"Assassin, Erase My Past" V5 Chapter 7 - Successor of Steel
"You grew up to be a good man, you know. If anyone is going to succeed me one day, it will be you."
It hadn't been Childman that'd said those words, it had been her—
Perhaps he was only talking in his sleep, but — Orphen had mumbled those words as he awoke.
Alone in the darkness — collapsed.
From somewhere, a voice echoed... the voice of someone he knew well...
"Come meet me—"
It wasn't a real voice, but one being transmitted directly to his mind.
"Come meet me..."
Slowly... he was remembering something. He stood up unsteadily — his body was weak. He was shivering, though it wasn't cold — it was a warm summer night. Yet there was a numbing chill.
"It's pretty simple when you think about it."
Orphen said to himself.
"You're the one who dared to use the name Krylancelo, and had a motive to kill the Elders — you're the extremist, aren't you? It was a personal grudge, wasn't it? Against the Elders of the Tower, who gave the order to have you eliminated..."
There was no answer. The darkness enveloped him in silence.
Orphen swung his right arm to the side and screamed.
"I told you never to show your face to me again, Azalie!"
No answer — no answer...
But Orphen continued. He quickly spoke into the darkness.
"You've been spying on me this whole time — I heard your voice when that idiot Cleao burned down the Forest. I thought it was Tish's voice, but... it was you. You're a white-magic sorcerer, too, so you can just fly away from your physical body and watch me as you please."
After shouting all of that, he turned back to look the other way into the darkness.
"That's probably why Krylancelo knew every single thing that I did — You've been watching me ever since Totokanta!"
"You're dangerous to her. Very much so. Even if you don't realize it... You are, without a doubt, the Successor of Steel..."
Then, suddenly, there was a flash of light.
An expansion of it, as if an explosion had gone off. However, there was no explosive pressure or hot hair — only light. Orphen was almost blinded for a moment due to the sudden flare.
Eventually, his eyes adjusted and he was able to see the scene around him.
"Does this room look familiar...?"
"... Yes."
Orphen affirmed in a low voice.
It was the basement of the Childman Mansion — a rather large stone-walled room. The rectangular space was empty aside from a ladder in the corner. The lights were supposed to be gas lamps hanging from the ceiling, but none of them were lit at the moment. Instead, there was one large pure-white bulb floating in the center of the room. It was about the size of a small cup, and in the center of the light something that looked like an insect was twinkling. Only, it wasn't an insect.
"Is that... a Wyrd Graph?"
He could see a letter in the center of the ball of light, a magical character that was once used by the Wyrd Dragon tribe.
Krylancelo was standing on the other side of that ball of light.
"Of course... you haven't forgotten what she inherited from Master Childman, have you?"
He said softly, and Orphen groaned.
"Ancient sorcery — knowledge of the Wyrd Dragon's Wyrds, their silence magic... and the location and usage of the Nornir's relics that Childman had excavated from ruins and hidden somewhere..."
"Would you be surprised if amongst the relics was a single masterpiece of anti-personnel weaponry left behind by the Nornir — A Killing Doll?"
"............!"
Orphen's eyes bolted open in surprise as he realized exactly what the 'Krylancelo' standing before him actually was—
He continued.
"She's been keeping an eye on you, you know. In Alenhatam too, of course. And that's where she saw a similar Killing Doll in action — and she figured out how to activate them, which even with Childman's knowledge she hadn't been able to do. So, she activated the relic—"
Krylancelo took one step forward.
"She took control of it, unlike you, who would've just destroyed it. And from the Killing Doll's mouth, she learned of the dragon tribe's secret that they had tried so hard to hide... The location of their sanctuary, and about the current state of the continent of Kiesalhima... She found out everything. And you know what?"
He took another step, and Orphen retreated. The Killing Doll sped up his pace a bit.
"With the help of that doll, she found a number of undiscovered ruins. And among them, we found this."
Krylancelo stopped and swung his arm. With a snap, fine letters of light burst out like the sparks of a fire, and a sword suddenly appeared out of thin air. Orphen recognized the sword.
