Assassin vs. Assassin

After leaving Yohane's room, Finn landed on the ground without a sound.

Even if someone had been standing right there, they wouldn't have noticed her drop.

She scanned the area, confirmed no one was watching, and quickly changed her outfit.

She dressed casually, like any girl her age.

She tinted her distinctive black hair brown with a special powder and parted it in a seven-three split.

Lastly, she swapped her conspicuous black shoes, and in the blink of an eye she was a different person entirely.

If Azu or Yohane passed her on the street, they'd never know it was Finn.

"Actually, he's sharp enough that even this level of disguise might not fool him."

As you'd expect from a merchant, Yohane's eye for appraisal was the real deal, from what she'd observed.

Especially when he wore that monocle. His focus was something else.

A thorough disguise would be a different story, but a quick one like this? He might see through it.

She'd have to test it sometime. If he couldn't tell, messing with him would be fun.

At first, she'd thought of him as nothing more than a good source of money.

But she'd come to accept that he was worth trusting, at least to a degree.

As a partner, he was ideal.

Above all, he didn't look down on her just because she was younger.

He recognized her abilities and offered compensation to match.

She'd never had a business relationship like that before.

She'd heard Elza say he was sweet like a saint. She agreed.

Someday, that would come back to bite him.

But not while Finn was around.

She'd stick with him a while longer. That was how she felt.

"Still, is that girl just… unlucky by nature?"

She muttered to herself. No one was listening.

Azu. A slave girl bought to be an adventurer.

The first time Finn had met her, she'd been a timid little thing whose face seemed made for crying.

But through her experiences as an adventurer, she'd started to look more like a proper fighter.

Aside from that, though, she had a knack, for better or worse, for attracting things.

At this point, you could say trouble was fond of her.

The training Finn had given her had been enough to pull through this time, but maybe she should push her harder. She mulled it over as she walked.

She played the part of an ordinary girl, casually checking her surroundings as she moved.

Based on Azu's account, the intruder was likely a fellow professional, a member of the Assassin Guild.

Beyond that, she hadn't gleaned much.

She'd have to reason it out from the circumstances.

As she'd told Azu, the intruder was bottom of the barrel, without a doubt.

Right now, nearly every assassin of any renown had left for the Empire.

The power struggles among the Empire's ruling class had intensified, and the demand for underworld services had surged along with it.

Her own faction had, unfortunately, made a critical misstep in its maneuvering and been forced to withdraw from the conflict.

A lesson in choosing the wrong side.

She'd been badly wounded dealing with the pursuers sent after her, but Yohane's potions had healed her without leaving a scar.

The factions and powers that lacked clout weren't involved in the first place.

That meant any assassin operating in the Kingdom right now was second-rate at best. Third-rate or below at worst.

The proof was right there: the intruder had failed to finish off Azu, who had little experience fighting people, and been forced to flee.

Against someone of that caliber, they were nothing more than prey to Finn.

(Found one.)

Walking along the road, she spotted a fellow professional.

He hadn't noticed her.

His disguise was minimal. His gait was nothing like a civilian's.

(So they did come. I'll let him run and see what I can learn.)

She passed the man at a leisurely pace.

Then she ducked into an alley, changed her appearance, and emerged to tail him.

He appeared to be searching for someone.

Azu and the siblings, no doubt.

Good thing she'd warned them not to show their faces outside.

After wandering for a while, the man moved toward a less populated area.

She stayed on him.

The south side of Kassad. The city's administration had been cleaning it up, and it was no longer quite the slum it once was, but it remained deserted.

Following him further would make her stand out.

She undid her disguise, reverting to her usual black hair and black clothes, then kept to the shadows to see where he was headed.

Eventually he arrived at a tavern and went inside.

The sign on the door read PREPARING.

She hid in a blind spot and watched. Several more people entered the tavern.

All assassins. She was certain.

That tavern was their base of operations in Kassad.

Now she needed to verify.

Hitting the wrong target would just mean double the work.

She waited patiently for nightfall.

Black hair and black clothes came into their own after dark.

But it wasn't by choice that she'd ended up this way, so being called an assassin never sat quite right.

On top of her natural night vision, she'd kept one eye shut all day to pre-adjust it to the dark.

Even in blackness so complete you couldn't see your own feet, she could operate without issue.

The tavern still displayed its PREPARING sign, but she could sense people inside.

Both the windows and the entrance were locked, so she cut a neat circle in the westernmost window and slipped inside.

Just as she'd expected: a storeroom.

She moved silently, easing the door open.

Right on cue, someone came walking her way.

She released the door and drew silently back.

One man.

"Was this open?"

The man eyed the slightly ajar door with suspicion and reached for the handle to pull it wide.

The door swung open.

He leaned partway into the room, looking around.

The room was pitch black. He couldn't see a thing.

The man raised a lantern to illuminate the space.

"Nothing here. Must've forgotten to close it. What a pain, having to gather like this."

Saying that, the man pulled the lantern back and turned his back on the room.

In that instant, she dropped from the ceiling where she'd been clinging, landed behind him, kicked the back of his knee to buckle his stance, and clamped down on his carotid artery.

The sequence was flawless.

The man, supposedly trained as an assassin, lost consciousness in under five seconds.

"Not nearly careful enough. Fail."

She gave her assessment, then searched his belongings.

She found what she was looking for.

A faction tag. It bore the insignia of a black hood with three eyes.

"Partilgar. If it's them, being mixed up in narcotics is par for the course."

She recognized them.

The man also had a sketch of Kazusa on him.

It was marked ALIVE OR DEAD, JUST THE HEAD WILL DO IF NECESSARY.

So. Definitely the enemy.

She crumpled the sketch in her fist and tossed it aside.

"Well then. Work, work."

She bound the man and left him where he lay.

No killing this time.

She had no way to dispose of a pile of bodies.

If the lord or someone like that caught wind of it, the existence of assassins would be dragged into the open.

And then she'd end up with a bounty on her head.

They'd come for her.

So instead, she'd go after the employer.