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Chapter 79: New Journey
🕑 Added 2024-07-05 19:53:51 +0000 UTC"Sir, R666 has completed the assassination of Samuel, one of the three musketeers of Elderan," R25B reported, submitting his documentation. Senior 3 frowned, surrounded by other higher-ups in the reapers guild. The emergency meeting had been called due to Elidranthia's actions.
"Why the heck did she kill him? And right inside the castle?" Senior 3 demanded.
"She said it was personal vengeance, sir. Her target was Dregorn, but she killed Samuel too since he was protecting him," R25B explained.
"I wonder if they will pay us..." Senior 3 sighed. "Handler?"
"It would prove to be difficult," the Handler replied. "But our contract with the kingdom did stipulate them to pay."
"So, you will not pay R666 her rewards? Even though this is all the fault of Althemer?" R25B tried to defend Elidranthia and his own paycheck. "She had specifically told Ludwin, and he had also informed the intelligence bureau to remove Samuel from the wanted list."
"Really?" Senior 3 asked, eyebrows raised.
"Yes. It happened several days after R666 met Samuel inside the castle," R25B confirmed.
"Give us your card for a while," Senior 3 ordered.
"Yes, sir." R25B handed over his reaper card, which was connected to Eli's card. Unknown to most, the senior members knew that reapers' cards had a recording function. Through R25 B's card, seniors in the reaper guild could always know where she was and what she said.
"Um... Senior 3. Eli also killed Dregorn. So, shouldn't she be awarded 300 points from his kill commission too?" R25B asked further. Three hundred points seemed small compared to the 1000 points bounty Samuel had, but it was significant. Two percent of that meant 6 gold for R25B, and he wanted that money. But the seniors in the guild thought otherwise. They suspected R666 was cheating somehow.
"It was Claire who sent us the commission. We suspect R666 leaked information about Dregorn to her, prompting her to give the kill commission instead of a counteroffer. That is illegal," Senior 3 stated firmly.
"But did R666 do that? She indeed visited Claire in the middle of the night before the commission was up, but she did it to introduce Claire to become one of our reapers, right?" R25B argued.
"So, Handler?" Senior 3 turned to the Handler for a decision.
"Indeed. R666 never mentioned anything about Claire's kill commission. She went there, gave our introduction letter, and left. Claire seemed to know Dregorn wanted her dead before Eli even arrived and merely used us as it was more convenient than getting her own hands dirty." The Handler, a dark magic user with the authority to peer into R25B's card, which was connected to R666's card, had reviewed the recordings and found no violation of the reaper's rules. Elidranthia never told Claire anything.
"How did she know?" another senior asked, but it was answered by other seniors.
"Our reapers failed in assassinating her. She had a bounty of 2500 points, after all. Many tried, but all failed."
"So, she surmised her commissioner to be Dregorn from our dead reapers?"
"Yes," the Handler said. "Nevertheless, we should withhold Dregorn's commission. It was a bit too suspicious."
"Hm… So, on another note, should we accept her?" Senior 3, in charge of managing reapers and operators, waved a reaper application letter from Claire. "Should we accept R777?"
Eli had been a reaper for over three years. During that time, over 100 reapers were recruited, but only a third survived. Such is the harsh life of assassins. R25B could only sigh at Claire's number. R666 would raise a fuss if he told her Claire's number.
"Why would a princess want to be a reaper? She is known to be a virtuous princess! This doesn't make any sense!" Handler and other seniors were scratching their heads.
"R25B, you were the closest to R666, and she was the one who introduced Claire to us. Do you know why Claire wanted to become a reaper?" R25B could only stare at them blankly. Eli made it her priority to stay away from Claire. So, he was actually surprised when Eli wanted to make an introductory letter for her.
Moreover, what's even crazier was that Claire accepted and applied the very next day. No wonder seniors were suspicious of Eli and Claire. They had no secret talk, no connection except harmless tea parties. Then one day, they tried to kill each other, but then, Eli introduced the virtuous princess to an assassin guild, and she accepted. At this moment, R25B realized seniors were suspicious of whether Eli had somehow eluded them and made a secret talk with Claire.
"Perhaps she wanted to make a commission?" R25B could only spit out random answers. He had no grounds for this except for the fact that Claire gave them 500 gold to make a kill commission to Dregorn when she applied to become a reaper. The seniors discussed among themselves before him. R25B was only a lowly operator. He had no idea what these seniors think.
"Ah. I see. But that wasn't our job. It was Handler's. One need not to be reapers to issue a commission." Senior 3 was confused and so were others.
"Handler, how could you miss her?"
"I was about to contact her. But she killed our agents," he said. Everyone sighed at the oversight. It was unfortunate, but Dregorn's kill commission had led Claire to suspect everyone around her. Any sign of reapers was killed without questioning by her agents before they could even enter the castle or even the capital. It was ironic since Claire wanted to make connections with the reapers.
"If we accept her, our kill commission will be shadow-banned. Might as well cancel it. We will lose 3000 gold." Another senior who was in charge of commissions complained. Claire's kill commission was 2500 points. Since the guild take fees, the other person had to pay 3000 gold.
"But accepting her means we get a connection inside the castle. Now that R666 escaped the castle and nobles, she could no longer be relied upon as an informant." Senior 3 said. He was on edge about whether accepting Claire would benefit the guild.
