The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1193

 Chapter 1193

 

“What?”

Raon blinked as he looked at Evelyn’s finely trembling hand.

“You’ve already found it? Really?”

I was the one who had trusted Evelyn, entrusted her with the book left behind by the Dragon Lord and connected her with the Shadow Agents and the Black Market, but even so, I had expected it would take at least several months before any results came out.

Derus Robert was the most insidious and calculating human I knew.

No matter how fully the information specialists cooperated, and no matter how exceptional Evelyn’s tracking, searching and stealth abilities were, the results had come far faster than expected. Honestly, it caught me off guard.

‘Could it be….’

Raon lightly bit his tongue as he examined Evelyn’s reddened face.

‘A trap?’

If it were Derus Robert, he might have realized that the Dragon Lord was dead simply from the disappearance of the ancient dragons, and might even have prepared a trap to catch me in return.

No, if it were him, that was more than possible.

‘Still, it’s better to hear it first.’

Raon slowly regulated his breathing. He resonated the Ring of Fire to calm his emotions, so he could make a cold, rational judgment.

“Tell me. What is Derus Robert plotting?”

He nodded, indicating that he was ready to listen.

“Derus Robert is currently….”

Evelyn drew a cold smile and lowered her voice deeply.

“He’s gathering sacrifices across the entire continent.”

She said that Derus was abducting humans, her purple eyes flashing.

“So he’s planning to use the abducted humans as sacrifices after all.”

Raon recalled what he had predicted through the records left by the Dragon Lord and frowned.

“Yes. But they’re not ordinary sacrifices.”

Evelyn raised her long, slender fingers.

“Living sacrifices. It looks like he’s raising people to feed them to someone.”

She shook her head, saying the abducted people were not simple sacrifices.

L, living sacrifices?

Wrath twisted his body in shock.

He’s really gone mad! Offering living humans as sacrifices!

Despite being a demon king, he was horrified by the word “sacrifice,” his tail trembling.

“How did you find out they were living sacrifices?”

Raon tilted his chin toward Evelyn.

“The movement of supplies.”

Evelyn raised her finger and pointed at the floor of the fifth training ground, which was covered in footprints.

“Across the continent, as people have been going missing, the amount of supplies moving at the same time has also increased slightly. In other words, they’re not disposing of the people immediately after abducting them, they’re keeping them alive and feeding them.”

She let out a murky breath, saying she had figured it out up to that part.

“So that’s why you called them living sacrifices.”

Raon nodded as he looked into Evelyn’s shining purple eyes.

‘The possibility is high.’

As Evelyn said, if the number of missing people was increasing along with the amount of supplies, it made sense to interpret that Derus was abducting people and keeping them alive.

‘More or less as expected.’

I had thought that once Derus learned the Dragon Lord was dead, he might move hastily to make up for the loss of force and end up exposing his plan, and that was exactly what happened.

‘However….’

It would still be wise to keep in mind the possibility that this was a trap.

When it came to insidiousness, Derus Robert was a man few on the continent, no, in the entire dimension, could rival.

If it were him, he could even turn a situation like this into a trap, so caution was necessary.

“Evelyn. Is there a chance Derus Robert deliberately leaked this information?”

Raon asked her about the concern weighing on his mind.

“There definitely is.”

Evelyn nodded calmly, as if she had read his thoughts.

“But I don’t think that’s the case this time.”

She narrowed her eyes, saying it didn’t seem like Derus had intentionally released the information.

“Why?”

Raon tilted his chin slightly.

“Because of this.”

Evelyn lifted the booklet the Dragon Lord had left behind.

“The Dragon Lord was a dragon just as insidious as Derus Robert. He investigated extremely discreetly, so the other side wouldn’t notice. No matter how capable Derus Robert is, there’s no way he could have predicted all of this.”

She shook her head, saying the Dragon Lord’s investigation had been carried out far too slowly and secretly for Derus to have noticed.

“I see….”

Raon smacked his lips as he examined the booklet.

“It’s true that both the number of missing people and the movement of logistics have increased slightly, but the change is very subtle.”

Even after realizing the Dragon Lord was dead, Derus, despite being pressed for time, was not recklessly gathering sacrifices but carefully controlling the situation.

If he abducted many people in the southern regions last week, he would divert people from the central regions this week, as if he were deliberately calculating his moves.

To begin with, there were many missing persons across the continent, and the flow of logistics sometimes changed drastically, so if one knew nothing, one would have thought it no different from usual.

However, through the Dragon Lord’s records, they were able to locate areas where the enemy’s headquarters was likely to be, and through cooperation between the Black Market and the Shadow Agents, they were even able to grasp the enemy’s movements.

“You’re right.”

With certainty, Raon clenched his fist.

“Derus Robert doesn’t know about this situation.”

Derus knew the Dragon Lord was dead, but there was no doubt that he didn’t know we were tracing him in reverse.

‘This is something we can exploit.’

Since Derus Robert had gone into hiding, there had been no chance to strike at him, but now a long-awaited opening had finally appeared, and anticipation made Raon’s whole body tense.

The King of Essence thinks the same.

Wrath nodded in agreement.

Usually, he senses something ominous, but this time, it feels like he’s looking at a road that’s been completely opened.

He smacked his lips at length, saying his intuition was good about this matter.

“Right?”

Evelyn curled her lips upward, as if this were a good opportunity.

“Soon we’ll be able to find out what kind of people they’re mainly abducting and which routes they’re using to move them.”

She nodded, saying the Shadow Agents and the Black Market were still conducting investigations even now.

“After that, we should be able to reach the land where Derus Robert and the archangels are hiding.”

Evelyn touched her red lips, as if there really wasn’t much time left.

