I decided to have some fun with those two, so I knocked on the door, very, very slowly, as if I was in some kind of horror movie.
-Knock!
-Knock!
-Knock!
I made sure to make each knock at a one-second interval. And as soon as I knocked on the door, everything became silent inside. I could barely hear small murmurs. They had clearly been unaware of my presence. However, as I closed my eyes, I felt their auras getting closer to the door, albeit slowly.
“Hey, you two. Can I enter?” I asked out loud. I didn’t care if anyone even heard me. They were the ones who would get punished without a doubt.
It wasn’t surprising, but there was no answer.
Instead of waiting around, I simply kicked the door with all the strength I could muster, causing the door to break and be launched against the wall on the other side of the room.
Luckily for my enemies, they had been standing on both sides of the door, so they didn’t get knocked out from receiving the door on their faces. However, when the two of them saw me, they looked absolutely terrified.
“Did you let him follow you?!” the noble asked with a clear frown.
I didn’t remember seeing him when I was getting my judgment by the queen, but he was definitely a noble. They all looked pretty much the same.
Clothes that looked expensive, long hair, blue eyes, and their bodies were undeveloped because they never fought.
All the nobles that I had observed in the hall had been this exact way. So there was no doubt in my mind that he was also part of them, which confirmed my theory. Some nobles were definitely out to get me before I reached the Icy Lake.
After looking at the noble, I glanced at the assassin. He looked absolutely terrified of me, most likely because of what had just happened back in my room when he tried to kill me.
In fact, the assassin didn’t even move a single muscle as I stared him down.
“Well, thanks for leading me to your owner. Your friend is also dead,” I said with a bright smile as I saw his expression gradually become worse and worse as time passed by. “Now that I know who he is, I don’t have a use for you. So, goodbye!”
I smiled as if I was a demon and killed the assassin in one swift movement. His head rolled on the ground; however, I did not even glance in its direction as I instantly looked in the direction of the noble Ice Elf, who was at a loss for what to do against me.
“Y-You can’t do this! Y-You can’t do this to me, do you know who I am?” he stuttered with every word he said. “I-If you kill me, then the queen won’t forgive you, and you’ll die a dog’s death!”
He kept shouting over and over again, trying to convince me that killing him was a grave mistake. However, I just smiled. I had no plans to kill him just yet. Yes, he was bound to die, but I needed to know more about the situation in this Kingdom and the degree to which they were allied with Zero.
I placed my right hand on the elf’s shoulder with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you just yet. Answer all my questions like the good little dog you are, and I will let you go.”
I could feel myself gradually going back to the way I once was when I had been training under my master. However, this was a situation that required it. I needed to scare this man shitless. Otherwise, he wouldn’t tell me anything.
I could see him shake as I held onto him. He tried to look to my left, to my right. However, it only helped him realize that there was no one who would come to save him, especially in the middle of the night like this. After all, the rest of the castle was already in a state of panic because of the assassinations and the noise I had made. But they wouldn’t come here; this place was extremely well hidden from the rest of the castle, after all.
“So, why did you hire someone to assassinate me? Is it because of the person I’m trying to kill in the Icy Lake?”
He shook his head. “S-Someone much more powerful than me gave me this order… I had no choice but to listen to it.”
‘Someone much more powerful? The queen? Did I make a mistake when assessing her?’ I thought with a slight frown, as I was almost sure that the queen had been the only one on my side during my audience.
“Who? Tell me who, and I might let you leave.”
“I-It’s one of the Royal Advisers… h-he’s the one who ordered me to have both of you killed.”
I nodded. It made sense. It had to be someone who was close to the queen who could pull off something like this. There was no doubt about it. The Royal Adviser was definitely one of the top choices for something like this.
“Do you know why he asked something like this from you?”
The noble shook his head. “I-I have no idea!”
I activated my skill to see whether this man was currently lying, and it seemed that he was lying to me. After all, he had mentioned the name of Zero; this noble knew more about this situation than he let on.
“Tell me what you know about Zero. Don’t skip a single detail, or I will kill you without wasting another word. I don’t like being lied to.”
The noble trembled as I tightly held his shoulder.
“I-I only know that he’s someone extremely powerful that no one here should mess with. I also know that we need to keep his existence a secret from the queen and not say a word about what he’s doing in the Icy Lake. T-That’s all, I swear that’s all I know.”
I activated my skill, and this man wasn’t lying. That was actually all he knew about Zero.
‘Hm, that adviser is smart, going through a middleman to execute the assassination.’
“Do you know what Zero is doing in the Icy Lake?”
“No idea! I swear… please, I only accepted to do this because I was promised a ton of money. I swear!”
I smiled as I slowly caressed his face, which was now filled with tears.
“I know you’re telling the truth. I guess I’ll give you a painless death because you told me the truth.”
A look of horror appeared on his face as I cut off his head, just like I had done with the assassin.
