An Assassin Was Still An Assassin

Assassins.

Madmen who specialized in learning how to kill people, then made a living out of taking lives with the assassination arts they had learned.

Simply put, among all the martial artists in the Kangho who killed people, assassins were the ones who specialized in murder.

I knew quite a lot about assassins myself.

I’d never been one myself, but I’d suffered more than my fair share from getting tangled up with them.

After becoming a Bishop, I’d killed a truly ridiculous number of assassins.

Poisoning my food or drinking water was practically standard, and there had even been quite a few lunatics who ambushed me while I slept or used the latrine.

After killing that many of them, it was only a matter of time before I naturally learned their common traits, their distinctive atmosphere, even the language assassins used among themselves.

Why was I suddenly talking about all this?

Because assassins who lived with death at their side went through life with the eyes of the dead, and now that I looked properly, that lunatic drinking in the distance had exactly that kind of gaze.

I slowly examined the man’s face.

He had a short, unkempt beard and a scar near his mouth, though even without the scar, his features were unusually fierce.

His left eye was also covered by an eyepatch, and for some reason, it looked as though the eye itself had been completely gouged out.

‘……One-eyed?’

The language of assassins I’d learned long ago suddenly came to mind.

Among assassins, having an eye gouged out usually meant someone had once been a fugitive.

An assassin who broke his oath and fled would have one eye gouged out if he was caught, and if he ran again and was caught a second time, the remaining eye would be taken as well, leaving him completely blind.

Of course, that was merely an old assassin tradition I remembered, so it didn’t necessarily mean this bastard was a fugitive assassin.

But the possibility was certainly high.

With my arms crossed, I looked around the empty inn before silently glaring at the man’s fierce face.

I’d wondered why an inn with broth this good was so empty. Apparently, that bastard had been sitting there radiating such a nasty atmosphere that everyone else had fled.

This was why lunatics were always a problem.

“…….”

Come to think of it, I was quite the lunatic myself, so I should probably take that back.

The two of us silently glared at each other in a staring contest.

I’d even beaten a man like Guyang Chun in a battle of words. There was no way I was going to lose a staring contest to some assassin bastard.

Without blinking even once, I stared straight into the man’s eye……and the moment he turned his head away, I got up and seated myself across from him.

“…….”

An awkward silence settled between us. Even when I openly let my killing intent show, his face remained completely expressionless. In short, he wasn’t the type to get flustered.

I stole some of the man’s dried snacks and spoke.

“……Where are you from?”

I wasn’t asking where he’d been born, but what organization he belonged to. Whether he understood that or not, the man remained silent.

I looked at the man, whose mouth seemed exceptionally heavy, then gave a faint laugh.

“No answer? Did the Black Serpent Gate send you?”

Only then did the man pour himself another drink and speak.

“……What’s the point in talking at length? Dokgo Mu-jin. Come outside.”

The man splashed the drink he’d just poured onto the floor, then rose from his seat.

As I stood after him, the man flicked his wrist and hurled something he’d taken from inside his clothes through the air.

Shwaaaaaaang!

A hidden weapon? Then why the hell was he throwing it somewhere else instead of at me? That was what I thought, but it wasn’t a hidden weapon.

A silver tael flew through the air and buried itself in one of the inn’s pillars with a thud. The man turned toward the kitchen.

“Thanks for the drink. Keep the change.”

The waiter’s cheerful voice came from inside the kitchen.

“Yes. Take care.”

To remain that calm in front of a man like that……either he’d lost all sense of fear or possessed an astonishing sense of professionalism. Either way, he was one impressive waiter.

I stared at the silver tael embedded in the wall.

Why the hell had he thrown it when he could’ve just left it quietly on the table?

I’d been so confident that I understood the language and psychology of assassins, yet apparently I still had a mountain left to learn.

After confirming that the man had completely left the inn, I looked toward the kitchen.

The brave waiter was washing dishes with complete indifference, as though he couldn’t care less whether we fought or not.

‘What an impressive bastard.’

I stared at the waiter for a moment, then placed a silver tael on the table.

“For the noodles. Keep the change.”

The waiter, who had been diligently scrubbing grease from the bowls, jumped in surprise the moment he saw the silver.

“Why are you giving me so much? That other customer did the same thing.”

“Because the noodles were good. More importantly, why aren’t you scared?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no way you don’t know that bastard and I are about to beat the hell out of each other. I’m asking why you’re so fearless when you know that.”

The waiter scratched the back of his head as though the question itself were ridiculous.

“……What does that have to do with me? I’m just a waiter. It’s not like either of you is going to beat me to death.”

“…….”

I was so dumbfounded that I fell silent, but when I thought about it carefully, there wasn’t really anything wrong with what he’d said.

‘Come to think of it, he’s right.’

He wasn’t fearless. He was simply smart.

I nodded repeatedly like a man who had just been deeply enlightened.

“You’re right. Still, we don’t know what might happen, so stay hidden inside the kitchen.”

“Yes.”

“Who do you think will win, him or me?”

“Him. His presence feels much heavier.”

“Hmm.”

Apparently, he really was fearless after all. I let out a deep sigh and turned away.

“Still, if you’re going to root for someone, root for me.”

“Why?”

“I’ll come back often for noodles.”

“Understood. Can’t afford to lose a regular customer, can I? Come back alive.”

“Sure.”

I picked up the nameless longsword and stepped out onto the rain-soaked street.

What made assassins more frightening than anything else was how difficult it was to judge their martial prowess.

