Godfather's System

126. Development - 23

While the guildmasters and their entourage moved, I refilled the hole I had created. Luckily, I had cut the stone carefully in the first place during the initial digging, so putting it back worked as a temporary solution, especially once I slid the bedside table back in place.

Yet, I didn't move away.

I had already decided to stay, waiting for my prey.

There was no guarantee that the room was assigned to one the guildmasters, but I was willing to take that bet. My thought process was based on the cleaned and prepared state of the room. Also, the room was too opulent to be assigned to a guard, yet not fancy enough to be assigned to that mysterious young noble.

There was a chance the room would stay empty, but it was low. And even if it did, it would give me a nice spot to stay hidden until the guests were asleep and the guards lost their vigilance.

Either way, a good deal.

I started looking for a place to hide. The room had several nice spots. The huge wardrobe that covered almost the entirety of the wall offered a nice hiding spot inside, one that would keep me hidden from view completely.

Unfortunately, it was also the first place any half-decent bodyguard would check to make sure the room was safe. The same applied to under the bed, the huge space underneath giving a nice hiding spot that would inevitably get checked.

While I had Concealment, that worked best when people weren't explicitly searching for the target. It wouldn't just trick someone looking for me in such close quarters if they had a decent score in Perception.

I had to assume that they would use a guard with high Perception to search the room. Betting on the stupidity of my enemies was not a good long-term survival strategy.

In the end, I settled on a relatively simple hiding spot: on top of the large wardrobe. It was tall enough to create a partial cover as long as I pushed myself down enough, and its shadow would help. With the help of Concealment and Charisma, I should be able to stay hidden.

And, if that didn't work, there was always Speed for a quick and dirty delivery. Not my first preference, but the situation was dire enough to justify some risk-taking. They needed a reason to rethink their plans.

Of course, such a thing would only be a consolation prize. If everything went well, they wouldn't realize what happened until it was too late.

Assassination was an interesting concept. The silence and effectiveness didn't matter for the target. The surprise factor was enough for the initial success.

Just like what had happened during my own unfortunate assassination that started the chain of events that resulted in my surprise relocation. It had been a public ambush, loud, with fully automatic weapons used aggressively. It made the event impossible to hide, but ultimately, it was effective.

It showed that, as long as they were able to get rid of me, they didn't care about the commotion.

They succeeded … in a manner of speaking. Of course, if there was a way back, I would be very happy to show them why partial success was not preferable. And, of course, when I thought 'them', I wasn't talking about the assassins themselves. The ones that pulled the trigger were just incidental.

I would still make them pay if I could find them, but even if I couldn't, nothing would change.

I wanted the ones who gave the order.

Soon, I shook my head, focusing on the present. Dreams of vengeance were a part of my business, but not on the job.

I focused on the task at hand. The current situation was different from my own assassination. I was not targeting one of the true decision-makers. I didn't even know if I had a true decision-maker in the building. For all I knew, even that mysterious noble worked for someone else. And, in such circumstances, sending a message was more important.

A message that said their safety wasn't as guaranteed as they had assumed. More importantly, it would leave them wondering whether their improved security would be enough to prevent the next attempt … or maybe they should have guards at their bedside.

Maybe they were next.

The touch of a true professional should leave an impact. And, while I had thought that those days were over for me, fate clearly had a different idea.

I let Concealment cover me once more and waited patiently. A minute passed, then two, then fifteen… Yet I stayed unmoving, waiting calmly.

Patience. While it was not as glamorous as using a sniper rifle to take down a target half a mile away, it was a far more important feature of a competent assassin. One that I might have struggled with in my youth, but got increasingly able with the passage of time.

I didn't move when the door opened half an hour later, and a guard entered, alone as he checked the room. It was already a routine security check, boring by its nature. Of course, a professional wouldn't have let the routine nature keep them from being careful … but I had long established their lack of professionalism.

With the help of a Charisma blast enhancing his boredom, he stopped checking the room halfway through. He didn't even bother checking some of the more obvious locations, including under the bed. It was to my benefit, but still, I couldn't help but shake my head in disapproval.

Instead of a full sweep, he called a servant, who quickly put several clothes into the wardrobe and set a bottle of chilled wine on the bedside table.

