Ch#48
Two days passed, and the day of the banquet dawned.
If one were to describe what had occurred between Elric and Tiria during that time… well, there wasn’t much to say.
Because the bed had arrived a day late, it had simply ended with Elric enduring a night of uncomfortable sleep.
Would it be enough to say that he had spent the entire time withstanding the sensation of his every nerve standing on end at the mere sound of her breathing?
The fact that he felt a flicker of resentment toward Tiria, who slept so soundly through it all, was another matter entirely.
At any rate, that ordeal was over.
The bed had finally arrived, and for today at least, Elric hadn’t lost sleep because of her breathing.
Of course, he had still suffered through nightmares of the battlefield.
“Young Master, it is time to begin your preparations.”
It was just now reaching lunchtime.
Elric tilted his head at Aldio, who was already urging him to get ready.
“Isn’t the banquet in the evening? Why start so early…?”
Only after speaking did Elric recall the nature of Imperial banquets.
“…Ah, that damn grooming.”
That was the way of banquets. To look better than everyone else, one had to don new clothes and spend hours on makeup and hair before finally being fit to stand in the hall. It was a tedious affair.
Even in the banquets he had attended in the past, how bothersome had this process been?
‘To think I have to do that one more time…’
He felt a shudder run through him already, but what could he do? There was no way to avoid it.
Meanwhile, Aldio spoke up.
“The people I requested have just arrived.”
“Hm? Requested?”
“The ones who will be responsible for your grooming, Young Master.”
“Aren’t the maids handling it?”
“Oh my! What a thing to say! This is a Royal Banquet! Such matters must be left to professionals! Our maids already have their hands full attending to the Madam!”
Aldio expressed his firm resolve with a dramatic gasp.
He seemed to be attaching great significance to this banquet, a sight that made Elric let out a chuckle.
From Elric’s perspective, Wibin’s Harvest Festival and this banquet weren’t all that different, in the sense that they both involved a crowd of people buzzing about.
Of course, he knew it meant something different to Aldio. Elric was well aware that the butler always strove to reaccustom him to the noble lifestyle.
Thus, Elric spoke.
“You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to find people yourself. May I meet them, then?”
“Yes! It is just about time.”
“Good. Let us go.”
Elric rose from his seat.
Upon arriving on the first floor, he found several individuals who were quite tall for women, smiling through thick layers of makeup.
Their gazes turned toward Elric.
“Hello—”
And then,
“—sir?”
They faltered.
Wolyeong—an assassin group known as the Reapers of the West.
In an industry where they were second to none, whispered to be capable of eliminating even an Imperial Marquis without a trace, there were exactly three failed missions in their history.
The first was the assassination of a Baron from Disha who was traveling abroad.
The second was the assassination of a certain commander who had taken to the battlefield.
The third was the assassination of a certain young noble who was about to be married.
Compared to their reputation, these were seemingly trivial failures, yet to them, these incidents were like a sore spot.
In other words, they were a source of terror—a nightmare.
It couldn’t be helped. There was one commonality across all those failed missions.
“As of today, a single restriction is placed on all contracts accepted by Wolyeong.”
In all three missions they had failed, one man had been present.
“The Sword Demon, Kasha. Any mission with even the slightest link to him is to be thoroughly excluded.”
The Sword Demon, Kasha.
One of the Seven Strongest of the continent and the most powerful individual among all living creatures.
That fiend, whose infamy pierced the heavens on the Western Battlefield, was that very man.
During the first assassination of the Baron, Kasha happened to be passing through that town by chance and slaughtered every member of Wolyeong assigned to the mission.
During the second assassination of the commander, Kasha happened to be serving as a mercenary in the unit led by that commander, resulting in the annihilation of an entire Wolyeong battalion.
And finally, an even more absurd death blocked Wolyeong’s path. The young noble getting married happened to be Kasha’s close friend. Who could have possibly known that Kasha, who supposedly never left the battlefield, would come to the rear just for a wedding?
At any rate, it was only after such incidents that Wolyeong began to avoid Kasha.
From the start of recruit training, they were made to memorize his features until they could draw his portrait with their eyes closed. If a battlefield was related to him, all Wolyeong units in the area were evacuated. Once, fearing they might fall out of his favor, they even gifted him a sword as a plea for him to please stop tormenting them.
How ridiculous had the reply been that day?
“Then you shouldn’t have been flickering around before my eyes. Why blame me for your deaths?”
He was a terrifying man, devoid of blood or tears.
Of course, they knew how hypocritical it was for assassins to deny those words, but that day, Wolyeong were undeniable victims.
Indeed, the Wolyeong executive who had gone to meet Kasha that day felt such skepticism toward his work that he even left the industry altogether.
In any case, after all that, the name “Sword Demon Kasha” became a taboo within Wolyeong that no one dared utter.
When it was reported that he had gone missing from the battlefield, every branch had even declared a day of closure and held a banquet.
Since then, it had been smooth sailing.
With Kasha gone, the world belonged to Wolyeong. As the war intensified, assassination requests flooded in like never before. They expanded their influence endlessly across the West and were now in the process of extending their business to the East.
