Chapter 48: Elidranthia Part 3
"Three down," I gasped as I walked to Baron Don's villa. Sensation returned to my fingers, and I could move them again. *cough *cough
"Good work! Next is Baron Don. He was supposed to have a huge party at his villa. This might be the hardest one yet since you also have to kill his 3 wives and 5 children."
"The pay needs to be tripled… he has 9 people there in contrast to the other three barons," I muttered. However, my voice lacked the usual power in the retort. It sounded flatter and lacked energy. I was exhausted mentally.
"Hmm? What's wrong? Are you tired? Yeah, going to three different assassination spots in a day was tough. But you were the one who proposed this plan. Want to keep going, R666?"
"Yes, I will continue," I replied. My hands trembled as I held my stiletto and trident dagger. However, I was still excited. Disgust and excitement mixed together. Eli really wanted to kill them. She was just like the webnovel, a deranged psychopath. The moment she smiled and killed him was the worst. Moreover, I just realized now that our emotions were connected. I was feeling disgusted, but she was feeling delighted. Her euphoria washed away my anxiety. Killing people was fun.
I finally reached Baron Don's villa. Even in the dead of night, light flowed out through his house, and the sound of laughter was faintly heard from outside. I came forward. The stupid baron left the door unlocked either because they were expecting a guest for their abhorrent party or they just forgot.
"Greetings, may I see your invita— Argh!" a butler died with a knife at his neck.
"Kyaa!!"
A cacophony of screams soon followed as the maid saw the tragedy. I laughed as my tentacle continued to do the dirty work for me. Some man brandished his noble ceremonial sword but was soon taken down by a barrage of flying knives. The tight corridor of a modern house only fits 2 or 3 people. I couldn't get surrounded, but I could surround my enemies with over ten knives.
"Butler! Hendrick! Hold him for a moment! Jacqueline! Where is my phone! Hold him until I call the handler!" the baron scrambled for his phone once he knew a reaper had barged into his house.
My tentacles waved around like snakes and lashed into the necks of every man and woman they could find. They were hungry for blood, and corpses continued to pile up. One, two, three, four—the body count continued climbing despite some resistance. Some of them were knights, but they made the same mistake my knights once did. They only brought their ceremonial swords and no armor, so it was easy to kill them. It was useless compared to knives.
"Brother, protect me! Fireball!!" a teenager asked for his brother's protection as he cast some spell.
"Wind shield!" a woman cried out. Judging from their strength, they can't be more than level 4 mages.
I was amazed this house had two mages with them. However, low-level mages were powerless against me. His fireball was blocked by sacrificing a single tentacle, and her wind shield only slowed down two tentacles as others simply surrounded the shield, and their only knight vanguard was dead in mere seconds.
"Wait! I am calling the handler! Cease your assault! I can pay you mo— Arg!!" I shot him without waiting for him to finish. The gun I looted before was useful. What a shame I couldn't carry this home. Alicia knew all of my belongings, so I had to throw them out here. I won't make the same mistake as I did with Baron Kharn or that traitorous Baron Denah. Politics could change with a simple word or call. As I reaped his life, a blue box appeared before me.
Blessing of the Killing Star has risen to lvl 5
Choose your upgrade
- Poison Resistance lvl 1
- paralysis resistance lvl 1
- Improved kinetic vision lvl 2
Tears started to flow from my eyes. I leveled up again. This level-up didn't make me happy in the slightest. It represented how many humans I had killed. A massive pile of corpses lay behind me in this now silent villa. I rummaged through the bodies, as ordered by R25B. I kept count from the beginning and informed him that I had killed ten servants and fifteen other people here. However, R25B instructed me to photograph every single one of them.
"Two of Baron Don's children were not here. And the guest you killed was quite problematic. Urgh. The client won't be happy with this one. Some of them were high-ranking nobles." R25B reported after I sent the photographs to him 3 hours later in my house. I didn't get any sleep that night, and for the rest of the day, I simply stared out the window in a catatonic state. It was a good thing today was Sunday.
When I heard R25 B's report, I mentally calculated to myself. I should have killed 9 people there: Baron Don, three of his wives, and five of his children. If there were fifteen casualties and two missing children, that means I killed 8 unrelated nobles and ten servants.
"Will I be in trouble?"
"No. This is an assassination request, not a protection one. The client specifically allowed for collateral damage. They have no room to complain. Well, look at the bright side. You are going to be famous overnight," R25B reported. His voice was pained though. He obviously wasn't happy with the result.
"What about the escaped Baron Don's children?"
