Chapter 1: The Assassin and the Knight
“Hu…”
Evelia exhaled a breath of cold air and rubbed her frostbitten nose.
Though winter had long passed and spring had arrived, this unseasonable cold could take a person’s life.
She gathered her pink long hair; the sensation of it blowing in the cold wind was unpleasant, but if she wrapped it around her neck, her long hair became the warmest of furs.
Evelia Kroyer, this was her name now. As for what she was called in the past, there is no way to verify it, because since she became “Evelia Kroyer,” her former name was completely abandoned, and no records exist to uncover who she truly was.
Moreover, who could have imagined that this lovely girl with pink hair was just days ago a young man? Now, she had to start from scratch with nothing.
That nameless young man was an assassin in the “Nightingale House.”
The “Nightingale House” sounds cute and warm because it was originally a welfare center established by the church of the royal city, with a history of about two to three hundred years. It served as a legitimate institution for taking in homeless children, but ever since the Second Prince’s faction took over the welfare institution, everything changed, gradually transforming into an organization that trained street children to become assassins.
Now the emperor had not yet passed away, but he was old and sick, spending his days in the palace. He had two children, the First Prince “Solor Kleia” and the Second Prince “Eric Kleia.”
By standing in line, the current First Prince takes the place of his father in governing the court, but he has never received an emperor’s decree to become the new emperor. Therefore, currently, the politicians of the entire country are divided into two factions, one supporting the First Prince and the other supporting the Second Prince. Their open and covert struggles have lasted for about five to six years.
Evelia was previously under the command of the Second Prince, an unadulterated elite assassin. Her resume was impressively pristine; since she was trained as an assassin, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she had never failed. Countless politicians and “unnecessary” witnesses had died at her hands, and in the royal city, her stories were even written into various mysterious novels, making her a figure akin to an idol in the assassination industry.
Except for the Second Prince, no one else knew her real name, and no one knew what she looked like. Her titles multiplied one after another, yet no one knew who she was.
As for now, she was Evelia Kroyer, and the role she had to play was that of an ordinary maid.
Since she could remember, Evelia had been in the “Nightingale House,” just like everyone else there, a forgotten orphan.
It was rumored that during that time she was weak due to malnutrition, her dark hair shimmering red under sunlight, which led the public to often call her “Scarlet Crow.”
She was the most capable assassin under the Second Prince and the most successfully trained one. She rarely had any concept of “right or wrong” and could be said to have a very weak “self-awareness.” She blindly obeyed the Second Prince’s orders, to the point where without his commands, she couldn’t function normally; even a single phrase like “you don’t need to do anything” seemed much better to her than receiving no orders at all. She had to do something for the command; otherwise, even breathing would become difficult.
Because of this, she readily discarded her past to become “Evelia,” abandoning her name, appearance, and even her gender. Under the Second Prince, she didn’t need to have will or dignity at all.
Her ultimate goal this time was to eliminate the First Prince, after all, no matter how much politicians bickered, nothing could compare to the direct assassination of the First Prince. As long as the First Prince was dead and all subsequent matters were arranged clearly, the Second Prince could ascend the throne legitimately.
However, assassinating him directly was surely impractical; even Evelia, the top assassin, couldn’t guarantee a hundred percent success. Such things couldn’t be rushed and had to seep in slowly while being close to him.
Thus, the Second Prince set his sights on the captain of the royal knight order beside the First Prince. If Evelia was the most loyal dog of the Second Prince, then that knight captain was certainly the sharpest blade next to the First Prince.
Alman Systaria, the captain of the royal knight order directly under the First Prince, achieved great military exploits at a young age and was a favored figure in the royal family.
He was exceptionally handsome, with clean-cut black short hair that appeared much steadier compared to those with colorful styles. His clear blue eyes shone like a lake, making it hard to believe that such a gentle man held military power.
Though outstanding in appearance and strength, he seemed to have mixed reviews in the social circles.
Some ladies were smitten with him due to his looks and his position as captain of the knight order, but their fathers did not approve of him.
Because this guy Alman, as rumored, was a complete muscle-bound dimwit.
People often say the best man is one who can be both scholarly and martial, but Alman was seriously unbalanced in his abilities. He was an incredible military general, leading troops into battle without ever facing defeat. His military record was not much inferior to that of the “Scarlet Crow,” but when it came to “scholarship,” he fell somewhat short.
Everyone said he was a carefree guy, frequently appearing casually in some tavern on the street, drinking the cheapest watered-down beer among commoners. When passing by street vendors, he would always listen to their shouts to buy some random useless things and even believed in the words of fortune tellers, ending up with some strange “blessing trinkets.”
He did not like reading or appreciating literary works and despised the various poems sung by the nobility, as if he were allergic to romance, even reciting love poems like they were nursery rhymes.
At balls, where etiquette was crucial, he never cared about others’ gazes, drinking champagne brazenly, rejecting ladies’ invitations to stand alone by the window, and if he felt like it, he would sit on the windowsill’s arm, drinking heavily while gazing at the moon. Oftentimes, he would suddenly flip over and leap out the window without a word, riding home on the horse that pulled the carriage instead of using the carriage itself.
Thus, most people’s evaluations of him were: “He is a good general, a good warrior, but absolutely do not harbor any feelings for him because he cannot be a good husband.”
Of course, he had his good points. Though carefree, he was just playful. He had never been to the kind of places where flowers and spring wind mingled; for him, raising a horse was more interesting than keeping a woman. He had always openly refused any matchmaking hints from other noble families, even circulating rumors in the noble circle that “he can’t perform.”
This knight captain was Evelia’s target. The maid she transformed into was Alman’s maid.
With great military exploits, the royal family naturally rewarded him. He had just returned from the battlefield and, feeling too exhausted to move, temporarily resided in the private house where the First Prince had moved before entering the palace. During this time, the royal family awarded him a manor, and today he was moving into his new house with his old servant, and Evelia would take the opportunity to blend in, becoming the maid for this one-track-minded captain under the guise of “royal recommendation.”
What she needed to do was to dig up everything about the First Prince from Alman. If necessary, she could seduce this knight to become his confidante, after which she could eliminate this knight and then the First Prince once everything was prepared.
“…Hu.”
After a long time, the wind was still very cold.
Evelia pulled up her collar and walked toward her target.
