Whatever the ultimate purpose of the enemies who brought him to Sivania, they certainly didn't succeed.

Hassel hiccuped and walked down the hallway to his bedroom. The guards standing guard at the door saluted him, and he only had to nod arrogantly in response. Two bodyguards followed, and everything was fine.

It was late, approaching midnight. This is so because he has a whole bunch of chores to deal with today, especially a dozen letters. This made him start eating dinner almost while everyone else was sleeping.

If there's anything good about this place in Viah, it's that he can enjoy the treatment of a king here. For the people in the outlying areas, the lord is the supreme authority, in a sense, no different from the king, who controls the life and death of the people. This feeling of bowing down to all beings can only be enjoyed here.

Of course, on the other hand, Via also provided him with a fairly stable source of finance. Due to the small population and poor place, the land rent income here is limited, but the tax revenue for business is quite good. Although he didn't scrape the ground, he also saved a considerable fortune. A large part of this was due to his indifference to the territory, and he did nothing but collect taxes. Many of the responsibilities that would have been borne by the lord, such as repairing roads, chasing thieves, building water conservancy, etc., did not take out a single copper plate. Anyway, in a year or two at most, he will leave this ghost place and go back. Leave it to the next lord or governor to worry about any long-term investment.

Hassel came to the door of the room, and when he reached out to open it, he heard a dull grunt behind him. The voice was made by his personal bodyguard. He casually glanced back, only to see the second bodyguard being strangled by the throat, struggling in vain pain. And the bodyguard who let out a muffled grunt had already fallen to the ground, his limbs twitching weakly.

Because it was so sudden, it took Hassel a full second to realize what was happening.

"There are assassins!!" he shouted, exerting all his strength. In the next moment, he was already holding a sword in his hand. Although he has less time to train after being in a high position, he is still a fighter no matter what. Or at least once a fighter.

The assassin watched him coldly, then slammed his arm. The crisp sound of a broken neck bone sounded. The Assassin then dropped the corpse in his hands and straightened up. The two men confronted each other five or six paces apart. Hassel finally recognized the Assassin as a woman.

The female Assassin was wearing a black suit of armor, which surprisingly appeared to be half leather and the other half metal. This armor is not ordinary armor, but a very rare close-fitting armor, which is tightly attached to the body, almost integrated with the body. The helmet concealed the female Assassin's nose and mouth, revealing only a pair of eyes. Those eyes were staring at him.

It wasn't a pair of female eyes, it was two balls of blood and fire.

"Hassel," he heard the female assassin say. "I'm back looking for you. ”

In the next moment, I don't know what happened to the Assassin, and the mask that covered the assassin's mouth and nose suddenly "shrunk" back. By the light of the torches beside her, Hassel saw her face. But it was only for a split second, and the female assassin rushed into the stab, disappearing into the darkness in the distance at a speed that was indiscernible to the naked eye.

It must be said that there were enough guards in the entire lord's mansion, because in just a short time, the guards arrived from all directions. Hassel looked at the guards around him in horror, and if it weren't for the corpse of the bodyguard at his feet, he would have thought it was a dream.

The guards who arrived looked at the lord with a frightened look, and saw the bodies of two bodyguards on the ground. They didn't need the lord's orders to split up at once. Someone chased into the darkness, someone examined the body of the deceased. The cause of death was easy to identify, one was a broken neck, and the other was a blow to the head. It was clear that the Assassin had a very strong physical strength, using some kind of blunt instrument to kill one of the bodyguards at once, and then strangled him by the throat and twisted his neck before the second bodyguard could react.

After a short time, the team in charge of searching for the Assassins returned, and they (quite normally) found nothing. But Hassel didn't get angry. His original fear had disappeared after all this time, and he had returned to his true nature.

Some people took the corpse away, while others waited for the lord's next order.

"Keep searching, looking for all suspicious locations. Strengthen the guards, the number of patrols these days must be doubled. Also, call the guards of the dungeon, call them all. The last time a female assassin was captured was the third squad, right? ”

These orders were quickly executed. Not long after Hassel sat in his bedroom, the guards of the third squad arrived.

"Are you the squad leader?" said Hassel, sitting on top of him, as he asked the guards of the squad.

The leader of the third squad was a man of considerable size, and if Ashrufat was present, he would immediately recognize this person as the big man who was provoking him. But at this time, the big man was submissive in front of the lord, bowing his head and frowning.

"Last time you caught the female assassin...... Remember?"

