TGS - Chapter 95
Chapter 95: The Assassin
This was a scene that took Lotus by surprise.
Asilu, holding a prop scepter from her performance, had blocked the assassin's attack.
The man hadn't expected anyone to interfere. When his first strike failed, he pulled back, his eyes fixed on Lotus, as if afraid his target would use the opportunity to escape.
Lotus was surprised for only a moment before closing her book and calmly observing.
She noticed that this killer didn't seem to be an assassin.
He was tall and sturdy, his body rippling with muscle. His build was more like that of a gladiator from the arena. He held a long, gleaming blade with a sharp edge.
Unlike the previous men who had tried to kidnap her, this one had come to kill.
Could the mastermind not be the Stubborn Faction?
Or had the Stubborn Faction finally woken from their fantasy of using her to threaten Alyuin and decided to resort to murder?
At this thought, Lotus's eyes shifted, glancing toward Asilu.
The actress held the prop scepter horizontally with both hands, facing off against the killer. Strangely, she maintained a constant smile, which became somewhat unsettling the longer one looked at it.
The killer seemed to feel the same way. He gritted his teeth and said:
"I know you. You're that actress who's so popular with the noble lords."
Asilu smiled.
"This is a private matter. If you know what's good for you, pretend you saw nothing. I won't make things difficult for you. Leave now. Right now."
The killer opened a small door behind him, gesturing for Asilu to leave quickly. The door was well-hidden; clearly, it was how the killer had entered.
Asilu continued to smile.
The smile was like a proper mask, fixed unchangingly on her face.
The killer's expression darkened. He swung his blade at her, but just as the edge was about to strike, he suddenly pivoted, launching a ferocious attack at Lotus.
No matter what unexpected things happened, he had to kill the court lady first. Once he successfully completed the task given to him by that lord, he would have nothing to worry about.
As long as he could succeed…
He wouldn't have to fight to the death in the arena, and even his family could be freed from slavery. All he had to do was kill her!
Lotus could have stood perfectly still and let the killer die from the backlash—but Asilu was also present.
Facing this woman of unknown origins, Lotus didn't want to reveal anything unusual about herself.
Before the blade reached a critical distance, Lotus tapped her toes on the ground and dodged to the side. She snatched the prop scepter from Asilu and, as the killer's forward momentum carried him past, she struck him on the back of the neck.
The performance prop was surprisingly heavy, like it was made of metal. No wonder it had made such a teeth-grinding sound when it blocked the killer's attack.
Struck by the heavy blow, the killer didn't even grunt. His eyes rolled back as he fell forward.
He even knocked over a rack used for drying paper.
The incident, which hardly qualified as a crisis, was over. Lotus returned the fake scepter to Asilu and gave a calm nod.
"Thank you."
"It was nothing. You're very skilled. If it were up to me, I don't know if I could have beaten him."
The most famous divine impersonator of the era had already changed into everyday clothes and removed her performance wig, her short, pale gold hair falling to her cheeks. She was undoubtedly pleasing to the eye, but her beauty was generic, lacking any particularly memorable features.
It made one feel that after turning away, the details of her face would be forgotten, leaving only the impression of "a beauty."
She didn't seem like anyone Lotus had encountered in the modern era.
Or was she a divine incarnation? Lotus narrowed her eyes slightly but didn't sense the divine power of any other god.
Asilu stood quietly before her, a smile etched onto her lips as if measured with a ruler.
Perhaps sensing Lotus's wariness, she tilted her head and offered an explanation. "I was over there just now." She raised a hand and pointed to an intact bookshelf not far away. "After the performance, I wanted to buy a couple of books, so I came straight here."
The bookshelf was tall, certainly high enough to completely hide a person.
But the nervous bookshop owner shouldn't have failed to notice her presence, nor would he have locked the door so easily—unless he didn't care about the life or death of other customers inside.
But if that were the case, the owner wouldn't have waited until just now to close the door.
…Besides, Asilu was still carrying the prop scepter.
Who would go browsing in a bookshop after a performance while carrying a heavy metal scepter?
Asilu smiled innocently, seemingly unconcerned about the holes in her story.
Lotus lowered her gaze. "Is that so? What a coincidence."
She stopped talking to Asilu. Her eyes swept the room, and she walked to a corner to pick up a bundle of hemp rope used for tying books. She tugged it; it was sturdy.
Carrying the rope, she went to the small door, crossed her arms, and waited quietly.
Her long time with the Princess had influenced her slightly. This posture, for instance, had a sort of Alyuin-esque composure.
Behind Lotus, Asilu's brow lowered, and a dark shadow passed through her deep blue, night-sky eyes.
Lotus didn't have to wait long.
The small door was quietly pulled open a crack. Someone peeked inside, trying to gauge the situation, but before he could see anything, Lotus shoved the door open from within.
