There were always people who refused to understand a warning, no matter how clearly it was given.
There were always bastards who interpreted a warning that something worse would happen if they interfered as nothing more than an insolent Cleaner daring to defy them.
That night, numerous assassins infiltrated Unit 6, where Kyle was stationed.
Their employers seemed to have put some effort into the operation. They had formed a joint force composed of renowned assassins from several different assassination guilds.
The faction Kyle had attacked was not the only one funding them.
Other factions had also contributed money because they considered receiving such a warning humiliating in itself.
In truth, even the assassination guilds found it burdensome to attack the military. That was why they had accepted only under the relatively lenient condition that they merely frighten Kyle before withdrawing.
The problem was….
“Ghk!”
“Wow… They certainly put some effort into this. Every one of them can project Aura.”
Coutinho looked around with an amused expression, his sword still buried in an assassin’s throat.
Parshu had appeared as well and was already cutting down another assassin.
“The Commander said there is no need to keep any of them alive. Kill them all.”
“Yes, sir!”
The instant Korn’s voice rang out, relaying Kyle’s order, numerous voices answered him.
The massacre began.
This was a group of distinguished assassins.
Every one of them was capable of assassinating a knight alone, yet they were being killed with ease.
One assassin stared at the scene in utter disbelief.
‘How is this possible?’
Assassins specialized in stealth and murder, but they could still wield Aura.
They could even release slashes beyond the reach of their weapons or form barriers from Aura.
Then how could the difference between them be this overwhelming?
“Curious?”
The assassin flinched at Coutinho’s voice, only then realizing that he had already approached.
He swung his sword.
The blade surged with condensed Aura.
The excess Aura spilling from it had even been given a defined shape.
Perfect control over Aura.
Yet Coutinho’s sword split the weapon apart as easily as cheese before driving straight into the assassin’s body.
“W-Why…?”
The assassin could not understand how the difference between them could be so vast when Coutinho did not even appear to have awakened an Aura Attribute.
Perhaps deciding to satisfy the curiosity of a dying man, Coutinho gave him the answer.
“Aura Projection is not the end. If you refine your technique to the absolute limit, you can imitate something similar to an Attribute even without possessing one. That is what an ‘ultimate technique’ is.”
“Is that even possi—”
“It is. That is why you are dying.”
Coutinho calmly pulled out his sword.
By the time he finished off the assassins who appeared most dangerous, Unit 6 had already dealt with the rest.
“Well… It looks like one slipped past us.”
Coutinho looked behind him with an awkward expression.
Kyle emerged from the building while dragging an assassin’s corpse and threw it outside.
“Gather these bodies and pile them in front of the main gate.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Kyle’s icy order, everyone began collecting the assassins’ corpses.
“Parshu.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Take your battalion and handle something for me.”
“Should we scatter more documents concerning their corruption throughout the plaza?”
“No.”
Something like that would no longer be enough.
If they could not even understand a warning, Kyle needed to deliver a far more decisive blow.
Mere evidence of corruption could easily be buried in an empire that had already rotted this thoroughly.
He needed another method.
“We will destroy one person. Just one.”
“Only one?”
“Yes.”
If Kyle exposed everything at once, those factions might decide to destroy Unit 6 completely.
That was why he would ruin only one person.
“Should we identify whoever hired the assassins?”
“Why bother? Do not waste your time running around. Take one of our top-secret files and use it to destroy him.”
Parshu was also awaiting discharge.
Was there any reason to burden someone like him with difficult work?
Once they destroyed one person, the man’s rival faction would tear the rest apart on its own.
“Let us take it easy until our discharge.”
“Yes, sir.”
Parshu smiled and nodded.
They had already suffered for long enough.
There was no reason to continue working themselves to the bone during their final days of service.
While the assassins’ corpses were piled before the main gate, Unit 6 immediately copied one of its top-secret documents.
As expected, people were guarding the plaza in case Unit 6 attempted to post another set of corruption records.
This time, however, they moved in a different direction.
Parshu approached the mansion of a noble belonging to the Antonio Faction, one of the regional powers, and knocked on its gate.
“Who is it at this hour?”
“I have come from Special Corps Unit 6.”
“…Unit 6?”
The knight guarding the mansion had heard of Unit 6 countless times.
Realizing that something serious must have happened for them to visit this late at night, he hurried inside.
The butler soon came running out in a panic.
Without a word, Parshu handed him the envelope he had brought.
“What…is this?”
“Documents identifying the people behind the incident from two years ago. For the record, these are only copies.”
With that, Parshu quietly departed under the cover of night.
The instant he heard the words “two years ago,” the butler’s already tense expression stiffened completely.
He hurried back inside.
A few minutes later, lights began turning on throughout the mansion, and furious shouting echoed from within.
After confirming it from a distance, Parshu quietly returned to Unit 6.
“It has been delivered.”
“Good work. You worked through the night, so sleep until noon.”
Parshu’s eyes widened in surprise.
He then smiled and nodded.
Anyone who worked through the night was naturally supposed to sleep during the day.
However, they had never served in a unit where even that basic principle was respected.
‘So we are finally allowed to do that.’
The realization made Parshu understand anew just how difficult his life had been.
He left the office with a smile.
Kyle watched him go before turning toward the window.
The assassins’ corpses remained piled before the main gate.
Their bodies provided undeniable proof that Unit 6 had been attacked.
Kyle had also given the Antonio Faction, an alliance of regional nobles, copies of evidence they could use.
Unit 6 no longer needed to do anything else.
The Antonio Faction would destroy the responsible people themselves.