I continued waiting, amused by the nostalgia of the situation. How many times had I been in the same position, sometimes waiting on a rooftop with a sniper rifle, sometimes in a rainy alleyway with a knife… but always to the same bright, splattered image.

Even without the assistance of Memory Stat, they were clear in my mind.

The nostalgic memory trip to the past dissipated when the door opened once more, and one of the guildmasters walked in.

I would have celebrated if it wouldn't have alerted my target.

He was the guildmaster of Adamant Sword, who I recognized from the ceremony.

I was glad, because the earlier discussion I had been listening to made it clear that he was secretly working for House Maell, adding a nice angle of intrigue to the situation. Not only would I be killing a guildmaster under the roof of House Maell, but I would be killing the guildmaster who was secretly working for them.

He wasn't the best target among the five guildmasters. I would have preferred to take down the leader of Night Blades as he represented the most immediate threat. Similarly, the guildmaster of Endless Rain was thoughtful enough to be dangerous.

That didn't change the fact that my current target offered an unmatched, unique advantage. A warning against House Maell for acting out … and, a chance to spread suspicion about whether it was a message from one of their negotiation partners for their duplicity.

Provided I could get away unnoticed.

I examined my target as he walked into the room, trying to get a better sense of his class and skills. It was hard to truly know someone's Stats, but after months, I learned to better read their clues. His movement made it clear that he had a Strength-based class. People with high Strength had a particular confidence in their walk that was easy to notice. The thick armor he had been wearing during the ceremony made it even more obvious.

Agility was another stat easy to recognize, as easy to notice a model or a dancer by the way they walked. And, from the way he lumbered in the room, I deduced that my target was lacking in that department.

Perception was harder to call. It affected the way people looked around, but it was hard to predict whether they lacked the stat, or they were just careless.josei

Speed, he just didn't have.

My findings were promising. Agility and Perception would have been particularly annoying to deal with. However, that didn't mean his distribution didn't have its own problems. Unless the rest of his stats were assigned to Intelligence and Wisdom — which I doubted very much — he had a class that leaned heavily towards Strength, probably with Vitality to match.

A true frontline class, meaning if I couldn't take him down in one hit, a commotion was inevitable.

I waited in my little nook, patient and silent as he changed into his sleep clothes and laid down, his breathing changing, first shallow to tell he was finally asleep, then deep to tell he was sleeping deeply. I wasn't just waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, but also waiting for the rest of the manor to sleep.

An hour after he fell asleep, I decided to act. Ideally, I would have waited until early morning, when the servants would start their work and give me a chance to conceal my exit.

But I couldn't just wait for hours. I still needed Experience to level up, and for that, I needed to return home so Zolast could go into the dungeon.

With that in mind, I slowly climbed down, making no noise as I approached, my blade ready.

Compared to all the preparation and waiting, the blow itself was boring and unremarkable. A sharp stab to the head, followed by a twist, my hand pressing to his mouth before he could react. A decapitation strike just to be sure … and the task was done.

I waited a moment before I pulled back my blade to make sure there was no last-minute recovery, using the blanket to clean the sword.

At the same time, I stretched my Charisma to the door, increasing the sense of boredom for the two guards at the door. Already bored out of their mind with their mission — clearly treating it as ceremonial rather than actual — they decided a little nap wouldn't harm anyone.

I opened a window, creating two viable entrances for an assassin. Pity that wasn't a path I could use, as the wards over the window were strengthened for that exact reason with the equivalent of a motion sensor.

They were rather obvious as exits.

However, rather than opening the door, I used my magic blade to cut a hole in the floor, keeping the edges diagonal so I could put it back behind me.

I used the emergency tunnel as a shortcut to downstairs. Hopefully, my trick with the floor would stay concealed for a while until someone cleaned the room.

The great hall was empty with no guards. Even the door was open, no doubt to allow the servant to clean up the room in the morning.

Pity no one was careless enough to leave sensitive documents detailing their plans around.

Before leaving, I had one last thing to do. I left a bloody gift right in the center of their meeting room, making it look even more like a message, covering it just with a fabric. Ironically, my aim was not to send a message. That, I handled by killing a guildmaster in the middle of their noble residence.

I just needed to have a better excuse for the hole in the wall while I made it look like I managed to escape through the window despite the strong magical protections.

No one cared about an old servant leaving the building in the middle of the night, and it was to my benefit if no one paid any attention when that old servant returned either…