Everyone present in the hall noticed the abnormality once the mist reached to the height of the knees. The mist was tasteless and odorless, and it probably wasn´t poison or something of the sort. The mist was simply… for concealment.

“What is this, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

Gilberto asked Willian. Willian ignored him and started acting.

If one was to ask what he was intending to do, it would be that he was going to provide his a.s.sistance. If Willian was able to do well, this predicament would instead turn into good fortune for him.

“Karl, protect his Highness. Don´t let them pa.s.s through even if you are to die.”

In a few words, Karl also made his move. He didn´t understand the meaning behind those orders, but it was his obedience and honesty to move as he was commanded that had let him rise up to where he stood today. The undefeated Karl´s ten-man squad was made up by that mindset.

“Willian, what are you going to do?”

Willian answered with a smile to Karl´s question.

“I… will go hunting, you see.”

Willian took a tableware knife, doing one turn with it in his hand. The only one that had a sword here was Eahart, the prince. If it became that he had to use it, it would be checkmate at that time. There would be no future for the people of the military that were not able to protect the prince. However, if they are able to…. There wouldn´t be better reward than that.

The mist thickened. Screams of the n.o.ble ladies echoed through the hall by the time the mist was covering half the body. Including Karl, all the skilled warriors were protecting the prince and the n.o.blewomen. They were completely defended.

“”In that case, the target shouldn´t be the prince.””

In such situation, it was only Willian that didn´t focus on protecting the prince. There was n.o.body that would be so idiot as to aim for someone that was being so much protected. On the contrary, it was natural for one to think the target was someone else. But it wasn´t because of that that it would be fine to leave the prince on his own. However, with this rightful role being taken up by Karl, this part was settled up.

The mist completely covered the place. The line-of-sight was obstructed.

“”I need to cover for my bad impression from before for as much as I can.””

An evening suit and a knife. Willian wasn´t in a position where he could really attack someone. However, this was just enough…

To deal with them…

“They are coming! Don´t let even a single ant go through!”

“Ou!”

Even if the a.s.sa.s.sins were skillful…

“First.”

…Willian was far more outstanding.

Blood flew. To Willian, it would be the true dance party from now on.

Inside the mist, people couldn´t see. Only Willian was able to freely move around. Even for the people that could feel aura, they woulnd´t be able to move naturally like that. However, it was different for Willian. It was exactly because he was crooked if by military standards that he was capable in a more variety of things. The amount of knowledge he had compared to the people that would only train for the battlefield just wasn´t the same.

Willian´s five senses were sharpened to be much more keen than they were before. It wasn´t like he would simply became stronger by wrapping his aura around his body. His five sense became sharper, more profound and more extensive.

“Second.”

If your eyes can´t see, you can just listen with your ears.

The knife Willian held slit through the neck of an a.s.sa.s.sin in a straight movement. The instant this knife that would usually be used in a gentle, beautiful, nimble, and also casual manner was used by Willian, the knife was immediately turned into an excellent blade.

“Third, fourth.”

If your eyes can´t see, you can just smell with your nose.

Willian was dancing. n.o.body was watching him; his audience consisted only by the masked a.s.sa.s.sins in front of his eyes.

In such predicament, the ones that were the most perplexed were n.o.body else other than the a.s.sa.s.sins. Their plan had been perfectly arranged. There wasn´t supposed to be any obstacles in between their objective, and even if there was any, all the people there would be unarmed. The a.s.sa.s.sins were armed, and moreover, they were specially trained so that they could see even inside the mist. There was no way they would be in the disadvantage.

“Fifth!”

If the eyes can´t see, you can feel with your skin.

However, at the moment, a single monster dominated the place. Even if they were to face him, all it would happen was that the amount of corpses would increase. The a.s.sa.s.sins decided to change their plans.

“”So they scattered around… Who is their target?””

They changed their strategy and started to ignore Willian, taking the roundabout way so that they could kill their target. They were too late to react, but Willian´s existence was something too much outside of expectations. They had stolen away the most important sense out of the five senses. Who would have thought there would be someone that wouldn´t suffer from that.

“”For now, let´s go for the sixth!””

