CHAPTER 9 -TANG EN’S FURY
When Tang En made his way back to the wooden shack, he immediately entered the System s.p.a.ce. There, he could at least not constantly threw up like in reality.
“Ding, congratulation a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En on completing the Killing York Mission.
Difficulty: F
Performance Evaluation: D
Experience Gained: 200 points
HP gained: 150.”
“Ding, congratulation a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En on completing the qualifying a.s.sa.s.sin mission. The system rewards you with a new skill – ‘Heart Calm As Water’.”
The moment Tang En stepped inside the s.p.a.ce, a series of synthesized voices rang out.
The butler spoke, “Congratulation, a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En!”
Tang En showed an embarra.s.sed expression, “Sorry, yesterday I, I…”
“There is no problem, I didn’t pay it any mind.”
“Um, thank you.” Tang En nodded, then said full of frustration, “I really did not think Father York was such a person…”
The butler spoke, “The hearts of people are often unpredictable, and there is no one who can know everything about another person. It’s completely normal for you to have made such a mistake.”
Tang En nodded in appreciation. This had left a lasting impression deep inside him. He thought about the things the butler had said and asked quizzically, “It seems like you had judged from the start that Father York was not a good person, right?”
“First I must correct you, in my eyes there is no good or bad person. Even if he was a good person, there is no reason for me not to kill him, and if he was a bad person, there is also no reason for me to kill him.” The Housekeeper casually explained.
Finished speaking, his left arm swung up, causing a screen to appear. Inside the screen, scenes of every single moment Tang En had seen Father York replayed. Since the very first time he had seen him when he had pa.s.sed over to the several times he had ran into him by accident in the village.”
“Before I had already told you that I can see everything you can see. The only difference is, I can observe everything much more carefully. For example, right now, he is currently talking to an old farmer, but in reality his eyes were observing the b.u.t.tocks of a young lady pa.s.sing by. Of course, if it was a normal man then it’s nothing out of the ordinary, this was definitely something more attractive than an old farmer. But if you look closely, the look deep inside his eyes and his slight curve of his lips was a dangerous one. This is the sign of greed and possessiveness.”
“And here… and over there…”
The old butler continuously displayed images, changing their angles and explained everything on the screen.
Tang En listened carefully. Right now, the Housekeeper was a sort of G.o.d in his eyes.
Finally, the old butler said, “Do you understand? If not, it’s okay, this is only a small trick. In battle, you can sometimes make use of it. I will teach it to you.”
Tang En’s was moved, “If I learnt this, won’t I be able to see through people at a glance?”
The old butler shook his head, “I have already said before, people are unpredictable. There might be some who have the same way of thinking as York, but there’s no guarantee that he would do the things York did. Furthermore, judging others using their eyes is something that people will notice, and training against it is also very simple. If you pay too much attention to this, you might even be fooled by other’s eyes.”
Tang En nodded. He began to feel another headache coming. The images on the screen reminded him that York was currently dead.
“Are you alright?”
Tang En’s face was pale, “I can still hold on.”
The old butler advised, “Maybe you should try the skill ‘Heart Calm As Water’.”
“Heart Calm As Water?” Tang En was moved, it seems to be a skill granted by the system. He quickly opened up the a.s.sa.s.sin Board. Inside the previously empty Skill slot was now a new skill.
“Heart Calm As Water”, Innate Skill, not upgradeable – Hastens recovery of mental clarity and grants immunity to most negative effects. This skill has a duration time of 30 minutes and a 3 hour cooldown time. Consumes 100 HP.
“Innate Skill?” This was the first time he had seen this kind of skill.
“Innate Skills do not need you to train in order to use them, but instead directly use HP to activate the skill.”
“Oh… Ah, wait a second, no training? Then I need to learn all the other skills?”
“Of course!”
“I can’t just use them after acquiring a certain amount of skill points?”
“Skill points?” The butler frowned in surprise. He replied seriously, “Tang En, a.s.sa.s.sins can have a sense of humour, but killing people is not a game, and there are no skills without its weak points. Can you imagine what would happen if you begin to activate a combat skill and someone else suddenly pull out a crossbow, killing you immediately?”
“Ah, I understand. Then how do I use this skill?” Tang realised that his own thoughts were too simplistic, and quickly changed the topic.
“Chant it in your mind.”
“Heart Calm As Water.”
In the blink of an eye, a cold stream of air covered his entire body. Even though his heart was still in turmoil, his body no longer wanted to throw up.
Hoh, Tang En could not help but breathe out in relief.
The Housekeeper spoke, “This skill can only cure the symptoms and not the cause. This kind of negative condition after killing needs to be resolved properly.”
Tang En asked quickly, “How do I resolve it?”
“Each person needs a different method, you can only ask yourself.” Unfortunately, this was not something the butler can answered easily.
“Ask myself?” Tang En’s eyes widens.
Un, the butler nodded, “a.s.sa.s.sins must often complete life or death missions, and being afflicted by some sort mental ailment is not uncommon. If there is pressure inside you, then you must find a way to vent it.”
“Each a.s.sa.s.sin’s personality is different. If you are the lonely type, then you can lock yourself in a dark room and let out your blood, or the like. If your personality is a bit better, then you can do some more exciting things, like bare-handed rock climbing, race crazily, or become more active in bed, etc… The more peaceful methods involve reading, travelling, gardening, playing music, and similar things.”
“Currently, you can use the reasoning of good guys, bad guys to explain away your guilt of killing, but to be honest, I do not think this is a good idea. My advice is that you find things that you enjoy doing. These things don’t need to be anything intense. You must know, those eccentric lonely a.s.sa.s.sins always end up killing themselves.”
“… Actually, there’s a good method.” Finished listening to the butler, Tang En suddenly said.
“Oh?”
