The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

What happens when a human being, born as one, is denied humanity?

They get banished from society, become an outcast, and are unrecognized by anyone.

Just as a group of frail individuals form a community, establish order, and set laws.

To remain part of that human collective, one has to abide by such rules.

If you break them?

It’s simple; you cease to be human.

Look at those guilty of gravest crimes like murder, rape, and assault.

Do we treat them as human beings?

They are not included in the same category precisely because they have committed inhumane acts not befitting of a human being.

As trivial as it might seem, being denied your very essence is a terrifying ordeal.

And who knows what those cast aside may become later on…

Anyway, why am I bringing this up?

Because among those esteemed beings, the gods, there are those who have been cast out in the same manner.

Even amongst gods, one who was no longer recognized as a deity was banished from the divine realm.

The forsaken god of the black mist, Aer.

Such measures among the gods were equally applied to humans, their creations.

We are not to follow the god of black mist.

Though no one has explicitly taught us, it’s like a taboo engraved in our heads at birth.

This notion has been passed down through human societies for a long time.

But as human hearts are not consistent, such notions could not last forever.

One day, when the black mist was first witnessed across the continent,

There emerged those who opposed the longstanding notion of the gods, later referred to as the ‘Acolytes of the Mist.’

For the first time as humans, they acknowledged and followed Aer as their god, even denying the other deities.

However, the price for denying the divine order was steep.

Those holding onto the old notions deemed them negative entities that should not exist in this world, advocating only banishment and extermination as the answer.

In other words, denial of their humanity.

Thus, the Acolytes of the Mist were thoroughly ostracized by their fellow humans, eventually annihilated, and the few survivors regrouped to form an organization known as ‘Mist.’

Having experienced such ostracism once, they no longer held any naïve mercy.

Their ambition was to defy the order of a world centered around light, exposing the vile side of humanity that hid beneath the surface, with assassination as their primary means.

Their targets were mainly the unexposed upper echelons of the human world who had committed heinous acts.

However, due to their extreme brutality, they were not well-regarded even amongst the common populace.

In the end, they were treated as having denied their own human essence, similar to the entity they worshiped and this has continued to this day.

Now, why do I know this story?

Because I used to be an assassin affiliated with Mist.

The well-known end of Mist was supposedly due to the purification forces, led by the ‘Knights of Light,’ but this is merely a distortion of the truth.

They weren’t purged; they merely vanished of their own accord.

They say it’s to await the day when the successor inheriting the god’s power appears, but frankly, that’s nonsense, and it was more due to the capricious whim of that foolish god.

Nonetheless, the main reason I’m headed to the academy is also to make contact with Mist once again.

But could it be that they have already begun their activities without me?

Unless that accursed god has played another caprice, it should be impossible.

I calmly surveyed my surroundings.

Like the shadow cast by bright sculptures, even flourishing cities have their dark sides, without exception.

Roads streaked in all directions, with densely packed buildings rising high. At intervals, luxurious buildings guarded by armed escorts, mostly mercenaries rather than formally trained knights if their looks were anything to go by.

An atmosphere devoid of warmth, nothing short of austere.

[Have you come hunting humans instead of beasts?]

Kaeram, who had materialized at some point, pinched my cheeks as she spoke.

“I just want to see something with my own eyes.”

[That Mist or Meatball or whatever? Does that Aer guy have some kind of fetish? Does he, being a god, wish to have a group of followers to pander to?]

Despite being a magic sword imbued with powers associated with Mist, Kaeram surprisingly didn’t know anything about it.

Even though she is a magic sword that inherited the power of the Mist, she had been in a deep sleep for hundreds of years, as we all know.

During the few decades when the organization was a frequent topic of conversation among humans, there was no way she could have known.

On top of that, she didn’t particularly care for that foolish god who could be seen as her father.

[What’s the point of looking for a needle in a sand dune? Even if they exist, how do you plan to find them?]

“It’s nothing major. Just like casting bait to catch fish.”

I entered a deep alleyway where not even the guards seemed to patrol.

It was so empty that not even an ant could be seen, a perfect place for a secret murder.

After finding an adequate spot, I sat down cross-legged and, with a slight movement, gently released the essence of the black mist that was submerged within me.

-Whooosh

The dense congregation of mist filled the desolate alleyway.

If an ordinary person lacking courage passed by, they would certainly flee without looking back.

An assassin’s duty is to leave no trace, but followers of the black mist are different.

Whenever they had been, there would always be a heavy, unnatural black mist, as if leaving a mark of proof of their presence.

Now, if any of you are really hiding in this city, you surely can’t ignore the scent I’m emitting.

Come and see for yourself, to confirm my existence!

After all, I too need to verify whether you are indeed those I seek!

