The Reincarnated Assassin is a Swordsmaster

Chapter 1

I’m going to die.

The chilly night breeze, a half-hidden moon, and even my assassin senses whispered the same message—that I was going to die.

I looked around.

In the garden, there were numerous winding paths between the trees, which resembled fuzzy wool.

But there were no paths that I could walk to make it out alive. Only paths reeking of death lay ahead of me.

“Raon.”

I raised my head upon hearing the voice that weighed so heavily on my heart. I saw a middle-aged man with long, frosty silver hair.

It was him: Derus Robert.

It was because of this man, the head of the House of Robert, that this vast garden emanated a sinister energy, akin to a death-infested swamp.

“Yes, sir,” I said.

Derus swallowed hard and then opened his mouth.

“Your performance suits your position as the leader of the Shadows. Thanks to your work in the dark world, our family is growing much faster.”

“I only did what I had to do.”

I expressed neither happiness nor unhappiness. I bowed like an emotionless wooden doll.

“On another subject, Raon,” he said carefully, “do you believe shadows require freedom?”

Derus reached out his hand. His shadow on the ground did the same.

“All shadows should do is follow their owners. No thoughts, emotions, or feelings are necessary.”

“I agree.”

“Then why did you move on your own?”

The sound of Derus’ voice, suddenly turned cold, made my heart tighten.

“And how did you break free from the brainwashing?”

I felt chills creeping up my spine. I bit down on my tongue to avoid showing surprise.

Huh?

I hadn’t said anything different than before. I had no idea how he had realized that I’d broken free.

“Tell me. When and how did you break free?”

This meant he already knew everything.

I lifted my head, biting my lip. “How did you find out?”

Brainwashing.

This is the way the House of Robert operates their assassin organization, the Shadows.

They abduct or purchase young children, mute their emotions, and use them as assassins for their entire lives by brainwashing them.

I, too, underwent brainwashing, but I managed to escape those vile shackles thanks to an unusual twist of fate.

“You were preparing to escape from our family,” Derus continued. “We place two leashes on all of the Shadows’ assassins, including you. The first is brainwashing, and the second...”

“Kurgh!”

I couldn’t help but scream as I felt a sharp pain. It felt like my lungs and heart were being sliced by a saw.

“...is the rage worm. The worm we implanted in your body is burrowing into your heart as I speak.”

“R-rage worm...”

The rage worm was the worst form of sorcery. It had the ability to discern the emotions of its host.

The rage worm must have revealed to Derus that I was plotting my escape.

“Y-you fed me a rage worm on top of brainwashing, all while pretending to be honorable and fair? You vile—”

“I’m thorough, not vile. So... you did actually manage to break free from the brainwashing.”

Derus smiled with gentle eyes, just as he did in public.

“They say people always wear some kind of mask. It’s just that mine is a little thicker and more particular than most.”

“Derus Robert...”

I clenched my jaw, and I lifted my body despite the pain that made me feel as though my heart were being split in two.

I couldn’t just sit there and die.

I was abducted by the House of Robert before I can remember, and since then I was raised as a hunting dog as well as an assassin.

I lived with my emotions and feelings taken away, and I was only able to recover from the brainwashing after a strange twist of fate.

I’d thought I could finally live according to my own will, but rather than a key to escape the cage, I was met with chains of death.

What have I done to deserve this? Why do I have to live such a shitty life?

Damn it!

My empty emotional well was filling up with crimson water. The anger was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

“You are trying to get up in that condition?” Derus’ eyes flickered slightly.

“I will not die with dishonor,” I said, grabbing the sword at my waist.

I could still sense the death I’d felt as I walked into the garden.

I will die here.

But I won’t simply die. I’ll make sure to take a piece of him with me.

“Aaagh!”

I wielded my sword as I released the aura that had filled my stomach.

That moment, the blade split in half as it extended toward him.

Clack.

I heard the necklace I was wearing fall on the ground.

