༺ Contract (2) ༻
The freshman student of Merkarva Academy, Rashid Ad Din Mustali, was a descendant of the clan of assassins called Hassin. He was the son of the chief and one of the peak assassins of his generation.
However, he did not like the darkness looming inside his clan. He considered it unjust to live off of assassinations, increasing infamy by stealing other’s lives.
That was why he left.
Escaping from the lands of his ancestors, he arrived at Merkarva Academy but… in the end, the pursuers of his clan had tracked him down in a mere half a year.
『Come to the Forest of Demons on the east of the city. Otherwise, you will pay for your choice.』
It was on summer holiday. Maybe it was because he had been taking too many missions to earn money to compensate for leaving the clan empty-handed.
When he went to the client after a personally appointed quest, what he found instead of a mission was a short threat. He lamented at the fact that they had found him so soon.
It was only one semester. He had been here for a very short amount of time but made many friends at the academy and became attached to the party that he had joined to hunt demonic beasts together.
He knew that his clan wouldn’t hesitate to lay their hands on them.
“…You’re here.”
That night, as soon as he set foot in the dark world of shadows inside the forest, they appeared out of nowhere like ghosts.
As if they wouldn’t let him escape a second time, dozens of assassins were here as well as the chief of the clan, his father.
“Father…”
“How pathetic. Did you really think you could live in peace after betraying the clan?”
“I…”
Was the fact that he wasn’t killing him immediately a sign of his fatherly love for his son? Or was it simply because he needed a successor to the clan?
Whichever the case, Rashid wasn’t fond of this turn of events.
“Did you bring all the elites of the clan just to take me back?”
“Hmph. Don’t be full of yourself. It’s for a mission.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})“This many assassins for a single mission?”
Didn’t it cost thousands of gold to hire tens of elite assassins at once though?
“It is none of your business now that you have betrayed the clan.”
Rashid’s father said after tossing him a scimitar.
“You have two choices left. Either kill yourself or return to the clan. I will forgive you if you decide to come back now.”
“…”
So this is the end, huh?
Thinking that, Rashid blankly gazed at the trees above that didn’t even let him gaze at the stars beyond.
『Honor. Devotion. Justice.』
Those three words represent a knight – he had come all the way to Merkarva in pursuit of those virtues. At the Academy where he ended up, Rashid faced a huge, insurmountable wall in the Hunting Grounds prac lesson.
『Not bad.』
He met a 2nd year student, who perfectly saw through his stealth, and completely outclassed him from the front. Rashid was in despair, thinking how that was the standard of high-ranked knights of Markarva Academy.
What was fortunate for him at the very least, was that that particular senior was exceptionally stronger than the rest.
『Since you are here anyway, aim to become a knight. Rather than a sword that kills, go for a sword that protects. That’s all knights are. If you do that, you’ll be a solid knight yourself.』
It was thanks to the encouragement of such a strong senior that Rashid was motivated to achieve his goal.
He was a slightly strange person but was extremely generous and kind to the freshmen so Rashid had a good impression of him just like everyone else. Plus, hearing about the legendary epic tales Korin wrote during his first year became the standard of a true knight.
Rashid wanted to be like him.
He wanted to be a real knight just like him.
Finishing his line of thought, Rashid picked up the scimitar that his father threw in front of him. It wasn’t to kill himself and instead…
“A sword that helps and not kills. Instead of killing, I wish to focus on the path of saving people.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"}) It’s to stand proud for his convictions.
“You fool. You stupid fool…”
Perhaps he wasn’t as emotionally dead as Rashid had been thinking. His father closed his eyes for a bit before unsheathing his sword.
He knew that he couldn’t stand a chance against his father but that was fine. All that mattered was that he remained true to himself.
His final moments would be that of a knight instead of that of an assassin.
It was a shame that no one would know about it but…
‘Senior Korin. Thank you very much for the short yet important lessons you have taught me.’
Thinking back on the senior who left a memorable impact in his mind, Rashid raised his weapon and—
–Jiing…!
That was when a dimensional crack that he remembered seeing in the Hunting Grounds appeared before his eyes. Soon, a group started to walk out from the fissure.
“Junior Rashid. Long time no see.”
“S, senior? Chairman and Senior Professor?!”
Wearing a strange piece of cloth around his head with a weird emblem, the three of them jumped onto a tree (for some reason) and gazed down at them.
“Oi, you folks.”
At the center of the crew was the senior whom he had been thinking about until then.
“Do you know why we are strong?”