"The Sword of... the Moon Crest! It's still here!"
It looked identical to the Sword of Baldanders, which he'd lost in Alenhatam. The Sword of the Celestials that had been the reason for Azalie, and Orphen, leaving the Tower...
And it was that one incident that had caused Azalie to kill Childman.
Krylancelo nodded.
"Yes. With this sword, she transformed that Killing Doll — that is, me — into the assassin of her dreams... Thanks to you, I can use all of the skills that you possessed, at the level that you once prided yourself on. In other words, your skills as she knew them."
He continued, holding up the Sword of Baldanders.
"I don't think you should retreat too far... Look behind you. I'll give you ten seconds."
"............!?"
Orphen turned around reflexively.
There on the floor, he saw Cleao lying on her back. Leki was also there, sprawled across her stomach. Both were lying motionless with their eyes closed.
But they weren't dead. They were breathing, albeit slowly.
Upon closer inspection, he saw a needle-like object sticking out of their chest. It should've been a fatal wound, but when he looked closer, he saw that it wasn't a needle — it was a vertical line of small lights. Magical characters — though they seemed to have a paralyzing effect.
"Its been ten seconds."
At Krylancelo's words, Orphen turned around.
The assassin quickly moved to point the tip of his sword from Orphen to behind him, aiming it at Cleao.
"You wouldn't run away and abandon this child, would you...? I don't intend to kill her, but you know what happens when I cut her with this sword... Certainly you recall that much? You also know that no matter what her body changes into, her spirit remains the same as this girl. If she woke up and found out that she'd been turned into a snake or a frog or something, do you think she'd cry?"
Orphen didn't answer.
He didn't even want to answer — he just leaned back a little.
He felt his heart grow cold and dull.
Then he mumbled.
"There was one more way I could outwit you..."
"............?"
At that moment Krylancelo's brow furrowed in suspicion—
Orphen rushed forward.
He clenched his fist and lunged at his opponent. He saw Krylancelo try to brush his wrist away with his sword, and he easily withdrew his fist. The Sword of Baldanders swung out and away from him.
During that time, Orphen got so close to Krylancelo that their faces almost touched. For a brief moment, a hint of hesitation flashed in his opponent's eyes — he couldn't use his weapon in this close proximity — but could he bring himself to let it go? It was a hesitation that stemmed from the fact that he was holding a weapon. Even a seasoned fighter would hesitate under these conditions.
Orphen pressed his left fist against his opponent's side with a thud. It wasn't even strong — he simply let it connect.
Krylancelo immediately tried to backpedal. Then—
Just as his opponent was about to move backwards, a sound almost like exploding gunpowder rang out at Orphen's feet. Using his whole body to act as a spring, Orphen thrust his fist forward with all of his might — and Krylancelo's body, which was attempting to move away, was helplessly thrown to the ground by the immense momentum.
Using the momentum of his opponent's escape, combined with his own strength, he'd downed his opponent. If his enemy had tried to push back against that momentum just as his fist connected, he could've counterattacked and broken his ribs with a precision hit, simply by thrusting his own fist forward against that oncoming wall of force.
Childman had used this technique as a trump card in melee combat, and there weren't many people on the continent who practiced it.
Orphen attacked Krylancelo, who'd now fallen over, without a moment's hesitation. He swiftly rushed forward and stomped down hard on the jaw of his enemy, who was now lying on his back — Crack! The jawbone fractured, and plunged into his throat as the heel of his boot came smashing through it—
Krylancelo's face went pale, and thick blood gushed out of his eerily wide open palate.
"That's the third way to outsmart you..."
Orphen said under his breath, looking down at the dead man's face.
"I was prepared to kill a man if I had to, in order to save that shrew... But if it's a Killing Doll, I won't have to think so much about it."
Krylancelo's throat was gurgling with blood, almost like he was replying.
Orphen stepped back from him with blood-soaked boots.
"I knew you must've been a Killing Doll when you seemed so cheerful after I slit your wrist and you'd lost so much blood. Well, that and you talked just like that Killing Doll from Alenhatam. If you lost blood because you'd been transformed into me, you must've had the same weakness as any other human being, right?"
