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KADOKAWA / Light novel
The World’s Greatest Assassin Becomes an Other-World Aristocrat
Author: Rui Tsukiyo / Illustrations: Reia
Translated by Kevin Gifford
©Rui Tsukiyo, Reia 2019
Confidential
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Prologue: The Assassin Reincarnates
I settled into my airplane seat. My foreign detail was done, and it was
time to head back to Japan.
Assassins only exist in the world of fiction. To most people, that’s just
common sense. But take a moment to think about it. There is no faster,
more efficient way to eliminate one’s enemies—and the more money and
power you have, the more enemies get in your way. You have your
demand, and the “supply” is hitmen like me.
“The last job wrapped up like it always does.”
But today, I’m retiring from the business. They called me the greatest
assassin in the world, the man who made the president of a certain
nation die of an “illness,” but not even I could stop old age. My next gig
is already lined up. I’ll be teaching at the facility where I learned the
skills you need as an assassin. It’s a job that requires a lot of expertise,
the kind you don’t see walking around any old place. I’ll be teaching
children with a proven talent for the work and making them into the
assassins like myself.
Unfortunately, it’s starting to look like that whole story was made up to
put me off my guard.
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“I can understand if you’re throwing away your old tools to keep them
from talking, but do you really have to go this far to kill one man? …I
appreciate the reputation I apparently have, at least.”
Again, I feel like age is catching up with me. I couldn’t have predicted
this situation.
I stood up, picking my way through the panicked crew, and ran toward
the source of the sound. Hacking the lock on the cockpit door, I forced
my way through—someone got in my way along the aisle, but I had him
go to sleep for me.
The captain and co-pilot both had their heads blown off. Which I could
have dealt with, if it was just that. An assassin is called upon to master
a great number of things. I could pilot an airliner well
enough…assuming the explosion didn’t take out the control console
along with their heads.
“I’ve ended the lives of so many people I didn’t know. I thought my turn
might come up sometime, but really, preparing this fancy a grave for
me?”
I closed my eyes. No matter what the situation, if there was even an
0.01% chance of survival, I was ready to take a shot at it. That was my
policy.
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I deployed every piece of experience and knowledge at my disposal,
looking for the best solution possible. …There were things I could do.
It’d be hard to salvage the airplane, but it was possible for me to
survive.
“This came faster than I thought. You must have prepared for this well
in advance. …You sure got me.”
Out the window, a fighter jet equipped with missiles was closing in fast.
We were flying over an urban area. At this rate, the plane would likely
crash into the city, causing untold amounts of damage. Apparently they
wanted to blast us to smithereens before then. By my calculation, we
would hit the ground in about ten minutes, but they weren’t waiting
that long.
The missile fires. Well, I almost had ’em. If we were only crashing, there
were a few things I could’ve tried. But no. This was an AIM-92 air-to-air
missile. There wouldn’t even be any pieces of this aircraft left.
…This sucks.
As a cog in the machine that was my organization, I shut away all
emotion, obediently executing my orders. And they betrayed me anyway.
I was so faithful to them, if they ordered me to die, I’d even carry that
out. Stomping all over my faith like this, for the first time ever, I began
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to have doubts about the organization…and my life.
If I could have used these skills, this knowledge, this experience for my
own gains, then I’m sure…
Such were my thoughts as I continued to carry out what I needed to
survive even one additional second.
◇
I opened my eyes and found myself in a temple. If I had to compare it to
someplace, it’d be the Parthenon, an old-looking white stone temple.
There was no way I could’ve survived that. Was it just a dream?”
“No, it is not. Everyone up until now was reality. You were the greatest
assassin in the world, but you were still stupid enough to get
assassinated yourself. Pfft! Ha ha ha ha!”
A woman with white hair and equally white robes smiled at me.
Actually, not just that. Her skin, her eyes, everything about her was
pure white…and beautiful. She was so perfect, every facet of her made
according to the golden ratio, that she transcended humanity itself. So
why was she being so weirdly hostile?
“…Hmm. You mind explaining all of this to me?”
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“You died, and I invited your soul here. I am a goddess, by the way. Ah-
hem!”
