Outside the mine, the surrounding rebels spoke in hushed, puzzled whispers.
A man carrying an old musket, his rough fingers betraying his former trade as a shoemaker, muttered to himself.
“What's wrong with the leader this time? Is it really necessary to drag all of us out just to catch three people?”
Nearby, a heavily made-up woman, who still retained some traces of her former charm, pulled her thin clothes tighter around herself and spat.
“Who knows! I closed up shop and rushed over here without making a single coin. If I don't get a share of the loot, I'll be ruined!”
A High Rank adventurer wearing worn leather armor crossed his arms, his brow furrowed in deep thought.
“The targets are too bizarre.”
“A princess, a mage, and... a Saintess? No matter how you look at it, this combination doesn't make any sense.”
“And the mages sent to scout said there's no ambush inside, so what are we waiting for?”
The mage responsible for the reconnaissance happened to walk by and whispered upon hearing this.
“It's precisely because there is no ambush that it's strange!”
“Where are the guards who are supposed to protect the Saintess? This goes against all common sense!”
One of them, a warrior holding his sword close to his chest, sighed.
“If I had known we were going to deal with that messenger mage, I wouldn't have come.”
“If not for him, I wouldn't even know that my wife in Caran is still alive, even though she remarried.”
Meanwhile, at the innermost layer of the encirclement.
A man dressed in tight black clothes, his aura almost completely blending into the surroundings, leaned against a rock, looking down at a crumpled piece of letter paper with a complex expression.
He was a High-tier Transcendent assassin and one of the sharpest blades chosen for this “Saintess Assassination” mission.
Just before the operation, he had received a letter forwarded by a companion.
It was the letter his companion had signed for on his behalf when that black-haired mage called out his name on the stage.
The letter was from his long-lost younger brother.
He had thought his brother died years ago during the great evacuation.
He never expected that his brother would actually be alive!
The letter said that although his brother had been captured by demons, he fortunately managed to escape.
He had wandered all the way to Caran City.
He had settled down there, married a virtuous wife, and had a lovely child.
The handwriting in the letter was crooked, yet it was filled with hope for life:
【...Brother, life used to be too bitter. The noble lords raised taxes at every turn, and the Defense Force was even more ruthless than bandits.】
【But things got better! When Caran was besieged, those bastard nobles fled first!】
【And then, Princess Elvia arrived. She ‘invited’ those bloodsucking wealthy merchants to the Royal Capital and enacted many policies that benefit us commoners...】
【For the first time, my child ate soft, white bread, not the black bread mixed with sawdust!】
【Brother, I believe life will only get better...】
【I really hope you're still alive, and that one day we can be reunited...】
Staring at the simple yet vibrant words on the letter, the assassin, whose hands were stained with blood and whose heart was like iron, felt his eyes instantly well with tears.
He stroked the paper with trembling hands, tears falling silently.
They dripped onto the letter, smudging a small patch of ink.
He had joined the rebels and participated in this suicide mission because he had long since lost everything.
His beloved wife had been forcibly taken by a noble youth, and his young child had been crushed to death on the street by a noble's carriage.
When he went to seek justice, he was expelled from the Adventurer's Guild instead.
Slandered as a thug who attacked nobility, he became a wanted, red-named adventurer.
He had thought he had no attachments left in this world, only hatred.
He was willing to trade his worthless life just to inflict a fraction of his pain upon those who stood high above.
But now... this letter was like a ray of light, piercing through the freezing darkness of his heart.
The younger brother he thought was long dead was actually alive.
And he was living the peaceful life that he himself had once dreamed of but never dared to hope for.
The moment he received the letter, he wished he could sprout wings and fly across the Withered Rift immediately.
He wanted to go to Caran City to see his brother with his own eyes, and to meet the nephew he had never seen.
Crossing the rift was a death trap for ordinary people.
But for an experienced High-tier Transcendent assassin like him, it was not an impossible task.
Moreover, he had participated in the exploration of the Golden Passage, so he knew how to avoid those terrifying Legendary demons.
He gripped the letter tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
His resolve to die, once so unshakable, wavered at this moment.
