A cat walks through the back streets of the town.
　The cat walks down a narrow street, inaccessible to humans, and sits near a window.
　Then he listens for a voice that comes from there.

"Is the sabotage of the Lasse Tamer working?

　I hear the low voice of an old man.

And at first it was going well, but then the Knights of the Order got in the way and the imposters got caught, one by one. I tried to instigate them, but they were all over the place.

"Motherf*cker!

Hi!

　The man with the young voice, who had been making excuses at the man's rebuke, shrinks back.

"That's no excuse for your failure!　This is an order from him!　If this Lasse Tamer interruption doesn't work, you're going to have to give your head to apologize!

Oh, my God!

Okay, then get on with the next move!

Yes, yes!

　With a pitiful scream, the door is roughly closed.
　Only the old man is left.

If I ever find out I screwed up like this, let alone fired that idiot.

Your head is going to fly off.

!

　In a room where no one is supposed to be except him, an outrageously young voice sounds and the man is shaken.

Who are you?

Over here.

　The owner of the voice emerged from behind a shelf beside the man.
　The owner of the voice hid his face with his hood and his voice was as young as a child's, making it difficult to determine whether he was a man or a woman.

When did this happen?　I mean, since when?

　The man is understandably upset.
　Even though the man was hiding in a blind spot from his current location, when he walked into the room, there was no one there.
　The man's room is designed so that there is no place to hide to prevent intruders.
　Therefore, the man could not have been unaware of this person's presence.

And it's impossible that the idiot couldn't see him.

　From the position of the man's subordinate who had just escaped, the hooded figure's hiding place was in full view.
　It couldn't have gone unnoticed after all.

Hello. I am Chardo. That gentleman sent me.

"Huh!

(Oh no!　(Missed!)

　The man tries to touch the hidden knife in a cold sweat.

Don't look at me like that. She already knows you've failed.

What?

　A chill runs down the man's spine.
　He knows he's failed, and that means there's no end in sight.
　Worst-case scenario is that she'll be done here.

Oh, try to stay calm. It's not like we're going to pick it up and eat it right now.

The figure named Charde slowly approaches the man.

"He'll forgive you if you succeed. Only if you succeed.

　It was tantamount to saying, "I'm going to be the next one and the last.

"Or I'll make sure that I'll be able to sabotage Lasse Tamer.

"Yes, yes. We're looking forward to it.

　Chuckling, Chard laughs and suddenly turns his gaze to the window and shoots something out.
　The next moment, the window is smashed to pieces, revealing the whole view outside.

...... What is it, just a cat?

　Shardo is startled and sees the cat running away.
　But even with his eyes, it was still just a cat.

Oh ...... oh ......

　The man is surprised at the sight of Charles suddenly smashing the window.

"Oops, my bad. I had a feeling that someone was peeping in. No, no, no, it's just a cat, that's another embarrassment.

　Charde scares you like a clown and jumps straight into the window with a pounce.

I'm going to have to leave now, so good luck!

　With that, Charles disappeared from the window and the man was left alone in the room.

　.

I see, so the interference to Lasse Tamer has failed after all.

　The room was far more luxurious than the man's, and there was Charles in it.
　He sat down at the ornate desk and continued to report to the man who poked his elbow languidly in the air.

Yes, Lasse Tamer continues to easily fend off the operatives' interference. The cooperation of the Knights of the Tendo Kingdom is also a problem.

The man listened to the report of failure without anger, but rather listened to the report nonchalantly.
　Occasionally, he would pet a beautiful furry cat on his lap that he thought was a pet.

How's the Knights' nostalgia going?

It's not good. For some reason, the Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Tend does not take advantage of our attempts to manipulate him and is strongly protective of the Lasse Tamer.



"There was a report that the Knight Commander does not like Lasse Tamer?

Perhaps it was a pretense. I think the purpose of kicking him out of the Order was to free Lasse Tamer from any ties.

"Well, I'm sure that a demonslayer like him would find the organizational framework to be a hindrance to his actions.

　It's a complete misunderstanding, but the inexplicable behavior of Commander Frieda, who is supposed to dislike Lasse, was significant enough to lead you to believe that he is connected to Lasse behind the scenes.
　The truth is that he was only threatened by Lasse, but Shard and the others who didn't know this had no way of predicting it.

