Chapter 17 – Processing (1)
Translated by : betterdays
Proofread by : ch17175
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“Huk-…. Huuuah….. huuu…”
The lead assassin that had fled from Asher sat down by the trunk of the tree and collected his breath. As he put his glove marked with the insignia of the Motorala Assassins on the trunk, a crevice formed in the trunk of the tree and revealed stairs leading down to a room.
A dark voice rang out as the man entered the room.
(T/N : multiple unidentified people are speaking in the following dialogue)
[Results…Hm, I guess I don’t need to be briefed.]
[I knew it would be too much. There’s no way a Swordmaster could possibly pick some random child out with no talent. The kid must have been a prodigy, hiding his talent.]
“Shut up!”
The lead assassin shouted harshly. He clenched his teeth at the sight of the dark figures that filled every corner of the room.
“Those old cowards gave the order and didn’t even bother to do their own dirty work…!”
[Silence, respect your elders.]
The lead assassin snorted at the words and giggled maniacally. Elders? Respect? What did they do to deserve that?
“You old bats are talking nonsense.”
[Calm down, it looks obvious, but I’ll still check first…. What was the result?]
“…it’s a failure.”
The lead assassin spoke in a rough voice. His pride as an assassin… no, even as a swordsman, had been shattered to pieces. Not only that, but he didn’t have the willpower to even pick up the broken pieces of his ego.
“What is he doing? Why is he so….”
[I told you. You are still immature. You had enough talent to learn the great motorola’s swordsmanship, but you’re not mentally ready to face difficult opponents. In your state, it would be difficult to win against even the easiest of opponents.]
“Then why did you send me….”
[I thought you would be able to handle it and gain experience.]
The lead assassin paused at the words that resonated in the dark room. Eventually a different, yet calm voice rang out in the room from another cloaked figure.
[You are weak. He might be talented, but that’s only a possibility. You were too absorbed in your own talent and ego to realize anything. But what is the reality of the situation? You have the talent and swordsmanship to defeat any great swordsman. All you need is the effort.]
“…okay.”
The lead assassin nodded his head. Yes, he could be strong. Incredibly strong at that. The problem was that he had been too absorbed in the image of himself in the future that would become great, and hadn’t been realizing that he needed to put in the hard work to get there.
[We have high expectations for you. You’re not supposed to collapse and fall like this from one setback. By the way… you said the opponent used Imperial Swordsmanship?]
“Yes.”
[…How did it feel to go against it?]
[Aren’t you overreacting? Imperial swordsmanship itself is a common swordsmanship. There’s nothing special about it for him to ‘feel’.]
[I don’t know about you but I don’t have any good memories when it comes to the Imperial Swordsmanship. Remember that Swodmaster, the kids master? That swordmaster was good friends with him.]
[Oh, my god. Don’t worry about him. He’s already dead. It just means someone who knows our weaknesses is gone from the world. It’s not like that man can come back to haunt us.]
It was a wary voice yet, also one of relief that rang out when he was mentioned.
He was the one that chased them down. That man had torn them from the roots up and forced them into hiding. The Imperial Guard Captain. The master of Imperial Swordsmanship. There were only bitter memories of when he was alive.
[He was only a human being. He didn’t transcend, and he didn’t leave behind any successors. You’re being worried for nothing.]
[Hmm… how was it anyway? Tell me.]
“…….”
The lead assassin was silent. The silence continued. When the dark figure who asked the question couldn’t bear the silence any longer, lead assassin spoke up.
“I don’t know.”
[What?]
“I don’t know. Are you sure he was really a kid? That was the question that ran through my mind the most during our fight. No matter how hard I looked at it, he wasn’t some kid. He… had experienced swordsmanship… It was perfect. He knew the imperial swordsmanship to perfection, but also knew to improvise and kill like it was nothing.”
It was like he had faced a bloodied and wounded warrior. They took advantage of their opponent’s psychology and dug traps without panic even when surrounded. Even an inexperienced man like the lead assassin could know. It wasn’t normal.
In addition, the lead assassin was no fool when it came to telling the level of ability of another’s swordsmanship. And that boy… no that thing… he knew his swordsmanship like the back of his hand.
“And he seemed to know about our abilities and identity.”
[What?! He knows?]
“Yes, he knew who we were and what happened in the past…. Wait- What the hell? Did that swordmaster even know that?”
[Hmm]
The murmurs between the cloaked figures spread as the anxiety and worry could be felt in the room, while several groans of annoyance, disappointment and wariness were heard.
[…We’re in trouble.]