"R666 was not convicted yet. She could return." Another senior pointed at the fact that Ludwin and the royals obscured who killed Dregorn.
"Her identity was exposed to many nobles. Do you think she will be safe in the castle?"
"Claire is a princess. Will she do any commissions? She doesn't seem to be in need of any money."
"But she is a princess of TWO kingdoms now! The Western alliances also relied on her. Imagine how much information she holds."
"And you think she will share it with us?"
"If she refuses, we could mask it as a commission or trade information. She applied to us willingly. She must want something from us."
And so, after a lot of back-and-forth debate among the senior management inside the Reapers guild (With R25B being the silent audience), Claire was reluctantly accepted as Reaper 777.
With a lot of side notes.
She will definitely cause an enormous headache for her operators.
another side note, R25B was also instructed not to talk about Dregorn's kill quest to R666 under any circumstances.
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clank clank*
A carriage made a rattling noise as I looked toward the red sky. Dawn had arrived, and the red sun emerged. It was easier than I thought. Dregorn gave me three names of those who killed my grandfather and my mother. There was no need for torture and misinformation. Necromancy was more useful than I thought. It cost a lot of mana, but the corpse told me what I wanted without any fuss.
"Whoa! I never thought you were aiming for Samuel's life. The quest for his life was still there! 1000 points in the bag! But you certainly made a mess, huh? The castle was in chaos after you left." R25B phoned in and celebrated. "Yippee! 2% of 1000 is 40 points! 40 Gold!! My paycheck for this year is secured!!"
It seemed R25B was happy as long as he got money. Now that I cut off connections with Althemer's nobility, I am headed for Elderan. I saved the names of some bigwigs from Elderan's monster tamer, but one name was not in there.
“R25B, who is Gustav?”
"Hm? How should I know?"
"Could you post a commission? Ask for information on Droner Gustav and his relations with the Monster Tamer Guild. And I want more in-depth information about Tione Alex and Seles." Their names were on the list that I had commissioned from the reapers' guild before. It says Tione is the secretary of the current Monster Tamer Guild. I was expecting the head of the Monster Tamer Guild to be the perpetrator, but Tione is a secretary while Seles is a random monster researcher.
Even if they are directly linked to that fateful night, they likely received orders from Gustav. But I don't know who this Gustav is. Is he some kind of Elderan's noble? Well, I already put up the commission. Information about him will come soon enough.
"R666, where are you planning on going now?" R25B asked.
"I am going to Elderan."
"R661 and R663 won't come with you. They still have their own business."
"Yes, I understand."
"1000 points are nice. But damn… you missed out on being a princess there, R666."
"Princess Assassin has a nice ring to it. But yeah, too bad. This is all because of the Slane faction getting in my way." I almost cursed but held my tongue. I never wanted to become a princess in the first place. I am not Lady Elidranthia anymore. Right now, I am just Eli.
"Never heard of a princess being a reaper before. The highest we got is a baron or the fourth son of a count. And now we got... you." R25B made a weird pause there. Was he mocking me? Sorry for not being a princess-like.
A week later, I spent 50 points to get R25B to give me some stuff in a remote village near Shadowstep. That included clothes, several bags, daggers, throwing knives, a poison kit, contact lenses, hair dye, and 5 gold. Hair dye was a hassle, so I only used the contact lenses to change my eyes from red to blue.
"So, am I a fugitive?" I asked. I was about to buy a horse from a nearby stable but hesitated. Maybe I should have asked the reapers to deliver one for me. It is a bit more expensive.
"R663 said that the castle announced Dregorn's death, but they didn't know who killed him. All the blame was pinned on the reapers."
"Hmm? Why?"
"Well, your sweetheart must have pulled some strings. Aren't you glad? So, want to go back to the castle?"
"No. I have something to do in Elderan. I also need a horse and 10 more gold."
"Ok. Another 50 points taken. Where should it be delivered? It will arrive tomorrow, perhaps?"
"Thank you. I will arrive in the Shadowstep suburbs in two days. The Alucard village.” Some villages in the Shadowstep territory were named after his son. If this territory grew, will there be an Elidranthia village? Nah, unlikely. There was no Fiona Village, after all.
"Roger."
"Monster!" The carriage shook. When I peeked outside, several goblins with wolves were surrounding us. The mercenaries the carriage had hired drew their swords and engaged them. They seemed able to finish the ten or so goblins by themselves.
"No need to draw your dagger, miss. I know you are quite experienced, but we can handle this." one of the mercenaries greeted me. "Greetings, I am Lucas, fifth-ranked in the Wolf Mercenary Group. If you need our services, just call for us."
"No need," I answered curtly. How did he know I hold a dagger? Is he a powerful individual? I did hold a dagger, but it should be concealed from his viewpoint.
The journey went by peacefully. As R25B said, a man gave me a horse and my package after I showed him my reaper card. Then, I continued on towards Elderan after passing by my county and the forest. I tried my best to avoid people.
The peace treaty was just signed a week ago. So, there were no checkpoints here yet. I could pass easier than when I did it last time when monsters swarmed the area. Then, before me was the country of Elderan. Its fort-like wall was smaller than ours, but it certainly had hold off the Althemer army.
I went to the gate. This time, there were no counterintelligence agents posing as wandering villagers in need.
