As I tried to defend myself, I heard another footstep a short distance away—Marius. Was he hesitating to face the presence in front of him? I knew that it was difficult to blindly swing a weapon around here. No, his aim is probably...
There was a loud whoosh as he slashed open the curtains and let light pour inside. My eyes, which had been straining to get used to the dark, were now blinded by the light. But now, I can finally see who I’m up against...
“Huh? Why?!” my assailant cried, the first to speak up.
I realized that she wore an off-white shirt, but her vest and pants were black, allowing her to melt into the darkness very well. But that face... That voice... They were familiar.
I could hardly believe it.
“Miss...Juliet?” I asked.
“Yessir, that’s me.” Her voice sounded no less casual than it usually did.
Though we were pointing our blades at each other with intent to harm, I’d managed to reunite with a former client.
“Seriously...why?” Juliet wondered. “Eizo, you’re not a bad person at all. I know that for a fact.”
I stared back at her, puzzled at her words. She lowered her karambit (that Rike and I had custom-made) and shifted around awkwardly. I followed suit and let my arm drop to my side, but I kept my knife unsheathed, just in case. Juliet once again shoved her hand into her pocket. Is she trying to take out another weapon? To drink some poison? I braced myself, ready to pounce if she tried anything funny.
Chirp! A tweeting, birdlike sound filled the room. She quickly removed her hand from her pocket.
I noticed Marius slowly approaching her from behind, but I used my hand to call him off. Juliet mentioned that she only takes jobs against bad people, and judging from her reaction earlier, I don’t think she was lying. Is this a request gone wrong? Or did her client lie to her? I was the victim in this clash, but if she meant no ill will, I didn’t want to force her to do anything.
First things first—let’s talk it out.
“Why don’t we all take a breath and calm down?” I offered.
“S-Sure,” Juliet stammered. “But... But...”
I hoped to get a few answers once she caught her breath, but she was still clearly confused by her own situation. I don’t think she’ll calm down anytime soon. Maybe I’ll call for someone...
Just then, the door quietly began to open once again.
“Marius! The door!” I shot him as loud a warning as I felt I could, given the circumstances.
He jumped away from the door. If a servant was coming to check up on us, that was all fine and well, but if it was another assailant, things were about to get ugly. I raised my knife once more, ready to fight.
“Please don’t attack,” implored a voice from the doorway. “We truly don’t mean to harm you. I only rushed in here after receiving that signal from her. Clearly, this situation is different from what I thought.”
Our eyes were glued to Juliet as the shadow that peeked beyond the door spoke to us. Neither Marius nor I could hide our astonishment.
The voice sounded exactly like Juliet’s.
But our surprise only grew when the figure appeared from beyond the door for all to see.
She had the same face as Juliet too.
If someone told me that this wasn’t a doppelgänger but a monster fashioned in the exact same shape as Juliet, I would’ve believed it. But reality must be far more simple.
“Are you two...twins?” I asked.
“Bingo.” The person who looked exactly like Juliet smiled. “The name’s Romeo. I’m this kid’s older brother.”
He gave an elegant bow. The aura he gave off suggested that he belonged in a manor, and that was all the more eerie to me. I was shocked to hear that Romeo was an older brother—if Samya were here, she would’ve instantly noticed how taken aback I was. Romeo didn’t seem to mind, though. He glanced at Juliet and shook his head.
“My younger sister—and myself, of course—have troubled you greatly,” Romeo said. “I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Doing research and confirming the requests we receive is the most basic practice of our trade, and yet it seems we’ve been duped.”
“You admit your error so readily?” Marius asked.
One wrong move, and his life could’ve been lost as well. He was rightfully allowed to interject in this conversation.
“Of course,” Romeo said, turning to me. “You must be Mr. Eizo. I believe you forged her blade, and if so, you cannot possibly be an evil man. I didn’t expect my sister’s and my pride to be utilized like this. We were coerced into doing the exact opposite of what we preach.”
His face was filled with resentment, and I couldn’t blame him. If they’d been fed false information with a phony request, they could’ve hurt innocent people.
“You only take out evil people, correct?” I asked.
“Did my younger sister tell you that?” Romeo inquired.
I nodded, recalling the tidbits that Juliet had told me when I’d agreed to make her a weapon. “She did.”
“Then this explanation will be easy,” Romeo said. “We have no reason to target you. In fact, if there’s anyone we should be— Ah, apologies. This is something we should handle.”
I could sort of intuit what he’d been about to say, but I knew that it was better to feign ignorance.
“We’ll take our leave,” Romeo said.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Marius murmured, doing his best to suppress the rage in his tone. “You came for our lives. Do you think you can just merrily stroll out of here, claiming it was all a mistake? You have no right to complain if I restrain you both here. Surely, you understand that?”
I mean, I get it. An “Oopsie, I’m such a klutz!” isn’t gonna cut it here. I’d been lucky, since I had decent combat skills, but if I were less adept, this mistake could’ve ended me for good.
“We shall offer a token of apology, of course.” Romeo glanced at Juliet. “However...”
She no longer looked to be in quiet panic, but she wasn’t totally calm yet either.
“I promise we’ll return,” Romeo said. “You have my word. Would you please wait for us? We at Morgana have only one absolute rule: Only kill evil. That’s how we operate. And yet, we were fed false intel, forcing us to cast away our conviction, our pride. And for that, they must pay dearly.”
He bowed his head. When he looked back up, the fury was apparent on his face—I didn’t need Samya to point it out for me. Marius scratched his head, surely wondering if he was allowed to just let them go.
I decided to help Romeo and Juliet out.
“Well, I don’t mind, personally,” I said. “No one’s hurt, and it seems like Miss Juliet really does feel bad for what she’s done.”
While, yes, I’d almost just died, ultimately, nothing did happen. And I felt bad seeing Juliet look so baffled and lost.
“Thank you,” Romeo said, lowering his head.
If the rest of my family were here, they’d all yell at me and say that I was letting them off easy, but only Marius and I were around.
“If you say so, Eizo,” Marius said with a large sigh. He then gazed sharply at the two assassins. “But if you try anything at all...”
“Oh, we wouldn’t dream of it—I can promise you that,” Romeo replied. “And as a token of our good faith...”
He dug around in his pocket, took out an item that resembled a semicircle, then went down on one knee, offering it to Marius. The count gingerly plucked the item from Romeo’s fingers.
“This is one half of a coin,” Romeo explained. “Juliet has the other half, you see. This symbolizes our oath—we swear that we’ll visit you once more to apologize, and we will not touch you or your family until then. When we return, I ask that you return this half to us, but please keep it safe until then.”
“If you’re trying to protect us while dishing out punishment to your enemy, I presume that will take a rather long time,” Marius said.
But Romeo didn’t respond. He only cast us a solemn gaze.
The count waved his hand, signaling that the two siblings should leave. None of us had been very loud, but we hadn’t kept completely silent either—if someone grew suspicious and came to check up on us, this whole incident would be exposed.
Romeo thanked us again before he retreated with Juliet, making no noise at all—it was as though they melted away into the background, never to be seen again.
“I need to tighten the security around here,” Marius muttered, scratching his head. “Maybe when they visit us next, I’ll ask them where the weak link is.”
“What now? Should we tell the others?” I asked.
“Nah—we keep quiet about this. We can’t tell your family...or my wife...or the servants.”
“Right.”
Marius was in the same boat as I was—he wasn’t eager to get scolded by family. We exchanged a look and each flashed a faint smile.