“Alright. Just do that. But make sure to approach very slowly. Derus Robert is the most suspicious man on the continent.”

Raon frowned, recalling Derus Robert, who doubted every moment and every situation.

“Of course! Both the Shadow Agents and the Black Market are only moving people who live in that region. And at the very end….”

Evelyn raised her finger and pointed at herself.

“I’ll move personally. Don’t worry.”

She smiled lightly, saying she would possess an animal and go there herself.

“Alright. Then please… No, wait.”

Raon nodded to Evelyn, then suddenly stopped.

“There’s something I need to say about that part. Derus definitely….”

*    * *

“W-what is it?”

Krein hid behind a large boulder, rolling his eyes from side to side.

“I thought he’d chase us right away and swing his sword like a club, why is it so quiet?”

He swallowed dryly, saying that Raon not appearing was even scarier.

“The palace master didn’t seem particularly angry, though?”

Dorian approached from the side and shook his head.

“Rather, he thought that we had been training well while he was away.”

He smiled faintly, saying he had read Raon’s thoughts through his mind’s eye.

“Really?”

Krein’s eyes widened as if the idea had never crossed his mind.

“Yeah. Today’s training probably won’t be that harsh either.”

Dorian nodded, saying Raon seemed fairly satisfied with the current Light Wind Palace, so he would likely play around a bit and then head back.

“I agree too.”

A low voice came from the tree rising above the two of them.

“Eek!”

“Hup!”

Burren lightly jumped down in front of the startled Dorian and Krein.

“Today, Raon was emitting cold energy wave, but inwardly, he looked to be in a good mood.”

Because Burren had been assisting Raon for so long, he could read Raon’s thoughts from his expression alone.

“I knew it, right?”

Dorian laughed 'hehe,' seemingly happy that Burren believed his words.

“Hah, that’s a relief. Then….”

Just as Krein let out a sigh of relief and wiped his chest—

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

From below came someone’s tearing scream. It wasn’t the cry of someone simply collapsing, but a shriek that sounded as if they were tasting every kind of pain in the world at once.

“W-what….”

Krein swallowed dryly and took a step back.

“Uuuuuuuuuugh!”

This time, a different kind of scream from the first echoed across the North Grave Mountain.

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

Before the second person even finished collapsing, a third scream rang out in succession. Every voice was filled with terror, as if their throats were being wrung dry.

“N-no….”

Krein’s pupils trembled as he turned around.

“You said he’d go easy! What is this!”

He gasped for breath, saying it looked like Raon had gone mad again and was rampaging.

“Th-this isn’t right….”

“What on earth happened?”

Dorian and Burren trembled their lips, seemingly flustered by the situation that defied expectations.

“I’m not hiding! Let’s fight!”

While the three of them were holding their breath, Martha’s furious voice rang out nearby.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

Martha didn’t last long either, and she was flung away while letting out a surprisingly feminine scream that didn’t suit her at all.

“E-even Lady Martha got taken down! What do we do now, huh?”

Krein turned his gaze around, desperately searching for a way out, and his mouth fell open.

“B-both of them, where did they go?”

Dorian and Burren, who had just been telling him to relax, had vanished without a trace.

“Did they just run off on their own? Those damn bastards!”

Krein lowered his breathing and tried to step back, but a dark shadow fell over his head.

“Ah….”

His jaw trembling, Krein slowly lifted his eyes and saw Raon looking down at him with blood droplets splattered across his face. A chilling smile was drawn on his lips.

“I-I heard you were in a good mood, so you were supposed to go easy….”

Krein sniffled, still clinging to the hope Dorian had given him.

“That’s right.”

Raon nodded, maintaining his eerie smile.

“I was planning to go easy, since it was obvious you’d been working hard on your individual training.”

“Then why….”

“But something very good happened, so without realizing it, I put in more strength?”

Saying it couldn’t be helped, he lifted the scabbard of Heavenly Drive, still soaked in blood.

“I-if something good happened, why are you using more strength!”

Krein’s lips trembled violently, truly terrified.

“I don’t know. And besides….”

Raon curled his lips upward, his red eyes gleaming brighter than the moon.

“I thought it’d be better to make you all stronger.”

Muttering that things had turned out that way, he dropped down like a red bolt of lightning.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

That night, the screams of swordsmen rang out endlessly across the North Grave Mountain, until the sun rose.

*   *   *

Tatadadadada!

In a dense forest where even warm sunlight barely managed to filter through, a cute sound rang out, like something lightly striking the ground as it ran.

The source of the sound was a baby squirrel with striking black fur growing on its forehead. As if showing off its fluffy coat, it swayed its thick tail and dashed through the forest.

The baby squirrel sniffed around as though searching for something, exploring here and there. As if it possessed some special ability, it freely moved above and below the trees, easily avoiding the fierce beasts and monsters that inhabited the forest.

Running about excitedly as if it were the master of the forest, the baby squirrel suddenly stopped in front of a massive pine tree whose leaves spread thinly outward. As though mesmerized by something, it stood still for a long while before tilting its head and turning around.

Tatadadadadak!

The baby squirrel ran off with the same light steps it had when it first appeared in the forest, a faint smile forming on its face.

‘To think there’s a barrier that can even detect animal possession magic!’

Evelyn, the only mage capable of perfectly possessing animals, nodded as she smiled in the squirrel’s form.

‘Raon was right.’

Surprised that Raon’s warning to be careful even in an animal form had been accurate, Evelyn clenched her small hands tightly.

‘I can’t go any farther than this, but that’s fine. The fact that such a barrier exists means…’

She narrowed her eyes slightly, imagining the pleased look that would appear on Raon’s face.

‘It means there’s something there!’

 

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