“From now on, I will train you to be the best Assassin in this world.”

Those were the words of his master, his first master, the master in the arts of assassination.

-o-O-o-

“Dream of something?”

Lily asked Rey.

He was suddenly asleep after a certain incident during the banquet, so now, Lily was taking care of him.

“My past.”

“What is it?”

“The time I was trained as a child assassin.”

“That still haunts you, huh?”

“It sure does.”

She just hugged him with her flat chest.

“I wish it is more, but this is Lily we are talking about, huh?”

“Your thought is leaking out, Rey!”

Lily pinched him.

“Ouch! My bad!”

“And here I was worried about you.”

“Thank you, Lily, but I am fine. It is because of that experience that I am with you and the others now.”

“Honestly, I almost became dead broke rescuing you.”

Lily said jokingly.

“Yes. I know.”

“Hey, can you tell me your story again?”

“Why?”

“No reason in particular.”

“I see…”

Rey could guess the reason but decided to humor her.

And so, Rey talked about his past…

-o-O-o-

“Remember that you are just a tool to be used. We feed you. So, be grateful and work for the meals you have eaten.”

The same slogan was said every time during breakfast.

It was very lucky that the adults thought I was “useful,” so I suffered only very little abuse.

Comparatively anyway.

It seemed like my Class, Thief, really did wonder in making them feed me well.

Comparatively anyway.

Well, enough about this sarcastic joke. Today, I had to train on how to use my dagger skillfully again.

As taught by my “Master.”

He was like a puppet doll without life, that one.

Still, he was doing his job well enough.

In fact, becoming like my master was the ideal version that my feeders thought and required of me.

It was not like I wanted to, but I slowly became that ideal version.

Or perhaps, it was not?

After all, I have this thought of “I did not want to?”

If I became like my master, even this thought would no longer exist in my mind.

How philosophical, eh?

Yes, I loved philosophy.

What else did you expect a child like me would even like anyway?

In all my free time, even when I was swinging a dagger, my mind wandered to philosophical thoughts every once in a while.

Still, no one was able to answer me about these yet.

Even now.

-o-O-o-

I did it.

I killed a man.

Honestly, I felt nothing.

Maybe I was already too far gone, eh?

The adults praised me for “Doing good works.”

How ridiculous?!

Killing a person was a good work?

There sure were something wrong with their minds.

Nevertheless, I persevered.

For survival.

-o-O-o-

Ah, I screwed up.

I got caught by the guards while doing my “works.”

Hell, it was obvious, considering how much “works” I had already done successfully.

The news of me as a very skilled assassin was already out.

It was obvious that the government would be out for my head.

In the end, since it was found out that I was very young (14 years old at the time), my punishment was just to be sold as a criminal slave.

When I heard the verdict, my only thought was ‘whatever.’

It made little differences whether I was a tool of the organization or some rich owner’s slave.

I will just simply continue surviving.

And then, I met her.

My savior.

The girl with mesmerizing white-haired and sapphire blue eyes.

Her name was Lily.