Willian threw his knife. It pierced through the temple of the a.s.sa.s.sin´s forehead just like as if it had been an arrow. Once again, another life was immediately reaped.

“”Four small fries remaining. My two preys… Ah, how unfortunate. They got too close to them.””

The one a.s.sa.s.sin that came too near to the prince became victim to Baldias´ mighty arm. Because of how strong he was, the a.s.sa.s.sin´s spine was broken. In the time the a.s.sa.s.sin was writhing in the ground, Baldias crushed him with his big foot. The other one was. .h.i.t at the chin Gilberto and lost his consciousness, soon to be a.s.saulted with kicks by Hilda, Anzerm and Gregour, having his life pulverized. (TL note:I´m not sure what this means ->顎をこすり上げ意識を落とし

““They can really do well. So the little young masters weren´t just talk?””

As Willian was thinking that, he took the life of his seventh victim. Not picking up the knife he threw, he used another knife from the many knives that were on the table, and pa.s.sing by the side of the a.s.sa.s.sin at close range, Willian pierced the knife through the back of the a.s.sa.s.sin´s head.

“”One remaining!””

However, the last person was clearly different from the other ones.

“”That´s some really good moves, hey.””

It was swift, and also flexible. Moreover, differently from the other nine a.s.sa.s.sins that would move like dolls for the sake of completing their mission, intelligence could be felt from his moves.

“”He is avoiding me…  He is not going towards the prince. Where is he going to? Who is the target!?””

The a.s.sa.s.sin was moving in a way Willian couldn´t guess the target. He erased his presence inside the crowd of people like a thief; his movement was without faults.

“”Not much sound. The smell too; a perfume suitable to the place. Hah, it looks like I will lose track of him.””

The flawless a.s.sa.s.sin; the last remaining one. Willian was eager to hunt him down, no matter what. However, Willian was about to lose track of him. Thorough technique; quiet footsteps and smell that let him cloaked himself into the surroundings.

However…

“”He is leaking his killing intent! Did he find his target and became too hasty!?”

Willian was guided by the killing intent of the a.s.sa.s.sin he had lost track of. He barely made it in time.

The mist started to grow dim.

“I fooooound youuuu!”

Willian got in between who probably was the a.s.sa.s.sin´s target. Willian was right in front of the a.s.sa.s.sin. The a.s.sa.s.sin was using something similar to a knife. Compared to that, Willian was using a tableware knife.

“Don´t, get in my way.”

The a.s.sa.s.sin said in a voice louder than expected. The a.s.sa.s.sin readied his weapon.

Willian thrust through the gap in the a.s.sa.s.sin´s movements, having his knife slip through the a.s.sasin´s defenses. The a.s.sa.s.sin twisted his body and nimbly avoided the attack. At the same time Willian was suprised by the flexibility of the a.s.sa.s.sin, the a.s.sa.s.sin´s knife was being aimed at Willian´s throat from an unbelievable angle.

“”This guy… is strong!””

There was no sound in those movements. The unnatural movements were made naturally. Differently from the strength of the strong, those movements were like the apex of the strength of the weak. It was the lack of the faults of the valor in military arts that made it the most problematic.

“This guy; I will kill!”

Willian felt gooseb.u.mps. He had never felt this much killing intent; never had felt such blade of killing intent with such resolute aim. No matter how much the a.s.sa.s.sin hated the person behind him, Willian didn´t think he would be able to display this much pressure.

“Fuh.”

Exhaustion.

“Hyu”(ひゅ)

Nimble movements the whole body jumped about like a spring. Those weren´t maneuvers that were made for aiming for openings, but ones that were done for creating openings. The opponent wasn´t a warrior at all; he could only be seen as an a.s.sa.s.sin. (TL note: ->からの全身がばねの様に弾むしなやかな動きから

“”Those moves… Could it be?””

It was because Willian was familiar with those moves that he didn´t let any gaps appear. He followed the movements of the a.s.sa.s.sin with his knife. The a.s.sa.s.sin once again swung the knife, aiming for Willian´s life.

Both knives clashed.

“Th-is… How could this be?”

