"A-an intruder—Kwah!"
The trainer standing behind Raon lost his head just as he was about to scream.
"Haa!"
Dorian appeared after that and gave him a thumbs up. He must've been nervous because his finger was trembling slightly.
"What a show-off."
Raon chuckled and examined the two children in front of him. Their injuries were severe, but fortunately, they weren't life-threatening.
"Good job on surviving until now. It must've been difficult."
He patted their heads and stopped the bleeding.
"Wh-who are you?"
The blue-haired girl, who previously introduced herself as Pine, asked with trembling lips.
"A passing villain."
He couldn't reveal his identity since Derus might try to reach the children.
"A-a villain? But you said you'd take our names back…"
"Yes. I'm planning to get your names back and let you escape this place. I'm a villain who slays villains."
"Ah!"
Pine's expression twisted into an indescribably strange shape. That was because the emotional control made her unable to cry even though she wanted to.
Tsk.
Raon frowned. Feeling the bitterness rising from his tongue, he examined Pine and the children behind her.
'Damn it.'
The kids were at a loss with distorted expressions on their faces, and Raon felt nauseous from seeing them. He felt like he was watching himself from his previous life when he killed Number 9.
'I must've looked like them back then. No, I must've been even worse.'
After all, he had completely abandoned his emotions in his previous life because no one came to save him.
Even a twisted expression had been impossible for him, and he'd had to smile with a dark mask covering his face.
Whir.
Raon raised his head to look at the cavern ceiling. They seemed to have noticed the trouble since people were busily moving around from above and below.
'Are they coming now?'
They were acting faster than he expected. He couldn't afford to leisurely speak with the children anymore.
"Wait here for a moment."
Raon lowered his eyes and stimulated the mana circuits at the two girls' necks to make them faint.
"W-wait a second…"
"Everything will be over by the time you wake up."
The other children were frozen behind Pine. Raon made all of them faint and gathered them in one spot before he walked up to Dorian.
"Why are you making them sleep?"
Dorian tilted his head while looking at the pile of unconscious children.
"It's because the brainwashing might make them attack you while you are protecting them. And…"
Raon's cold eyes were directed at the passage where the assassins were approaching.
"It's gonna get nasty."
He wasn't planning to hide his animosity at all. It was better for the kids to sleep since it wasn't going to be a pretty sight.
"Uhh…"
Dorian swallowed nervously while poking the collapsed children.
"Th-they are properly unconscious, right? Don't tell me they are going to wake up in the middle."
"They aren't going to wake up. Don't worry about it."
Raon smiled faintly and turned his head.
"I can leave them to you, right?"
"O-of course."
His voice didn't sound too confident, but Raon figured it was normal since Dorian was always like that.
Raon went to the entrance that he'd used to enter the cavern.
Ching!
Two masked men were hiding in the shadows from the two passages on the sides and charged at him.
Pssh!
Raon slashed at them with the longsword that Dorian had given him in advance.
Spurt!
The masked man charging from the right was cut apart diagonally by the longsword with the sharp sword's principles. A dangerous amount of blood gushed from the lacerated wound.
"Kuh!"
The masked man on the left noticed an opportunity and tried to stab him. Raon used his left foot as the axis to turn around and swing the longsword upwards.
Clang!
The extreme sharpness of the strike tore the masked man's body and the sword in half at the same time. He'd died before he could even scream.
Whoosh!
A dark blade emerged from the shadow beneath him as he walked towards the passage. It was the assassination technique used by Robert's assassins, the Dark Shadow Blade.
Clang!
Raon didn't even turn around and simply thrust his sword backward to fend off the Dark Shadow Blade. He used the rebound from the impact to smoothly connect into a slash.
"Kwah…"
The assassin lost his head before he managed to emerge from the shadows.
Whoosh!
Trainers and assassins were coming down from the upper passage that was connected to the orphanage. They immediately charged at Raon without shouting and swung their swords and daggers. It was a typical pattern of assassins.
