I am an Assassin, like my father before me.
A long time ago, my father went to war.
I was just a young boy, so I would dress as a soldier and play with my brothers.
We would wrestle in soil of the rice farms, until they would chase us out.
Father would come back sometimes, and he would tell us his stories.
I would always listen, but maybe if I had listened a little bit harder, I would have noticed the sadness in his voice.
One day, Mother was crying.
We didn't understand then.
"Where is father?" My eldest brother asked.
Our auntie explained to us that our father was dead, and he wouldn't be coming back.
We nodded like we understood, but then I said:
"When is he coming back?"
Years later, Mother fell ill.
Then, she was gone too.
Our auntie went away, on a long trip to a new place.
It was just us.
We three boys.
Eventually, we made it to a big city.
We scraped together a living by stealing from merchants.
I was the youngest brother, so they would always give me a little bit extra when we divided up the day's food.
Eventually, one of my brothers became one of the merchants.
The other turned to a life of piracy, but would always take care not to steal from our brother's ships.
Me?
I followed my father's footsteps.
When my brothers went away, I stayed.
I went back to our hometown, and I went back to our old hut.
No one had moved in.
At first, I assumed it was out of memory to the family that used to live there.
Then, I found out that someone had made sure no one but our family would live in that hut.
There was a small trapdoor in the floor. I didn't remember that being there when I was a child.
I opened it, and inside I found a small chest.
The chest bore a symbol of which I vaguely remembered. I think that Father used to wear it on his uniform.
The chest opened easily.
Inside, I found black robes, wrapped around a strange pair of gauntlets.
There was also a slip of paper, yellow with age.
Written on it were faded numbers, but I could make them out.
There was a name of a city on it.
Beijing.
I trekked on foot to the great city, carrying the chest.
I would ask for food whenever I came upon a town or a farm, and hope that they would feed me out of kindness.
Eventually, I found myself at the great walls of Beijing.
At first, I was stopped at the gates. The guard took my chest, but then he saw the symbol engraved on it.
He returned it to me, and allowed me passage into the city. He also told me to go to a house near the edge of the city.
I wasn't sure where to go next, so I followed his direction.
When the door to the house opened, I saw a face that I recognized.
It was a man that had visited my father on occasion.
I had assumed they were friends during the war.
I was right about that, but I was wrong about what war.
The man told me about my father, the parts that I didn't know about.
He was an Assassin, and fought in an endless war against the Knights Templar.
He was involved in a plan to kill the emperor, who was a Templar puppet.
But the Templars got to my father first.
He was on his way home, when he was ambushed by a Templar captain and his men.
He tried to fight, but was eventually overwhelmed.
His body was thrown into a ditch and left to rot.
And all through this story, which I listened to as I had listened to father's stories,
I felt an anger build inside of me.
I asked the man if he would train me, and he said yes.
Now, I don my father's robes.
Black as night, and soft to the touch.
I slip on his gauntlets, which contain a blade that can spring from my wrist at a moment's notice.
I sheath my father's sword,
I fill my father's quiver.
I go over the plan in my head.
I'm going to succeed where my father failed.
I am going to kill the emperor.
And after, I am going to find the man responsible for my father's death.
And I will avenge him.
My name is Lee Ming.
And like my father before me,
I am an Assassin.