Episode 145
Chapter 48: Nameless (4)
The assassins’ pursuit dragged on through the entire night.
The first upper-level cadet who fired the poison needle was just the beginning. Right after leaping from the rooftop, a poisonous mist quickly spread, shrouding the alleyway. Every time Jin paused in the darkness, blades came flying at him.
After escaping the alley, a volley of arrows rained down from behind.
He dodged, deflected, and endured all of it—until three upper-level cadets lying in ambush in the city’s drainage tunnels suddenly attacked. At that moment, Jin truly thought he was done for.
And that wasn’t all.
After a harrowing ordeal, when he finally reached the inn and opened the door, a poisonous mist billowed out as if waiting for him. Through the thick haze, a dozen or so daggers flew at him as a bonus.
How on earth had he survived all that? Without any preparation, no less.
Even Jin himself was amazed. But inhaling even a fraction of that poison mist the moment he opened the door was unavoidable.
“Huff… huff… Damn bastards…”
Jin had barely managed to escape to the forest where he had read a book just the day before, trying to catch his breath.
Spitting out blood-tinged saliva, he shook his head. If it weren’t for his blessed Runcandel body, he’d be coughing up clots of blood by now, burning with fever.
‘This is way too organized. I don’t know who the hell is sending these cadets after me, but I will find them and make them pay…!’
His eyes burned with fierce determination as he clenched his teeth.
In the distance, the dense thicket was beginning to brighten with dawn, but Jin wasn’t sure if the chase would end with the morning.
His face was slick with cold sweat, and his robe was torn and riddled with holes like a rag.
Yet, astonishingly, not a single scratch marred his body. Jin felt a surge of pride at that fact.
“Phew.”
After scanning his surroundings for about five minutes, Jin leaned against a tree—completely unaware that Yona was hiding right above him.
“Hehe. Not bad, rookie.”
A soft flutter.
Yona dropped a piece of paper, then disappeared again, climbing higher into the branches.
‘What the hell is this?’
Irritated, Jin snatched the paper.
For a moment, his temper flared so fiercely he almost chopped down the innocent tree.
Suppressing the boiling anger, Jin let out a hollow laugh.
‘I thought Yona was one of the best assassins in Nameless. Well, that’s a relief. If I can just hold out, I can shamelessly ask her for the Full Poison Wine.’
Since Yona had sent the message herself, Jin allowed himself to rest peacefully until evening. Locking the inn door behind him, he slept soundly, and the fatigue washed away completely.
The small amount of poison in his system had also vanished, expelled through his breath during sleep.
Of course, if the poison mist had been made from the concentrated venom used by true Nameless assassins, that wouldn’t have been possible.
‘Come to think of it, in my past life, Anne got the Full Poison Wine as a gift because she got along well with Yona. Though the way they “played” was a bit different from how I do now…’
In his previous life, Anne had persistently pursued Yona.
Yona, a lonely and uniquely temperamental woman, was relentlessly targeted by Anne’s affections. At first, Yona was wary, but gradually she opened up and gave Anne the Full Poison Wine.
“I love you this much, and you won’t do anything for me?”
Anne had forced Yona’s guilt to get her hands on the wine. But soon after, unable to handle Yona’s personality, Anne distanced herself again—a fact known to all the brothers.
‘Yona’s constant gloom after returning to the family was due to many reasons, but the hurt Anne caused was no small part of it. Even I could tell back then.’
Of course, Jin never intended to toy with Yona’s feelings just to get the Full Poison Wine.
Splash, splash.
Before entering the room, Jin quickly washed his face with water he had prepared in a basin. He tied back his bangs so they wouldn’t cover his forehead.
Then, using needle and thread, he roughly mended his torn robe and checked his sword and other equipment.
Maybe because of last night’s experience—
‘The moment I open the inn door, it all starts. If I open it carelessly, I’ll be a sitting duck.’
Today, Jin felt he could face the assassins more skillfully than yesterday. He was already somewhat accustomed to the sensation of the entire city hunting him.
‘But I won’t be as flustered as yesterday. Be thankful I only use a sword, cadets.’
If he used magic or spiritual energy, he could probably handle even the cadets easily. In other words, Jin had been fighting with a handicap since yesterday.
Creak!
Whoosh! Swish! Thud!
As expected, the traps the cadets had set on the walls triggered the moment Jin opened the door, firing a volley of poison needles.
Jin pressed himself tightly against the wall beside the door, and the assassins waiting in the hallway seemed to expect this, holding their breath without panic.
‘I’m not going to fall into your rhythm today.’
Bang!
Jin wrapped aura around the pommel of his sword, Bradamante, and smashed the wall beside the door. The thin wooden wall shattered into pieces, creating a hole big enough for a person to pass through.
Jin shouted through the gap.
“Yesterday I spared you all, but from now on, if you want to kill me, be prepared to lose a limb!”
He meant it.
He didn’t want to kill the cadets unnecessarily, and he’d been relentlessly chased. He showed mercy last night, but today he was sharpening his edge.
No matter if they were cadets or just following orders, they were truly trying to kill him.
Screech!