[We are going to need to kill him first. We manipulated the information and erased our traces for a reason. If the boy truly knows everything, it might grow beyond just a headache. Send support and kill him by any means….]
“You think I’m just going to sit by and let you do that?”
[!]
“Ugh!”
The door opened. A boy walked into the dark room. He looked around with a stoic and indifferent expression and looked at the dark figures within the room and grinned.
“Nice to meet you, leaders of the Motorola.”
***
[…….]
The dark figures shut up. The lead assassin stepped back in fright. Asher stretched out his arms.
“Your target is walking right into your own base. Why are you staring at me? Wasn’t it your pride not to miss the chance to kill me?
[…how did you get here?]
Their location was hidden. In addition, it shouldn’t have been possible to find it this quickly because it was connected to the wisps of spatial essence created by their god’s power. Asher made a mocking look.
“Is it weird that I can find it through a warp permitted only by your so-called god?”
Asher rubbed his fingertips and mumbled lightly.
“If you know the name of your God, it’s a power of transport that opens up to anyone.”
[…no, it can’t be. Everyone who knows of our god is dead.]
“Clearly there’s one. And that one happens to be speaking to you, standing right in front of you at that.”
Asher talked leisurely and tooks some steps forward stroking his fingers against the dust on the wall.
“What a nuisance. You weren’t supposed to be able to set up base in the Halvark estate, so why don’t you tell me how you did it? No, I already know how. You probably just convinced the brat, dodging the laws like you did in the past and then called that the lease.”
The dark figures flinched when Asher’s words continued.
“But that’s just laws. Those never meant anything to you. You don’t have to build a nice building or shrine like any other god to make a branch out here, you just put one of your ‘holy instruments’ in and you’re done. But that doesn’t mean I can just kick you all out of here in a second.”
(T/N : I’m gonna go out on a limb and think that these bodies of theirs are just incarnations and not physically manifested bodies. Explaining how they were somehow at the estate. It seems they’re only there through a connection through a holy instrument or artifact.)
The dark figures in the room were astonished by Asher’s murmur that sounded like he was sick and tired of their methods. As… As if he already knew how their powers operated. But there was nobody who could have known them.
No, there was. But he had died… died a long time ago.
[…Who are you?]
“I don’t think that’s important.”
Asher tapped the floor with his shoes and laughed. One of the dark figures, who seemed to be the ringleader of the others shook as he noticed what Asher was about to do and then shouted.
[Hurry up and stop him!]
“It’s too late.”
Asher stomped his foot. The muscles in Asher’s body exploded with power and smacked the floor. At the same time, the floor collapsed. The walls started to tremble, shake and then, fall as the room itself shook like it had been hit by a giant hammer. The dark figures had their shadows begin to fade one by one.
(T/N : So.. I’m gonna guess I was correct. Tsk- this author really made me do some work here.)
“See you later, then.”
[Hey!]
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The room collapsed. Asher lifted himself up, clearing away the pieces of wood. He lifted his foot from the debris and looked at what was under it. A broken ring was shattered beneath it.
“Is a ring the ‘holy’ object this time?”
Asher put it in his pocket. He was sure they would use it again if he didn’t take it.
‘You’re still alive.’
Fifty years ago. The voice heard from one of the shadows was the same voice he had heard over 50 years ago. It was an understatement to say this bothered Asher.
“Cough! Cough!”
On the other side, a wooden board broke and a man lifted himself up from the debris. The room that had been there, disappeared like it was all a lie. There was nothing except the tree bark and branches left.
“Our base….”
“And.. now you’re all alone.”
“!!”
The man looked at Asher in a hurry and freaked out. Asher kicked the assassin’s body to wake him up from his reverie. The man clenched his teeth and opened his eyes wide.
“Why… Why!”
“The branch has collapsed, so you can’t move. You’ve been deprived of this land now.”
Crunch.
Asher pressed down on the man’s head stuck in the ground with his foot.
“Let’s talk about it. Who asked you to do this? I can already guess, but I’ll base it off the conviction that should come out of your voice if you want to die painlessly.”
“…kll! I’ll kill you- you bastard!”
The man gritted his teeth and shouted. Asher clicked his tongue.
“These days.. Tsk tsk. Seems you young people take life for granted.”
“Torture is no use on me! You’re better off just killing me now!”
“Do you really think so?”
The assassin had already been trained for torture. He was determined to not open his mouth. At the words, Asher muttered with an ambiguous face.
“The men who said that in the past, they were always the quickest ones to open mouths.”
“Ugh!”
