Around the carriage, five black figures emerged in the darkness of the night, their outlines gradually becoming clear, like black statues surfacing from ink. Barrett saw them clearly: the five figures were all assassins clad in black robes, gripping blood-red scimitars.
The coachman leaped down from the horseless carriage, his disguised facial skin completely peeled away. Sword in hand, he paced around the carriage, slowly circling it.
Barrett's body was restrained on the carriage, but he turned his head and still caught a glimpse of the coachman's face. It was a handsome yet malevolent face, with a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
Barrett couldn't help but be startled; he had seen this face before on the wanted posters in Baharuth.
"You're the Lord of Despair—Clovis Daguerre!"
The coachman—or rather, the "Lord of Despair," Clovis Daguerre—nodded and smiled faintly. "I didn't expect anyone here would remember my name."
Barrett had heard tales of Clovis Daguerre from other adventurers and seen them on the wanted posters. He was an assassin who killed without batting an eye, living only for gold coins, with countless souls slain by his blade. He possessed an extremely terrifying Innate Talent: the Despair Domain.
Through some means, he had expanded the range and intensity of the Despair Domain to levels unimaginable to ordinary folk. Within the domain, he controlled everything, knew everything, with infinite strength and speed, while his opponents were greatly weakened in both mind and body.
Anyone who entered his domain, no matter how elite a warrior, was nothing more than a helpless chicken in a slaughterhouse, ripe for the kill.
He also had a brother who was just as ruthless in his killings—Slam Daguerre. His brother possessed some equally terrifying Innate Talent, but he was usually employed by Baharuth's nobles and rarely showed his face.
Those two brothers should logically be in Baharuth. Barrett couldn't understand why he'd run into Clovis Daguerre in the Re-Estize's capital, or how he'd ended up trapped in his domain. From the setup, there was no doubt the guy was here to kill him.
Barrett secretly mustered his strength again, trying to stand up from the carriage seat, but it was still no use. Big drops of cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He turned his head to glance at EeDechi and saw that in this deadly crisis, the captain was still leaning back in her seat, snoring away. He had no idea if the girl was under some kind of sleep spell or if the buzz from those dozen bottles of booze hadn't worn off yet.
"Ah," Clovis let out a faint sigh, "I never imagined the orichalcum-level adventurer favored by the Re-Estize's princess would only be this skilled. It's truly disappointing!"
He fixed his gaze on Barrett. "Are you already unable to move? This is just a simple hold spell. Don't you adventurers have all sorts of clever tricks up your sleeves? Go on, show me—don't leave me so bored."
"Are the two of you really going to let me kill you with one easy stroke of the sword?" Clovis raised the longsword in his hand, aiming it at Barrett's chest. "That would be a real waste of my time, after driving this carriage for you all this while for nothing."
Sure enough, it was an assassin sent by Princess Renner's enemies. Barrett swallowed hard, a lump in his throat. He'd warned EeDechi long ago that the Re-Estize's noble power struggles were a murky mess, and not to dip her toes in. EeDechi hadn't listened, and now trouble had come right to their door.
In this ink-black "Territory of Despair," besides the domain's master—the "Lord of Despair," Clovis Daguerre—there were also five silent assassins standing by, encircling the carriage on all sides.
"What a beautiful night, wasted on two adventurers." Clovis looked up at the sky. In the Despair Domain, the sky held not a single glimmer of light, dark and oppressive, like a bowl painted black and inverted over the earth, with the carriage right inside this black bowl.
The Lord of Despair stepped forward, his longsword less than five centimeters(1.97 inches) from Barrett's chest. If he just pushed the sword gently forward, the blade would pierce Barrett's skin and go straight through his heart.
"Ah~ yawn~" A long yawning sound came, and EeDechi on the carriage opened her mouth in a yawn; she had finally woken up. The adventurer captain's eyes were sleepy as she blinked and said, "Why has the carriage stopped? Are we home already? Hmm, why is it so dark around here?"
Can't you see what's going on? Barrett stared at the gleaming sword tip at his chest, grumbling inwardly to himself.
EeDechi turned her head around, looking in all directions, and finally understood. She furrowed her brows, about to say something, when Barrett gave her a meaningful look. EeDechi seemed to get it, and her body slumped back down in the carriage seat.
"I don't know who I've pissed off, but can you at least let us die knowing why?" Barrett gritted his teeth, cold sweat streaming down his forehead.
Clovis sheathed his longsword, looking completely at ease, his tone indifferent. "Alright, I'll tell you then. Might as well, so you have fewer regrets after death—maybe that'll mean two fewer ghosts haunting me, heh.
"Odys Malcon Waverly hired me. That old geezer is good for nothing, but he's got plenty of money. I wanted to kill him and take all his cash, but my brother wouldn't allow it, so I had to take his commission and come kill you guys instead."
Odys Malcon Waverly—Barrett silently repeated the name in his mind, committing it firmly to memory. He didn't know the man personally, but he'd heard of the Waverly family.
The Waverly family was one of the top noble houses in the Re-Estize's north, controlling several major gold mines there and handling the Re-Estize's coin minting. With such a sweet gig and ownership of the mines, the family was rolling in riches.
There were rumors that golden blood flowed through their veins, which was nonsense, of course, but it still showed just how loaded the Waverly family was.
A traditional great noble house like this, thriving for hundreds of years, would no doubt side with the second prince in the Re-Estize's power struggles, going head-to-head with Princess Renner. Only now did Barrett and EeDechi truly get why they'd been ambushed and set up for the kill.
"Any last words?" Clovis flashed a cold smile. "If you don't say them now, you'll never get the chance later. Hurry up—your lives are short."
"I want to know how your Innate Talent—the Despair Domain—can expand to this size?" Barrett asked, bracing himself. "It doesn't make sense."
There were three major supernatural powers in the world: magic, martial arts, and innate talents. Only innate talents were abilities you were born with, gained without any training, but they also couldn't be boosted much through practice. In most cases, an innate talent was just a side skill.
"Telling you won't hurt—it's not like you can blab it anyway." Clovis temporarily sheathed his longsword, rolled up his sleeve, and lifted his arm to show a silver-gray bracer. It was engraved with blood-red ripples, red light flickering in and out like flowing blood. Even from a distance, you could smell the tang of bloodshed in the air.
"This is a treasure an adventurer stumbled on in the Eight Greed Kings' desert. My brother killed the adventurer and gave the bracer to me. Wearing it, everything gets amped up—my domain, my will, all my powers. I feel like..." Clovis stared at the bracer on his arm, clenching his fist tight, "I can control the world."
EeDechi looked up and around, the surroundings as black as ink, her expression filled with upset. "Oh crap, we're in deep trouble now."