Slipping through the hole in the wall, Jin lightly stabbed the side of a cadet’s torso. Before the cadet could scream, Jin twisted the blade to deepen the wound.
“If you don’t see a healer within five minutes, you’ll die.”
Other cadets quickly surrounded him, throwing all kinds of weapons. Jin could block or dodge most, but the real threat was the ‘hook.’
The grotesque hooks looked like hundreds of raptor talons twisted together. Once they latched onto something, they never let go.
Their elasticity was incredible, and even the razor-sharp, aura-coated blades couldn’t cut through them.
‘Since yesterday, every time I see those, I feel like I’m facing a giant monster.’
At first, Jin struggled with their ‘hard-to-cut’ nature—they were the reason his robe was shredded.
But he wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.
‘Why did I try to slash them yesterday when I could just stab and deflect?’
Hooks flying at arrow-like speed aren’t usually met with precise stabs.
Ting, ting!
Jin jabbed Bradamante lightly like a quick jab, deflecting the hooks. The cadets involuntarily clicked their tongues.
Unfortunately, the cadets didn’t have Jin’s swordsmanship or physical ability. The deflected hooks snapped back and latched onto them, causing screams of pain.
“Gah!”
“Ugh…!”
In an instant, the narrow inn corridor was soaked with blood and flesh. Jin stepped over the fallen cadets and slowly moved toward the first floor.
‘The ones I just faced are weaker than yesterday. They want me to get cocky or careless. The cadets waiting on the first floor and the street must be the elite ones.’
The top-tier cadets, just a few steps from the Nameless Hall.
As Jin thought, the assassins stationed on the first floor and the street were of that caliber.
‘I can’t move the way they want me to. If I do, I’ll get caught. No matter where they attack from, I won’t dodge—I’ll break through head-on.’
Not running away, but making them follow.
That was the principle Jin planned to stick to when facing the cadets today.
‘If I smash everything in my path, they’ll have no choice but to follow. Since they treat me like a giant monster, I’ll act the part.’
Scratch! Crash!
As soon as he reached the first floor, Jin wildly slashed his sword energy everywhere, destroying the inn’s interior.
Every pillar he saw was cut down; every wall he touched crumbled.
Of course, the Nameless cadets kept attacking, but they were more cautious than yesterday. One wrong move and they could lose their necks, not just limbs.
‘Don’t panic. Once I leave this closed space, the rooftop team will try to snipe me on the street…’
The leader of the rooftop team signaled this, but the prediction was off within ten seconds.
The first thing Jin did upon reaching the street was to smash every small building he could—cadets’ homes, small shops, anything breakable.
“Ahhh!”
“No! My house!”
Naturally, the mid- and lower-level cadets not assigned to Jin’s assassination squad suffered damage too.
But what did that matter? Even if the Nameless King or other top assassins came to hold him accountable for the chaos, Jin had his defense.
They were the ones who first targeted him with an organized operation. This wasn’t just a simple assassination attempt by cadets—it was a full-scale mission with dozens moving together. Wasn’t that crossing a line, even for Samil?
“Let’s see which comes first—the cadets’ persistence, my aura running out, or the Nameless King taking pity and showing up himself. What do you say, Sister Yona?”
A smile spread across Jin’s lips each time a small brick house crumbled to the ground.
Three hours of chaos later, the cadets assigned to assassinate Jin were still trailing him in stunned silence.
All the carefully calculated routes and traps, designed to account for every variable and choice, had become utterly useless. One side of the city looked like it had been hit by a magical bombardment or a massive monster attack—half in ruins.
Though the damage wasn’t widespread, it was the most shocking incident to have occurred in Samil recently.
“Huff, huff…”
Jin was starting to wear down. The aura enveloping Bradamante had grown faint compared to earlier, and his body felt as heavy as if weighed down by iron blocks on his shoulders.
So, he paused his rampage and slipped into a restaurant building to catch his breath.
“Damn it… The Nameless King must care about Sister Yona a lot more than I thought…”
Truth be told, Jin had expected the Nameless King, the elders, or some top-tier assassin to show up by now.
He had planned to use that moment to negotiate, citing some justification and the items Quikantel had given him.
But even now, the only ones chasing him were the cadets sent by Yona.
The Nameless King was the kind of person who respected Yona’s decisions no matter what—and given the scale of this mess, Yona would probably just write a hundred-page apology and face little to no punishment afterward.
It was hard not to feel unsettled.
“If this keeps up, the cadets will notice my aura fading soon and come at me with everything they’ve got. What should I do? Use magic or spirit energy? It feels like a waste to use what Quikantel gave me so soon… and my pride won’t let me.”
Jin’s eyes suddenly sharpened with resolve.
“You hiding in there—come out. Before I crush you along with that pillar. Judging by how poorly you’re hiding your presence, you must be cadets not assigned to my assassination squad. Just come out, and I won’t hurt you.”
The next moment, Jin found himself face to face with an entirely unexpected sight.
“Huh? What the—why are you two here?”
Stepping out from behind the pillar were Dante and Veradin, awkwardly scratching the back of their heads.