I double checked my pack before lifting it onto my shoulders. The small squad of elite soldiers assigned to my mission had made amicable traveling companions into enemy territory but it was time to separate. We had a mission to accomplish. The soldiers were meant to serve as a contingency and potential diversion if things went sideways and I needed to make an escape. But I never needed them. My service record was flawless.
Sixty seven targets, sixty seven kills. Zero witnesses, zero slip-ups. I was the best to ever take up the profession of the assassin and I made sure things went to plan by being careful. Arrogance was the first step on the path to failure, so I had left nothing to chance for this mission.
On its face it was a standard op. Go in, eliminate target, get out before anyone realizes what happened. Operating in foreign lands was always a little trickier than working domestically, but in the end it was always the same. People, as it turned out, were all kind of the same. I had done this same job dozens of times in dozens of cities.
The only thing that was any different about this job was the target: our spy inside the castle had sent word that this upstart little shithole of a kingdom had actually summoned a Hero from another world. It was unthinkable. Reckless. Brilliant. The spy reported that he was a powerful warrior and a formidable man, capable of things beyond our comprehension. She had said that he was making waves in the power structures of the kingdom and suggested he would undoubtedly become a problem if not pruned quickly.
And when there was a problem in the shape of a man, my queen sent me. This so-called Hero represented too much uncertainty. He could upset plans we had been working on for the better part of a decade; my queen wanted some of the more valuable lands this fool king defended and with the addition of this Hero, military options were off the table. We couldn't figure out how it had happened but the kingdom's military weight had tripled inside a matter of months. It had to be the work of the hero, and that meant that the simplest option was to kill him. I was a fan of the simple option.
It's how I ended up backpacking through the middle of a mountain forest while my team caused a scene to lure out the target. I wasn't about to go into the castle itself: I had heard some disturbingly vague rumors about things that went on in that castle. One report had said the castle's defensive enchantments were being juiced with Dark magic. Impossible to plan for. As far as I was concerned, that castle was a **** trap. My plan, backup plan, and failsafe plan all made sure that the castle itself would not be a factor in our mission. We couldn't afford it.
As a matter of standard operational procedure, I had sent word to my spy ahead of my arrival. It was surprisingly easy to plant spies in this kingdom. Any agent with a set of tits was welcomed in without question. Everyone knew the kind of reputation this king had built for himself. It was so easy to exploit such a weakness. Everything had been so easy before this twice-damned Hero showed up.
I couldn't wait to kill him.
Author's note:
Fair warning, this thread is going to be quite dark. We will see some real sadism from the Hero. There will be blood and pain and ****. Kirin and her allies are foreigners and are hostile actors. The Hero has no reason to keep up any kind of appearances of civility with them. Kirin especially will suffer terribly as the Hero's plaything, physically as well as psychologically.
If she survives by the end, she will not be well.
That said, I do intend to keep it spicy and not just violent.
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