My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

I'm terribly sorry for being so late!!

This will be a bit short.

If someone asked me what the most impossible thing in this world would be, I would answer like this.

—That my uncle would be killed.

To put it bluntly, my uncle was a villain.

He used his status as the prince to do a lot of wicked things, and recently it seems he didn’t limit himself to this country—he involved other races in his crimes as well.

I say “seems” because information rarely reaches me, and because my uncle was very good at hiding his tracks, with my stepfather helping to cover them up.

Truly hopeless — that’s the only way to describe it.

A member of the royal family committing crimes, and the king who should reprimand him covering it up.

The reason the former public security organization was dismantled was probably connected to that too—the king found excuses and eliminated it.

They frame others without compunction and bask in the spoils.

As an adopted child, I hardly dared speak up, and there was no one in this country who could stop them.

My stepfather, the king, protected them, of course, and my uncle was guarded even more stringently.

So I never imagined anyone could break through all that and assassinate my uncle.

“...I’m sorry, could you say that again?”

“Y-yes. It appears His Highness the prince was assassinated by someone.”

I had the castle’s most informed maid investigate the commotion from this morning, and the result was that my uncle was apparently dead.

The most impossible thing had happened.

“...Who on earth...?”

The reason I was adopted into the royal family was because my profession is “guardian.”

Conventional barriers are anchored to the ground and cannot move, but a guardian’s barrier originates from a person, so it’s mobile; unless something happens to me, the barrier’s effect can last almost indefinitely.

Of course they used that, and my barrier had been cast over my uncle as well.

If my uncle was dead, the only explanation would be that someone broke my barrier—so I should have sensed it through the barrier.

Yet I didn’t know my uncle had been killed until the maid told me.

If I sharpened my senses, the “divine barrier” I had placed on my uncle should still be active, and besides that, the silent men who were said to be my uncle’s retinue should also have their barriers intact.

“What about his men?”

“According to reports, they were all killed—probably with suppressed breaths. It appears they were stabbed through deadly points with something like knives. Perhaps a skilled assassin was hired.”

Even without my barrier, I knew my uncle’s men were very strong.

Those men were killed with a single stab, and yet the barriers remained intact.

That meant the assassin had slipped through the barriers and killed my uncle and his men.

There are only a few people in this world who could do that.

“No way...!”

“Lady Ria??”

An assassination technique that can pass through barriers.

I know a person who possesses such an inhuman, unbelievable skill.

And that person had recently been ordered by my stepfather to assassinate my uncle.

A young man from another world, roughly the same age as him.

A Human who could cut down the lowest-floor demonic beasts in the labyrinth in an instant right before my eyes, whose combat power rivaled the Demon Clan — probably the strongest assassin in this world.

And with him was Lord Crow.

Realizing that, I started running.

The maid shouted from behind, but I ignored her and dashed down the corridor.

I didn’t know why I felt such urgency.

I only knew, for some reason, I had to see Lord Crow.

Something had changed decisively since yesterday.