He had developed a friendship and a little of a romantic relationship with her over the many years they had known each other so he knew of her motivations and what kind of woman she was.
She was a coldhearted assassin at heart and was suited to the role most because of her desperate desire for money and her difficult childhood that had shaped her to become that way.
She held no remorse or sympathy towards her victims but she also did not take pleasure in the kill, she was merely in the job for the money and to enhance her own strength.
Some who had experienced living a poor or difficult life would later in life desperately struggle to get their hands on what they would consider to be stable and safe or they would pursue riches, influence or strength to make themselves feel even more secure.
She had survived many missions because of her professional nature towards her job and she had rarely opened up to others.
However she was betrayed by the person who had been courting her for a long time, just as she was softening up to the idea of putting down her blade she was stabbed in the back by him of all people.
She was used and discarded just like any other useless tool, although there was some apology from the leader, if he had truly loved her then he should have chosen her and not his organisation.
If the two of them remained together then perhaps they could rebuild it or start a new life if they had attempted to discuss the problem but reality was always more cruel resulting in betrayal.
He was still going to take the reward for her capture to help expand the organisation so he must not have loved her that much or felt too guilty for betraying her.
If he truly felt guilt and deep loss from his actions then the reward money would seem too dirty or disgusting to take and use.
This showed that he still had his own ambitions and favoured that over his emotions and personal connections.
He had dismissed most of the employees within the building and waited for the people to arrive on time to pick her up so that he could get the task over with and so that he could move on with his life.
Several masked people entered his building a dropped off the reward after seeing the target.
One spoke. "Are you certain that it is definitely her? If it is not then you will suffer for trying to fool our masters."
The leader nodded calmly with a slightly dejected voice as if he had suffered a great loss. "It is her.. I have known her for a long time so it couldn't be anyone but her."
Another voice followed. "Help us safely and secretly place her inside of our carriage then your task is complete and we will no longer have any further contact. That is best for you."
What was implied was that the leader should not get involved with them or ask any questions that he shouldn't if he wished to remain alive and keep his reward.
The leader nodded nervously and then began to assist with moving her before locking himself back up in his office.
He was just an ordinary person with a little talent for martial arts that could barely be used to defend himself but he knew how to motivate others to do what he wished and how to use his wealth and position to expand his organisation over the years with the addition of the headhunter.
He started small and then it grew much bigger as the successes kept coming in, he had one person by his side that was loyal and strong enough to keep him alive along with his relationship with the headhunter but the background of those people was not something that his most loyal subordinate could handle.
Now that he had lost an Unrestrained realm assassin from his organisation, all that remained was a couple of peak and transcendent realm assassins but most of them were not loyal to the organisation and only came to him for the tasks.
If he could not find anyone to replace her, it would not be long before many of them would go seeking other organisations or guilds for tasks.
There were those among the assassins that admired the headhunter and had only came to the organisation to follow her, without her there it was worthless in their eyes and the leader knew this truth which was why he was mostly feeling regret over having to betray her.
He felt very complex emotions before, during and after the task but as she disappeared from his sight, he put his focus back on how he would go about rebuilding what had been broken.