It is a dark night. The sky is covered in clouds, obscuring the moon and stars. Cloaked in shadows, I lightly follow after my red-haired target. Ducis follows closely behind.

My heart thumps almost noisily in my chest and my stomach feels as though an army of rats is swarming everywhere in there, their little feet excitedly pattering away.

It’s not that I’m scared—this isn’t even that dangerous a job. If we wanted, we could easily take out our red-haired target in a single blow, but even so—I tremble.

The streets are clear. There is no one around.

Now is the time.

With a single nod to each other, Ducis and I rush forward, our swords bared for the clouds to see.

A flash, and then two blades sink into our target’s body. One through the heart and one through the throat. Our target’s face contorts in pain and he tries desperately to scream.

But no noise escapes his throat.

Slowly, he slips to the ground on his stomach as his dull red blood pools under him. Tears of pain pour out of his blue eyes as he glares hatefully at us.

I grab the blade stuck in his neck and pull it out with a soft yank. There is no need to prolong his suffering, I will end it now.

I raise my blade for the final strike,

“Goodbye, Rex.”

“What, not a single sorry?” Rex rasps out. Traces of his damaged voice cling to his airy speech. I’m surprised he can speak at all.

I don’t need to respond. I can just end it here, and I should…

But, I find a burning desire to justify myself; some strange, unreachable part of me is saying that if I end it now, I will go on to regret it for the rest of my life.

“I don’t need to say sorry,” I say as firmly as I can, “We simply can’t afford to let you leave when you know so much.”

“Do you… feel justified in doing this? All for the sake of power?” Rex barely spits out.

“No, for the sake of peace,” I return unyieldingly, “We’ll conquer the entire world and force peace on it! It’s the only method this world understands.”

The light is slowly waning from Rex’s eyes, but he still barks out a peal of harsh laughter,

“Oh? And how many do you think you’ll have to kill to reach such a goal? Do you really think you can justify the murder of millions for the sake of a silly dream? Remember me—every time a new dye of blood stains your hand, RECALL MY FACE!”

Despite how immeasurably painful it must be, Rex’s laughter, which sounds like wood being raucously scraped against something hard, increases in volume and intensity.

I have to stop this. If I don’t, someone will come to investigate the sound and spot us.

But… despite that, the only movement I can make is my violent trembling. I feel like vomiting. I want to go back home. I want to run away. I want—

With a single swing of his blade, Ducis slices Rex’s head off, spraying blood on me. The sudden silence shocks me more than I could ever imagine and I find my eyes locked with Rex’s dull, lifeless blue.

I can feel it; Rex’s blood drips down my body—from my forehead to my chin, from my chest to my waist, from my arm to my hand…

“Don’t be weak, Eremus,” Ducis says, gazing solemnly at the headless corpse beneath him, “We knew what we had to do when we set off on this path. Our ideal is an ideal filled with evil, but if we just persist…”

“We can bring the greatest good to this world…” I finish with a whisper. I know these words well. These are the words we etched into our hearts when we started down this path after all.

At that moment, I don’t know why, but I find myself noticing something completely insignificant;

I have more blood splattered on me than Ducis, even though he committed the final swing.