"I can't believe it... Your last resort is a head-on attack... heh..."
"—!?"
He heard a voice come from the throat that should've been crushed, and startled, Orphen took a defensive posture.
Krylancelo... He moved his shattered jaw and bitterly spoke. The upper half of his body rose up as he did.
"But that... only means that... at last you can... fight on equal footing with me..."
"You really think so?"
When Orphen looked back at him, Krylancelo forced a smile on his half-broken face.
"Of course... I'm going to win. For her—"
Orphen spat.
"For her, for her, for her!"
He repeated mockingly. Krylancelo stood up.
"Yes! I exist for her, I am her ideal assassin!"
"Oh please, that line makes me sick!"
"I release, the Sword of Light!"
Krylancelo screamed at the top of his lungs. Orphen leapt to the side to dodge the photothermal wave, which was unleashed straight into the sky, then shouted in return.
"I build, the spires of the sun!"
Fwoo! Krylancelo's body was immediately engulfed in flames. He didn't even try to avoid it, but instead laughed through the fire.
"Idiot! My Killing Doll body blocks even sorcery from the Deep Dragons!"
"! Shit—!"
Orphen clicked his tongue, but it was too late — he'd thrown himself to the floor when he'd dodged the photothermal wave. If Krylancelo had flinched for even a second from the spell, he would've been able to get up in the nick of time—
But before he could, a spell echoed from the flames—
"Guide me, Deathcry Starling!"
There was no way to avoid the destructive vibrations. There was only one thing he could do to stop it.
Orphen shouted.
"I break, the primordial silence!"
All around him, space distorted and bounced!
The waves were invariably canceled out by the stronger waves of his own spell. The shockwaves that continued to spread indiscriminately should've been enough to knock the vibrational waves back at the enemy. The question was whether he, at the center of where this explosion was to occur, would be safe.
(That's a gamble—!)
Orphen writhed in the bouncing explosion, feeling more a violent nausea than the pain of the impact. He was bouncing like a rubber carpet, and sinking like a stone, and in the disjointed sense of balance, not moving up or down, left nor right, he exclaimed—
"You can't beat me, you idiot!"
As he rolled he got his hands on the floor (or at least what he thought was the floor, but he couldn't be sure) and forced himself to clutch onto it.
"You're just me from five years ago, a doll's disguise — I have so many things I want to say to you! You conceited, arrogant little brat! You only exist for her!? Did you throw it all away for that self-aggrandizing bullshit!?"
As he screamed, the explosions of the distortions continued to ring out, striking painfully all across his body — but the screaming didn't stop.
"There were others who needed you! Look at Tish! After five years she's an empty shell of who she was! Even Master must've been dying for your help to return Azalie to who she was! Even the Elders had their lives thrown into chaos because you up and left, it wasn't just one or two!"
A shockwave that bounced right off the side of his head ripped his bandana and sent it flying — at the same time lacerating his skin, sending blood seeping into his mouth.
"You're just a kid whose only skill is stabbing people in the back! Who do you think you are!? You were recruited by the Thirteen Apostles because you were his student, not because of your worth!"
In the distorted space not only his sight, but also his hearing refused to work properly. In a state akin to drunkenness, Orphen stood up from what he thought was the floor.
"You exist for her!? You're lying — You're just a little kid who doesn't know any better, and she's the only thing you've got to fall back on!"
Eventually — the effect of the spell was over, and the pulsating space returned to its previous state of calm. Everything was peaceful now.
The only person standing in the silent basement was Orphen. Even then, he was a battered figure, dropped to one knee.
Krylancelo — or rather, the doll — had been torn to pieces. If you looked at any one of those pieces individually, they were so shattered and sunken into the bright red blood that it was impossible to identify them as human body parts.
It was the Killing Doll's own line — you couldn't defend and attack at the same time. The moment he'd released his spell, he was hit head-on by the shockwaves of a spatial explosion.
Looking down at the destroyed doll, as if gazing into the distance rather than looking down at it, Orphen softly mumbled.
