“Who is it?” I asked, knowing that no one would reply. In the novel, the identity of the assassin was not revealed until the very end, not that I was particularly interested in finding out either.

To my surprise, however, the assassin spoke, “Did you think you would be given an answer if you asked?”

The assassin’s retort surprised me. I thought he would kill me without a word, but he was quite the talkative one. There were many strong monsters in the organization that this assassin belonged to, but he was definitely not one. The assassin in front of me was only an extra that was disposed of after reporting the death of Prince Yuan.

The man behind this assassin was someone who valued talent quite a lot. Based on the fact that the assassin was silenced just because he was aware of my death, he was not that important.

The assassins that were too strong were at risk of being sensed by the monstrous guards that protected this palace, so a weak assassin was sent on purpose. They probably thought that some big shot wasn’t required to kill someone like Prince Yuan.

To be honest, even this man more than sufficed for the likes of Prince Yuan.

“Man, you are so cold-hearted. I should at least tell King Ya… I mean, the Lord of the Moon about who sent me there, shouldn’t I?”

I almost said King Yama out of habit, but then changed it with the god overlooking the afterlife in this world. This world believed that every soul was born in the sun and went to the moon after death.

I don’t particularly believe in any god, but I’m also not someone opposing other people having faiths.

The assassin’s brows twitched as I lifted a bottle of wine and a wineglass in leisure.

“What? Do you want a drink?”

“Are you mocking me!”

The assassin yelled in response to my question. Seeing his reaction, I smiled in ridicule. “Pathetic. Do you think the likes of you are worth someone like me to deceive? You’re merely a dirty rat who crawled into the house without the owner’s consent. Don’t think too highly of yourself.”

“You…”

Even though his face was covered with a mask I could tell his face turn red because of anger. He was so easy.

“I will advise you personally so listen carefully. Self-overestimation—like the one you’re doing—is a symptom of a disease. It is called megalomania.”

Maybe he felt insulted from my advice, he pulled out a dagger from his arm; people were bound to get angry when they were exposed of the truth they wanted to hide.

“How dare you, you insignificant maggot!”

With the cry of the assassin, the broken clock rang, and the moonlight gleamed off of the dagger he swung, aiming at my heart as if it had been blessed by the God of the Moon, who presided over death.

Clang-!

Just like in the prologue of novel, red liquid spread out on the ground, tragically reflecting the moonlight.

And thus, Prince Yuan dies.

…And from now on, it is my life.

I grabbed assassin’s arm holding the dagger with my hand that dropped the glass.

“Huh?!”

The assassin was confused when his arm suddenly caught then I smiled and yelled.

“Nabi! His ears!”

At my cry, Nabi moved as I had instructed beforehand. Blood burst out from both the ears of the assassin.

Nabi was a wind spirit, and therefore could control wind.

Then, what is wind? Wind is the movement of air in space.

Then why does air move? Just as water flows from higher to lower places, air flows from places of high pressure to low pressure.

This implied that wind spirits could also manipulate pressure. What I instructed Nabi was to create maximum pressure difference around the assassin’s ears. As a result, the assassin’s eardrums burst, and his semicircular canals, which played an important role in maintaining balance of the body, was crushed.

As the assassin staggered, I smashed the wine bottle in my other hand on his head with all my might.

“Uck!”

With a dull sound, blood flowed out of the assassin’s head. The assassin’s body balance was so off that he could not even avoid an attack from this weak arm swinging a bottle.

Also, unlike in the movies or dramas, the bottle I swung around looks totally fine other than some blood covering it, huh? Well, I guess it’s only natural since movie props were actually fakes made with sugar.

“Uh, how, uh, uh…” The assassin was shocked and could not speak properly as if the blow just now had caused him brain damage.

“You’re a trained assassin after all, huh? Well, I guess it was wrong for me to expect to kill you in one go with this pathetic body in a world where there are freaks who can destroy mountains with a single sword.”

It would not be strange for a normal person to die after Nabi’s attack, much less talk. From how he aimed precisely at my heart despite his anger, I could be pretty sure that his body was trained to be perfect as an assassin, even though his mental state wasn’t.

“Ah, do you want to know how I am still alive? To that, my answer would be I read a lot of books.”

I pulled the dagger out of my chest and unbuttoned my shirt. Then I took out a thick book that I had placed in place of corset. The dagger almost managed to completely penetrate through the hard cover.

No wonder my chest is aching like hell.

After throwing the book on the floor, I raised the bottle up high. “I hope that answers your question. Then I will be leaving. I won’t be seeing you off.”

Then I hit him with the bottle again with all my might. This was my condolences to the tragic prince who died a pitiful death.

* * *

Feeling an unknown source of unease, Precia briefly left her guard post to check on her master, Yuan and headed to the waiting room. This action of hers was later used as an excuse against her to exile in <The Sage of the Winter Tree> but there was no way that she knew that.

When Precia opened the door of the waiting room, what she saw was red liquid all over the floor and a masked man unconscious on the floor, as well as Prince Yuan standing with a bottle of in his hand that was dripping blood.

“What is this…? Your Highness! Are you okay! Are you hurt anywhere!”