“So goddesses invite the dead over to roast them? With everyone who’s
died, either there are a billion goddesses or you have some serious free
time on your hands. Or did you call on me for some special reason?”
“The third thing. Normally, I’d just bleach all the dirty stains on your
soul and recycle it. I’m not made of time, you know.”
I had spent the past few moments examining the goddess—her facial
movements, her voice intonation, the way she sweated, that kind of
thing—to see how much of it was the truth. But she was almost
unnaturally natural. It was like she knew every factor I was trying to
read off her and executing it perfectly. It was gross. I could do something
similar, but not as perfectly as this. This was beyond the capability of a
human being, and it proved to me that I was not in the presence of a
person, at least.
“Then tell me why you brought me here.”
“Smart of you. I am giving you a choice. I could bleach your soul and
have you be reborn as someone else, wah wah. Or you could do me a
favor, and exchange, I’ll reincarnate you in another world with your
knowledge and experiences intact.
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The former wouldn’t be me any longer. It’d be another person. The latter
was, in a way, continuing to live. I was attracted to it. Living as a killing
machine, only to be betrayed in the end by my owner, I really was
frustrated right at the end. I could make up for that now.
Of course, when you think about why I was picked, it had to be for just
one thing. Something I didn’t appreciate too much.
“So does this ‘favor’ involve killing someone?”
“I am so glad we’re on the same wavelength. I knew I made the right
choice with this soul. You will need to kill a hero in a world of swords
and sorcery for me. You have eighteen years from the moment you’re
born.”
“Swords and sorcery? A hero? Is this a bunch of fantasy stuff?”
As I spoke, data from this world began to flow into my mind. The
planet’s structure, the definition of magic, the culture and technology
level of the era, and the biography of this hero. …All right, yeah, this
isn’t my world.
“So is this hero some kind of celebrity? Why do I have to kill him?”
“In sixteen years. the hero will defeat a villainous tyrant, save the
world, and then abuse his subsequent power to throw the world into
chaos. He will grow worse than the tyrant, more cruel and precise in his
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moves, and eighteen years from now, the world will be destroyed. The
sooner you can get all stabby with him, the better.”
“The world doesn’t need heroes after the bad guy’s dead, huh?”
Something about that resonated with me.
“I’d be perfectly happy to leave him alone if he didn’t get into any
mischief, but his exploits are simply too much to bear. Like, grrr and
everything!”
So it was a world where magic existed, where certain people boasted
powers far beyond the norm. The technology level was somewhere
between medieval and modern-day, with magic weirdly advanced beyond
most everything else. So I’d be reincarnated there to kill a hero?
“Okay. So once the tyrant’s dead and the hero’s no longer useful, I kill
him. Wouldn’t that make me no longer useful?”
“I told you. Don’t get into any mischief, and I won’t bother you, either.
You don’t have the power to anyway, and if you did, I wouldn’t have
chosen you in the first place.”
The goddess brought a hand to my chin, smiling a bewitching smile.
“I chose an assassin because only an assassin can kill a hero in the
framework of humanity. Not a fighter, not a knight, not a mage, but an
assassin.”
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“So I have to kill this human while he’s just a normal guy? Before he
morphs into this untenable monster?”
The reason or whatever for this had been etched into my mind a
moment ago. The abilities of the people born into this world were
inherently limited. In this environment, heroes were extraordinary
presences, exhibiting overwhelming strength and power since birth. The
goddess never created exceptions to this, apparently, and only one her
could exist in the world at the same time. If the hero went crazy, nothing
could stop him. In “battle,” he was undefeatable. That’s where
assassination came in.
“All right. I get what a despot this hero is. But lemme get one thing
clear. If you want him dead, I can do that. But I’m gonna need as much
skill as you can give me, within the framework of human beings.”
“Sure. I can help with that. Your specs will be the strongest possible
within that framework… And I will let you choose your skills, abilities
which are normally selected at random for you.”
An exhaustive list of skills ran across my head. In this swords-and-
sorcery world, people are awarded up to five random skills upon birth.