"I'm... pathetic."
Wiping away the few unintentionally shed tears with the back of his hand, Orphen turned his back to the remains of the doll. The needles written in light were about to disappear from Cleao and Leki's bodies, who were still lying in the corner of the room, as if the symbols were scattering into the air.
Crunch...
Suddenly, he heard what sounded like someone walking across sand—
Crunch...
The footsteps echoed teasingly through the basement. Orphen ignored the visceral illusion that assailed him, making it feel as if his internal organs were convulsing, and embraced Cleao. Leki, who had been on the girl's stomach, fell to the ground and suddenly woke up.
"Uuggh..."
With a groan, Cleao opened her blue eyes. She looked up at him, still half-asleep—
Then, looking over his shoulder at the shredded remains of the Killing Doll, she fainted.
He placed Cleao's head down next to the Deep Dragon, who had begun to paw and flail, as if he were worried about her. Orphen got down on one knee next to the girl, and without looking back, he spoke.
"Don't come over here... Azalie."
"Krylancelo—"
A voice, a real voice, shook Orphen's eardrums.
(Azalie...)
Orphen's hands twitched, and the next thing he knew, he was in a daze. His vision went dark, and he felt as if the only thing he could still hear was her voice.
(Get ahold of yourself!)
Orphen shouted in his heart. He'd been given this training by Childman many years ago... He clung to the effects of the mind set techniques he'd been taught back then, and shouted.
"Stop!"
He turned around and raised his voice again.
"Don't try to control me!"
"I knew it wouldn't work. Well, I'm using a lousy configuration for white magic mind control anyway..."
The reply was light-hearted.
He turned to face her, and there she stood.
"Azalie—"
He groaned, his voice trembling. Orphen felt his expression tighten.
Standing there was the Azalie he'd last seen two months ago.
She was looking at him with her brown eyes, peering through her slightly frizzy black hair. She tilted her head at a teasing angle, as if she were trying to listen.
At the Tower of Fang she'd always looked upon him with that teasing look—
The same look she gave him during combat training—
He'd known her for such a long time—
She was no longer wearing her Tower robe. Instead, she was dressed in a much lighter combat uniform. She didn't even wear her pendant, although that was supposed to have been lost at the Tower of Fang five years ago...
Orphen felt wobbly, and as his head quivered, he held it lightly with his left hand.
"Why...?"
Azalie chuckled as he groaned.
"Did it seem like I appeared out of nowhere? I came down the ladder while you were wrapping up what's behind you..."
"I don't care about that! Why did you do this!?"
Orphen shouted, calming his consciousness, which was still fuzzy from the shockwave. Azalie was completely unphased.
"Like you said, it's personal."
"A personal grudge...?"
He was seeing red.
"You're trying to justify killing a bunch of Elders! Everything that happened five years ago was your fault!"
"It all started with me... but it was they who ordered my elimination."
She brushed her hair out of her face and continued.
"I have more important things to do though, don't I?"
"Such as...!?"
Ignoring Orphen's retort, she approached the remains of the Killing Doll. She picked the Sword of Baldanders up from the pool of blood and plunged the tip of it into the center of the wreckage.
She mumbled something like an incantation, he thought... though he couldn't hear it.
Then all of the doll's remains melted into fine sand, along with a great deal of the blood.
"I wouldn't want to make you into a murderer."
She mumbled, holding the Sword of Baldanders. She was smiling.
"Don't play the ally card. You tried to kill me with that Killing Doll..."
Orphen groaned as he spread his arms out to shield Cleao, who was still out. His ribs were broken, and he couldn't bend his body. He was sneakily weaving a magical composition — knowing that he was no match for her sorcery.
He saw her open her mouth, and heard her voice follow.
No matter how much her expression was infused with that smile, her voice was somehow sad.
"... I'm afraid of you."
"A...fraid?"
He asked back in a hushed voice. At his feet, he could see the baby dragon bristling at Azalie.
She didn't seem to mind.
"You know... I have a good reason to fear you..."
"You're... afraid of me?"