The Scalin Faction in the central government would also corner the nobles who had attacked Unit 6 for creating unnecessary trouble.
“If they still do not understand….”
Murderous intent entered Kyle’s eyes as he muttered.
If they still refused to understand, he would truly abandon all restraint and drag everyone down with him.
Kyle had no family.
Neither did those who had remained beside him until the very end.
Most of their families had died during the war.
Those whose families had survived had been given generous settlements and discharged long ago.
In other words, there was nothing anyone could use to restrain Kyle or the members of Unit 6.
A few nobles might be useless idiots who did nothing but occupy their positions, but the people at the very top were different.
They would understand this perfectly.
Even those who lived by corruption needed enough intelligence to survive.
The Director of the Intelligence Bureau Kyle knew, in particular, would do everything possible to prevent the chaos from spreading any further.
“I wonder what will happen….”
Kyle muttered while gazing at the black night sky.
Trouble would probably erupt before sunrise, leaving him in an awkward position as well.
“I suppose I will not be sleeping tonight.”
He took out another bottle of alcohol he had hidden away and drank while using the night sky as his only accompaniment.
Just as he had expected, commotion erupted throughout the area the moment dawn approached.
“Search everywhere! We have to find it!”
“Find everything before anyone else sees it!”
People rushed through the plaza, searching desperately for something.
They had already been thoroughly reprimanded because of Unit 6’s previous actions and were now working frantically.
However, they found nothing unusual.
At that moment, they overheard several people walking to work discussing something troublesome.
“Wait!”
The pedestrians turned toward the voice with wary expressions.
The man who had stopped them took several coins from his pocket and pressed them into their hands.
“What were you just talking about?”
“Ah… Do you mean the bodies piled outside Unit 6?”
“…Bodies?”
“I heard they were assassins who attacked Unit 6 last night.”
The man’s face turned deathly pale.
He immediately ran toward Unit 6.
By the time he reached its main gate and saw what was displayed there, a hollow laugh escaped him.
“Those lunatics….”
The assassins’ corpses had been arranged according to their respective guilds before the main gate.
How could anyone know which guild each corpse belonged to?
The members of Unit 6 had considerately placed signs identifying the assassins’ guilds in front of them.
That was not all.
Members of Unit 6 stood guard nearby.
Their message was clear.
People were free to look, but they were not permitted to touch anything.
Not long after evidence of noble corruption had been scattered throughout the plaza, numerous assassins had appeared at Unit 6.
Even people who rarely heard the latest news would now understand that the attack had been retaliation against Unit 6.
The nobles were not afraid of the public learning what they had done.
Such outrage could eventually be suppressed through force.
The problem was that Kyle remained alive.
As long as he lived, an even greater danger might still be waiting.
Naturally, the Director of the Intelligence Bureau flew into a rage when he received the report.
“Why did you provoke someone you could not handle? Why?!”
Grinnell slammed his desk with a furious expression.
It might have been different if they had successfully killed every member of Unit 6.
But they had not.
“Hah…. What is happening with the Antonio Faction?”
“They have come to the Intelligence Bureau and are demanding an explanation.”
“This is driving me insane.”
Two years ago, it had been the Intelligence Bureau that provided information to the Scalin Faction, a central political faction.
They had done so to weaken the Antonio Faction, which had been causing unrest throughout the regions.
Now that decision was about to return and strangle them.
The Antonio Faction had probably suspected the truth already.
‘But suspicion and confirmation are entirely different.’
What if undeniable evidence were placed directly before them?
They had every reason to lose control.
They would also use this opportunity to recover everything they had lost when they were pushed back two years ago.
Then where had Kyle acquired this information?
The answer was obvious.
One of the groups affiliated with the Scalin Faction had suffered an incident two years ago.
They had destroyed an entire building while supposedly incinerating its documents.
Apparently, some of those documents had not been completely burned.
True to his reputation as a Cleaner, Kyle had somehow found one that was still useful.
How many more documents like it did he possess?
“Hah… For now, we need to let that bastard leave the military peacefully.”
“Will that truly be all right?”
“Then what do you suggest? Should we create even more trouble like we did today?”
“…We could use this opportunity to eliminate him.”
The Director of the Intelligence Bureau hurled a file folder at his subordinate.
“You fucking idiot! One of his disciples is the Deputy Commander of the Eastern Command! And that is not all. Another is part of the Western Alliance’s leadership! You want to provoke a man like that?”
“…My apologies.”
“Get out!”
The subordinate hurried outside at the Director’s furious roar.
Grinnell continued breathing heavily for some time before collapsing into his chair and clutching his head.
“If only that bastard had joined the Intelligence Bureau….”
Kyle carried the disgraceful title of Cleaner, but Grinnell knew perfectly well how capable he was.
He clicked his tongue regretfully.
It was not as though the Intelligence Bureau had never tried to recruit him.
“He rejected us without the slightest hesitation.”
Grinnell clicked his tongue again as he remembered it.
To be fair, he probably would have rejected the offer as well.
Kyle knew better than anyone just how filthy the Intelligence Bureau was.
“Should I retire too?”
The Director began considering the question seriously.
He had accumulated more money than he could ever spend.
Fleeing to some neutral nation and enjoying his remaining years there might not be a bad choice.
“It is twilight.”
Grinnell muttered while gazing at the perfectly clear sky.
To his eyes, the empire’s heavens seemed to be slowly darkening, like a sky covered by the glow of sunset.
Perhaps the empire itself would survive.
However, would the important figures currently ruling it survive as well?
That seemed impossible.
Grinnell let out a quiet sigh.