Book 5: Chapter 22: First Confrontation
I inspected the soldier and discovered that he was just unconscious.
There was a silver needle inserted into his nape. From the looks of the technique, it should be an anesthetic-covered silver needle shot out from the dark. After hitting its target, the soldier collapsed in sleepiness. Just as he was about to fall, the assassin must have quickly rushed over to stabilize him, cut off the thread on his fingers, and attacked it to the guardrail at around the same height as the soldier’s arm.
The entire motion should have been done in one go whilst completely noiseless, to the point that even the thread didn’t so much as tremble.
This practiced technique, it’s you! Edogawa——
Cough cough, now’s not the time to let my imagination run wild.
Not long after I stopped over at the scene, a sudden uproar from the distance came through. I heard a man’s excited voice:
“Come quick, come quick! Someone’s fallen into the trap!”
Immediately, a ton of people holding torches went forth. I didn’t join in on the fun, but rather circled around in the surroundings. The environment around was filled with houses due to it once being a residential area, but due to the granary opening up, all of the people living nearby moved out. However, some daily live goods were still left behind, such as the firewood pile that Heji was hiding in. Then, there’s also this iron bucket by this person’s doorway.
I picked up the iron bucket and discovered that it was already a little rusty, but it wasn’t too much of an influence in terms of use. I drew half a bucket of water from the water well nearby, then casually walked around with the bucket in hand without getting discovered.
The majority of the crowd had already surrounded the trap. Someone held up his torch and suddenly shouted:
“Not right, not right! Isn’t this Nage! It’s one of our people! Our man fell into the trap!”
“Quickly pull him up!”
“We should return and go back to standing guard……”
“First help us! Who knows if Nage is okay!”
“Don’t be stunned, go and inform sir Bai Huang! Tell her that the assassin has come, we must all be on guard!”
All these voices created a chaotic hubbub.
While countless people were running around, a short statured person overtly passed by and walked towards the granary.
The crowd was rushing all over the place, so naturally there wasn’t anyone who noticed a person with both hands in her pockets. After all, she was wearing a soldier’s clothes that she had obtained from who knows where. In a situation where the surroundings were basically pitch-black and there was only a bit of light, she perfectly integrated into the scene without the slightest bit of inconsistency.
But in the end, there were soldiers who discovered her.
Two patrol members hidden in the bushes clearly saw this person going in a direction that she shouldn’t have been going. So suddenly, they drilled their way out of the bushes, held up their torches, and sharply cried out:
“Stop, where do you……”
Before his voice even fell, his torch abruptly went out. The first reaction of these two men was to cry out loudly, but just as their voices reached their throats, they saw darkness, the sky spinning, and fell forward onto the ground. The assassin straightened the mask on her face and looked around with a pair of cold eyes as if she had sensed something.
She controlled her breathing and slowly started moving towards an ordinary, mediocre house with her line of sight focused at the back of the house. In the instant she got near, a short knife appeared in her hands. When she walked around the house and went to the back, the dagger in her hand had already left her hand and whizzed through the air.
But there wasn’t even a soul in sight before her.
There was merely an iron bucket filled with water placed in an inconspicuous corner.
The assassin creased her brows.
Her eyes roamed around and suddenly saw a window without corners. That ‘window’ only had a hole remaining. The assassin slowly creeped over to the window with her body pressed flat against the wall. After observing for a period of time, she abruptly poked her head into the room and glanced at the blind spot from the window.
Still nothing.
The assassin retracted her dagger and once again started headed towards the granary.
When she was more than 50 meters away, I, who was reclining on the roof, let out a sigh of relief, then softly and quietly rolled over and lifted up my damaged iron bucket.
Close call, close call.
The assassin continued walking in the direction of the granary, but it was obvious that she was much more prudent. She almost always chose to walk in shadowy areas and walked without a sound or aura, just like a shadow in the dark nighttime.
After bypassing the several abandoned houses, she finally reached the destination of her trip.
Unexpectedly smooth.
Next, it’ll suffice as long as she turns this place into a sea of flames.
The assassin stood by the doorway of the tall granary, opened the gate, and was met by the sight of many rooms separated from each other. Each room had full piles of rice crops stacked on straw mats. The assassin chose to take down one of the torches from the wall and walked over to the inside of the granary.
No sooner said than done, in the instant the inside of the granary was lit up, the assassin frowned, fiercely threw the torch onto the ground, and concealed her body in the darkness. In the next second, snow-white moonlight-like sword aura cut into the darkness and passed through the area the assassin was just in, creating a long crevice on the ground.
It was unknown when she had appeared, but Bai Huang was valiantly standing in front of the granary and sneered:
“Hmph! Did you really take this grand aunt for an idiot for setting up such a large battle array? Did you really think I didn’t know your final plan was to set this granary on fire? Grand aunt has been waiting here for you for a long time; it’s time to let you experience the taste of being a turtle caught in a jar!”
Heji stood respectfully by Bai Huang’s side with his sword in hand and his face without his usual gentle smile. His pair of eyes were looking around vigilantly, his body stretched taut, and blue veins protruded from his hand due to how tightly he was holding his sword. He was adjusting his breathing as he prepared to respond to the fight that might break out at any time. With how he’s a Level 6 Swordsman at greater perfection realm, he’s the highest combat power on the surface of West-Resisting City as well as the person who has the most penetrating view of the situation.
That sword just now was fast and nimble like lightning, yet the assassin was able to avoid it. This can only explain that her strength really is a stable level higher than Heji’s, so this made him even more prudent.
But after the torch went out, the assassin appeared to have hidden herself in the granary and didn’t appear again. The inside of the granary was also pitch-black and Bai Huang wasn’t so foolish as to casually enter, so the situation was in a deadlock for a period of time.
It was just at this moment that the unexpected sound of fighting came from inside the granary. The sound of weapons colliding, grains flying, the brick wall peeling, sharp blades cutting into flesh, and fists connecting with flesh. A few seconds later, the assassin speedily retreated and left the granary.
Aleya’s figure subsequently appeared.
One of her sleeves was dyed by blood, but she hadn’t loosened the longsword【Roaming Dragon】from her grasp. Her blond hair was scattered behind her while her snow-white face remained expressionless despite the bloodstains, appearing as if she wasn’t affected by the pain coming from her hands. It would be more apt to say that she resembled Heji, concentrating her full attention onto the assassin and was basically too busy to care about her own injuries.
Bai Huang placed her hands on her hips and coldly snorted with a self-confident expression apparent on her face:
“Cheh. Grand aunt already knew that a ball-less villain like you would duck into the darkness when faced with danger, so grand aunt placed a trap inside ahead of time. What? You didn’t expect to one day be sneak attacked when you’ve always been doing the sneak attacking?”
There were still a dozen torches stuck on the wall outside the granary, thus leaving a little bit of radiance on this overcast night.
With the help of the faint firelight, it could be seen that the assassin had a dagger in hand and held it in front of her.
The mask covered up half of her face, only exposing her face from nose up. It was just as Aleya described; she appeared to be a young woman just from her eyes and brows, but there wasn’t even a glimmer of light within her eyes, as if she were a dead person. She maintained her dagger-wielding stance and watched Heji and Aleya.
The hand Aleya was holding her sword with was bleeding, blood trickling through the gaps of her fingers and falling onto the ground.
A cold wind blew past. The three individuals were like they were corners of an equilateral triangle, standing in the open space before the granary.