Chapter 135

  Amusement Assassination (Part 1)

  Despite having earned her rightful place as one of Golorath’s elite assassins, Zena was not looked at favorably when it came to her colleagues. Since most of them had abilities that didn’t just work well for assassinations but direct combat and often other things as well, her ability to disguise herself and infiltrate difficult places was seen as only good for hiding. There was some truth to this, as her actual combat skills were easily the weakest among all of the assassins.

  However, what she lacked in strength and power was made up for with stealth and creativity. Zena was an expert at sabotage and causing “accidents” to happen. This made it so that every time she fulfilled an assassination request, it didn’t leave all that much in terms of tracks to follow after her. Even if she couldn’t make an accident happen, she always had knives, poison and bombs at the ready, as even the mightiest warriors would let down their guards at some point, allowing one well timed attack to take them down.

  But while her style of assassination was rather impressive, it had a certain downside. Not only did her fellow assassins look down on her as a weakling and a coward, but there were times when her accomplishments were questioned, as some people would claim that it was an actual accident that claimed the life of her target and not something that she had a hand in. It was a sick game that some of the others liked to play, which was to drag down the one they saw as weaker than them.

  Yet despite all of the hardships and mockery she had faced, it looked like fortune was finally smiling down on Zena. Not only was there multiple important targets for her to take down, but one of them was Zeldana, a practically legendary rebel, who had a high bounty on her head that was now going to be claimed by the master of disguise herself. To make it even better, quite a few other assassins, ones who had always looked down on her, had tried to eliminate these targets and had failed. These even included Goldiana, an assassin specialized in purely physical combat and her most horrendous tormentor.

  Zena could still remember those days back in Assassination Academy, when Goldiana would dunk her head into the toilet, laughing about Zena getting a new disguise for free. How she would have her lunch money and even clothes stolen, forcing her to go around the school naked and getting laughed at.

  But now she would show them all. She would show her bullies, her superiors and her mother, who was always nagging at her that she should have gotten a proper job, that she was the best of the best. She would not only claim this bounty for herself, but she would rub it into the faces of everyone who had ever mocked and belittled her. She would even go to Goldiana’s grave in the hopes that the muscles-for-brains assassins would get to see her upcoming paycheck and would seethe in whatever afterlife she was in.

  The only question was what order she would handle her targets in. The assassin quickly decided to go after Ryle and Arkay first. This was because she viewed the two of them as the least threatening to her. While the blonde was obviously strong and could easily beat her in a fight, she was also a complete moron, the type of person that was easy to fool even with the simplest of disguises. The cat boy with her wasn’t much of a threat either. While she had heard reports of him having magical powers, those often meant that his close quarters combat skills would be poor. She just needed to get close to him and it would be her victory.

  “Time for me to go and show everyone that I am the best assassin out there,” Zena said to herself with a grin. “Just you wait, mom. I’ll show you why it was a better choice for me to become an assassin, instead of studying business. And I hope you’re watching as well, Goldiana. I’ll show you what “Zena the Toiletbrush” can do. Your job!”

  With motivation and excitement coursing through her body, Zena followed after Ryle and Arkay, who were too caught up in their fun time to notice the assassin following them. At the moment, the two of them were enjoying cotton candy they had gotten from a street vendor.

  “Hey, try this one as well!” Ryle said excitedly as she handed another piece of the sugary treat to Arkay. “This flavor is pretty good, too!”

  “Uh… Yeah, it sure is,” the cat boy said awkwardly as he took the treat into his mouth and chewed on it.

  The reason why Arkay was feeling a bit bothered was that Ryle hadn’t just gotten them both a single stick of cotton candy. Instead, the blonde had been so excited that she had bought one of each flavor that the vendor had, which was quite a lot. It was honestly a miracle that she was somehow able to hold onto all of them.

  Zena herself couldn’t help but feel a bit grossed out over the amount of sugar one of her targets was holding. The thought of somehow being able to eat it all seemed like an impossible task to her that made her feel like vomiting.

  “So which one do you think is the best one!?” Ryle asked excitedly. “I personally liked the strawberry quite a bit, but the chocolate fudge was also really good!”

  “I suppose the pear flavor was the best…” Arkay said as he took small bites of the sugary treat. “I hate to sound ungrateful or anything like that, but are we really going to eat all of this? This can’t be good for us…”

  “Oh, don’t worry! I just got these all to try them out!” the blonde said happily. “We don’t actually need to finish them all! I just wanted to learn what our favorites would be! We still have plenty of places to go, so I wouldn’t even dream of getting either one of us sick!”