When Precia examined Yuan’s condition worriedly, the frail prince she served spoke in a calm voice, which was quite a contrast to his pale complexion and irises widened in agitation. “I am not hurt anywhere. Also, the thing on the floor is wine.”

“Thank god you are not hurt! But what happened?” she asked, looking much more relieved.

Hearing her question, Yuan handed the wine bottle to her with his trembling arms before replying. “It’s just that an assassin came to kill me, and let us say that you’re the one who dealt with the assassin as my escort.”

“What?” she asked back as she took the bottle away from him, not understanding the situation.

Generally, assassinations only occurred if someone bought the resentment of others, or were hindrances towards a certain objective. Considering Prince Yuan’s usual behavior or the position he was in, it was unlikely that someone was targeting his life. After all, even the queen, who hated him, thought of him as nothing more than some weeds on the side of the road.

“And notify everyone immediately that assassins have infiltrated the palace, and that they should protect their masters.”

“Ah! Yes, sir!”

Yuan smiled hazily at Precia’s answer. “I’ll leave that up to you. You protect my safety… and…If there’s anything you… don’t understand…ask Heri…on.”

He fainted before he could complete his words.

“Your Highness? Your Highness! Is there anyone out there? Physician! Someone call the palace physician right now!” Precia shouted as she embraced unconscious Yuan.

If Yuan was awake, he would have chuckled saying that she was acting just like she did in the novel, but he had already fallen in deep slumber.

The only difference from the prologue was that person to die was the assassin and not Yuan and that the floor was covered with wine and not blood.

Precia’s shout rang throughout the palace, making people flock to the waiting room next to the banquet hall and news about the assassin spread throughout the palace in a blink of an eye.

Naturally, the dinner banquet was canceled, and the King was quickly escorted away from the prince’s palace on his way here. The whole palace was locked down and knights busily looked for other potential intruders.

Herion, Yuan’s exclusive attendant comforted the people of prince’s palace and Precia spent whole night next to Yuan in anxiety and blaming herself for failing to protect him.

Amidst the volatile atmosphere in the palace, rumors that there were wounds that looked to be from physical abuse started spreading around, alongside the talks about the assassin.

If he was abused, then by who?

Everyone in the palace thought of a single person but no one dared to say anything.

* * *

When I woke up, I saw a ceiling I thought I’d seen somewhere before. Then I touched my face and realized that this was my room. I had some hopes that I would wake up in the other world as Ahn Yuan, but that didn’t happen after all.

Well, then again, after that friend of mine died, I did not have any attachments to that world. I didn’t have any family after all. The only thing that bothered me was I couldn’t see my friend off.

“Um…”

When I looked at the window, I saw that sunlight coming into my room short and not slanted. From that, I inferred that it was around noon. I fainted around 6 pm and it was noon right now, so even from a rough estimate, I had been asleep for around 18 hours.

“Your, Your Highness… You are awake…” Precia restlessly got up from her seat and then smacked her head into my bed as she fell over.

“Precia?”

From her periodic breathing, it seemed she had fallen asleep.

Precia was strong a semi-perfect powerful the protagonist from the beginning, but she fell fainted just after staying up for a single night?

I was rather taken aback by this and was brushing my head backwards when I saw that the lettering on my right wrist had changed.

0.0411%t

I felt a burst of fury seeing that but held it in.

Even after going through such ordeal yesterday, it only went up by 0.0004 percent?

I sighed but then I felt unpleasant oil on my hand as I swept my hair. From the texture of it, I wouldn’t have gotten this oily from just a single night.

How many days did I sleep?

After I got up from bed I tried to lay Precia on the bed, who was dead asleep.

“Urgh, why is she so heavy? Armor? Is she wearing armor right now?!”

When I tried to pull her on the bed with force I let out a groan and then “my” exclusive servant knocked and entered the room.

“Er… uhm, shall I come later?”

Hearing his question, I shook my head and told him to come in.

“Stop watching and help me out. She fainted as soon as she saw me.”

The old attendant smiled gently at me and helped lay Precia on the bed.

As expected of a beastman, he is strong even in his old age.

“It is only natural for Dame Precia to faint. She had been staying by your side without sleeping for three whole days, Your Highness.”

His words shocked me.

“Three days? Without even sleeping? Weren’t there other people to stand guard?”

No matter how difficult of a position I was in, there were soldiers and knights patrolling and guarding the palace. Whether they were trustworthy or not was a separate matter, but I couldn’t understand why she would foolishly stand guard when she could get enough rest.

When I asked like I was taken aback, Herion smiled. “Dame Precia said Your Highness ordered her to protect you.”

She did all this just because of a single word from me? Oh my god. What will I do of this foolish girl.

I sighed and thought about what to do in the future. Even if I defeated the assassin that was my immediate danger, I could not say for sure that I had achieved my aim of survival. There was no way that a bastard who sent an assassin in the palace would give up after failing once.

So, my aim was still to survive.

And I will make them pay, whoever dares to get in my way.

My revenge had already begun.

“Ufufu.” I chuckled satisfactorily and rustled my hand through Precia’s hair.

Ah, she didn’t wash her hair either.