Chapter 182: Contract (2)
dmREFThe freshman student of Merkarva Academy, Rashid Ad Din Mustali, was a descendant of the clan of assassins called Hassin. He was the son of the chief and one of the peak assassins of his generation.jgqVeqL
KMgHowever, he did not like the darkness looming inside his clan. He considered it unjust to live off of assassinations, increasing infamy by stealing other’s lives.qdJ
jFC0That was why he left.yV3
HcD2bEscaping from the lands of his ancestors, he arrived at Merkarva Academy but… in the end, the pursuers of his clan had tracked him down in a mere half a year.cnLQ
84ji『Come to the Forest of Demons on the east of the city. Otherwise, you will pay for your choice.』Q6zqple
UKbIIt was on summer holiday. Maybe it was because he had been taking too many missions to earn money to compensate for leaving the clan empty-handed.KrNb
FpVWhen he went to the client after a personally appointed quest, what he found instead of a mission was a short threat. He lamented at the fact that they had found him so soon.TJz
t6NIt was only one semester. He had been here for a very short amount of time but made many friends at the academy and became attached to the party that he had joined to hunt demonic beasts together.a4xF
mIIi3BFHe knew that his clan wouldn’t hesitate to lay their hands on them.vkN
wZF6“…You’re here.”R7B
stiThat night, as soon as he set foot in the dark world of shadows inside the forest, they appeared out of nowhere like ghosts.k38Tf
e8zdAs if they wouldn’t let him escape a second time, dozens of assassins were here as well as the chief of the clan, his father.huwQT2b
mZehnY“Father…”yLwsNZA
VADS“How pathetic. Did you really think you could live in peace after betraying the clan?”UcNY
k6os“I…”BqEt
yGTeWas the fact that he wasn’t killing him immediately a sign of his fatherly love for his son? Or was it simply because he needed a successor to the clan?Qij09z
3m5wFWhichever the case, Rashid wasn’t fond of this turn of events.56y
sltLAAT“Did you bring all the elites of the clan just to take me back?”V13
eQIi“Hmph. Don’t be full of yourself. It’s for a mission.”FGED
j67WQjR“This many assassins for a single mission?”dQAgRKa
YS3oDidn’t it cost thousands of gold to hire tens of elite assassins at once though?LXTXX4
R1YJk“It is none of your business now that you have betrayed the clan.”Lom8TV
Fio3Rashid’s father said after tossing him a scimitar.I1CxwvL
USZM“You have two choices left. Either kill yourself or return to the clan. I will forgive you if you decide to come back now.”VKHJVA
uCc“…”UiVmZ
RjZ2ShSo this is the end, huh?dLiKOPA
Gtd14Thinking that, Rashid blankly gazed at the trees above that didn’t even let him gaze at the stars beyond.LdIV
ubf『Honor. Devotion. Justice.』lVLX
r4llcbThose three words represent a knight – he had come all the way to Merkarva in pursuit of those virtues. At the Academy where he ended up, Rashid faced a huge, insurmountable wall in the Hunting Grounds prac lesson.Tgh
j0TNvwR『Not bad.』fF1I0
E5lBmHe met a 2nd year student, who perfectly saw through his stealth, and completely outclassed him from the front. Rashid was in despair, thinking how that was the standard of high-ranked knights of Markarva Academy.H5f
f90WTWhat was fortunate for him at the very least, was that that particular senior was exceptionally stronger than the rest.QFF
joyU『Since you are here anyway, aim to become a knight. Rather than a sword that kills, go for a sword that protects. That’s all knights are. If you do that, you’ll be a solid knight yourself.』L1OU
j43uIt was thanks to the encouragement of such a strong senior that Rashid was motivated to achieve his goal.DfiVTa
3bCRHe was a slightly strange person but was extremely generous and kind to the freshmen so Rashid had a good impression of him just like everyone else. Plus, hearing about the legendary epic tales Korin wrote during his first year became the standard of a true knight.mrUpz
o02lSRashid wanted to be like him.vyzq5a
O8JiOHe wanted to be a real knight just like him.ttGne0
PYTCJsFinishing his line of thought, Rashid picked up the scimitar that his father threw in front of him. It wasn’t to kill himself and instead…tyFVdlP
TIkFnl“A sword that helps and not kills. Instead of killing, I wish to focus on the path of saving people.”wrDG
