Master Assassin of the Ronan

Chapter 47: Fiery Jade Stone (3)

The next day.

Tina prepared to leave for the Gillifield Arboretum immediately.

Actually, there wasn’t much to prepare.

All she needed was a pouch that she could easily carry even in her Roincrow form, and once she put the Fiery Jade Stone inside, she was ready to go.

“So, we’ll meet at the Tollois Auction?”

A quiet clearing.

Rubin’s carriage was parked there, and Tina, in her Roincrow form, chirped confidently as she shook her beak around.

“After planting it, make sure to check. Pull on the Fiery Jade Stone to see if it won’t come out easily. That means it’s been planted securely.”

“Don’t worry about it! That’s simple enough!”

“…Will it really be alright, Young Master?”

Kuze asked, looking worried.

His words hinted at the unease of letting Tina, a Blood-Transformation Tribe, go off alone like this.

In other words, he was questioning whether Tina could truly be trusted.

Rubin understood his meaning clearly, but Tina mistakenly thought it was concern for her safety.

“Hey, Kuze! It’s nice of you to worry about me, but if even you keep looking down on me, I’m going to be hurt, you know?”

“……”

“Do you have any idea how safe it is to travel by air? Unless we’re dealing with persistent bastards like the Execution Unit, it’s no problem.”

That was indeed true.

Apart from Granbird, there were no monsters in the sky that could pose a threat to a Roincrow.

The Dark Ripple that Roincrows possessed created a vast chain-like connection with others of their kind, which often led other creatures to avoid them instead.

“Tina, stop stalling and set off. Move quickly if you want to return on time. Once you enter the Tollois Auction, follow the plan I gave you.”

Instead of replying, Tina flapped her large wings in a gesture like a salute. Then, with a powerful beat of her wings, she rose into the air.

Soon, she became a small dot and disappeared into the clouds.

“Let’s head out as well.”

“Are you really planning to go to Tollois?”

Kuze asked, as if something had crossed his mind, and continued speaking.

“If our final destination is the Tollois Auction, we’ll need an admission ticket first. The type of ticket changes with the season, so during this time of year…”

“This time, it’s troll blood.”

Since that was precisely what he’d been about to say, Kuze nodded in slight surprise.

‘Does the main family teach about the Tollois Auction too?’

Such a thought crossed his mind. But on second thought, it made sense.

‘Well, it’s one of the most renowned auction houses on the continent. It’s not surprising the Young Master would know about it. After all, he used to spend a lot of time in the library—he might have read about it there.’

The Tollois Auction was unlike any other auction house.

While most cities that thrived commercially established auction houses, this case was the reverse.

The city had developed around the auction house.

Even after the Lillic Empire was established, the Tollois Auction remained intact.

The Imperial Family permitted the auction house to operate in the traditional manner it had maintained since the Age of Turmoil.

Of course, a portion of the auction’s profits had to be donated to the Empire, but that was unavoidable.

“So we’ll need to hunt a troll. There’s a monster habitat nearby, and the trolls will start moving after nightfall.”

Kuze spread out a map as he spoke. Rubin nodded and boarded the carriage.

“We’ll be on our way, Young Master.”

“Yes.”

The carriage began moving with a soft clatter.

After about an hour passed.

Under the bright sunlight streaming in, Rubin was reading a book when the small window between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s compartment opened cautiously.

“Young Master.”

“Hm?”

“Do you think Miss Tina will really return to the Tollois Auction? I know she loves jewels, but still…”

Rubin closed the book he’d been reading with a snap.

Kuze’s distrust and anxiety toward Tina—it wasn’t hard to understand where his worries came from.

After all, she was a Blood-Transformation Tribe. And being sent off on her own would only increase Kuze’s unease.

“If Tina were going to run away, she would’ve done so a long time ago.”

“Pardon?”

“Tina has had her freedom at the Gillifield Arboretum for the past two years.”

Though Rubin could recognize her Blood-Transformation Tribe transformation through Haneke’s Eye, it wasn’t a shackle around her neck.

