Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t sleep at all that night.
Forget about the phrase “Mark of Sin”—I had never seen my parents look so worried and heartbroken before.
“What in the world happened?”
Had I somehow messed up the sacred request so badly that the gods decided to punish me?
Honestly, I wanted to seek out the shaman, Tabiren, but no one knew where she lived.
Shamans usually lived alone in remote places.
One day, the young Tabiren, who would become the next successor, suddenly arrived.
No one knew which generation of Tabiren she was, where she came from, or whose child she was.
I tried to find the answer on my own by digging through all the history books, but I couldn’t figure out the meaning of the mark on my horn.
As I spent the day in discomfort, lost in thought, I happened to overhear some unsettling rumors while out in town.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“You mean the first-class assassin who targeted the Emperor of Hamilton?”
People were talking about it everywhere I went—it was impossible not to hear.
Hamilton’s emperor, Argon Tarsiwana, was the leader of the wolf beastkin.
Wolf beastkin had long been called warriors—not just because of their overwhelming strength but also because they often served as mercenaries on the battlefield.
“They even work as mercenaries in other countries.”
And the fact that such rumors had reached even the remote mountain nation of Medderland meant this wasn’t something to ignore.
“No way. What kind of reckless beastkin would dare try to assassinate the Emperor of Hamilton?”
“Apparently, they snuck into his quarters and failed to kill him—but escaped after stealing something precious to him.”
“That’s insane. At that level, it could start a war and no one could argue against it.”
“Whoever that foolish beastkin is, their country’s doomed.”
I heard the emperor’s personal elite unit was already on the march to capture the assassin.
They said people would freeze like the dead when the soldiers passed by, only letting out a breath of relief once the thunderous footsteps faded.
“Just who in the world would be bold enough to try and assassinate the Emperor of Hamilton?”
Strangely, the more I heard the stories, the less unfamiliar they sounded.
“Wolf beastkin…? First-class assassin…?”
Then, I suddenly recalled what the client had said to me.
“There were at least twenty generals, and hundreds of other soldiers.
And yet you risked your life to sneak in… for me?”
“Who sent you? The Emperor of the neighboring country, Berdil? Or maybe Commander Joseph?”
No ordinary person would say something like that.
No one would ever be in such a situation in the first place.
A chilling thought suddenly surfaced in my mind.
“That client I met… could he possibly have been the Emperor of Hamilton?”
Thinking back, the rumors about the assassin targeting Hamilton’s Emperor started spreading not long after my job ended.
The timing fit too well.
“No way… It can’t be. It can’t be. Why would someone that powerful be suffering from insomnia of all things…? That makes no sense!”
But as the Emperor’s personal unit began passing through one country after another and drew closer to Medderland, I felt like I was going to lose my mind from fear.
Even the brand that had been weighing on me no longer seemed like a big deal.
I was simply too overwhelmed and confused to know what to do.
“Dear, are you alright?”
I looked up to see my mother asking with concern.
I had spent the entire day absent-mindedly thinking about the Emperor of Hamilton.
So much so that I hadn’t even realized I was currently sitting at the table eating with my parents.
“Ah… yes, I’m fine. My stomach’s just… a little off today.”
I wanted to tell them everything, but they were already worried enough because of me.
And to explain anything about the Emperor of Hamilton, I’d have to bring up things like elephant aphrodisiacs, and the fact that I spent a steamy night with him.
“That’s the one thing I absolutely can’t say…”
The creeping sense of dread made it hard to breathe.
At this rate, that wolf might really come after me.
What did I do to deserve this?
I couldn’t even force myself to keep eating like this.
“I think I’ll head up early tonight. Please enjoy the meal.”
“But sweetie, you didn’t even eat properly yesterday,” my father said, his blue eyes full of worry.
He looked down at the untouched pumpkin soufflé in front of me.
“You didn’t even touch your favorite—pumpkin soufflé.”
“Ah, maybe I’m just finally relaxing. The assignment just ended recently, after all.”
“…Now that you mention it, that might be the case. It must’ve been a tough one. In that case, if there’s anything you’d like to eat, just tell Chef Pigrets anytime, alright?”
