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Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 5

Just as Irvin expected, with her tendencies for manipulation and slave driving, Siluca was the perfect master for someone like him. Thanks to her, Irvin felt like he has also managed to grow as a Chamberlain. He’s become super-fast and flawless in everything he was asked to do.

At first, he thought the he would be doing it purely for himself, but now that he learned that this Assassin was going to target Siluca and Theo after he’d be done with him, eliminating him has truly become his current goal, even if it might be a little bit of a chore. He cannot afford to make any mistakes here.

「Then how about this?! 」

Saying so, the Assassin quickly launched a kick towards Irvin with only the tip of his foot.

Then, a short blade protruded from the tip of his shoe. That blade wasn’t shaped like the other two, but it was still coated with poison.

「So you had even more of those poison blades prepared? 」

「They’re simple, but effective. 」

The assassin resumed his attack, using the blade on his feet in addition to the ones held in his hands now. Irvin was fast, but even he would not be able to block the attacks of three blades while only having two of them himself, so if there ever will be an attack that he won’t be able to block, he’ll have no choice but to dodge it.

The windows for him to block and deflect were small, but so far, he could manage just fine, and before long, the Assassin jumped away from him while breathing heavily.

「It is impossible to keep going at such speed without holding your breath. You must be very tired right now. 」

「Maybe so, but dodging and blocking such attacks must be equally as exhausting? 」

「This much is not nearly enough to make me feel tired. After all, unlike with you assassins, the job of a Chamberlain knows no rest. 」

「Fucking monster! 」

The Assassin spat those words at Irvin.

「Even if I am a monster, that’s all the more reason for you to try and kill me, right? And besides, with that much Arts carved into both our bodies, we’re more like walking lumps of Chaos rather than humans anyway. 」

Irvin said cold-heartedly.

「What’s wrong? Are we done already? 」

「Dream on… 」

The Assassin said as he took another deep breath, and then his ragged breathing returned to normal.

「If I can’t win with you by using speed alone, then…! 」

As the assassin said so, he slowly started shaking his limbs and spinning his arms around, doing something that looked like some kind of exotic dance. And when he got close to Irvin, he drew out his blade with a low metallic sound.

「Is this supposed to me Assassin’s secret technique? I heard that female Assassins are often using dance as a distraction when they’ve been tasked with killing Lords. So now you’re using something like that in addition to the methods of the second-rate Assassins? 」

Irvin said mockingly while smirking.

「If it allows me to fulfill my mission, then I will use every tool and technique at my disposal. That is how a true Shadow should be operating. 」

The assassin returned Irvin’s mockery right back at him, but of course, Irvin knew that too. Exchanging insults like that was a part of their battle as well. If they manage to upset the opponent and make them act on their emotions instead of being calm all the time, then the movement of their body and their techniques are going to be much less effective.

Dancing techniques employed by the Assassins have that specific quality of bewitching anyone who watches them, so if Irvin gets distracted for even a single moment, it’s going to be over for him.

As he danced, the Assassin launched a surprise attack towards Irvin. The movement of his blades was slow, and he was drawing a lot of curves with them over a complicated trajectory. All of that should’ve made this attack of his extremely difficult to repel…

… but even so, Irvin managed to do it perfectly.

The assassin backed off from him once more.

「I should’ve expected as much from you… But it seems that you can only protect yourself against my attacks now. 」

「If you blindly focus on just attacking, you’re going to be full of openings for you opponent to exploit. That is what I learned from working with Lord Theo.

If his opponent wasn’t using poison, he could have counter-attacked as many times as he wanted. But since all that his opponent needed to kill Irvin was a single scratch with that poison made by the Black Witch, he devoted himself to making sure that he’s not going to get scratched at all costs.

「But you can rest easy now, because there’s no need from you to attack me so roughly anymore. 」

When Irvin said so,` he showed his dagger to the Assassin. A considerable amount of black liquid adhered to his blade as well.

「No way…!!! 」

The words of disbelief escaped from the Assassin’s mouth.

「Were you applying my poison to your blade bit by bit while deflecting my strikes?! 」
「We Chamberlains need to be able to do multiple things at once, and always think a few steps ahead! 」

Saying so, Irvin launched the first attack on his own since their battle began.

He paid close attention to the counterattacks of his opponent, and with his smooth movements and accurate foresight, he slowly pursues the Assassin and pushed him back.

(He’s falling behind…)

Irvin muttered in his heart.

(After 100 more hits, my blade should be able to reach him.)

All he needs to do is to continue doing exactly what he’s been doing up to this point.

(Fifty… )

The Assassin’s ability to defend himself against Irvin’s attacks was also flawless, but they were waning with each passing second. That is precisely why Irvin didn’t need to do anything else or change his current strategy.

(Ten… )

It seems that the assassin has come to understand what Irvin’s intentions were. But even if he did manage to figure his plan out, it was already too late for him to do anything about it.

(Five… )

Irvin was putting on the finishing touches now.

(One… )

And the final blow cuts the opponent’s right arm shallowly, just as Irvin intended.

However…

At the moment when Irvin’s attack connected, the Assassin’s right foot, the one where the hidden blade was, grazed Irvin’s left foot.

They both reflexively jumped back and then stared at each other in complete silence for a while, until Irvin realized that the poison was slowly making its way up through the veins in his foot.

This is probably what the Assassin meant when he said that with this poison concocted by the Black Witch for this very occasion, even the smallest amount would lead the recipient to death.

「How…? 」

Irvin called out to him with a voice that already sounded as if it started to go numb.

He really was not expecting that last attack of his.

「The Rossini family also had a Chamberlain once, but he betrayed his masters and escaped to the continent. You could immediately tell that he was a top-class Chamberlain just by looking at him. He used to say that it is good to be a jack of all trades and have as many Arts as possible, but even then, there is a power that is much more terrifying than those two combined: the ability to achieve enlightenment, and be able to predict what is going to happen before it actually happens and act accordingly… 」

「… because otherwise, you won’t be able to deal with any unreasonable requests that you master might throw at you right away. 」

Irvin nodded his head.

「But no matter how much foresight you might have, not even the best of Assassins or Chamberlains is going to be able to handle things that come at them out of the blue, without any prior warning. 」
The Assassin’s lips curled up into a smile.

「Does that mean that he was capable of doing that? 」

Irvin asked with a strained voice.

He was pressing on the blood vessels in his leg with his fingers, but he knew that he could only buy himself a little more time before the poison is going to keep on spreading inside of him.

「Completely erasing his presence, shutting down his consciousness… my master was even capable of forgetting that he was an Assassin and all the people whom he killed. Whenever he was assassinating someone, he could walk up to them and kill them, and it would take the victim a good amount of time to even realized that they’ve been killed. Unfortunately, I haven’t arrived at such mastery of the art of killing myself just yet. 」