It was midnight, and I stood at the top of a building, overlooking the castle. The moon shone high in the sky. For the time being, I was still deliberating on how to execute this, on how to go about infiltrating the castle and finding the target. The entrance that I’d take to get through the castle walls was decided, more or less.

  I was planning on using the secret passage that Miyako and Satomi used to escape. They shouldn’t have destroyed that passage yet, at least I hoped so. The biggest change, I guess, would be the guards watching over it.

  I had to use that passage, which would make it safer for me to get inside. In this mission, I would need to watch out for the guards stationed all over the walls and around the castle grounds. And most of all, the ninjas. They would be sharper and more observant than mere footsoldiers. They would be the ones who would have the chance to detect me if I weren’t careful enough. And from what Miyako said, they were all over the castle, inside and out.

  How bothersome.

  Now how would I go about finding the target in the middle of the night? The target could be in three possible locations: his bedroom, his office, or in the private room where his son’s corpse was kept. If this were back in the old world, we would have already hacked into the cameras — if we could — and searched the target through there. In this one, I had to do it manually.

  I could ask the Cursed Children to check it out, but with the ninjas on high alert after their young lord’s death, I ran the risk of the operation being discovered before it even started. If ninjas were used to counter stealth units, there was a chance they’d notice the black fog hovering around windows. There was a chance that they could not get exposed, but I would rather not things end before I could even get to try. That would be embarrassing. Discovering monsters floating around the castle would alert fucking everyone.

  There were two ways I could go about searching for the target. One was looking from the outside. Like looking through the windows. But that was assuming the curtains were not covering the windows. If they were, then I would have to open the window, which might alert the person inside. There was nothing more suspicious than a window suddenly being forced open. Furthermore, that meant I’d be scaling the wall or just moving around. Despite being under the cover of the night, I might get discovered clinging to the side of the wall.

  Imagine someone just walking on the ground and they looked up, they’d go like ‘who the fuck is that right there?’, then they’d just go alert everyone. Not to mention those on the wall. If moonlight hit me, they’d go like, ‘There’s a beautiful woman climbing up the castle wall!’ while pointing at me from a distance. In short, too exposed. But it would be quicker and perhaps easier.

  The other way was to get myself into the castle, and move through the hallways. There shouldn’t be many eyes that would see me. But this meant that there might be more guards that I had to watch out for. But at least no one would discover me from a distance. In short, less exposed. But I would have to work harder, and I would have to go to each target room through the castle interiors. Risky, but should be manageable.

  Looks like I’m going in.

  I picked the second option.

  Operation Grieve-Stricken Turmoil, begin!

  Yeah, that was a kind of a long name. But I just came up with it right now. I was basically going to kill a grieving father, and turmoil would soon follow once that happened.

  I pulled my hood in to cover my head, and casually stepped forward, letting myself fall to the ground. I landed quietly. Using Physical Enhancement, I ran through the streets with amazing speed, heading to the side of the castle wall where the secret passage’s exit slash entrance should be.

  It didn’t take long for me to arrive. There was a wooden door on the ground behind some rocks. And to my surprise, there weren't any guards out here. Then there should be within the passageway, or at the end of it.

  I opened up the entrance, and before me was the short stairs and a tight passageway. After stepping inside, I closed the door behind me. It was dark, but I kept going, using only what senses I had, and keeping my hand on the passage wall. A bit too risky, considering that there might be enemies ahead that would absolutely notice the slightest sign of light.

  I walked forward in complete silence. Until eventually I stepped onto a stair, a wooden door on top, with yellow light from lamps going through the gaps. I was not certain how many would be guarding the other side.

  “Damn, I wanna sleep so badly.”

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  “Don’t.”

  “I have to say, this place really is something, huh? I wanna take home some plants.”

  “Don’t touch any of them, you don’t know what would happen,” said a third guy.

  I stepped back into the dark shadows and conjured a small ice pellet. At the very least, there were three of them there. But still, there could be more.

  Let me try something.

  I flicked the pellet towards the wooden door. The sound caught the attention of the guards.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s from down there.”

  “Go check it out.”

  “Me? Come on, gotta be just some insect or something.”

  “Just go and check it out.”

  That was a fourth voice.

  “Shit, fine.”

  The door opened.

  “There’s nothing.”

  “Check properly.”

  The guard slowly got down the stairs, trying to look through the darkness. Nothing but the faint light behind him as the illumination.

  “If it’s a pest, drive it away. Don’t want it around the plants.”

