The Only Delicacy - Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Amidst the raging storm, swift slashing and stabbing could be faintly heard, joining and singing along with the greatest choir of all time – the choir of mother nature.
When the old man saw the black-veiled assassin before him holding a knife that was a millimeter away before slashing off his neck from his whole body, the old man immediately woke up from his sleepy state, grabbed the knife from the knife board in less than a second, and ruthlessly aimed for the same place: Scarlet’s throat.
“Tsk!”
When Scarlet realized that the old man had woken up right at the last moment, Scarlet clicked her tongue and immediately backed away from the old man’s advances.
She successfully backed away. However, she barely dodged the old man’s swift and vicious counter-attack.
The black fabric covering her face was cut apart until a small portion of her right cheek was visible and red enough for drops of blood to gradually ooze out of it and flow down to the black fabric covering her neck.
Scarlet disregarded the small pain from her cheek. With elegant and lithe movements, Scarlet shifted her stance, leaped through the air, and forcefully kicked the worn-down wooden wall behind her as she lunged towards that old man and begun another set of powerful overhead swings.
This time, the old man immediately backed away and dodged to the left and right.
As he backed away, the old man clearly saw the entirety of Scarlet’s disguise.
From experiencing the assassin’s deadly agile movements first-hand, the old man realized something and laughed out hysterically, “HAHAHAHAHA!”
Right at that moment, Scarlet felt the old man’s intimidating aura changing into something darker and more dangerous. She immediately stopped her powerful set of attacks and backed away out of instinct.
Once he noticed that he was finally free from the assassin’s dominating hold of attacks, the old man stopped laughing out hysterically and then creepily smiled at Scarlet, making her feel like some goosebumps were growing at her back out of nowhere.
“So they’re sending another one of you, eh? I never thought that this ‘Master Damien’ of yours was stupid enough to keep doing this… sacrificing his minions one by one into my own hands. Didn’t he already learn his lesson?”
Scarlet flinched once she heard him say, “Master Damien.”
Her master’s name was absolutely a top secret. It was a secret to the point that only a few exceptional assassins knew of him, and one of those lucky few was herself.
Scarlet clutched her dagger more tightly and eyed that old man warily.
Was there something deeper related to this mission?
The old man disregarded her reaction and continued talking with a hint of sarcasm and sorrow, “Isn’t this master of yours already satisfied with being at the very top of the food chain? He already has everything! I am left with… nothing. Now, he even wants to take my life away from me?”
At this moment, above Scarlet’s head was a big, BIG question mark.
Scarlet diligently digested the information, but from putting together the puzzle pieces, she only thought of one possibility.
Did her master and this old man know each other in the past?
If being at the very top of the food chain meant being the leader of the assassin’s guild, and if saying that ‘her master had everything and now, he was left with nothing,’ did this mean that the old man before her had an actual history with the guild?
That he was actually the grand master before this?
Scarlet scrutinized his face to get a better look at the old man who was meters away from her.
Unfortunately, it was too dark to even do so. Even with the help of the light inside the house, which was blinking now and then due to the storm, the lighting was still very bad. Moreover, the old man was standing at a position which was against the light, she couldn’t see him clearly.
Although she couldn’t see him clearly, his voice seemed a bit familiar, like she had heard it in the past. Her instincts were telling her to come closer, but she didn’t.
No way would she risk her life to satisfy her own curiosity!
Scarlet gave up trying to discern his identity and just concentrated on the heavy feeling crouching deep within her heart.
Scarlet thought, “If my guess is correct and if this old man was really the past grand master, then why did my master send me to this kind of mission? To kill another grand master…”
Scarlet crunched down her brows as a thousand emotions flooded inside her. However, despite feeling like a whirl pool, she still stared at the old man with the same kind of poker-face and thought to herself.
This was too ‘godly’ of a mission. She was a mere apprentice, so how could she kill another person who was similar to her master’s level? This was like asking her to die! Did her master have way too high expectations for her? Or was it really like he had said?
That she was… a sacrifice…
Scarlet stopped thinking and eyed that old man out of anger. However, no matter how angry she was, she held it all back and stared at the old man’s very next move.
No… She would absolutely not accept it. No way was she a ‘sacrifice’ like the rest of them!
Even though she wasn’t close to her master, Scarlet still knew they both had some sort of connection. Because in the place of her mother, her master was the one who had trained her and had taught her how to live in this world without depending on her mother.
He was the one who had made her see the light of day.
Although that light was then followed by a lot of blood here and there, it still didn’t change the fact that he had saved her from the time when she was the weakest as a child.
Hence, no matter what nonsense this old man had said, she had always considered her master as her foster father. A person she could rely on.
Therefore, this old man’s rants were either a lie to frighten the wits out of her or a truth to inform her that she really was facing another grand master as an opponent.
However, if this really was the truth, then only one who would die right now was not her but him!
When the old man finished talking a while ago, the old man noticed that the aura of the assassin before him was growing more intimidating and deadly than before, to the point that it became very hard to breathe.