"They haven't changed. They are exactly like before."
Raon stomped the ground with his right foot. He slashed horizontally with his longsword, which he had pulled back in advance. The principles of power and swiftness were dwelling in the blade as it created a crimson wave in the air.
Spurt!
Even though the masked men were charging like lightning, their bodies split in half alongside their weapons.
"Ah…"
"Argh!"
"What's happening…?"
They normally wouldn't have screamed because of their hellish training, but they couldn't believe what happened to them as they collapsed in a sea of blood.
Splash.
Raon stepped on the warm blood covering the ground and stood in front of the passage.
Since he had finished off all the assassins that were headed downstairs, it was time to head upstairs and slay Director Lisbon.
"Dorian."
Raon turned around to look at Dorian. He also seemed to be angry at the cruelty of the facility, as his expression hadn't changed despite having witnessed the gruesome murder.
"Yes…"
"I leave them to you."
Raon climbed the stairs after issuing that statement.
Swords were rushing at him from four different directions as soon as he stepped away from the stairs. The dreary auras dwelling in the blades targeted his heart and his neck.
Thud!
Raon kicked the ground and jumped upwards.
Cring!
The assassins immediately attacked upwards as if they were waiting for that to happen. Their murderous aura was piercing Raon's skin like sharp needles.
'It's pointless.'
Raon struck the assassins' blades with his longsword and unleashed the principles of Absorption.
Tching!
The assassins' swords clashed against the longsword, but they quickly bounced back at the same time. The assassins couldn't bear the rebound and dropped their swords from their ruptured hands.
Swoosh!
Raon turned around mid-air and slashed down in a curved trajectory. The strike dropped like lightning, and the four assassins lost their heads in an instant.
Splash.
Raon wasn't showing any emotion as he left the director's room. His steps left a carpet of blood covering the ground.
"Y-you bastard!"
The old woman at the exit shook the staff she was holding. She was the director who was waiting for the children's return at the entrance, and she was the superior of the shadows who were brainwashing the kids.
Whap!
Flame burst from the old woman's staff, and the passage melted like cheese from the extreme heat.
Whoosh!
However, Raon didn't take a single step back. He swung his sword to create wind, aimed towards the powerful flame.
Crack!
The extreme sharpness of the wind blade severed the firestorm in a diagonal angle.
"Wh-who the hell are you?!"
The old woman glared at him and ground her teeth.
"A dead woman is talking."
"What the hell…?"
The old woman stepped back and tried to cast another spell, but her body was tilting sideways. She was falling in the same direction that the sword wind blew.
"You, you…"
Her wide eyes noticed that her body was cut in half before she collapsed forward.
"You are here."
Raon quietly turned around. A middle-aged man with dark blue hair and a blade scar on his left cheek stood there like a shadow. He was Lisbon, the trainer who forced Raon to kill Number 9 in his previous life, and Martio's henchman.
"Impressive."
Lisbon raised his chin while coldly looking at Raon.
"How did you find this place?"
"With great skill."
"It looks like you are trying to be some hero of justice, but you came to the wrong place."
He slowly drew his sword hanging around his waist. The speed made it feel boring.
"Your family, your friends, your acquaintances. Everyone you know will be brought here before being killed. And that's all your fault."
Lisbon pointed his sword at Raon with his frightening speech.
'I guess you would.'
Derus, Martio, and Lisbon were narrow-minded bastards who secretly took their revenge from the shadows while pretending to be generous in the light. The malice in his words wasn't a lie by any means.
"I'm looking forward to seeing if you can still talk back when that time comes."
Lisbon smiled coldly. He seemed to believe that Raon was a knight who loved justice.
"Do you think I'm kidding? But I'll make it happen. I'm not going to kill you. I'll make you witness the death of your family and your friends before I pierce your heart."
"Oh, really?"
Raon snickered. No one among his new family and friends that he had in his new life was easy enough to fall prey to someone like that. A weakling like Lisbon wouldn't even be able to pass the main gate—he'd die a gruesome death if he tried to kidnap someone from Zieghart.
