The next morning, Max woke up early, but this time he knew it was futile to go check the hotel as if that group of assassins were truly thinking of going after the saintess, they would probably do it during the night, when the security was at it's lowest.
[Good thinking Host, you might not be as dumb as I thought you were]
"Is this a compliment or an insult...?" he sighed, he was getting used to his divination's way of speaking.
'Well it doesn't matter,' he thought, 'I'll just wait for them to show up and ambush them, then I'll take care of the saintess afterward.'
He had a plan in his head, and it was a simple one: wait for the assassins to try and kill the saintess, in the process he would discover the saintess's room number, then kill them before they succeed, and then go finish off the saintess.
This was the best course of action he could think of, and he hoped that it would work out.
It was only 10 am though, and he knew that the half-goblin wouldn't wake up until at least 2 hours from now, which was a habit she had gotten from being a goblin in the forest: you do nothing but laze around all day.
Max advanced towards the table and looked at the equipment he had bought a little above a week ago, it was still unused, but today was the time it would finally be put to use.
He had only bought two things for himself though.
A [Mythril Dagger] which was a pretty good blade for an assassin, it cost him quite a bit and of course, he couldn't afford the expensive weapons.
And the second thing was a [Dark Suit], which was a black piece of clothing with a hood, something he thought would fit an assassin.
The suit had no increase in stats as the enhanced ones cost an arm to buy, but this one was already enough for him so he didn't mind.
He equipped the two items and took a look at his reflection in the mirror.
"Not bad, not bad at all," he smiled, "now I only need to wait for the perfect moment..."
And so, the boy sat on a chair while reading a book, waiting for the right time to strike.
And as the clock ticked, the time to complete the assassination quest decreased further.
***
Elly woke up two hours later just as expected, then cooked both breakfast and lunch.
"Why are you wearing that?" she asked once she noticed the outfit Max was wearing.
"Oh, it's nothing, just wanted to try it out," he replied with a smile, "it looks cool right?"
"Yeah," she returned the smile while taking another bite of bread.
"By the way, I'll be gone for a bit tonight, so don't wait for me, I'll try to make it quick," Max finally said, he didn't want to worry her too much after all, but would not tell her what it was about under any circumstances.
"Where are you going?" she asked, curious about what he was planning.
"Just finishing some business around the city," he explained, lying about his true intentions.
"Then I'll come with you," she proposed, but Max quickly rejected it.
"No, stay here, I'll be fine on my own, plus I need to train alone sometimes," he reasoned, he couldn't risk putting her in danger after all, plus an assassin should work alone.
Eventually, Elly sighed under the condition of coming back home safely, which Max just agreed to, he didn't know if he would come back alive, but... he would try.
***
The duo spent the rest of the day together, playing games and generally enjoying themselves, until the sun finally set and it was time for Max to leave.
"Be careful," Elly told him as he opened the door to leave.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, I'm strong remember?" he smiled, then closed the door behind him.
Yet Max couldn't help but feel something deep inside of him when he saw the girl's face saying goodbye to him, he felt like this was the last time he would see her, and that made him sad, after all this wasn't a game, he would either succeed killing everyone or... die trying.
But he ignored those thoughts and headed towards the "royal hotel", he needed to focus on the task at hand.
After around two hours, he arrived in front of the building, and just like every other day, it was filled with knights guarding the entrance, making it impossible for anyone to sneak in without being caught.
And so, he started waiting again, but this time he was ready to act at any given moment, he sat on the same bench he would always sit on and closed his eyes, focusing on his super hearing to identify anything that could be related to the operation of those other villains.
[Are you scared, Host?]
"..." he didn't answer.
[Do you believe you will fail this mission?]
"..."
[You can always turn back now, you know?]
"I won't."
And just like that, after a few additional hours of anxiousness over the moment it would happen, the clock struck midnight.
***
[Near the Royal Hotel, five minutes before the start of the operation]
"Let's get a move on, we start in five minutes," the leader of the assassins, whose name was Alexis, announced as his companions were now in front of him, their weapons in hand, and suits equipped.
He had a paper in front of him, and was pointing at it while reading out loud what it said, some sort of ritual they held each time before a mission to guarantee its success.
"Remember the steps of the plan, first we take the secret passageway and reach Lilia's room, number 849, then we eliminate her while making sure nobody sees us, does everyone get that?"
"Yes sir!" the four answered, they had already memorized the plan and knew what to do, plus their coordination and teamwork were at their pinnacle, so they were all confident in the fact they would easily complete this mission, plus they were maybe only a middle-level assassin team for now, but they were rapidly improving, enough for the boss to give them such an important mission.
"Good, then let's go, we have no time to waste," the group of assassins headed towards the back of the hotel, where there was a small door leading to the sewers, they would use it to reach a passageway inside the basement.
They thought that everything they were doing was in total secrecy, but they didn't realize that another villain was listening to them: Max, he now had the information he needed, and he was displaying a big smile on his face.
[Operation: kill the assassins (and saintess), begin!]