“I will. Thanks for worrying, Dad.”
I couldn’t even recall how I made it back to my room.
My mind was completely consumed with thoughts of the assassin who had allegedly tried to kill the Emperor of Hamilton, the wolf beastkin nation.
No matter how much I tried to deny it, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like I was the subject of those rumors.
“I’m supposed to be a first-class assassin? That I tried to assassinate the Emperor of Hamilton? But… I didn’t even steal anything from him!”
It was so unfair.
All I did was complete a mission to guide someone suffering from insomnia into a peaceful dream.
Sure, there were all kinds of unspeakably messy incidents during that process, but in the end, it was a good outcome for him.
“I mean, he liked it too! He was the one who wouldn’t let go of me like he was going to devour me whole.”
Just thinking about it still made my entire body go stiff with fear.
|
Even now, faint red marks remained scattered across my body, reminders of what he had done.
“This wasn’t lust—it was madness. I couldn’t even tell if he was a person or a beast.”
“Please, just stop… haah…!”
“Spread wider. That way I can give you exactly what you want.”
I couldn’t just sit here in a daze.
If I couldn’t talk to my family, I should at least go speak with the headmaster about what was happening.
I got dressed and took a carriage to the academy where the headmaster resided.
It was my first time seeing him since the day I had gone to accept my final mission.
Since then, I’d been too busy running around trying to learn more about the Mark of Sin.
Knock knock—!
As I stood in front of his office and knocked, a deep voice responded.
“Yes, come in.”
“Headmaster, it’s me… Mayhen.”
As I stepped inside, his eyes, which had been scanning a stack of documents, widened in surprise.
A warm smile bloomed on his face like a flower.
“Welcome back, Mayhen! I heard you completed your final mission successfully?”
Normally, he would either scold me with a displeased look or explode in anger with a red face.
But now, his expression held an unfamiliar warmth, which only made me feel guiltier.
I hesitated, then finally spoke.
“There’s something I’d like to discuss with you…”
“Of course, tell me anything. You little troublemaker, Mayhen. I’ve worried about you so much—it’s only now that I can finally feel relieved.”
His eyes were damp with emotion.
Just from that look, I could tell how much stress it has caused him.
But what I was about to say went far beyond any trouble I had caused before.
Even calling it a catastrophe on the brink of destruction didn’t feel like enough.
“You know the rumors… about the assassin who tried to kill the Emperor of Hamilton…”
“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
It was as if the headmaster sensed the misfortune that was about to follow.
A faint crack appeared in his previously calm expression.
He furrowed his deeply wrinkled brow and looked at me.
“I think… that assassin might be me.”
For a moment, time froze.
A heavy silence fell, so complete that I thought I could hear even the sound of his breathing.
The headmaster’s eyes widened in shock, and his hands trembled as he held the stack of documents.
Then, like a thunderclap, his voice exploded.
“How on earth… ha, how is that even possible?! Why—why would you do something so outrageous? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”
“I don’t know how this happened either! I swear I brought sleep incense, but it must have been switched with some other weird drug…!”
“If what you’re saying is true, then this isn’t something we can just brush off! Do you understand that our small country might be forced into war with the great nation of Hamilton?!”
That was exactly what I had feared the most.
No matter how powerful the problem-solvers we had were, it would be nearly impossible to defeat an army of wolves rampaging across the battlefield.
I felt like I could break down crying any second.
I desperately wished I could do anything—anything—to turn back time.
And then, it happened.
A signal flare was launched into the sky outside the window.
It traced a beautifully curved path before exploding with a thunderous boom.
Boom!
Crimson powder burst across the night sky like paint on a canvas.
“Ah…”
The Emperor of Hamilton, Argon.
People called his personal unit the Red Sky.
Wherever they appeared, the red signal flare would mark the beginning—turning the land into a battlefield soaked in blood.
At last, the wolf had found his prey.
“They’ve already arrived…?”
The latest rumors said it would take at least four more days for his unit to reach Medderland.
I thought I’d at least have time to clear up the misunderstanding before then.
If I had known this would happen…
I wouldn’t have gone on that last mission.
But now, there was no use regretting it.
Everything was already out of my hands.
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