Chapter 87: A Night in a Mansion Full of Assassins (3)

After Veronica dropped from the ceiling of the room, two daggers drove straight through Lucian and Daniel’s backs and into their hearts.

The strike was so clean and sudden that neither of them managed to fully turn around before receiving it.

“W-what…” Lucian tried to speak as the strength immediately drained from his body. His knees gave out and he collapsed onto the floor, his gaze unfocused, still unable to understand why Veronica had attacked at that exact moment.

“I imagine you didn’t know about us. You don’t know our behaviors or our habits. Hell, you don’t even know our abilities,” the blonde said as she stood up from her seat and approached Lucian.

“You see… pointy-ears, the real pointy-ears would never think about calling a Healer for me, so well… it was a good game,” Ebony said with a satisfied smile. Her expression was cold, but there was a spark of mockery in her eyes that made it clear she had already suspected something.

Their eyes turned white, their purple veins standing out clearly. The change was quick and grotesque, as if the poison had instantly found the right path through their bodies.

The daggers buried inside them had been coated with venom meant to kill the wealthy young woman.

Now that same poison was doing its work on the impostors, revealing with brutal clarity that Veronica’s strike had never been improvised.

“You damn… bi—”

Unable to finish the sentence, the fake Lucian collapsed onto the floor, and a pale blue glow wrapped around his body. The illusion broke instantly, and his figure stopped resembling the elf, turning into that of an older man.

The fake Daniel, meanwhile, tried to pull a vial from his clothing. Inside was a pink-colored liquid, but his movements were clumsy and rushed, driven more by the instinct to survive than by any real hope of escaping.

“Oh, excellent, thanks for your contribution, friend,” Ebony said as she grabbed the vial the assassin was about to drink. She snatched it away with a quick motion, not even giving him time to react, and looked at it with a brief smile.

A few seconds later he also died on the floor. His body tensed one last time before going still, and Daniel’s false appearance dissolved as well, revealing that both companions had been replaced by assassins.

“I imagine that’s the antidote. Good thing to have,” Veronica said. Still holding the knives and with some blood splattered on her clothes, the cat girl kept her eyes on the vial as if she wanted to memorize it.

“For now, yes, but the loot can always get better if you search properly,” Ebony began checking the assassins’ clothing. She crouched down without disgust or hesitation, slipping her hands into layers, pockets, and folds like someone far too used to looting corpses.

From the two bodies she pulled out small bags of gold, more poisoned knives, and a small bottle of dark purple venom. Everything ended up lined neatly on the nearby table, arranged with a strange calm for the situation.

“I guess you don’t mind stealing from the dead,” the cat girl crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Her tone wasn’t exactly criticism, but it made it clear she was still impressed by how easily Ebony did those kinds of things.

“Well, they started it. Anyway, if this is the house of the daughter of a ruler of this city, shouldn’t it have guards or something?” the blonde said while continuing to search the bodies, tossing aside whatever she didn’t need.

“No, she only has her servants. The city’s royal guard is with her mother. In the end, she’s the ruler, not her daughter…” Veronica said with a sigh. The answer carried a bitter resignation that didn’t seem new.

“Heartless mother. I’d feel sorry for her, but I’ve seen worse, so for now she’s not the worst mother in the world,” Ebony, still stained with blood, looked toward the window of the room.

“Okay, we’ll do this. I’ll go look for the idiots we call companions, and you stay here watching over Sleeping Beauty,” the blonde said as she grabbed a pair of daggers, preparing to leave. She said it as casually as if hunting assassins through a mansion were an everyday task.

“Can you handle them alone? It’s possible everyone is an enemy now… Besides, how will you know which ones are them?” Veronica asked, worried. She looked first at Kanary, then at Ebony, and finally at the door, as if already imagining what might be waiting on the other side.

“Relax, leave it to me. We already planned for something like this scenario… more or less. For now just stay here and take care of the spoiled girl,” Ebony said with a half-smile, trying to calm her friend.

The blonde left the room and began walking through the hallways like a blood-painted executioner, leaving red footprints with every step.

Thanks to her passive Healer ability, she could sense other living beings, so she easily identified a large number of heartbeats. The sensation came like a radar inside her mind, marking presences behind the walls of a nearby room.

With a sigh she kicked the door of one room hard. The door shattered open, and when she entered she was surprised to see several maids tied up.

Some were on the floor, others against the wall, all with their hands bound and their mouths gagged, moving desperately the moment they saw her enter.

Gagged, they tried to speak as if warning her of another presence. However, Ebony only smiled.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I know perfectly well only you are here, and those bindings aren’t tied properly… Nice attempt to fool me, assassins, but well… let’s start playing.”

With a manic gaze and gripping a pair of poisoned knives in each hand, the girl approached the maids.

She advanced slowly, watching every movement and every breath, as if she were waiting for the exact moment one of them broke the act.

Suddenly, from between their bodies, an arrow flew out and buried itself in her left shoulder. The impact shook her entire arm and forced her to step back half a pace, but she didn’t fall or drop the daggers.

“Almost had it, woman, but these ones are innocent. They were just the cover,” said a voice behind the maids. The words carried an unpleasant confidence, as if the shooter were enjoying the trap far too much.

Enduring the pain, Ebony felt the poison begin to spread through her body. The burning sensation traveled quickly from her shoulder down her arm, and she clenched her teeth just enough to avoid letting out a single complaint.

“It’s a shame to kill someone so pretty, but work is work.”

The owner of the voice stood up from among the terrified maids. He was dressed like a servant. The disguise, even up close, had been good enough to fool anyone.

In an instant he removed the disguise, revealing his body. He was small and thin, holding a compact crossbow in his hands, and his face carried scars that he quickly tried to hide with bandages.

Ebony, trying to move, felt her body rapidly beginning to go numb, preventing her from casting her healing spell.

“Relax, beautiful, don’t panic. Soon you’ll be joining your friends on the other side.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep