Chapter Text
"I heard that there are capable tribesmen in the Northwest tribe, who are naturally unafraid of magic, and can even effortlessly scale cliffs covered with arcane traps." The emperor said, "I thought that it was merely a story, but that doesn't seem to be the case now."
It was midnight, and the emperor's room was still brightly lit. Sitting at the desk and covered in a cloak, the man who owned the whole world took a look at his uninvited guest and put his pen back in the pen holder. He looked calm and composed, making the assassin almost think that he walked into a trap. But the Royal Iron Guards didn't appear out of thin air. The destroyed automatic alarms were as silent as was planned. A sharp blade was placed on the emperor's neck, that noble head could be cut off with just a little movement.
The assassin himself was nervous, he couldn't hold back the doubts in his heart.
"You don't look surprised," the assassin said. "Don't you want to know who's going to kill you?"
"Your skill has brought up several candidates I'm disinclined to share¹, and as for the dying, it isn't much help knowing who the murderer is. If I were lucky enough to ask questions, I would like to know who can sneak into the safest place in the whole kingdom. Who can bypass the fortress, the bronze and iron walls made by the mages and the imperial guards." The emperor said.
"I'm not a famous person." The assassin shook his head. "You have never heard my name."
"Indeed, there are no famous killers in the Northwest." The emperor nodded and said, "My enemies are all over the world, but I don't think I have treated the Northwest people harshly..."
"'Never treated us 'harshly'?" The assassin interrupted him, "For ten years, do you know how many of our people have been involved in this war by you!"
"The Northwest Civil War lasted for six years and three months, your King asked me for help. The imperial army spent half a year suppressing the rebellion. After the civil war, the King swore allegiance to me and volunteered to bring his army into the imperial war. If you are loyal to the old King then you shouldn't hate me."
"I am loyal to myself," the assassin said coldly.
"It can be seen that you lack awe for the royal family." said the emperor.
"You're nothing great either." The assassin retorted.
This was casual ridicule, but when he said it, the assassin realized that he was right. The emperor wasn't like the stories about the legendary war madman. He was pale and thin, with high cheekbones and thin lips. He wasn't young but pretty. He didn't even resemble the portraits of the emperor that littered the corridor. The portrait with the crown on his head was more majestic and gloomy, but the guy in the nightgown in front of him looked just an ordinary person, with obvious excessive overtime and lack of sleep.
The emperor smiled and gestured to the cabinet next to him, saying: "Please take a bottle of wine, the second bottle from the left." Even though the sharp blade pointed at his body, he stood up calmly. However, his tone wasn't arrogant. The cabinet was just one step away, and there was no need to remove the blade to take the wine. The assassin raised his eyebrows and satisfied the emperor's request.
The emperor asked him to take a crystal cup, two, and the assassin watched him fill a cup, take a sip, and spread his hands in an invitation for the other cup. The crystal clear liquor exuded a charming fragrance, and the assassin picked up the cup that the emperor had drunk and downed it until his head tipped upwards. It felt like a colourless flame flowing down his throat, instantly warming his body. The emperor didn't care about his snatching, he picked up the other wine glass and took another sip.
"You were in the army," said the emperor.
"What?" the assassin said.
"Just guessing from your posture... Am I right?" the emperor asked.
"I shouldn't talk to you, will you guess what I ate last night next?" the assassin said.
"But you're willing to talk to me." The emperor said sharply, "You're in here, so no one will find any anomalies before eight o'clock tomorrow morning, and there's no point in delaying time. I will die tonight, and you won't be able to escape. What impact would it have if you talked with me in this short while?"
The assassin curled his lips and did not refute.
The emperor asked: "Have you ever fought the imperial army?"
"I fought for you, in that Northwest Army." The assassin said, "The old King gave us to you, so I didn't want to go back there afterwards. Anyway, it was just one of the uncontrollable mishaps. I was with them. One by one, they died in battle or left the battlefield without arms or legs. Even if some of them lived, they didn't know where else they could go. Many villages disappeared, and young and middle-aged people went out to fight so that when they encounter natural disasters, the orphans and widows back at home won't be able to survive."
"War is a disaster for both sides." The emperor sighed.
This was a great irony from the mouth of the monarch who started that very war. The assassin glanced at the emperor with a face, and the emperor laughed again, clearly seeing his subtext.
"There's a pack of wolves living in front of my house. They never stretched out their paws, but they sniffed and salivated at my possessions." The emperor said, "Tell me, should I ignore them?"
"In the entire continent, the Empire is the strongest, so it's your neighbours who should be worried."
"For context, you're a strong warrior who isn't afraid of the jackals outside, but can you guarantee that your children are as strong as you? Do you want them to be as vigilant as you all day? I only hope that my children and grandchildren will be safe and happy. No fear for jackals, tigers and leopards in their sleep."
"You don't even have children!"
"I have thousands of people."
"..."
The assassin was a warrior, and then he was a hunter, no matter what kind of livelihood he sought, he had always failed because of his sharp tongue. He wanted to mock the emperor, but the emperor's answer and almost sincere tone made the assassin speechless and he could only think. He had wandered across the entire continent and seen the territories of different lords and kings. There was one thing he had to admit: if the flames of war must be ignited if there must be a ruler in this world, the best candidate was the emperor, who was far better than the others.
"Are you literate?" the emperor suddenly said.
"Yes," the assassin replied.