“All I need to do is stop being an a.s.sa.s.sin.”
The Housekeeper replied, “But you already killed.”
“… It’s not the same.”
“Are you saying York was not person?”
“To some extent, he was not even a human.”
“Your word games are laughable.”
“Up to you.” Tang En shrugged. Finished speaking, he climbed up the wooden house the butler had built using vines.
“What are you doing?”
“Resting. I want to quickly sleep for half an hour.”
Killing someone for the first time have been quite a big deal for Tang En. Before he headed inside the s.p.a.ce, his head was hurting. Now that he had activated “Heart calm like water”, his mind was feeling much better. Tang End decided to take advantage of the 30 minutes duration time to have a quick sleep. Maybe after a good sleep, he would feel better…
“I know, but you should sleep in your own shack.”
“I beg you, please don’t be so stingy! Okay, good night!” Are you kidding? If I leave I’ll throw up for the next half an hour. Then what will happen to my home…
Tang En quickly crawled inside the house and laid down on the wooden bed while surrounded by the fragrant of incense..
—
A silent night pa.s.ses.
Maybe the effect of “Heart Calm As Water” or his own mental strength was more powerful than he had antic.i.p.ated, but Tang En quickly fell asleep, and he did not have a single nightmare throughout the whole night.
Sleep is the cheapest medicine for recovering strength. Now that his mind had time to calm down, Tang En felt much more relaxed.
Inside the Housekeeper’s wooden shack, everything was great, except for the fact that there was no breakfast.
Only now did Tang En remember about the smoked rabbit meat at the old farmer’s place. However, right now the village must be in chaos due to Father York’s death, the old farmer isn’t probably in the mood to make a rabbit meat meal…
He silently left the system s.p.a.ce…
Opening the simple wooden door, Tang En breathe in deeply. The morning air rushed past his face.
“Huh, why does something seem to be missing…”
“That’s right, the smoke!”
From his wooden house, Tang En cannot see Little Stone village, but everyday he always looked towards the north and saw column of smoke rising from there.
Could it be that yesterday’s matter caused everyone to be so emotional that they didn’t even want to cook?
For some reason, Tang En suddenly had a bad feeling.
I should go take a look first…
Tang En quickly climbed down the tree.
That’s not right, from here I should be able to see the Light G.o.d statue on the chapel’s roof… That’s not right, usually I can see the earth walls of the village…
Tang En ran quicker and quicker in the forest, the bad feeling growing in his heart.
Boom —
Finally, at the edge of the forest, Tang En saw that everything was empty, and he staggered backwards by several steps.
The four walls and the village itself was gone, leaving behind only an empty piece of land. The houses, the chapel, the farmers had all disappeared. As if this place never existed.
“Ah!!!”
Tang En’s eyes flashes, he quickly headed inside the deserted grounds.
“This is an illusion, an illusion. Everything is fake. The farm is still here, the farmers are still here…”
At the center of the field, there was a white monument made from marble. It was located precisely where the chapel previously was. It said,
“Year 997 Light G.o.d Calendar, divine power descended, gracing the world with its might. Little Stone village of t.i.tus Kingdom was consumed by evil, its two hundred villagers turned into demons. Fortunately G.o.d was looking out for us. A Light G.o.d Inspector along with the twelve accompanying Light G.o.d Knights was pa.s.sing by and battled against the demons. After the b.l.o.o.d.y encounter, the demons were subjugated. Two hundred demon souls was saved, returning to the embrace of G.o.d.
Ulrich Ridge – Virtuous – Sethman.”
It was only a normal monument, with words carved clearly upon it. However, surrounding it were lines of inscriptions and mysterious runes, which was probably the reason why it was glowing with light. This was a holy monument belonging to the Light G.o.d Church.
If the future generations read this monument, they would praise the accomplishment of G.o.d. Luckily the demons was exterminated in time, if not, the surrounding area would have been ravaged by evil, causing countless lives to be lost.
Of course, those who knew the real situation did not feel the same way.
“f.u.c.k! f.u.c.k! f.u.c.k!”
Tang En kneeled on the ground, his two hands punching down madly. His mouth swore non-stop, his heart in infinite regret. He clearly heard York mentioned that there would be some inspector coming here, why didn’t he think about that? Why didn’t he…
What evil, demons this or that.. He could somewhat figure out that this all had something to do with Sethman.
“AH… Ah!”
Tang En threw a punch towards the monument. Bang! A wound split open on his hand, causing blood to overflow.
The pain was temporarily suppressed by him. He quickly stood up, ran around the scorched ground for a lap before heading back into the s.p.a.ce.
“Old butler, Old butler…”
“I’m here!” The Housekeeper stood behind Tang En.
Tang En pulled on the old butler’s hands and asked, “You can find them based on the traces they have left behind, can’t you?”
The old butler observed the screen, “Under this kind of power, it would be difficult for there to be any trace left behind. Furthermore, even if we can track them down, what will you do?”
Tang En shouted loudly, “Once we find them, I will kill them all!”
“How brave!” The Housekeeper gave out a vague evaluation.
Moments later, the old butler calmly said, “I’m sorry, there are no clues.”
“You are not telling me on purpose! Right? No? That must be it!” Tang En clearly did not believe in what the result the butler had given him. He looked directly into the old butler’s eyes, and spat out each words slowly.
“Calm down, I am no G.o.d.”
—
Their eyes clashed for some more time, then Tang En suddenly left the system s.p.a.ce.
The old butler looked at the screen once more, towards the west of this area. He then shook his head, “I cannot tell him. I cannot.”
The screen changed once more. Right now, Tang En had already left the s.p.a.ce, and was currently kneeling on the ground. He pounded away at the monument.
Along with the banging noise, blood dyed the white marble monument red.
“I hope you will be able to grow from this…”