The Demon Witch, who'd possessed the greatest magical power in the Childman classroom — what reason would she have to fear him?
Orphen argued in his heart — and then he couldn't help but smile.
"Heh."
His smile was one of self-mockery.
"Then kill me — you've been killing anyone who gets in your way, haven't you...?"
"Krylancelo..."
Azalie replied with a straight face.
"I can't kill you. You're his only heir..."
And then she laughed sadly—
(Don't look at me like that...)
Orphen shouted — no, begged — in his heart.
She raised her left arm as if to support the ball of light illuminating the basement from below, then asked.
"Krylancelo, I know its been a long time, but do you remember when you went to the Royal Capital?"
"When I went to... the Thirteen Apostles?"
He mumbled in alarm. She nodded her head.
"Yes. You almost killed the Elder's messenger. I was wondering if there was any chance..."
"That was—"
Orphen suddenly looked away.
"—was because he was saying stupid shit, trying to hold me back."
"They... didn't tell you why the Tower needed you...?"
"............"
Ba-dump — His heart skipped a beat. Another pain overtook his entire body, far greater than the pain of his broken ribs.
"... No way, you didn't really take any of that seriously, did you? Azalie... no matter what Childman said, I would never think of doing something like that..."
"Master gave you thorough training on mental control — Yes, specifically you, here in this very basement."
"............"
She continued, somewhat nonchalantly.
"Mental Control is certainly part of the training process for sorcerers at the Tower, but no one else was subjected to such thorough training. Why is that? Because you had a special role to play. Mental control. You were being trained against white magic."
"Stop it! Azalie."
"Childman wanted to make you his trump card against white-magic sorcerers — to keep me, the only person in the classroom who had the potential to surpass him as a Master, in check! Krylancelo—"
Azalie shook her head and continued.
"You alone, are the only assassin in this world who was trained to kill me."
"I'm telling you to stop!"
Orphen almost screamed.
"Master, he couldn't have possibly thought that! And even if he did, so what!? I'm no assassin. I love you. I've always respected you. I've lived my whole life led by your hand! I — I..."
Suddenly, his strength faded, and Orphen sighed. Staring at the floor, he continued.
"Azalie, I, at the very least, want you to find somewhere to live in peace..."
"... I can't—"
"Sis!"
When he spoke out of reflex, Azalie was the most surprised by it. After she smiled blankly, she continued.
"I haven't heard you call me 'sis' in over a decade..."
"Tish has been waiting for your return, Azalie. She even prepared a room for you. You're not alone. Please..."
"I can't. I have plans."
"Plans?"
"I want to know what Master Childman was thinking before he died..."
She then quickly patted her chest with her hand.
"Stay with me... Krylancelo. If you're the only assassin who can kill me — then I'm also the only partner who understands you, who could fully support you. You know that, don't you?"
"I..."
Orphen mumbled, speechless. Of course he couldn't say yes—
And of course, he couldn't say no, either...
Perhaps the silence carried the answer. After a moment, Azalie huffed, her look more transparent. She was smiling, but it wasn't a convincing smile.
"Will you have your answer by the next time we meet...?"
"I thought I told you not to show your face to me again..."
Orphen groaned, his voice trembling. He was feeling, inexplicably, like he was about to cry.
She didn't break into a smile, but rather, her expression changed into something more serious.
"If you're going to make a promise to a woman..."
Her voice was gentle.
"First, you have to have the nerve to make that woman do what you say, Krylancelo..."
"............"
He swallowed back his spit and fell silent. Since he was unable to speak, she casually shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, I'll leave you to it. It's about time that Tish and your student came into the house. I'd love to see Tish, but... but she still has to assume that I'm dead, just like Hartia's report said."
"What are you thinking, Azalie..."
He figured he wouldn't get much of a response anyway.
She blinked her eyes, which were bathed in long lashes, before answering.
"I didn't go after the Elders just because of my personal grudge — I wanted the information that they were hiding. Did you know? When Childman was a freelance assassin, he once tried to Stab the head teacher of the Kimrak Church."
"............!"