The man swallowed his breath for a moment. Asher pulled out fingernail from the man’s fingers. The man twisted his body in pain.
“Urkk Ag..AHHH…!”
The man twisted his body in pain. Asher had also been familiar with the Motorala assassins’ ways of torture. For the most part, Asher knew they most succumbed once their fingernails were torn out and their bones broken one by one.
That’s exactly what he planned on doing. Asher gave strength to his hands.
“Ah! Ahhhh!”
One by one, the lead assassin’s nails were pulled out. The man struggled and screamed in pain.
“It’s not easy to overcome pain even if you’re trained to do so.”
Asher mumbled and grabbed the pinky nail of the other hand. The man flinched at the sudden change of hands. He looked up at Asher with tears in his eyes.
“Don’t give me that look of self-pity. I’m sick and tired of seeing that face when you expect mercy from someone you tried to kill.”
The screams didn’t end.
***
Asher waved his hand in front of the man’s eyes that were unfocused and blurred from all the pain.
Asher took out a water bottle and threw the cold water on the face of the lead assassin. The man was startled and his eyes woke up from their reverie.
“Now then, let’s start talking. If you answer correctly, I’ll give you some peace before you go.”
“What….”
The man quivered and asked again as he was frightened at the hidden meaning behind the words. The man was ready to answer all the questions Asher could possibly ask.
“It’s nothing big, just answer them truthfully and you won’t die in more pain than you’re already in.”
Asher shook his hand. He didn’t cause much pain to the assassin compared to others of the past. The assassin had fainted from only having all of his nails from his toes and fingers pulled out, and Asher sprinkling salt on the wounds to make them bleed out in more pain.
Yet, even the assassin who was trained in case of torture, couldn’t stand it.
‘Of course.
If everyone endured pain through training, why would they bother with real torture?
Mental strength is the most important thing to have, but the mental strength of this arrogant assassin was something that was simply a result of his lackadaisical foundation.
“The one who commissioned the hit on me. Was it Luke Halvark?”
“That’s right…”
Asher nodded his head in understanding. Luke’s behavior was in accordance with it. Now the question was how to punish Luke for what he did. Asher was lost in thought and the man trembled.
“Did the real order for the hit though come from above?”
“That’s right…”
Again this time, the man nodded gently trying to gain just even a bit of sympathy from Asher with his actions.
People often in the past would have placed mind-blocking magic on assassins or informants. But even back then it wasn’t common believe it or not.
Most informants would kill themselves immediately before getting captured, or they would have poison pills to take out the assailants with them. But, in terms of mid-blocking magic, there weren’t enough high skill wizards in the continent to be used for such a tedious thing.
Most of all, the assassin in front of him, didn’t seem to be a true believer of the Motorola Assassin’s religion. Motorola was a god-like figure to them, and there would never be a need to even tell a non-believer anything important.
“How many numbers are there in the Black Stars of your organization right now?”
“12….”
“12? That many?”
Asher was surprised and asked back as he didn;t believe the man’s words earlier in the alleyway that there were really so many. The Black Stars of Motorola were like the direct apostles of Motorola himself. In the past, there were at most three. There were now at least quadruple the number, but Asher wanted to believe the quality and strength had probably diminished for quantity.
“But, your organization must have disbanded over 50 years ago.”
“Since then, we’ve been hiding… We waited for our God’s instructions and waited until the light disappeared from the world… And the light has finally disappeared … During this time, we reached out and expanded our influence….”
“…what’s the number of branches active right now?”
“I don’t know… There are ten in each country….”
“…shit.”
The number had increased considerably compared to the past. Asher didn’t even know whether to call this bothersome or enough to call it a true worry.
Asher clicked his tongue. He remembered what he had barely overheard once he had arrived as soon as possible to the branch. It seemed the lead assassin had already told the elders that he knew of their history and how much information Asher truly had. It wasn’t a great outcome overall.
He would no longer be in danger within the Halvark territory since he had destroyed their base of operations, but the minute he left the territory, it was likely they would swarm after him like flies.
“I need the location. Where is your ‘God’. You;ve told me how many branches there are, but I have no interest in those small things. I need the real location of it all. Where is your ‘God’ located? ”
“You… what the hell…are you planning to do with me….?”
The man looked at Asher with fear. He didn’t know the answer and he was frightened at what was about to come.
“There were parts I can understand you don’t know information about. But wait for the light to disappear? What does that mean?”
“Twenty years ago… All the heroes… they disappeared….”
“What?”
Asher frowned.
Twenty years.
It was the same time as when he died. Just what exactly had happened?
Chapter 17 – Fin