hl3nIt’s to stand proud for his convictions.EufAn4P
9GsEc“You fool. You stupid fool…”auJJ0eQ
k57M6Perhaps he wasn’t as emotionally dead as Rashid had been thinking. His father closed his eyes for a bit before unsheathing his sword.4l06t
IqUSC9He knew that he couldn’t stand a chance against his father but that was fine. All that mattered was that he remained true to himself.wfC3sz
5D9LBKBHis final moments would be that of a knight instead of that of an assassin.i2SPR
yWhYIIt was a shame that no one would know about it but…0ArmnLb
69JI‘Senior Korin. Thank you very much for the short yet important lessons you have taught me.’87p
YKTSThinking back on the senior who left a memorable impact in his mind, Rashid raised his weapon and—Clbyj
tz3q–Jiing…!Zepgk
AOlEXThat was when a dimensional crack that he remembered seeing in the Hunting Grounds appeared before his eyes. Soon, a group started to walk out from the fissure.KIm
BgIZVUd“Junior Rashid. Long time no see.”fDUMFN
bAJDk“S, senior? Chairman and Senior Professor?!”19IJU5D
MoUCWearing a strange piece of cloth around his head with a weird emblem, the three of them jumped onto a tree (for some reason) and gazed down at them.Mbz4X3
Y44Eu“Oi, you folks.”KWnD
2xhAt the center of the crew was the senior whom he had been thinking about until then.a3wix
2qsn“Do you know why we are strong?”x3B
VuHgEixKorin Lork was a great senior; a respectable knight and—L6MM
oeSYX“It’s because we are Rogue Ninjas— Uhk! Professor Josephine!?”bkj5ySy
zT3gr“You’re embarrassing us so please stop doing that.”NyF2E
X6dJL4“Clara… Why are you being so mean to Korin?”9oviF
K5S7JH8“…What?”NTs
3TB071““…””wOh
kGXJX—He was a very weird person.lc3
JEt***pWGEwhq
IwcLIt didn’t take long for us to neutralize every assassin of the Hassin clan. I alone was honestly enough to deal with them, and yet Master as well as Lady Josephine, the Dimensional Witch, were here so none of them were able to escape.D4d
K09LHqFrankly speaking, it was an unlucky matchup for them.0J0t3w
FZpAdrThe chief of the assassin clan, Sinnan, was the boss of Rashid’s character scenario and was at the level of a Grade 1 Knight, and the rest were all elites at the level of Grades 2 or 3 at least.XZQxbI
v8SQ3aCThe only problem was that they were against three legendary semi-Unique Grades.X2p2
1lrSA“Fuu~. Why bother trying to run away? I’m just trying to make friends here.”kSUWXW
zmW5Throwing away the cloth around my head, I stood before the chief, Rashid’s father, and the group of captured assassins.fVWV2V
kPYQMFR“Mr. Sinnan Ib Salman Mustali. Hello, I am Rashid’s senior.”qTz4aI
rBW2“Kuhk… You brat.”njhoXt2
tYC5iV“This here is the chairman of the Academy, Miss Erin Danua, and this lady here is Senior Professor Josephine Clara. Guys, you have to say hello. We are having a parent-teacher interview right now.”FuoB
AZsiEvZ“Haa…”oXhm
fzBKyIt seemed that both Master and Lady Josephine were a bit too old to understand my humorous talks.wlC1q
RojaN7X“Let’s go straight to the topic then. Give up on Rashid. Having a meddlesome parent is not good for the child’s future, okay?”JC8EB
vXo8“I refuse…!”PyTdSc4
qCbGf“One letter from me and the elite swordsmen of the Arden Family will attack your cave. You know the Sword Master, yeah? Lunia Arden?”kMD6
wytyaMr“There is no way you know where our village is…!”9NnbgAg
gCk“Rashid. You’ll tell us right?”9HGhSHY
hOTiIihI turned to Rashid who had a blank look on his face. After looking back and forth between me and his father, he slowly gave a nod.7711V
uv7dfY“If you are going to do it, you have to do it thoroughly,” he even added.bHhuIKz
EnVCR3“All their elites are here anyway. Getting rid of an empty shell of a village is just a matter of time.”3gKKX
tJCeE“You…! How dare you do this to your village!”y9U6zEw
aIuzD“A father coming to kill his son and a son selling his father away… What a beautiful sight to behold.”sMCn
EylnRfUThis was how the character scenario of Rashid Ad Din Mustali always went. It was a very unfamillial story.rWNwSx8
6LPm4“What’s your answer?”ifJowjV
TzLa8qt“…Alright. I will let Rashid go.”nM6A
Y0K“You say that, but I don’t trust ya.”k5E
N3ZCUYou couldn’t trust a group of assassins; they certainly wouldn’t yield from just a threat.xF8L
RSYye7“Now. Time to accept your mission.”eJRojG
