Chapter 79. The Successor of a Ruined Guild
"Come to think of it, I've heard it from my father. That there was an assassin who annihilated the Black Fang by himself 10 years ago."
Tunia said quietly.
Radel and Gusto also focused.
"My father called him a traitor, and one day he said he didn't want to do things like assassinations anymore and wiped out the guild overnight. At the tender age of fifteen."
Fifteen?
Radel was honestly surprised.
Because it was a very young age to wipe out an entire organization.
If this was true, that professor must be a formidable person.
"I was curious who it was, but to think he was in a place like this."
Tunia, who was more talkative than usual, looked at the Black Fang tattoo again.
Meeting the person she had only heard about in stories was a new experience. To think he was the protagonist of the stories her father would tell when he was drunk.
And her father would add incomprehensible words.
Saying that guy was really dangerous, or that in retrospect, he was also grateful.
In any case, he had heard to the point of being sick of it that he was a formidable person.
Although now that he had caught him today, it seemed there was a bit of exaggeration since it was a story from over a decade ago.
'Did his senses dull because he quit being an assassin a long time ago?'
Well, hadn't Tunia also been having a very peaceful time lately, living without thinking about assassination?
In a way, this person was someone who had achieved Tunia's dream first.
Leaving the Black Fang.
No longer assassinating.
Although his methods were radical, there was something to learn from him.
Unlike Tunia's feelings, Pirenzo, who was once the successor of the Black Fang, was not at peace.
These uninvited guests who had suddenly attacked him had stripped him and were talking among themselves.
They were guys who didn't even care that a person was lying next to them in only their underwear.
How atrocious!
"Mph! Mphmph! (Alright, so untie this! And let me put on some clothes!)"
And give me a chance to talk...
I said I'd tell you everything...
As the neglected Pirenzo kept wriggling, Radel said as if he was in trouble.
"Please be quiet. We're not done talking yet."
"Mph?! (No, I said I'll talk?!)"
Radel calmly showed the water pitcher.
"If it's hard to be quiet, should I make you be quiet?"
Pirenzo stealthily shut his mouth.
It was not a good idea to provoke a psycho like that.
Although it was a bit painful to be without clothes, it didn't seem unbearable.
There was also heat retention magic in the room.
Right, as long as I don't catch a cold.
Pirenzo quietly cried inwardly.
It was a moment when he missed his peaceful bedtime.
* * *
Pirenzo was able to put on his clothes and sit at the table a long time later.
'I feel alive.'
What a thing the human heart is.
Just being able to put on clothes made his heart feel warm.
Tunia, Radel, and Gusto, who had thrown off their masks, also sat around the table with Pirenzo.
It seemed they could now have a proper conversation.
"I didn't think Your Highness would find me, but now that things have turned out this way, it would be ridiculous to deny it."
When Pirenzo spoke, Radel cut him off appropriately.
"What I'm curious about is not your affiliation. Here, you are a professor and I am a student, so I will speak formally."
"Understood."
Pirenzo, who understood Radel's words, nodded.
It meant that there was no need to reveal that he was affiliated with the Ability Management Bureau.
It also meant that there was another reason for his visit.
"Then the reason you came here is...?"
"I came knowing that you were an assassin. Although I just found out that you were from the Black Fang. I would like you to help us."
Pirenzo also had a hunch at Radel's words.
It was because the information that the 8th Prince was being targeted for assassination was already widely known within the Ability Management Bureau.
Although he was inwardly surprised when he heard that the place targeting the 8th Prince was the Black Fang, he had thought that it was a separate group from the guild he had left 10 years ago.
"I am no longer associated with the Black Fang. I don't even remember much of my days as an assassin."
Pirenzo, who had dismantled the Black Fang, had entered the Ability Management Bureau to erase all of his past.
He wanted to live with a new identity.
At the Ability Management Bureau, he could forget his past and live a new life.
The job of monitoring and managing the royals was by no means easy, but it wasn't a job where he had to be on edge every moment like before.
There was also a sense of mission that he was doing it for the empire.
Above all, he no longer had to kill people every day.
That alone made Pirenzo feel alive.
When he was in the organization, he couldn't understand why he had to live.
That's how painful it was for him to kill people.
During his Black Fang days, Pirenzo's dead eyes were filled only with killing intent. The guild master had even made him his successor after seeing those eyes.
'I don't really want to remember it.'
Pirenzo's expression hardened as the fading memories came back to him.
Radel continued to speak.
"I am planning to fight the Black Fang. Furthermore, I am also thinking of getting rid of that organization. Just like you did, Professor."
Pirenzo said bluntly.
"Your Highness's plan is dangerous. And there's nothing to be gained from fighting a head-on battle with such an assassin's guild."
Pirenzo's thoughts were the same as Armandy's.
Honestly, it was a fight where the 8th Prince had nothing to gain.
Since the 8th Prince was a student at the academy, the realistic method was to receive the protection of the academy or to ask for help from the Imperial Capital.