The world was spinning as Derus’ cold eyes flipped upside down, and the moon floated below him.

Oh... I finally realized what had happened...

My head was sliced off by Derus’ sword.

But an assassin’s blade can move faster than the eye can perceive.

The chilling aura hidden behind the broken blade flew toward his pale face.

“Pathetic.”

He waved his hand, annoyed. With a casual hand gesture, as if shooing away a fly, my final sword attack was extinguished like a candle’s flame.

Of course...

Derus was known as the most powerful martial artist on the continent. It was clear that I couldn’t defeat him.

Because I was weak and he was strong. It is what it is.

No, it... isn’t!

The anger welling up from the depths of my chest boiled like lava.

It pained me to realize that I had been manipulated by Derus my entire life, and I couldn’t bear the fact that I would never complete the Flame Link I had acquired by chance.

I can’t die like this.

Whether it be god or demon, I don’t care.

The moment that my anger and the desire to expose and decapitate Derus consumed my entire being, my world turned crimson—and came to an end.

***

“Hmm...”

Derus Robert raised his right hand with a frown.

I definitely blocked it.

Even though Derus had perfectly blocked that bastard’s final sword attack, he noticed a small cut appearing on the back of his hand.

He couldn’t recall how many years it had been since he had been wounded enough to bleed.

How ridiculous.

This slave had overcome the brainwashing on his own, tolerated the pain of the rage worm, and even managed to wound the head of the House of Robert.

Derus was bewildered by what had happened to the hunting dog he had raised to be expendable.

But...

Raon was already dead. Though he had defied common sense, there was no need for concern.

“Take it away.”

As Derus turned his back, martial artists hidden in the shadows of the garden emerged and approached Raon’s lifeless body.

Vwoom.

Raon’s necklace, drenched in crimson blood, emitted a blue light, but no one took notice of it.

[You are chosen by <Anger>.]

[<Anger> has arrived to your body... The host died!]

[An error has occurred...]

***

Reincarnation.

A fantasy concept that most people have heard of, but don’t really believe in.

Raon, too, didn’t believe in reincarnation.

He had been brainwashed his entire life, and when he broke free from it, he was so preoccupied with preparing to escape from the House of Robert that he didn’t even consider such absurdity.

He believed that everything ended after death.

However...

“Sunshine. Look over here!”

A beautiful woman with crimson eyes and soft, blonde, shoulder-length hair was shaking a blue rattle.

“There’s also a red one!”

She also reached out her left hand, holding a red rattle.

Clink, clink, clink!

He frowned at the sound of two shakers clinking together, but the blonde woman didn’t stop.

“Ahoo.”

Raon reached out his hands toward the rattles with a light sigh.

“That’s right! This way!”

She smiled brightly and shook the rattles even harder.

There were only two things he could see: chubby arms that resembled sausages, and a woman who was shaking baby toys.

I still can’t get used to it. To think that these arms are mine, and she is my mother...

That woman’s name was Sylvia.

It’s still hard to believe, but I happened to reincarnate as that woman’s baby with the memories of my past life as an assassin.

I thought it was a dream at first.

I thought everything would be over after a nap, but no matter how much I slept, it seemed I couldn’t wake up from this.

Days and days passed, eventually over a hundred, and Raon finally accepted the fact that he had been reincarnated.

“Sunshine! Over here!”

“Awoo!”

As he slowly crawled toward the rattle, Sylvia began to retreat step by step.

“Yes! A little more!”

Raon crawled after Sylvia and extended his hand toward the rattle.

“Ga...”

But his body started leaning to the right due to the weight of his head.

“No!”

Sylvia quickly dropped the rattle and threw her body forward to catch him.

She’s fast.

Her movements were remarkably quick. Even though he couldn’t sense aura in her, it appeared as though she had trained in martial arts.

“Were you scared? It’s okay. I’m here.”

Sylvia patted Raon’s back.