''It looks like Lasse Tamer is not going to be able to endear himself to the Kingdom of Tendo. What do you want to do next, try to ruin his reputation and isolate him?

It would be a waste. The profits from the dragon carriage are enormous. Many of our noblemen would benefit from the dragon carriage.

(You too!)

　Charde smiles with contempt in his mind.

(You benefit from your enemy's business, and yet you still try to kill them for your own benefit. It's all right for me, though, as long as they let me kill as I please.

　Charde was this man's protégé, an assassin.
　From an early age, he learned various killing and infiltration techniques and killed as he was told.
　Disposable dolls for the sole purpose of killing.
　But Schardt didn't think such a situation was unfortunate.
　Because he truly enjoyed killing.
　So he had been following the lead of this master who asked him to do all sorts of things.

(Well, personally, I'd like him to order me to kill quickly.

　How much fun would it be to easily kill a human who follows the most powerful demon?
　It would be very interesting if the demons found out that their owner was killed and were so sad that they went crazy and attacked the people around them.
　If you want to join in the fun, why don't you go around killing people yourself?
　What? The demons will take the blame for the crime.

(Oh, that sounds interesting too.)

　But Charde stays on the edge.
　He understands that he loves to kill, but he thinks that indiscriminate killing is not beautiful. He was a pleasure killer and an artist who considered killing an art form.
　When he killed, he obliged himself to bind himself to it.
　Play is fun because it has rules.

　His rule was to obey the Lord's commands.
　He truly enjoyed completing such a difficult order, such a daunting order with noble interests at stake.
　It's not that he wasn't afraid of death. It was because he was absolutely confident that he would not die.

"The next time the agent fails, take someone close to Lasse Tamer hostage.

"Oh dear, won't he be offended if I take you hostage?

"I don't care how much they hate us, if we have hostages, we can't resist. I don't see why we should care about the means if we can't get him out of the Kingdom of Tendo in peace.

"What if there are witnesses at the time of the abduction?

"Get rid of it and hide the body.

"Gladly!

　For the first time in a long time, Charde replies with a hearty smile.

"It's all yours.

　The man breaks off the conversation.
　Deciding that the report is over, Charde bows and leaves the room.
　The man's cat walks out of the room with him, but he's not going to be distracted by a mere cat.

(Now, who shall we take as a hostage?　The kids in town?　Or that knight?　(Can you also find Lasse Tamer's hometown and take his family hostage?

　Charde, who is excitedly planning her future abduction.

I hope the witnesses show up while you're at it. We need to get rid of anyone who gets in the way of our mission, you know.

We've decided. Let's go after Lasse Tamer's flesh and blood!

　With that, Schardt left the man's house.
　But never again did he meet the man who was his master.
　His master had vanished from the world one morning.
　One night, the man's house suddenly burned down.
Rumor has it he heard a great flap of wings that night.
The cause of the fire is unknown, and the culprit is unknown. The whereabouts of the man in the house is also unknown.

　No. There was one, or at least one person whose whereabouts were unknown.
　Only the man's beloved cat, on his lap, was in the alley behind the house, far from the house.
　She was being fed by her neighbors as if she'd forgotten her former owner.

You really have such beautiful fur. Do you own a cat?

　The question of the woman who feeds us, the cat what's the thing?　The only thing you can do is to look at them innocently as if to say, "I'm sorry.

　And Charles, a brilliant assassin who went to find Lasse's hometown, has also disappeared.

　The first time I saw him, I was in the same room with him.

There are no more scammers out there these days.

　Suddenly, Lamia says something about being in less trouble.

"Yeah, I know,

I guess our roundup with the help of the Order was successful after all. Master Lasse, do you realize that your opponent's scam is not worth it?

Maybe.

Leaning back against the sofa, Lasse replied languidly.
　Then Ketsey, who was on his lap patting his back, muttered.



"Scoundrels really like cats.

"Ketsey?　Did you say something?

"Nada, nyaa

　The sound of Lasse stroking his chin and rumbling Ketsey's throat was the only sound that echoed through the peaceful afternoon room.

　.

"Hi!　I failed again!　You're going to get killed this time!

　Meanwhile, an underworld face was fleeing to a faraway land for fear of an assassin who would come to punish him for his failure.
　Little did they know that the assassin would not come forever.