Outside the mine, the surrounding rebels conversed in hushed tones, their voices tinged with confusion.
A man carrying an old musket, with the rough fingers clearly belonging to a former shoemaker, grumbled.
"What's wrong with the leader this time? Do we really need all of us just to catch three people?"
A woman nearby, heavily made-up with a faded elegance that hinted at better days, tightened her thin clothes and spat.
"Who knows! I ran over here without even finishing my business. If we don't get some spoils, this is a huge loss!"
A High Rank adventurer in worn leather armor folded their arms, their brow furrowed.
"The targets are too strange."
"A Princess, a mage, and... a Saintess? This combination just doesn't look right, no matter how you slice it."
"And the mage 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!"
"What about the guards by the Saintess's side? This isn't rational!"
One of the warriors hugged the sword in his arms and sighed.
"If I'd known we were going to deal with that Messenger Mage, I wouldn't have come."
"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have known that my wife back in Caran was still alive, even if she has remarried."
Meanwhile, at the innermost layer of the encirclement.
A man dressed in tight-fitting black clothes, with an aura that almost blended into the environment, stood there.
He was leaning behind a rock, looking at a crumpled piece of letter paper in his hand with a complex expression.
He was a High-tier Transcendent assassin and one of the sharpest blades assigned to the Saintess Assassination Plan.
Just before the operation, he had received a letter passed on by a companion.
It was the one his companion had signed for when that black-haired mage shouted names on the stage.
The letter was written by his younger brother, who had been missing for years.
He had originally thought his brother had died during the Great Evacuation years ago.
To his surprise, his brother had actually survived!
The letter said that although his brother had been captured by demons, he fortunately escaped.
He 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 full of hope for life:
【...Big brother, life used to be too bitter. The noble lords would increase taxes at every turn, and the Defense Force was more ruthless than bandits.】
【But things got better! Caran was besieged, and those bastard nobles were the first to run away!】
【Then later, Princess Elvia arrived. She 'invited' those blood-sucking wealthy merchants to the Royal Capital and enacted many policies that were good for us commoners...】
【The child ate soft, white bread for the first time—not that kind of black bread mixed with sawdust!】
【Big brother, I believe our days will get better and better...】
【I really hope you are still alive, and I hope that one day we can be reunited..."】
Looking at the plain yet vibrant words on the letter.
The assassin, whose hands were stained with blood and whose heart was as hard as iron, felt his eyes redden instantly.
With trembling hands, he caressed the paper as tears slid down silently.
They dripped onto the letter, causing a small patch of ink to bleed.
He had joined the rebels and participated in this suicide assassination because he had long ago lost everything.
His beloved wife had been forcibly taken away by the scion of a noble family, and his young child had been trampled to death on the street by a noble's carriage.
He went to seek justice, only to be expelled from the Adventurer's Guild.
Instead, he was slandered as a criminal who attacked a noble, becoming a red-name adventurer on the wanted list.
He thought he no longer had any attachments in the world, leaving only hatred.
He was willing to use this wretched life of his to exchange for even a sliver of pain from those high and mighty rulers.
But now... this letter was like a beam of light, piercing through the cold darkness within his heart.
His brother, whom he thought was long dead, was still alive.
Furthermore, he was living the stable life that he 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.
To see his brother with his own eyes in Caran City and to see that nephew he had never met.
Crossing the rift was a death trap for ordinary people.
However, for a High-tier Transcendent assassin as experienced as he was, it was not an impossible task.
Moreover, he had participated in the development of the Golden Passage and knew how to avoid those terrifying Legendary demons.
He gripped the letter paper tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
His resolve to face death, which was originally firm, wavered at this moment.
Another assassin companion standing beside him took in his reaction completely.
Looking at his wavering state—even faintly showing signs of wanting to abandon the mission...
A sliver of imperceptible envy and hatred flashed through the companion Black Scorpion's eyes.
On what basis? Why did this guy still have relatives to care about and hope to see?