"Do it if you can."
"What an idiot."
Raon bobbed his finger, and Lisbon crushed the ground to charge at him. Intense astral energy emerged from his sword to press down on Raon.
"I told you that you made a grave mistake. It's too late to regret!"
Lisbon sneered and slashed downwards. He seemed to believe that Raon was afraid of him. The astral energy burst from his sword and curved diagonally onto Raon.
Thud!
Raon lowered his center of gravity and stepped on his left foot. He thrust his blade at the same time to smack the center of Lisbon's astral energy.
Whack!
Even though his longsword was an ordinary one, the astral energy of raging fire emerged from the sword, completely destroying Lisbon's astral energy and tearing his arm apart. Because the heat had cauterized the arm, blood didn't even gush from the cut.
"Kuaaah!"
Lisbon noticed that his right arm was gone before he could do anything about it and screamed his throat raw. His eyes were wavering so violently that they looked like they would pop out.
Overwhelming was the perfect word to describe the situation. Raon was already strong enough to crush a novice-level Master without even using any technique.
Thud!
While Lisbon screamed in pain, Raon charged at him and smacked the left side of his chest. He was trying to knock the rage worm in Lisbon's chest out.
"Gah!"
Lisbon fell on his back violently and rolled on the ground. He used that impact to move to the other side with footwork.
'I-I can't win this fight! I was the one who made a mistake.'
That single clash was enough to make him realize that there was no way he could win. Raon was a monster that he couldn't win against—no matter what.
'Damn it!'
He was planning on acting first and reporting later because the intruders didn't seem too strong, but that was a mistake. Reporting first was definitely the correct move.
'But I can still survive.'
He specialized in shadow footwork instead of swordsmanship. He was confident he could escape through the Dark Shadow Steps no matter how monstrous his opponent was.
Whir!
Lisbon went right next to the wall in order to hide in the shadows. When he was about to sink into the darkness, his body tilted and collapsed on the ground.
'Wh-what's happening?!'
He couldn't control his legs and felt extreme pain—it was as if his body was on fire. He turned his stiffened neck to look behind him.
"Huh? Uwaaaah!"
His legs were cut off before he even noticed and were littered on the ground.
"M-my legs! What happened to my legs?!"
"You are so unsightly."
"Uuh…"
Raon walked up to Lisbon with heavy steps. Lisbon's body trembled each time his footsteps could be heard.
"Your underlings didn't scream even in the moment they died, yet you've already screamed twice."
"Th-that's…"
"Don't you usually say that an assassin should be ashamed of screaming?"
The trembling of Lisbon's body intensified upon hearing that. He raised his head while clattering his teeth.
"H-how do you know…?"
"Because you told me."
"Who the hell are you…?"
"A revenant."
Raon raised his longsword with a frightening smile on his face.
"I'm a revenant who returned from hell to destroy all of you."
He slammed his sword into the left side of Lisbon's chest.
"Kuah!"
Raon made sure to only touch his heart slightly so that his pain would last for a long time. A thin stream of blood was flowing from his chest.
"Aaaaaagh!"
Lisbon screamed and struggled, but he couldn't remove the sword from his chest no matter what he tried.
"Wail."
Raon gripped the longsword and glared at him with a frightening gaze.
"So that the children who lost their lives because of you can hear you. So that the children who had to part from the world full of resentment can hear you. And…"
"Kuh…"
Lisbon's eyes became distorted upon hearing Raon's emotionless voice, lacking to a frightening degree.
'Wail for my nameless friend who should be watching us from heaven.'
Raon clenched his sword while thinking about Number 9, whose name was still unknown to him.
"A-are you a shado—"
"Your scream shall become the requiem for their souls."
Raon twisted the longsword to widen Lisbon's wound. The intense cry of despair he sang was good enough to appease the deceased.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Raon removed all traces that he left behind before returning to the underground.
