“They keep coming, and yet, they never learn,” I said after we made sure to finish off the newly sent assassins we found when we dropped Shaghad off.
The next day, Shaghad came to the same place at the same time. Yesterday’s training was so harsh I suspected he might not come.
“You’ve got guts for a pampered prince,” I said. Not that that means we’ll go easy on you. “We’ll do the same as yesterday. Tiegel, begin.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Even though the training from yesterday was harsh, it didn’t mean Shaghad would be dramatically better in one day, so the results were the same.
“Don’t let your breathing get out of control. Always focus on keeping it steady. Your attacks will be easier to anticipate if your breathing is out of control. Those who come to kill you won’t let that opportunity slip by.”
“I understand.”
I threw pebbles at Shaghad from his blind spots as he fought Tiegel. When one hit its mark on his temple, his attention shifted away from Tiegel for just a moment, and Tiegel took advantage of that.
“Agh!”
Tiegel landed a kick in Shaghad’s gut. Quite hard, too. Shaghad flew backward to slam to the ground back first.
Tiegel…you really are merciless.
“Don’t be overly reliant on your sense of vision. You don’t know where an attack will come from. Pay attention to the signs of others at all times. Your enemy won’t always be in front of you, and they won’t always be so kind as to show themselves. And it won’t be so easy to tell they’re going to attack you like in training.”
I moved towards Shaghad as he stood, walking naturally like someone just passing by. Just as I was about to walk past him, I put a dagger to his throat.
“Urk.”
“This is a real assassination. Killers pretend to be harmless passersby to get close, and then they kill. Assassins won’t always be adults, either.”
“What?”
“There are child assassins of a tender age. You find it hard to believe? It’s not uncommon. The penniless, abandoned children have no other way to survive. But you’ll still have to make a decision to survive. Do not have mercy. Your death is certain the moment you do.”
I put my dagger away and moved to where I had a good view of their fight.
“Prince Shaghad, you are not aiming to defeat; you are aiming to kill. And what stands in front of you is not an enemy; it is a human being. You survive by killing people. That is victory in a real fight. If you want to live, you kill. If you don’t want to die, then don’t hesitate. Kill and live. That is the path you’ve chosen.”
It was the decision you made when you asked me to teach you to survive.
“Be prepared to kill. Be prepared to survive. Cowards who aren’t ready to do that die a pitiful and disgraceful death. Now, again.”
Shaghad fought Tiegel again. His movements were stiffer than before. Maybe what I said troubled him.
It was true, though. Realizing it only in your first real fight was too late. If you did learn it in your first fight, you couldn’t make decisions as you would normally because you would feel shaken and hesitant. That was basically asking for your opponent to kill you.
Assassins do not hesitate. It doesn’t matter if they’re dealing with an adult, a child, or even a baby. If you’re told to kill them, you do. It isn’t about being good or evil. It’s just that you’ll die if you fail your mission.
If you didn’t kill your target, the organization would kill you. Failure was not an option.
“Do not hesitate. Go with intent to kill.”
“Urgh.”
Even though his movements were stiff, and he couldn’t hide that my words had shaken him, he didn’t stop fighting. He stood against Tiegel time and time again, lost each time, and ended up covered in bruises and scrapes.
His face and clothes were coated in dirt, but he still kept standing because he would die if he didn’t.
After spending days and days at it, Shaghad got to a point where, even though you couldn’t say he fought as Tiegel’s equal, he could stand against him for a long time.
“Let’s move on to the next training type. You’ll work on honing your ability to detect others. I’m going to blindfold you with this.” I wrapped a black cloth around his head, blocking his vision. “Travel to the base of the mountain like this. Once you can reach the bottom smoothly, we’ll move on.”
Tiegel and I hid ourselves and followed him to make sure nothing unexpected happened, but we did nothing but watch as long as his life wasn’t in danger.
The number of Shaghad’s wounds grew as he stumbled on rocks, fell, and ran face-first into branches. It took him three hours to descend the mountain we used as his training grounds.
“Starting tomorrow, you’ll go up the mountain blindfolded as well, then back down. You’ll continue to repeat that. Once you reach our training spot, you’ll fight Tiegel. I’ll leave you to find time for sleep.”
“…Yes, Selena.”
Losing your vision causes significant stress. A mere road inflicts terror, fraying your nerves. Shaghad would be drained, but we’d be in trouble if that was enough to make him give in.
No matter how tired you are, you can’t rest during a real fight.
You can’t survive if you don’t hone your nerves under every possible situation, making yourself capable of handling any attack. Assassins are killing professionals. Concealing themselves is the most basic of basics. All the assassins sent after him so far have been third-rate, but there’s no telling when a skilled one might come, and he could not handle that.
He needs to improve his endurance, focus, and perception of hidden threats. Then, he’ll be able to handle any situation. That’s what this training is for.