Chapter 245
“Come out!”
Earl Zebra ran into his great hall and shouted. Then nine assassins showed up. Earl Zebra absolutely believed in the Black Arrows group. The assassination ability of those who served Earl Zebra’s family for generations was unmatched. There was no history of failed assassinations.
Earl Zebra ordered.
“Kill the guy who was here a little while ago! Get me the Black Quartz Earrings back!”
“Yes.”
The assassins suddenly disappeared. Earl Zebra was facing them, and even he wasn’t sure when they disappeared. Earl Zebra felt relieved by their excellent skills and smiled evilly.
‘It doesn’t matter what a monster that guy is.’
What opponents couldn’t those assassins kill? Earl Zebra imagined the situation where that person would die and was very satisfied. The moment he was humming.
“Nyang.”
A small cat entered the great war. It was a cat with smooth black fur. Only the end of his four feet and tail were white as snow.
‘C-Cute!’
Earl Zebra thought as he watched the cat. The cat’s charm was so absolute that even a crazy human was captivated by it. Earl Zebra was deceived for a moment. He felt a desire to keep that cat around him for the rest of his life.
But it was only for a moment. Earl Zebra barely managed to regain his spirit.
“What are the guards doing? Why can’t the guards keep a beast out of here? Do you really want to die?”
“I-I’m really sorry.”
The soldiers who rushed over at the noise were pale. They had obviously been standing guard fiercely. It was impossible for even an ant to enter. How was a cat able to get in?
“Why are you just standing there?”
The soldiers tried to get rid of the cat. However, the cat was very agile, despite its chubbiness. It jumped around the great hall like it was its own home.
“Heok?”
Earl Zebra and the soldiers’ eyes widened. They witnessed small wings appearing on the cat’s back. They looked closely and saw a small horn on his forehead.
“M-Monster…!”
Earl Zebra belatedly grasped the identity of the cat and shook his hands. But his dull hands couldn’t prevent the aggressive cat’s dash.
“Kiyaaah!”
Papat! Pa pa pa pat!
The short paws of the cat swung at lightning speed. Earl Zebra was filled with a terrible pain. He felt a burning sensation from his face.
“Kuaaaaak!”
A sharp scream rang out. Earl Zebra’s face was bloody like it was mangled.
“H-Hik.”
The soldiers were terrified. It was obvious that Earl Zebra’s anger would fall on them, who couldn’t prevent the monster from entering.
‘He is going to torture us terribly!’
‘W-What should we do?’
‘Why did this happen?’
The soldiers fixed their eyes on their spears as they talked. Then they crept towards Earl Zebra, who was filled with a lot of agony and pain.
“Y-You guys…!”
Earl Zebra lived a life that wasn’t filled with suffering, simply because he was born of a noble lineage. Today was his first time experiencing a major injury since he was born. It was also because of his subordinates.
“How dare you try to harm your master! Don’t you know that this is a felony? Your limbs will be cut off and you will all die!”
Earl Zebra cried out. But the threat didn’t vanish. The soldiers raised their spears. Earl Zebra wanted to avoid this and quickly changed his attitude.
“If you put down your spears now, I will forgive you and give you a great reward! So please calm down!”
He tried to negotiate, but it didn’t work.
“Do you think that we’ll believe your words? We know that you tell dozens of lies to those you torture!”
“We hated you from the beginning! You human butcher! It’s better to get rid of a guy like you!”
“One of the girls you framed and killed was my relative! She was only 15 years old! You son of a bitch.”
The anger that had been suppressed was being expressed. If they didn’t kill the earl, they would die anyway. The soldiers were well aware that there was no turning back. They stabbed Earl Zebra with their spears.
Puk! Puk puk puk!
“Y-You…! You guys! Kuheook!”
It was the end of the human who was more cruel and wicked than a demon.
“Nyang.”
The cat, who was the culprit of this situation, slowly escaped from the great hall.
***
“Was this what you aimed for?”
On the outer walls. Kiki had reported the situation in the castle after she used her Hawk Eyes skill.
Veradin shook his head.
“No. I just wanted to obtain the bones of the Slaughterer.”
Veradin couldn’t know why Grid, a duke of the Eternal Kingdom, came to visit Earl Zebra. But he could roughly guess the reason why. The Slaughterer was a bounty monster for many rankers. Maybe Grid came here to raid this place? He predicted Grid’s presence and didn’t report it to Earl Zebra. As a result, Grid raided the Slaughterer.
Thus far, it was as planned. But he had no idea Earl Zebra would be killed. In fact, it was the soldiers who killed Earl Zebra, but the black cat that caused the incident obviously belonged to Grid.
“It’s surprising.”
Was Grid acting for the people of another kingdom that weren’t related to him? A strange smile appeared on Veradin’s face.
Kiki questioned him, “What should we do? There will be an uproar.”