There were as many of these as stars in the sky, and being able to select
freely from them was huge. Not only could I pick from the strongest of
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the strong—the right combinations could unlock even more power.
“You can’t choose these for me?”
“I do not enjoy micromanaging like that. The thought of getting by with
such piddling force makes my skin crawl. I will give you three days, so
study up. Assuming you are accepting my offer, that is.”
“Before then, I want to ask a few questions. The information gave me
said the goddess can’t interact with the world too excessively, but
sending someone from my world into this one doesn’t count as that?”
“That’s perfectly fine. It just so happened that I brought in a soul from
your world to make up for a shortage here, it just so happened that I
was sloppy with the bleach job and left your memories and knowledge
behind, you just so happened to get a powerful body, and it just so
happened that you drew some strong skills. As long as you’re in that
framework, though, you’d still never defeat him. Not normally, that is.”
So I’d have to play by the rules, even though she gave me the chance to
stretch them a decent amount.
“Okay. Next. You said I had to kill him within eighteen years. I can do
that anytime I’m ready?”
“Ah, no. At least wait until the hero defeats the tyrant. He can’t do that
unless he’s in full hero form, so if you do that, it’ll destroy the world.”
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“Right. So, next question. Did you bait any other souls into taking this
job?”
It was hard to imagine the goddess picking only me for a hit job like
this. If I was her, I’d send a decently-sized army over, boosting my
chances as much as I could.
“You are a notorious assassin, aren’t you? Being able to see that… Well,
the answer is no. For now, at least, it is only you. Not even I can get
away with that many coincidences at once.”
For now, huh…?
“Last one. Do you want me to save the world, or do you want me to just
kill the hero? Because if it’s the former, it’d be better for everyone if I
found a way to save the world without killing him, right?”
“I want you to save the world, of course. If you can do that without
killing him, then be my guest……if you can.”
The goddess gave me a meaningful smile.
“Okay. I’ll take the job. I’ll go to this fantasy world of yours. But I have
one request. Reincarnate me as someone from an affluent family. I’ll
need an environment to build up my strength and skills in.”
“Oh, no need to worry about that. You’ll be born into the greatest
family of assassins in this world, the scion of the Towahade family. Feel
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free to pursue the limits of your human body all you want. I’m ready
once you pick your skills.”
The goddess disappeared. I laughed. Imagine, killing even in the
afterlife. If there’s anything after this for me, I’d like to live for myself
for a change, but now I’m just being a tool yet again. How ironic.
But I had no complaints. I had eighteen years to work with, and a single
murder was all it took to gain back the remainder of my life. Then I
could have it. My own free will. The ability to seek my own happiness.
Episode 1: The Assassin Picks His Skills
I spent the first day running through all the skills in my mind. I needed
to know about them, of course, but I also needed a deeper understanding
of this world I was going into.
There were, um, a lot of skills. One hundred twenty-three thousand,
eight hundred fifty-one of them. In this fantasy realm, people were
granted them at birth, even though quite a few of them weren’t so
useful—Imitate Animal Sounds, Wash Off Blood, Fast Wardrobe
Change, Cross-Dressing, and the like.
These were divided into five ranks, starting at S and going down to A, B,
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C, and D. Your chances obtaining one depended on the rank.
S: 1 in 100,000,000
A: 1 in 1,000,000
B: 1 in 10,000
C: 1 in 100
D: 1 in 1
The figurative dice were rolled once per rank, so it was theoretically
possible to obtain a skill in every available rank. But given that your
chance of an S was already one in a hundred million, simple math states
that getting a full array of skills was a one
in…um…100,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance. A hundred quintillion. So
being able to pick and choose my skills was a huge asset. The majority of
humankind had to make do with a single D skill, after all.
My basic strategy for this was to lock in my choice a super-strong S skill,
then pick the rest as support to make that S really shine.
“Given the odds involved, these S skills are a friggin’ powerhouse…”
Simply having one of them could qualify you as a hero. For example:
Summon Magic Sword
Summons a personal magical sword based on the user’s physical ability
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to do their bidding.
…This sounds kind of lame at first, but the sword that gets summoned
is incredibly overpowered. One swing can slice through a mountain.
