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"There was a time when even the royal family feared my power... You probably know, right? The story that Knox Lewis and Hugo Molten could overthrow the royal family if they joined forces."
"I have heard of it."
"Perhaps that was the reason. They were determined to break either me or Hugo Molten. Those vile bastards."
Outside, the empire was constantly eyeing the kingdom.
Inside, they were trying to break someone who could have been a national hero.
"I was debating whether to storm the royal palace and turn everything upside down, or go to the Marino Empire to save my family first. That's when I was contacted by the Marino Empire. They first tried to destroy my dantian with some strange sorcery, disrupting my inner energy."
"Disrupt your inner energy? Is that even possible?"
"It is possible. In the end, about three-quarters of my inner energy was lost."
"Such a thing is possible..."
"At first, I naturally refused. I was going to kill all the guys who came to me and go save my family. But then..."
The rest was obvious without hearing it.
They must have taken his family hostage and threatened him.
"They killed my wife first."
Davian was startled and asked.
"Killed? The hostage?"
"They probably knew I wouldn't move easily. So every time I didn't move as they wanted, they killed one family member right away. If I was even a little late to the meeting place, a family member's head would be cut off. And that head was delivered straight to me."
A calm tone.
Rather than anger or pain, only a dark and deep emptiness was felt.
"I couldn't keep being victimized. I gave up my path as a swordsman, scarring my face with a thousand wounds, and became a faceless assassin, but I tried to save my family no matter what. But... in the end, the plan was exposed. On that day, all my family except my granddaughter died. It's all my fault."
He said it was his fault, but.
I couldn't feel any self-blame in Knox Lewis's tone.
He would have been as careful as possible in digging into their secrets, devised a plan that couldn't be more perfect, and carried it out with certainty.
But the result was failure.
Now, there's not even regret in his voice.
"After that, I had no choice but to follow their instructions. They were very meticulous. To make me look like an ordinary assassin, they made me accept trivial requests. Missions that had nothing to do with the Marino Empire. The first mission I received was to catch and kill a con man who ran away without paying his debts to some local lord."
To make the sword representing the western continent move by accepting a request to catch and kill a con man.
As Knox said, they were really meticulous guys.
"They decided one by one what kind of requests I would receive. The requests became more and more difficult. Ah, of course, from the perspective of a normal assassin."
"So that's how the faceless assassin's fame spread throughout the Alcancia Kingdom."
"That's right. I built up my reputation as an assassin according to their intentions for several years."
Davian couldn't help but stick out his tongue.
'Terrible bastards.'
They would have created the best assassin known to everyone in the Alcancia Kingdom under a meticulous plan.
And then, they would have planned to use him once for a big event later.
If Knox handled the job perfectly as usual, people wouldn't even know who did it.
Even if his identity was revealed during the mission, it would naturally become something committed by the faceless assassin.
It would be such an incident that everyone would have to accept, even if the client was not revealed.
'Wait...!'
The Meridiem Dukedom head assassination case.
Until Davian intervened in this playthrough, it was an unsolved case with no culprit caught.
And even in the situation where everything has gone wrong now.
The culprit is the 'faceless assassin' and the client is the 'distant family member'.
The faceless assassin is just moving according to the Marino Empire spy organization.
Diana said that she was not the first to request it, but a certain organization had approached her.
Everything was planned by the spy organization, but whether it succeeds or fails, the case is easily settled.
"All of this may have been prepared for today for a long time. To throw the most influential magic family in Alcancia into chaos and make it collapse on its own."
Knox looked at Davian.
"A smart young man."
"Are you thinking the same thing as me?"
Knox nodded.
"Even though they are enemies, how smart they are. To make the second-best swordsman in Alcancia their puppet, and then use that puppet to kill the head of the leading magic family in Alcancia. How efficient is that. If you hadn't interfered, I would have succeeded in this mission."
That's right.
In the 2nd and 3rd playthroughs, Knox successfully completed this mission neatly.
Neither the client nor even who the assassin was was revealed.
Those Marino Empire spies.
They cut off Alcancia's magic staff with Alcancia's sword without lifting a finger themselves.
Of course. It failed this time.
"The enemy is so smart and meticulous. Even now, they are breaking and disrupting the foundation of the Alcancia Kingdom here and there. The king is only worried about his own safety. It's deplorable. This war is already a victory for the Marino Empire."
"If a war were to break out later, it would have been a huge force. Old man Knox Lewis too. The Meridiem Dukedom too."
"Yes. They are tearing down our Alcancia's pillars one by one like that. But you protected one pillar. The huge pillar called the Meridiem Dukedom."
Among the pillars they are trying to dismantle.
Elton Academy must also be included.
"Well... this is the identity of the faceless assassin, which I have never told anyone until now, and the story of my life."
