A/N: Trigger warning. You might find the scenes a bit disturbing.
*
‘Is this really the place?’ Astraea frowned while staring at what was below her.
A brothel, she was told to go as soon as possible so she did not waste any time, despite it being day, she was confident in killing someone like… that.
‘Rowan, 28, scumbag, dead or alive (preferably dead)’ She read over the request a bit more and sighed.
The other details that were written down were too disturbing to even read out loud.
Evelyn herself was disgusted, and that said a lot considering she was the leader of this little assassin group, she must have seen far worse.
Astraea had learned how to disguise herself, one of the tricks she liked the most was changing her eye color, even people she used to know failed to recognize her.
It made little sense how a small posture change and different eye color could make that big of a difference, but she was not going to question it, it worked, that’s all that mattered.
She changed her eye color to blue, ones that looked nearly identical to Evelyn’s and hopped onto the roof of the brothel.
Even if she wasn’t exactly known around here, if someone managed to catch a glimpse of her, it would be easier to throw them off.
After all, it was her first mission ever, she wasn’t exactly a seasoned professional.
Jared, however, was. He only taught Astraea the basics of assassination, such as where to aim to kill somebody and how to hide if needed.
From what she gathered, he was at the very peak of Tier 1, nearly Tier 2, not exactly a huge powerhouse but due to his technique, he was quite formidable.
However, Astraea was the bane of all assassins, she could simply cover the area around her in threads, if someone steps on any one of them, their legs get cut off.
She stretched out her mana and tried finding the man called Rowan, though her senses picked up quite a lot more, sending shivers down her spine.
But eventually, she found him, he was surprisingly alone lying down on the coach of the middle floors.
Astraea used mana to make herself stick to the buildings, that’s yet another trick Jared had taught her.
She did not feel anyone tracking her so she slowly removed the frame of the window using her threads, carefully cutting it apart and placing it down on the ground.
Jumping in, she replaced it, sewing the window frame up with her threads so no one felt the breeze coming in.
Astraea took another look with her senses and Rowan was still lying down, the whole floor aside from him was completely empty.
It felt too perfect, but she wasn’t going to complain.
She silently walked up to him and noticed the stench of alcohol coming off of him, it was overwhelming.
‘Disgusting..’ She used mana to cover up her nose, the smell was making her want to vomit.
Astraea continued looking at the man with a slightly confused expression.
‘How does someone so weak manage to be so evil?’
Rowan was much weaker than her when she first attained her mana core, it felt like a small push would be enough to kill him.
‘What goes through that little head of yours?’ Astraea summoned her threads and gently wrapped them around his neck.
She began slowly tightening them and the man suddenly opened up his arms, flailing around like some kind of fish.
“P-P-Leas-e” He said with bated breaths as his entire face began turning purple
“Please? Really?” Astraea couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the man’s begging.
After everything he has done, he wants to be spared?
“Could you tell me why you did all those horrible things?” Astraea asked with mild amusement, she was going to kill him anyway, she just wanted to figure out where he gets this kind of gall.
She released the threads just enough for him to be able to speak.
“You bitch! Do you even know who I am? I will have you beheaded!” Rowan began shouting at her while attempting to stand up but failing.
“Answer my question” Astraea said in a stern voice as she wrapped her threads around his legs a bit tighter, finally drawing blood.
“How dare you order me around!” He attempted to swing his fist at her but just as it was about to reach, she split his hand into two parts.
Astraea wanted him to experience the pain he inflicted upon others, her thoughts were the same as her older self.
Bad people must be punished.
“AAAAH!” Rowan began screaming and thrashing around, trying to hold his split-into-two hand together.
‘Is this really all that he amounts to?’ She watched him in silence as the supposed scumbag who ruined other people’s lives was now a simple ant under her feet.
“Do you even know what you did wrong?” Astraea asked but the man was too preoccupied with his hand to hear what she was saying.
‘How useless..’ She used her threads to zip up his arm, returning it to its former condition.
Jared taught her some first aid and she was able to implement them in a way that suited her style.
“Can you talk now?”
Rowan turned to look at her with a frightened expression, he was no longer throwing out any more threats.
“W-What do you want from me!?” He shouted while trembling, the pain he felt a moment ago was still vivid inside of his mind.
“Tell me, what do you think you did wrong?” Astraea asked with her last bit of patience.
Rowan seemed bewildered by the question as if it was his first time considering what he had done wrong.
“I drank too much alcohol?” He said with a small frown, however, a sudden jolt of pain coming from his left leg made him panic again.
Rowan looked down and saw it had been cut off cleanly at the knee.
“Wrong” Astraea said in a threatening tone and lowered one of her five fingers.
“Bitch! I don’t know okay!? I jus-” His protests were cut short as pain spread throughout his other leg.
Astraea lowered another finger “Wrong.”
“Hey what the fu-!” Rowan was not able to finish his sentence as one of his arms plopped down onto the ground.
And with that, only 2 fingers remained raised “Wrong.”
Rowan now only had his single arm remaining, the one which she first cut into, however, she seemed to have removed the threads, opening it back up.
“AAAAAAAH!” The pain was intensified due to his already present injuries.
‘I think that’s enough..’ Astraea sighed at the sight, she might have gone a little too far.
“I hope you are not so trashy in your next life.”
With those words, she tightened the invisible thread around his neck, decapitating him.
Astraea did not linger for long as she went out the same way she came in, through the window.
She jumped out and climbed back up to the rooftop as that was where Jared told her to meet him after the mission was finished.
He didn’t come with Astraea since he wanted her to have a bit more in-depth experience.
“I see you had your fun?” He asked with a raised eyebrow while staring at her blue eyes and the blood-covered black clothing.
“Not really” She shrugged. The man was a scumbag through and through, it was impossible to even reason with him.
It felt just like breaking a target dummy, well, with the added blood of course.
‘Michael.. I wonder what you would think of me now?’ Astraea thought while looking at the sun above.
Every time she did that, she felt relaxed, it felt as though her memories were getting clearer and clearer.
“Anyways, this is the first of many missions, I hope you are up for them” Jared chuckled and patted her on the shoulder before jumping down the building and disappearing into thin air.
‘First of many huh…? I wonder how long will I want to keep doing this…’