Holy Force
An aura of golden holy force surrounds the user, greatly boosting
offense, defense, and speed.
…The “boost” they’re talking about is crazy. A toddler could destroy a
tank barehanded. Super versatile. If you’re at a loss to decide, you really
can’t go wrong with this.
Create Monster
Conjure up monsters from any type of material to do the user’s bidding.
…So, yeah, take a bunch of corpses and magic stones, and bam, you’ve
got your personal monster army. You could let your imagination run wild
with this thing.
And these are just a couple of examples! There are several dozen S skills
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to choose from! It’s nuts!
In making my picks, the first priority of mine had to be securing ample
firepower. This “hero” guy is so far off the charts power-wise that your
average weapon couldn’t scratch him, even undefended. At the very
least, I needed something that could strike a lethal blow if he was
caught unawares. My second criteria was versatility and adaptability. In
a job like this, there’s really telling what could happen to me. Without
the ability to adjust on the fly, if I screw up, I may never be able to
recover.
With those needs in mind, my eyes turned toward…
“It’s gotta be Ultra Healing.”
Rank S: Ultra Healing
Boosts recovery skills for stamina, magical strength, self-healing, etc.
Multiplier begins at 100x and may be improved with experience.
…This may not look terribly exciting at first glance, but like I always
say, the winner of any battle is the guy who runs away last. The way it
constantly restored MP, my ammo in this world, was another attraction,
and it gave me strong resistance against injuries and illnesses as well.
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Even better, it allowed me to keep my sleeping time to an absolute
minimum. The quicker I recover, the more I can train—and given the
rules this world worked under, quick recovery is the best weapon I could
ask for.
“For A, this is really my only pick…”
Rank A: Spell Weaver
Ability to create magic.
Magic is a divine gift to this world, but so far, there are only a few
hundred spells created by the gods. With this skill, I could make
whatever I wanted to. Infinite potential! No skill I could find let me take
greater advantage of my modern scientific knowledge.
“If I’m going with Ultra Healing, my B pick’s automatically this…”
Rank B: Break Growth Limits
Removes all limitations on personal growth.
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…It sounds powerful, but it still earns a B because it’s useless by itself.
If everything else about you was normal, surpassing your limits didn’t
mean too much. In a world as medieval as this, you could train yourself
across your entire life and still never make it anywhere near your limits.
But with Ultra Healing and the ability to train with essentially infinite
stamina, this skill really started to shine.
For my C pick, I went with Martial Arts for versatility’s sake. That gave
me both a talent for it and boosted results with every strike I landed. Its
effects aren’t as flashy as, say, Sword Skill or Spear Skill, but assassins
are masters of any type of weapon. No matter what kind of bonuses
weapon skills granted me, I didn’t any that leaned too much toward any
particular arm.
Finally, for my D pick, I made kind of an amusing pick.
“If this is a D, did the goddess misjudge this, or what?”
It’s not a strong one, but you never know—in the right situation, it could
be huge. You might think it’s a common one, but I was positive it’d be my
ace in the hole.
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◇
In addition to skills, I also needed to pick a magical element.
This world featured the four base elements of earth, fire, wind, and
water, as well as the two rarer elements of light and dark. People were
born with one (or, very rarely, two) of these elements instilled inside of
them. Magic was a gift from the gods, and repeated use of these
elements made new spells pop into your head and become usable.
I decided to go with all of them. Just the four base ones; the other two
weren’t available this way. This came at a disadvantage, though,
because while I had more elements to work with, they would only
advance at half the speed.
“Well, if the speed’s cut in half, I’ll just train twice as much. If I can
recover a hundred times quicker, that’ll be no problem at all.”
I decided having four elements was an advantage that made the speed
penalty worth it.
So I had my skills and elements picked out on the second day, but I still
had no intention of knocking on the goddess’s door. Let’s spend the last
day thinking it over. I might find a better combination, for all I know.
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◇
I spent that whole day thinking, but in the end, I stuck to my guns.