This made him think, “Not bad.. This brat actually had the skill. Once this brat grows up, he or she would definitely be an excellent assassin! Perhaps, my opponent right now was different from the rest. Sadly, this brat is going to die in my hands.”
At once, the old man’s eyes that were jolly from sarcasm changed into ones that were filled with murder and killing intent.
The old man snickered and said while laughing hysterically, “That greedy old bastard better be sorry for another loss of talent… This old man will show him who’s boss!”
At once, the old man clutched his knife tightly by a hundred folds. As he did, his wrinkly old body tightened and his muscles enlarged to the point that veins started popping out of his entire body and felt like bursting due to the pressure.
Scarlet unconsciously stepped back when she saw this inhumane change with the old man. Her heart started beating faster until she could hear it drumming in her ears.
‘How is this even possible?’ Scarlet stared at the old man out of fear…
And awe.
Aside from the thought of danger, she thought of dissecting the old man in order to figure out what he was really made of. However, when she thought back to the old man saying indirectly that he was the past grand master, then she was not anymore surprised or awestruck.
Instead, she became serious.
Her life was in the line! Anymore amazement and she would soon turn into ashes!
With blood and adrenaline rushing toward her veins, Scarlet tightly clutched her dagger and lunged towards the old man with the objective to end this once and for all!
Right when Scarlet lunged towards him, the old man was done and transformed into a frightening macho old man.
He immediately noticed Scarlet’s advances and countered her by lunging towards her with an even quicker speed and inhumane strength.
Beside the fallen big wooden cart was a boy, who had tried to stop the fight a while ago, but was now watching the thrilling action show before him as an audience.
He really wanted to shout out, “YEAHH!! Go black-chan!! Do a karate kick and kick the old man in the balls!!”
But once the boy saw the inhumane change of the old man in front of him, the boy immediately dripped with sweat, became very anxious and thought, “Oh shit! Did this old man become serious?! Not a good sign!!”
Before the boy could shout ‘Stop!’ or ‘Wait!’ again, the old man had already slashed the black fabric away from Scarlet’s face and directly aimed his knife unto Scarlet’s heart.
However, as he aimed for her heart, the old man had a close-up and clear view of the enchanting and goddess-like facial features of the assassin, since the light was shining directly above her.
At once, the old man felt huge waves of nostalgia hitting him.
He widened his eyes and softly whispered, “…Scarlet?”
Right there and then, the old man immediately tried to stop his advances, but sadly, it was too late… His body moved in a very fast pace that it was impossible for him to shift his movements at the very last minute!
Scarlet also did her best to dodge the knife that was aiming for her heart, but with the old man’s lightning speed, the knife would already plunge to her heart before she could make a move!
Scarlet’s forehead dripped in sweat and instinctively closed her eyes, thinking, “Ugh, I knew it… Grand masters were way on a different level! Just one move and I’m going to die! Did I just think that the old man was the one going to die instead of me? No, it was practically the other way around!”
As Scarlet begun to accept her fate of death, another black figure appeared in between them out of nowhere.
This black figure immediately princess carried Scarlet and accurately dodged the lightning speed thrust of the old man by leaping to a place out of the old man’s thrust.
However, the speed of the old man was too fast that even the black fabric covering the black figure’s face was slashed away.
Whoooshh!
Beneath the blinking light was a pair who had enchanting beauty like that of an immortal. With the black fabrics covering their faces gone, their beauty was now open for all to see, especially Scarlet’s small cut on her cheek.
When Sir Charles saw that his target was not dead yet, Sir Charles softened his hold and looked dotingly at her.
But when he saw the cut on her cheek, his brows furrowed, his hold on her tightened and his eyes glinted with a hint of murder as he stared right back at that old man.
Meanwhile, Scarlet was shocked and thought, “The old man’s place is very secluded, how did sensei even end up here?”
Scarlet almost forgot about her mission because of Sir Charles’ interference. But when she saw that her sensei’s brows were furrowing downwards and his eyes were revealing a hint of malicious killing intent, Scarlet immediately remembered what she was here for and went down from Sir Charles’ embrace while he was still distracted with the old man.
Feeling that his hands were empty, Sir Charles felt a bit downhearted, but he did not show it.
Instead, he looked at the girl by his side and saw the intimidating look of murder written on her eyes, which made him become fascinated once more by her bravery and beauty. He unknowingly stared at her dotingly for a second before facing the old man with the same look of murder.
This time, Sir Charles’ murderous intent was fiercer.
Everything happened too fast that the boy was simply gaping at everything with a mouth wide open. This action invited a fly to go inside his mouth, and it really did.
“Cough! Cough! Stupid fly!”
The boy coughed out loud two times before wiping his tongue out of disgust and spitting on the floor.
However, no one payed any attention to the boy as the old man’s next words shocked the both of them into place.
“Charles? Scarlet? Is that actually you?”
