Marquis Asteria's POV:
It was the second day since Idris had gone on his hunt.
I had really wanted to go with him, but he had been too stubborn. And now I felt a bit lonely. I had become used to his presence already, just like my servants.
That's why, since I had nothing left to do, I decided to go visit the king.
When I arrived at the palace, a guard told me to wait for the answer of the king. After I was welcomed, I headed inside.
The corridors were almost as high as my whole mansion and pictures were hanging on the walls. I came to an extremely big wooden door, it was about 7 metres high, almost reaching the roof.
The guards waiting on both sides of the door announced my arrival and were soon ordered to open the door.
As I walked in, a gigantic room awaited me. It was 20 metres long, on the far end sitting the king, and 15 metres wide. On both sides were pillars, holding the roof. Instead of a wall behind the throne, was a mosaic which let the king look more majestic.
I moved into the middle of the room and made a bow. I looked up again as I was told to stand straight, and said: "I greet your majesty. I've come today to talk about some of the crimes that I've been investigating lately."
The king, a man in his mid 30s, with short blonde hair and blue eyes, a wiry body and a crown on his well formed head, began to speak: "I greet you too marquis Asteria. I've heard about the increasing criminality lately. It's good that you came."
After a short pause the king resumed: "Let's first go to another place. I've already let everything prepare."
He stood up and made a gesture that meant I should follow him. We went into a room that was directly connected with the hall.
It was the dining room, where people normally ate when a banquet was held. But since there was no event today it was empty, only a long table remaining, on which two spots opposite of each other were set.
The king sat on one of the chairs and told me to seat myself. I sat on the other side. It was a weird feeling sitting opposite of the king.
"Please begin with what you've found out while investigating." The king leaned on his arms while waiting for the food, he had ordered before.
I actually wanted to wait too, but I can't just refuse, can I?
I opened my mouth and started to speak: "In the last month more than 13 crimes have been committed. It was mostly smuggle, but also murder. The ones murdered were high ranking officials of trading companies and council members of the punishment section. It looks like someone wants to prevent something to happen to them since all the people that were killed had a good relationship with each other.
There's also more. The two trading companies the two killed officials were from, were seen smuggling illegal substances."
I had concluded that someone was eliminating their threats in a order, so that no one could accuse them.
The food was finally brought by one of the servants who apologized for the late arrival and left again.
I took some potatoes, some meat and some salad.
As the king started to eat, he asked: "Have you already caught the criminal? Or do have at least a suspect?"
"We do not know who exactly it was, but we do have a suspect." I ended there. The king looked at me with expectation in his eyes as I resumed: "We suspect marquis Larmanton. He is the only one who has connections with the two companies and would probably be the most compatible with the smuggled goods."
"I see, please look out for more information. I also know that you and marquis Larmanton have a bad relationship, so please do not let this affect your investigation." The king said with a stern expression on his face.
I nodded and we both began to eat again. The food was delicious and we discussed various topics that weren't as important.
After we had finished our talk, I decided to go back home. As I arrived at my mansion, all the servants were still at work, even though it was already dark.
I told them to stop, but they insisted on working and continued.
I moved into my home and headed straight into my bedroom to sleep.
I layed there, thinking about Idris and how it was going with his hunt. I knew that he wasn't weak, but he was still a kid and so I worried about him.
As I layed there without moving for half an hour, suddenly a needle flew through the window on my right, to pierce through my neck.
I dogded it by rolling sidewards. I stood up, looking out of the window the needle had come from.
It was too dark to see anything. Suddenly a shadow appeared in front of the window. But instead of shattering it, the person just flew through it without making any sound.
It was an assassin, wearing all black. He moved forward to hit me with a knife I hadn't seen so far and was barely able to evade it, despite being a 5th layer Body Tempering Realm cultivator.
I made some distance again, but the assassin followed directly after, without making any noises.
I threw my fist at his face. He parried it with ease and began to attack.
The person in front of me had probably learnt martial arts. I had to use my magic to fight him.
I erected a blue shield in front of me and the attack was repelled.
The assassin tried to come at me from various angles, but couldn't harm me. My senses were sharp enough to easily hold up with his speed.
He went into a fighting stance and began to use his magic. His whole body began to glow black. He had the darkness element, which was very rare, but also perfect for assassination, since one would become stronger in the dark.
The assassin began to attack again. He ran at me, but before he swung his knife down at me, he vanished from my view.
A sudden pain crawled throughout my whole body, as the knife was thrust into my arm, I reflexively put up to defend myself.
My arm was cut and flew away, making me scream in pain. Blood streamed out of the wound and I tried to stop the bleeding.
Before I could react, the assassin appeared in front of me and stabbed into my abdomen. I spat blood and held the wound with my remaining right hand.
I had to kill that person now. I would probably die from blood loss a few minutes later anyway.
I began to calm down and suppress the pain as much as I was able to.
I concentrated on every move the assassin made. And when he appeared before me again, I released all energy I had gathered. I made a water bullet with all I had and fired it.
Boom!
A loud explosion could be heard as the whole room of me bursted into shreds.
I sighed in relief as I layed on the ground, out of energy. I slowly stood up again to go to one of my servants to tell them to help me with my injuries.
I smiled wryly as I turned around to face the stairs that went down. I stepped down the stairs and as I was about to reach the end of the stairs, I fell down. I landed on my back. I was too exhausted.
And soon my face began to change. A gloomy expression appeared on my face.
I was sure I had killed that person. It was the assassin that stood before me and stared down, before killing me with a stab to the heart.