"Um, Lord Noah... have you gone to bed?"
The young maid's feelings were tangled.
Excitement, worry, anticipation, nervousness—emotions filled her heart and drove her to come here.
She had prepared herself to offer everything.
That much gold was worth more than she could be.
She had nothing she could use to repay such a kindness.
ther than offering up her self, she could think of no other way to repay him.
'If it's Lord Noah, then Lord Leims will agree.'
For maids like them, their bodies and souls did not belong to them.
Years ago, their parents had sold them off for a fixed price. From that moment on, not even a strand of hair belonged to them.
Everything belonged to their master.
Standing on the other side of the door, Noah apologized in his heart, then slipped away by another route.
After waiting outside for a while, the maid left.
...
Late at night in the Capital, large parts of the city had fallen into darkness.
But in this gathering place of desire, there were districts that remained lively, regardless of day or night.
"This is a Pleasure Quarter from another world."
From above, Noah looked down at the lit street below.
The street was not wide, but people came and went in streams, flushed with drink and lust.
On both sides of the street stood pleasure houses.
Male and female voices spilled out from inside, with no attempt at concealment.
His first target was the merchant, Manur.
Following the information he had obtained, Noah moved across the rooftops until he arrived in front of one of the pleasure houses.
This building was taller than the rest.
Noah leapt up to the fourth floor. With airflow detection, he could tell whether anyone was passing nearby.
Right now, he was imitating Altai's method, reproducing it one for one... and itworked.
When he reached the target room, Noah checked the situation inside and found one man and one woman.
The man should be the target—one of the Revolutionary Army's intelligence agents, Manur.
As for the woman, something about her was strange.
Her presence was calm.
'...A bodyguard?'
'If she is a prostitute, then she is no ordinary one...'
Noah felt Manur's presence fade.
He froze for an instant, then realized what had happened.
'Someone beat me to it.'
'I wasn't the only one after that man's life!'
The problem was, Noah had planned to force information about the third person out of him.
Yet someone had gotten there first.
The woman's presence vanished.
The moment Noah understood what was happening, he burst into the room.
With a glance, he saw the dead Manur—and after appraising him, confirmed that it was him.
Noah rushed forward and pressed a hand to the dead man's forehead.
'It doesn't matter.'
'The man is dead, so it doesn't matter if the method is rough.'
'Target locked. Extracting memories from the Soul Corridor.'
A reaction came through his airflow detection.
Noah's pupils shrank.
'The person who killed Manur—came back.'
He turned around and saw the figure launching a sneak attack at him.
The next instant, a gale roared forth.
The attacker was blown backward by the storm, smashing through the door and the railing outside before falling to the floor below.
Noah frowned.
'What kind of technique was that? It reduced the user's presence and weakened their sense of existence.'
'And that speed—the explosive force behind it—was extraordinary. It was times greater than Altai's. In terms of combat ability, it was twice that of people like Kurome and the others.'
'That is on another level.'
'If it turned into a head-on fight, someone at Kurome's level would be killed without being able to resist.'
Noah had gotten what he wanted to know.
The shop clerk, Altai.
The merchant, Manur.
The prostitute, Ruixin.
The tavern owner, Delano.
There were two targets left.
Once he killed them, the matter would be settled.
What happened afterward would have nothing to do with him.
'That woman mistook me for Manur's bodyguard, just as I misunderstood things. She pretended to leave, noticed my presence, and chose to strike, intending to dispose of me.'
'Unlike me, who relies on Weaver, she detected me through her honed ability.'
'That woman is a professional assassin.'
'At the level of force I used, I did not inflict real damage on her.'
'Best to leave now while I can.'
From a height of sixteen meters, Noah jumped down and vanished into the darkness of an alley.
....
Manur wasn't anyone important, so his death would not trigger alarm.
Every day in the Capital, so many people died or disappeared that no one could keep count.
The only one to pursue the matter was the owner of that pleasure house.
But it would reach the level of the Capital's law enforcement.
In the Capital, when someone without power or status died, it was no different from dying for nothing.
Based on the information he had, Noah headed for the mansion where the next target was located.
It was the estate of a noble.
And as for why Ruixin was there, the reason was obvious—it had to do with her public profession.
She approached that noble for the sake of her mission.
A flash of light flickered and vanished as Annihilator appeared in Noah's hand.
"Silent Barrier."
"Concealed Shot."
He layered two enchantment protocols onto the weapon, condensed a water bullet, and loaded it into the chamber.
A bullet made of water element.
If he wanted to carry out an assassination without leaving evidence, an air bullet would have been better.
But with his level of magical skill, firing a bullet made of compressed air hundreds of meters away while preserving killing power was impossible.
If it was water, he could maintain its lethal form.
Annihilator was powered by magic rather than relying on gunpowder.
It could fire any kind of projectile—whether a bullet made of ice or one made of water.
This time, what Noah needed was assassination, so the Annihilator he conjured was not the original version, but a specialized model modified with fresh enchantment protocols.
With Silent Barrier, the gunshot would be trapped inside the barrier.
With Concealed Shot, the bullet would be wrapped in shadow during flight, making it difficult to detect.
Noah adjusted the sight, hung upside down in midair in a weightless state, and held the Annihilator—now over a meter long—in his hands.
At this distance, the bullet's trajectory would not drop, nor would it be affected by wind.
...
"Come sit on top, Ruixin."
"As you command, my lord."
"Heh... I've seen prostitutes in my life, but none of them were as skilled as you."
"Thank you for your praise."
"Hahaha, you think that was praise? You are a hopeless woman."
Ruixin gave a smile.
Pretending to gather her hair, she slipped a blade from behind her ear between her fingers, a sneer appearing on her lips.
The next second—
Whoosh!
Something pierced through the air.
The nobleman looked in confusion at the prostitute, whose body had gone limp as she collapsed against him.
After calling to her twice, he pushed her.
But her body slid off to the side.
When the man looked at her face, he saw that a smile was still hanging there.
It was enough to make his skin crawl.
"AAAAAHHH!"
The nobleman screamed and scrambled backward.
His cries drew the guards in, but he kept shrieking.
There was a hole in the prostitute's head!
No one had seen it happen and nothing had been heard.
For the noble who had wet himself from fright, Noah felt apologetic.
'I picked a terrible moment for it.'
'After something like this at a critical time, that man will be scarred for the rest of his life.'
'Still, he is trash.'
"Let's call it a visit from disaster."
Noah put away Annihilator and headed toward the location of the final target, Delano.
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