If anything, what bound her was the promise she’d made with Rubin.

A promise that he would come find her after two years.

For Tina, trust was like a powerful, rushing river. Once you fell into it, it was hard to escape.

She was the type who, once immersed in that current, would do whatever it took to hold onto that trust.

She was not someone who would betray Rubin.

‘However.’

Rubin’s gaze turned to Kuze. Kuze was of a different nature.

The way to earn his loyalty would be completely different from Tina’s.

‘I’ll have to reveal my plan. That’s the only way to secure Kuze’s loyalty.’

It was just as well.

The trolls in this area, due to their habits, wouldn’t start moving until after midnight, giving him time to talk until then.

* * *

Late at night.

“There seems to be a troll habitat nearby.”

After hiding the carriage in the underbrush, they’d been trudging through the jungle for about an hour.

As they pushed through the dense foliage, Rubin and Kuze came across signs of trolls. The trampled brush and the lingering scent marked the trolls’ passage.

However, the creatures wouldn’t gather until after midnight.

“Kuze, let’s build a campfire and wait.”

“Yes, I’ll prepare it immediately.”

Starting a fire in the middle of the jungle might attract the attention of monsters or predators, but there was no need for the two of them to worry.

The expansive Dark Ripple they’d spread around acted as a territory marker.

Weak creatures without a strong drive to attack would be unaware of its presence and wander within its bounds, but monsters were different.

Monsters, sensing the boundary of Dark Ripple, would be overcome with an instinctive fear and avoid approaching.

“……”

Crackle, crackle.

The firewood burned, casting their faces in a reddish glow.

As Rubin quietly watched the flames, Kuze cleared his throat to start a conversation.

“Young Master. This might just be a needless concern, but…”

Kuze probably felt he had to bring it up.

All Rubin could do was ease his hesitation.

“Speak freely, Kuze.”

“It’s about Miss Tina.”

It was about Tina again, as expected.

“I know that your decision to choose a Blood-Transformation Tribe as a Roincrow wasn’t made lightly… but even so, I can’t quite understand it. To be honest, I’m deeply concerned.”

Rubin held a stick and stirred the firewood in front of him. Sparks rose into the air and quickly faded.

“I know what worries you. It’s because the person who exterminated the Blood-Transformation Tribe was none other than the Emperor, isn’t it?”

Kuze hesitated before nodding.

“If the Assassin Blade Family were not only sheltering a Blood-Transformation Tribe but also training one as an assassin….”

“Then the Emperor would feel betrayed?”

“Betrayal, yes… something like that…”

Rubin shook his head quietly.

“Kuze, the Emperor doesn’t trust the Assassin Blade Family. So he wouldn’t feel any sense of betrayal.”

“Pardon?”

Kuze looked at him, doubting his ears, and asked again.

“The future the Emperor envisions has no place for the Assassin Blade Family. I’m certain of it.”

At that moment, Kuze sensed the anger in Rubin’s words.

Could this be the fury of an eleven-year-old?

It seemed like a flame that had burned so intensely it had become nothing but embers.

“Kuze.”

The soft voice fell over the crackling fire.

Rubin wanted to reveal everything—the fall of the Assassin Blade Family, his own death, the purpose he’d gained through his rebirth.

But now wasn’t the time.

One day, there would come a time when he could tell everything to Kuze and Tina.

But for now, he understood the value of this conversation clearly.

It was about winning Kuze’s heart.

“Let me be clear. I am not an assassin loyal to the Emperor. Never have been, from the day I was born, and I never will be.”

To be exact, not since the day he was ‘reborn.’

The conversation, which had started with Kuze’s worries about Tina, had now taken an unexpected turn, leaving Kuze bewildered.

An unsettling, rebellious ambition directed at the Emperor!

Of course, not all assassins were loyal to the Emperor.

The loyalty of assassins and branch families lay with the Assassin Blade Family and the Dark Ripple itself. At most, they revered their ‘roots.’

But none of them openly harbored disloyalty toward the Emperor.