The empire wouldn’t stay silent after a noble was killed. A large scale investigation team would be sent and the atmosphere would become bloody for a while. That wasn’t the only problem. The son of Earl Zebra was still young. In addition, he grew up watching his crazy father and was emotionally unstable. In short, he was easily manipulated. It was doubtful that the other nobles would give a territory to a lacking boy. It was expected that a bloody faction strife over the territory would occur.
“Veradin? What are you thinking? Wouldn’t it be better to report Grid right now?”
“Dismissed.”
“What?”
Kiki couldn’t believe it. Grid was an enemy. Now only did he hurt their guild, he damaged Earl Zebra’s territory, the home of their guild. Yet Veradin was intending to let Grid go?
Veradin explained the plan. “We will arrest the soldiers who killed Earl Zebra and get a huge achievement. Then we can increase our influence and make the son of Earl Zebra a lord.”
He was drawing a big picture.
“This is an opportunity to go further.”
Veradin believed that this work would allow him to devour Earl Zebra’s territory in the future. He would give this estate to his master, Agnus.
***
The outskirts of Earl Zebra’s castle.
Grid was waiting for Noe.
‘I wanted to kill him myself.’
Earl Zebra was a wicked man who shouldn’t be saved. Grid had gone through many adventures, but it was the first time he saw such a brutal person. But it was too dangerous to kill the earl himself.
It would be difficult to access Asmophel if the empire was chasing him, and it would also put the Eternal Kingdom in a difficult position. If he knew that Veradin was a noble of the empire, Grid wouldn’t have touched the White Wolf Guild either. But Grid didn’t know the truth about Veradin, so he couldn’t feel glad that Veradin didn’t report him.
“Grid is a good person? Then you punished a bad person?”
Randy started questioning the division between good and evil. Grid was satisfied at the friend who grew up everyday and replied.
“I’m not good.”
That’s right. Grid wasn’t a good man. He wouldn’t sacrifice his life unless it was for his colleagues. But he had the minimum of conscience. He couldn’t turn away from those who were in fear from Earl Zebra. If he lacked strength, he might’ve turned away for his own comfort.
‘I’m no longer a weakling.’
He was willing to help someone if he could help. But that story was based on the assumption that he would come to no harm. This was Grid’s evolution. It wasn’t quite justice. However, he wasn’t really reprehensible.
“Rather…”
Grid sensed uninvited people approaching their hiding spot. It wasn’t difficult to detect them because he had over 1,400 insight.
“These guys, they were sent by Zebra.”
The criteria that Grid used to judge the skills of an assassin was Faker. These assassins weren’t a match for Faker. In other words, Grid didn’t acknowledge most of the assassins in the world. It wasn’t just arrogance.
His position was right. An assassin’s weapons were their secrecy and swiftness, but it was virtually impossible for them to threaten Grid with his high insight and unreasonable defense. They needed to have at least Faker’s skills to threaten him.
Susuk.
The assassins were unaware that they would be detected. After steadily narrowing down the distance, they aimed their daggers at Grid’s neck. At that moment.
Chaaeng!
Golden blades flew and blocked the assassins’ daggers.
“Aren’t you using cute tricks?”
“…!”
The assassins’ expressions didn’t change. But they were incredibly surprised.
‘He noticed our surprise attack? It couldn’t be.’
They tried stabbing again, but it was useless.
Puok!
“Kuaaaak!”
The golden blades were thrown by someone unknown and flew again, sticking into the assassin’s thigh. A notification window appeared in front of Grid.
[Critical!]
[You have dealt 1,590 damage to the target.]
‘There is only this much damage, even if it’s a critical attack.’
Pavranium was the strongest mineral. If he made a weapon using pavranium, the attack power would be beyond Failure. But right now, the blades made from pavranium couldn’t exert their full strength. They were made with only a small amount of pavranium, so the attack power wasn’t very good.
‘Minor must find the western labyrinths quickly.’
He wanted to secure more pavranium. Minor had a lot of responsibility. As Grid was thinking this, the assassins became wary.
‘This person has a companion!’
Grid was obviously alone when he came to the castle. But now he had a girl with him, as well as a hidden guard. They had to find the guard hiding somewhere that was throwing the golden blades. But they couldn’t detect the person.
Grid smiled like they were funny and pointed towards the sky.
“Above.”
“…?”
At that moment. The assassins looked up at the sky and witnessed the golden blades moving alone.
‘Artifact!’
The astonished assassins looked back at Grid.
“Keok…”
“Ugh…”
Three of the assassins were skewered with a blue greatsword.
“What is this?”
This was too absurd!
“Are we being hunted?”
The past Grid and current Grid had something in common. He showed no mercy to his enemies.
“Don’t waste your time and die obediently.”
An iron mask that covered half the face. At first glance, it seemed to be crying, but now it was smiling. The assassins experienced the greatest horror since they were born.