Magicia is a large piece of land populated by trillions of people residing in three distinct kingdoms. The first kingdom is the kingdom of Exter, where the discipline of weapons is widely used.
The discipline of weapons is where people rely on their weapons to grow stronger. The stronger the blood they infused it with, the stronger their weapon gets.
The imperial family and various noble houses rule the kingdom. They manage the taxes collected by the merchants and commoners for the greater good of their empire.
The kingdom of Exter had not participated in any war for over a century, bringing a trust among merchants and farmers. The kingdom is also famous for its academic and scholarly sectors.
Due to these reasons, the kingdom of Exter is more famous for its economic status than its military strength. Though, just like any other kingdom, Exter has some level of dirty politics and corruption of its own.
In a town of the Exter kingdom known as the Vertije town, one could find something similar. In a dark area of the town, which is also the only place for those poorer than commoners to reside, there stood a large abandoned building.
The building was 6 floors high and had around 100 rooms in total. Nobody from the group of beggars, who nestled close to each other, dared to wander near the building giving off an ominous presence.
There were two thugs guarding the entrance of the building. They seemed to be half drunk and had flushed faces as they talked in loud, incoherent words with each other.
If one went deeper inside the building, they could find square prison boxes made of metal. Inside the prison, one could find humans or exotic animals that were illegal to capture or kill.
Yes, this was an illegal slave market run by thugs of the slums. There were hundreds of mundane thugs and dozens of stage 1 thugs running this slave market.
The strongest among them was a stage 1 peak tier fighter. His name was Agrotha, which meant "swan" in the Maeshic language spoken by everybody in Magicia.
Each stage had 3 tiers, which were intermediate, advanced, and peak. To be able to awaken, one had to eat the core of a mana beast that wandered in the misty ruins.
If they couldn't digest the core and make it theirs, they turned into monsters. It was why there were various techniques made to cancel the risk of indigestion of the mana core.
Agrotha, along with his henchmen, sat in a luxurious room. One might be surprised to find such a luxurious room in such an ominous building, but it looked entirely different from the opposite side.
The building was built at the very edge connecting the town to the slums. Agrotha took a sip of his premium wine, usually drunk by the nobles, and questioned one of his men.
"How did the capture go this week?"
His henchman replied to him with a nasty grin on his face. He was quite happy to disclose their achievements to Agrotha.
"We captured a stage 1 advanced beast from the ruins. We also captured around a hundred of its minions during the raid. We might be able to increase the number to 500 in a month through forced breeding."
"Not that!"
The henchman understood what Agrotha was asking and proceeded to answer him with the same smile he gave earlier.
"We managed to capture 70 females from here and the surrounding towns. They range from the age of 12 to 28 and are quite beautiful as well."
Agrotha's smile widened after hearing the number. Though they did sell them as slaves, the most beautiful ones were sometimes used by them.
Even if some were not sold later, they would be used for daily activities like cleaning and cooking. Agrotha got up from his seat and headed towards the basement.
They reached the dark underground area where they kept the woman they captured. Around a dozen of the men were called to bring the chained woman in front of Agrotha.
The woman and girls were scared and despaired when they heard the conversations of those thugs. Would they be used and killed? They did not want to die like that.
Within a minute, the thugs brought all of the females from the underground. The henchman with Agrotha noticed something strange.
There were 70 females when he counted earlier, whereas the large hall was filled with 69 females and 14 thugs with candles illuminating the hall.
The henchman was about to tell Agrotha about the missing girl when suddenly, all the candles were snuffed out. The room descended into darkness and became calm.
That is when the henchman saw a pair of yellow eyes glowing in the dark. He could barely react as his throat was pierced by a small needle, and he was robbed of his voice along with his life.
The other thugs heard the sound of something falling, but they dismissed it as somebody stumbling in the dark. Somebody finally lit their candle after a moment when all the candles were snuffed out.
Agrotha and others in the room took a step back as they saw one of their own killed in such a horrific manner. They felt chills as goosebumps crawled up their skin. The other females nestled near each other, making a crowd after seeing the corpse.
Agrotha heard the sound of a thud and turned to find that another one of his men had been killed. The dead thug's head had been pierced by another needle, like the one earlier.
The thugs looked at each other, scared, as they didn't know who was killing them. Worse still, nobody could use the powers of their bonded weapons for some reason.
After a tense silence, the candle burning in the room was suddenly snuffed out. Another thud echoed, which terrified them to no degree.
Now there were 5 other lifeless bodies on the floor. The dark stone floor had turned red, and everybody could smell the metallic scent of blood mixed in the air.
