Part 6: The Master (1)

The tavern’s second-floor lodging.

Aiden reclined against the headboard of the bed, lying at an angle.

‘Why did I release Mugin’s seal?’ he asked himself.

No answer came easily.

This was the first time he had lifted the seal since meeting Mugin.

If he had to explain the situation…

Just because?

Aiden let out a small laugh.

‘Just because.’

A phrase he would never have used in the past.

Aiden had once believed there was no such thing as “just because” in the world.

He thought the phrase was only used when someone had a reason they were avoiding or were too embarrassed to admit.

But now, for the first time, Aiden found himself in a situation where he could only express his feelings with those words.

It was strange—and a little amusing.

‘Why did I release Mugin’s seal?’ he asked himself again.

Just because.

The same resonance repeated in his chest.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t unpleasant.

It felt like he was embracing coincidence in his meticulously planned life for the first time.

Aiden got up and left the room, heading down to the first floor.

Even in the early morning, a few patrons were in the tavern, some of them enjoying breakfast. It seemed the tavern had established itself quite well.

Come to think of it, it was Mugin who had revived the tavern.

Begging for mana to feed its heart…

Praying with its wings spread wide on the tavern’s roof…

Thanks to that, the town’s residents had come to know Carl’s tavern.

That, too, had been unplanned. A coincidence.

And perhaps…

Even Aiden becoming an assassin could have been a coincidence.

Suddenly, he wondered if the world was spun not by the Wheel of Fate, but by the Wheel of Coincidence.

“Good morning.”

“Aiden, did you sleep well?”

Carl and Lyra greeted him warmly. Aiden returned their morning greetings.

A short while later, Lucy also came downstairs.

The four of them began their meal by the window.

“You’ve been looking tired lately,” Aiden remarked, glancing at Lucy.

Her eyes were half-closed, with dark shadows beneath them.

“Yeah. I’m excited but also nervous about heading to the academy soon. I’ve been practicing magic non-stop, and it’s wearing me out.”

“You’ve got a recommendation letter from the branch manager. What’s there to worry about? You’ll do great. After all, you’re my daughter.”

“Exactly! I’m Father’s daughter. I can overcome anything.”

Motivated by Carl’s bizarre encouragement, Lucy suddenly brimmed with determination.

Aiden found the scene hard to comprehend.

A recommendation letter was understandable as a source of support, but how could being “his daughter” be reassuring?

Moreover…

Carl wasn’t an accomplished mercenary or anything like that.

There was something special about this father and daughter duo, and Aiden was undoubtedly drawn to it.

“Aiden, how about a walk with me today?” Carl suggested.

“As you wish.”

“Give me a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Lucy left the table, and Lyra headed toward the kitchen.

When it was just the two of them, Carl leaned in and spoke in a low voice: “The one who dealt with Jack… that was you, wasn’t it? You saved Lucy because she was in danger, right?”

Carl’s sharp intuition was impressive.

Aiden nodded.

“I’d been a bit worried about Lucy myself,” Carl admitted. “She can’t help but assist people in trouble.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve made sure to educate her on that point.”

“Educate? What kind of education?”

“I taught her to help others but to back off if it’s something she can’t handle.”

“Thorough as always. That’s reassuring.”

“It’s nothing special,” Aiden replied with a casual shrug.

“But seriously, how strong are you? If you could take down a high-ranking dark sorcerer like Jack by yourself…”

“Who knows? Whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably more than that.”

“A dragon, maybe?”

Aiden didn’t respond.

Carl, familiar with Aiden’s reticent nature, didn’t seem to mind the silence.

Shortly after, Lucy came back downstairs, now wearing a coat.

Aiden and Lucy left the tavern together.

Their morning routine began as usual—feeding Cheese, the golden tabby cat.

They turned into the alley next to the tavern.

“Cheese~ Cheese~” Lucy called out for the cat, her voice tinged with longing.

“Mrrrow!” Cheese responded warmly, wagging its tail and swaying its hindquarters as it approached.

Lucy poured milk into a bowl she had brought along. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t seen Cheese for a few days, but she seemed overly affectionate, almost spilling the milk.

“You troublemaker. Do you know how worried I was about you?”

“Miaow~” Cheese mewed sweetly, rubbing its body against Lucy.

But then, it happened.

A black cat, three times Cheese’s size, suddenly appeared.

The newcomer claimed the bowl of milk and hissed at Cheese.

An unexpected development.

“What do we do? That milk is for Cheese,” Lucy fretted.

“Just watch.”

“Shouldn’t we chase it off? It must be hard to find food in the middle of winter.”

“Cheese will win anyway.”

“Come on, no way. Cheese is such a gentle little thing. And the size difference is huge.”

As they talked, the distance between the black cat and Cheese narrowed.

“Hsss!” the black cat hissed, but Cheese didn’t flinch.

‘Oh?’

‘The little one has guts,’ the black cat’s eyes seemed to say.

Finally, the black cat made the first move.

It swiped at Cheese repeatedly, but not a single strike landed. Cheese dodged with lightning speed.

The black cat, missing every attack, began to look flustered.

That’s when Cheese made its move.

Thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap!

Like a martial artist delivering rapid strikes, Cheese unleashed a flurry of blows with its paws, pounding the black cat’s face.

The black cat’s face ended up looking like a crumpled piece of paper.

Defeated, it slinked away.

The bowl of milk was now Cheese’s alone.

