Episode 11. The First Test (5)
The heads of the Assassin’s Blade and the head of the Imperial Order, Rulfo, gathered in the lakeside annex.
When Rubin went to the concert hall, Rulfo tipped his bottle of wine. He let out a roar of laughter.
“Oh, Rubin went to the concert hall just like Siren thought? You have a smart kid.”
Rulfo’s reaction was not one of complete admiration. Compared to Kuhn’s aggressive and certain approach, Rubin’s actions would seem like mere trickery.
Siren almost thought the same thing as Rubin, who went to the map stand to get a festival map and headed to the concert hall.
But there was something bothering me.
“Before reaching the venue, the Rubin contestant was ambushed by the Hamilton contestant. But… … .”
“however?”
“After that, the two people who were chasing each other briefly disappeared from the sight of observers.”
When the vassals belatedly figured out Rubin and Hamil’s location, Rubin was already gone. According to the report, only Hamil was there, shaking his butt and getting up.
“I need to check the arrangement of the vassals hiding in the examination room. Bring the map.”
Siren gave an order to her immediate vassal.
“Siren, why are you doing this? Are you trying to overthrow all of your assassins on this joyous day?”
“I just need to confirm something.”
“The observers just missed it for a moment, but they’re being oversensitive. Wasn’t Rubin faster than the guy chasing him anyway? The kid they were chasing fell and missed him.”
Rulfo continued, waving the fork he was holding towards the siren.
“Kun is fun, and Rubin is smart. I’m satisfied with the amount of news I have to tell the Emperor. Of all the guys, I like the energetic Croquison better… Rubin is also good enough to tell the Emperor, so don’t worry.”
Worried? Siren suppressed a laugh in her heart.
I had no interest in how my son’s grades were reported to the Emperor.
I was just curious.
I wonder how he got out of it.
What kind of fights were there during that process?
And that was all intentional.
“My lord, I brought it.”
The vassal of the Roinen family approached and spoke. It was a map that organized the locations of the vassals of the Assassin family.
Siren looked around the area where Rubin and Hamil had collided.
One place really stood out.
The place where Hamilton was discovered alone later.
When judging the level of the gods, there was only one place in the vicinity where there would be a gap in observation through the dark smoke.
‘Are you saying Rubin knew about this?’
It was too exquisite to be a coincidence. It was almost as if they had deliberately targeted a blind spot.
But Siren couldn’t be sure.
Being clever. It is quite possible for someone to be intelligent beyond their age.
However, the ability to detect hidden vassals and their weaknesses is a completely different matter. To do so, Rubin had to be able to detect the locations of hidden vassals and their realms.
also.
‘At the very least, there must be a flowering of the dark smoke, and the ring must also be solid.’
At Rubin’s age, this was absolutely impossible.
Siren finally reached a conclusion and shook her head with difficulty.
‘There’s no need to delude yourself because of expectations.’
* * *
“It’s been three hours already. I’m starting to get bored. Are our little ones still not making any progress?”
Rulfo shouted with a flushed face. The only news from the testing grounds for the past hour had been movement and exploration.
Just then, soldiers came in to spread the word about Trumbel’s situation.
“Oh, tell me quickly, quickly.”
There are currently three surviving participants.
Kun Crokison injured and eliminated the contestants of the Bonedog and Stone families in the map storage room. The contestant of the Galliotrick family also arrived after ambush.
The Kalkrid, Reincroki, and Krieger families were eliminated after their marks were torn off by the Ghost Rats.
Kun Crokison.
Hamil Cunitli.
Rubin Roinen.
In the end, only these three remained.
“I’ll tell you the situation at the testing site. It seems that the Kun participant has figured out the target’s identity.”
A smile appeared on the silent Croquis family’s face.
“How did you find out?”
“We used the first-class map that we had already acquired. The Kun participant infiltrated Mayor Trumbel’s office, which was shown on the map. We waited there until Mayor Trumbel showed up.”
The method that Kun chose was ‘threat’.
In preparation for any accidents that might occur at the testing site, the nobles of Trumbel fled to nearby cities, but the mayor could not do so.
What’s happening in Trumbelle right now is information that even the mayor can’t access. So the mayor doesn’t know what the heck is going on in his city.
Of course, I didn’t know what kind of group the Imperial Order or the Assassin Swordsman were. They simply used the city as a testing ground during the festival period, according to the Emperor’s orders.
“What on earth is going on?”
As the mayor entered the office while muttering to himself like this, a boy appeared before his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing! How did you get in here?”
The boy jumped up in one breath and climbed up to the mayor’s desk. The little boy approached him, eye level with him. The mayor had an uneasy look in his eyes.