  “Right, right.”

  The guard stepped forward, and the moment he stepped into the shadow, I suddenly pulled him in. His mouth covered, I stabbed his throat before stabbing him in the heart. It immediately killed him. I gently dragged and laid him against the wall.

  “Hey, anything?!”

  One guard asked, but there was no response.

  “What the hell? Hey, answer!”

  His voice echoed through the passage, but again, there was no response.

  The guard stepped down the stairs. “You good?”

  The two other soldiers also peeked through the entrance, curious as to what was going on. The moment the second guard stepped into the darkness, I pulled him in and slit his throat.

  “Did you see that?”

  “See what?”

  A couple of blades suddenly stabbed through the two’s throats, the blood falling to the stair steps. I instantly pulled them into the passage. I quickly moved in and finished them off by stabbing them in the back of their necks.

  I retrieved the daggers and dragged the bodies into the darkness before going outside. I closed the door and looked around. Nice and clean, no sign of bloodshed. At least on this side. But the moment someone opens the door, they’d see the blood. But I should have no need to worry about that for the time being.

  I inhaled, and the air was quite different from the one outside. And just as Miyako mentioned, this place was full of legit plants. The greenhouse. There were tall plants, small but brightly green, and there were even plants growing fruits.

  Really impressive.

  It was admirable that someone actually achieved something like this. How unfortunate that all of this would be rendered pointless after tonight. Well, not like I cared. Had nothing to do with me. I continued onward.

  I had inquired and had Miyako draw out the rough layout of this place. So, I kind of had an idea of where to go. That being said, I had to be careful of the guards. For the time being, I decided to go to the place where the target was most likely, and on the ground floor as well — the room where the young lord’s corpse was being kept. I could have asked the guards I just killed, but I didn’t. They might alert or make some noise that would expose my presence. I couldn’t risk any of that while I was here.

  At any rate, from what the soldier I interrogated said, the lord spent the night beside his dead son. It would seem he favored his son greatly. Therefore, there was a high chance that he would do the same tonight.

  I was about to exit the door, but I abruptly stopped. I just had a feeling that it would be a bad idea to exit through the front door.

  I sense ninjas.

  It was not because of the sixth-sense bullshit, it was just prediction and instincts. I stepped back and looked around.

  I should get out through the window.

  I walked over to the rear side of the greenhouse and quietly opened the window. After checking the surroundings, I went outside. Keeping it low, I walked along the side of the building, keeping myself in the shadows. I glanced at the side edge of the castle roof. There was a ninja lurking up there.

  Eyes on a vantage were always the most worrying pests, that was why it was best to take them out first before taking out those on the ground. There should also be ninjas on the ground, at the corners. The good thing was, there was a lesser chance of a dead body being discovered on top of a roof.

  Once a cloud covered the moon’s light, I swiftly ran up to the wall and scaled ?the wall, immediately reaching the first-floor roof. I conjured a magical wire, similar concept to the strings I used on my daggers. I snuck up to the ninja from behind and instantly wrapped the wire around his neck, crossing my hands. As he writhed, choking, I pulled him down to the floor to hide.

  He tried to resist, but I poured a little more Physical Enhancement, and managed to snap his neck with the wire. He stopped moving completely.

  That’s right bitch, you’re nothing.

  I quietly laid him down on the surface. I decided not to leave any blood out in the open, slitting someone’s throat could cause a mess. But to think that I could sneak up on them like this, what kind of shitty training did these ninjas get? Or maybe I was just better.

  There were no other ninjas in this area. They also didn’t have ninjas on the higher roofs. Well, they already had someone like this one on this part of the castle roof, they could see all around the area, even above. And aside from that, there should be ninjas on the walls as well. Their enemies would be hard pressed to sneak through already. They already had eyes everywhere — I was just good at sneaking around.

  At any rate, now that I've taken one enemy out, I should have around five to ten minutes to finish this mission before the body gets discovered. Not enough when checking out three rooms. But I’d make do. If it gets discovered less than that, then that’s just bad luck.

  I pulled the corpse into the darker part of the roof before jumping back down to the ground floor.

  Now then, time to kill the ninjas on my way.

  Not like I had any other choice but to take them out. Trying to avoid them and wait for a moment to sneak through would just waste time — besides, I was enjoying killing them. Weirdly enough…

  Come out, come out, wherever you are… little fucking ninjas. Master Assassin Estelia is in the house.

  Let’s see who’s better.