Ultra Healing and Break Growth Limits boosted my core abilities, while
Martial Arts sharpened my moves. I could use all elemental magic, even
making my own with Spell Weaver to expand my repertoire, and then
use my final skills as my trump card. For someone with my assassin
experience, I was positive that no better hand existed.
The goddess appeared.
“You seem to have found a satisfactory set?”
“Mm-hmm. I didn’t find a better one than this.”
“Oh? Ultra Healing for your S pick isn’t too exciting. Neither is the A
one. And I forgot that D one existed at all… You humans are so
fascinating.”
“Is that sarcasm?”
“It’s a compliment. Simply picking a slate of flashy-sounding power
moves would give you no chance against a hero—someone with thirty or
so skills, and no limits placed upon them.”
That was what the hero got to enjoy since birth. It went without saying,
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too, that the hero got to pick those thirty skills from the S and A ranks—
no more than five S’s, but still. I knew just how strong those S jobbies
were. If we simply battled it out, I’d never have any chance—but an
assassin with the right training and thorough preparation? It was
doable. I chose these skills, after all, picturing a foe who’d have thirty S
and A skills working in maximum synergy with each other.
“The time has come to reincarnate. You will begin as an infant with
your current knowledge and personality. The going might be a tad rough
at first, but, well, be patient. Life will certainly never be dull in the
Towahade family! Your mother’s quite the beauty, too. No making any
weird faces when she’s breastfeeding you, all right? You’ll scare the wits
out of her. Also, a word of warning: A kid talking like that is going to
turn off a lot of people, so I’d advise you to fix that sooner than later.”
Without awaiting my reply, the goddess snapped her fingers. I
transformed into a swarm of white particles. My new life was waiting for
me. I’d just have to pray the Towahade family gave me the minimum
amount of nutrition and training time I needed.
Episode 2: The Assassin Learns the Ways and Traditions of an Assassin
Family
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I could feel someone wiping my body, covering it in a soft cloth. I tried to
move, but I wasn’t as strong as I thought.
Opening my eyes, everything seemed blurry to me. It took a few
moments for it to get in focus. I was looking at a beautiful woman with
silvery hair. She was holding me—I suppose she had been slapping my
back for a little bit, trying to make me cry before they had an emergency
on their hands. It stung, so I let my emotions take me and started
bawling for her.
The woman held me right.
“Ah, my dear Lugue…”
Hmm. So my name’ s Lugue? I couldn’t really hold my head up, so I
couldn’t look around me, but between the state of my mother’s health
and the quality of my swaddling cloth and the things in my sightline, I
guessed I was born into a pretty rich family. Did I understand them
because of the knowledge the goddess gave me?
Just then, I heard that goddess’s voice in my head.
“I spotted you that knowledge just for today so you could gauge your
situation. Learn it fast!”
I heard footsteps. Several people entered the room.
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“Is it over, Eslie?”
“Yes, Keyen. It’s a beautiful baby boy. …Are you going to make this
child a Towahade as well?”
“The nation needs them. There are cancers in this land that only an
assassin can remove.”
“…I cannot abide by it. I’m afraid. Afraid of losing this boy like I lost
Luph.”
“Then he must grow strong to avoid that. We will not repeat the same
mistakes. Not even I seek to lose two of my children.”
It was a stern voice, offering no mercy, but there was a faint kind of
warmth lurking behind his words. I assumed that Luph was an older
brother or sister of mine who died in the line of Towahade duty.
Being born into a family doing work as dirty as this wasn’t all bad. The
skills and knowledge I gained in the previous world were only really
good for killing humans, with human strength, armed with no magic.
The Towahade family must have known how to deal with magical
targets, though, and that’s what I wanted the most. Plus, being in
nobility, it’d be easy to procure the training time and facilities I needed.
“Thus it shall be, Keyen. But if I were to lose this one as well, I fear I
could no longer stay here…”
- 26 -
“Lugue shall not die. This, I promise you.”
My mother, still holding me, kissed my father. Then they both kissed me
on the cheek.
…When I heard about being born into an aristocratic assassin family, I
wasn’t expecting much in the way of familial love. Who know they’d be
so normal like this? For someone like me, raised by the Organization for
as far as I remembered, love was just an act you used as a bargaining
tool. But the love my parents had for me, and each other, stimulated
something inside of me. It like real, honorable love.