The big man was stunned for a moment, hadn't the female assassin been "dealt with" a long time ago? This kind of information was not kept secret from the insiders.

"My lord, what are you ...... for?"

"Don't ask me what I'm for, you don't need to know this! I want to hear the details of your capture of the female assassin!" Hassel ordered anxiously, and directly sent the big man back.

The big man began to tell the whole story, and his companion added some details from time to time. The process of saying this is also very simple. The female assassin somehow managed to sneak into the lord's mansion, but was unable to find the exact location of the lord's residence for a while, and was discovered by the third team as she hid in the courtyard. Seeing an unfamiliar face, and hiding and hiding, it was suspicious, so this team of guards stepped forward to interrogate as a matter of course. However, because the other party is a woman, they did not take precautions. As a result, Scarlet suddenly took out his sword and attacked, and in a surprise situation, the guards killed and wounded several people in a row, and then captured the assassin.

"And then you can easily subdue her?" asked Hassel in a skeptical tone. "So, the reason why she killed three people was because you were defenseless?"

"And our weapons. One of the guards added. "At close distance, the spear is useless. If we had been holding a sword and shield, we would have hurt only one person at most. ”

"What do you think of the female Assassin's level?" Hassel asked.

"To be honest, that is, to the extent of ordinary soldiers. The guards exchanged glances with each other, and the big man replied at the end. It can be seen that she has received a certain degree of training, and her strength is far greater than that of ordinary women, but it is only to this extent. Maybe she can beat one of us in a one-on-one situation, but there are ten of us in the team. ”

Hassel waved his hand and motioned for them to stand down. Was he wrong? Impossible? Could there be any other reason? He knew very well the level of his two bodyguards, and even if they were attacked, they would never die at the hands of an assassin who was "only at the level of an ordinary soldier".

Then, the dungeon guards walked into his bedroom.

"Did you do my order to send the woman over there?" Hassel questioned in a stern tone. A few guards, you look at me, I look at you, and their eyes are focused on one person.

"My lord, I personally sent it there. Last, the man replied stubbornly.

"Are you alone?" said Hassel, looking at the guards, squeezing the words out between his teeth. He knew that such tasks were usually performed by two people.

"There was also a person who volunteered to help. The guard hastened to explain. "It's one of your servants...... I remember...... His name seems to be Ashrufat. The one who accompanied you to the dungeon that night was the one with the torch in the back. ”

"Volunteer to help? And then?"

"We sent the woman to ...... Old place ...... Later, he volunteered to stay...... Looking at the woman...... "Under the stern gaze of the lord, the guard finally told the truth. "But I swear, before I left that day, I saw hordes of ghouls coming out from afar. Even if Ashrufat wanted to take the woman away, it would definitely be too late. He didn't come back the next day, and I thought he had been eaten by ghouls. But it seems that I heard that he is back, and there was a conflict with the third team this evening...... It seems that he picked up his luggage and left directly. I think he must have been frightened by what happened that night. ”

In other words, Scarlet was probably rescued by Ashrufat?Well, a man looked at a woman, so he felt compassion...... Or are they just a gang? But, that doesn't seem right?

"Are you sure you saw the ghouls appear at the last moment?" asked Hassel.

"I swear, my lord! I swear by my father's grave that I see the ghoul for sure! Ashrufat could not have escaped with the female Assassin, he would have had a hard time escaping on his own. I didn't look at it because my horse smelled ghouls and was out of control. ”

Hassel didn't pursue the question, and the information he got seemed to be a labyrinth, full of forks in the road and traps, and the truth was firmly hidden. First of all, the woman must have been immobile that night, and would have been eaten by ghouls if there had been no rescue from her companions or a miracle. In other words, unless it was a Scud, it was impossible to escape with the woman.

But even if that Ashrufat was a hidden scud that was enough to take the woman away from the ghouls, why did a woman with ordinary skills suddenly become a terrible assassin? The only possibility for a woman to be able to directly break the neck of a strong man with the strength of her arm is that the woman has undergone extremely rigorous training, or has taken some special medicine, and has possessed extraordinary strength in a short period of time.

Those strength-boosting drugs are understandable, but that kind of quick and agile movement is not something that can be practiced overnight. Or maybe it's not the same woman, like twins? Maybe that's the only reason that can be explained.

Hassel had a vague sense that something very important seemed to be happening in the darkness that he could not see. Some terrible force that he was not familiar with had intervened.

As he thought about it, a shiver from his bones took over his body.