Chapter 91 – Shadow (2)

Harris was a 6-star assassin.

The time he spent in the House of Roderick was sixteen years.

Since his age was twenty-two, he had effectively grown up in Roderick since he was a small boy who knew nothing.

Until reaching his current skill,

Harris endured training close to torture and survived. He stepped over comrades dropped into the same environment. He did not look back at the friends who fell out.

Eventually, Harris became Roderick’s shadow.

The training was still harsh, but the treatment improved.

Except for the training period, he could eat what he wanted to his heart’s content, and when he was tired, he could freely close his eyes and sleep.

Harris was satisfied.

He had no great interest in the complicated restrictions placed on him. For the work he had to do was extremely simple.

For ten years since being granted the qualification of a shadow,

Harris killed 107 people, dragged 330 before the Duke, and threatened 688.

Of course, he did not achieve this alone.

The shadows always formed teams of ten, and carried out almost all missions on a team basis.

It was an easy and simple matter.

After finishing a mission, Harris ate delicious food. He lay down in a soft place and sought deep sleep.

After opening his eyes, his memory of carrying out the mission had grown faint.

And then, it was a repetition of another day.

A life of an extremely simple structure: performing missions, resting, and training.

Harris was satisfied.

Today was no different.

After performing the given mission, the same day would wait, and to enjoy that moment, he had to complete this mission without fail.

“Tiny and Muron will take charge of guard duty. Check if a Royal Knight is approaching. No need to look at anyone else.”

The two moved away without even a reply.

Before the target used the gate,

Harris confirmed the appearance of the Royal Knight with the target.

Up to 6-star, it could be resolved by attaching some personnel, but if it was a 7-star knight, the story was different.

“Edgar will handle Henry Camilton. The rest will target the target. You must not kill him, and other injuries do not matter.”

The distribution of personnel was completed. One person would be sufficient for Henry Camilton, and seven personnel were also sufficient for Austin.

This was only because there was a condition that he had to be secured without being killed.

The distance closed rapidly.

The shadows prepared their weapons. A situation where the Royal Knight’s intervention might occur. They had to wrap up the situation as quickly as possible.

‘I see them.’

Now the targets were within a distance that could be verified with the naked eye. He rapidly swept the surroundings. There was no variable. There were only two people, and it was not a terrain to worry about an ambush.

He checked the ring on his hand. It was a ring that shone when approaching a trap. The ring was still dark and dull.

“Start.”

Dash!

The shadows’ speed increased rapidly. Due to their nature, their combat power decreased from the moment their appearance was revealed. It was their intention to handle them before the opponent responded in earnest, but…

“…!”

Harris realized that their position had already been detected.

It was not Austin, the target.

Henry Camilton.

The trainee, who was said to be only slightly outstanding, was looking precisely at the shadows, including Harris.

“According to plan.”

However, Harris was a skilled assassin.

Even though a variable occurred, he was not shaken. Although the destructive power would weaken as much as the ambush failed, the level of the opponent was unchanged anyway.

He checked Edgar’s movement path. It was the shadow in charge of Henry. Harris led the rest and rushed toward Austin.

Stab!

Harris heard the sound of a sword piercing a body. He was reflexively relieved, then froze. The sound was long. It was not a sound that could come from a dagger.

‘…?’

Beside him was Edgar, pierced by a sword. He became like that in a single strike.

“Sophia, Connor. Take charge of Henry Camilton.”

Mechanically, something went wrong.

The variable was larger than expected, and the biggest problem was that they still could not accurately gauge Henry’s level.

Of course.

It was just that the loss was greater than planned, not to the extent of overturning the result of the mission.

***

[Isn’t this the first time fighting a real person? lol]

[Ah, what’s with the mosaic lol]

[Why did they die so easily? Weren’t they 5-star level too?]

The chat window scrolled up rapidly. The viewers were in an excited mood at the ‘real combat’ they faced for the first time.

Until now, the only times Henry fought humans were duels where safety was guaranteed. Otherwise? It was monsters. This was the first time he pointed his sword at another human.

Especially,

all the more so since it was a situation where they aimed for each other’s lives.

‘…What is a mosaic?’

Henry drew his sword. Blood sprayed out. The opponent pierced by the sword did not let out a single groan until the moment he collapsed.

He cut down a human. Since he stabbed a vital spot, there was no possibility of survival. His face felt hot. Henry moved again.

This time, two people approached. Similar skills, similar reactions. To them, Henry was merely a weak trainee.

Slash!

He cut the upper body of the enemy who approached first. The sword dug in without resistance. It was a sword clad in mana, and it was possible because the assassin at the moment of attacking neglected defense.

Especially when the opponent was caught off guard, it was much simpler.

[Kya lol]

[No, why is their intelligence capability so broken?? Don’t they know our knight is strong??]

[Seems they don’t know lol, they are just charging in blindly?]

It was just as the viewers said. Henry was seized by a strange sense of elation. The second enemy was slightly more cautious.

He saw his comrade collapse, and widened the distance from Henry.

The shadow’s feet crossed rapidly. Moving horizontally, he looked for an opening in Henry. The gaze revealed beyond the black mask was expressionless.

The attack was a single instant.

Without the slightest gap, the shadow kicked off the ground. Keeping his upper body very low, almost crawling on the ground, he dug into Henry’s lower body.

The flow of mana changed. The shadow hid his appearance. If it was the Henry Camilton according to the information, he would have ended his life by a dagger that suddenly popped out.

Naturally, it did not work on Henry.

The approaching assassin verified the sword striking down on him. His leg joints bent abnormally. It was to step back, but this time Henry also moved.

The assassin’s chest felt hot. He barely avoided a fatal wound, but blood was pouring from the cut made by the sword. With this kind of bleeding, continuing the battle for long was impossible.