“Wow! Cheese, you won? Amazing! You’re incredible!”

Lucy, who had been holding her breath, broke into a radiant smile. She picked Cheese up, spinning in place with joy.

After a moment, she set Cheese down, watching as it happily lapped at the milk.

“Now that I think about it, you mentioned you trained Cheese before. What exactly did you do?”

“There’s just… something about it,” Aiden mumbled, avoiding a direct answer.

It wasn’t Aiden who had trained Cheese—it was Mugin.

In fact, Aiden didn’t even know the details of the training.

What mattered was that Mugin had acknowledged Cheese as the “strongest cat on the continent.”

If Mugin said so, it had to be true.

Aiden had seen himself reflected in the orphaned kitten.

He, too, had lost his parents and grown up as an orphan, eventually reborn as the “greatest assassin on the continent.”

And then, he retired.

The first being he’d found any resemblance to after retiring… turned out to be a cat.

The longer you lived, the stranger the world became.

Cheese’s belly was now round and full after finishing its milk.

Instead of going to Lucy, the kitten walked over to Aiden.

Rubbing its cheeks, body, and tail against him, it flopped down at his feet, belly exposed, acting adorably.

‘If I can befriend a cat…’

Aiden realized he had made two friends already.

*  *  *

Time flowed by.

The moment of parting with Lucy approached.

In the meantime, Aiden enjoyed the peaceful routine and occasionally helped out with the tavern.

One day, Carl returned to the tavern with a robe meant specifically for magicians.

“What do you think? Wouldn’t this look great on Lucy?”

Carl thrust the robe toward Aiden, seeking his opinion.

“A farewell gift?”

“That’s right. Since she said she bought her staff herself, I figured I’d get her the robe. It’s good enough that she won’t feel out of place even among nobles, right?”

“You’ve chosen well,” Aiden said, running his fingers over the robe’s fabric.

“By the way, are you also familiar with magical items?”

“To some extent.”

Before becoming an assassin, Aiden had been a thief.

He was quite skilled at appraising items.

The robe Carl had purchased…

It had resistance to elemental magic and circuits designed to facilitate the flow of mana.

In a place like Centum, it was a high-end robe that would be hard to come by.

It seemed likely that there was a merchant dealing in luxury stolen goods operating in Centum.

“Hearing you say that puts my mind at ease. Honestly, I thought I might’ve been ripped off because it was so expensive.”

“How much did you pay?”

“Well… 15 gold coins.”

“That’s my monthly salary,” Aiden remarked.

“W-well, that’s true…”

Carl began to sweat nervously.

“I’m not mocking you. You paid a fair price for it. That merchant seems to have some integrity.”

“It’s a shop at the end of the market street. It looks like it opened recently. I might become a regular customer.”

Aiden mentally noted the shop Carl mentioned.

He was curious enough to check it out later.

After their conversation ended, Carl whistled as he headed upstairs, presumably to hide the robe.

Watching Carl’s retreating figure, Aiden found himself reflecting on farewells.

Most of the goodbyes Aiden had experienced so far were due to death.

His parents…

And his fellow assassins…

They had left, never to return.

A farewell where he could see someone again was rare.

And because he could see her again, he thought a parting gift seemed like a good idea.

‘What would be a good gift for Lucy, my first friend?’ Aiden thought deeply.

*  *  *

At Centum’s southern gate.

A carriage waited.

Lucy stood beside it.

Facing her were Carl, Lyra, and Aiden.

Lucy wore the robe Carl had gifted her and held the staff she had purchased herself.

The three of them looked as if they might burst into tears at any moment.

They were helpless in the face of the imminent goodbye.

Exchanging words of encouragement and warm embraces, they began to sob, one after the other.

Soft cries filled the air.

To Aiden, it was an unfamiliar sight—something he had never witnessed in the Thieves Guild.

“Aiden, stay well. And take good care of Cheese,” Lucy said, wiping her eyes with her robe sleeve as she looked at him.

“Don’t worry. Cheese and I will be fine. I’m sure you will be too.”

“Of course, right? Both of you, stop crying. I’ll be back during the holidays anyway.”

“You’ve gotten sentimental in your old age, hm?”

“Look who’s talking. You were crying just a moment ago,” Lyra retorted.

“Here, Aiden. This is for you,” Lucy said, pulling something out of her robe pocket and handing it to him.

It was a notebook.

“I write in a journal every day, and it’s helped me a lot. You should try it too.”

“I’ll give it a shot. I have a gift for you as well,” Aiden said, handing her a piece of paper.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

Lucy unfolded the paper and gasped in surprise.

It was a portrait of herself, dressed as a grand sorceress in splendid robes.

“Wow! I didn’t know you were this good at drawing!”

“I’m decent,” Aiden replied nonchalantly.

The talent had been absorbed along with Jack’s death qi.

Why had he chosen to gift Lucy a drawing?

Once again, Aiden could only say, “Just because.”

“I infused it with mana, so it won’t fade. You don’t have to worry about it wearing out.”

“This is amazing! Thank you so much! Looking at this will cheer me up whenever I’m down.”

Lucy hugged Aiden, and he whispered something in her ear.

Startled at first, Lucy soon broke into a radiant smile.

Before long, Lucy boarded the carriage and left Centum.

Clop, clop.

The sound of hooves on the road marked the first farewell Aiden had ever experienced.
 

To be continued

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