Human Assassin

He could see it.
Something was inside the man’s chest, gripping his heart as if it were clenching it. Solomon could sense it clearly, like he was looking straight into his chest through an X-ray.

The「Word of God (Logos)」, alive and breathing, using the man’s heart as its host.

At a glance, it looked like a hook lodged in the heart. Then it became a thorn. Then a hand squeezing the heart. And at times, it became a wriggling bug, like a parasite using the heart as its host.
As if the concept of the incomprehensible had been given a shape. Even so, he knew.

「I cannot rest now and must go on, but you shall go on until the last day.」

That was the word of god keeping the man from dying. Solomon readjusted his grip on the hilt.
He didn’t hesitate. What he had to aim for was clear. So Solomon drove the blade tip in again, to the exact same spot he had stabbed toward the heart before─.
As the human assassin, the last Magus offering the gift of myrrh.

「I c■ ■t r■st n■w a■d m■st g■ o■, b■t y■u sh■ll g■ o■ u■t■l th■ l■st d■y.」

Kwajik!
The blade tip went in, and the chest tore. Even so, what flowed out wasn’t blood. It wasn’t those memories of death from before, either.

“!”

─It was light.
Radiance surged beyond the wound like a dawn sun. It wasn’t the kind of light House Arrowhead revered. It was different. Something holier, overflowing with divinity.

「I c■ ■t r■st n■w a■d m■st g■ o■, b■t y■u sh■ll g■ o■ u■t■l th■ l■st d■y.」
「I c■ ■t r■■■ n■w a■■ m■st g■ o■, b■t y■u sh■ll g■ o■ u■t■l t■■ l■st ■■y.」

Even then, Solomon stared at the word of god with eyes shining like obsidian, and kept driving the blade tip in.
To kill the word of god, Logos.
「I c■ ■■ r■■ n■w a■■ m■■t g■ ■■, b■t y■■ sh■■l g■ o■ u■t■l t■■ l■st ■■y.」

Solomon didn’t let go of the hilt. He didn’t care about the light pouring from the man’s wound. Even when it turned into blazing flames and roared like it would burn him alive, he didn’t back off.

「I c■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■ a■■ ■■■■ ■■ ■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■h■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■■ l■■t ■■y.」

The light thrashed violently. Like a creature instinctively refusing to die, like a parasite writhing and resisting as it’s pulled out.
As if it were refusing death.

‘……!’

「■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■ ■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■h■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■■ l■■t ■■y.」

It was so bright he couldn’t open his eyes. It felt like his whole body was burning. The light thrashed like a living creature in a final desperate struggle. But little by little, very little by very little, its resistance began to weaken.

「■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■ ■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■■.」

At the end of its resistance, the surging light died down.

“Kulreok……!”

Walgak!
Next─blood burst out.
Red human blood.

“Keoheok……!”

From the Undying’s mouth, from the wound, proof finally overflowed. Proof that a human’s vital point had been pierced, proof of a fatal wound.

“H─How…….”
“Because I took a commission to kill you.”

Solomon answered calmly. The man’s eyes widened in pain and shock, then he let out a hollow laugh with an expression calmer than ever. Truly calm. It wasn’t the face he had worn when facing death countless times.

“Your name…….”

After laughing, he forced the words out.

“Lastly, I want to ask your name.”

In a life burning away, a final question.

“The name of the one who finally allowed me peace…….”
“Solomon.”
“─.”

Solomon answered. At that, the man quietly swallowed again.

“Ah, Your Majesty…….”

The man spoke one last time, forcing it out like he was squeezing out his final strength. Next, it was Solomon’s turn to be thrown off. Your Majesty?
Even so, Solomon’s question was never answered.

“……”

The man closed his eyes, calmer than ever. A smile lingered at the corners of his mouth. With that sight before him, Solomon couldn’t say a word. He could only stay silent.

‘Remember death.’

What the man had repeated endlessly wasn’t death. A “death” that never reaches death isn’t death in the first place. What he had “remembered” wasn’t death. It was only pain.
Endless pain. That was why this silence would become the first death the man ever experienced.

Then a question rose unbidden. In this world, death wouldn’t be the end. The dead wander. Mediums exist. Evil spirits exist. Wasn’t House Haunting’s epithet ‘Spirit Binder’ to begin with.

Even so, Solomon was sure the death the man had met would not lead to such an easy-to-grasp afterlife.

Either way, Solomon didn’t care.

‘The narrator’s quiet.’

It was strange. He killed the Undying and finished the commission, but the usual nonsense chatter wasn’t there. No snide remarks about what he did. No talk of leveling up, or gaining something.

‘No, what am I even missing right now…….’

The fact that he found it strange not to hear that unknown narration in his head made him feel a fair amount of self-disgust.
Either way, Solomon respectfully laid the corpse of the 「dead man」 on the floor. Then he stood up. The commission was over. He had killed the Undying. All that remained was to return safely.

‘Safely, yeah.’

Solomon turned his back on the corpse and left the room. He left that place in endless darkness, where the record of the Undying’s endless ‘deaths’ had been preserved.

“!”

Then something astonishing happened. The portraits lining both sides of the corridor were empty. ─Strictly speaking, the scenery was still there, but the figure that should have been inside was gone. As if no one had ever been there from the start.

Where someone should have been hanging. Where the gallows blade should have fallen…… none of the portraits were an exception. As if no one had existed there, they only showed the scenery beyond.

“……”

Solomon crossed that scene without a word and went back up the corridor. He didn’t have time to linger in it yet.

‘Are they really going to let this end quietly.’