"I-is it over? I heard a nasty scream…"
Dorian lowered his sword and swallowed nervously. His shoulder and waist were wounded by a sword, and the corpses of assassins were piled up next to him. Raon could guess that his fight must've been intense.
"Yes. He will never be able to do this again."
Raon nodded and pushed all of the corpses towards the passage. He also removed all traces that could reveal their identity.
"Shall I wake up the children now?"
"Hmm…"
Raon looked at the children, who were still unconscious. Tears from all the hardships they had to go through were finally welling up in their eyes after they had fainted.
"No, it's better to leave them to the people who are about to come, since we can't take them with us anyway."
"I wonder if they will be nice to them."
Dorian sighed and caressed the hair of the child in front of him.
"I didn't know that there were children in this world who led such a difficult life. I thought my life was rather difficult, but I was complaining for nothing."
He hung his head in embarrassment.
"Your cases are completely different."
Raon shook his head.
"You are the only one who knows how much you've suffered. You shouldn't blame yourself for it."
He's right.
Wrath emerged from the ice flower bracelet and nodded. He was being strangely quiet all along.
The past isn't the important part. The future is all that matters. Tell him that he should think about the future and walk forward.
Raon chuckled and looked at Dorian.
"He's telling you to think about the future instead of the past. He also said that walking forward is the important part."
"Who said that?"
"A strange person who loves to eat."
The King of Essence isn't a strange person! He's a proud demon!
'I see, I see.'
Raon simply nodded.
"That makes me feel a bit better. Please tell that strange person that I appreciate it."
Dorian smiled while wiping the tears from the children's eyes.
"Hmm…"
Raon narrowed his eyes while looking above him. He could hear the clattering sound of the knights' armor from afar. The familiar aura he noticed belonged to Borini Kitten, who he'd fought against recently.
"It's time to leave."
"Is Sir Borini Kitten coming here right now?"
"Yes."
Raon nodded and scribbled something on two small pieces of paper. He placed one on the platform and the other in Pine's pocket. He also placed a gold pouch next to them to be used for their sake.
"It's a bit unfortunate. I wanted to see their smiles."
Dorian also took out all of the snacks and candies he had in his belly pocket and placed them on the floor. Tears were welling up in his eyes.
"You will be able to see them again soon enough, as they will be joining Zieghart."
"R-really?"
"Yes."
Raon nodded and waved his hand.
"We should leave now."
"Yes!"
He ran into the passage connected to the cavern to avoid running into Borini Kitten. He was about to exit when the Evil Eye of Wrath noticed the presence of a small room behind the wall.
"Hmm?"
Raon stopped running upon noticing the bookshelf. A smile appeared on his face.
"It looks like they are giving us some loot."
* * *
Borini Kitten swallowed nervously while looking at the orphanage called the Cloud's House.
'Are they really raising assassins here?'
Because someone had managed to sneak into his room without anyone's notice to leave a letter, he was planning on ignoring it regardless of the contents. However, his body automatically took action the moment he read the contents.
'They said that the kids were kidnapped hand brought ere to be raised as assassins.'
There was absolutely no way a knight could overlook such a thing, and his plan to ignore it disappeared at once.
Since the letter also mentioned that there might be spies, he only brought the most trustworthy Silver Knights with him and ran there as fast as he could.
"I wonder if it's true."
"We will find out once we get there, but I can only feel a faint presence from inside."
Borini Kitten tapped on his subordinate knight's back and entered the orphanage.
"Blood?"
Blood was forming a puddle on the floor of the orphanage, and corpses who died from a sword were piled up in a corner. It was the proof of the bloodshed of the masked men who shouldn't exist in an orphanage.
"Hmm…"
Borini Kitten bit his lip.
'It really was true…'
A corpse retained a person's temperament for a short time after their death, and the dreariness of an assassin was the only thing he could feel from the corpses.
"Start the search."
"Yes!"
The knights scattered in all directions upon hearing Borini Kitten's order.
"There's a staircase leading underneath over here."