His own family members were all dead and gone, without a single thought or trace left behind!
He leaned in close and used a cold voice that only the two of them could hear to remind him.
"Hey, 'Viper,' don't forget how you ended up here!"
"Forgotten how your wife was dragged into that mansion by that beast?"
"Forgotten how your son's tiny body was crushed by the carriage?"
"Forgotten how those high and mighty fellows mocked you and put a bounty on your head?"
He used the tragic pain of the past to constantly provoke the other person.
He attempted to completely extinguish that weak, flickering flame named "hope" that had just been ignited.
He wanted to reignite the flames of revenge within his heart.
Sure enough, these words were like a poisoned dagger, stabbing ruthlessly into the most fragile part of the assassin's heart.
His wife's sorrowful gaze, the cold corpse of his child...
Tragedy after tragedy flooded back like a tide.
In an instant, it swept away the longing for familial affection and the yearning for the future that had just arisen.
The assassin knew that his companion's actions were malicious.
However, he knew even better that some hatreds were already etched into his very bones and could not be easily let go.
As a man, as a husband and a father.
He had to make those enemies who trampled on his dignity and took away his beloved pay a price in blood!
"And don't you forget the poison that Boss Caesar planted inside us."
Viper fell silent.
To prevent people from escaping, or being tempted and betraying them to the nobles.
After joining this crazy plan, he and the other ten Transcendent assassins had all been planted with poison.
Poisoning was an assassin's specialty.
Yet the poison Caesar had given them was a lethal type that could be remotely controlled by Caesar himself.
Even a High-tier Transcendent assassin like Viper couldn't figure out the specific recipe or the antidote.
Suddenly.
A figure appeared before the two of them like a phantom, without any warning.
The two were startled in their hearts, instantly suppressing all emotions as they respectfully knelt on one knee: "Lord, you have arrived."
The newcomer was entirely shrouded in a voluminous black robe, with a mask on his face, revealing only a pair of eyes without any emotional fluctuations.
He nodded faintly, his voice deep and raspy: "Where is Caesar?"
The two immediately pointed the way.
When the black-robed man found Caesar.
The latter was facing a crude map of the mine hand-drawn by a rebel mage.
He was repeatedly confirming whether every possible ventilation shaft or crack that could be used for escape had been blocked.
Seeing the black-robed man finally appear, a smile broke out on Caesar's face as he went up to greet him.
"You've finally arrived, we..."
The black-robed man raised his hand, directly interrupting his pleasantries.
He opened his palm, and in his hand were several strands of long hair shimmering with a faint ginkgo-golden light.
It was exactly the hair of the Saintess.
"That mage named Lin Gui," the black-robed man's voice had no ups or downs, "do not harm him."
The smile on Caesar's face froze as he asked in confusion, "Why?"
"Just carry out the orders." The black-robed man's tone carried a coldness that brooked no argument.
"Capturing a Mid-tier High Rank mage alive shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"
Caesar stared into the black-robed man's eyes beneath the mask for a few seconds, the muscles on his face twitching slightly, before he squeezed out another smile.
"Very well. Since it is your request, I won't touch a single hair on his head."
He shifted the topic and asked with a probing intent.
"However... may I ask? Why was it delayed for so long compared to the planned time?"
"Didn't we agree to hand 'this' over to me last night?"
The black-robed man responded indifferently.
"There were important matters to attend to, so it was delayed."
"What matter could be more important than assassinating the Saintess?" Caesar pressed.
"That is not something you should ask about."
The black-robed man coldly dropped those words, and his figure swayed.
As if merging into the shadows, he disappeared once again.
Caesar stood in place, his expression alternating between clouded and clear, the hand holding those strands of hair tightening slightly.
He remained silent for a moment before finally taking a deep breath.
He picked up the cold wooden box containing the Soul-Slaying Blade.
Addressing the four High-tier Transcendent assassins who had been waiting outside for a long time, he gave a low-voiced order:
"Alright, the time has come."
"Let us go in and kill the Saintess."
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