Chapter 47
Episode 5: Bonus Time (5)
“Did you hear? Last night, the general store clerk, Torres, was attacked by a bandit group.”
“The day before yesterday, wasn’t the woodcutter, Bantalem, killed by mountain bandits? Ugh, it’s too scary to live here.”
“I don’t know what the imperial army is doing. The security is so bad.”
“They probably don’t care about this backwater. They take taxes without fail, though.”
The conversation of the old men I overheard.
I was walking through a dirty, stinking alley, my bony arms and legs flailing.
My vision suddenly came closer to the ground, and my whole body felt drained, but I wasn’t overly surprised.
This was another memory experience of Dark Shadow.
The landscape had changed before, and I had checked it with a message; I had experienced it several times before, so I was used to it now.
I let my senses take over and became immersed in Dark Shadow’s childhood.
Step by step
As Dark Shadow, I wandered through the alleys of a city not far from the capital.
“Tsk, if that child’s parents were alive, they wouldn’t be like this.”
“Yeah. His parents were quietly at home, but they got caught up in a fight between bandits and assassins and died, right? Such terrible luck that a slum becomes a battlefield.”
The old men standing in the alley were clucking their tongues as they looked at me.
Moreover:
“Hey kid, come here and have this.”
Seeing me, who had lost both parents and a home, the old men offered me a piece of bread.
Although I had already passed this point, there was no reason not to return.
I approached the old men immediately and devoured the small piece of bread.
“Oh, you must have been starving for days. Your stomach’s almost touching your back.”
“Tsk, what’s this world coming to. Kid, use this to get into an orphanage or something. Don’t let anyone take it from you.”
My appearance must have been pitiful.
Even though I was neither rich nor particularly special in appearance, the old men took out a silver coin from their pockets.
Money!
My eyes widened at the sight.
With that silver coin, I could manage to live for a month or so.
But at the moment I reached out for the silver coin:
Swoosh—! Thud—!
“Kyaaaa!”
Suddenly, a dagger flew from a distance, piercing the arm of the old man who was handing me the coin.
The culprit was one of the bandit members operating in the alley nearby.
“How strange. You said earlier that there was no tribute, but where did that silver coin come from?”
“This is why you shouldn’t offer kindness. How dare you deceive us!”
“P-please forgive me! Spare me!!”
Two bandits appeared out of nowhere.
The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant.
The old men kneeled and begged for their lives, but the bandits seemed to have no intention of showing mercy.
“Hehe, then you shouldn’t have lied!”
Slash—!!
“Gack!!”
“No, please…! Ugh!!”
The old man who had handed over the coin, as well as the one beside him, were slashed to death by the bandits’ daggers.
“So, what should we do with this little brat…”
“Let’s sell him to the slave traders. He’s young, so he’ll fetch a good price, hehehe!”
The bandits, with bloodied daggers, approached me with greed in their eyes.
It seemed they planned to assault me and sell me into slavery.
However, their wishes were not easily fulfilled.
Thud—!
I pulled the dagger from the old man’s severed arm and drove it into the thigh of the approaching bandit.
“Kyaaaa! That damn kid…!”
“Hehe! Getting beaten by a kid? Run fast. If you’re caught, you’ll die, little one!”
Immediately after the surprise attack, I grabbed the fallen silver coin and fled through the stinking alley without looking back.
Despite my young and frail body, I moved with incredible speed.
However, no matter how fast I was, a child could not outpace an adult.
“Hehe! Gotcha, you little rat!”
“Ugh!”
During the chase, something tripped my foot, and I rolled on the ground.
I had been caught by the pursuing bandit.
But as seen before, Dark Shadow, though thin, had exceptional reflexes.
Swish—!
Amidst the dizzying vision, I threw the dagger I was holding at the bandit’s face, causing a wound.
“Ack! That damn brat…! I was going to spare you, but now you’re going to die!!”
The bandit, who had been laughing moments ago, changed his demeanor as blood dripped from his face.
The bandit pinned my neck with his hand, holding me in place, and prepared to stab me with a dagger.
Thud—!
Instead of piercing my neck, the dagger struck the bandit’s neck.
A long blade had flown in and pierced through the bandit’s throat.
Thunk—!
Blood splattered all over my face.
For a moment, I thought it was an illusion, but it wasn’t.
“How dare you…!”
The bandit who had been limping while chasing me also exclaimed in disbelief.
But even more unbelievable was the person who appeared afterward.
“Dare? Did you forget that beyond this alley is the assassin’s territory?”
The one who had pierced the bandit’s neck appeared at the end of the alley.
Though at a considerable distance, both the bandits and I immediately recognized him.
“Gasp! Th-the assassin leader, Jeff…!”
Jeff, the leader of the assassin group, appeared, twirling a spear as he approached us.
“Damn it! I’ll kill you someday, you brat!!”