Because what awaited ahead was House Arrowhead’s monster and maze.
Up through the passage of nothing but darkness, Solomon walked toward the mansion’s ground level, where blinding light poured down.
Light bounced off mirrors and chandeliers spread everywhere. A corridor of light stretching without end. An optical labyrinth.
Rosetta, who should have been waiting for Solomon there, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Fuck, I knew it.’

Solomon wasn’t surprised. He tightened his guard again. From the look of it, they had no intention of letting him go quietly. Or maybe it was an easy-to-read move, silencing him now that the job was done.

Solomon crossed the labyrinth of dancing light in silence. That was when it happened.

[Intruder detected, intruder detected.]

“What?!”

An absurdly bewildering alarm rang out.

“Hehe, don’t be too afraid.”
“Rosetta!”

Then he heard her voice.

“What kind of bullshit is this?”
“A very small girl’s whim. Or should I call it a shy lady’s courtship……?”
“Fuck off.”

He could hear her voice, but he couldn’t see her. It sounded close, right beside him, but no matter how sharply Solomon honed his senses, he couldn’t detect her.

“Besides, I wanted to show you ‘the beauty of light’ too.”
“What, do you think I’m some kid of darkness or something?”
“Oh my, are you not?”
“……”

Come to think of it, it was hard to deny.

“This girl simply wants to know.”

Even then, Rosetta, the head of House Arrowhead…… or one of her many spectral splits, continued calmly.

“How that blade that kills even the word of god will cut through our house’s light.”

Along with that, the emotionless system’s monologue rang out.

“For the sake of the future, and as the Patriarch who protects the 「Ancient Council」 and represents the Five Great Houses, I have a duty to know.”
“……”
“Please, cut down whatever stands in your way with that blade.”

[Per intruder response regulations, Protocol: White Night will now activate.]

Protocol: White Night. With that chilling name, the already-bright mirrors and light, the optical labyrinth, openly took on killing intent. Cheolkeokcheolkeok, kkirik, springs and gears meshing, ringing out from everywhere.

“No, I can’t.”

Solomon muttered in disbelief, ignoring the noise.

“I’m not some Sword Master. How am I supposed to cut light? Do you think my blade’s some magic cutter that slices whatever it touches?”

Whether Rosetta understood was beside it. Solomon hadn’t said it for her to understand, either. Even so, Protocol: White Night finally began to reveal itself.

“!”

The mansion’s chandeliers poured out pure-white light more dazzlingly than ever. It wasn’t ordinary light.
The jewels hanging from those chandeliers stretched out straight lines of pure-white radiance.

Javelins of light fired with clear killing intent. The beam barely grazed Solomon’s cheek, leaving a scrape, and in that instant he realized.

Why this mansion was made of mirrors─.

Taang!
The beams ricocheted off the mirrors and spread a death shroud like a net, with no way out. Pure-white blades that cut anything they touched.

“Fuck!”

Solomon didn’t even have time to recall the mansion’s layout. He just ran, dodging the net of light tightening into an encirclement behind him. He fled desperately. The moment it hit him, his body would be carved into pretty star-shaped pieces without a chance to resist.

That was when it happened.

“Ah.”

Even though he should have been running without looking back, something blocked Solomon’s path.
A silhouette of light, wings spread wide.

There was none of the holiness Solomon had experienced before. Only an essence forged by House Arrowhead’s engineering. A creature of light imitating a divine messenger spread its wings of light wide and turned toward Solomon.

Chwaaak!
Along with the beams stretching out from those wings.

Unavoidable beams of slaughter bounced off mirrors and pressed Solomon in.

“What, are these sword-blocking mirrors?”

Kaaang!
Right after, Solomon muttered in disbelief as he drove his blade down toward a mirror.

Chiiik!
In that brief opening, another laser spilled out from the wings and ricocheted, piercing Solomon’s shoulder. With no room to dodge, a swath of nothingness spread where it grazed.

“Fuck!”

Spitting a curse, Solomon triggered spells again.

‘, !’

He considered using , but it was meaningless here. He clearly remembered the first House Arrowhead mage seeing through it and dispelling it. And here? It would be no different from throwing away a level 2 spell slot into the trash.

So there was only one thing to do, accelerate Solomon’s body.

Between beams surging up from every direction again, Solomon’s accelerated body sprinted. He might have hoped invisibility itself would help, but in this area, ‘not being seen’ was less useful than expected. That was when it happened.

Tuk.
A drop of blood fell. It wasn’t the blood flowing from Solomon’s shoulder.

Along the stealth coat triggering , a drop of blood slid down from the hem.
Only then did he realize it. The ‘small help’ Chairman Vlad Țepeș had given him earlier.

Chwaaak!
What fell was only a single drop of blood. But the moment it landed on the mirrored floor, it was no longer a drop of blood.

The world turned blood-red─. So the light that should have reflected and bounced off mirrors lost its destination and was swallowed as-is, into the sea of blood filling the mansion.

“Hoohoo, Chairman was right.”

On that blood-red sea, blood wriggled and surged up like a living creature. It rose up─then formed the shape of a small girl.
Chabak, chabak. Stepping elegantly with her shoes atop the puddles of blood beneath her feet.

“You…….”

She was the vampire girl he had seen during that Ripper commission.
A blood-red gothic dress. Red waves of hair trailing down to her feet. Lips that stood out vividly red against skin pale and cold like a corpse.
And fangs that scattered a cold edge between them.

“I’m Iliya.”
“To think the small help really is small.”

Solomon said it like it was someone else’s business, looking down at the vampire girl. At that, the small vampire girl, Iliya, puffed out her cheeks and snapped.

“Don’t call me small!”