Chapter 2 | The Assassin Learns the Family Creed
I felt someone wipe my body and wrap me in a soft blanket.
Oh yeah. The goddess said I should be careful with my vernacular to avoid making people uncomfortable. I’ll keep that in mind.
I tried to move, but I was even weaker than I’d expected.
When I opened my eyes, I found my vision extremely blurry. The world steadily came into focus.
I was in the arms of a beautiful silver-haired woman. She’d been thumping me on the back for the last few minutes in order to make me cry. I felt something welling up inside me. Abandoning myself to the impulse, I began to cry violently.
The woman held me tight.
“My precious little Lugh.”
Evidently that was to be my name.
My neck movement was still fairly restricted, so I couldn’t get a good look at my surroundings, but given the health of my mother, the quality of the blanket, and the furnishings within my field of vision, I could guess that I’d been born into a wealthy family.
Come to think of it, the language of this world should be entirely different, right? How am I able to understand it? I wondered.
With superb timing, words from the goddess echoed in my mind, saying, “This is a special gift just for today so you can get your bearings. Make sure you study hard and learn the language!”
I heard footsteps approaching, and a number of people entered the room.
“How’s the child, Esri?” one voice asked.
“He’s a healthy boy… Cian, are we going to bring this child into the clan, too?”
“This country needs House Tuatha Dé. With our skill as assassins, we are the only ones who can remove the malignant tumors that plague our land.”
“… I don’t like it. I’m terrified of losing him like we lost Ruff.”
“We’ll raise him to be strong so that doesn’t happen. We won’t repeat the same mistakes. Trust me, Esri, I don’t want to lose a second child, either.”
This man, Cian, spoke sternly in a voice that brooked no argument, but there was a tangible hint of warmth behind his words.
It sounds like Ruff was either my brother or my sister. Apparently, they’d died in the family line of work.
Even so, there were plenty of benefits to being born into a family with such a dangerous profession.
All the tricks and knowledge I gained as an assassin in my previous life were for killing the people of that world, where magic didn’t exist. The Tuatha Dé clan, on the other hand, had been operating in the world of swords and magic for generations. They’d have the know-how I needed to become an assassin here.
Noble status meant I’d enjoy all the things that came with considerable wealth, and I’d have no trouble finding enough time to train.
“Very well. I’ll abide by your decision. But know that if I lose this child, I don’t think I’ll be able to bear the pain again…”
“I swear to you, I will not let Lugh die.”
Still hugging me tight, my mother kissed my father.
Then they both leaned in to kiss me.
When I’d heard I was going to be born into a clan of assassins, I didn’t exactly expect such a wholesome family environment. My parents seemed to genuinely love me.
As far back as I could remember, I’d only ever shown affection as an act. It was merely a simple bargaining tool to help with my work.
I wondered why my parents’ affection made me feel so strange… Perhaps this was what true love felt like?
Living here may give me a chance to study the concept of love.
Assassins didn’t need love, but I knew it’d be essential if I was to live as a person and not a tool.
✦ ✦ ✦
Before I knew it, five years had passed since my reincarnation.
Learning how to read and write took a long time because of my youth. Two of those years were spent waiting for my brain to develop enough for me to be able to study at all. Still, my rate of learning was extraordinarily quick for a child my age.
As a result, my parents and the family’s servants were all beside themselves in shock at my progress. To them, I must have seemed like a prodigy. At first, I tried to slow my development so that others wouldn’t grow suspicious of me, but acting mature for my age seemed to delight those around me, so after a while, I stopped holding back.
I did make sure my speech and mannerisms matched those appropriate for a child.
I played the part of a perfect son for my parents to ensure an ideal training environment. Surprisingly, I came to truly love them over time, and I genuinely wanted to make them happy.
Around the time I turned five, the number of things I could do greatly increased.
Rapid Recovery was a boon.
My young body tired easily, but because I quickly recovered from fatigue, I could stay active for long periods of time. As my muscles continued to develop, my strength far surpassed that of others my age.
On one particular day, I found myself in the library. This great study was truly impressive, even by the standards of nobles. Collected on its shelves were innumerable records gathered by the family as well as many more volumes amassed from every corner of the world. Just about anything I could have wanted to learn was written in one of the books in that library.
“My new family has a lot more red in their ledger than I’d expected,” I muttered.
House Tuatha Dé was a noble house of the kingdom of Alvan—itself one of the four major kingdoms on the continent—and the head of the house claimed the rank of baron.
Baron was one of the lowest ranks among nobles, and as such, they didn’t hold much land. But despite that, Tuatha Dé was extremely wealthy.
On the surface, House Tuatha Dé was a respected family that possessed the best medical knowledge in the kingdom. It was well known that they’d used their superior curative methods to earn themselves great rewards and the favor of the royal family as well as many other lauded houses.
It was hidden from the public eye, however, that the Tuatha Dé clan headed a group of assassins that carried out requests for the royal family and a certain dukedom. They used murder as a tool to remove those who had become a liability for the country.
Life and death. With control over both, House Tuatha Dé had come to possess great wealth and political influence, despite their outward appearance being rather humble.
“… I have an impressive heritage. Successfully operating as a family of killers for seven generations is no small feat.”
What’s more, they had done so while holding on to a secret that would flip the country on its head if it were to ever come to light.
The kingdom would probably jump at the chance to dispose of House Tuatha Dé if it meant the public would never learn of the arrangement it shared with the royal family. It was likely that the Tuatha Dé lineage held secrets that prevented such a thing from happening.
“All right, that seems like enough for today.” Right as I closed the book, there was a knock at the door.
“Master Lugh, my lord wishes to see you,” someone called.
That time already, is it? I thought.
From early childhood, members of the Tuatha Dé clan were given training comprised of magical drills as well as regular physical exercise adjusted for one’s current strength. It was a very efficient training regimen.
However, once you turned five, the real training began, and the difficulty was upped significantly. I did my best to learn what I could from my father. As the head of the clan, he was as good a teacher as I could’ve asked for.