Assassins learned how to kill people efficiently before anything else, so it was actually rarer for them to learn conventional martial arts.

That was why judging their strength was so difficult. No matter how great the difference in internal energy, there wasn’t much you could do if an assassin used a deadly poison.

For that reason, I had absolutely hated assassins in my previous life.

More than hated them, really. I remembered treating them like insects.

I happened to look up at the sky. A bleak rain was falling, lending the scene a rather murderous atmosphere.

As our battle of nerves continued, I came up with roughly forty-two thousand strategies for how to toy with that lunatic.

Not that it meant much. Standing in the rain quickly chilled the top of my head, and I promptly forgot every last one of them.

With my arms crossed, I glared at the man and suddenly hurled a vicious curse at him.

“Hey, you fucking bastard.”

“…….”

Perhaps I’d cursed him too suddenly, because the man merely stared blankly at me without reacting.

Not that I cared. I freely ran my mouth with everything I wanted to say.

“Are you mute? I’ve been asking you questions this whole time, and instead of answering, you just sit there trying to look intimidating. If someone asks you something, you’re supposed to answer. What kind of bastard doesn’t even know the proper conduct of the Kangho?”

“…….”

“And why the hell did you throw the money? What kind of bullshit was that? Now the poor bastard has to pry it out. Want me to throw your head into a ditch too? Damn it…….”

The man glared at me with a deathly serious expression.

“……Dokgo Mu-jin. Do you not understand the situation you’re in?”

“What kind of bullshit is this now?”

“If you surrender quietly now, I’ll kill you without pain. Resist, and you’ll only make the process harder on yourself.”

“You sure know how to spout some fucking nonsense. Who the hell is a fugitive bastard like you to order anyone around?”

“……!”

The moment I mentioned him being a runaway, the black-clad man’s expression changed ever so slightly. Apparently, my guess had hit the mark.

The man narrowed his eyes and glared at me.

“……How do you know that?”

“There’s nothing I don’t know. That’s why I’m the strongest. A bastard who got scared of being an assassin and ran away. So how’s the world look with only one eye?”

The man’s patience finally reached its limit, and he drew a straight saber from inside his clothes.

“I’ve heard enough. Today, that insolent mouth of yours is going to get you killed.”

“Why does a pathetic bastard like you have so much damn bravado?”

I drew the nameless longsword I’d brought with me and smiled.

“This sword is the Nameless Sword (無名劍).”

“So what?”

“What do you mean, so what? It’s the sword that’s going to cut off your head. You should at least know its name.”

Shwaaaaaaak!

The moment I finished speaking, the black-clad man charged at me with a murderous expression, spraying rainwater in every direction.

I leaned my head back to avoid the straight saber thrusting toward me, then swung the Nameless Sword horizontally in a movement born of instinct.

The man narrowly avoided my sword strike and retreated, only to rush back in like an arrow and unleash a fierce series of thrusts with his straight saber.

His movements were vicious, and his skill wasn’t bad either. For the first time in a very long while, it actually felt like I was fighting a proper assassin.

I ducked beneath the man’s horizontal slash, then tried to kick him in the shin, but missed.

The man sprang low into the air, rolled once, then scattered three or four hidden weapons that I hadn’t even seen him draw.

‘Well, look at this clever bastard.’

This was exactly why I hated assassins. I roughly read the intention behind the hidden weapons he’d suddenly thrown.

The hidden weapons were a feint. The attack that followed would be the killing move.

I deliberately made no large movement against the hidden weapons, merely tilting my head aside to avoid them. Sure enough, the long straight saber came hurtling toward my face with enough murderous force to pierce straight through it.

I ducked beneath the straight saber, then swung the Nameless Sword toward the man’s abdomen.

Once again, he blocked it cleanly. But hiding a killing move behind a feint was something I specialized in too.

The instant the man blocked the Nameless Sword with his straight saber……I quickly snatched one of the fallen hidden weapons from the ground, threw it at him, and retreated.

He’d probably launched plenty of attacks his opponents never expected, but apparently he didn’t have much experience being on the receiving end of one himself.

The man desperately tried to evade the hidden weapon that suddenly came flying back at him, but it still sliced his cheek.

Even so, his expression remained cold. An assassin was still an assassin. He didn’t care that his cheek had been cut and charged at me again, thrusting his straight saber with the same vicious momentum as before.

His movements definitely felt different from those of the Heavy Serpent Gang Leader, Long Serpent Gang Leader, Righteous Sword Gate Master, or Sword Hero Gate Master.

As I parried and dodged the relentless attacks filled with nothing but raw intent to kill, I felt a pleasant thrill run down my spine despite the man’s skill not being particularly high.

‘He’s pretty good.’

I neatly knocked aside the man’s attacks as he relentlessly targeted only vital points where a single sword strike could mean instant death, such as the the area beneath my nose, my eyes, and my throat.

Had he practiced assassin arts for a long time? His movements looked instinctive and intuitive, yet at the same time like something drilled into his body through brutal repetition. Either way, he was remarkably agile.

I might have been fighting casually, but the black-clad man wasn’t some completely worthless bastard either.

I deliberately glided across the rain-slick ground and thrust my sword, then anticipated the man’s counterattack and drove out my left palm, unleashing palm force.

The man had been bringing his straight saber down vertically, but he changed the trajectory of his movement and thrust out his right palm instead……and with a heavy thud, the collision of our palm forces sent both of us flying a considerable distance apart.

In that instant, as we were sent flying apart, I clearly saw the man’s single eye fixed squarely on me.

“Look at that fucking glare.”