  “That’s… good, I guess?” the cat boy said a bit unsure on how to feel about the whole situation. “But what are we going to do about all these sticks of cotton candy then? I mean, we can’t just throw them in the trash, can we?”

  “Of course not, silly!” Ryle said with a laugh. “All we need to do is just find the right place and we can get rid of them right away! Now, where could I find what I’m looking for?”

  The blonde looked around, before spotting a group of kids. She walked up to them while holding the massive amount of cotton candy with a smile on her face.

  “Hey, kids!” Ryle called out to the group, getting their attention. “Want some cotton candy? It’s free!”

  The children happily accepted the sugary treats and thanked the blonde. They then walked away to enjoy the rest of the park’s attractions.

  “So that was the plan. You simply wanted to test all of the flavors, before giving them away to children,” Arkay said as she walked up to Ryle. “I have to say, you seemed to really enjoy making them happy.”

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  “I sure did! Back home, my brother and I used to take care of a bunch of orphans that lived in the same slum as we did!” the blonde said proudly. “Even if we weren’t related by blood, we still saw each other as one big family! Those days are something I’ll always hold dear to my heart!”

  “Sounds wonderful,” the cat boy said with a smile. “I’m sure you would like to return to them some day, once we have defeated the Overlords.”

  “...As much as I’d love that, it’s not possible any longer,” Ryle said in a sad tone as she stared down at the ground, memories of the kids she used to look after flashing through her mind, along with images of her late brother. “They’re all dead. My brother also. They were all killed by Lune’s men.”

  “I… I’m so sorry! I didn’t know!” Arkay apologized. “I didn’t mean to-!”

  “It’s okay, Arnie. I’ve already wept over them more than enough already,” the blonde said with a small smile. “Besides, I may have lost them, but I’ve gained a new family now. Especially you.”

  “Me? What’s so special about me?” the cat boy asked.

  “I know this might sound crazy, but I somehow feel like you’re my chance to make things right. I failed to keep my brother safe, despite how I promised him to never allow anyone to harm him again. I may have failed then, but now I can make sure I won’t fail with you,” Ryle explained with a bright smile on her face. “That’s why I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you, Arnie. I promise.”

  “...Thank you. I really appreciate that,” Arkay said with a small smile and a slight blush on his face. “I will also do my best to not burden you too much and also make sure nothing bad happens to you in return.”

  “Aww! You don’t need to worry about such things! I’m plenty tough and you could never be a burden for me!” the blonde said with a grin as she put an arm around the cat boy and pulled him close. “Now let’s quit it with the moody talk and go have some fun!”

  As the two of them walked away to enjoy the attractions of the park, unknown to them, Zena let out a sigh of relief. The assassin had been observing the two of them and had listened to their whole conversation with irritation. She couldn’t care less about any tragic backstories her targets might have. All she wanted was for them to provide and opportunity for her to kill them, which wasn’t present with the two of them standing in the middle of a crowded street. Even if she could kill one of them without getting caught, the other one would then become a problem. She needed a chance to take out both targets at the same time.

  The opportunity that she was hoping for seemed to have come, as she saw both of her targets move to a roller coaster. Zena followed close behind them so that she could get on the ride at the same time they did, which would allow her to enact a plan of assassination.

  After waiting in line for some time, it was finally time for both Ryle and Arkay to get on the ride, with Zena following right behind them. Luckily for the assassin, she was sitting right behind her two targets on a separate cart. Having observed how the ride was built, a plan had already formed in her head. Zena grinned as this looked to be her easiest job ever, as well as the most rewarding.

  Once the ride started, Zena made sure that she could slip out of the safety harness of the ride, which allowed her to move around freely. She had learned escape artistry back in Assassination Academy, which made getting out of the harness incredibly easy for her.

  While she had still been waiting in the line, the assassin had looked over the tracks the ride would go through and knew the best place to go through with her plan. She smoothly slipped out of the safety harness and leaned over the front of her cart, where the connection between the carts was.

  Zena’s plan was rather simple. She would disconnect the carts before her, which would send them out of control and cause them to fly off the tracks and crash. No matter how tough her targets might have been, there was no way for them to survive that. The assassin chuckled to herself over how genius and simple her plan was.

  Taking out her sabotaging tools, Zena began to work on the connector. In no time at all, the carts were disconnected from each other and she could already see the ones before her start to move further away from hers. Grinning to herself over a job well done, the assassin began to move back to her cart, ready to enjoy the show that was about to unfold and the rest of the ride.

  However, just as she tried to move back, Zena realized that she couldn’t. Something was preventing her from returning to her own cart. Looking down, she realized much to her horror that her sleeve had been caught in the mechanisms of the cart before her. If she didn’t do something soon, she would get dragged along with it to her death.