The other assassin standing next to him took in his entire reaction.
Seeing his hesitation, and even the faint hint that he wanted to abandon the mission, a trace of imperceptible jealousy flashed in the eyes of his companion, Black Scorpion.
Why? Why did this guy get to have family to worry about, and why did he get to see hope?
His own family was completely wiped out, leaving not a single trace behind!
He leaned in closer, whispering in a cold, low voice that only the two of them could hear.
“Hey, ‘Viper,’ don't forget how you ended up here!”
“Have you forgotten how your wife was dragged into that beast's manor?”
“Have you forgotten how your son's tiny body was crushed under that carriage?”
“Have you forgotten how those high-and-mighty bastards mocked you and put a bounty on your head?”
He continuously provoked him with his painful past, attempting to completely snuff out the faint, newly lit ember called “hope.”
He wanted to reignite the flames of vengeance in his heart.
Sure enough, these words were like a poisoned dagger, stabbing deep into the most vulnerable part of the assassin's heart.
His wife's sorrowful eyes, his child's cold corpse...
Painful memories rushed back like a tidal wave, instantly tearing to pieces his newly sparked longing for family and his hope for the future.
The assassin knew his companion had malicious intentions.
But he knew even better that some hatred was engraved into his very bones, impossible to simply let go.
As a man, as a husband, and as a father, he had to make the enemies who trampled on his dignity and tore away his beloved pay a blood price!
“And don't forget the poison Boss Caesar planted in us.”
Viper fell silent.
To prevent anyone from fleeing or being tempted to betray them by the nobles, he and the other ten Transcendent assassins had been poisoned upon joining this mad plan.
Poisoning was an assassin's specialty.
And the poison Caesar had given them was a lethal toxin that Caesar could detonate remotely.
Its exact formula and antidote were mysteries even a High-tier Transcendent assassin like Viper could not unravel.
Suddenly.
A figure appeared before them like a ghost, without any warning.
The two were startled, instantly masking their emotions as they knelt respectfully on one knee: “My lord, you have arrived.”
The newcomer was entirely shrouded in a wide black robe, wearing a mask that only revealed a pair of emotionless eyes.
He nodded faintly, his voice low and raspy: “Where is Caesar?”
The two immediately pointed out the direction.
When the black-robed man found Caesar, the latter was staring at a crude map of the mine hand-drawn by a rebel mage.
He was repeatedly checking to ensure every possible escape vent or crevice had been blocked.
Seeing the black-robed man finally appear, Caesar wore a broad smile and went up to greet him.
“You've finally arrived. We...”
The black-robed man raised a hand, cutting off his pleasantries.
He spread open his palm, revealing several long strands of hair that gleamed with a faint, ginkgo-gold hue.
It was indeed the Saintess's hair.
“That mage named Lin Gui,” the black-robed man's voice was completely flat, “do not harm him.”
The smile on Caesar's face stiffened, and he asked in confusion: “Why?”
“Just do as you are told,” the black-robed man's tone carried an unquestionable coldness.
“Capturing a Mid-tier High Rank mage alive shouldn't be difficult for you, should it?”
Caesar stared into the eyes beneath the black-robed man's mask for a few seconds. The muscles on his face twitched slightly before he forced out another smile.
“Fine, since it is your request, I won't touch a single hair on his head.”
He shifted the conversation, asking in a probing tone: “However... may I ask why this is so much later than the planned time?”
“You promised to hand ‘this’ over to me last night.”
The black-robed man replied indifferently: “I had important matters to attend to, so I was delayed.”
“What matter could possibly be more important than assassinating the Saintess?” Caesar pressed.
“That is not for you to ask.”
Leaving behind these cold words, the black-robed man's figure flickered.
As if melting into the shadows, he vanished once again.
Caesar stood in place, his expression shifting between dark and light, his grip on the strands of hair tightening slightly.
He fell silent for a moment, and in the end, he took a deep breath.
He picked up the cold wooden box containing the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】.
He gave a low, deep order to the four High-tier Transcendent assassins who had been waiting outside for a long time: “Alright, the time has come.”
“Let's go in and kill the Saintess.”
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