Chapter 73 Good Job
“And one more thing: I need you to find a house for a family of four: a young mum, a young boy and a couple in their 60s. With available status. The location should be a quiet village near a medium-sized city, far from the capital.”
“Got it!”
Onyx paused for a moment to consider what else she could add, then spoke up again.
“It’d be nice to be somewhere with easy access to the border, so we can cross it easily if we need to.”
“Yes, master!”
“That’s all. You can go now.”
“Yes!”
The men who had filled the office scurried out at once, but one of them lingered and turned to Onyx.
“By the way, master.”
“What is it?”
“Is something good happening?”
“Something good? What do you mean, all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s just that… Master looks good, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before.”
“Oh…”
Onyx always kept a poker face. Within the Intelligence Guild, he kept a tight lid on his expression, especially when standing in front of his subordinates, but today was different. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly as he gave his orders.
Onyx suddenly realized that he hadn’t managed his expression at all. His face, slightly flushed, was rigid. He spoke in a cold voice.
“There’s no such thing as a good job, so cut the crap and go do what you’re told.”
“Yes, I see,” He said, “I was expecting you to have a lover, but I see you don’t.”
Pom smirked the rest of the way out of the office, clearly not believing Onyx’s words. When Onyx was finally alone, he put his hands together and dried his face. His face was hot.
“You think I look happy, huh?
He sighed loudly in disbelief. There was nothing to feel good about.
No, on the contrary, the thought that Killion, that man, might know Veronia’s identity, was cause for concern. It’s a dire situation, one that could lead to the failure of the mission.
‘But… was smiling? Was I? You must be crazy.’
In fact, when he received a new request from Veronia, he was a bit overwhelmed. After all these years together, it still seemed to emphasize the client-employee relationship.
‘But why did I feel better now, why was I smiling?’
Onyx asked himself. But no answers came to mind, and he grew frustrated, until one possibility suddenly flashed through her mind.
‘Could it be… Killion, just because he thinks he can get rid of Veronia? A… No way, really?’
He couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the possibility. While he was laughing to himself like a madman, a breeze suddenly woke him up.
It seemed that this ridiculous possibility was indeed real.
‘Haha… must be crazy.’
Killion, he was oddly unlikable from the start.
It was odd that he hadn’t given up on Veronia alone, when the whole world knew she was dead. And for the highest noble to be hovering around a commoner girl and showing her a favorite.
‘But it has nothing to do with me… so why?’
He couldn’t understand why he was getting so personal with Veronia, who was merely a client.
‘…Is it just a competitive thing?’
Like when they competed to win a game of darts. It’s a weird thing about men, they get caught up in weird things and get competitive for no reason.
‘But what do you get out of winning the competition?’
As Onyx pondered, an answer popped into his head, and his face flushed red as he realized it.
‘What you get in a competition is… Veronia, right?’
Even though it was the answer his brain came up with, he didn’t think it made any sense or sense at all.
But regardless of this, his face was burning redder and redder. It wasn’t the only thing. Thump, thump, thump, his heart began to beat wildly, like a seizure.
‘What, what is this? What’s going on? What’s going on?’
Onyx panicked at the unprecedented physical changes. It was then. He remembered his subordinate’s last words as he left the office.
‘…I was expecting you to have a lover or something.’
Onyx’s face turned even redder, and now it looked like a bomb about to explode.
‘A lover…?’
Thump, thump, thump, his heart was about to jump out of his mouth. It wouldn’t be strange if his head or chest exploded if he stayed still.
Onyx stood up. With his head spinning and his heart racing, he needed to move his body. He headed straight for the weight room in the basement of the building.
He punched, punched, stomped, and kicked the sandbags hanging from the ceiling, and soon he was sweating all over. He felt refreshed.
Next, he grabbed a dagger in each hand and sliced through a series of targets. He leapt up and swung his arms, rolled on the ground and swung his daggers.
