In a certain district located in the Imperial Capital stood a desolated building that was surrounded by figures in dark cloaks. Anyone could guess that this street belonged to a powerful person.

His henchmen were crowding the streets and stopping anyone from coming through. Those who refused to leave would be punished harshly.

A man, wearing a white mask walked towards a particular building on this very same street nonchalantly. He was wearing a luxurious black suit and top hat. He was also walking with a cane.

His gait and style of clothing made anyone assume that he was of high standing.

The shadowy figures surrounding him kept their distance since they knew this man well.

“James Caervil. What a wonderful surprise to see an earl visit this lowly one’s humble home. Whaddya want?” A crude and deep voice spoke when the man named James Caervil entered the building. It came from one of the rooms of this broken down brothel.

The hallway was dark and it smelled like the sewers. Mice ran beneath this man’s feet which brought about disgust in this man.

“You are speaking informally again. Do you not know your place?” The man spoke after taking off his top hat.

“Gyahahaha! What’s wrong with addressing friends informally?” A large shadowy figure was sitting down on what seemed to be a bed.

Multiple moans of women was heard behind him and James could smell awful odours resembling rotting fish.

“Show yourself, Nork.”

At the nobleman’s words, the big shadowy figure stood up and revealed himself in the moonlight.

‘He really can be mistaken for one of the Giants race.’ James Caervil thought as he tried to keep himself from showing any kind of expression under the mask.

The man named Nork had a muscular body with cuts and stitches all over. His towering figure made it so that his head reached until the ceiling. He had a shaven head which was filled with various kinds of tattoos.

That alone proved that he was or is still involved with shady business. Judging by the fact that he lived in this desolated building and the hundreds of bodyguards, James could tell that it was the latter. He was probably lying low for the time being.

“Sorry for the smell. My maids haven’t cleaned up in a while.” Nork went towards one of the windows and opened it up. The smell still didn’t vanish despite him opening the window.

“I will cut to the chase and not beat around the bush. I want you to help me kill someone.” James said as he held a napkin on his nose. The smell was too stuffy so he stood by the window.

“Hmmm~? If someone as great as an earl wants a leader of an organization to kill someone then that person ought to be a very troublesome foe. Am I correct?” He snickered.

“….That is correct. It can only be done because a particular someone is not currently around the target of interest.”

‘I will only mention the name of this person if he agrees. If this bastard ratted me out then my entire lineage will fall.’

Thinking that, James tried to be careful of his words. Revealing too much would also not be in his favour.

Nork made a big sigh.

“Man, is it because I haven’t killed anyone in awhile? You have my attention.” He grabbed a nearby chair and sat on it after putting on a gown.

He gestured for James to sit as well but he refused with a shake of the head.

Nork chased out the naked women who were just on his bed but he left his subordinates in the room. Perhaps he trusted them to not leak anything being discussed here.

“I will not beat around the bush and ask you bluntly. Can you do anything for money?” James asked if Nork was willing to carry out any job without the care for repercussions. Lowly scum at he bottom of the society would almost always answer “yes.”

And as expected—

“That question is stupid. Just tell me the amount you’ll give me. As you can see I’m in a shitty situation right now because of people I owe a debt to. Serz forgives no one who are late to pay.”

“Is that so? Then I have nothing further to worry about.” James opened up his briefcase and took out some documents. “This will be your new identity when you finish this job. You will leave this empire along with your… people.”

James was about to say “your gang of scum”.

Nork grabbed the documents and quickly scanned through it. He frowned.

“Is something the matter?” asked James.

“I can’t read.”

‘You little…’

Nork gave it to one of his people. The person recited what was in the papers and Nork silently listened.

“Is the person I have to kill that dangerous a foe?”

“The person isn’t the problem but the consequences of killing that person, is.”

“The consequences, huh…” Norm whistled when he heard the amount of money from his subordinate, “No wonder this job is dangerous. Even the payment is leaps and bounds more than what I usually earned in the past.”

“So, will you still do it?”

“Sure, sure. There’s no way I’m letting this much money slip away.”

‘Typical commoner mind-set. Money is the only thing to get these pigs to do anything.’

The amount was extraordinarily large but James could recover the same amount in a year’s time anyway using his demesne’s tax. Although he’d had to increase the tax for a short while.

‘I’ll think about that later.’

“Since you accept then I’ll tell you who you need to kill,” James paused before saying the name, “Arnold von Berkley.”

“Oho? Now I understand why this job is considered dangerous.”

‘Yes, that’s because the duke will be out for blood once he finds out that his son was murdered.’

James continued, “You may use whatever method to achieve the mission.”

“But why do you want to kill that kid? Last I heard he was stripped of his title so he doesn’t have power as a noble. He shouldn’t even be a threat to high nobles like you.”

‘My original objective was to kill them all at once but that can happen in due time.’

It was better to kill them one at a time.

Of course, the duke would be saved for last.

‘You’ll pay dearly for killing my brother, Marcus. That I promise you.’

“This is a decision made by me and my associates. The reason isn’t important to your mission. All you have to do is nod your head and ask when and where.”

Nork shrugged, “Well, I don’t care as long as the money is good. Don’t you boys agree?”

Nork’s subordinates each gave a nod of agreement.

“We’ll be living like kings once we finish this mission!” Nork laughed heartily, “Bring me my precious collection of magic items! It’s a shame I have to use them this early but I can always buy more.”

Each of his subordinates ran towards a closet and retrieved the magic items which were inside. The splendour of the items didn’t match the dump that the owner of the items was living in.

‘All of those should be stolen magic items.’

Nork was widely known for his obsession with magic items. His favourite opponents were mages. He would strip them bare of their items once he defeated them and claimed it as his own.

Perhaps it was just his hobby and there was no deeper meaning to it.

‘Well, I don’t really care about his obsessions. What he does with my money after he’s done with the mission is none of my business.’

“My worry is if I’ll be able to defeat Arnold von Berkley though. His aura control is even better than some 6th star warriors and his swordsmanship is almost flawless without many weaknesses. He’s going to be troublesome in a wide open area…”

“Not to worry. He was recently injured in a fight. I’m not sure who he fought but the person seemed to have did a number on him. Arnold’s arm was broken and he could barely walk without the support of his maid.”

“Oho. That makes things easier then. Then what about the rumoured shadow guard protecting him? I heard that someone as strong as that butler, Sebastian is protecting him from the shadows.”

“That’s a baseless rumour.”

“But didn’t the last person who tried to kill Arnold fail to kill him because all their men were slaughtered?”

“…Like I said, it is a baseless rumour. Proceed with the mission as planned.”

“Alright, alright.” Nork held his hand up in defeat.

“Because of a certain incident which happened earlier today, an opportunity was created for us to kill Arnold.”

“What do you mean?”

“I found a way to kill him without alerting that much attention,” James took out a map and spread it out on a table, “You will be waiting here in this part of the forest. I will prepare two fake imperial force knights who will pretend to take Arnold to the capital but take another route. There aren’t any Imperial Force knights near the city so this is the perfect opportunity.”

‘I can also ask a favour from one of my contacts in the Imperial Court. They should be able to delay the Imperial Force for a bit.’

“Hmm~. You sure planned ahead, huh?”

“Of course. I make sure to grab any chance I get. I can’t let this one slip me by.”

James smirked proudly.

“Arnold von Berkley will be the first one to be eliminated for his father’s deeds….”

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