Five figures were standing on the edges of the roof of the palace. Their shadows moved across the tiles, and under the moonlight they looked like a cloud of quiet mist.
The cold wind was blowing, but their eyes were even colder. Nobody talked, and it looked like they were checking everything around them with their eyes to make sure there was no problem and no unexpected change.
"Go. Finish the job fast. Be careful and do not use mana. We will keep the array active for as long as we can." the leader whispered.
The younger assassin nodded. Shadows gathered around her legs, and in one moment she disappeared, like she had never been there. One second later, she appeared in the darkness of Reinh's room.
The room was half-dark. Only a crooked candle on the table made some shaking shadows. The assassin walked toward the bed slowly and said under her breath with a quiet mocking tone:
"Kid… nothing personal. Some threats must be killed before they even learn how to walk."
She grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it fast—
But the bed was empty.
She only had one moment to understand what happened, before a voice appeared behind her. A voice that was cold, without emotion, without even a small feeling.
"I agree with you. I also wanted to do something like that… but I can't."
A heavy kick hit her from behind like a hammer. The assassin was thrown into the wall with brutal speed. Not even the sound of air moving was heard, like she was hit inside a void.
"So you muted the sounds too." Reinh said quietly and shook his head. He expected something like this, so he was not surprised.
And they didn't only mute the sounds. They also limited his room and made escape impossible.
This level of caution only came from professional assassins, but the one who was just kicked did not look very professional.
'Hey kid, besides this one, there are around four humans outside. It looks like they are trying to keep something active with mana,' Arceus's voice echoed in his mind.
Reinh nodded. It was easy to understand by looking around. What they were trying to keep active was an array.
The assassin rolled on the floor, coughed, and looked at Reinh with shock.
How… how did she not sense his presence? He was a twelve-year-old kid… but the kick she received almost broke her spine. The weight of the hit, the force… none of it made sense.
She was a mana user. But he took damage from a simple physical kick from a kid?
"Impossible… how can a twelve-year-old kid hit me?!" she said with clenched teeth.
Hee eyes filled with killing intent.
"Newbie? An assassin should not show this much emotion." But Reinh only looked at her. There was even some disappointment in hiz eyes. He did not expect them to send such a beginner to kill him.
Did they really see him as this worthless?
The humiliation stabbed the assassin like a knife. Her anger exploded. She pulled out her daggers and jumped straight toward Reinh.
But Reinh looked like he knew exactly where the attack was going. He moved half a step to the side, grabbed the sheath of the sword in the corner of the room, and simply hit the assassin's side with a clean strike.
"I… impossible!" the assassin said and stepped back with disbelief.
She attacked again, faster this time, but every strike hit nothing but air. Reinh dodged each attack with small, precise movements.
Reinh wanted to counterattack, but this time the assassin dodged first.
"How do you have this power? They said you are an illegitimate Vorhelm… a bastard! How can trash like you have this kind of power?!" she shouted with anger.
If the other members of her team heard that she couldn't even kill a twelve-year-old, wouldn't they laugh at her? She could already imagine their mocking faces.
Reinh stayed silent.
"Even after I rang the bell… they still insult me for being an illegitimate one, huh…?" he whispered coldly.
"You're just too weak." he said while looking at the assassin with total indifference.
This sentence was like fuel thrown on a fire. The assassin attacked like a madman, but Reinh looked like he was playing with a child. He read every move, predicted every strike, and answered with slow but cruel precision.
The assassin could not believe it. Without mana… she could not defeat a twelve-year-old boy.
Her focus slipped for a moment, and Reinh hit her in the stomach. A deep cut opened and blood splashed out.
"You bastard kid… I will kill you!" the assassin's face twisted with rage.
Her sword suddenly started to shine and, in blind anger, she used mana.
The strike was so fast that no normal human could see it. Even Reinh could not fully see or block the attack. Only with old experience from his past life he guess the direction from the movement of the assassin's hand and dodged half a step.
But it was not enough.
The blade cut part of his face, half of it tearing his face. Flesh split, his left eye popped out of its socket, and his left ear was cut off.
Blood exploded everywhere.
"Wha…? How are you—still alive?" the assassin said, frozen.
At that moment, two more assassins appeared in the room.
"Damn it, what did you do?!"
"Idiot, didn't we tell you not to use mana?! You couldn't even kill a kid without mana?!"
All of them looked at Reinh. But as they saw he was still standing, they were confused too. They thought after the idiot used mana, the kid must be dead.
But even with half of his face gone… he was alive.
And why did this child have no fear or any human emotion on his face?
"This… this kid is a monster. We must kill him now!" the injured assassin said with a shaking voice.
"It's too late for that" Reinh said, his bloody face cold and emotionless.
All assassins felt a small shiver in their spine. The air in the room became heavy.
They slowly turned around—
And saw an old man wearing servant clothes, with eyes that had no emotion at all
"I did not expect unwanted guests at this hour of the night" August said quietly.