The mask of the a.s.sa.s.sin cracked. What appeared behind the mask was a beautiful dark brown-skinned girl. She was one of Willian´s only two childhood friends, Havella.

“This is my lin…. !?”

Willian noticed the ident.i.ty of the person he was protecting. The ident.i.ty of person behind him; the target of today´s a.s.sa.s.sination. He also noticed the reason for Havella to have joined in. There could be no reason other than that. It couldn´t be anyone other that person.

Willian glanced behind him. It was difficult to look through the mist, but there was no mistake, nor did it seem like there would be. The figure of the man that was burned in his eyes moments ago was before him.

“”So it is like that.””

Willian didn´t know the details, but it seemed that Havella knew that count Vrad, who was the killer of his elder sister, would come to this place, and probably because there was a request for his a.s.sa.s.sination to begin with, Havella took advantage of it and hoped on. With how Vrad had done those things with Arlette and many others, he should have taken enmity of as many people as there could have. It wasn´t strange that there would be an a.s.sa.s.sination request for him at the a.s.sa.s.sin´s guild. It also made sense that Havella would take part on it.

“”We agreed we would do it with the three of us together…. Stupid””

It wasn´t like that anymore. Their daily lives wouldn´t traverse each other anymore. There were parts about it that Kail somewhat already guessed, but Havella seemed to still not be able to understand it. It was because of that that this kind of incident where there was lack of communication could so easily end up happening.

Willian pulled Havella´s confused face towards him.

“Run away to that same place. We will kill him together later.”

Those words were whispered in a gentle voice, but they were more akin an order. They could understand each other just by looking at each other´s eyes. Those eyes told Havela how much Willian was angry right now to the point it hurted.

It was an instant. The instant Willian released his hand, Havella ran away, making use of the mist. Her feet were fast and soundless. Now that the mist was thin, Havella was making use of the darkness of the night.

And by the time the mist cleared up for the most part and commotion started over the gruesome sight at the surroundings….

“You… must be the White Mask, right?”

Vrad spoke to Willian. To Vrad, Willian was his savior. No, the same could be said to the other people. He was the hero that warded off the a.s.sa.s.sins. More so than the indescribable mood in the hall was his achievements. The achievement of having protected them and the achievement of having killed most of the a.s.sa.s.sins was more than enough proof to indicate he wasn´t thinking of doing anything bad to the people of this place.

Willian touched his own face. Seeming that both masks had been destroyed at that same time, it was on the floor, broken. He was standing there with his own face. It should be fine like that. Strictly speaking, [this] wasn´t his own path, but the path of vengeance of [Al], who was inside him. There wouldn´t be meaning to it if he wasn´t there with his own face.

“Yes, count Vrad. I am the White Mask, Willian Rivius. Pleased to make your acquaintance, count.”

This was his declaration of war. It was something that had been left undone by himself, the White Retaliator. It was going to be his first revenge and it would be his last. Vrad was his target. Originally, the brother and sister had very similar appearances. They used to have the same hair color, same eyes; he used to be a gentle and mild boy. Perhaps Vrad would have recognized him if it was the him of that time. It was also possible that he wouldn´t have remembered about someone of the likes of a slave however.

“Thank you, Willian-kun. You are my benefactor.”

Vrad extended his hand to Willian, commoved. Willian gladly accepted the handshake.

Willian was different now. With the death of that gentle and little boy from that time, his hair became white and he came to carry bottomless amounts of despair. Using his hatred as the White Retaliator as a source of motivation for an amount of effort that couldn´t be counted as average, he obtained knowledge and strength. He came to understand karma and made his resolve to build a big tower.

Because of that, Vrad was already just triviality. Willian wouldn´t fuss over someone as little as a count. Compared to the height he aimed for, how tiny was Vrad. But even so, it was necessary that he put it to an end. Even if this was something trivial to Willian, this was everything to [Al]. Now that he accepted [Al] as part of himself, he should at least satisfy him a bit.

“This wasn´t anything, count.”

And because of that, Willian gave Vrad the greatest of smiles.

The despair he felt at that day… He would give him back ten times the amount. That smile was like a silent declaration.

(TL note: Thank G.o.d Willian didn´t end up killing Havella 0.0 )