Maybe I could learn about love here. I didn’t need that to carry out hits,
but I’d need it once I started living as a person.
◇
Five years had already passed since I was reborn.
In my childish body, I had difficulty learning the language and writing
system. It wound up being a good two years before I had both down,
even though that was still shockingly fast by local standards. My
parents and servants hailed me as a prodigy. I tried to slow down my
advancement so I didn’t start to unnerve them, but no matter how
- 27 -
quickly I went along, they were still all full of smiles and joy, so I gave it
up. I still remained in “kid” mode with my speech and mannerisms,
though. Playing the ideal child for my parents was the key to
maintaining a comfortable environment…and, amazingly enough, I
started to like my parents.
By the time I reached five, I started being able to do more things. I
really owed Ultra Healing a lot. I tired easily in my young body, but I
could go for a long time since I had no problem jumping right up from an
exhausted state, and since my muscles healed up so quickly, every
training session gave me huge results. I had strength incomparable to
other kids my age.
Right now, I was in the family library. Even among the noble families,
the Towahades kept particularly careful records, as well as books
collected from the four corners of the world. There was a lot to learn.
“The Towahades are darker than I thought…”
As an assassin family, the Towahades had been awarded the title of
baron by the kingdom of Alvan, one of the world’s four superpowers.
Being a baron meant you were closer to the bottom of nobility’s totem
pole than the top; it didn’t reward us with enormous swaths of land. But
the Towahades were rich. On the surface, we were Alvan’s most
- 28 -
prestigious family of doctors, setting off across the nation on the behest
of other nobility and royalty, and our superior healing techniques earned
us both a vast personal fortune and an extensive network of personal
favors we could call upon.
Below the surface, we were a band of assassins, working under the
personal command of a certain prince’s family. Anything that was a
disadvantage to the nation was rubbed out chiefly with this tactic. Thus,
we ruled over both life and death at the same time, giving us a powerful
say and untold riches—both well beyond what a normal baron family
could enjoy.
“…Our family has been blessed with nothing but the very best in our
people. We have been assassins for seven unbroken generations, after
all.”
If the Towahades’ secrets were ever made public, it’d overturn the entire
kingdom. They could expect the nation to cut them off at any time to
keep those secrets safe. The family needed some countermeasures.
“That should do for today.”
I closed the book, just as I heard a knock on the door.
“Lugue, your father is calling you.”
It’s already that time?
- 29 -
The Towahade family offered a robust education to its children from a
young age, keeping their brains active as they kept tabs on their growth
and strength and modified their training regimen to match. Add magical
training to the mix, and it couldn’t have been more ideal for me. But
when I reached five, the real training begin, and the hurdles got a lot
higher.
Time to go steal my father’s techniques again. I had a lot to learn from
him.
◇
Today we’d be heading to a basement facility. It had been off limits
before now.
“Lugue, it is time to reveal to you the secrets behind the Towahades’
superior medical, and…assassination skills. First, though, I want you to
recite for me the Towahade family motto.”
“The Towahades’ arts, only for Alvan’s prosperity!”
“Good. Now, why do the Towahades use their medical techniques for
the sake of the nation?”
“To extend the lives of the superior ones!”
- 30 -
“Exactly. We, ourselves, do not create anything. But, by saving the lives
of our superior leaders, we can make sure they can live on and improve
our land. So what do we use our assassin’s strikes for?”
“To heal the nation of its sickness, we minimize the damage by excising
it at the source!”
I could recite it by heart now. My father had told it to me countless
times. That was how we toed the line between life and death, preserving
what’s good for the country and eliminating what wasn’t, and made our
country prosper.”
“Excellent. If a greedy nobleman decided to revolt, it would result in
countryman killing countryman. It would leave scars on the land long
after it was quelled. With us, we can put an end to it before it happens.
As sly a den of foxes as they may be, living above the law, none of them
can escape the assassin’s blade.”
That blade was, for the most part, aimed at Alvan’s own nobility.