[So close lol]

[No, he said the goal was to hold out, but it’s already 3 kills?]

[Austin is doing a desperate struggle lol]

[Shouldn’t he help Austin a bit?? If that guy dies, isn’t it all over?]

“Yes, I will help—”

Trying to react to the chat, Henry closed his mouth. His lips were dry. An indescribable emotion was filling his chest.

‘…Is this a normal reaction?’

He felt strange. It was as if an invisible wall had been erected between the viewers and Henry himself.

No, there had been a wall from the very beginning.

Because Henry was in a position where he didn’t even know who the viewers were.

Where, how, and what they did for a living, Henry could not know.

Yet the reason Henry had been able to adapt was because there was a consensus. Even if there were differences in perspective, they felt emotions similar to Henry in the same situation.

But now?

Was it not an atmosphere as if they had become spectators in a colosseum?

“…”

Henry cut down a human for the first time in his life. There was a shock, but his mental training was not so shallow as to be shaken by that fact.

Of course, if the situation permitted, he might have retched. But not now. Henry endured.

[Hyung, Austin is dying!! He’s really dying!!]

He also put off thoughts about the viewers for later. Austin was focusing on evasion, but at this rate, it was clear he would not hold out long.

Austin too had already been cut in several places. Even if he hid his appearance with mana, the bleeding made it easy for the assassins to track him.

Among the eight assassins, two collapsed. Another was in a state of having retreated after being cut by Henry, and the remaining five were chasing Austin.

“I will help Austin first.”

Henry regripped his sword. Emitting a bright blue light, Henry rushed toward Austin’s direction. If he could turn at least a few of them to this side, Austin too would get some breathing room.

It was then.

“…!”

Henry’s eyes widened. An impact was transmitted from the sword he thrust reflexively.

It was not a movement made by seeing and judging, but one created by an instinctive sense of crisis.

Swish!

Twisting his waist to the right, he deflected a second dagger. The dagger was glistening green.

‘Did they coat it with poison?’

Henry faced a cold gaze. It was an opponent qualitatively different from the assassins he had clashed with until just now.

“He appears to be a 6-star. This guy must be the team leader.”

Without taking his eyes off the opponent, Henry opened the information window. It was not the time to save money.

The name was Harris.

His skill was 6-star level, and the poison applied to the dagger was a powerful paralysis poison, enough to neutralize him even with a slight scratch.

[It’s about time the boss stepped in, indeed lol]

[Already three of them got taken down? The plan has gone way off, right? lol]

[Austin seems to have gotten some breathing room lol, look at his relaxed expression lol]

[But is it possible to beat a 6-star?? When is Melissa coming?]

This time Henry was also tense. There was no leisure to react to the chat. For it was a situation where he could lose his life the moment he took his eyes off.

The team leader directly stepping forward meant two things.

He would no longer be careless, and it also meant he would reduce variables with overwhelming power.

Various parts of Harris’s body began to glow bluish. They were all areas that exerted a significant influence on movement.

‘He doesn’t plan to hide.’

Harris had already seen how his subordinates fell. Although he would not have grasped Henry’s ability, in any case, he was a human who knew how to cope with the given situation.

‘…I consumed too much mana.’

Even at this moment, Henry’s mana was burning away. Because the moment he withdrew his mana even for a brief second, it would immediately become an opening.

Henry gave up the state of confrontation.

He burned the little remaining mana. The mana loaded on his trained lower body muscles created an explosive speed.

Harris did not react even until Henry approached close by. And.

Clang!

Deflecting Henry’s sword with the dagger in his left hand, he threw another. The targeted spot was the ankle. But Henry also reacted quickly.

Momentarily concentrated mana blocked the dagger.

A significant amount of mana was consumed in return, and Harris pulled out a new dagger from his breast and held it.

Cold sweat flowed down the back of Henry’s neck.

[If Melissa doesn’t come quickly, it’s going to be big trouble?]

For the first time since starting the battle,

Henry ended up agreeing with the viewers’ opinion.

***

Until she placed herself on the gate, Melissa was in a relaxed state of mind.

‘It is exactly the time we promised.’

The plan was for Melissa and the assassins to maintain an interval of less than ten minutes.

But when she arrived in Heritz,

Melissa realized that things had gone wrong.

“Did you say twenty minutes ago?”

“Originally I’m not supposed to tell you this…”

“I am performing the royal duties.”

“…Yes. It has been twenty minutes. Maybe slightly over? In any case, those two went out first, and the people you mentioned arrived about ten minutes after that. As you know, it was a force of about ten people.”

The mage spoke in that manner. That although the transit time of the gate is fixed, such delay phenomena occasionally occur.

He added an explanation that it was a natural phenomenon that occurred unavoidably.

Melissa barely gave words of thanks and rushed out of the building.

‘Twenty minutes!’

She was someone who had thought that even the originally planned ten minutes might be tight.

Because it was a harsh environment for merely two trainees to hold out.

If a dozen assassins charged, and each and every one of them was 5-star level or above, it was a level where even Royal Knights could not avoid a hard struggle.

‘I hope I’m not too late!’

Melissa felt as if Henry’s appearance was glimmering before her eyes.

A talent harboring tremendous potential, whom she could not even gauge how much he would grow if he joined the Knights.

Was it not something where she could not let such a guy meet a meaningless death?

Melissa ran at full strength. She cut down the two assassins who seemed to have been left behind as sentries, and after running for some time,

‘Ah, they are still…!’

She confirmed the fact that the battle was not over. Henry and Austin were alive. They were fully exhausted, and their wounds were not few, but that much was a matter that could be treated.

But what was strange was,

‘why are there guys collapsed? Did someone already intervene?’

the fact that several of the assassins had already become corpses.

BJ Swordmaster