Chương 18: The Shadow's Offer and the Decree of Kuro

I finished folding the rustic map parchment with a firm movement and tucked it into my belt. I raised my wooden mug, looking at the three girls sitting around me at the corner table of the Oakhaven guild.

"We understand the continent's geography now," I commented, sustaining a corner smile and letting my sixteen-year-old voice adopt its usual calm and surgical tone.

"Now, let's see if there is any mission that pays well. Since this world's economy dictates that every gold coin is worth thirty silvers, we need one that will grant us real gold." I slid the rough wooden chair back and stood up. Selene retrieved her staff, resting it on her shoulder with an irritated sigh. Mireya adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, following a step behind me while her cat tail gave small twitches of anxiety.

Liora, maintaining her impeccable posture, glided to my left side so silently she seemed to float over the tavern's dirt floor. We walked toward the large wooden board that dominated the guild's central wall. The hall was packed with veteran adventurers and heavy knights discussing contracts at the top of their lungs. I scanned the pinned papers, but the scenario was discouraging.

Almost everything there consisted of Bronze or Silver Rank contracts for common monster hunting, paying only handfuls of copper or a few silver coins. For a party with exactly eight silver coins in our pocket and an entire inn tab to pay, it was a bad joke. The economic chessboard was suffocating us.

"I told you, genius," Selene grumbled near my ear, tensing her shoulders and crossing her arms with visible irritation.

"There is no immediate Gold Rank mission on the board. Just these filthy requests that pay a pittance. Spending everything on separate rooms to 'maintain respect' and those expensive botany manuals for the alley cat was the end of us. We are going to get kicked out of the inn tomorrow." Before I could reply with my usual charismatic mask, an expensive fragrance of jasmine and the subtle brush of a fine silk cloak cut through the strong smell of cheap ale and sweat that dominated the hall.

A slender silhouette passed us and positioned herself in the shadows of a stone pillar, right behind our group, separated from the commotion of the other adventurers. It was a mysterious woman. A deep hood of dark silk completely covered her face, leaving only the line of her jaw exposed. She ignored the rest of the warriors at the board, locking her hidden eyes directly onto my posture.

"You seem discreet and desperate enough for metal not to ask questions," her voice came as a polite whisper, distilling the poison and elegance typical of the high nobility.

"There is a man in this city whose blood is worth a fortune. A corrupt noble. Direct measures must be taken, and his neck needs to be cut inside the inner corridors of his estate. No shouting. No alarms. No explanations." With a smooth movement beneath her silk cloak, the hooded woman extended a gloved hand and placed a heavy gold coin on the edge of an empty table nearby. The golden metal flashed intensely against the dim lighting of the guild's torches.

"An advance," she continued, the whisper dropping to an almost inaudible tone.

"The remainder of the payment will be delivered directly to your rearguard upon confirmation. Ten gold coins in total for confirmation of the death. No questions." Ten gold coins. In our economic scale, that was equivalent to three hundred silver coins. An immediate and absolute fortune, capable of saving the party from bankruptcy, paying for the inn, and giving Mireya all the necessary budget to buy the rare minerals and expensive reagents she needed for her advanced alchemy research.

My strategist mind calculated the risks in a millisecond.

"Deal," I replied, keeping my voice calm and my gaze focused.

"Silence requires the right tools." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The hooded woman nodded discreetly, withdrew her hand, and stepped back behind the pillar, vanishing into the tavern's noisy crowd as quickly as she had appeared. I picked up the warm gold coin from the table and gave a subtle nod to the girls.

"We're going back to the inn room," I ordered quietly.

"We have a board to organize." The moment the bedroom's wooden door closed with a sharp click, I shifted my posture immediately. The relaxed, charismatic smile vanished from my features, giving way to the cold, surgical focus of a chess player. I tossed the gold coin onto the rustic table, where it spun until it stopped in the center.

"The contract is signed," I announced, locking eyes with each of the three women before me.

"But before we take our first step out of this room, there is a strict new rule in this team. From now on, I demand that you forget the name 'Ren'. From this point forward, you will call me only Kuro." Selene blinked, her mind stalling for half a second in the face of my shameless imposition.

"Kuro?" she stammered, her cheeks turning visibly red from shock.

"Where did you get that from, newbie? Is this another one of your leader whims?"

"It's not a whim, Selene. It's personal logic," I replied, taking a step forward to narrow the distance between us, adopting a tone of surgical honesty that completely disarmed her.

"Ren is the name of a weak boy who belonged to a monotonous and predictable cage.

'Kuro' is the mastermind operating in the background of this bloody and dangerous world. If you decided to play on my board, you must learn to call the master by his correct name." Liora Valtain gave a slight bow of her head, accepting the transition of command with her habitual military coldness. Mireya Solen averted her eyes with her eccentric shyness, her cat tail swaying in a gentle rhythm while her face flushed beneath her fine fur, but she nodded in silence.

Selene huffed, crossing her arms and muttering that I was an "unbelievable" fellow, but the corner of her mouth betrayed her acceptance. The psychological authority was consolidated.

"Now, the tactical division," I continued, pointing to the directions on the map.

"To ensure absolute discretion for the operation, the party will be split. Selene, Mireya, you stay in the rearguard handling logistics and registering our base. Liora and I will set out alone for the target."

"What?!" Selene took a step forward, her crimson eyes flashing with an immediate mixture of jealousy, frustration, and anger.

"You are going to vanish into the middle of the night on an assassination mission just with her? I am the raw damage of this party! I can reduce that entire mansion to ashes if you let me chant!"

"And that is exactly why you stay, Selene," I disarmed her attitude, keeping my voice perfectly calm.

"Fire makes noise, creates light, and attracts the city guards. This night demands total concealment, speed, and the edge of iron. Mireya needs to manage the laboratory in the rearguard using the gold advance; if our plan fails and we come out wounded, we will need her science ready to pull us back up. Liora was chosen to accompany me thanks to her infiltration skills and silent lethality.

During the infiltration, she will take care of neutralizing the inner guards in the corridors, while I will have the sole mission of executing the noble target." Selene crossed her arms again, pouting and showing strong resistance, but the weight of my cold logic kept her from arguing. Mireya kept her eyes on the gold advance on the table, aware that her laboratory would finally come to life.

I walked over to my wooden chest and began to equip the basic arsenal I had selected for that night of crime: the black mask to guarantee total anonymity for our elite unit, the common iron short sword I bought from the blacksmith for three silver coins, and the cheap throwing knives I acquired during my first days. As I tied the leather straps of the black mask over my face, I felt that strange, cold, and uncomfortable sensation coursing through my body through my own internal energy flow once again.

I ignored the warning and adjusted the fabric. The board accepted no hesitations. Liora positioned her own dark mask over her face, leaving only her severe assassin eyes gleaming through the black fabric. She tested the fit of her light leather armor and touched the pommel of her curved katana.

"Time is passing, Kuro," the fifteen-year-old girl whispered, her voice almost vanishing into the room's air.

"Put the distractions aside. It is time to see if your mind can keep up with the speed of the shadows." Outside, the sky over Oakhaven broke into an intense and violent storm. Heavy raindrops began to pelt the inn's windows, and the first claps of thunder echoed in the distance. The sound of the tempest and the darkness of the torrential rain offered the perfect cover I needed. I blew out the room's candle. The game had begun.