.
“You were really dumb enough to believe me? I actually had three duplicates. I decided to follow your example and pull a little trick to get you to drop your guard after you killed me the third time. Only a fool would give away something that important.”
Naoise was behind me. I see. He gave away his secret to surprise me on the off chance I managed to kill him again.
“I figured you were planning something like that.”
I—or rather, my projection—laughed. My form then warped and melted, turning into a simple clump of metal.
“Wh-what?! My sword…is stuck…!” Naoise tried to force his blade free, but iron bars grew from the ground and formed a cage around him.
He should have expected this. There was no way I’d trust Naoise after lecturing him on the foolishness of trusting a demon. I doubted his claim immediately and set up a trap, knowing he planned to ambush me when I killed his third double. The moment I slew the final body double, I produced a metal doll in the cloud of dust that my attack kicked up, then retreated and used a light-bending spell to project my image onto the facsimile.
The true ace up my sleeve descended upon Naoise from above—Gungnir. I couldn’t hit a moving enemy, but it was easy to set a decoy and aim for that. I launched the spear into the air as insurance, figuring it wouldn’t be a big deal if it missed.
The god spear slammed into the ground at dozens of times the speed of sound, launching a tsunami of dirt in all directions and carving a crater hundreds of meters wide.
“Deceit is the domain of assassins. You should have known better, Naoise… You lost sight of who I am.”
Naoise was truly dead this time. His mistake was not sticking to his specialty of fighting like a knight. Had he not played my game, he could have won. Actually, his error came long before—when he accepted Mina’s power. And that wouldn’t have happened if not for me. Naoise’s sense of inferiority allowed that snake demon to take advantage of him.
“Am I…crying?”
I had no right to cry over this. I wiped the tears. There was still something I needed to do, a task so important I killed a friend for it. There was no way I could stop now. I wouldn’t forgive myself.
I forced my aching body to walk.
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