Chapter 88: Tear
"Anyway, maybe she took a real poison capsule instead of a fake one like the others," Zena said, casually looking at Isaac, who was closely inspecting the body of the lifeless assassin.
When Isaac completely ignored him, Zena rolled his eyes. "Tch... I’m really starting to see why Sarah doesn’t like you that much..." Zena muttered, walking away and leaving Isaac alone.
...
Meanwhile, Ian and Sarah had turned their attention to the young, unmasked assassin sitting in the dirt.
"So... what’s your real name?" Ian asked directly, his voice cold.
"It’s... F—Faith..." she stammered, looking down at her trembling hands.
"It’s just Faith?" Sarah asked gently, and the young girl nodded. ’That’s a really unique name to give a child...’ Sarah thought sympathetically.
"Now, Faith... can you please tell us exactly why you were following us?" Sarah asked with a warm, reassuring smile.
"We obviously know that you guys are assassins from an assassination guild, but what we want to know is why you are targeting us," Zena added, crossing his arms.
"I... I don’t know much! I swear! Since I’m just a low-level assassin in the Guild..." she cried, sniffing heavily. "But I know that our true targets today were the Thorne boys you are travelling with. And you guys just happened to be riding with them, which is why we were keeping our distance!"
"I see..."
Suddenly, Isaac stood up from the dead body. He calmly walked over and suddenly crouched down directly in front of the crying girl.
"Hmmm..." Isaac hummed, staring deeply into her eyes.
"Hey! What’s up with you?" Zena asked, but Isaac completely ignored him.
"So I am correct to assume that the guild targeting us today is the Eden Guild... which was supposedly refusing to accept outside missions and calling back all its active assassins, as I have recently heard?" Isaac asked flatly.
The young girl nodded slowly, her shoulders shaking.
"I see... then Ian, we really have a massive problem on our hands. Maybe your ’artifact’ that told you about the death of your guard isn’t wrong after all," Isaac said, not breaking eye contact with the girl.
’Artifact?! What is he on about?’ Ian thought in confusion. ’Oooh... he’s talking about how I knew that Dion died from the System notification! Is he assuming that its maybe an artifact.’
"I was a bit skeptical about this trip at first, but with what she just said, I’m absolutely sure of it now. It seems that Eden used a massive portion of its Guild so they can kill all the members of our family at the same time... including us, who were not even at the estate," Isaac analyzed, his voice calm.
"Shit... then we better hurry," Ian cursed, quickly calling his horse over.
"What?! Kill a whole family?! And a noble family at that?!" Sarah gasped, completely shocked by the sheer scale of the assassination plot.
"It’s really not that surprising. You should know that better than anyone, Sis," Zena sighed, his expression turning serious. "Did you forget what happened back then? And if it wasn’t for Father’s interference, I would have died a long time ago."
Sarah’s face fell, looking incredibly gloomy when she heard him bring up his past.
"Then... I’m free to go now, right? I have told you everything I know," Faith asked, her voice shaking as a desperate look of hope filled her teary eyes.
"Maybe. If you tell us just a bit more," Isaac replied coldly.
"What... what else do you want to know?" she sniffled.
"Who exactly is the wealthy contractor that offered this crazy job to completely wipe out a whole family of nobles to begin with?" he asked.
’I suspected that man would only want to kill Ian... but to slaughter the entire family, with Mother at the estate too? I didn’t think he would dare to do such a brazen thing,’ Isaac thought, the cold image of his father, Alarick, flashing through his mind. ’But what if he really did...’ he thought, his hands folding into tight fists as pure anger bubbled up inside him.
"I don’t know who our contractor is! As I said before, I’m just a low-level assassin! We don’t get told that many things like that!" she suddenly cried, shivering violently in the dirt.
"Then what the hell DO you know?!" Isaac asked, getting highly annoyed with her crying.
Zena frowned at Isaac. "Hey, don’t you think that’s enough? She is just a little kid! Look at her, she is clearly terrified," He said to him before turning to his horse. "Let’s just leave her here. She is useless to us anyway."
"Thank you... I really don’t kno—"
SHLUCK!
Before the girl could even finish her sentence, Isaac casually drove a sharp dagger directly through her throat.
