The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

From those who had never witnessed a murder scene in their lives to the seasoned knights who had seen the spectacle of death on the battlefield time and again, everyone was in shock at the sight before them.

“Is that- is that a human?”

A savior, who hadn’t managed to gain the upper hand even once, was mercilessly killed without resistance, and the assassin stood there nonchalantly.

No one at the scene could see the assassin as a human.

“It’s a demon…”

No other words came to mind.

The repulsive black fog covered the brilliant light, taking its place, and the minions of the fog looked up at the sky with blood-soaked faces, smiling broadly.

The revulsion was so intense that the thought of approaching was unfathomable.

Yet, there was one person among them.

One who wished to approach the demon.

“What are you trying to do, Arin?”

Kundel, who was receiving treatment, hastily stopped her as he noticed her movements.

Arin, with her gaze fixed on Cyan, answered.

“He’s happy. Cyan is…”

From their first encounter on the frontline to now, Arin had never seen Cyan show such an expression.

How could he smile so contentedly after committing murder, especially of a brother with whom he shared blood?

Arin wanted to know why.

Driven by unrelenting curiosity, she moved closer to Cyan, but

“Do not come any closer.”

Cyan, unwilling to allow it, verbally stopped her.

Arin ignored him and replied.

“I’m not coming to harm you.”

“Then all the more reason to stay away. There are many eyes around us. Are you intending to be misunderstood?”

Beyond being fellow academy students, their relationship was already known to all who should know.

If Arin had approached with a drawn sword and on guard, perhaps it could have been misunderstood, but her pitiable approach towards Cyan was just inviting misunderstanding from others.

However, Arin did not stop.

“Are you worried about me?”

Cyan’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Are you worried that people will spread strange rumors about me because of a misunderstanding?”

“Why would I care about such nonsense…”

“Then there’s no reason for you to tell me not to come. Could you not just kill me like you did your brother?”

Cyan’s lips curved up again.

He was incredulous.

“Who do you think you’re playing word games with?”

A princess in name only, without any real power.

“I see you didn’t understand the last piece of advice I gave you.”

Cyan quickly turned around and violently pulled Arin towards him by grabbing her collar.

Arin’s eyes wavered distantly in shock.

“Do you think I’ve grown fond of you just because we’ve spent time together and talked a bit? Don’t be mistaken. You were nothing to me from the beginning. And it’s the same now.”

Cyan’s voice was filled with a murderous aura, even ghostly in its intensity.

A chill ran through her body, as if she would collapse if she lost focus even for a moment.

Yet, even so, Arin didn’t avoid Cyan’s gaze.

Unbeknownst to them, they shared commonalities.

Born into unwelcome families, in undesired positions, they faced contempt and oppression, always told by those around them to do nothing, forced into living lives deemed worthless.

At least, until their paths crossed.

“I know…”

Arin, struggling to contain her overwhelming emotions, barely managed to speak.

“But whether you wanted to or not, you changed my life. If I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t be standing here facing you like this!”

Her voice was mixed with sobbing, but Arin spoke clearly and without hesitation.

She needed to make Cyan understand why she was here.

“You know me, but I don’t know you. That’s why I want to know. The being that changed the direction of my life, the man who is like a savior to me, I want to know what kind of person you are!”

Hearing her, Cyan’s head drooped.

“What’s the reason for having to ruthlessly kill your own brother in front of me! And why, in this situation, do you choose not to kill me and quietly listen to what I have to say…!”

“Sigh…”

A deep, heavy sigh interrupted Arin’s words as Cyan’s head remained bowed.

“There’s a limit to entertaining nonsense.”

Lifting his head, Cyan’s face was filled with indescribable negative emotions.

Realizing all these emotions were directed at her, Arin couldn’t find the words to continue.

“Are you curious why I don’t kill you, princess? Because there’s simply no need.”

Cyan pressed the blood-stained magic sword against Arin’s neck.

“Because you, princess, are worth nothing.”

Worthless.

For Arin, it was the worst thing she could hear from anyone.

“The princess is useless. To the royal family, to the empire, and to me… Killing her would only dirty my hands, and letting her live won’t affect my future in any way. That’s exactly what the princess is.”

Things can change with effort.

No one can predict how a person’s future might change, and so on.

It was no longer the time for such hypocritical words.

“That fact will not change. In the future, forever……”

It was time to firmly engrave the position of Arin Severus as a human being.

Cyan passed the trembling eyes of Arin and brought his mouth close to her ear.

“So now know your place and……”

So that she alone could hear this whisper of truth.

“Disappear from my sight.”

After hearing Cyan’s final warning, Arin’s body swayed as she lost her balance.

But she didn’t fall down.

Clutching her fists tightly, Arin desperately maintained her balance.

With her eyes reddened, she boldly met Cyan’s gaze again,

And lifted the corners of her mouth.

“Even so… you won’t kill me?”

Cyan’s pupils slightly wavered.

“That I won’t change? That I will have no value in the future?”

Tears spilled out, wetting Arin’s cheeks.

Her inner emotions finally exploded, and pitiful tears flowed, but Arin did not lower the smirk on her lips.

“I’ll make you regret those words!”

In her past life or now, an existence that did not matter.

Cyan explicitly hammered in that no matter what Arin did, she could not affect him in any way.

This hammered thought deeply changed Arin’s heart.

From wondering about Cyan’s true intentions,

To a determination to become someone who can affect Cyan by any means necessary.

-With a swoosh,

Cyan, looking at Arin’s resolute eyes, lifted his demonic sword again.

With the hand not holding the sword, he grasped Arin’s collar and then exerted force.

Arin closed her eyes tightly,

“……?”

Pulled by Cyan’s force, she fell to the side.

-Clang!