"Why are you revealing your identity to me, which you have never revealed to anyone?"
"Because it's all over now. I failed the mission. And now my granddaughter will die too."
Knox Lewis is a swordsman who broke through the 9-star wall.
Even if only one-quarter of his inner energy remains, it's still above 7-star.
And he has swordsmanship that cannot be measured by the standards of stars.
He even endured the combined attacks of Glasier, Davian, and Gina without even manifesting aura once.
"Even if only one-quarter of your inner energy remains, you can still cut down everyone here, including me, and run away, right?"
Knox Lewis looked at the thick stone door.
"I can. If you don't summon that spirit."
"But you don't seem to have any intention of doing that."
"The mission has already failed anyway. I'll have to apologize to my only granddaughter in hell. Since it's come to this, I don't want to taint my sword any further."
Davian nodded.
He couldn't know the breadth of this man's life and the depth of his emptiness.
His calm voice sufficiently conveyed to Davian the emotions he was currently feeling.
Knox Lewis held out one finger.
Whoong.
Vibration was felt from his finger.
Aura manifested.
Shhh.
Knox cut his right thigh lengthwise with his finger.
Davian tilted his head.
He's not someone who would do something like self-harm.
"What are you doing?"
"I have something to give you."
Knox reached into the torn thigh muscle.
After a while, he held out a neatly folded piece of paper.
Paper with protective magic cast on it to prevent it from getting wet or melting.
Knox slowly unfolded the paper dripping with blood.
The paper spread out quite widely.
Tting.
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[Item: Marino Empire Spy Organization Chart and Base Locations]
―Rarity: ★★★☆
―This is the organization chart investigated by Knox Lewis. Approximately 70% of the entire spy organization has been identified.
―Approximately 70% of the base locations have also been found.
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It's an item I've never seen before.
An item that contains the reality of the Marino Empire spy organization.
"I haven't found everything. But what's written here is the secret base locations of the Marino Empire spies."
At the place Knox pointed to, a map of the Pax continent where the Alcancia Kingdom is located and the Manum continent where the Marino Empire is located was drawn, and X marks were marked here and there.
"The detailed addresses are written below. Dozens of my close aides who followed me to the end died making this map. Originally, they were all guys who would shoulder the future of Alcancia."
Davian carefully looked at the map.
Numbers 1 through 26 were marked next to the X marks.
"This is their organization chart. They divide our Alcancia like dividing a pizza, performing their respective roles. Organizations in charge of the royal family, organizations in charge of high-ranking noble families, organizations in charge of major areas, etc. Their scale is not ordinary. In fact, they are the ones who have played the biggest role in swallowing up all the kingdoms of the Manum continent."
Davian's gaze stopped at one place on the organization chart.
Base marked as X―7.
The area that base is in charge of.
Elton City and Elton Academy.
'These bastards.'
I could even check the location of their base on the map.
One in the capital of the Alcancia Kingdom.
One in the land of the Marino Empire.
'I got something huge.'
Knox continued.
"That spirit you're with. The ice spirit Glasier, right?"
"Yes."
"You are a special boy. It looked like it was made with that black magic. Can you use magic too?"
"Well, a little."
"It'll be difficult now. But if you later have the power to beat them all, refer to this. Don't show it to anyone else before that. Not even the king."
"Are you saying that the king may have already been won over?"
"He's the king of a country, so how could that be? However, the current king, who can't see the dark clouds gathering from afar and is only worried about his immediate safety, can't be a figure who can protect Alcancia. There will already be spies or those won over by spies swarming around him."
Of course, I have no intention of taking this map and offering it to the king.
And.
I also have no intention of wiping out the spy organization marked here and saving Alcancia.
Davian's interest is only in.
Base X―7.
Only this place.
'The start of the counterattack. These spy bastards.'
Davian folded the organization chart again and put it in his pocket.
"Thank you for the organization chart and map. I think I'll be able to use them well."
"Don't overdo it too much. They're tremendous guys."
"Since you gave it to me, I'll use it as I see fit. Do you have anything you want to ask of me? Like saving your granddaughter... or taking revenge."
Knox Lewis shook his head.
"How can I ask someone else to do something I failed at? And since it's been a few days since I failed the mission, it'll be difficult for that child to be alive. It's because she met the wrong grandfather... Poor thing."
Is this detachment or exhaustion?
Knox Lewis's mental state seemed to be somewhere in between.
Knox pointed to his face.
"I've given up on revenge. If I had planned to take revenge, I would have remained Knox Lewis until the end no matter what. I'm no longer Knox Lewis. I'm just a lowly assassin who has lived to save his family. Now even that last reason to live has disappeared."
Knox Lewis slowly closed his eyes.
"Now, let me go."
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