The assassin known as [The Black Death] was trying very, very hard not to think about Marianne Whispwind. She knew that too much time thinking about what she could have had would only hurt her more, so she tried to put the last seven years in a box in her head and set it aside.
It wasn't working.
Everywhere she went, everything she saw, all reminded her of Verena and Dominik. In all fairness, it was really her fault. After all, she was still in the capital of the Tavanor domain, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. She loved the city of Crimson March, and it was the last piece of real happiness she had. The people, the shops, all the lovely little quirks of the city that she had come to know and love during her time serving the vampires who rule the city, she just couldn't give it up.
So she worked, and she killed, and she was always reminded of the woman who made her feel important. On the second day, after she ran, she saw Verena on the street. She knew that Verena had seen her, too. She had chased Marianne into the alley, but she had slipped into the shadows to hide from Verena. The look of frustration on the vampire's face broke her heart. Marianne was convinced that Verena really did hate her, now, and her confirmation bias was making her see what she expected. Instead of frustration at not being able to find her friend, she saw anger at letting someone escape punishment for her actions.
Days five and six, however, were the worst.
*****
On the fifth day since she returned to the life of an assassin, something had happened that she really should have foreseen.
Marianne was gliding along the street, on her way to meet another potential client. She emerged from the shadows in the alley outside the location. Realistically speaking, she could simply emerge inside the building, in the meeting room, itself. However, it was a matter of respect. She walked in the door, checked with the clerk manning the store that acted as a front for the underground operation beneath the building.
Technically speaking, the front wasn't really necessary. Count Tavanor was aware of most of the locations in this criminal network. After all, he needed assassins, too. The front was mostly for the sake of appearances. It wouldn't do for the people to see their leaders endorsing that kind of action. The Count had an understanding with these people. He allowed them to continue operating, and they didn't cause any problems for him and his family. They stayed out of each other's way, and the Count would even employ their services from time-to-time.
Marianne stepped into the back. She made her way to the usual meeting room, and she froze. It shouldn't have been anything special, but she failed to account for one simple fact. After all, Dominik Tavanor needed assassins, too.
Marianne had shut down for a moment. She just stood in the doorway, mentally panicking.
Count Tavanor simply raised one eyebrow, leaning back in his chair. "Oh? I didn't know [The Black Death] was back at work. Did you grow tired of wherever it is you disappeared to, seven years ago?"
Marianne's blood ran cold. She knew the look on his face. It was the same look he'd given her when she'd accidentally cut Verena when helping her prepare for a formal event. The same look he'd given her when he talked to her about helping Verena bathe, warning her of how bad it would go for her if she made a scene. It was the look that brought down the full weight of the man's menacing presence. Cold, calculating, and extremely dangerous.
"M-my lord! I... I don't..." She didn't know what to say. She could never read her lord. He was like a talking stone wall. His true feelings only ever came out around his family. For all she knew, he could be anything from curious, to amused, to enraged, and his face wouldn't change, in the slightest. She was truly clueless of what he was thinking, so when he slowly stood up, she immediately assumed the worst. "My lord! Please!" She panicked, and she did something she was becoming all to familiar with, the past few days.
She ran.
Dominik simply sighed, shaking his head. "What in the Nine Hells happened between those two...?"
*****
After the "harrowing" encounter of day five, Marianne desperately needed something to distract her. Day six brought the exact opposite.
It was late afternoon. She had just finished with a job she had accepted in the middle of the night, and her bracelet had alerted her to another job offer. She was quite close, only a few minutes away from the meeting place in question, so she went there to check it out.
When she walked into the room, she was incredibly grateful that she hid her face whenever working as [The Black Death]. The man sitting on the other side of the room was all too familiar to her. Baron Elias Morel, the man who managed class testing in the Eastern Province, apparently needed an assassin.
"Ah! Excellent!" He leaned forward, his nasally voice as annoying as ever. "If there's anyone who could complete this job, it would be you!"
[The Black Death] stayed calm, not betraying the slightest bit of emotion. "And what job would that be, Baron?"
Morel snarled, a look of disgust on his face. "There's someone very important who I need gone. That impossible, classless bitch is ruining my reputation, and the other nobles in the province are starting to doubt me! I need her dead, before they can bring me in for another round of useless tests."
Marianne's stomach had dropped, and she was pretty sure she knew where this was going. However, she still hoped that there was a chance she was wrong. "Who would that be, my lord?"
The Baron put a folder onto the table, and she didn't even need to open it to know who it was about. "No! Never! Absolutely not!"
Elias Morel bristled, glaring at her. "What!? What the hell are you saying!? I need this done, so why won't you do it!? You're an assassin! So assassinate!" He was fuming. His face was beet-red, and he looked like he was ready to attack her.