"It's strange... Everything seems to be concentrated on that one place, Kimrak. I'm going to go there."
"Wait—"
A moment later, before he could ask anything else, Azalie pulled something out of her pocket. It looked like a small black box — and when she mumbled some words, Wyrd graphs flashed on the surface of the box—
Her figure then vanished without a trace, leaving behind the same small letters of light that Krylancelo had left when he'd disappeared before. At the same moment — perhaps because the caster, the Killing Doll, had been destroyed — the light ball that had been illuminating the room also disappeared, albeit a little late.
Orphen, standing there in the darkness, also lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot.
In his dream, Orphen was laughing at the frantic little foot steps of Leki, who was still stomping around. The tension had broken, and his sad laughs carried on.
Majic didn't know the name Childman Powderfield.
He didn't know the name of the great teacher of the Tower, the most powerful black-magic sorcerer on the continent, and the most knowledgeable and capable in history.
Only recently had he learned that this was the man who'd raised his Master. It wasn't just recently, one could say that he'd only just found that out.
As he walked through the house behind Leticia, illuminated by the light of the wisp she'd created, Majic suddenly thought of something—
(I wonder how I can become like my Master...?)
He had a bad attitude and bad behavior. He had no livelihood, and even dabbled in mob-like work, but in the end he was as good as broke. Still, he was a powerful sorcerer.
He was strong, and good at protecting himself. He looked after himself. That was irresistible and enviable to Majic.
(I always end up being helped by Master. I've never even thought about it until now..."
Childman's mansion was spacious, but simple in construction. There was only one hallway. If you walked down the long corridor and opened the doors one by one, the search would be over.
Would they find Orphen, or would they find Krylancelo—?
Majic no longer wondered about such things. It'd been a while since there had been any sounds of battle going on inside the house.
The fighting was already over. The only thing they could do now was to find out the outcome.
(What does Master have that I lack...? Is it sorcery skill? No, that's not it... I feel like it's something different.)
Majic sighed as he continued down the hallway, looking after Leticia as she opened the doors and peeked inside.
(Even if I could use sorcery as well as Master... then, would she, for example, come to rely on me? No... It's something else—)
Majic paused. Leticia didn't seem to notice as she hurried on. She was probably hurrying because of Orphen, but more than that, Majic felt as if she didn't care what he was doing because he simply wasn't needed, which made him feel even more depressed.
Somehow, he found himself wandering through the nearest open door.
When he entered the room, it appeared to be empty. There was nothing on the floor at all, so Leticia had passed it by without taking so much as a peek...
Majic suddenly noticed a book lying carelessly in the corner of the room. It was a book with a black leather cover, with no title. He picked it up and flipped through it. The contents of the book seemed to be terribly esoteric, something about the local climate. It contained not only familiar words, but also letters and symbols that he'd never seen before, so Majic could only decipher a small portion of it.
"The Great Heart... Dragons — False ones. The One True... huh?"
A piece of paper fell from the pages of the open book. It seemed to have been used as a bookmark, but now he couldn't tell which page it'd been stuck into.
That was beside the point. He picked up the piece of paper. It was just a piece of paper that had been used for note taking, and later used as a bookmark by accident.
On the paper, there was only one written line.
"Who is the successor?"
"............"
Majic looked at the note and thought to himself.
"They became full-fledged figures at the Tower. Master, and Leticia."
He unintentionally mimicked their gestures, putting his hand to his chest — Of course, there wasn't any dragon pendant there...
"Majic! Where are you!?"
Suddenly, a voice echoed — It was Leticia's.
When he looked up, he saw that she'd found something in the back of the house.
"There's a door to the basement! I'm heading down, and I need you to back me up—"
"R-Right—!"
Majic replied loudly and ran out of the room. While holding the book, he dropped the unintelligible note back in its place.
"Who is the successor?"
The unanswered question kept repeating itself in the empty room.
Table of Contents
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| (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) |
The Usual Victim The Sudden Assassin The Melancholy Homecomer The Persistent Visitor The Night Walker The Seeker Confronted The Successor of Steel |