Borini Kitten entered the director's room upon hearing his subordinate's report. The floor was covered with blood, and a passage to the underground was wide open.
"Let's go."
Borini Kitten nervously went downstairs. He managed to reach the bottom after a long walk.
"Huff!"
"Ah…"
Their chins started to tremble upon noticing that the children were lying on the bloody floor.
"Oh no!"
Borini Kitten hurriedly ran towards them to examine the children.
"Haa…"
'They are alive!'
Fortunately, none of them were dead. Someone had influenced their mana circuits to make them sleep, and he could guess that the person who wrote the letter in his room was the one to have done it.
"Hmm…"
Borini Kitten finally managed to regain his composure and examined the children.
'They aren't in a good state.'
They were all wearing ragged clothes, and there were countless blade scars on their bodies in contrast to their clean faces. Considering that the scars were at the same location for all the kids, he could ascertain that they'd gone through assassin training.
"There are some torture devices over here."
"I-I found a room with a pile of children's skulls."
"I found the children's room, but it's not a place where humans should live…"
He got more and more angry as he heard the knights' reports, and he had to clench his fist.
"Damn it…"
He was honestly hoping that the letter was lying to him because it was too sad and cruel to be true.
However, his hope didn't come true. That building was a living hell, created for the purpose of raising children to become assassins.
"Haa…"
Borini Kitten stood up and sighed deeply. He looked around with a frown on his face, and he noticed a piece of paper on the platform. It was folded into the shape of a triangular, just like the one he'd found in his room.
'Is this letter from that same person?'
He spread the paper and noticed the same handwriting as the letter that made him come to the orphanage.
[The person who can treat the children will be there soon enough. I leave them to you until he arrives.]
They seemed to be asking him to protect the children.
Borini Kitten's hands started to tremble.
"So they just want me to deal with the aftermath."
He was honestly relieved by that, as he wouldn't have been able to take appropriate action if the children were taken hostage.
'And they even left some money.'
The gold pouch next to the piece of paper must've been given to him to be used for the sake of the children.
"What should we do now?"
"Wake them up carefully. Let's bring them back with us."
"You should also investigate the traces since we need to find out who the perpetrator behind this is."
"Yes!"
The knights separated into two groups to wake up the children and gather the evidence.
* * *
"Hmm…"
Number 45 noticed someone's touch and opened her eyes.
'Is it him?'
She raised her head, thinking that the tall man who had slain the fourth trainer before she fainted was next to her. However, the person who was holding her shoulder was a knight in silver armor that she'd never seen before.
"Are you okay?"
"Ah, yes…"
She turned her head while answering. However, she couldn't find the man who'd saved her, and all she could see were the knights moving around.
'Was it a dream? No, it wasn't.'
She could still feel the warmth from when he patted her head. There was no way she was imagining that warmth.
"Number 45…"
She clenched her fist and heard a slightly trembling voice. She turned her head and noticed that Number 86 was looking at her. Tears were falling from her eyes.
"Number 86!"
Number 45 bit her lip and ran up to her to hug her.
"Hmm…"
The knight's face hardened. He seemed to be shocked by the fact that they were calling each other by numbers. He sighed deeply and walked up to them.
"My name is Borini Kitten. I'm a knight from Owen."
He slowly extended his hands.
"Come with me. You won't have to live in these terrible conditions if you do so."
"Ah…"
Number 45 couldn't take his hands. She was aware that Borini Kitten wasn't that kind of person, but she was afraid that the same thing might happen if she blindly followed him.
"Err…"
Her shoulders were trembling because she couldn't decide, and a neatly folded paper fell from her pocket. She picked it up to see what it was, and something was written on it.
[We will meet again. Follow the knights.]
'This is…'
She immediately realized who had written that message. It was from that man who came to their rescue and told them that he'd take their names back.
Number 45 carefully folded the paper and put it inside her pocket. She managed to muster her courage while thinking about him and took the knight's hand.
"Yes, I'll go with you."