Chapter 164 –

Shadow squatted on a branch silently. Her gaze looked at the official who she was targeting. Inside a carriage with guards that were armed with rifles and hand cannons. To a normal soldier, they would hesitate to engage them. But to Shadow they were nothing.

They were all cannon fodder she could kill with ease. The bodyguards were like wheat facing a scythe. They were cut down without any warning. Blood splattered and pooled. The official inside the carriage did not know what just happened. All he saw was a fast shadow and heard sounds of pain.

Shadow was not covered in blood. All her strike was clean and precise. Her finesse has reached mastery that she could easily do these feats. Of course, she had help from runic gestures that allows her to enhance her body. It was a lost art she acquired. Even as an agent of an Empire, she would never reveal her art.

“Please spare us,” the official was holding his son in his arms. There was fear in his eyes as he looks at Shadow. Every man and a parent would fear for their dear life especially if their child was with them. So how could the official not fear the killer before him? “What do you want?”

“Your life,” shadow’s voice was cold as ice. The cold weather didn’t help in making the official feel colder. It was nearing winter and the weather was getting worse. The winds from the north were freezing the continent and the added breeze from the south made the weather colder.

“My life,” the official gathered his courage, “does that mean that my son’s life will be spared?”

“No,” she said straightly without any tone in her voice. It was so bland mechanical that the official shuddered. But the official gained his wits. He knew that the monster in front of him was someone that could kill his entire escort like nothing.

How could she fight a monster like her? There was no hope for her to defeat her. But even so, the warmth of his son made him brave. He draws his pistol and aimed it at Shadow. His gun then made a thunder-like sound as the bullet flew to Shadow’s face.

The official knew it was a gamble. He knew that there was no other way for him and sin to survive other than to kill the assassins. The distance between the assassin and the official was two arms far. A bullet could travel faster than sound. The official has a higher caliber pistol. The bullet was too fast for Shadow and it hit the mask she was wearing.

There was a sound of metal meeting metal. Shadow tilted her head back. The official tried to pull the trigger again only to feel something sharp and acute cleaving his hand. He looked at his. His rough and calloused hand was gone. His wrist was cleanly cut by Shadow.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” the man official shouted. His son jumped back in fear. Shadow came nearer and the Official could only see another flash of metal. His life ended at that moment.

The young boy that was with the official cried. His pants were soaked with pee. Shadow gazed at the boy and then looked at the official. “Your father managed to wound me. Good Job. He loves you.”

“Ah-” the boy felt a sharp pain in his throat and heart. He felt very woozy as his sight went all black. The last sight she was the face of Shadow. In death, he was able to see the face that was shrouded with a curse.

...

The boy and his father were dead. There was no need for any more witness so she made a runic gesture. The rune of fire birthed fire on his palms. The flame was blue and translucent. She flicked that flame down the corpses and before long they burned into ashes.

“That done,” she thought. She looked at the place where she burned the official and the boy. The only thing that was left was their bones. But even those bones were slowly turning into ashes. Shadow thought for a while before sighing deeply inside her heart.

She could not feel anything but emptiness. All these work that she did was for some Empire she wasn’t even loyal. She only joined this Empire out of similarities to her past world. The world she in was different to her past world. There were no hunters. There were no magicians and knights. There were only men and women holding weapons that could kill anyone with a squeeze of a finger.

“No matter what world,” she looked at the sky. Snow fell on top of her eyepatch, she was missing an eye but her green eye shone brightly despite that. “I always end up this way Madonna. I am always on a path of blood and carnage.”

She was cursed. She was someone who would always turn to the only path she knew. Ever since she was picked up by a Madonna and raised as a dangerous assassin. She experienced a bit of time in some village. And that time was one of the best parts of her life.

But that was all change when one day she met a lonely witch. The man who she grew to love was separated away from her and she was cursed with no one to recognize her face. They would forget her. That’s why to be recognized she would use a mask.

“Lord Paul...Lady Jessamine,” she murmured. “I hope that you are alright.”

She picked up her mask. It was made from metal she doesn’t recognize. It was gifted by the Emperor she now served. It was a dented because of the bullet. She felt like if she didn’t wear the mask. She would have been hit and possibly have died. She has ways to avoid that but killing young children bothers her. At first, she was apathetic to killing children. But only when she lived and interacted with children that she had these feelings. She wanted to become as cold as she was.

But that was impossible. She would remember the garden of roses. She would remember the scarred man who she met in that village. She remembers the man who she recognizes as her bloody companion. She could not forget him. He was dear to her.

“Serge...” she muttered with a lone expression. “Are you in this world too?”

She asked. She doesn’t know if there would be an answer. She was lost. She was aching. And because of that ache, she could only do what she was best at. To kill in the shadows. This was her only path at the moment.