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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 19: The Assassins
It was a quiet night.
Cron Castle was just as it always was.
Outside the castle, the guards were patrolling steadily.
Inside, the pale moonlight bathed everything, giving everyone a peaceful sleep.
Silently, they were there.
Wearing black masks, they entered the castle as if it were their own home.
The guards passed right by them, completely unaware, continuing their patrol without suspicion.
Without hesitation, they rushed toward their target.
Silent breaths, no footsteps—moving swiftly, nothing could stop them.
If left unchecked, they would soon reach the lord’s chamber.
Once there, they would carry out their mission, and the lord of this castle would die without even realizing it.
While the moonlight seemed to worry, they had already arrived at the lord’s door.
But for the first time, they stopped moving.
Because standing there was someone unexpected.
Lana was silently waiting outside the lord’s chamber, dressed neatly in her maid uniform.
For the first time in this silent castle, a voice broke the stillness.
“Hello. I am Lana, maid to Lord Calyx.”
She greeted politely, introducing herself.
The intruders sensed the threat in her calm voice.
Despite wearing that complicated maid outfit, she made no sound with her body.
Lana stared coldly at the intruders with an expression as cold as ice, speaking quietly.
“The lord is asleep. If you wish to see him, please report to the manor office in the morning.”
There was no emotion in her words.
No fear, no hostility—just information.
And that was what chilled the intruders the most.
“If you continue to approach the lord…”
Lana stepped forward.
The intruders recoiled, breathing for the first time since arriving here.
Ignoring their reaction, she spoke with cold finality.
“I will recognize you as enemies.”
Silent approach, emotionless execution, erasing the target from the world without a trace—that was what an ‘Assassin’ was.
Because of this, they always heard the same lesson during training.
“Empty everything.”
The intruders had heard this too.
They had executed every mission silently and without emotion—until now.
But today, for the first time, they made a sound.
Faced with a maid emptier than themselves, they felt the unfamiliar sting of fear and vocalized it.
Unable to retreat, they drew their daggers and stepped forward.
And then—
“You’ve come too close.”
Lana recognized them as enemies.
At that moment, her long maid skirt fell away.
Revealed beneath was a short slip and two hidden daggers strapped to her thighs.
Without a sound, she drew both daggers and prepared to welcome her guests.
“As the maid of the princess… no, the maid of Lord Calyx, I will eliminate you.”
In that moment, her role shifted from『Maid』to『Assassin』.
Shadows began to clash in the silent corridor.
＊ ＊ ＊
The three intruders scattered and lunged at her.
No matter how much higher her rank as an assassin was compared to theirs, she was still alone.
They didn’t care about a few casualties as long as the mission was accomplished.
With that mindset, the lead intruder, ready to sacrifice himself to complete the mission, witnessed an unbelievable sight.
Before he knew it, a dagger she had thrown was flying right past his head.
“...!”
What shocked him wasn’t that she threw the dagger at a speed he couldn’t see, nor that it narrowly missed him—it was the certainty that her dagger had pierced the head of the comrade behind him.
Invisible and unheard, the ally behind him was dead.
Feeling that, the lead intruder didn’t stop; he charged at her even harder.
Though a comrade was lost, her weapons were now halved.
Seizing the moment, convinced they’d die if they didn’t act now, the other two intruders lunged at her.
Swish—! Swish!! Swish—!
The quiet hallway was filled with the sound of wind.
Their daggers crossed the spaces where their weapons once were, slicing through the air.
Neither allowed a single hit, as they moved through the moonlit corridor in a soundless dance.
Who was the most surprised in this clash?
She—who had entered the empire’s top academy and earned the best grades as an assassin—was amazed at their skills matching hers.
And the intruders, veterans of countless missions in the shadows, were equally stunned by her ability to silently dodge their attacks despite being a woman.
That’s when they realized—
In the next move, whoever breaks the balance would kill the other.
And that balance was broken first by the intruders.
Thud—!
The sound of something piercing flesh echoed quietly down the corridor, and surprise spread across Lana’s face.
One of the intruders had thrown himself onto Lana’s dagger, stabbing himself.
That was their ‘one move.’
There were two left, and only one needed to survive and complete the mission.
Seeing the gap created by their comrade’s sacrifice, the intruder charged at Lana.
Having killed countless people as an assassin, he began to see a line—a black line guiding someone to death.