“Awoo.”

Raon waved his hand. He expressed that he wasn’t scared at all, but her patting didn’t seem to stop.

“My Sunshine. Shall we go look at some flowers?”

Sylvia walked to the window and opened up the curtain, carrying him on her back. Warm sunshine shined down gently like a cotton comforter.

I can’t believe she’s still calling me Sunshine...

Obviously, it must be my baby name.

The head of the house was supposed to decide on the name, but he seemed too busy to even pay a visit.

So I’m still being called Sunshine even a hundred days after I was born.

Haa… Raon sighed internally as he looked around in Sylvia’s arms.

The room was spacious enough to run around in. Its walls were adorned with sophisticated ocean-blue wallpaper, and the ceiling featured magical lights that glittered at night.

Although he couldn’t figure out much about the situation while trapped in the body of a baby that slept more than twenty hours a day, Raon knew one thing for sure.

This family was wealthy. Probably quite reputable as well.

Not too shabby.

It was better to be reincarnated into a wealthy and powerful family than into a normal one, anyway.

Because I have to get revenge.

The horror that he felt when he was beheaded by Derus was still vivid in his mind.

He’d thought all his emotions had faded away while he was being raised as an assassin, but anger and vengefulness were definitely there. Perhaps because the memory of his death was too strong.

Still, there’s no need to rush.

Raon calmed himself, breathing gently.

Since he had only been in this room, he didn’t know where he was or what his status was.

I’ll have time to prepare my revenge after I figure out the situation.

The most important virtue for assassins was patience, and he was known as the best among them.

He could easily set aside his emotions and vengefulness.

It was there.

Through strange coincidences in his past life, he’d obtained the Flame Link, a swordsman skill which was said to be the most powerful on the continent a thousand years ago.

If he were to train in the Flame Link from now on, he might even be able to defeat Derus Robert in a fair fight, without resorting to assassination.

I must be patient and practice until that day.

Anyway, I feel sleepy...

Lying under the warm sunshine while in Sylvia’s arms made him feel tired once again.

I can’t believe I’m already tired after just thinking a little... Being in a baby’s body sure is inconvenient.

“Is the sunshine making you sleepy? Let’s rest, then.”

Sylvia smiled and slowed down the tempo of her patting. He was dozing off, his head about to flip backward when the door opened without a knock, and Sylvia’s maid entered.

“Lady Sylvia! M-Master’s coming this way!”

“Father is?”

Sylvia opened her eyes wide upon hearing the maid.

“Father?”

If she’s calling him Father, the head of this house must be my grandfather, not my father.

“I-I’d better prepare...”

“It’s too late. He’s already right outside!”

“Oh dear!”

Both Sylvia and the maids walked around chaotically, clearly nervous.

Clomp.

Raon heard cold and hard footsteps that made him shrink outside of the half-opened door.

Who was the head of the house?

He carefully opened his eyes and turned his head toward the door.

An old man with shiny blonde hair brushed over his forehead and crimson eyes was walking toward him. Sylvia and the maids trembled at the sound of his overwhelming footsteps.

Oh...

As soon as he saw the old man’s eyes, he could feel time slowing down. His overwhelming presence seemed to blur out the surroundings.

“F-Father.”

“Is this the baby?”

The blonde old man stopped in front of Sylvia and gestured with a nod of his chin, his eyes filled only with coldness.

“Oh, yes.”

Sylvia nodded once and held the baby out toward him.

Oh...

Raon’s round eyes opened wide. As he looked at the face of the head of the house, he felt as if he looked familiar.

Blonde hair and crimson eyes. An old man with a chilling demeanor as cold as ice...

Oh!

A lightning bolt struck his tiny head.

Glenn Sieghart, the Northern Lord of Destruction!

The renowned Head of House Sieghart, known throughout the continent, was looking down at him.

He couldn’t contain his shock.

Looks like I was reincarnated into the most powerful family on the continent.