Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 57

After completing her mission Jing Ke retreated to an inconspicuous undergrowth not so far away from where Nero found her demise, and exhaled.

On the one hand, it was a little strange for someone like her to rejoice that she did not die while trying to kill a Servant - and even more, an Emperor, especially given the nature of her Noble Phantasm.

Only For Killing, the blade that was once created for her only assassination - the murder of the First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shi Huang. The blade was an ideal assassin's blade, a reflection of her legend - the legend of a hired murderer that agreed to a mission even while knowing that she would die as a result. It was a blade reflecting an unshakable confidence in its mission, an absolute willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of killing the target and all the sacrifices made for the sake of one murder. In other words, it was a reflection of the ancient law of life - "Life for life". Renouncing his life and every opportunity to escape from the justice and calamity that should befall her, the blade will take the life of its target.

True, using her Noble Phantasm was not a suicide attack, but rather an attack that took its target life, in exchange it would leave Jing completely open to any retaliation from the target or from anybody nearby. In this case, however, Jing had her scroll to protect her in that instant.

In other words, Jing was ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of murder... But still, this did not mean that after using her Phantasm she was predestined to fall victim to Caesar's blade. She was ready to die to complete her mission, but it doesn't mean she wanted to die.

Therefore, after retreating from the doomed target, Jing used her abilities as an Assassin in full, hiding her presence with Presence Concealment, and then returning towards her camp.

On the one hand, she was still a little embarrassed by what had happened.

Jing had received an unequivocal order from Altera - to deal with Nero. Moreover, unlike many previous cases - this time Altera gave the order in person. Which was weird in her opinion.

On the other hand, the orders of the commanding officer were not to be questioned - if Jing Ke was ordered - she had to kill her target, regardless of the price for such an act. That was the paradigm of the Assassin of Emperors.

Jing Ke moved cautiously, but still quickly, and so her camp appeared on the horizon in only a couple of hours before the sunset had touched the horizon.

This time, Jing Ke did not bother to be courteous and did not manifest, slipping through people who were unaware of the unmanifested Servant, moving along the streets of the city with the ease inherent to her class, before slipping into the barracks now chosen as the headquarters by its leader.

Of course, at first she was worried, why not take the local palace as a headquarter, but Boudica instantly objected, saying that she wanted to be closer to her soldiers. Spartacus, of course, reiterated his eternal "we are fighting tyranny and therefore the best we can do with its symbol is to destroy it completely and not make it our headquarters" - well, or something like that, Jing Ke stopped listening to the Berserker's rants a long time ago when she understood that she will not get a clear answer from him. On the other hand, Spartacus was a Berserker, so getting at least some kind of answer from him was already a good result.

Altera didn't care at all what building they would make their headquarters - given that Jing Ke noticed that Altera was able to sleep standing up, with her eyes open and even while continuing to move and do something, Assassin no longer had any questions or complaints. And is there really a big difference? Pillows and sake could be spread and consumed, respectively, in the barracks if it was at least relatively clean. Fortunately, at least from that side the barracks passed the quality requirements from the Assassin of Emperors.