Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

This trick was rather similar to juggling. I moved my left hand in secret while my right hand was focusing on the guest. Moreover, one couldn’t jump without making a sound unless they were accomplished in martial arts. Even the employee who was guarding the entrance of the inner area of the building didn’t realize that I’d just jumped over him.

Now, I just need to go after Marchas.

There are several doors along the passage. Which room did they enter?

I took off my hood, straining my ears to hear the conversation from the other side of the doors. Thereupon, I felt the presence of humans from a certain room.

As I got closer to the room, I could hear the conversation inside.

「Kukuku, surprised? But still, are you sure that you want to go down even if a babe is waiting for you below?」

It was Marchas’ voice.

「Don't worry. I have no idea why you’re showing me such kindness, but this’ll save a lot of my time.」

And another man’s voice thanking Marchas.

After that, I heard the sound of something moving. And then, the presence of the two men inside that room vanished.

I entered the room immediately.

At a glance, it looked like your usual warehouse. One wouldn’t be able to spot the stairs that went down to the underground.

「Suspicious. I'm sure they were right inside this room just a moment ago.」

I started looking carefully at the floor and the walls of the room. Finally, I found a cupboard which looked like it had just been moved.

「Let see.」

I found out that I could move the cupboard to the side. After that, a stairway that went down appeared from behind the cupboard.

「Well, what am I waiting for then…」

I descended the stairs to pursue Marchas.

After walking through a passage, I arrived at a spacious room. In the middle of that room, I saw the man that had escorted the Moonlight Goddess standing with Marchas.

I erased my presence, becoming one with the shadows as I observed the situation inside of the room from the entrance.

Aside from Marchas and that man, there were many other people who were wearing magician-like attire in that room.

And then, I was at a loss for words when I saw a certain figure in that room.

「No way, Ainoe… neesan.」

Ainoe-neesan was amongst the ones who were gathered inside.

But, there was something that was even more surprising than that. Right beside Ainoe-neesan stood a man with the head of a black goat.

The Satyr was talking about something with the attendant of the Moonlight Goddess, the same man who’d come with Marchas.

Suddenly, the man was wrapped up in jet-black flames. When the black flames vanished, a man donned in jet-black armor was standing there.

I heard the black Satyr call him ‘Dark Knight.’

I have no idea what was happening in this place anymore.

At that moment, a gust radiated from the Dark Knight.

「E–」

My body was frozen stiff, unable to escape the moment I was exposed to that gust. It felt like all the power from my body was being drained away and I fell to my knees.

In that moment, I had literally exposed myself to everyone in that room. I knew that since I’d become the center of attention as soon as I was visible.

When I raised my head, my gaze met Marchas’.

「Sienna…」

Marchas called out my name.

He recognized me. I couldn’t escape anymore.

I slapped my thigh and forced myself to stand back up on my feet.

My legs had yet to be able to walk normally, but it’ll be bad if I don’t escape from this place right away.

I turned around towards the stairway where I’d come from.

I noticed that something was chasing after me from behind.

Hurry up, my legs!!

I took off the robe that I’d used to hide my face to increase my running speed. After I’d returned to the first floor of the building, I headed towards the exit.

Though the female employee who saw me was really surprised, I had no time to care about that.

I pushed my way through the drunkards in the bar and left the building. Thereupon, I heard an enraged voice from inside the building.

Maybe it was a quarrel between my pursuer and the drunkards who’d crashed against them.

I gained more distance while they were still busy quarreling amongst themselves.

I’m confident in my running speed. Want to chase after me? Dream on.

I pushed my way through crowds of people. And then, as I arrived at a desolate place, the people who were wearing white masks were already standing there as if waiting for my arrival.

「No way!! When did you arrive in this place!?」

The masked man swung his sword. Fast.

I stepped back immediately to dodge the sword.

Since my opponent could move at a high speed, showing my back to him was a bad move.

The moment I made this judgement, I slipped past my opponent’s gap when he swung his sword again and sweeped his feet.

The masked man lost his balance and fell right on his face as soon as he finished swinging his sword.

I used that chance to escape from this place.

I turned around to see the situation of my pursuer a bit after I fled.

The masked man rose to his feet again as if he didn’t feel anything from that fall.

— And then I saw it.

The face that was peeking from the crack of the man’s now slightly broken mask was definitely not the face of a living person’s.

I ran.

I felt the presence of several pursuers. Their speed was abnormal. It wasn’t the speed of a human.

「Can't be helped I guess…」

I touched the curved swords that were strapped on my hips. And then, I took out a small water pouch which was filled with a drug from my pocket.

The name of the drug in this water pouch was ‘Assas.’ I would gain tremendous power for a limited amount of time once I drank this drug.

Originally, it was something that was drunk by Garmi Bears. The magician Getafix then improved it into a magical fruit juice drug. I heard that the brave Asterix could fight against powerful monsters due to the effects of this drug.

But of course, this didn’t change the fact that Assas was a dangerous drug. In exchange for great power, one would be able to control their body and would end up destroying their own physique.

But, my body had undergone training so that I could use this drug. The one who’d trained me was none other than mother. Not even father and big brother knew about this matter.

Yes, they had no idea that mother was an assassin.

The reason we were called assassins was because we use this drug called Assas as warriors who protect Ishtar-sama’s priests. Majority of Ishtar-sama’s priests contradicted the laws in many countries and weren’t protected by its laws. That’s why those priests needed the power to be able to protect themselves.

The result of that was us, the assassins.

But, our specialty doesn’t lie in combat since we aren’t originally warriors. Thus, we use this dangerous drug to boost our power.

However, the opponents of Ishtar-sama’s priests weren’t monsters; it was humans. The assassin’s job was to bury the people who dared to commit outrageous acts towards the priests of our faith into oblivious.

We used the darkness to our advantage in order to prevent the soldiers of this country from noticing our existence. Naturally, we would be arrested if we killed the people who dared to commit a sin against the priests of our faith out in the open.

Those kinds of people were marked by us to be killed later.

In this way, no one would be foolish enough to think about harming out priests again.

Since we killed people in the shroud of darkness, the others would call us shadow killers as well.

I drank the assas.

I wonder what kind of expression my brother would make if he were to know that I drank a banned drug. He would try to stop me for sure.

But, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about those matters.

Soon after, I felt that my body was overflowing with power. It was as if I could do anything.

And then, my sharpened senses told me about the situation around me. My pursuers were getting closer and closer.

I leapt up.

With my enhanced strength, I could jump over the roof of a second story build with just a single triangle jump.

But, my opponents had also jumped up to the roof after me.

Their physical strength was absurd.

They became even faster as they continued to chase after me on the roof.

Every single one of them was wearing a robe and a white mask covered their faces.

They could move without hesitation even when running on top of the unstable roof. They might even be as fast as the current me.

Each of the masked men was holding an ominous weapon in their hand. Some were holding a mace. Thus, I concluded that they were fast and powerful.

I unsheathed the twin curved swords at my waist.

「Come, let me to show you the sword dance of Ishtar-sama's follower.」

The masked men came at once.