After that, we met up in the hotel room we were staying in.
Crow and Leah apparently saw us flying in from somewhere and rushed over to see us.
It was just the two of us, but I felt bad about it.
Leah lectured me severely, but when I told her about Gram, she reluctantly stopped lecturing me and forgave me.
Latisnail wandered off somewhere before I knew it, and Raul and Kellia are staying together in one of the spare rooms, since they can't go home after what happened.
It seems that Kellia is quitting the Adventurer's Guild and moving to another town with Raul.
Well, there's no way she can work as usual after seeing the guildmaster like that, right?

And now it's the middle of the night when everyone is asleep.
It's the so-called "midnight hour".
I got up, being careful not to wake up Amelia and the night, who were sleeping soundly next to me.
I put on my cloak, which I don't normally wear because it would interfere with my daily life, and wrapped a black cloth around my neck.
It had always been black, but now it was even blacker than that.
There is almost no color other than black.
Now I will be able to blend in with the darkness completely.
Fortunately, today is a new moon.
It doesn't matter to me, who can see at night with my skill 'Assassination Technique', but unless there's something else going on, no one can see me.


''You're going to ......?''

Yeah.


I didn't know when I was up, but Crow was standing in the doorway of my room.
I knew he would come this time, so I wasn't surprised, as usual.


'As I said, don't take it too far." That demon's daughter told me that humans who were strengthened by the 'enhancement pills' were as strong as ordinary demons."


I don't know when Lattisnail heard that, or when Crow would give me that advice.
I laughed at that.
There's no way I'm going to be cowed at the level of the common demon race now.
That's something that Crow should know, so I'm sure it's because he's feeling sorry now or something like that.


It's not like that. I wouldn't have been able to do that without your help. When I left the castle, all I wanted to do was avenge Commander Salan. Now I'm going to do just that. You should be celebrating, though.


I equipped the Night Sword God and walked out of the room next to Crowe.
Crowe follows me.


I'm sure you're not the only one who's interested in this. I could see it in your eyes and I could tell with one look.

'I suppose so. But it's not something I can say, but I'm tired of thinking about revenge. And even if I got my revenge, it wouldn't make you feel any better.


When I said this while checking each of the dark organs I had planted in my body, I thought Crow chuckled.
People are most tired when they are angry.
People who are angry all year round must have a bottomless supply of energy.


''Even so, some of the diseases prevalent in this world and in the beast race will surely disappear. Because only Gram was sipping the sweet nectar. The rest of the humans were just being used by Gram.


In the absence of such reliable companions, the reason why Gram hasn't been assassinated so far is probably because of his "enhanced humans" who have been drenched in "enhanced drugs".
They are just battle dolls that obey orders.
They don't need our trust, and they're not afraid to betray us.
But today's fight convinced me otherwise.
I can kill Gram through their eyes.
I'm at max skill level in the skill 'Concealment of Presence', and even if I activate the skill and just walk around, the cameras won't catch me on camera, and if I had a device like a thermography that detects heat, or even if I had an infrared sensor, they wouldn't respond to me.

I've never really liked this "constitution" that other people can't find.
Particularly when I was a kid, I would be overwhelmed by the loneliness of being the only one who couldn't find me, no matter what I did.
Now, I use it for skipping or dozing off, but I never liked it when it became a skill.
But now it's different.
For the first time in my life, I think I'm going to like this power.


'I don't kill enhanced humans. But if we encounter a peer, we will remove them as a hindrance. I only kill people who get in my way of Gram and me. Is that right? My client.

Yeah. So do it. Assassins.


I sneered at Crow, who was looking at me with somewhat regretful eyes, and I jumped out the window.


'Akira, wait! Don't go!


Pretend you don't recognize the voice of such a princess.



There I was, dressed in black, blending into the darkness on the slanting roof of the building Gram dwells in.
A black cloth was wrapped around my neck, the excess cloth and cloak dominating the wind.

I stared at the roof and didn't move still.
As much as possible, I needed to avoid getting into a battle with an enhanced human.
And on top of that, there's nothing to prepare for beforehand.
I don't even know how long we'll have to make our rounds.
It would actually be better to plan it out over several days, but that would risk me changing my mind and Gram finding out where we were.
I'll have to carefully time it so I don't fail.

I wonder how long I've been staring into the building.
After a while, I sighed and stood up, lowered my left leg and pulled out my Night Sword God and suddenly went into a combat stance.
Out of the corner of my eye it seemed as if there was nothing there, but in that moment the air shook and a man came into view.
The man was lightly dressed in black, just like me.
An interloper, a peer.
With Gram being a guy like that, I knew there would be others besides us who would consider assassination, but I didn't expect him to show up so quickly.
The difference in the way he's dressed is that he's wearing a dagger and straight sword, a black cloth around his neck, and a jet black cloak.
This cloak and black cloth are a hindrance, so assassins don't wear them.
I thought it was cool when I stole it from the castle, but not so much for its practicality.
It's not a hindrance, but I really don't need it.
The standoff between me and the guy ended when the guy couldn't take it anymore.


'You're a ...... competitor. Hey, you're protecting this guy? Or has a big guy like you come to kill a single guild master?


I've made a name for myself.
I've never done an assassination before.


I'm here to kill him and anyone else who gets in my way.


The man asks a question, and I answer briefly.
That means I'm going to kill you.
You'd have to be an idiot like Raul to understand that.
Only a clear killing intent is conveyed to the other party.
The man's body shook with a shudder at the killing intent.
It's not much of a stretch to be frightened by just this much killing intent.
Since you're trying to assassinate Gram, who is protected by an enhanced human, I was expecting quite a bit of finesse.


I see. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a request for the same thing as that dark assassin.


And the man sighed with deep regret.
He had taken a fighting stance, but he was running away.
With that, even if I was able to react and swing my sword, it would be a light one without any power being transferred to the sword.
The killing spirit I put out even broke out in cold sweat.
I don't pay attention to such a badass man, I just observe him with my eyes as if I'm looking at my prey, and the moment the man is about to exhale, I flash a flash.


'............!?'


The man watches in amazement as he collapses to the ground and watches his own blood spurt out of him, not knowing what he's done.
It takes almost no time at all for the guy to die on the roof.
I pulled my right leg, which was held out in front of me far behind the man, and wiped the blood from the dagger with the man's clothes.
This is the first time I've killed a human, but I didn't feel any emotion.
I don't know if that's a compensation for the skill 'assassination technique' or if I'm heartless.
But I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn't going to lose my will to fight for the first time because I killed a human being.

It's about time the guards got a little thin on the ground.
Fortunately, the killing of two assassins was not detected.
Maybe the enhanced humans are surprisingly slow.
I unlocked the door from the outside and broke into my real life room through the window.
I look at my real life - Gram, who is snoring violently.


'.........'


"The hand holding the Night Sword God trembled slightly.
It wasn't like this earlier.
He suppressed the trembling with his other hand.
Silently, I slipped out of sight and slipped into my target's room, pinning the Yotoujin to his neck.
If I do this, I'll never be able to return to my normal, peaceful life.


I'm sorry, guys. If I kill him, I can move forward. If I kill him, a lot of people will be saved. He'll be able to go to .......


I was Oda Akira, a high school student everywhere, muttered and drew my blade with all my strength.
What came to my mind was the faces of my mother and Yui.

Gram twitched a few times, and shortly after, he groaned and died.
I was stunned.
Crowe had endured decades of pain before now.
The end of a villain who had tormented so many people for so long was only a moment away from being over.

He doesn't regret killing a human.
But I don't feel the satisfaction of revenge, only a sense of loss, like a gaping hole in my heart.