Now, that line appeared at Lana’s neck.
He swung his dagger toward that line.
But at that moment… she vanished right before his eyes.
“!!!?”
His confident attack cut through empty air, and just as the stabbed comrade came into view, the intruder felt death creeping up behind him.
Thud—!
“Gahk!”
Metal slid past his spine and sank into his heart.
Grasping at his fading consciousness, he looked back.
There stood Lana, and the comrade who had died with a dagger in his forehead.
Feeling the faint magic from Lana’s dagger piercing his heart and seeing the fallen comrade’s position, he began to understand what had happened.
This was Lana’s Blessing—『Phantom Dagger』
The effect of this blessing was teleportation—instantly propelling Lana to the location of her dagger.
Simple, yet absolutely deadly in battles like assassinations and close combat where life and death balance on a knife’s edge in 0.1 seconds.
Thanks to this blessing and her talent, she had earned the highest grades at the Academy’s assassin division.
As his consciousness faded, the intruder lamented his foolishness for entering battle without anticipating such a blessing—and died.
“Please... find happiness in your next life...”
Looking at the fallen intruders, Lana offered a final prayer for their souls.
＊ ＊ ＊
Having dealt with the intruders, Lana found herself deep in thought.
She had sensed the assassins and stepped in to protect the lord, but she had never once spoken to him about this particular set of skills.
There were two main reasons she hadn’t revealed her abilities as an assassin.
The first was that the Imperial Princess had explicitly told her to keep it a secret.
The second—though she couldn’t quite explain it herself—was that, for some reason, she simply didn’t want to tell Lord Calyx.
Now, staring at the three corpses in front of her, Lana was torn.
If morning came and it was discovered that she had taken out assassins on her own, things could get messy.
In the worst-case scenario, she might be sent back to the Imperial Princess, stripped of her current role—and she might not even be able to continue as a teacher.
Just imagining it made her head spin.
‘I don’t want to leave this place... I have to find a way out of this.’
As she searched for a solution, her eyes fell on Calyx’s bedroom.
And with that glance, the thought she had earlier—about needing to prepare a gift of apology—came rushing back, followed by the perfect idea.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Lana put that plan into action.
＊ ＊ ＊
An apple in the morning is better than medicine.
Because of that habit from my past life, I started my mornings by peeling and eating an apple alone in my room.
That day too, before the maid came in, I had woken up early, still half-asleep, peeling an apple with a paring knife.
And then—
“Kyaaaa!!”
A scream rang out from outside.
A scream? This early in the morning?!
Startled, I instinctively grabbed the paring knife and opened the door.
“What’s going on!?”
“M-My lord! Over there…”
“There?… Oh sh—what the hell!?”
Outside, I found Julia, the maid, shaking, clearly terrified.
And when I looked in the direction she pointed, there they were—three corpses.
They were dressed in black clothes and masks—clearly assassins. Judging by the blood and stab wounds, they had died after a fierce struggle.
Right then, the guards must’ve heard the scream too, because they came running.
“My lord!!”
“Are you alright!?”
They looked panicked, clearly worried for my safety.
I was just about to tell them I was fine when one of them shouted.
“My lord! Your clothes—blood!!”
“What? Blood?… Oh come on! What the hell!?”
At his words, I glanced down at myself.
My pajamas were soaked in blood, dyed completely red.
What the actual fuck!?
Why do I look like I just walked out of a slasher film?!
While I stood there panicking, trying to make sense of it all, the guards stared at me—eyes wide in disbelief—before finally speaking.
“Could it be… those assassins…”
“Did you… take them out yourself, my lord?”
“WHAT!?”
Dead assassins. Blood-soaked pajamas. A paring knife in my hand.
Seeing that, it seemed the guards had reached their conclusion—
—I had killed the assassins with a paring knife.
…Like hell that makes sense!
I frantically denied it.
“That’s impossible! I don’t know anything about this!”
“Of course.”
“Understood. We’ll officially handle it that way.”
The guards and Julia nodded solemnly, as if promising to keep the ‘truth’ hidden for my sake.
No! It wasn’t me!
You idiots, seriously—it wasn't me!!
And just a few days later...
I started hearing songs in the streets about how I had slaughtered assassins with a paring knife.
I swear to God—it wasn’t me.
But no one cared about the truth.
And I?
I was losing my damn mind from the injustice of it all.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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