The martial arts of the Intelligence Guild were not designed for all-out combat; rather, they aimed to exploit gaps in the enemy’s defense and make a quick exit. That’s why Onyx favored daggers over longswords.
‘I think I’m getting somewhere.’
After a good run, his flushed face and racing heart returned to normal. He was relieved and began to clean up. He stretched out his arm to remove the bull’s-eye.
He noticed that the bandage on his wrist was loose. Veronia had wrapped it for him.
‘It’s nothing, really.’
‘It’s just that I don’t feel comfortable, and I have to use the ointment and bandages I got from the doctor.’
He remembered the conversation in the carriage. Veronia’s voice rang vividly in his ears.
His body began to react again. Heat rushed to his face and his heart quickened. He tried to dismiss it as the result of movement, but it was too much to ignore.
‘What’s wrong with you, do you actually like Veronia?’
Onyx asked himself. The answer didn’t come immediately, but somehow he knew the answer.
“Ugh!”
In his distraction, Onyx slashed his finger with her shuriken. Red blood dripped down his fingers.
“Shit…!”
In his haste, he unwrapped the bandage on his wrist to stop the bleeding. But his hand froze in its tracks. He had a strange feeling that he didn’t want to remove Veronia’s bandages. He hesitated to stain the bandages Veronia had given him with her blood.
‘He must be insane.’
Onyx shook his head, then unwrapped the bandage and wrapped it around his cut finger. Onyx gritted his teeth as the bandage quickly turned red with blood.
***
The day of the coronation finally dawned. The day when the eyes of the people would turn to the imperial court, and the eyes of nations great and small across the continent would turn to the Empire of Asnardam. It was to be the most glorious, the most perfect day of all.
From the lowliest to the highest, everyone under the palace’s glorious roof was on high alert.
The Emperor and Empress, crowned in golden splendor, walked slowly forward on a red carpet. The Emperor and Empress had a solemn look in their eyes and a subtle smile on their lips.
On either side of the carpet, everyone in the palace stood side by side, bowing low at the waist, and each time the emperor and empress passed by, they chanted a greeting.
“May the glory of heaven and the mercy of the earth be with Your Majesty the Emperor and Empress.”
“May the glory of heaven and the mercy of the earth be with Your Majesty the Emperor and Empress.”
The emperor and empress were followed by members of the imperial family, including the crown princess and the princes, and then by high-ranking aristocratic officials, including the chancellor Killion.
Caspian was nowhere to be seen in the long procession; he was serving a suspended sentence for an incident a few days earlier in which he had stabbed a pickpocket in the square.
‘Caspian, you know well enough, this is a day when everything should be perfect. It does not seem right to have a man who has questioned the people’s goodwill present at the coronation, and I would advise you to keep to yourself for the time being.’
Jonathan summoned Caspian himself and tiled him.
Caspian himself seemed unconcerned about the matter, but Sandra was not. She didn’t think it was fair to exclude Caspian from one of the most important events in imperial history.
‘Is this how you intend to impose sanctions, Emperor?’
Sandra gritted her teeth. ‘I will make Jonathan regret his decision to formalise the stigma attached to Caspian.’
‘You’ll see, Emperor.’
Sandra’s gaze flicked to the Emperor and Empress walking ahead of them, venom in her eyes.
The procession left the palace in a carriage and headed for the Great Hall. It was a thirty-minute carriage ride from the palace to the Great Hall.
It was not a short journey, and the whole way was packed with people. All were eager to see the new Emperor and Empress.
The people had endured terrible wars and miserable poverty during the previous emperor’s reign. Their eyes sparkled with the hope that the new Emperor would make things better.
“Long live the emperor! Long live the empress!”
“Long live the two of you!”
“Long live the Asnerdam Empire!”
The people cheered, waving their flags at the carriages carrying the Emperor and Empress. The Emperor and Empress waved back at the people.
