Chapter 205 – Dark Night (1)

 

Dmitry Square.

In a place where people could be seen walking everywhere was a man sitting under a shaded bench and having leisure time.

Nomnom.

The man was chewing beef jerky.
With his robe slightly down, his face was rather pale and sullen, and although he gave off a slightly strange atmosphere, no one cared.

Dmitry attracted people from various places.
Among them, there were those from the slums, entertainment districts, and even mercenaries, so a strange-looking person wasn’t a huge deal.

The man’s name was Cliff.
He was the sub-master at the assassination guild called Ecorche.
He looked around with a calm face.

‘During the hour I stayed here, the guards showed up twice.
That means that Dmitry has multiple guards on patrol at intervals.
Ordinary estates would never do such things.
It requires a good amount of manpower, and the fact that the guards are here is huge.
It’s pointless trouble because the estate doesn’t take much damage.’

It was simple logic.
If one puts a hundred efforts into preparing for one accident, then they would be forced to solve two accidents, which might not be huge, instead of just one big accident that might not even happen.

Even so, Dmitry maintained tight security.
Not just that, but the skills of the guards were good.

‘The rumors in the West seem to be true, ordinary soldiers who showed the same strength as knights.
If things go wrong here, I cannot guarantee my own safety.’

He gulped down the jerky.
He showed no signs of being nervous.
There were many more dangerous things than this that he had attempted in his life, and what he was doing now was only getting information for an assassination.

Overestimate the opponent at all times.
It was a famous quote in their guild and in the assassination line itself, and Cliff had no intention of underestimating Dmitry, who was the most unconventional person.

And as time passed, a man came over and sat down.
He had a familiar face, like he belonged to the same group, and reported,

“As a result of infiltrating the iron mines and examining the Dmitry estate, it says that there are very few incidents considering the number of people who have moved here.
It is said that the Dmitry guards aren’t just for show.
They respond in about five minutes when something happens, and their skills are so great that even mercenaries do not want to touch them.
It is the same for the night guards.
There are fewer of them than during the day, but compared to other estates, the number of nighttime guards is also high.”

“Anything else?”

“There are many talented people in the estate.
We need to watch out for them.”

One night ago, the members of the assassination guild dug up information about Dmitry.

Cliff chuckled.

It was as they had expected.
Roman Dmitry seemed to have tightened their security in response to the assassination notice from the Kronos Empire.
It was fun.
His desperate struggle to live aroused his interest.

“You see.
The more the target is like this, the more I feel excited.
In a situation where he cannot sleep because of the fear of being attacked at any moment, I will go through everything he has prepared and stab the dagger into his heart.
The pleasure of that is amazing.”

Just the thought of it was fun.
He gulped and ate the last piece of jerky as he got up.

“Tell the informants.
The plan will proceed as scheduled.”

The day of the showdown.

On a pitch-dark night, the beings in the shadow were hiding very well from the guards who were patrolling.
And among them, a man in a gray cloak said,

“From this point on, the number of guards will increase as we head further inside.
The interval between the enemies arriving at the same point is about 15 minutes, and we have to enter within that 15-minute time frame.
Keep in mind that Kronos does not allow failure.
Even if we have succeeded in every assassination under the command of the empire, a single failure is enough for them to turn against us.”

Cliff said.
This operation put the fate of the guild at stake.
Because his master begged him to succeed in this, Cliff’s attitude was different from usual.

“I will take the lead.
Deal with the guards and quickly dispose of the corpses.”

“I understand.”

The subordinates nodded their heads.
After confirming the location of the guards, Cliff manifested the ability of the gray cloak he was wearing.

“Invisibility.”

Swish.

Soft light rose, and the light from the gray cloak enveloped Cliff’s body, and he became invisible.
It was a magic artifact.
Assassins tend to use many tools to kill beings stronger than them, and the gray cloak was the most expensive for killing a strong opponent.

Moving cautiously, they approached the guards.

‘Only two enemies.
According to the guard system that we figured out, if we go straight to the castle after dealing with them, we will only encounter guards once.
Roman Dmitry.
I don’t know what kind of existence you are on the battlefield, but you won’t be able to withstand an assassination that takes place under the cover of darkness.’

All this while, they had killed many strong people.
There were also beings called Rankers among them, but there was no way they could handle an unprepared attack, and this would be no different.

Cliff followed the guards.
He could hear them breathing.
Seeing the guards looking around, unaware of their coming deaths, Cliff raised his dagger, and at the moment he was about to cut a guard’s throat….

Kang!

‘…?!’

The attack was blocked.
The guard turned around and blocked it.
It was an embarrassing situation.
When the guard and Cliff looked at each other, the guard blew a whistle.

Beeep!

“Enemies! Enemies have appeared!”

It was confusing.
He was just a guard.
Cliff didn’t know if it was about entering the place, but he never thought that a problem would come up right at the start of the plan.

“Damn it.
Hurry up and deal with these people!”

He shouted.
The guild members who had been hiding came out at once and attacked the guards to erase their traces.

However….

Kang!

Kakang!

The movements of the guards were unusual.
They were not pushed back even though it was a surprise attack, and the two guards who protected each other blocked them.

Only then did Cliff’s mouth go dry.
At first, he thought the guards were lucky enough to block the attack, but now he could see that they were not ordinary guards.

It was then….

Beep!

“There!”

In an instant, Dmitry’s soldiers appeared and surrounded them, and Cliff and the assassins missed the opportunity to escape.