jcTT1oZ“Mission? Are you asking us for a mission after capturing us?”pVr0hNI
EUAY5e“I already paid the deposit, haven’t I? Enough to employ all 35 elite assassins of the clan.”Ntj
ge6u8mq“What?”uq3
DMm7N3b“What was that?”Tcy
J9zhGrBoth the father and the son widened their eyes in shock.QPL
Ozr“I paid the deposit through a secret account. Plus, I told you where your son was. Remember that?”D2HlO
sEupfuk“…”onq
WwCKXb“…”ITko
mdtpwI could hear their brains working hard to make sense of what I said. Soon, the two of them finally understood how they ended up coming here.EED
x2S1YI““You son of a bitch…!””IDE8u
V3ucgWThanks for the compliment~.HZlqoT
5ING『Rashid Ad Din Mustali』umu1
Fxu※ Difficulty: CAw7tDF
9IGGa※ Reward: Even distribution of 40 pointsMFx
LI56E0To be fair, I was just trying to save my junior ahead of time, okay?mNJSw
VVv4………eHy4u9B
3cSBNNH……qR7F
MgNP…pjaa
eQWzWhat I did wasn’t anything complex.FJWNmQQ
n1I1vI gave a large deposit through the Hassin clan’s contacts and at the same time, told them that Rashid was currently attending Merkarva Academy.H70L
3m2They were going to find out about him going to the Academy sooner or later anyway, so all I did was make that happen ahead of schedule.uv3eU9
h6dSinnan’s goal would have been to meet me for the mission and take Rashid back while he was at it. He probably also came here ahead of time to check if it was a trap but that clearly wasn’t enough.o4Vmeaj
egi“So don’t touch Rashid, and now it’s time to listen to my mission.”R7juf8W
ewl“Do you think we will listen to your—”9p8Uz
b2POy“By the way, the reward for a successful job at the mission is 4,000 gold, and a clean job at it would be 2,000 more gold.”HIJbcCd
V51R“…What is the content of this mission, Employer?”eJU2oN5
XLpjMoney.Lz8jxMu
IuwPlveMoney was the solution to many conflicts.OO14vR
o3vNaturally, I didn’t have that much money to spare but I had gotten it confirmed by Marie beforehand.TjDj
O1Q『You need a few thousand gold? Korin, you don’t have to ask me for an amount like that. I will give you a few blank cheques so use them as you see fit!』qMjmXe
uiVThis was why Marie Dunareff was the boss of the 1st Arc and not a party member. If Marie was on your team… there would have been absolutely no need for the player to go around earning money.Cyh2
IC0Renting out the infamous Hassin clan didn’t even cost as much as the amount Marie earned in a single month…y9SpOZS
0vddNpWHaa. Ah, the unfairness of life!bzFUtd
QD4Dy4“…What are you planning to do by hiring our entire clan?”Tbk
aWrd02“Well, a poisonous sword can still be used for good.”BnCZrym
WE1ZbRashid appeared to be in turmoil from his complex emotions.5A3J
n5t5Y“I don’t think hiring assassins is what a righteous knight would do.”CRovtXt
AuCQ“Technically, I didn’t hire them for assassination.”pzZ
ceCV6f“…Then what?”Dov56F
cqPerL“Just to kidnap a few people. They love to hide so it’s a bit difficult for me to go myself.”IrTljWf
MHCQNMoney, information, and justification.SHPdYs
AFnEWith all three of them in hand, there was nothing that could possibly stop me.vv3gFHv
FzzFKxK“Umm, even if it’s not assassination, isn’t kidnapping still against chivalry?”2k4
4Ozmf“You need to learn how to gloss over things! Sometimes we all need to do what we gotta do! A young man like yourself should be more flexible with these things!”M1MSlk
cXSBE“…”9U5s1M
7mF5***qla7EF
Y6IySHThe long holiday soon came to an end.lyomtT
flCr4I spent quite some time throwing the baits around, so all I had to do now was wait until the Union at Dana Shee reached out to me.dqT
z7L2wThe question was how fast Miruam would start making her moves and… things were so different from the last iteration, that I couldn’t say for sure how everything was going to go.13C
3zVCdIn any case, I had set my preparations in case things were to happen any time soon. The only thing left for me to do was…vtwv
EQMM3B“K, Korin… It’s my first time seeing something like this.”88mIt
1Ep7GI“Fuu… Am I trembling right now?”6JyHz
CaS“Hehe…”BDfbBCu
79bMarie and I couldn’t hide our bliss at the face of the miracle in front of our eyes.Lmucxt
X32XRH『Korean Ginseng』V4IDJw
7lL7RIt was one of the elixirs I farmed at the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ during the war against the Tower of Mages. Most of the elixirs I gave already to the girls, but this was something I had to take for myself.AfUx