  Acting quickly, the assassin pulled out a small knife in the hopes of cutting off the part of her sleeve that was stuck. Unfortunately, in her haste, she accidentally dropped the blade, leaving it completely out of her reach. With her knife lost, she tried to tear out her sleeve, but this was proving to be much harder than she could have imagined, as the fabric of her sleeve just wouldn’t tear.

  With no other options left, all Zena could do was grab hold of the cart before her while her feet held onto her own cart. This allowed the carts to stay together and not drag her to her doom, even if this meant that her plan to assassinate the first two of her targets. She just hoped that her grip was strong enough to last through the rest of the ride.

  “Huh? Did you feel that?” Arkay asked while looking around a bit. “It felt like the ride moved in a weird way or something.”

  “Meh. Must be a bump on the rail or something,” Ryle said with a shrug. “Probably nothing to be worried about.”

  “Yeah, if only you could say that to my face,” Zena muttered while continuing to hold on for her life.

  After what felt like just a few seconds to Ryle and Arkay, but an eternity for Zena, the ride came to an end. Just before the end was reached, the assassin managed to remove her sleeve from the cart of her targets. Even though it was far too late to cause any accident that would kill her two targets, Zena was at least able to hide her attempt at assassination.

  The detached link between the carts was obviously noticed by the park’s staff, who were very alarmed by the fact that their guests were at a risk of getting killed. Not to mention confused by how this whole thing had gone completely unnoticed by seemingly anyone with nothing even really happening.

  However, this went unnoticed by Ryle and Arkay, as they were quickly hurrying to try out another ride, which was mostly done because of the blonde. Zena was quickly following behind them, not just to keep up with their pace, but to avoid any difficult questions from the staff about what had happened.

  The next ride that the assassin’s targets were heading to seemed to be the bumper cars. Making sure to stick close enough to them so that she would be on the ride at the same time, Zena already made plans for what to do. This time, she would attach a new invention of hers on the front of her car, when no one was looking. As an assassin that specialized in making deaths look like accidents, Zena had to sometimes create the tools she would need for her work. This particular was used when committing murders behind the wheel of a vehicle. The invention was a small box that would open from a remote control, revealing a very sharp blade made from a special alloy. With this blade at the front, she could simply bump into someone and skewer them instantly, making it the perfect tool for this particular job.

  Once the ride started, Zena began to look for her targets, as she had lost them for the moment due to all the different bumper cars driving around. She soon located Arkay, driving around completely unaware of the looming threat. The assassin grinned as she drove towards the cat boy and readied the blade that would soon end his life.

  “Not on MY watch!” Ryle suddenly yelled angrily, before crashing into the side of Zena’s car, sending her swerving away from Arkay. “You leave Arnie alone!”

  “What the-!? Where the hell did you come from!?” Zena asked as she regained her bearings. “And what is this protection crap!? Don’t you know how bumper cars are supposed to work!?”

  “This is how they work for me!” the blonde shouted back as she kept hitting the assassin. “Fight back if you dare, coward!”

  “I think you’re taking this way too seriously, you know!?” Zena shouted as she tried to escape from her furious target.

  Despite her best efforts, the assassin couldn’t escape from her attacker. Ryle managed to hit Zena’s car in such a way that it sent her swerving uncontrollably, before hitting a wall.

  “Victory is mine!” the blonde cheered as she drove away.

  “Oh, grow up, would you!?” the assassin shouted angrily, before trying to get her car moving.

  However, even though she could hear the machinery working just fine, Zena’s car wouldn’t budge at all. She soon realized that this was due to her car being stuck to the wall. The blade she had attached to the front of the bumper car had pierced the wall and wouldn’t come out no matter what she did.

  “Goddammit, you have got to be kidding me!” the assassin cursed, as she tried to back away from the wall in vain. “How this could get any worse!?”

  Almost as if summoned by her question, Zena noticed a group of kids surround her. The youngsters had big grins on their faces, obviously attracted to the easy prey before them.

  “...Please no,” the assassin pleaded in vain, before her car was pounded from all directions by the laughing children.

  Once the ride finally ended, Zena crawled her sore body away from the bumper cars, managing to avoid getting noticed by any of the staff, who most likely had a lot of questions in regards to the blade attached to one of the bumper cars. However, while she had been able to avoid getting caught, she had lost sight of her two targets.

  As she was cursing her terrible luck, the assassin noticed another two of her targets. Lexton and Durge were walking by her, trying to find things to do at the amusement park. With no better options, Zena decided to switch her targets to the kobold and the orc, following behind them while looking for an opportunity to strike.

  Her first attempt might have failed, but her fortune could change with other targets, after all.