The moment he saw me, the bandit turned and fled.
He realized there was no chance of winning.
However, once he had come this far, escaping wasn’t a simple option.
“Gah!”
Thud—! Thud—!
Like the previous bandit, the pursuing bandit was struck by a thrown spear, and his throat was pierced, killing him instantly.
In the blink of an eye, two bandits were eliminated.
And now, it was my turn.
Step by step—
The approaching footsteps.
I lay quiet under the corpses of the bandits, waiting for my end.
I wasn’t afraid. Dark Shadow’s heart had ended the day his parents died.
“Life is lived by trampling on other lives.”
Jeff did not kill me.
Instead, he kicked away the bandit’s corpse and looked down at me with a blank expression.
“Do you want to live? Then I’ll give you a chance to take another life.”
He extended his hand, as if offering me a chance.
I stared at the hand for a moment before taking it.
It was a sentiment I liked, though he was the one who had caused my parents’ deaths.
The words “life is lived by trampling on other lives” by Jeff, were now understood.
From that point, I became an assassin.
“When walking at night, become one with the darkness. Cloak yourself with mana and hold your breath.”
“If you’ve caught your target’s back, don’t hesitate. Even a moment’s hesitation might let light reach them.”
“Where are you throwing the dagger? Throwing skills are fundamental for an assassin.”
I joined the assassins’ guild and spent over ten years learning various assassination techniques, including stealth. I undertook assignments to eliminate key figures or enemies of noble families.
Initially, I was a rookie assassin, but as I carried out tasks for higher-ups, my reputation as an assassin grew.
Although I succeeded in every task I took on, I drew attention by leaving behind a silver coin as a token of my success, earning the nickname “Silver Assassin.”
My reputation continued to rise.
However, one day, while on an assignment with fellow assassins:
Thud—!
I was betrayed by my fellow assassins and had my stomach pierced.
“Cough!”
“You’ve done well, Dark Shadow. The target this time isn’t a count but you.”
“Why?”
Despite being stabbed and suffering from poison on the dagger, I managed to avoid major damage by counterattacking and creating distance.
The situation was far from ideal.
With over 30 fellow assassins against me, it was impossible to handle alone.
But I didn’t give up hope.
Feigning distress, I spoke to my traitorous comrades, uncovering their motives while secretly chewing on an antidote hidden in my mouth to recover.
Fortunately, no one noticed.
The betraying assassins answered my questions with arrogance.
“There are various reasons, but the biggest one is this: Leader Jeff feels threatened by you. We do too.”
“From the time we saw you as a child, Dark Shadow, you were too exceptional. So much so that every assassin envied you.”
“Indeed. You shouldn’t have monopolized the big contracts. Do you know how much our income has decreased because of you?”
In summary, my exceptional talent in eliminating high-profile targets had made the leader of the assassins feel pressured and the other members resentful due to reduced income.
As the saying goes, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
Given my outstanding ability, everyone seemed to feel threatened.
But that didn’t mean I could give up on life.
“Our friendship ends here.”
“I left a brief greeting and eliminated all thirty-plus assassins. Then, dragging my body, battered and covered in blood, I infiltrated the castle.
‘Dark Shadow! How dare you…!?’
‘Captain Jeff, what is the meaning of this?!
Didn’t I say that if you killed him, I would bury all the assassination requests?’
The assassination guild leader, Jeff, was negotiating with Mikhail, a powerful figure in the empire. While his assassins were risking their lives, he was leisurely drinking wine.
I calmly approached the two, took a drink, slammed it down on the table, and said, ‘You once said that life survives by trampling over other lives.’
When I was younger, I didn’t understand that.
But now, I think I do.
Just as herbivores eat grass to survive, and birds eat insects to survive, humans must also take other lives to survive.
I raised the twin daggers I had used to slay my comrades and glared at the guild leader and the count, continuing, ‘I will live.
By trampling over you today.’ It was a declaration of war.
‘How dare you, you little brat…!’
‘An assassin, yet you’re so arrogant!’
Jeff and Mikhail drew their swords to resist. But I was no longer the skinny little kid I used to be.
The two tried to kill me with various swordsmanship and magic, but it was futile.
The years of idleness had made their bodies sluggish, and the more they struggled, the more opportunities they gave me to counterattack.
Slash! Crack! ‘Ughh!!’ A death cry echoed through Count Mikhail’s castle.
Despite a fierce battle, the guild leader and the count fell to the twin daggers.
‘Ugh! The count has fallen…!’ ‘Seize him! An assassin has infiltrated!!’ The count’s guard knights rushed into the room belatedly. But it was too late.
Ting! I tossed a silver coin in front of the count and the guild leader, who were lying on the floor, and then jumped out of the castle and melted into the darkness.
Soon after.
[Dark Shadow’s memory replay ends.]
Whoooosh!!
My consciousness also plunged into darkness.”
