Ragnarok - Sins of the Night
He had not expected to meet another assassin on his job, especially since it was the guild that had given him this job. They would not have sent two assassins on a simple job like this.
That would mean that she is doing the job as a freelancer.A common wayfor new assassins to train, earn and prove themselves before the guild deemed them worthy to be given a guild job.
Ignoring the soft footsteps from the other assassin, he made his way to the next room where a young girl slept in her bed, clutching a teddy bear. With a last look he plunged his katar into the child's heart, a swift and silent kill for the last member of this family.
He turned towards the door, waiting for the other assassin to appear. With that kind of footstep, its probably a complete greenhorn. A female assassin appeared at the door, holding two daggers firmly infront of her as she took in his appearance. He simply looked back at her neutrally.
"Who were your targets?"
He scoffed. Another one of those half hearted assassins who worry too much about their pay. "The kill was made, you can still get your money from whoever hired you."
"Why did you kill the child?"
Maybe not. Its the brainless and emotional type. The type that he hates to talk with.
He had to jump aside when the dagger flew past where he stood. The girl took another dagger out from her pouch, still glaring at him in a fighting stance. With a swift motion he twisted both her arms, making her drop her weapons and pushed her against the wall. She struggled against him, but her small frame does not provide the strength to fight his weight.
"Do you go around attacking people from your own guild for no reason?"
He twisted her arms harder when she continued to strain against his hold. She gave a small gasp at the pain and froze. "Stop moving or I'll break your arms. We're assassins, girl, no one question why we kill. We just do. Now, any reasons for trying to attack me?"
No response from the girl as she continued glaring at him. He felt a headache forming.
"As a junior member of the assassin guild you are obligated to answer whatever I ask of you, or I shall have the authority to strip you of your name as an assassin and kill you right here."
"You have no rights to call yourself an assassin. Your targets were her parents, not her! They were part of a trafficking group, but she is too young to even understand that.Why do you have to kill a helpless child?"
"I dont need a reason. One child doesnt make a difference among the hundred others we have to kill." He threw her onto the bed beside the body of the child.
"You monster! The Assassin guild works for the King, to remove the criminals that had escaped the web of justice. Assassins have honour, but you are just a mind less murderer!"
He backhanded her across her face. "The third line of the assassin's oath; Honour to all assassins more experienced, and they are to be spoken to with respect. You speak of honour, yet you broke the most basic of the assassins' codes."
"A murderer has no respect to be spoken of."
"Will you kill a dying man, to relieve him of the suffering? When he begs for death to end his pain?"
The girl looked away. Most people would not want to make a decision like this, those who makes a stand normally decides too late. He grabbed her chin and make her look at him.
"An assassin would." He gestured to the open window, the night-skies brightly lit by the lights on the streets of Morroc."The world takes too long to make decisions when it comes to life and death; we stand here to make the decisions for them. A man may curse and swear, but he does not dare to take the life of his enemy because he himself is afraid of death. An assassin does not need to ponder about retribution or revenge from his targets, because he does not fear death."
"It does not allow you to decide the fate of an innocent girl who still has a lifetime infront of her."
A stubborn girl she is. "What do you think will happen if I let her live?"
"She'll get over her loss, grow up, and live a happy life!"
Naive. He threw her daggers back to her."Come with me. Then you decide if she should have lived."
They left through the window, leaving the mansion that is now dead silent. He led her from roof to roof, speeding across the town to the small but noisy building at the corner of Morroc. Jumping off, he landed on a branch, wincing slightly when she dropped beside him with a slightly louder landing. The old tree was beside the brightly lit window of the town pub, the smell of alcohol wafting from the open window.
"Take a look." He pushed her nearer to the window.
The place is filled with loud and drunken men, laughing and cursing as they played round after round of cards. Girls that brought their drinks and food were scantily clad, and those that sat at the tables hung all over the men, wearing slightly less than what would normally be considered underclothes. A group of young boys sat at the raised platform at the corner of the room, wearing only a loincloth and chatting happily among themselves.
Disgusted, she turned to him for the reason they are here.
"The girl with a white ribbon holding her hair up." He pointed in the direction of the female in question.
The young girl stood in the middle of a group of rowdy men, shaking her hips suggestively as the crowd catcalled and whistled at her. Slowly she danced, the circle closing in as hands reached out to grab her, touching wherever they could reach.
He watched as the assassin's grip on the branch she is holding onto tighten, heard her gasp of horror she saw the men tearing off the clothes on the young girl. He had to grab her to prevent her from jumping in through the window when they dragged her into a room off to the side of the building.
Dragging the struggling assassin, he made his way back to the roof.
"Why!"
He simply waited for her to calm down. "Why what?"
"Why did you bring me here, why did you let me see that?"
He sat down on the cold tiles of the rooftop, looking at the moon shinning coldly on the desert town. "Because you claimed that the kid still has a long future if I had not killed her. Because I know what kind of future she will have, and you do not."
She was silent as she stared at him.
"That girl in there, she was the first child I encountered after I became an assassin. She was awake, crying when she saw me in her room, hiding under her blanket and crying for help." He gave a mirthless laugh. "I was like you, believing that she does not deserve to die. I left her alive."
A sob. The girl turned away, trying to hide her tears from him.
"They sent her to the orphanage. Half a bowl of thin gruel per meal, two meals a day. Changed her clothes, fed her, and gave her a place to stay till she was six. Then they invited the people from the pub for a visit and sold them all the girls older than six, and some of the prettier looking boys."
He looked at the sobbing girl beside him.
"I went back to find her when I heard she was a whore at the pub. Offered to pay for her, buy her freedom from the owners. She rejected the offer without consideration and told me that there is no reason for her to give up such a good job, to end up running around doing odd jobs like a lowlife. She even told me proudly that she's already the top girl in that place."
"The child I killed tonight has an uncle, and this man had harboured a hatred for her parents for a very long time. When they discover the death of her parents, she will be sent to live with her uncle. This man is the one of the co-owners of the same orphanage I mentioned."
He left the assassin on the roof, disappearing into the shadows.
"Do you still think I should have let her lived?"
-End - Sins of the Night-