A moment later.
The bookshop owner and the unconscious killer sat back-to-back on the floor, tied together with a single length of hemp rope.
"I don't know who it was, really!" the bookshop owner desperately pleaded. "I only know it was a noble. I didn't want to hurt anyone, but if I didn't do as that lord said, I'd be dead!"
Lotus: "Oh."
After a perfunctory reply, she walked over to the bookshelf, picked up the book she had been reading earlier, and began to pass the time while waiting for Alyuin to arrive.
The bookshop owner hemmed and hawed for a while. "My lady court official, could you please plead with Her Highness the Princess for me? I really didn't mean any harm…"
"You know Alyuin?"
"Yes, I… I saw Her Highness the Princess come here with you before."
"Since you knew those people wouldn't let you live, why would you think Alyuin would spare you?"
Lotus was slightly puzzled.
If this assassination attempt had succeeded, it was uncertain whether the noble behind it would be exposed. But as a participant, the bookshop owner couldn't extricate himself, and the noble certainly wouldn't protect him.
Once he accepted the coercion, there was no turning back.
The bookshop owner stammered, "But—even so—"
Asilu smiled leisurely. "That's just how humans are. They'll cling to life, even if it's just for one more day."
Lotus, who had once been human, felt a little offended.
"You're still here, Miss Asilu."
Asilu said unhurriedly, "I did come to choose some books, after all. But from the looks of it, business seems to be suspended at the moment?"
Lotus: "…"
After another moment, Asilu left a few copper coins on the table. Holding the prop scepter in one hand and two books in the other, she walked gracefully to the door.
"I hope we meet again, my lady court official."
With the same unchanging smile she'd worn from the beginning, she disappeared behind the door.
The bookshop owner shivered. "I have to say, she's really creepy when she's not acting, isn't she?"
Lotus ignored him, lost in her own thoughts.
Suddenly, a cold glint flashed in her frost-blue eyes.
"It's the Stubborn Faction."
Her cool voice was certain.
The owner: "Huh?"
Lotus fell silent again, merely casting a cold, indifferent glance in his direction.
The bookshop owner shut his mouth.
This court lady, it seemed, was also a bit frightening.
Meanwhile, Alyuin's conversation with Carlton, the leader of the commoner bureaucrats, was drawing to a close.
"Thank you for your trust, Carlton."
"No, I should be thanking you, Your Highness, for not holding our past choices against us."
The Princess smiled faintly. "That was merely the prevailing trend at the time. I don't mind."
As if. Alyuin actually held grudges, but that didn't stop her, as a ruler, from appreciating and promoting capable and ambitious ministers.
And Carlton was indeed such a man.
"But, Your Highness, I must be frank about my thoughts."
Carlton said slowly, "I once believed Horst would realize my ideals, which is why I chose him. As it turns out, although it was the best option at the time, it has now become the greatest obstacle."
"One cannot predict the future. Whether today's choice is right or wrong, whether it will make Solancia better or plunge it into greater chaos and weakness—I do not know the answers to these questions now."
Carlton took a deep breath. "I only hope that you will allow me to be a useful minister."
—And not, in the kingdom's distant future history, an absurd and treacherous official who put another tyrant on the throne.
Alyuin's gaze was distant, as if lost in memory. After a few breaths, she said deliberately, "Everything you hope for is what I have sworn to the Goddess Lotus."
The young princess lifted the amulet from her neck and gently kissed the round, blue chalcedony bead at the center of the snowtu flower.
"No matter what, I will never break my vow."
Carlton stared at her for a moment, as if trying to discern the truth in her words.
After a long pause, the minister bowed deeply.
When Alyuin finished the conversation and walked out of Minister Carlton's residence, a member of the Royal Guard who had been lingering outside quickly approached and reported something to the Princess in a low voice.
Halfway through the report, Alyuin's eyes widened slightly, her pupils contracting. Her golden eyes churned like an ocean of gold, or an endless sea of honey.
"Where?"
"Still at the bookshop."
"I'm going there now."
The Princess swung herself onto her steed, turned the horse around, and galloped toward the bookshop next to the open-air theater.
The rapid clatter of hooves drew near.
Leaning against the bookshelf, Lotus raised her eyes. The corners of her lips lifted as she stepped forward to open the door.
The first words out of Alyuin's mouth as she entered were:
"Are you hurt?"
Lotus shook her head and gestured for her to look at the killer and the bookshop owner tied up in the corner.
The Princess followed her gaze. When she saw the sharp longsword, her eyes turned cold. "They came to kill… Was it the Stubborn Faction?"
"That is my guess as well."
The bookshop owner, bathed in that frigid gaze, felt as if he were psychologically suffocating.
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