A loud metallic sound assaulted her ears.

As she fell and opened her eyes, Arin’s pupils dilated.

In front of Cyan, who had swung his demonic sword to the side after pushing Arin away, the masterless holy sword was emitting light in midair, aiming at Cyan.

* * *

In all my lives combined, I’ve never encountered such a situation.

Even after rubbing my eyes and looking again, all I saw floating before me was a holy sword without its master.

There was no sight of the knight who was supposed to grasp and swing the sword.

With a flicker of hope, I glanced at Aschel’s corpse, but he had already merged with the cold ground, his life’s light extinguished.

“What’s this?”

[…….]

I asked Kaeram as if talking to myself, but she remained silent.

“So, can you move on your own without a master?”

[Even if it’s a divine artifact, it absolutely cannot move on its own without a master.]

If that were the case, she wouldn’t have remained silent up till now.

“Then who is wielding it?”

Kaeram remained silent again.

The standoff between me and the holy sword was brief, for

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a strange cluster of light wriggled from the sky, pouring down towards where the holy sword was.

Blessed by the cluster of light, the holy sword slowly ascended to the heavens, eventually vanishing from my sight.

Kaeram and I could only watch the spectacle, dumbfounded.

“What in the world?”

[What do you mean? It’s exactly what you and I both wanted, the start of something really, really interesting.]

There was an unusual tremor in Kaeram’s voice.

Just as I was about to ask what she meant,

Thud!

“……?”

Thud! Thump! Slither!

Suddenly, the humans around us who had been watching the situation began to close their eyes and collapse.

At first, it seemed like powerless civilians were falling, but then, even courageous knights and magicians began to fall, clutching their heads.

“Yo- young master…!”

Even Emily and Brian, who had been following me, collapsed helplessly.

Just as I was about to rush to them,

Whoosh

The cluster of light that had retrieved the holy sword now hovered above my head.

Then, a burning pain as if stabbed by a sword was felt on one side of my chest.

I took a few steps back to escape, but the cluster of light did not stop; it kept following me.

Looking down at my chest amidst the burning pain, a familiar emblem caught my eye.

The brilliant emblem of the sun, symbolizing Lumendel. While Lumendel’s emblem was originally golden, the one now engraved on my chest was dyed in deep blood-red.

‘Cyan Vert.’

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice, one I had never heard before, echoed in my mind.

At the same time, an unknown ringing sound tormented my ears, disorienting my senses.

‘You have finally crossed the line that you, as a creation, should have never crossed.’

With each word spoken, I felt my breath hitching in my throat.

What could it be?

It didn’t seem like magic; I felt no trace of magical energy infiltrating my body.

Perhaps, I already knew.

There aren’t many beings in this world capable of crumbling a human’s spirit with their voice alone.

‘You do not deserve to live in the world I reign over.’

Their talk of worth made it even clearer.

I grabbed my aching head, barely managing to lift it.

Before me appeared,

‘So struggle. Until you no longer have even a speck of will left to live. When that moment comes, I will personally take your life.’

Giants with golden armor, each wielding a spear and shield, and a sword, with six pairs of wings spread on either side,

‘More painfully than any human has ever experienced!’

* * *

Arin, who had been pushed out by Cyan, witnessed alongside him the scene of the holy sword ascending to the sky.

But that was only for a moment,

As people around started falling one by one, and a halo of light reappeared over Cyan’s head, the mysterious circumstances continued.

Sensing that something dire was happening, Arin tried to stand up and assist Cyan, but,

-Thud!

An unknown force suppressed her body and spirit, rendering her immobile.

Fallen, Arin stretched her hand towards Cyan, still standing tall.

“Cya…”

All she could manage were moans, despite trying to speak.

Cyan did not even glance at her.

More precisely, he couldn’t.

In front of Cyan, with his back to Arin, stood massive, golden aberrations with silver eyes, fixating on Cyan.

Arin instinctively knew Cyan was in danger, but there was nothing she could do.

Was this, as Cyan said, truly the epitome of being utterly worthless?

All Arin could do now was to open her eyes and watch over Cyan.

Even just watching him was incredibly difficult.

‘I still have to watch.’

Arin concentrated and forced her eyes open.

The scene unfolding before her was astonishing. Three golden giants were attacking Cyan, but he evaded them effortlessly.

And his counterattacks were all deadly.

He cut off heads, arms, and legs.

But it didn’t end there. The giants quickly healed their wounds and charged at Cyan again.

Cyan also looked surprised.

Just as the giants’ weapons were about to hit him, a thick fog rolled in, and someone wrapped around Cyan.

A stranger wearing a red bob-cut mask.

Dressed in a simple black robe, he locked eyes with Arin for a moment.

‘Who is that?’

Her thought was cut short.

In an instant, the fog dispersed, and he disappeared with Cyan.

Arin closed her eyes.

How much time had passed?

“Princess! Princess Arin!”

Woken by the urgent call, Arin opened her eyes.

The royal knights had gathered around her, guarding her.

“The princess is safe!”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Before Arin could answer the knights’ questions, she looked around.

“Cyan is…”

Even in a semi-conscious state, there was only one thing she wanted to know.

“What happened to Cyan?”

She was concerned about Cyan’s safety.

None of the knights rushed to answer, instead glancing at each other.

“He’s gone.”

Kundel, who approached later, provided the answer.

Gone.

In other words, he wasn’t dead.

“Is he… safe?”

“We don’t know. After you were thrown aside, no one saw what happened.”

“What do you mean, Chancellor?”

“Look around.”

Only then did Arin step out from the knights’ guard and look around where she had fallen.

Excluding the spot where Arin had fainted,

the surrounding area was devastated, and unidentified red blood was scattered everywhere.

(To be continued)