The middle-aged man in the hotel took a shower. The water was slightly cold, just the way he liked it.
He wiped himself with a towel and walked to the bed to dress up. Once done, he looked around his coat's pockets to find his cigarette.
"You know that's bad for your health right?"
The man immediately turned around to see someone standing in the room. He side-eyed his door, but it was still blocked with the wooden chair. He then looked at the window, but it had metal grills on it.
He immediately pulled out a gun from his storage and pointed them at the person. "Who are you, Kid?" he asked in a rough voice.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning introduced himself.
"Ning?" the man's eyes narrowed a bit. 'Was this the same Ning from the documents?' he wondered.
"How did you get into the room?" the man asked. He still hadn't figured out how someone could possibly enter a locked room.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. That's not very nice now, is it? When someone introduces themselves, you have to introduce yourself too," Ning said.
The man cocked his gun and asked Ning again, "How did you enter the room? Answer me or you will die right now."
Ning ignored the gun and walked to the door before taking the chair. He placed it back in the room and sat on it with one leg perched on top of the other.
"Alright, listen, Elijah," Ning said. "Should I call you Elijah? Or would you prefer if I called you Sam?" Ning asked.
The man's face showed the purest shock he had ever felt in his life. Even his hands that never shook when he slit his target's throat started shaking a little.
"That's your name, right? Sam Wiseman? Born in the Odrain Empire to two duds, bullied as a child, but you got lucky and found a fruit sold by a merchant and accidentally got awakened."
"Your parents died during the coup in the capital and since then you've gone out of your way to kill any noble and royalty you can find. The Shadow Pavillion noticed your work and hired you 35 years ago, and since then, you've been one of the most successful assassins in the field."
"Quite an amazing resume you ha—"
BANG
The man shot his gun, but the bullet didn't hit Ning at all. It had veered off to the side and hit the wall behind Ning.
"That's quite rude you know? I was in the middle of talking," Ning said.
"Who are you and why do you know so much?" the man asked, while at the same time wondering why his aim was off. He tried calming himself and not letting his emotions mess up with what he needed to do.
"I have my ways of finding information about someone," Ning said.
BANG
The man shot once again. This time, instead of the head, he aimed at the heart. As the chest was larger than the head, his chances of hitting him would be higher.
"You really want to call the hotel staff, huh?" Ning asked as he pried open his clothes to reveal the place he had been shot at.
It was very close to the heart, but Sam couldn't tell if he hit the heart at all. After all, Ning was still speaking.
He was about to shoot once more when he saw the bullet wound pulse. The wound didn't bleed at all. When something finally came out, the man realized it was the bullet. Once the bullet was out, the wound went back to being fixed.
"Ho-How did you?" the man started freaking out.
"Alright, let's get to the point," Ning said. "You came here to kill the princess under the Pavillion's order, but that's not happening. All the Pavillion members have already surrendered themselves to the police, even the ones that weren't part of tomorrow's job."
"Wha—"
"One of your stupid members decided to enter the capital through the gate, looking like a beggar despite being a wanted criminal. So stupid. You can blame him for the mess… although he did kill himself already," Ning said.
"I came here to make you do the same—? Can you put that thing away? You know it won't hurt me," Ning said. However, the man didn't listen to him. Ning sighed and continued.
"Anyway, I wanted you to go and give yourself up as everyone else did," Ning said. "However… I didn't expect the Pavillion to send an Aether Emperor to do the job. That changes everything."
The man couldn't even speak with just how much new information was being thrown at him. The kid— no, this thing couldn't possibly be a child. This man, this thing, he knew a lot. He knew things that Sam had never revealed to anyone, and he knew things that even Sam had forgotten.
Not to mention, he didn't die when a bullet shot his heart.
"What do you want from me?" the man asked, gun still pointed at Ning.
"I want you… to fight me," Ning said with a smile on his face.
The man got a little confused. "What?" he asked, not sure if he heard him correctly.
"You heard me, I want you to fight me," Ning said. When he still saw the confusion on the man's face, he proceeded to explain. "Well, you see, I recently entered the Aether tower, because I didn't know how to properly use Aether."
"It's been a few weeks and, well, it's been fun, but I can't do anything serious with what I've learned. So, I was hoping you could help me with it by fighting with me," Ning said.
"You want to fight?" the man immediately started using some Aether to use telekinesis on Ning.
"Uh… not here, you idiot," Ning said. He stood up, completely ignoring the man's control, and walked up to him.
"We will be fighting someplace else," Ning said and grabbed the man before disappearing.