"The commission will be marked half complete. You will not fail, but you will receive a third of the amount. You still kill the head of the family, after all. We will dispatch another reaper to find the missing children then," R25B said. Frustration filled his voice. "Now, on the good news. You have assassinated 3 families perfectly, which means 3 multiplied by 150P equals 450 P. Baron Don's equals 50P, so after adding 500 points, you have 520 points. Congratulations!"
His words fell on deaf ears as I continued to stare outside, even during the evening.
"Come on, Lady Eli. I know it's Sunday, but you can't stay cooped up in the room all day. Let's go outside!" Alicia said. "Either go to the garden or to the cafeteria; it's fine! Do you want to play magic? Or do you want to play chess? Or go to Ronya's salon?"
"Whatever." I grabbed Alicia's hand as she led me out to our dormitory. She continued to talk about various things while taking me to the school garden and then bought some juice in the cafeteria. However, all of her words slipped past my ears as I answered her on autopilot.
"Lady Eli, what happened? You were so unresponsive today," Alicia asked with concern. This made me remember my past life. When I was unresponsive during school, my classmates immediately pulled their conversation away from me, concerned about my health. However, here Alicia was.
"I don't know," I muttered. I then looked at Alicia. The sun was beginning to set, and fatigue started to settle in. I feared sleeping alone. Eli will definitely come into my dream tonight.
"Alicia, can I sleep with you?"
"Hmm? Our rooms are already next to each other, though. W-w-wait, are you asking me to sleep in the same bed as you?" Alicia flushed at my words. She stammered at her own words.
"W-w-well, if Lady Eli desires it. Our bed would be small, though. But don't be afraid. I believe it shall be enough for us." Her words suddenly aggravated me. I know I am small, but you didn't have to point it out like that. However, my anger didn't last long as I merely smiled instead. I thanked her for her understanding. Even though I had been ignoring her all day, she still offered me a warm welcome.
When night came, fatigue was building up. My eyes were unfocused as I was about to fall unconscious anytime soon. Without any deeper intention, I hugged Alicia on the bed, treating her like a hug pillow as I fell into dreamland. Her breast pillow was exceptionally soft beneath my head.
When I opened my eyes, a red sky shone forth. As I feared, I was here again in the dreamland. Corpses piled up into a mountain as Elidranthia sat there, smiling at me cheerfully. She was in a good mood. However, I was not. Our feelings were connected. She must have felt my disgust and apprehension. When I looked around, the corpses had grown into a sizeable number. And I knew several faces among them. None of them were faceless corpses. They were all my victims. The petite corpse of a 5-year-old Daniel was also there. I inadvertently looked away from him.
I directed my anger at Elidranthia. She pouted, feeling hurt. But this time, I held my footing and opposed her with a question, "Why did you have to kill him? He was not the target! He was just a little kid. R25B specifically said it was okay not to kill him!"
She smiled, then she looked at the red comet behind her. She finally spoke, "What is the difference between monsters and humans? Humans and animals? We kill to survive. The more we kill, the more we will survive."
"This is not a game world! There are no stats or levels here. No matter how many you kill, you could still get killed by a bullet."
She then turned to me. "We do have levels. They don't, but we do."
"Why kill humans? If you wanted to level up, just kill some monsters in the countryside!" I interrogated her. "Is that what you wish? To kill every single human being in this world?"
She then pondered. Her eyes looked away from me. She then looked at the red comet, "No. I don't."
I breathed a sigh of relief. She was not completely lost yet. I could feel it. She was a bit guilty now. She was not a total psychopath. Then she looked at me more closely. Her red eyes were only several inches from mine.
"I promised that I won't kill your friends. They are my friends too now that we share bodies. However, why should I care about nobodies?"
She then hugged me while smiling. Her hug tightened. She said, "Thank you! I want to be your friend."
Then the red world dissipated, replaced with the soft flesh of Alicia's bust. Dawn shone upon us. As I opened my eyes, I saw Alicia staring at me.
"Eeek!" I was startled. When I looked around, it was Alicia's room. I didn't bring any knives when I was asleep, and I felt unsettled. I felt my body, looked around, and found my Karambit on the table.
"Finally awake? It was fun watching you asleep while hugging me." I hugged her? Ah, I must have done that yesterday. My breathing calmed down. "You can sleep some more, Lady Eli."
I looked outside. The sun was shining brightly through the window. "Don't we have school?"
"Well, I guess you are right. What a shame." Alicia pouted. She seemed in a bad mood. Do I have a bad sleeping habit? I wanted to know, but I was too afraid to ask. Let sleeping lions lie, they say. I wonder if The murderous Eli will keep her promise.
We went to school like usual, only to be met with hundreds of knights as the entire capital was in an uproar.