hZC2arKThe 10,000-year-old ginseng, with a very very low drop chance in the repeat quest of the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ – was a 10,000-year-old herb which even the gods would cherish as a treasure.qDeyPM
jdGra“K, Korin… Are you really going to eat this? Shouldn’t we… leave this for generations to come?”lljBX
QDICSThe graceful beauty of the Korean Ginseng contained a miraculous aura that even flustered Marie, the imperial princess of the Potato Empire. Anyone could see just how much of a treasure this was.NRk8g
pEf48“Senior. There’s a saying that things can become useless if you do nothing but save it for the future.”S9z
L2ZNfH“Ugh. It’ll be good for you so… I will try to make it.”uolOLnB
VRf“Ah, sorry I think you misunderstood something. We need someone else’s help to refine this herb.”BtvK
UCACzo“Huh? Ah…! So that’s why you wanted me to call Daesik!”ubkf
biY1MCE“Exactly.”FjzSkVf
VcrSMarie immediately pulled out a ghoul from her shadow.vrH
ej36O“Huahk…! W, where is this?”aOkLBq1
8CQ1An old mage with green hair and a braided beard sprouted out of her shadow. He was one of the elders who used to reign supreme at the Tower of Mages, but now he was nothing but one of the many dirty prisoners.RYUU7S
dp37“Elder Dreryan… I mean, Mr. Daesik. Long time no see.”ByQX5zv
294“Y, you are that bastard…!”lRU0J
EoAIDaesik, the previous elder of the Green Cult, shouted out loud while pointing his finger at me. He then unconsciously turned around to find Marie, before immediately getting on his knees in fright.6HxdeH
j1JJirZ“M, Master…!”61VAn5
MjWbx“Hello Daesik.”59USmu
6q05cwWe captured more than 400 mages from the Tower as our captives. Most of them were turned into ghouls and were sent to the salt mines for punishment as Marie’s slaves.BSuEmyq
e4XSome of the government officials were against us taking so many mages for ourselves, but the royal court had permitted an unlimited plunder of the Tower of Mages to save the Saintess and had no justification to stop us.7WbZ1
x8D1i7D“Mr. Daesik? Do you know what this is?”dIzi2K5
3nXfs“W, wait! That’s…!”ygpbJaJ
b5tejPHis eyes, which had already been in circles, widened so much that his eyeballs might pop out of his eyes.hDuJ
ObtAEThat might be nothing unusual because the Korean Ginseng was a heavenly treasure that he barely managed to bring in by using 10 years’ worth of the Green Cult’s annual budget. He even took care of it personally and used a Unique Grade demonic spirit as its guardian, which proved just how invested he was in this treasure.GGZA
8NWljOf course, a spirit couldn’t do anything to me so it was the easiest farm of my life.hykZCi
xSmRz“H, how is this in your hands…!?”dfK1gGy
mklg6kJ“Daesik? That’s not a very polite way to ask a question, is it?”cuWmJwm
wVFlG“Huikk…! M, my apologies, Master!”EgYUy3
QjiSvHe immediately got onto the floor on his knees. What in the world did he go through to be like this?2UwH
zQB“Anyway, you need to refine these into an elixir for us. I can tell you the recipe so all you have to do is follow it through.”OYz6Z2x
yqz“A, ahhh…”WOFDW
2g9OKDDaesik, who used to treasure the herbs of the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ appeared like a soulless corpse.t7LPqB
UNnAThis wasn’t good! If he was this blank-minded, he might make mistakes in the process so I decided to cheer him up.ri0w
B2jtt“Mr. Daesik. You’re not thinking that this was the only herb I picked up from the ❰Prohibited Forest❱ right? I also picked up Jade Honey, Azerite Water, and…”l5W
xfN“Grrkk…!”NNl9TuU
tRGHis previously blank eyes regained their light as he glared daggers at me. This time, his eyes were burning in flames of hatred and fury.YdW4EN
0Y47pRight. Anger! Anger is a good driving force. Light your body up with that fury, o avenger!uVvu
8Tw“Daesik.”JFV
EWsXI threw more firewood into his burning flame of hatred.xA9rB
of9xK“Thanks for looking after my herbs.”CyZerp
sXE“Kuhak…!”MsWKKR
9QFFkJHe threw up blood and fell on the spot.1RprNm8
4SI8Z9yUmm… maybe that was a bit over the top?XxgQIJH
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HaydenZeMan
VIP Qi RefinementI’m very glad Korin is a MC capable of enough evil to do true good, much more interesting to read about than a goody two-shoes that can do no wrong