They had come this far after landing a decent sponsor, but…
‘…Why are you here?!’
Why was Kasha here?
Danal, the head of the Ferdin branch of Wolyeong, felt the hair on his entire body stand on end.
It was a relief that he had applied makeup so thick it was practically a mask for his disguise as a woman. If he hadn’t, his panic would have been clear for all to see.
‘Why? How?’
He agonized over it, but no answer came. He had only come down to Ferdin to carry out a mission from headquarters, and he had come out for this side job as a distraction, so why—here of all places—was it the Sword Demon Kasha and not someone else?
‘A mistake?’
Not a chance. His features were something one learned to recognize from the very first stage of Wolyeong’s recruit training. Danal, who had once been in charge of that training, could draw Kasha’s face with his eyes closed.
No, beyond that, Danal had seen Kasha in person.
“Junior, I’m quitting this job.”
Because he was the successor to the executive who had quit being an assassin out of skepticism on the day they went to negotiate with Kasha.
“Well, since I heard you are experts, I won’t worry too much, but please avoid excessive grooming. I don’t wish to draw attention.”
Kasha sat down and smiled genially.
Danal felt a chill run down his spine.
“Let’s begin. Isn’t time tight until evening?”
The subordinates who had come along for the assassination looked at Danal, at a total loss.
Even amidst the soul-crushing terror, Danal recalled the training he had received as an assassin and managed to regain some semblance of reason.
He spoke in a woman’s voice.
“P-Please wait a moment. First, we must organize our tools once more…”
“Hm, take your time.”
As he sat there beaming, Danal immediately spun around and huddled with his subordinates.
Click, clack. Over the unfolding makeup tools, he signaled with hand signs.
“Neutralize all the poisons.”
Every cosmetic item here was a toxic substance. And Kasha was someone whom poison didn’t work on in the first place. If they tried something unnecessary and were caught attempting an assassination, it would be the end for everyone.
Whether it was a terrifying survival instinct or not, the subordinates didn’t even take three seconds to neutralize all the poisons.
Danal nodded with satisfaction.
“We don’t know him. Let’s just do his makeup and leave. We never saw that man today, got it?”
That wasn’t all.
“Withdraw the Ferdin branch. Why did not a single bastard know that this goddamn son of a bitch was from here!”
As of today, the Wolyeong Ferdin branch was suspended. No, before they left, they would definitely kill that Count. If it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t have had to endure this humiliation!
The subordinates nodded, their eyes burning with determination.
Only then did Danal turn back around and begin to attend to Kasha with a smiling face.
“T-Then, let’s begin!”
“You seem very nervous.”
“It’s our first time attending to a nobleman!”
“Relax. I won’t eat you.”
Those were truly unbelievable words.
Danal laughed “ho-ho” and began the grooming process with his subordinates.
That process was silence itself.
If one could understand that Aldio, watching the scene from afar, marveled, “It is like the solemnity of master smiths handling a legendary sword of the century!” then it would suffice.
With the single-minded desire to live, the three assassins of Wolyeong exhausted every disguise technique they possessed to focus on decorating Kasha.
After several hours had passed, Danal felt his strength drain away as he pulled his hands back.
‘I-It’s over…!’
Though it wasn’t a moment suited for such a sentiment, Kasha’s makeup was more perfect than ever before. The result, a pinnacle of what could be achieved in the field of cosmetics, lay before them.
Danal and his subordinates exchanged glances. They shared a sense of pride, and the relief of knowing they would live.
‘Guys, let’s just go around doing makeup when we retire.’
They could call it “Survival Cosmetics.” With this combination, they could reach the top of the industry.
“Is it finished?”
“Yes! The Baron-nim’s natural features were so~ wonderful that there wasn’t much for us to touch up!”
Half flattery, half truth.
Danal spoke as he began to pack up the cosmetics.
It was at that moment.
“Aldio. I have something I’d like to discuss with them for a moment, so would you mind stepping out?”
“Yes!”
Click. The butler closed the door and left.
The three assassins felt a strange sense of unease.
’No way.’
Surely not. Though they tried to deny it, why did ominous premonitions always turn out to be right?
“Assassins these days have quite good makeup skills. You all must work hard to make a living.”
Kasha said so while looking in the mirror with a satisfied expression.
The subordinates trembled. The shaking spread to Danal as well.
‘When?’
From what point had they been caught?
As he wondered, Kasha met Danal’s eyes through the mirror.
With a smirk, his eyes curved into crescents.
“Wolyeong, your mana cultivation method was quite impressive, so I still remember it. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that faint breathing, so it took me quite a while to judge. My apologies. You must have been disappointed that I didn’t recognize you.”
It was the end.
“Haha…”
Danal laughed hollowly. He had already dropped the woman’s voice. What more could he possibly do?
Thump!
He knelt on the floor and bowed his head low.
“…I greet the Great One.”
The subordinates followed suit and bowed their heads.
“We greet the Great One.”
What wouldn’t they do to survive? Since running away was out of the question, the best course of action was to beg for their lives.
“Have you been well all this time?”
Danal made his eyes sparkle like a puppy looking up at its master.