This time, Agrotha was ready for another assault. He ordered his thugs to capture a woman each and use them as meat shields. He ordered them to light all the candles and be alert in case they were snuffed out again.
He himself took a woman of probably 20 years old and kept her as his shield and brought out his sword. Nobody could sense the powers of their bonded weapons, as if somebody had severed that specific connection.
The candles were snuffed out again, and with it came the sound of thuds. The darkness seemed to be able to absorb all sound. Agrotha felt like he was in deep water because he couldn't make a sound or hear anything.
He saw the horrible scene of slaughter as he lit his candle with trembling hands. He had seen a lot of things in his life, but never something so brutal.
The candle in his hands fell down as his eyes widened. He shrieked, but nobody heard it. The remaining of his men were butchered and pinned to the wall like straw dolls, their eyes dangling off their sockets as blood painted the floor.
He didn't have time to register when the woman he held as a hostage turned around, free of her shackles, and poked her sword in his stomach within a millisecond.
Blood gushed out and brought a searing pain in his guts. He felt despair and fear creeping in him as he looked in her pupils. The carnage was over when he died.
The females were handed over to the nearby guard station along with the imprisoned exotic animals the next morning. The most important thing to notice was that hundreds of corpses were found in the building that evening with [revenge of the ghost] written on the walls with blood…
…
I wandered through the forest and traveled for around a thousand miles. There I found a developed city I have been searching to reside in and rest for the time being.
I had just eradicated the slave market that sold me when I was young. I was relatively a newcomer in the Abode of Assassins. It was a terrifying organization and had its roots everywhere in Magicia.
The organization was split into three different factions, and they had a symbiotic relationship. Though the three different factions worked for money, they secretly served the royal families of their respective kingdoms.
The faction of the organization she worked for was loyal to the royal family of the Exter kingdom. The three different factions of the abode of assassins worked in their respective kingdoms and avoided trespassing during missions.
The royal family of the respective kingdoms decided who to assassinate to continue maintaining their rule. They were basically doing the dirty work of their respective kingdoms in the dark.
Though, the newcomers are mostly given small missions. My first mission involved protecting the child of a certain viscount favored by the royal family.
The crown prince favored this one adventurer due to his heroic deeds and promoted him to become a viscount. The brave adventurer found the previous viscount of this region to have embezzled tax funds from his region.
He was demoted and became a baron, but he was loyal to the second prince. The previous viscount, now a baron, though weak, has the support of the second prince. There is a high chance for the second prince to send assassins to the unborn baby.
The newly appointed viscount is strong, but he is usually busy with raiding the ruined areas of his county and cannot protect his unborn child all the time.
To avoid any mishaps, I was chosen to take care of the unborn child for a few years. The mission might look boring to the newcomers, but the abode of assassins used missions like these to test the patience and loyalty of newly recruited assassins.
The newly appointed viscount is famous for being valiant and powerful with fiery red eyes and blood-red hair. He has the favor of the crown prince and could be promoted to a count in the future.
I slept for a few hours before changing my outfit to look like a maid and went towards the large mansion visible in the distance. Reaching the entrance, I was stopped by the guards present near the gates.
I just brought out the recommendation letter I was given for the mission and handed it to the guard in front of me. Noticing the crest on the envelope, he stiffened and rushed inside.
A few moments later, the guard returned and told me to meet the viscount in person. I was brought to the office room where the viscount worked and asked to go inside.
Upon entering the room, two people entered my view. One was the viscount, and the other was his assistant. The viscount nodded and asked me to sit on the chair.
I sat down and narrowed my eyes a little as I felt the ominousness present in the air. The viscount looked in my eyes and said it in a neutral tone.
"Alice Frontier, the newly recruited assassin of the Abode of Assassins. Your mood looks quite happy after taking your revenge on those thugs that sold you when you were young."
My emotionless face subtly changed, and my eyes widened in shock without my realization. How could he know all of that? Even the abode of assassins never knew about my past!
I brought out my piercer and fired the fastest needle towards his neck within a millisecond. Everything felt slow, and that is when I saw it! I saw the viscount's eyes clearly tracing the path of the almost invisible, fast needle.
The needle had already shattered the sound barrier and was the fastest I could ever fire, yet he just caught the needle with his bare fingers.
The remaining force from the needle broke the table and the surrounding wood, but they were restored like before with just a wave of his hands.
There was no reaction from him, and he looked more bored than shocked. My instincts flared as I prepared to teleport away from this monstrosity in the shape of a man.
