“Hah!” Rhode jolted upright in bed like a zombie.

“Morning, Rhode...” Shilo had only just gotten up himself. He got startled by his brother, but still greeted him properly.

“Morning, Shilo.” With dark circles under his eyes, Rhode returned the greeting.

Was last night a dream?

It really did feel like he’d had a great chat with some weird guy.

“No. It wasn’t a dream.” Rhode put on a thoughtful look, then jumped out of bed and walked to the balcony.

If it had been a dream, the memory wouldn’t be this clear. Who could remember an entire dream so completely? Rhode knew he couldn’t.

He crouched down and wiped a finger across the floor. Sure enough, something besides dust stuck to his fingertip.

Then Rhode, in a truly suicidal move, took a hard sniff.

This stuff was strong. He almost passed out and fell back asleep on the spot. What kind of anesthetic was this...?

“What a psycho.” After waking up a little more, Rhode muttered in disgust.

That man had scattered the powder and didn’t even bother cleaning up after himself. That assassin was way too sloppy.

And Rhode himself had some nerve too. Last night, he’d actually stayed that calm while chatting with the guy.

Right next to Shilo, no less.

“Rhode, what are you doing?”

“Nothing. Playing a game,” Rhode said casually. What, was he supposed to tell Shilo he’d had a great conversation with an assassin?

And right beside him, too.

“A game?” Shilo’s eyes widened. First thing in the morning, was his brother already entertaining himself again?

“Yeah, yeah. Playing detective. Once you’re done washing up, hurry over to your swordsmanship teacher.”

“What about you?”

“I’m definitely going too.”

“Oh, okay.” Shilo answered a few times, still sounding confused.

So before that, what exactly was his brother trying to do? Even when Shilo left, his face was still full of bewilderment.

---

As the two brothers got up like usual, things on the other side were anything but routine.

A square box had been placed in front of Doraf.

Doraf was the father of Shilo and Rhode.

After the box opened, it projected an image.

“The hunt is about to begin.”

In the image, a man dressed all in black spoke briefly to the assassins around him.

There were assassins everywhere, as numerous as a black tide. They surrounded the mysterious man and nodded in unison.

Not three or four.

Not even ten.

There were far more than that.

Their target was the same.

Shilo Carasco, only ten years old.

The current emperor of Vankarel had many children. It wasn’t as if he had no sons.

And yet, this emperor was strange.

He intended to search for an heir among those bearing the surname Carasco outside the royal family.

Of course, Vankarel itself did allow this kind of succession. Still, some people were confused. They couldn’t understand why such a system even existed.

Besides his direct descendants, the emperor had also designated certain people surnamed Carasco as heirs.

The royal family thought the emperor had gone mad. And it wasn’t just them. Many others also felt this choice was far too abnormal.

To be honest, Doraf thought the emperor had gone mad too...

But so what?

Not only did he not oppose it, he strongly supported it.

Because Shilo was one of the candidates as well.

A ten-year-old child being selected as a candidate was truly baffling.

Unfortunately, no matter how unreasonable it seemed, once a struggle for the throne was involved, it was bound to become a bloody storm of war.

After all, this was Vankarel, the greatest empire of mankind.

The power held by that throne was beyond measure.

And so, Shilo naturally became a thorn in certain people’s eyes. They were willing to take the risk just to erase him.

Perhaps the rest of his life would become bloody and full of hardship as well.

On the surface, none of this seemed to be known. Doraf’s family still operated as usual.

But had they really noticed nothing?

Of course not.

Doraf had long understood that Shilo would be targeted by people with ill intent, and he had been deeply anxious about it.

But he hadn’t expected His Majesty’s side to provide some assistance to their family.

It might have been called “some,” but it was help from the emperor himself. The person before him was support powerful enough.

“You saw it, didn’t you? You don’t have much time.”

A figure shrouded in shadow spoke to Doraf in a hoarse voice.

That square box had been tossed over by the shadowed person.

“What am I supposed to do?” Doraf scratched at his hair.

Was he supposed to tell the family that an invasion of assassins was about to break out here? That would only spread fear.

Up to now, he was the only one in the entire family who knew about this.

“In truth, you don’t need to do much. You only need to cooperate with us that night,” the person said unhurriedly.

“Our assassins will complete the task properly. We only hope your people won’t accidentally hit ours when the time comes.”

Doraf didn’t need to worry. These assassins would carry out their duty well.

“Are you His Majesty’s subordinates?” Doraf asked after a long silence.

“Of course not. We serve no one.”

That hoarse voice echoed by Doraf’s ear like a ghost.

“We’re just a very ‘normal’ group of assassins. We merely accepted a commission.”

“Just as someone accepted the commission to assassinate your son, we accepted the commission to play the oriole.”

They weren’t really here to “protect” Shilo. For assassins, protecting someone was asking a bit too much.

“You only need to think about how to reduce the losses.”

That ghostlike voice kept drifting farther away.

“Well then, Lord Doraf, I wish you a good night’s sleep tonight.”

With that, the blurry figure vanished completely.

By the time Doraf came back to his senses, the square box in front of him had disappeared at some unknown point as well.

“A good night’s sleep... What an ironic thing to say.” Doraf let out a cold snort.