The emperor took a document from the thick stack of papers, face-up, and handed it to the assassin. The paper was as pale as snow and as light as silk, and the assassin struggled to understand the colourful words and sentences. After reading the last word his head buzzed and he shouted out in a loud voice: "Is this true?"
"The draft was completed last week, and it has been turned around in various ministries. Now it's only waiting for me to confirm it." The emperor said, "If you came only a few days late, some people's promises would be invalidated by quite a lot."
He was right. "Relief to the Northwest Tribes" was one of the rewards for his successful assassination, and the content of the document about pensions and post-war reconstruction seemed a lot more detailed. The assassin didn't want to look surprised about the emperor's precise speculation about him again. He stared at the paper in his hands, it seemed to weigh a thousand catties², he was unable to believe it had come so easily.
"Why now?" the assassin said, "The Northwest tribes had been drafted for several years ongoing now, and the Empire's war isn't over yet..."
"Wherever the imperial army goes, the Empire's craftsmen and officials walk with them. Some ruins need to be rebuilt, roads need to be repaired, and the wounded need to be treated... It's a pity that some measures have been delayed, but the Empire's resources are limited. First, save the living." The emperor said, "As for the war, it's now nearing its end. While you and I were talking, the enemy's supply channel had been cut off, and even if they dragged on for a few more months it would be a futile resistance. Go back, soldier. There's no need to risk your life anymore, your employer won't be able to protect himself and won't be able to entangle you too much. "
"You'll let me go back?" the assassin said incredulously.
"Why not? You found loopholes in the palace's defence, and you let me know who betrayed me. If I'm safe and sound, you'll have no merit. The Guards are vulnerable in your presence. I would like to hire you to work for me. But if you're tired of this of all this, you might as well leave with the reward you want. To be honest, I would like to give you a whole life filled with fine clothes and food..." The emperor glanced at the table, "Lest someday someone else buy my head with wine money."
The assassin followed his gaze to the table and saw an empty wine bottle. He didn't know when, but this bottle of wine had turned desert dry, it had been basically buried in the assassin's mouth- can't blame him, to sneak into the palace, he didn't drink even a drop all day, and the wine was certainly worth a thousand coins no matter which angle you looked at it. It was the finest wine he had ever drunk, even in the days when the assassin had all the money he ever had. He put down the paper and suddenly, he didn't know what to do.
On the day of his mission, the assassin was so drunk that he spent the last coin in his pocket. He wanted to reminisce about his life but found that there was nothing to miss. The assassin was born with no father, no mother, no name or surname. He was raised by the tribal elders as the hunter for the gods. When he was a teenager, he was entangled with the Northwest Civil War. The temples in his clan were smashed and everything he had learned before became useless. He was recruited into the army, and his comrades were scattered. The people in the city dismissed the people of the mountains as wildmen. The chief took all the credit for himself and the assassin's name was not even mentioned. He was disarmed and returned home. He heard that his adoptive father died of illness and that his adoptive sister was forcibly married and abandoned. Later, she died in a natural disaster along with her child. So he became a wanderer, a brothel thug, a mercenary, and an assassin.
The assassin had companions but no friends. The assassin had skinships but no lover. The assassin had no relatives, no children, was born nameless and was about to die nameless. The assassin had felt that it was boring to be alive, but then someone asked him to make a terrible deal that involved assassinating the emperor.
So the assassin said: "I won't go back."
He had nowhere to go, and no one was waiting for him.
"If I pass away at this critical juncture, the entire continent will fall into war again..."
"What does that have to do with me?" The assassin grinned. "You're right, a dying person doesn't care. I don't want to go back to where I came from. I have done nothing my whole life, without parents, a wife, or children, and I have never counted as a proper person. But when I get back underground, I can tell the others that I have killed the emperor, the 'Great Conqueror'! There are many emperors in this world, but not many people will kill the emperor."
The emperor stared at him for a long time, and the silence lasted between them for a while. The assassin grabbed the wine glass from the emperor and drank the wine that he had refused to touch. When he put the now-empty glass back down, the emperor opened his mouth again.
"Isn't it better to be a living legend than to be a dead person?" said the emperor.
"Why, do you want to make me an honorary emperor?" the assassin sneered.
"No," the emperor said slowly, "but your child can become the next emperor."
"Are you truly 'impotent'?" the assassin blurted out.
The emperor was expressionless and said nothing.
"You'll let me fuck the queen? Let your wife conceive my seed?" The assassin deliberately used vulgar words, "As long as I don't kill you, you're willing to treat a wild seed as your own, as your heir?"
"I need an heir." The emperor replied, avoiding the main point, but still surprisingly calm, "And the public introduction of collateral bloodlines will cause some problems."
The assassin stood still for a few seconds and started to laugh. He doubled over forwards, then backwards, thinking of the new gods and the old gods, the gentle and unfortunate foster sisters, and the women who became prostitutes. He thought of this conversation just now. For a while, he had paid tribute to this emperor, and he almost felt that he was different or better from the other powerful politicians. The assassin's smile came to an abrupt end, and the long sword came out of its sheath again. His expression was alike a glacier, he said, "I look down on you people who sell their own wives for their benefit the most."
The blade left a thin line of blood on the emperor's neck, and a drop leaked out of the wound, staining his white collar. The emperor neither flinched nor begged for mercy. He looked straight ahead and said flatly, "You've misunderstood."
"It's not the queen," declared the emperor, "It's me."
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Translation Notes:
1- I tried my best here, however, I don't think I still got it...
2- 1.3 pounds or 0.6 kilograms