“……”

However, as mentioned before, if there’s no one in this city to smell it, then this black mist is nothing more than pollution.

After holding my position for 30 minutes, the only thing that showed up was the damp evening breeze.

Eventually, I even started to feel ashamed of what I was doing.

[Our master, are you playing the game of being a lame statue again?]

Kaeram mocked my futile endeavor.

Yeah, I’ve waited long enough to see that not even an ant has shown up, which means there’s no one here, at least not in this city.

Come to think of it, why bother with this when I could simply head back to headquarters and wake up that bonehead god to ask him?

Should’ve opted for the most certain method instead of playing blind for so long.

I dusted off my clothes as I stood up.

-Swish, swish

Just as I was about to shake off the mist and head back to my lodging, an odd noise came from the far end of the alley.

It sounded as if something was being dragged with difficulty.

I immediately tuned in to the direction from which the noise came.

-Clomp, clomp

The noise of footsteps was interspersed with someone else’s presence.

There seemed to be only one person, but the air suggested more than just a singular presence.

Moreover…

[Do you smell blood?]

As if she had caught a whiff of a fine perfume, Kaeram smacked her lips with relish.

A putrid scent of blood was mixed in among the intensifying signs of activity.

Was my 30 minutes of playing statue not in vain after all?

I couldn’t help but grin widely.

“……?”

In the midst of eager anticipation, the approaching footsteps suddenly came to a halt.

-Rustle, rustle!

At first, I thought they had stopped but then I heard the sounds of frantic running, fading away.

The problem was that they weren’t coming towards me, but running further away.

In other words, they were fleeing from me.

[Are they running away?]

“This is madness.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, I dashed from my spot.

I’d put out bait and waited, only to be smelled and fled from?

It was clear that the presence within the mist and not the mist itself had spooked the stranger into running.

Carving my way through the mist, I turned the corner on the left, and finally laid eyes on the back of the fleeing figure.

-Thud!

No thoughts necessary—seizing him by the neck and smashing him to the ground was instantaneous.

“Choke!”

The figure I had subdued gasped painfully as I gripped him tight.

My heart racing, I quickly scanned his entirety.

Roughly 170 cm tall, approximately 70 kg in weight.

His face was hidden by a black mask, but judging by the wrinkles felt around his tightly gripped neck and his voice, I reckoned him to be a middle-aged man.

He held a bloodstained wooden club in his outstretched right hand.

Next to his wandering left hand was a large sack, easy to fit a person inside.

Judging by the bloodstains seen through the yellow fabric, it was clear where the scent of blood had originated.

“Argh!”

The bloodstained wooden club took flight.

He had clumsily reached for the club and swung it at me in desperation.

Yet, with my hand still tightly around his neck, he was far from reaching me.

I tightened my grip on his neck even more.

“Crack…!”

The strain on his vocal cords and the suffocating pain caused him to lose his bearings.

It was only when he was on the verge of fainting from the cold that I finally let go.

[Is this chap really a follower of that dimwit deity?]

Kaeram was checking if the man was still alive by poking his head with a finger.

A black mask, a bloodied wooden club, a sack that had not been checked but likely contained a person—seemingly all the right elements, but…

Something felt off. Too crude.

“Please…”

Finally catching his breath, he squawked a hoarse voice.

“Please, spare me…!”

A desperate plea for life made me sigh inadvertently.

A fraud.

He was merely a shoddy imitator of the real thing.

The true Mist, the assassins who shook the continent, would never grovel pathetically for their lives.

To real members of Mist, this would be an unforgivable display of pettiness.

This man was not part of Mist.

-Squirm

Suddenly, the yellow sack next to me writhed.

“Urgh…”

A sickening groan followed.

Judging by his coarse, deep voice, it seemed unlikely to contain a beautiful damsel.

Out of curiosity, I decided to unravel the sack.

Hmm…

What I found was a bald, potbellied middle-aged man.

Though unfamiliar to me, the man’s upscale attire suggested he might be a wealthy noble.

His forehead was bloody from a blunt impact, possibly hit to knock out rather than kill, likely abducted afterward…

A waste of effort.

Here to look for Mist, I’d stumbled into a crime scene.

Wouldn’t getting involved in this cause me nothing but trouble…?

“That man, he mustn’t go…”

The man behind the mask struggled to point a feeble finger toward the sack with a look of poignant distress.

Almost enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I resealed the sack and handed it back to him.

“……?”

Puzzlement flickered behind the mask.

“Don’t drag that thing around if you don’t want to be torn limb from limb.”

“……Excuse me?”

“If it had been someone other than me, you’d be dead by now.”

As the mist dissipated, I left the stupefied man lying there dumbfounded, as I casually departed the scene.

(To be continued)