Chapter 286: Chapter 301: Assassination.

When Isy came back we tested our little rouse on her first and found that it worked quite well. We tested it on our teacher next when he came back, and surprisingly that worked too… Which… Ultimately meant I had to sit through a lecture about modesty… Which was extremely uncomfortable… For him too, once I took my mask off and explained I wasn’t actually Mo.

When night fell, I slept in Mo’s bed without a blanket and wearing full gear, staying alert at all times. Mo had started to relax and sleep soundly, but before I got to know her, she was always on edge, even while she was asleep it was like she was holding a live grenade with the pin pulled at all times.

‘If her father is anything like mine… He will do pretty much whatever he has to to get his way as fast as possible. If you say a parent can’t see their child because they are sick, what parent wouldn’t find that absurd? Furthermore, he is an assassin, and even if he doesn’t act like a parent and sees her only as a tool, then he would still react the same… All this to say one thing… If I was him… I would just break in and take Mo away in the middle of the night by force… Then again I doubt he’d actually do that, but this is what it means to take something seriously…’

While I was in Mo’s bed, I had her sleep with the pink hoody we bought her, and the hood pulled up, as well as several heavy blankets over her, which she certainly didn’t object to.

Staring up the ceiling, I slowly started to contemplate what our next steps were if I did successfully take Mo’s place. Ultimately, I had three goals, I wanted to learn how the underworld operated, I wanted to learn how deep the nation's dark side went, and I wanted to figure out how hard it would be to use it to my advantage, or get rid of it, in the case that I couldn’t.

‘There are some other things that would be nice to know too… Hm… That strange drug she takes. I’m very curious about that, but it’s really just curiosity.’

Suddenly I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up as the air currents in the room changed with the opening of the window. ‘No way… He’s actually here?’ I quickly double-checked my magic to ensure I was properly using it, and also concealing my manna in case he knew magic too. Then I sorted through my memories and short training to make sure I knew exactly how to act like Mo.

“Girl.” His voice softly bounced through the room as a whisper and I instantly jumped to my feet without making noise.

He growled, probably annoyed at the school, seeing as how I appeared fine when they said I was too sick to move… Er… Mo, that is.

“Let’s go, we have work to do…”

Another shift in the air took him back out the window and I followed him, making sure to keep my breath and footsteps silent. I wasn’t as fast or quiet as Mo, but I could achieve the same result with magic, and it seemed to be convincing. ‘Mimic her movements, her breathing, and even her voice and eyes. Then, if he does notice something, blame it on the “Changes” to my body.’

I followed him to the outskirts of the city, but instead of carriages or horses… We just kept running. I had to use so much manna in order to keep up that I was starting to tire out. It was hard to measure exactly how fast we were going… But it felt like it was at least the speed of normal horses at a gallop.

Several hours later we finally stopped, both of us standing outside a giant mansion built into the side of a mountain with a hot spring flowing serenely down into pools next to it. ‘So this is where she grew up then? Looks nice.’

“The target is inside.”

‘Or not…’

“We only kill the target. I will distract the others. You should fit under the floorboards, find this man, and kill him.” He handed me a painting of a young handsome man with dark purple hair.

‘When in doubt… Just don’t speak, right?’ I nodded silently and we got to work. After using Mo’s daggers to remove some boards I snuck under the frame of the house and began quickly moving from room to room. ‘For all I know, this guy deserves to die… But I don’t know, and that’s the problem… No way I can actually kill him.’ I struggled, moving through the tight spaces as I tried my best to find him. ‘Failing and getting punished is too risky. So I have to make it look like I killed him. I just have to hold an illusion spell for long enough for Mo’s dad to see it as confirmation. If he can sense magic, I’ll say it was the man we were trying to kill.’

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I paused, my brain coming to a complete stop as if it were restarting from the moment I woke up. Freezing time I slowly gathered my thoughts. ‘I don’t know much about the people Mo has killed… But, from what she has said they tend to be really nasty… First, I’ll look into his soul… Maybe then I’ll be able to bring myself to do it…’

Figuring out my plan I calmed down and heightened all my senses until I heard a young man's voice and followed it, peaking through the floorboards I confirmed it was him. ‘Nice, first try. Now, then… Wait for the others to leave… Now for the tricky part… I can’t break through the floor quietly… But…’ I slowly transferred into the abyss, and afterward, I leaped high into the air. ‘I really hope I don’t die because I end up in the ceiling or something…’

I came back out of the abyss and landed right behind him covering his mouth. “Shhh. I’m not going to hurt you but you have to listen to me very carefully. Someone wants you dead for what you’ve done. If I were you, I would make my way out the back door as quietly as possible while I fake your death. Don’t ask questions, if you make a sound I might change my mind and kill you like I’m supposed to, do you understand?”

He hesitantly nodded.

I flipped him around and stared into his eyes until it felt like my own rolled back and my view changed. After testing it out on a few people I came to understand a few things. A person's soul had an environment, and that environment was a depiction based on three things. The first is what they worshiped, or in other words, found most valuable, the second is what they have done, and the third is what they regret.

In the man, before me money was everywhere, as for his actions I could only assume they were represented by the frayed and cracked chains that lay all around, and the smiling faces of children in prison rags. Finally, there was him, sitting in the middle of a giant scale that was tilted far in favor of the other side, which had a single young girl on it, eyes as dead as a fish, staring at him through her messy hair.

‘Well great… I’m here… What does this all mean though…’ I took in a deep breath and slowly thought about it. ‘The girl on the scale has to be his regret, in all likelihood she was someone he couldn’t save… Broken chains represent action for sure… Since they’re broken that implies the freeing rather than capturing of children, which explains why they are smiling… And of course, money is simply what he values the most, likely a merchant… Is it possible he was buying children on the black market and setting them free? In which case he is being executed for participation because of the iron law…’ I stopped again, walking closer and looking at him. ‘Or is that just what I want to think… To justify not killing him… How can I trust my ability to read souls when my own is such a mess… But how can I kill someone I know nothing about… I know full well I’ll have to kill people someday… But not like this…’

I pulled myself out of his soul and gasped for air, pausing to regain my bearings. “I want you to scream like you are being murdered and then quickly jump out that window and sneak away.”

He swallowed before nodding again and I slowly moved my hand away from his mouth.

Without a sound, he slowly stood up and swallowed again. “Intruder! Somebody help–” He faked choking and quickly ran and jumped out the window. Had I the time, I would have taken a moment to admire his acting skills. But I didn’t.

I quickly followed him out the window and created an illusion that filled the whole room. He was lying there with a sliced throat and blood spilling on the floor.

Everyone barged into the room and froze at the gruesome sight. Everyone but Mo’s father, who took a quick glance and slowly began to back out of the manor. We met back on the small hill where we first spoke and stared in silence, my heart beating faster and faster in fear that I might be found out, but luckily, the man got on his horse and was out of sight before we regrouped.

He growled. “I see you still haven’t outgrown the anxiety you feel after a kill…”

I stopped my breathing and focused on slowing my heart rate until it was soft again, remaining silent.

“Better… There is more work to do, but for now, return to the academy. In three days' time, I will bring you back home.”

‘Not the outcome I wanted… But it makes sense that he would want me to return before anyone found out I was gone… If anything this felt more like a test than a job… I’ve lived through enough to recognize them…’

I paused again, suddenly thinking about my plan and applying the same logic I had just used to Mo’s father. ‘He’s someone I don’t know as well…’ I looked dead into his eyes.

All around him were thorns covered in blood and skewered through corpses, and high in the sky was a massive book opened with laws on one side, and a ledger of crossed-out names on the other. Finally, in the center, he sat on his knees in a twisting tree blooming with rose petals, in front of him stood Mo surrounded by withering petals.

‘An assassin that worships justice and regrets… Something about Mo… For her sake, I hope it’s how he treated her… But it could also just be that she’s alive for all I know…’

I pulled myself back out, instead of going further in and silently nodded to him before I took off running, maintaining the same pace we ran there until I was long out of his sight and close to my breaking point, only then did I let myself collapse. An intense wave of emotion flowed through me along with my body failing to the intense fatigue.

‘If I stare into my father's soul… Would I be there? Would he regret… Even if he did I wouldn’t care… The only reason to regret something is because you were too late… So it doesn’t matter…’ I slowly caught my breath, wiping tears I didn’t know I was shedding. “Maybe Mo was right… Maybe unlike mine, her father really does care about her… I admit… If that is somehow the case… It’s going to be hard to feel happy for her…’

I took a deep breath and stood up, looking at my surroundings. I wasn’t lost… But I had no idea where I was either. Some small grove somewhere between the mountains and Kasesh. ‘Alright… The plan worked… He bought that I was her… Now… I just need three days…’ My body ached from keeping up such a ridiculous pace. Thankfully during my brief moment of rest with Mo’s dad, I was able to regain some of my manna reserves, but I used it all up again leaving. ‘It’s insane… No way… No way Mo can keep up that pace for hours on end… But that’s just another reason why it felt like a test… He probably only went that fast because I was keeping up…’