The Return Of The Exiled Villain-Chapter 173: Seven Stars Ball (VIII)

Thud!

"Useless."

Gray threw the assassin’s body onto the ground and straightened up.

He then brushed the dust from his clothes as if the fight had been nothing more than a minor problem.

Only then did he lift his gaze toward the king’s side, just to see Gloria pulling out a chessboard from seemingly nowhere and placing it calmly on a nearby table.

Then her fingers moved, lifting a white piece and putting it forward.

And just as she did that, one of the black pieces slid across the board on its own.

Then another.

They didn’t move randomly. Every piece moved exactly where she wanted it to go, as if the board itself obeyed her will.

And with that... she easily won the game of chess.

Gray’s eyes narrowed slightly.

This... was quite an interesting weapon.

’A chessboard... huh?’

As he watched the pieces reposition themselves with perfect precision, a thought clicked into place.

’So that’s why the Gloria City has a strange-looking structure...’

It seems that Gloria City wasn’t built randomly.

One time, Gray decided to relax under the view of the biggest building in the city, and with that, he saw the entire city.

From above, he noticed that the entire city followed a strict eight-by-eight structure, districts aligned like squares, roads cutting clean lines between them, each sector positioned with deliberate balance and spacing.

...Just like a chessboard.

And at its center stood the academy.

’The academy isn’t just part of the board...’

It was the Queen.

The most versatile piece. The one that controlled the largest range, and the one that decided the flow of the entire game.

’...So that’s why she values the academy that much, huh.’

For her, students weren’t just students; they were queens in the making, practically weapons that could move freely, strike anywhere, and overturn entire situations with a single action.

Gray’s gaze drifted lazily until it landed on a bottle of red wine resting neatly on a nearby table. He picked it up, poured himself a glass, and paused for a moment.

Strangely enough, neither the table nor the glasses had suffered even a scratch.

"Mhm..."

He took a small sip, rolling the liquid across his tongue before lightly twirling the glass.

"How bland..."

He looked at the window where the fifteen assassins had run, presumably being killed by Gloria, as he had felt the waves of mana coming out from the chessboard.

Gray didn’t need confirmation.

Gloria wouldn’t let pieces leave the board once they were already in play.

Clink...

He set the glass down neatly.

’...I’ll go grab the gourd by myself, there’s no point in wasting a Swap Mark in an item whose owner is dead.’

Thinking of this, Gray slighly turned his head, just to see both Alina and Evelyn looking at him with a seemingly interested gaze.

Gray ignored them before stepping onto the windowsill and jumping.

"[✧Swap✧]"

Before he could fall into the ground, he exchanged places with a rock several meters away and landed cleanly before starting to walk towards the place where the gourd was.

He could feel the Swap Mark’s presence, so he knew the exact position of the gourd.

It took him a little more than five minutes to get there, and when he arrived, he saw the bloody body of the leader.

It was practically squashed with his intestines even gurgling out of his body.

However... Gray was sure that he wasn’t dead.

After all, he had experienced a unique ability from these assassins...

The Shadow Exchange.

From what he saw, it was like some forced substitution of death, one that burned through a massive amount of energy to grant the user a second life.

Most would call it a miracle.

Gray called it convenient.

He pressed his foot down on the man’s shattered ribs.

Crack.

The assassin’s eyes snapped open, his body convulsing violently as blood spilled from his mouth.

"A–Agh!"

Gray crouched lower and grabbed his jaw before he could react.

"No."

With two fingers, Gray forced his mouth open wider, ignoring the desperate resistance. His eyes flicked to the man’s teeth.

There.

A faint carving along the molar.

Gray didn’t hesitate.

Crunch.

The tooth was ripped free.

The assassin screamed, body thrashing weakly as blood poured down his chin. Gray tossed the tooth aside, the small poison capsule inside shattering harmlessly on the stone.

’...Mhm, is there anything more that I should be careful about?’ Gray pondered as his eyes drifted to the assassin’s tongue, twitching faintly inside his mouth.

For a moment, Gray genuinely considered cutting it out. Tongues were useful tools for suicide, after all.

But then he shook the thought away.

He crouched lower, bringing himself into the assassin’s field of vision.

The man was shaking now, breath coming in broken gasps, eyes wide and unfocused. The ability Shadow Exchange had saved his life, but only barely.

His body was unstable, exhausted, and painfully aware that it should already be dead.

Gray tilted his head slightly.

"The other one didn’t answer," he said calmly.

"So you will."

The assassin tried to shake his head.

Gray reached up and pulled a thin, dark needle from his hair. It slid free silently, no thicker than a strand of wire, its tip catching the light faintly.

The assassin froze.

"N-no, no, wait!!!"

Gray slowly grabbed his hand, not rushing at all.

He straightened one finger carefully, pressing it flat against the stone. Then he placed the needle against the edge of the nail.