It would have been nice if the 8th Prince had a strong backing, but in a situation where he did not, this was the best.
But the 8th Prince's thoughts seemed to be different.
"Why? You did it yourself over a decade ago."
Pirenzo covered his face with his hands at Radel's words.
Back then, he had to assassinate every day, and he only thought that it would be better to risk death and confront the guild than to continue living like that.
"I was fifteen back then. I don't really remember how I did it myself."
Radel quickly understood what he meant.
So it must have been something he had done in a fit of anger after catching that... disease that shall not be named that comes at fifteen.
Well, that age is a time when one has nothing to fear.
But wouldn't someone who has already done it be better at it?
There's a reason the world looks for experienced people.
Radel said nonchalantly.
"I have no intention of fighting head-on. For that, I need your help, Professor."
Tunia, who had been silent, also opened her mouth to Pirenzo.
"You know what it feels like to want to leave the guild. Don't you?"
Pirenzo paused for a moment at Tunia's words.
He realized that the 8th Prince was not trying to fight this battle for himself alone.
His mind became even more complicated.
As Pirenzo continued to postpone his answer, Radel smiled as if it couldn't be helped.
"Think about it carefully. As you already know... I have many ways to persuade you, Professor."
Pirenzo got goosebumps at Radel's smile.
He asked for help!
Was it a threat after all?
But to refuse outright, he had too many weaknesses that Radel had on him.
This is why you shouldn't sell your conscience from the beginning...
* * *
Black Falcon Dormitory Meeting Room.
Radel, Gusto, and Tunia were gathered in the meeting room.
This meeting room was a place where the dormitory students gathered to use whenever they had team assignments or presentation preparations.
However, the three of them had not met for an assignment.
They were making a secret plan.
"Will the threat really work on that person?"
When Tunia asked, Gusto answered.
"It will. Because he's an academy professor."
"That's right. It would be troublesome for him if it was revealed that he was a former assassin."
Radel also added his opinion with his arms crossed.
As an agent of the Ability Management Bureau, he would desperately try to prevent any situation that could interfere with his mission.
"Anyway, let's wait and see. More than that, where did you say the guild's location was?"
"It's a city between Marcellent and the capital."
As there was very little information about the Black Fang, Tunia's information as a related person was very important to make a plan.
Even in the documents Armandy had given him, there was almost no content about the Black Fang.
All that was there were records from before it was dismantled over a decade ago and its recent activities after it started its activities again.
There was no concrete information about the guild's members, location, or the guild master's name.
They could only identify the contact person.
"It's a small city, but the floating population is quite large. There's also a gate stone."
"If that's the case, how about reporting their base to the city guards?"
In a city of a certain size, there were always guards dispatched from the capital.
"Let's just say there was a fight there."
Tunia shook her head at Gusto's proposal to boldly call the guards with a false report.
The guild master had already maintained a collusive relationship with the guards.
"It won't work. The guards have long since been won over by the guild master."
"Would it not work even if a prince went and reported it?"
Tunia answered coldly at Radel's words.
"That's also troublesome. If you appear and report it, do you think our guild would just stand by? You'd be attacked immediately."
"That's true."
A situation where they could not expect external help.
Radel came to a conclusion.
"Then we'll have to go by ourselves."
It was then.
Bang!
Someone opened the meeting room door and entered confidently.
"By ourselves? Did you just say 'by ourselves' without me?"
A sharp voice.
Inette appeared, her fiery red hair fluttering.
"To leave me out of something like this!"
Radel, at Inette's unexpected appearance, looked at the meeting room door.
"How did you hear our conversation... Don't tell me you were eavesdropping with your ear to the meeting room door?"
"Is that important right now?!"
Inette shouted, her face turning red.
Radel was right.
She had secretly followed them after seeing the three of them disappear somewhere.
In fact, the meeting room was well soundproofed, so all she had heard was the last thing Radel had said about the three of them going somewhere.
But based on what Radel had said before and the fact that Tunia was among the two of them, it was obvious where the three of them were going.
"I don't care, I'm going too. Why didn't you ask me to go with you!"
"Didn't you get angry, asking how you could trust an assassin?"
At Gusto's words, Inette was at a loss for words.
It was true that she had said that, but...
"That's why I have to go with you even more. How can I trust her and let you guys go by yourselves?"
Inette added, grumbling 괜히.
"And as a princess, I can't just stand by. It's right that a dangerous assassin's organization like that should be eliminated."
"Oh..."
Radel said with a small exclamation of admiration.
"I'm impressed, Inette. You sounded like a princess and were cool just now."
"I'm also impressed, Your Highness."
"Did you think I said that to be cool?!"
Inette shouted at Gusto and Radel.
Tunia looked at the three of them as if she found them strange.
Inette, who had belatedly realized her gaze, cleared her throat.
"Ahem, aren't you going to attack that place now? I can't trust an assassin's words. I have to go and see with my own eyes."
At Inette's words, Radel grinned.
It was a smooth start.