This man in front of me was much stronger than what was known. He is at the very least a stage 3 being who had the power to eradicate entire mountains with their firepower.
Goosebumps rose on my arm as I saw the viscount in front of me. He caught my neck and lifted me rather easily as I struggled to breathe.
Though, the reason for my goosebumps was that I had already teleported several hundred meters away from his county. He covered all that distance within seconds as if he had teleported.
Was he a stage 4 being on par with the dukes and some of the rarest talents on Magicia? Why does he act like a stage 2 being when he is so strong?
If he is this strong, then why does he need assassins hired from the royal family to protect his child? Did it not mean that the viscount had hidden motives and was already deceiving the royal family?
He threw me like an object in the air, making me land hundreds of meters away from him. A lot of my bones broke, but my concern was something else.
He left runes on my neck and dissolved them in my body without consent. I could sense that the runes in my body would kill me if I dared to betray the viscount in front of me.
I coughed a pool of blood and thought of the ridiculous acts of the viscount in front of me. If somebody could tamper with a body and leave such complex runes without the consent of the other party, then he must be 3 stages stronger than the other party.
Does that mean that the viscount is a stage 5 being? No, he must not be the viscount! Could he be a spy sent from the other nations? But why would the other nations send a spy of such caliber?
Mundane people who are lucky enough to awaken with no background support could not surpass stage 1 in their entire lives. Even the rarest of geniuses could only reach stage 3 in their entire lives with no background families guiding them.
The reason why noble families are distinguished from mundane ones is because the children of stronger people have better talents than normal children at birth.
It is because the genes of awakened parents adapt in the presence of mana and evolve to better harmonize with mana. Thus, they are better suited and more talented to become an Awakened compared to others their age.
Their starting point is different, and hence, they can grow stronger than their predecessors to give birth to stronger talents and pave the road for their successors.
Over the 600-year history, when the first batch of people started ascending, only 3 people reached stage 6 and created their respective kingdoms.
Though nobody understood why nobody could reach that rank after they perished, the majority of the people believed that rank 6 was just a myth created to solidify the rule of the royal families.
So logically, the strongest on the continent are stage 5 beings, and one is standing right in front of me as I cough blood. After a few moments, he said in a cold tone.
"From today onwards, you will work for me, who will give you a better life, or die for the kingdom that only gave you misery. The choice is yours to make."
He turned and left me alone as I lay on the ground coughing blood. Where did the valiant hero who never raised his hands on a woman go? All the hero crap she read was absolute bullshit!
Why is my luck so bad to get involved with such a terrifying person? Maybe I could have become an adventurer and lived a peaceful, mundane life.
I got up and followed him as I cleaned myself with the few talismans rotting in my spatial storage bag. Let the royal family be damned! I love my life more than those hypocrite bastards!
The viscount's child would be born this month, as predicted by the doctors. I would have to be present there and make sure that no calamity is released by this damned viscount because his child is assassinated just after birth.
After reaching the mansion, I reached the viscount's office and went inside the room once again. This time, he just nodded and directed me to sit on the opposite side of the table.
I had no other choice, as I could get killed and replaced by a doppelganger or something like that. He gestured to me to open a letter and read it.
I opened the letter, and my eyes widened as I read the contents inside it. My salary would be 100 gold per month, with benefits like free high-class food and facilities.
I didn't get a room of my own, as I would be living with the viscount's wife and his future child. Even then, I was practically drooling at the notion of getting one hundred gold coins every month as a salary.
It would mean that I will have one thousand gold coins by the end of the year. If I just invested all the extra money instead of splurging like I usually do, I would have more than 50 thousand gold coins in 10 years.
As the silence persisted, I got more confident with every second that passed. I put the letter down and looked at the viscount and spoke in an emotionless tone.
"What is the guarantee that you will not silence me when I am no longer useful?"
The viscount did not say anything and brought a shining paper out of thin air. I couldn't sense anything unnatural about it, which made his actions even more frightening to me.
The glowing paper in front of me was made of poisonous mana. If one went against the contract written on it, they would die of mana poisoning.
If one party is exceptionally strong to be killed with just mana poisoning, the mana binding them both would break and disable both parties in one way or another.
The viscount's assistant and I argued with each other for a long time before coming to a conclusion. Then, the viscount used a knife to draw out some blood and used it to leave his fingerprint on the shining contract.
The contract broke up into pieces and then merged with us both. I had a lot of responsibilities, so I got up and bowed to them like a professional maid before leaving.