A man had just tried to kill me in my sleep.

I had never seen him before in my life. However, I knew right away which group of people had sent the order. Experience more content on empire

It was the nobles.

There was no other option since there wasn’t anyone who had followed us to the place, which meant that the person who gave the order to do such a thing was part of this Kingdom. The assassin was also wearing a mask; however, I could clearly see that it was an elf under it, which confirmed that it had to be one of the nobles who had been shouting in the hall and who was against me.

“Who gave you the order to kill me?” I asked with a frown. “Tell me right now, or you will die in the next five seconds.”

It wasn’t the first time that someone had tried to assassinate me, and I knew how to deal with them pretty well. Most of the time, they would kill themselves before they answered a question. However, I still tried my luck.

“K-Kill me?” He smirked as I tightened my hold on his neck. “Y-You should be worried about your friend, kekeke…she’s probably already dead at this point.”

A flash of panic appeared in my eyes as I completely disappeared from in front of the assassin.

Phoebe…I had completely forgotten about her.

I moved as fast as I could within the castle. Her room was close to mine, but it would still take me a few seconds to reach her. I activated [Bloodlust] to increase my physical abilities, and within seconds, I reached her room, which had her door opened.

Someone had already entered.

I arrived, and there was someone who looked just like the previous assassin over her with his dagger. He had already begun his strike.

I would be too late if I tried to run in her direction and block off the strike.

“PHOEBE!”

I glanced around myself as I thought of grabbing an object inside my special pouch. I grabbed it and immediately threw it toward Phoebe in the trajectory that the dagger currently had.

I had placed as much strength as I could into my arm as I threw this object, which seemed to be a gold coin.

“WAKE UP! THERE ARE ASSASSINS TRYING TO KILL US!”

Right after throwing the gold coin in the trajectory of the dagger, I dashed forward. However, I would still be too late. Still, I saw Phoebe’s eyes fluttering, meaning that she waking up right now.

“Move!” I shouted as loudly as possible.

Then, right as the dagger was about to reach her neck, the gold coin found its way between her neck and his dagger. It delayed his strike for not even a second. But that was all I needed to reach the assassin.

Because of this second that I had gained, I was able to slash his head off from his shoulders, killing him in one swift strike.

I didn’t kill often, but if the situation demanded it, then I would not hesitate for a single moment.

Phoebe opened her eyes as the head of the person I had just killed dropped right beside her, scaring her like crazy.

“Stay here, Phoebe. I’ll come back after I’m done dealing with the other one.”

With those words, I ran back toward my room. However, when I came back, I noticed that the assassin was completely gone. However, I wouldn’t let him go that easily. I activated the same skill that I had used to find Darla back then, [Tracking].

Instantly, blue footprints appeared on the ground, and I could see them without the slightest problem. I followed them, and it led me to a different room within the castle.

This assassin, whoever it was, still hadn’t run away. He was still within the castle.

‘Should I observe him a little more?’ I thought in the back of my mind.

There was a chance that he would be running to his contractor, who was a nobleman. However, as I finally reached the end of the blue footprints. It led me to an isolated room in what seemed to be a secret hallway within the castle. The blue footprints led to the other side of that door. However, I haven’t opened that door yet, as I have heard a few voices on the other side of it.

“The assassination failed, sir. The target was too powerful and managed to resist my attack instantly.”

“Tsk, I knew that if someone was trying to look for Zero, then he was bound to be powerful. Did you manage to gauge how strong he was?”

I tried to recognize where the voices came from. However, it was quite hard. I was still convinced that it came from the nobles. It just had to. There was also the fact that they knew of Zero. I had not once uttered his name during my capture or when I talked with the Queen, which meant that they knew of him.

Something extremely weird was happening here, and I couldn’t tell what it was just yet. However, one thing was certain: some of the Ice Elves were allies of Zero, and there was a big chance that someone had already told him that someone was looking for him. If he were to learn that it was me, he would either way for me to kill me once and for all, or he would flee before I could catch him.

I needed to act fast, really fast, before he had the chance to flee. I had a good idea that the entrance to his subspace was near the Icy Lake, or it could even be inside it.

Still, the fact that an assassination had been launched on both myself and Phoebe could only mean that they were extremely wary of all our movements. We needed to be careful, or else we would find ourselves in quite the trouble.

If even the Ice Elves were out to kill us, then we couldn’t trust anyone.

‘I should go and talk to the queen in person.’

She had been the only one who didn’t show any signs of being in leagues with Zero. She was also bound to know a bit more about the situation than she made it seem. She was the queen of this territory, and there was no way she ignored everything behind the scenes.

Still, before talking with the Queen, I still had to get rid of that assassin and that noble who was talking behind that door.

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