As expected, the boy who had reached his waist was holding a shard of pottery in his hand.
“Heh heh, you punk, are you trying to threaten me with that?”
That was the last thought of the market trying to hide its anxiety and act relaxed.
The boy’s eyes that the market encountered showed no emotion. They were just as cold as the eyes of a beast.
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The boy, without blinking, hit the mayor’s thigh with a shard of pottery.
One room, two rooms, three rooms.
Blood gushed out, but the mayor could not scream, because at some point the boy had covered his mouth with a rag.
“Thinking of threatening the market? You’re a piece of wood!”
Rulfo stood up and approached the seat where the Croquison family head was sitting. As the head of the Imperial Department approached, Croquison stood up and bowed his head slightly.
His face turned as red as red wine. Rulfo held the sparkling wine and put his arm around the shoulders of the Croquison family.
“How did you raise your son so well?”
The pleasant Rulpo let out a loud laugh.
“In the test of refining Your Majesty’s sword, what problem could a mayor of a remote city like this have? Kun has made an excellent choice. He has spirit. It will surely be used as an excellent sword for Your Majesty.”
The market simply used the city as a testing ground, so of course it had no idea who the target was.
Kun was also aware of that fact.
But Coon found out some useful information while soaking the mayor’s thighs with blood.
Distribution of soldiers.
The mayor deployed his soldiers as directed by the imperial edict.
At first glance, the arrangement of the soldiers seemed normal and balanced.
But upon closer inspection, there were places where soldiers were densely packed in places that seemed completely out of place.
It was an ordinary alley, not the place where the main festival event took place.
It was certainly unusual for soldiers to be so thickly deployed in this alley, which only had two or three flower shops.
Coon found out the truth by blackmailing the mayor.
‘The assassins and the imperial soldiers are just observers. They have no right to intervene if something goes wrong with the target. However, the soldiers in the market are different.’
Before the test is over, the target must not be harmed by street thugs or drunkards. And the target must not be run over by a street cart.
To prevent such a situation, the market soldiers were roaming around the area without knowing the exact inside story.
The Croquis family was satisfied with their son finally seizing the opportunity. There was no need to hide his smile.
Siren and the Croquison family made eye contact. The head of the main family also nodded, acknowledging that Kun’s actions were effective.
A triumphant Crokison asked the soldier.
“What happened to the other participants?”
“Rubin and Hamil are also on the street adjacent to the alley where the target is. Hamil is using the captured ghost rat as a compass to approach the other two participants, while Rubin is quickly exploring and moving to a different location.”
Before we knew it, the ‘first selection’ was coming to an end.
The participant with the most certain information was Kun. However, it was also true that the other two were adjacent.
“It’s surprising that Rubin is nearby. I thought he’d still be at the concert hall. Should I just call it luck?”
Rulfo smiled brightly.
“Well, just because it’s luck doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
The tone of voice was reeked of mockery.
In fact, Rubin, who had not found a target in the concert hall, seemed to be wandering around the city. The approach was good, but the results were not good, so he deserved to be laughed at by Rulfo.
The prevailing opinion was that Rubin’s proximity to the target was simply luck.
but.
No one knew that this was Rubin’s intention.
It was said that he had planned a long time ago what kind of impression he would make on the imperial court and the heads of the household, especially his mother, Siren.
Smart kid.
Rubin was a smart kid, not a cruel and spirited kid like Kun.
Although winning the test was the contestant’s goal by any means necessary, that was not the only reason the test had lasted for hundreds of years.
The goal is to find the ‘possible enemy’ of the Emperor.
The awl had a way of piercing through a pocket, so the emperor wanted to find that awl in advance and nip it in the bud.
Rubin knew better than anyone that in order to survive and get revenge, one had to hide rather than reveal.
At that moment, a soldier from the Imperial Order hurriedly entered the hall. Everyone focused on the soldier who was breathing heavily as he opened the door.
“What is it?”
The young soldier shook his body and adjusted his helmet.
“The exam is finally over!”
At those words, the households all stood up at once. Does that mean they have already found their target?
Seiren, the only one of the heads of the household who was sitting on a chair, heard the results of the test before anyone else. A retainer of the Roinen family, who had entered at the same time as the soldiers, approached her and whispered the results of the test to her.
There was no change in her expression.
“The exams are over? Who’s the winner? Oh, no… First, let’s launch the Grandbird. I’ll personally congratulate you from the sky above Trumbel.”
When another soldier went out to fetch Grandbird, Rulfo urged him again.
“Okay, so tell me. Which kid got first place? Or rather, how?”
