Chapter 368: Assassination. |
Haru leaned back as he saw the attack coming towards him and dodged the woman's attack as a small silver dagger shot past his face. Without missing a beat Haru slapped her hand that she was holding the dagger with, causing it to fly across the room disarming her in a single move and then grabbed the rim of the cup that he had poured for himself before reaching out his hand as he grabbed the woman's face with his hand and pressed his fingers against her jaw.
She opened her mouth as a reaction to the pain from Haru's grip against her muscle and he wasted no time tipping the drink into her mouth and watched as she coughed while trying to spit it out. He then tipped her head back as he continued to pour the tea into her mouth, giving her no choice but to swallow it if she didn't want to drown.
Haru watched as she instinctively gulped down the tea and felt her body go limp before letting go of her face and letting her drop to the ground.
"What's wrong? Is the tea so tasty that you lost all function of your body? It might have been good after all. Truthfully I don't know a single thing about that type of tea so for all I know you could have brewed it perfectly. It's too bad that you didn't know that much about it either." Haru said as he walked around to the other side of the counter where the man that was with her was now watching with a weary look in his eyes.
He could tell by seeing Haru dodge the surprise attack that he was skilled but he couldn't tell just how strong he was by looking at him.
He too reached behind his back and pulled out a dagger similar to the one that the woman had tried to attack him with to which Haru stopped in his tracks and placed the cup back down on the counter before pouring some more tea into it while smiling sinisterly.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You either tell me what your goal is by coming here and answer any other questions that I may have for you. Or I can put you to sleep and then extract the information from you by other means. But I can't promise that you will have a fun time if it comes down to that option. So pick. What would you like to do?" Haru asked before picking up the cup and walking towards the man who had backed himself into a corner.
"W-wait. I will talk! I will talk. There is really no need to do anything unnecessary!" The man shouted as he dropped his dagger to the floor.
"See, I am no threat to you. Please don't make me lose my mind as you did to my colleague!" The man begged as his words caught Haru's attention.
"Okay then. Now if you will, come, sit over here with me." Haru said as he walked back to the table that he was sitting at and then gestured for the man to sit opposite to him. The man then sat down and placed his hand on the table so that Haru could see them at all times to make sure that he wasn't planning to attack him.
"So my first question is about how many of you there are. Did you bring anyone else with you today? And if so then where are they now?" Haru asked to make sure that there wouldn't be another assassin popping up out of nowhere while they were talking.
"No, It's just the two of us. We tied the workers up in the basement and then put on the uniforms just in case any customers came in. We couldn't find the key to the door to keep people out so we just put up the sign to say it's closed. That's why it came as a surprise to find you sitting there with the other two." The man said as he looked down at the table, knowing that there was no point in hiding the truth.
There was only so much that his employers could do to him. But as for Haru who was unknown to him it was different. He didn't know what kinds of tricks that Haru was keeping up his sleeves but he knew that whatever they were it was enough to drive someone insane to the point where they forget their own name.
"Okay, that's good, then who was the person who tried to break into my room last night?" Haru asked as he wanted to find closure for Hong Xia.
"That was me. One of the workers told me that was your room. But when I heard a woman screaming I got spooked and thought that I had the wrong room so we left until the morning. It was that damn witches idea to capture the workers. I wanted to do this quietly so we wouldn't stair any more trouble.
But after failing last night she decided that the best way to get results would be to find out more information by asking the workers. Well, by asking… She might have tortured them after they refused to say anything. I swear that I had nothing to do with that though! Please believe me when I say that it was her idea.
Even when we came in to find you sitting here. She was the one who came up with the idea to drug you. She knows that the boss wants Li Xiu to be his wife and she said that she had a personal grudge with Annabeth so she thought it was the best opportunist to abduct all of you at the same time." The man said with his eyebrows now furrowed as he was expecting Haru to get mad at him and retaliate for everything they had done. But instead, he sat there for a moment while thinking about everything he was just told.
'So they didn't really have a plan to go with? These people are just armatures. Even the first attempt on my life was carried out by someone who didn't have a clue what he was doing. Everyone knows that in order to assassinate someone you have to have a plan to make sure that you aren't seen by anyone or even seen close to the crime scene.' Haru thought as he knew exactly what to do from experience as he had carried out assassinations in the past.
The people that were after him definitely didn't think too much about any strategy and it showed by how bold they were when trying to carry out the assassination.
"You're not very good at this whole assassination thing, are you? What are your employers even doing? Do they want me dead or are they just sending you to me in hopes that I will kill you for them?" Haru asked as the man looked up at Haru with anger before remembering that he was in no place to get angry.
"Well, that is probably because the league of assassins have cut all connections with the Kastron star alliance. Usually, our lord would send one of their people to carry out his evil deeds. But since he can't do that anymore he has made us guards do it instead. I don't even usually fight with a dagger yet he ordered us to use them so we look the part." The man said before looking down once again.
Haru sat there for a moment to process what he had just heard.
"Pfft. To think that he would use guards as assassins. That is just laughable. You're training are for two different things. That's like trying to use a shield to kill people in battle." Haru couldn't help but laugh as he shared his opinion on the matter.
"Tell me about it. Ever since I was a kid I have cultivated to protect the people that I care about yet here I am trying to take peoples lives for an evil lord that torments children. I don't know what went wrong." The man complained as he seemed to be aware that what he was doing is wrong yet was still doing it.
"That's on you. But that isn't what I'm concerned about here. Tell me more about this lord of yours. Why does he want to kill me? All I did was speak with his men and they ran away from me. I don't think that I have offended him in any way." Haru said as he thought about what had happened to put him in that situation in the first place.
But then again the man in question was the type of person to abuse children to sate his sexual desires. He was the worst type of person imaginable so it wasn't surprising that he wanted Haru dead.
But just before the man could answer the question Haru felt a presence behind him as a projectile shot past his face and hit the man opposite to him in the centre of his head. Blood gushed up into the air as a hole opened up on the man's head before he could say anything else.
Haru quickly turned to see where the projectile had come from but as soon as he looked back, all that he saw was a dark shadow flash past the door.