Love and Vengeance

Chapter 1, An assassin's life

" Assassins of the ' KESS ', today is our once-every-five-years election day! From now till noon, we all will start casting votes for our next leader, and by noon, we will declare our new leader. Now assassins, the speech is over, go forth and cast your votes!"

With that everyone left the hall. 

" Huff . . . speeches are the worst nightmares. "

My name is Vanour. In my world, anyone might just be surprised at me being a leader of ' KESS ' , a well-known assassination organization. I am just 20, yet being a leader of a whole bunch of assassins is pretty impossible, but to me, it's just a game. When I was 3, I climbed a mountain and reached the top, but fell down halfway downslope, and my life almost faded away. When I was 4, I started killing with a short sword, I was taught that killing is like playing a video game, and my parents would praise me every time I killed one, so I always try to kill as much as I can. When I was 6, the villagers of the village I go-Hadred village, captured and tortured me as revenge for the death of their relatives and friends, but I survived because they let their guard down, and I killed all of them. When I was 7, I went to a city to find tougher opponents to kill because I got bored of the villagers. I even got hunted by assassins instead.

 When I was 10, I barely made it alive from the imperial guards after I killed their king. I even got stabbed in the stomach. When I was 11, I struggled to survive for I had no money to buy food, so I began helping other people assassinating their enemies, and I would get a reward every time I succeed, and up till now, I still go around the world assassinating people as a living. When I was 15, I heard about an assassination organization, so I went to investigate, and when I got there, they tried to kill me and question me about knowing their hideouts, but I survived, and even killed almost half the people there, they admired me, so they told me that on that day, it was their election day, and wanted me to become the new leader after seeing my skills. I appreciated their admiration, thus decided to train them and become their new leader. . .

And now, here I am, finally going to resign from this place and live my own ways. If some of you are going to say that I am wasting my wealth and power, or whatever other reasons, then let me tell you the secret of this organization. The word ' leader ' in this organization, doesn't mean someone who has a large authority or wealth. Instead, it means ' Prey ',  a ' reward ', or you can call it ' reputation '. No, its meaning includes all of these words. The leaders job, doesn't just include leading them to assassination, it includes survival from the members. And survival from the members means every second, every hour, people will keep trying to kill you, and if one of them succeeds, then it means they earned a reputation on defeating a strong enemy, and that reputation is a reward. In the organization, the leader is the prey, and the members are the hunters. If the leader can survive for 5 years till the next election day, then he would be remembered as ' the strongest assassin ', but that reputation is actually garbage. Once they see your reputation, they will search for you at every corner of the lands to kill you, because killing someone with a great reputation means he can have a greater reputation, so apparently, reputation means being killed, but these people just enjoy it. The worst part, though, was that no leader have survived for 5 years before. And I did, so the members are craving more for my death, which is reputation to them.

But then, I think I am stupid to believe that on that day, I could actually fight some tougher and more challenging opponents. But no, they even decided to have a tournament on the last day to get my head down, and the tournament is starting in noon. Well, let's get over with it.

" Wham! " I turned to see Hadrick. Hadrick was the best out of the assassins. He could last for quite some time when he was my opponent, and thus I decided not to kill him, well, just for entertainment purposes. " Hey, yo! You've been wearing that hood since the day we met! Can't ya' just take it off? I wanna' see your face ya' know, will ya' do me this favor?"

" . . . No. "

" Hey! Can't ya' just let me see? It's not like I am gonna' tell or show anyone! Come on, just rest easy! Plus, don't cha' think your life is too dark? That hood of yours covered your entire face in black! "

" Can you just shut up for a moment? You have been pestering me for 5 years non-stop, feel lucky I haven't killed you. " 

" . . . Fine, fine. I will stop ' pestering' you. But, why can't you just laugh or talk to someone happily for once? Your tone sounds like you went to hell. " . . . To me, laughing or happiness is just toxic.

" . . . I did went to hell. Anyways, you should shut up and just go and prepare for the tournament later. You wouldn't want to fight in a bad condition. " 

" Yeah, yeah. I don't get how you live your life till now. You have no entertainment stuff, you have no friends, you never laugh. You know, the less you laugh, the less your lifespan is. And, y-"

"Xing! " I pointed my dagger towards his neck. He blinked for sometime, then slowly walked away. He said awkwardly, " Whoa . . . don't poke that at me will ya? I am sorry, so yeah . . . " Once he was out of my range, he shouted, " HAH! BYE!" Darn it. He's always annoying. I am going to ask him the same thing : How am I going to survive with you pestering me? 

" Attention to all assassins. Please go to the tournament ring and wait for our leader to start" 

Hearing the announcement, all of the assassins were gone. " . . . Hey, Shadow Killer, you can come down now. " " . . . Hah! Eat this! " A long sword flew down. He turned his waist, side-stepped, then pulled his sword to deflect the incoming sword. It deflected, and flew towards the wooden door. Then,  daggers flew towards him. He was dodging them when the same long sword flung towards his back. He jumped high enough to step on the daggers, then used super speed to jump on them as stepping stones. When he jumped on the last dagger, he jumped up with all his might, then threw his own sword towards the opposite direction, and shouted: " Demons and spirits, let me use thee' power, the power of destruction, Inferno fire! "

While the sword was flying to the door, an invisible person chanted : "Sky and heaven, water and ice, create an ice barrier and a water field and shield me from danger! " The place rumbled and a water field and ice barrier created a circle around an empty spot. " BOOM! " The entire place started to crumble when he sword hit the ice barrier. He quickly chanted again: "Beast and snakes, serpents and wolfs, I summon thee', surround me and protect me from danger! "

Giant snakes and giant wolfs appeared, then covered him from the falling rocks. The invisible person did the same. After some time, the wolfs dug a way out from rumble and he followed them. With that, he chanted again: " Beast and snakes, you have completed your mission, turn into dust and return to place! "

Then, he turned to the tournament stadium's direction. " You can turn off your invisibility spell already. " 

A sound replied: " No. I can't bear with the assassins seeing me. Anyways . . . it's been a long time, Zander. " " Yes it have . . . Carlo. "