It was a crisis.
At Cliff’s signal, the assassins gathered in one place.
Assassins who were strong in ambushes were weak in head-on fights, but right now, they didn’t have any other means to survive.

They held their daggers.
Their invisibility had already been released while attempting to attack.

Cliff looked nervous.
The soldiers of Dmitry—the moment he checked the face of one of them, he couldn’t help but be shocked.

“… You….
You!?”

It was a familiar face.
In his memory, the face of the restaurant owner, Thomas, whom he bumped into a couple of days ago, was the same person in front of him now.

His heart raced.
This operation went terribly wrong right from the start.

“Cliff.
The sub-master of the assassination guild Ecorche.
The reason you set foot in Dmitry is that you were instructed by Kronos.”

The guard who stopped his attack stepped forward, and looking at his face now, he recognized him.
He couldn’t recognize him earlier because of the disguise, but in the information that he had studied in advance, there was something about a man named Lucas.

“A fortnight ago, we received information that Ecorche’s assassins had set foot on Dmitry.
You would have thought that you managed to conceal your identity completely, but we knew about your full-scale operation three days ago.
Judging by the look on your face, you must be wondering how we figured it out.”

Lower District Sect.
Lucas created an information guild.
The people in the lower districts reported everything they saw in their daily lives.
It wasn’t much, but by combining them, Lucas could obtain useful information.

“The restaurant owner whom you first met when you set foot in Dmitry.
He belonged to the information guild of Dmitry.
When you looked around in the plaza, the merchant was also from the guild.
And that’s not all.
The innkeepers, the blacksmiths, and the miners in the iron mines—they are all the eyes and ears of Dmitry, who told us about the strange things they witnessed.
From then on, finding out your identities wasn’t so difficult.
It is an open fact that Kronos hired some assassins, and I thought Ecorche was the suitable tool for that.”

From the start, Dmitry just ignored their presence, even though they knew they were looking around for information, and timed the shift change of the guards.

Lucas was paired up with Henderson.
And in other parts of the estate, manpower was deployed to prepare for enemy attacks.

By attacking in the dark, Cliff thought his plan was perfect, but from the start to the end, they were only Lucas’s toys.

‘… I will die at this rate.’

Cliff looked around at what he didn’t expect.
When he received the order to assassinate Roman Dmitry, he didn’t think it would be such a problem.
Predicting what they were doing behind the scenes was not an easy thing to do.
But how could they figure it out so perfectly?

After all, in order to enter the castle, they had to run into people.
No matter how much he concealed his identity and used the cloak, all the information was flowing into the lower district.

In addition, Lucas didn’t miss a single change.
Having cornered the assassins, he gave the signal to the soldiers.

“Attack.”

At that moment, Cliff also shouted.

“Open the path! Break through the enemies and head straight for the castle!”

The assassins—the reason they were strong was that they attacked at the time they wanted.
This meant that, on the contrary, they were weak in a head-on fight.

Puak.

“Kuak!”

“Ack.”

It was a one-sided fight.
As soon as they bumped into each other, Dmitry’s soldiers charged at the assassins, and one after another, the assassins fell without even exchanging a couple of hits.

At least Cliff’s presence stood out.
He showed a ferocious appearance with his dagger, which had a sharpness spell on it.

Lucas rushed at him, and as he pressed him on, Cliff was quickly cornered.

‘Strong.’

Lucas’s presence stood out during the recruitment.
He fell into the information guild because he had other uses.
Still, he had experience fighting on the battlefield, and he possessed combat abilities that were as strong as those in the top ranks of Roman Dmitry’s men.

He used a sword and a dagger that were shorter than normal.
And after brilliantly using those two weapons, he cut open the opponent’s chest at once.

Swish!

“Kuak.”

Cliff screamed.
As he backed away, Lucas kicked him in the ankle and knocked him down.

Kwang!

It was over.
When Cliff got up again, the sword was pointed at his throat.

“I’m giving you ten seconds right now.
Explain why I should spare you.”

Schwing.

The sword cut his neck.
Seeing the blood flowing down the blade of his sword, Cliff smiled like he had lost his mind.

“Fucking bugs, do not be mistaken that you won.
Even though you predicted that the Kronos Empire would send assassins, the reason they hired us was because they were convinced that we would somehow make the operation work.
I bet you know.
Our real sword is separate.
Along with that, assassins attacking from all sides will come crashing into the castle now.”

He grinned.
He was going to die anyway, and that was why he wanted to see the opponent panic.
He wasn’t the only one involved in this plan.

Ecorche tried to attack in four directions based on how they would handle it, so the sword of Ecorche moved separately.
It was an operation that was bound to succeed.

He was recognized for his leadership and his years of service and then rose to the position of sub-master, but in fact, he wasn’t that skilled.
He was just bait.
Hence, the plan would succeed.

However…

“Now that we know that, any more information?”

The opponent’s reaction made Cliff’s eye twitch.
Seeing him calmly accept the remarks, his heart sank.

Lucas had a cold look.

“If you don’t have anything else to say, you have no choice but to die.”

Slash.

“Grrr.”

Blood splattered everywhere.
With the sword that had cut his throat, Cliff tried to block the wound with his hand, but he just collapsed.

Dealing with all of them, Lucas wiped the blood off and said,

“Group 2, organize your surroundings.
And the first group will follow me from now on.
We will form a siege based on their resistance so that the enemies cannot escape.”

They didn’t have to worry about anything.
The things that were happening inside were Roman Dmitry’s plan, not his.