"ARGHHHHHH!"

The assassin screamed before the pain even came.

Gray pushed the needle...

Trickle...

Slowly.

The needle slid beneath the nail with agonizing precision, separating it from the flesh millimeter by millimeter.

"GUAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHH! S-STOP, PLEASEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

The scream that followed was raw and animal, ripping straight out of the assassin’s throat as his body arched violently against the ground.

Gray didn’t stop despite his screaming words.

And just when the scream broke into hoarse sobbing, he twisted the needle slightly.

The man convulsed.

"T–TALK!!! I’LL TALK!!! I-I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING I KNOW!!!"

Gray pulled the needle out just as slowly as he had inserted it.

Drip...

Blood welled immediately, and seeing this, Gray wiped the needle clean on the assassin’s sleeve and moved to the next finger.

"Where does the Shadow Order get its poison?" he asked.

"T-that... I-I... sniff, I-I d-don’t know! I SWEAR!"" The assassin sobbed, words tumbling out uselessly, panic overwhelming sense.

Hearing his words, Gray pressed the needle under the second nail.

"FUYAAARGHHHHAG!"

The sound that came out of the assassin this time barely resembled a human voice.

And as if to mock him, Gray counted his breaths.

"Three."

"Four."

"Five."

He applied pressure again.

"Answer," he said quietly.

"THE P-PLANT! It’s a p-plant!!!"

Gray paused at his words.

He withdrew the needle slightly, but not fully.

"What plant?"

"B–BLOODPETAL VEINLEAF!" the assassin screamed. "It grows in the north... t-the nort f-forest near G-Gloria City!"

Gray nodded lightly as he knew about this plant, but if he wasn’t wrong, it was only a mere blood-sucking flower.

He didn’t know that it had poisonous properties.

"The poison?" he prompted.

"We extract it... uhh, we drain the nectar from the core veins very slowly because if you rush it, it loses more than ninety percent of its potency!"

His voice cracked completely.

Satisfied, Gray removed the needle, but he didn’t look much impressed.

"And then?" he asked.

"We refine it, filtering it with dark mana in a total of three cycles! Only the Shadow Order knows this method!"

Gray nodded once.

’...Perfect.’

He stood up slightly, then crouched again.

"N–No, please!!"

The assassin whimpered, already shaking his head.

Trickle...

Gray slid the needle between his fingers again.

"One more thing," he added quietly.

He leaned in close enough that the assassin could see his own reflection in Gray’s eyes.

"Why did you attack the king?"

The assassin’s lips quivered violently. His jaw trembled, teeth clicking against each other as panic crushed what little resistance he had left.

"I–I... I don’t know the full reason!!!"

Hearing his words, Gray sneered slighly as he simply lowered his hand.

Trickle...!

The needle touched the third nail.

The assassin screamed.

"A-AAAAAAGH! NO-NO, WAIT!!!"

Gray inserted the needle slowly.

"Try again."

The scream tore itself raw from the assassin’s throat, breaking into choking sobs as his body thrashed helplessly against the stone.

"A CONTRACT!!!" he shrieked, voice cracking.

"A H-HIGH LEVEL S-SEAL ORDER!"

Gray increased the pressure slightly.

"Who?"

"SOMEONE PAID!!" the assassin howled, tears streaming down his face. "SOMEONE INSIDE THE CAPITAL!!"

Gray stopped.

The needle froze.

Slowly, deliberately, he lifted it away.

The sudden absence of pain made the assassin gasp uncontrollably, his chest heaving as he clung desperately to the momentary relief.

Gray’s voice was flat.

"Who?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The assassin shook violently, his entire body trembling as if seized by fever.

"I DON’T KNOW! I SWEAR!" he screamed, almost hysterical. "I WAS ONLY GIVEN THE TARGET KILL OR DESTABILIZE, THAT’S ALL, PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!!!"

His voice broke completely at the end, dissolving into ragged sobs.

"...I see."

Gray nodded lighly.

For a brief moment, the assassin dared to believe it was over.

However... that hope lasted less than a second.

Fwip!

Gray flicked his wrist, causing the needle to vanish in a sharp whistle of wind.

Drip...!

"Kugh-h..."

The assassin’s scream cut off mid-breath.

His body stiffened once, then went slack, collapsing lifelessly against the stone as his eyes lost focus.

"...Unknown, huh? The Shadow Order probably has a system that it doesn’t disclose the employers," he retrieved the needle from the assassin’s neck before wiping it gently with the handkerchief he had on his suit.

Then, he crouched down and grabbed the green gourd before throwing it into his dimensional storage and walking away.

However...

What he didn’t know was that Alina had been watching the entire time.

She looked at Gray’s back, then at the dead assassin; her expression was calm... but it was also undeniably proud.

A small smile curved her lips.

"He’s my brother indeed..."