yemalu

I had honestly expected to need to wait at least a few days or even a few weeks before getting a reply. My expectations were thrown out the window, however, when Katsuki came to me the next morning with a letter.

The more surprising thing was that he even accepted my request to meet with me tonight and picked a spot outside of the city within a forest clearing.

To that, Katsuki just said, "Letting the assassin pick the location is the worst thing, Mistress… We should ask him to let us choose the location instead."

Well, I\'m already expecting him to be rigging the entire place with traps and stuff for our meeting anyway.

I shrugged, "It doesn\'t really matter either way. Do you think he knows who I am?"

Katsuki shook her head, "If he did, father would definitely not act this brazenly. I suspect he thinks you are just a run of the mill noble who sent me here for maid training."

"Would he attack this mansion though?"

"I… I do not believe so, Mistress."

"Hmm… Oh well, I guess we\'ll just deal with him by ourselves."

Granted, Mary or even Sebastian could most likely handle him but I feel that this is a personal matter to be settled between Katsuki, him and myself. Otherwise, none of us would be able to feel at ease.

That\'s why after putting on my dress, I told Mary where I was headed to and made my way to the meeting place with Katsuki.

Mary didn\'t even stop me and merely told me that she would have some sweets prepared for me when I get back.

Now that\'s our Head Maid for you.

"Quick question, Katsuki… What are your thoughts of both your father and me fighting?"

She looked at me with an apologetic expression, "I… Sincerely hope that it will not come to that, Mistress. But if it does… I will lay my life down to protect you, Mistress."

I was quite surprised by her declaration, "You will go against your father for me?"

"Mistress. That day I should have met a fate worse than death. When I was sold to slavery and captured by those goblins, I was already prepared to be used, tortured and killed by those monsters. It was Mistress who had pulled me out from that and granted me a new life, even giving me a position that I do not deserve. If I do not reciprocate the kindness my Mistress has shown me, I do not deserve to live."

Damn, I mean… I knew she had devoted herself to me after that day when I gave her her new name but I think that was amplified even more after I appointed her as my personal maid too. Actually, I have a feeling that Mary\'s tutelage had something to do with it as well.

The rest of the trip was done in silence until we were nearing the agreed meeting place where a lone man was standing with his back facing us.

Katsuki scooted a little closer to me when she saw him but did not leave my side.

I tried to use [Screen] on him, only to realise that I couldn\'t see any stats. So he really did prepare for me huh.

"So you came, Hisei," The man called out, not even turning around to acknowledge us. "I see you\'ve also brought the belligerent who thought she could own one of us. Kill her quickly and I may even consider letting you back into the family."

That\'s cold.

I guess in stories, this would be the time where Katsuki would stab me in the back and reveal that she had been tricking me all this while.

Fortunately, this isn\'t that kind of story.

Katsuki stepped up beside me, "Hisei is already dead, I am Katsuki, the personal maid of my Mistress and you are no father of mine."

There was a snort coming from the man before he sighed, "So that\'s your answer?"

"Yes, please leave and never bother us again."

"You really think you can fight me, the one who taught you everything? Last chance Hisei."

"Say what you want but my answer will not change, I have chosen to serve my Mistress and devote everything I have to her and her alone."

"So be it."

I heard the rustling of wind and I quickly pulled Katsuki away from where we were standing, allowing the dozens of throwing knives to pass through where we had been moments before.

Looking to the side, I tried to see where the knives came from, only to have Katsuki pull me out of the way as a second bunch of knives passed though where we were from another direction.

I see, so those are part of the traps he placed so that we couldn\'t tell if he threw those himself or not.

The reason why I\'m not paying attention to the \'man\' in front of me was because that was simply a mannequin placed there to divert our attention.

I knew it wasn\'t the real person when my [Screen] showed me what it really was.

[Trap mannequin - A mannequin that is designed to divert other\'s attention to it. Also filled with explosives rigged to explode when someone goes near it.]

Yeah, this boon is quite a cheat. I\'m going to guess he\'s probably hiding in one of the trees while activating his traps without revealing himself.

Of course, I wasn\'t going to let him dictate the flow of the fight anymore than he already has.

"Katsuki! Now!"

Having already discussed my plan with her beforehand, she knew to immediately jump up into the air while I raised my fist.

With [Body Current] and [Lightning Clad] casted on my fist, I punched into the ground, causing a mini tremor that shook the area around me while also creating a spiderweb shaped fissure that stretched towards the trees.

The mannequin fell into the hole and exploded while the tremor set off multiple other traps that fired off all at once, all of them hitting nothing as Katsuki and I hid inside the fissure I made.

This was why I didn\'t mind letting him choose the location since I could just mess it up later anyway. Even better when he thinks he has the field advantage only for me to ruin it just like this.

That\'s not all, I immediately instructed my summons that I had called out earlier to comb through the forest to look for him.

He must not have been expecting that since he leapt out from one of the trees as soon as he saw my summons closing in to surround the area, forcing him to appear in front of us.

He was dressed in black from head to toe with only a slit in his head dress to allow his eyes to be seen, just like those stereotypical ninjas you might know.

I immediately used [Screened] on him.

[Name: Sho Kurayami

Title: Patriarch of the Kurayami family

Race: Inugami

Stats:

120 Strength

435 Dexterity

80 Endurance

98 Magic

Skills:

Assassination (Tier 3), Leadership (Tier 1), Alchemy (Tier 2), Hunting (Tier 2), Tracking (Tier 3), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 3), Throwing Proficiency (Tier 3), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 3))

Magic Skills:

Umbramancy (Tier 2), Cryomancy (Tier 2), Mana Management (Tier 2)]

Wow, he\'s basically a pure Dex character huh.

"Who are you?" He muttered, narrowing his eyes at me.

"I am Aster, Mistress of Katsuki and the one who is going to get those guys to kick your ass if you don\'t apologise to us right now," I smirked while gesturing to the multitudes of shadow summons around us.

He looked around him before turning back to me, "Do you think I\'m unfamiliar with Umbramancy? You may have the numbers but it\'s meaningless when they\'re all weak."

I cleared my throat, "Did you see me break the ground with my fist? Do you think my shadows aren\'t able to accomplish the same thing?"

His gaze went to the ground that I literally split apart, "I see… I may have underestimated you slightly. In that case, I do not understand why would you protect this girl? She is not especially talented and definitely not worth your time, you could get an even better servant elsewhere with your talents. Hisei is as weak as they come, even her little brother is better than she is."

Wow, so he\'s going to just air his family\'s dirty laundry out like that huh?

I turned to Katsuki, feeling a little surprised when I actually saw that she had her head down and was even shivering noticeably.

Her father must have noticed it as well since he continued his tirade, "Let me guess. The slave trader must have told you how talented she was, didn\'t they? It\'s true that she was indeed an orange tier in Pyromancy but that was all she was good at. Her siblings achieved the same results she had in half the time and she couldn\'t even win any of them in a spar. Did she even tell you why I seek her life?"

He then took a few steps closer to us, his hands going to his waist to draw out a dagger which I was quickly on guard against.

He ignored me to point the dagger at her, "It was because she failed the mission she was assigned to that led to her fate in the first place! Tell her, Hisei, do I speak the truth?"

"I… Yes…" She muttered, almost too soft to be heard.

"What mission did she fail?" I asked.

"Her target was Linette of the Tiara Merchant Company. Yet she abandoned her mission to tell me because she had become attached to someone! What kind of assassin would abandon their mission like that?!"

Oh… So… The whole thing about her being sold to slavery to repay a debt was a lie?

Things just got a little complicated…