Korin Lork was a great senior; a respectable knight and—
“It’s because we are Rogue Ninjas— Uhk! Professor Josephine!?”
“You’re embarrassing us so please stop doing that.”
“Clara… Why are you being so mean to Korin?”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})“…What?”
““…””
—He was a very weird person.
***
It didn’t take long for us to neutralize every assassin of the Hassin clan. I alone was honestly enough to deal with them, and yet Master as well as Lady Josephine, the Dimensional Witch, were here so none of them were able to escape.
Frankly speaking, it was an unlucky matchup for them.
The chief of the assassin clan, Sinnan, was the boss of Rashid’s character scenario and was at the level of a Grade 1 Knight, and the rest were all elites at the level of Grades 2 or 3 at least.
The only problem was that they were against three legendary semi-Unique Grades.
“Fuu~. Why bother trying to run away? I’m just trying to make friends here.”
Throwing away the cloth around my head, I stood before the chief, Rashid’s father, and the group of captured assassins.
“Mr. Sinnan Ib Salman Mustali. Hello, I am Rashid’s senior.”
“Kuhk… You brat.”
“This here is the chairman of the Academy, Miss Erin Danua, and this lady here is Senior Professor Josephine Clara. Guys, you have to say hello. We are having a parent-teacher interview right now.”
“Haa…”
It seemed that both Master and Lady Josephine were a bit too old to understand my humorous talks.
“Let’s go straight to the topic then. Give up on Rashid. Having a meddlesome parent is not good for the child’s future, okay?”
“I refuse…!”
“One letter from me and the elite swordsmen of the Arden Family will attack your cave. You know the Sword Master, yeah? Lunia Arden?”
“There is no way you know where our village is…!”
“Rashid. You’ll tell us right?”
I turned to Rashid who had a blank look on his face. After looking back and forth between me and his father, he slowly gave a nod.
“If you are going to do it, you have to do it thoroughly,” he even added.
“All their elites are here anyway. Getting rid of an empty shell of a village is just a matter of time.”
“You…! How dare you do this to your village!”
“A father coming to kill his son and a son selling his father away… What a beautiful sight to behold.”
This was how the character scenario of Rashid Ad Din Mustali always went. It was a very unfamillial story.
“What’s your answer?”
“…Alright. I will let Rashid go.”
“You say that, but I don’t trust ya.”
You couldn’t trust a group of assassins; they certainly wouldn’t yield from just a threat.
“Now. Time to accept your mission.”
“Mission? Are you asking us for a mission after capturing us?”
“I already paid the deposit, haven’t I? Enough to employ all 35 elite assassins of the clan.”
“What?”
“What was that?”
Both the father and the son widened their eyes in shock.
“I paid the deposit through a secret account. Plus, I told you where your son was. Remember that?”
“…”
“…”
I could hear their brains working hard to make sense of what I said. Soon, the two of them finally understood how they ended up coming here.
““You son of a bitch…!””
Thanks for the compliment~.
『Rashid Ad Din Mustali』
※ Difficulty: C
※ Reward: Even distribution of 40 points
To be fair, I was just trying to save my junior ahead of time, okay?
………
……
…
What I did wasn’t anything complex.
I gave a large deposit through the Hassin clan’s contacts and at the same time, told them that Rashid was currently attending Merkarva Academy.
They were going to find out about him going to the Academy sooner or later anyway, so all I did was make that happen ahead of schedule.
Sinnan’s goal would have been to meet me for the mission and take Rashid back while he was at it. He probably also came here ahead of time to check if it was a trap but that clearly wasn’t enough.
“So don’t touch Rashid, and now it’s time to listen to my mission.”
“Do you think we will listen to your—”
“By the way, the reward for a successful job at the mission is 4,000 gold, and a clean job at it would be 2,000 more gold.”
“…What is the content of this mission, Employer?”
Money.
Money was the solution to many conflicts.
Naturally, I didn’t have that much money to spare but I had gotten it confirmed by Marie beforehand.
『You need a few thousand gold? Korin, you don’t have to ask me for an amount like that. I will give you a few blank cheques so use them as you see fit!』
This was why Marie Dunareff was the boss of the 1st Arc and not a party member. If Marie was on your team… there would have been absolutely no need for the player to go around earning money.
Renting out the infamous Hassin clan didn’t even cost as much as the amount Marie earned in a single month…
Haa. Ah, the unfairness of life!
“…What are you planning to do by hiring our entire clan?”
“Well, a poisonous sword can still be used for good.”
Rashid appeared to be in turmoil from his complex emotions.