In this nation, the nobles wielded most of the power. That allowed them
to escape prosecution and keep themselves ensconced well enough that
not even the royal family could really touch them. But a sharpened
blade didn’t care about power. It could killed no matter what anyone
thought. And now I would learn the skills needed to do that.
- 31 -
“Lugue, you will find that the more you pursue your fighting skills, the
more it will start to look like medical treatment.”
“I suppose so. You need to know the human body well in order to
efficiently destroy it.”
Martial arts were simply about taking fullest advantage of the human
body’s structure, exploiting its weaknesses to efficiently defeat them.
“To me, the skills of a martial artist are mere child’s play. They know
far too little about the human body. But the Towahades do. It is with a
full understanding of the anatomical arts that we are able to kill so
much better than anyone else. The most efficient killer in the world,
after all, is a doctor.”
As we proceeded downward, we passed by an enormous dungeon. It was
populated with prisoners.
“These are condemned prisoners, gathered from our domain and
others. They serve as the Towahades’ teaching materials.”
“I see,” I said. “People who nobody would mind dead. Nothing could be
more useful to learn from! We can use them as medical samples and
murder training.”
It was a win-win for the Towahades—they’d help advance medicine and
make the family stronger killers. There was no quicker method of
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learning how to heal, and destroy, than by dismembering them, fixing
them up, destroying them, and killing them. I’m sure the doctors in my
original world would be envious if they ever heard. All the new
medicines and surgical procedures they’d like to try, and they have to
make do with lab mice! If they could use human bodies any way they
wanted to, I’m sure it’d advance our knowledge of medicine by centuries.
“…You seem unsurprised, Lugue. When I was brought down here at
the age of five, I shook with fear. I lashed out at my father, on moral
grounds.”
“I am…reluctant. But logically, I can understand.”
“You truly are talented. Such advanced knowledge and logical skills, at
the age of five. Your future is bright indeed. So! Your first of many
classes down here in the basement will be taught on the subject of
killing. I will have you kill around five people. You will be given a knife,
and you are free to use the method of your choice. Your targets have
been given muscle relaxants and will not put up a resistance. Now…one
final question. What meaning do these murders have? Think about it.”
Killing a non-moving target. With a knife, even a five-year-old could pull
it off. I’m sure I could learn how to kill efficiently in actual combat, but
that alone would leave me weak.
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“Are they meant to get me used to killing? I kill in training so I don’t
hesitate in my actual work?”
“Correct. People have an primordial resistance to killing others.
Enough of a resistance that a soldier on the battlefield will resist
striking the final blow on his foe, even after a life-and-death duel. My
friends in military circles say that only one in three soldiers are ready to
kill without hesitation from the first campaign. …That hesitation costs
many of them their lives.”
“I understand. I’ll get used to it…so I don’t hesitate.”
My father brought me into a room. I approached the unresponsive
prisoner inside.
“Before I do it,” I said, “may I ask a question?”
“You may.”
“Why do people get raised to hesitate to kill? The books my mother
read to me talked about how precious life is, and you taught me to love
my neighbor. …That just gets in the way of killing.”
In my previous life, the Organization taught me that human life was
worthless. That was why I never hesitated to kill before. I never felt a
single pang of guilt. But the Towahades tried to instill me with a
healthy, well-adjusted heart—something I never had there, but now I
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did. I felt that it simply dulled the metaphorical blade.
“If you did not possess the values of a normal person,” he replied, “you
wouldn’t be able to read deeply into a person’s mind. Humanity like that
is a vital weapon like that in assassination. We are not tools—we are
people. We do not kill simply as we are ordered—we kill only when
convinced we must, for the sake of our nation. You must never forget
that. It is the one thing I must teach you, as an assassin with the heart
needed to do what must be done.”
“I feel I only half understand that… I will continue thinking about it.”
Growing stronger, while still carrying that dull warmth in my heart. I’m
sure this is something I should welcome. Unlike the first time around, I
was living as a person, not a tool.
So let’s do what we can.
I had never felt guilt or hesitation at killing before. But I wasn’t running
away. This ceremony was a required step, if I wanted to live my life as
Lugue Towahade.
(To be continued.)
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