"Why...?" she gurgled. She weakly squeezed Isaac’s arm as he held the bloody knife, her dying eyes staring up at his completely cold, dull expression.
"HEY!! WHAT THE HELL!!" Zena screamed, instantly jumping back off his horse and roughly pulling Isaac away from the girl.
Sarah just stood frozen by her horse, violently covering her mouth in pure shock.
Ian just stared quietly at the bleeding girl that Isaac had just killed. He didn’t say a single word.
"Hey! Sarah! Why the hell are you just standing there?! Come heal her!!" Zena yelled frantically, desperately pressing his hands against the girl’s throat to stop the spurting blood.
Sarah just stood there, looking down at her own trembling hands. "I... I can’t..."
"What?! Why?!"
"She is already dead, and even if I could I’m already out of mana." Sarah whispered, staring at the girl’s lifeless eyes.
"Dead?!" Zena looked down at the unmoving girl under his bloody hands. He slowly backed away.
"I really don’t know why you are overreacting so much," Isaac sighed, calmly standing up and dusting the dirt off his clothes.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! She was just a little girl! You didn’t have to go that far!" Zena yelled, staring at Isaac in absolute disgust, his hands completely covered in the girl’s blood.
"In my eyes she was just an assassin. Did you completely forget that fact, or are you just blindly looking at the fact that she looks like a small, crying girl?" Isaac asked, calmly getting back onto his horse. "It is naive people exactly like you that get killed effortlessly by these types of assassins because of your misplaced sympathy."
"..." Zena didn’t say anything, his jaw clenched tight while Sarah quietly climbed onto her horse, still visibly shaken.
"I am completely with Isaac on this one," Ian finally spoke up, looking directly at Zena. "Maybe she is exactly like you, a grown woman with a body of a kid, and what she was saying was all nonsense. You are certainly not the only one in the world with a body like that. And regardless of her age, she knew the risks when she willingly started working as an assassin."
"Anyway, let’s get going. We really don’t have much time to waste," Ian ordered. He spurred his horse forward into the dark road, and Isaac quickly followed him, leaving Sarah and Zena behind for a moment.
"Brother..." Sarah whispered softly from her horse.
"It’s okay..." Zena muttered, roughly wiping a stray tear away from his cheek. "It’s just... seeing a little girl dying like that kinda reminded me of the past. That’s why I was so worked up." He let out a shaky breath. "I’m sorry for showing you this weak side of me."
"It’s okay. It just shows that you still have a heart, even after what you experienced," she said warmly. "Anyway, let’s go. We are going to be left behind by those crazy Thornes."
...
Riding ahead in the darkness, Ian suddenly spoke to Isaac without turning his head.
"She was the one that killed that other woman, right?" Ian asked.
"And what makes you say that?" Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Come on... All three of us were busy dealing with that guy who tried to run away. And Sarah was completely focused on holding the Gravity Field together with all her strength. It’s completely obvious that the girl did something to her partner while we weren’t looking, maybe she wanted to keep her quiet. " Ian deduced.
"But how could she effortlessly move around inside the gravity spell to kill her without Sarah noticing her? Even that guy was finding it difficult to move." Isaac said.
"You remember earlier when I said I only felt THREE sources of killing intent?" Ian asked.
"Yes."
"Well, the missing bloodlust I wasn’t feeling was from her. At first I thought she was too innocent to even kill anyone," Ian explained. "But the exact moment you stabbed her in the throat... the bloodlust that leaked out from her dying body was on a completely different level. It felt like she had killed dozens of people in her life. And... I kinda saw you secretly pulling some small, poisoned needles the moment you killed her. Can I assume those needles were exactly what she used to assassinate that woman?"
"For someone who is sometimes incredibly dense, I’m genuinely surprised you actually noticed all that," Isaac said reaching into his pocket. "And yes, it was needles like these she used. And judging by the smell, they seem incredibly poisonous too."
"Is it safe for you to just carry them around in your pocket like that? What if you accidentally poke yourself while riding?" Ian asked with a frown.
"That will never happen," Isaac smirked, carefully tucking the deadly needles away. "And since I still don’t know how to fight yet... maybe these little tools will help me survive in the near future."