“I don’t think hiring assassins is what a righteous knight would do.”
“Technically, I didn’t hire them for assassination.”
“…Then what?”
“Just to kidnap a few people. They love to hide so it’s a bit difficult for me to go myself.”
Money, information, and justification.
With all three of them in hand, there was nothing that could possibly stop me.
“Umm, even if it’s not assassination, isn’t kidnapping still against chivalry?”
“You need to learn how to gloss over things! Sometimes we all need to do what we gotta do! A young man like yourself should be more flexible with these things!”
“…”
***
The long holiday soon came to an end.
I spent quite some time throwing the baits around, so all I had to do now was wait until the Union at Dana Shee reached out to me.
The question was how fast Miruam would start making her moves and… things were so different from the last iteration, that I couldn’t say for sure how everything was going to go.
In any case, I had set my preparations in case things were to happen any time soon. The only thing left for me to do was…
“K, Korin… It’s my first time seeing something like this.”
“Fuu… Am I trembling right now?”
“Hehe…”
Marie and I couldn’t hide our bliss at the face of the miracle in front of our eyes.
『Korean Ginseng』
It was one of the elixirs I farmed at the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ during the war against the Tower of Mages. Most of the elixirs I gave already to the girls, but this was something I had to take for myself.
The 10,000-year-old ginseng, with a very very low drop chance in the repeat quest of the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ – was a 10,000-year-old herb which even the gods would cherish as a treasure.
“K, Korin… Are you really going to eat this? Shouldn’t we… leave this for generations to come?”
The graceful beauty of the Korean Ginseng contained a miraculous aura that even flustered Marie, the imperial princess of the Potato Empire. Anyone could see just how much of a treasure this was.
“Senior. There’s a saying that things can become useless if you do nothing but save it for the future.”
“Ugh. It’ll be good for you so… I will try to make it.”
“Ah, sorry I think you misunderstood something. We need someone else’s help to refine this herb.”
“Huh? Ah…! So that’s why you wanted me to call Daesik!”
“Exactly.”
Marie immediately pulled out a ghoul from her shadow.
“Huahk…! W, where is this?”
An old mage with green hair and a braided beard sprouted out of her shadow. He was one of the elders who used to reign supreme at the Tower of Mages, but now he was nothing but one of the many dirty prisoners.
“Elder Dreryan… I mean, Mr. Daesik. Long time no see.”
“Y, you are that bastard…!”
Daesik, the previous elder of the Green Cult, shouted out loud while pointing his finger at me. He then unconsciously turned around to find Marie, before immediately getting on his knees in fright.
“M, Master…!”
“Hello Daesik.”
We captured more than 400 mages from the Tower as our captives. Most of them were turned into ghouls and were sent to the salt mines for punishment as Marie’s slaves.
Some of the government officials were against us taking so many mages for ourselves, but the royal court had permitted an unlimited plunder of the Tower of Mages to save the Saintess and had no justification to stop us.
“Mr. Daesik? Do you know what this is?”
“W, wait! That’s…!”
His eyes, which had already been in circles, widened so much that his eyeballs might pop out of his eyes.
That might be nothing unusual because the Korean Ginseng was a heavenly treasure that he barely managed to bring in by using 10 years’ worth of the Green Cult’s annual budget. He even took care of it personally and used a Unique Grade demonic spirit as its guardian, which proved just how invested he was in this treasure.
Of course, a spirit couldn’t do anything to me so it was the easiest farm of my life.
“H, how is this in your hands…!?”
“Daesik? That’s not a very polite way to ask a question, is it?”
“Huikk…! M, my apologies, Master!”
He immediately got onto the floor on his knees. What in the world did he go through to be like this?
“Anyway, you need to refine these into an elixir for us. I can tell you the recipe so all you have to do is follow it through.”
“A, ahhh…”
Daesik, who used to treasure the herbs of the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ appeared like a soulless corpse.
This wasn’t good! If he was this blank-minded, he might make mistakes in the process so I decided to cheer him up.
“Mr. Daesik. You’re not thinking that this was the only herb I picked up from the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ right? I also picked up Jade Honey, Azerite Water, and…”
“Grrkk…!”
His previously blank eyes regained their light as he glared daggers at me. This time, his eyes were burning in flames of hatred and fury.
Right. Anger! Anger is a good driving force. Light your body up with that fury, o avenger!
“Daesik.”
I threw more firewood into his burning flame of hatred.
“Thanks for looking after my herbs.”
“Kuhak…!”
He threw up blood and fell on the spot.
Umm… maybe that was a bit over the top?
