Mmm...
After who knew how long, the bronze-skinned girl slowly woke from her haze, her dark brows knitting faintly.
As her senses returned, she suddenly realized she was lying on a soft bed, covered with a thin silk blanket. Her hands and feet were bound with ropes, and the aftereffects of that earlier burst of divine pressure still left her limbs aching and numb, with barely enough strength to resist.
"Oh? Awake already. Pretty tough, aren't you? So what should I call you, Miss Assassin? Or... Hassan of Serenity?"
Under the flickering candlelight, Samael looked up from the desk, turned his chair, and gazed toward the girl on the bed with open curiosity.
The short-haired purple-haired girl with the youthful face was first stunned, then a trace of confusion and uncertainty surfaced in her eyes.
"So you're not a Hassan yet?"
"..."
"Still in training to become one?"
"..."
"I'm not your trial target, am I?"
"..."
"But there's no way the Assassin Order's intelligence gathering is really this bad..."
"..."
"You blinked. So you came on your own."
"...?"
"You blinked again. So that's not it. Are your trial assignments really this sloppy? Are they underestimating me, or overestimating your Order?"
"...!"
Sitting on the bed, the girl named Serenity jolted in alarm and hurriedly widened her eyes, staring back at her interrogator like a fighting rooster.
Definitely still a greenhorn. Once the mask comes off, every thought on her face is practically written out in plain sight.
Samael muttered to himself with a smile, picked up a few sheets of paper covered in questions from the desk, tapped them against his palm, and continued the little question-and-answer game.
Between the repeated questioning and Samael's deliberate mix of feints and misdirection, the inexperienced Serenity only grew more nervous, exposing one tiny expression after another that she could not hide.
All Samael had to do was shuffle the order of the questions and ask the same things several times. Through those subtle reactions, he had already formed a basic picture of the girl's past, her purpose here, and the rough state of the Assassin Order.
"Are you going to torture me now? Give it up. I won't tell you anything!"
Pressed down by divine pressure and exhausted by the barrage of questions, the short-haired purple-haired girl was already half asleep and could only force herself to stay alert.
But when she saw Samael stand up and walk to the bed, a strange trace of relief actually appeared on her tense little face, as though she were ready to die for a righteous cause.
Tsk. You've already told me everything. What would I even need torture for?
Samael shook his head inwardly, but when his eyes fell on the girl bound hand and foot, curled up against the headboard, her struggles exposing broad patches of bronze skin, his heart gave an involuntary stir.
Interrogation, huh? That might not be entirely impossible...
As the god drew nearer and nearer, Serenity lifted her neck like a rabbit waiting to be slaughtered, bracing herself for the arrival of her fate.
Back in the mountains, she had heard plenty of stories about what happened to senior sisters who failed their missions.
For most Assassins, that fate was unbearably cruel.
But for her, perhaps it would be a kind of release.
From the moment she was forced to drink poison as a child, enduring the agony of feeling every inch of her body burn and tear apart, while companion after companion was eliminated, only she had managed to survive the trial and complete the training.
But it was less a blessing than a curse.
Her entire body, down to her very bodily fluids, had become poison made manifest. If taken by surprise, she could kill even a tough Phantasmal Species.
As for humans, that hardly needed saying. Even ordinary divine-blooded heroes could not fully withstand the fluids she mixed into food or drink.
And because of that, she had never been able to show living things any mercy.
Plants rotted when she came too close.
Birds and beasts decayed and died if she touched them.
Even the companions in the mountains, or the few kind people who tried to show her goodwill, would almost always die from contact alone.
So no one dared approach her. No one dared speak to her. All contact was strictly forbidden from every side, and loneliness took root in her heart, growing until it could no longer be restrained.
If she could have chosen, she would rather have lived as an ordinary, unremarkable person.
She would have liked to bend down and smell flowers and grass.
To open her hands and wait for birds to land and sing.
To take off her mask and embrace the people she loved.
Snick...
But then, with a soft sound, the ropes around her limbs suddenly loosened.
The short-haired purple-haired girl stared in shock as the god from the enemy camp casually sliced through her restraints.
She looked down at her freed hands and feet in utter disbelief, frozen where she sat.
"You… aren't going to kill me?"
"There's no point in doing that."
Samael glanced at the purple-haired girl, noticing the faint trace of self-destructive resignation in her expression. After a brief pause, he spoke calmly.
"But I can't just let you go for nothing. In exchange, you'll have to do something for me…"
"I will never betray my companions or abandon the people of the mountain!"
"Relax. I just need you to deliver a message on your way back. That's all."
"…What?"
"Tell your Old Man of the Mountain that an old friend from Uruk misses him."
Samael spoke slowly, his gaze flickering as if holding some deeper meaning.
"…!"
Serenity's eyelids twitched at those words. A storm of emotions surged through her eyes.
"That's all. You can go now. The door's open. You know the way back, right? I don't need to escort you personally."
With that, Samael waved his hand casually and tossed the bone mask back onto the bed beside the girl, clearly signaling that she was free to leave.
Serenity hesitated for a moment before climbing off the bed and carefully walking toward the open doorway. Just as she was about to step across the threshold, Samael's voice suddenly sounded behind her.
"Wait. Can't let you come all this way for nothing. Put this on."
The moment the short-haired purple-haired girl instinctively turned around, a black snake scale tied with a thin cord flew toward her and landed in her arms. The scale was engraved with Rune symbols and emitted a faint, eerie glow.
As soon as it touched her skin, a strange cooling sensation spread throughout her body. The heavy knot of emotions that had accumulated in her chest for years seemed to dissolve, and an indescribable sense of relief washed over her.
Serenity could not help letting out a soft, contented sigh.
The moment she realized what she had done, the purple-haired girl immediately stiffened, lowered her head, and hurriedly turned to leave.
But she stumbled and nearly tripped over the doorway.
You're supposed to become a Hassan someday. Are you planning to assassinate people by being adorable until they die?
No wonder the Old Man had to step in personally. Looks like your generation is hopeless.
Samael suppressed a laugh and rubbed his forehead before straightening his expression and speaking seriously.
"That snake scale carries a trace of my Authority over poison. The Rune symbols on it also have a purification effect. It should suppress the toxins in your body that you can't control."
"The moment we met, I could already smell the poison on you from a distance. Assassination is a technical craft. Don't learn the wrong lessons from those idiots who like to charge in head-on."
"Before drawing your blade, before striking with absolute certainty of a fatal blow, you should first learn to hide and control the weapon you carry within yourself. Otherwise you'll expose yourself before you ever touch your target."
Serenity nodded repeatedly like a pecking chick.
Somehow, she had the strange feeling that the person standing before her was not the target she had come to assassinate, but a teacher patiently guiding her.
That odd warmth made the purple-haired girl linger by the doorway for a long time. Her hesitant gaze kept drifting toward Samael at the desk as if she wanted to say something but could not bring herself to speak.
"What is it now? If you've got something to say, say it. I'm not going to eat you."
Samael glanced up at the assassin and snorted impatiently.
Serenity hesitated for a moment. Then she gathered her courage, lifted her head, and spoke slowly with a conflicted expression, her eyes filled with hope.
"C-Could I… hug you?"
"Huh?"
Samael froze.