Especially not someone like Rubin, the youngest of the Ronan bloodline, who should be the last person to reveal such thoughts.

Then, Rubin’s voice sounded again.

“I’m going to become the Head of the Family, Kuze.”

The head of the Assassin Blade Family. It was an ambition that any child of the Ronan lineage could have.

As the main family’s bloodline, it was a natural aspiration. But the words that followed were not.

“My sole purpose in becoming the head of the Assassin Blade Family is to sever the ties between the family and the Emperor.”

“……!”

Kuze was left speechless.

The Assassin Blade Family had been part of the Empire for over two hundred years.

For the past fifty years, mixed marriages between the Imperial Family and the Assassin Blade Family had made the relationship even more complex and intertwined.

The fact that Emperor Telmach and the current Ronan Family Head were half-siblings demonstrated this.

Only a select few knew this secret, so Kuze hadn’t considered it.

But even without that knowledge, Rubin’s words alone were enough to shock him. There was only one implication to Rubin’s vision of the future.

He intended to become a traitor.

“Now you understand why I chose Tina as a Roincrow, don’t you?”

“And… you chose me as a Ronenser… does that mean…?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? The unique way you wield Dark Ripple, the technique you’ve created—I’ll help you perfect it. Your technique will become the weapon of every assassin.”

And one more thing.

“It will be a weapon aimed at the Emperor.”

Crackle, crackle.

The sound of the campfire lightly echoed over the brief silence between the two.

In Kuze’s mind, memories of the miserable life he’d led before being chosen as Rubin’s Ronenser began to resurface.

The humiliating days spent as a retainer of the Krokisson family.

All the moments of contempt he’d endured.

Kuze’s unique talent hadn’t been recognized; it had only made him an object of ridicule. It wasn’t hard to recall each of those scornful days that had dragged on endlessly.

Back then, his only goal had been to escape that hell.

But now?

Now, what was he living for?

“Kuze. If you’re afraid of the Emperor, you’re free to leave me. I won’t stop you. In fact, I’ll gladly help you find a new path. If you want, you can even be released from your duties as a Ronenser…”

“No, Young Master.”

Kuze’s eyes had changed.

His previously mixed emotions of doubt and concern for Rubin had now settled.

What remained in his gaze was the confidence inspired by a master who recognized his abilities.

For assassins like Kuze, who had Dark Ripple artificially implanted, their fate was simple.

From the moment they were bound to the Assassin Blade Family, they were no longer citizens of the Empire but retainers of the Assassin Blade Family.

That was their entire identity.

“It seems I was worrying over nothing.”

Rubin nodded lightly.

There was no need for an oath of loyalty or any kind of ceremonial gesture.

Just as he needed Kuze, Kuze also needed him, and they both understood that.

Only now, their trust had deepened.

“If you ever feel uncertain about me, just say so. I mean it.”

Kuze’s expression relaxed.

Instead of replying, he picked up a stick and found a spot on the ground where the firelight shone brightly. Soon, he began drawing lines and shapes on the ground.

“Well then—”

“Have you thought of a new theory?”

Kuze began scrawling a series of equations on the ground, seemingly chaotic, but Rubin’s face lit up with a rare smile.

“It’s one of the many theories I’ve developed…”

It was time for Kuze to fully express his passion.

Come to think of it, ever since they left the Ronan estate, the series of chaotic events had prevented Kuze from presenting his ideas on Dark Ripple.

“First, take the Dark Ripple and set it as a circular boundary on the ground…”

“This next part is critical. If we could reshape the Dark Ripple into a hemispherical shield centered around you, Young Master…”

“Finally, to keep the hemispherical Dark Ripple stable, I estimate we’d need a certain density of…”

By the campfire.

A quiet conversation unfolded between a man creating a new way to wield Dark Ripple and the boy with the ability to make it a reality.

Rubin etched each of Kuze’s hypotheses and theories into his mind with a sincere focus.

In that moment, they were not simply a young master and his Ronenser but comrades, true allies.