Marianne just turned around. "I won't do it because I don't have a death wish. I can only operate in this city because lord Tavanor allows it. If I went after his daughter, he would dismantle my entire network overnight. Take my advice, Baron. Don't fuck with the Tavanors. It will only end poorly, for you." With that, she stepped into the shadows before the man could say another word.
*****
Now, on day seven, Marianne was stepping out of the darkness in the shadow of the hideout for a gang who had made one too many enemies. She had been hired to eliminate the leader of the group. Of course, she could do a lot more than that, if she wanted. Many would probably question why she didn't. After all, every gang member left alive was a missed opportunity to further increase her stats.
However, much like with many of the decisions she made as [The Black Death], the reason was professionalism. She was an assassin, not a mass murderer. She had curated a pristine track record that had made her one of the most expensive assassins in the kingdom of Agoria. Once she accepted a job, the target would die, and only the target. That's what made her so valuable. Zero collateral damage. For an assassin, that reputation was worth more than all the stats in the world.
So she walked, unseen, through the halls of the hideout, letting the shadows of the gang members carry her through the building. She jumped from thug to thug, identifying important-looking individuals and sticking close to them. She wasn't concerned with running out of time. Between her outrageous primary stats, and multiple Passive Skills that enhanced it, she could maintain [Shadow Walk] for hours.
But she didn't need hours. It only took her twenty minutes to get to her mark. As soon as he was alone, Marianne stepped out of the darkness, behind him. He was too casual, not paying any attention to his surroundings. He likely had [Danger Sense] or another similar skill, but that simply acted in Marianne's favor. A few years into her assassin career, she had lucked upon another skill that could arguably rival [Power in Death] for how strong it could be.
[Untraceable](Passive Skill): You walk through the world as a phantom, unseen and unheard. You cannot be detected, identified, or analyzed by any skill, unless you consciously allow it.
It was so simple, but its simplicity was exactly what made it so powerful. Many people believed that long-winded skills with an entire paragraph of text were the best skills, but Marianne had noticed something. Often, all the extra text was about the costs, drawbacks, and limitations of the skill. Short skills, however, had little to no restrictions. Most concealment skills would be limited based on the level of the user, the rarity of the skills(a hidden value that nobody fully understood), the type of skills it could work on, or how intense the scrutiny was. [Untraceable] however, had none of those. It worked against any skill, and the only condition that would allow it to be bypassed was her conscious consent.
For this reason, she was even more deadly to people who had detection skill like [Danger Sense], since, much like the man before her, many used the skill like a crutch, and let it do all the heavy lifting, not paying much attention to their surroundings. After all, if there was a threat, the skill would let them know. So, eliminating the gang boss, who was so problematic and influential that a major noble had hired a [Master Assassin] to deal with him, was trivially easy.
As soon as he was dead, Marianne used another of her skills to immediately escape the hideout.
[Umbral Warp](Active Skill): Instantaneously relocate to any shadow you have been in contact with in the last twenty-four hours. Cooldown: 12 hours
She reappeared close to the location where she had received the contract. After she had escaped, she checked her system notifications, and found a pleasant surprise.
Passive Skill: [Power in Death] triggers! Dexterity increased by 1.
Level up! New Skill Point available!
Marianne grinned. It had been over seven years since she last leveled up, and to top it off, she had broken into triple digits for one of her primary stats. She immediately opened her system page to take a look at what new skills had become available to her with how much her life had changed since her last Skill Point. However, her grin died almost immediately when she saw the most notable of her new skill options.
[Oathsworn Battle Maid](Passive Skill): You have dedicated yourself to the service of a single individual. When fighting for your liege, you gain a blanket, 15% boost in strength. Additionally, your liege gains 20% of all experience you gain.(Does not decrease your own experience gain) Warning! If you ever betray your liege, you receive a permanent 15% reduction in strength, and 20% reduction to all experience gained.
Her heart dropped as she saw Verena's face in her mind's eye. A [Battle Maid] skill. One of the strongest she'd ever heard of. Anyone who served a major noble house had heard of [Battle Maid] skills. They were the epitome of dedication. Anybody who had one was valued beyond all others. Their loyalty was absolute. The penalties attached to the skill were too severe, and the dedication required to even receive the skill, in the first place, was immense.
As she stared at the system page in front of her, Marianne was finally forced to confront the truth. She hadn't run because she feared retribution. She had run because she feared losing Verena's trust. Even now, after a week back in her old life, she still cared about her mistress enough to make this skill available.
That's when she realized it. A [Battle Maid] skill required a deep connection on both sides. For that skill to appear for Marianne, Verena would need to feel just as close to her as she did to Verena.
In a single moment, the entire week was recontextualized for her. She saw the truth. Verena didn't hate her. She wanted Marianne back, just as much as Marianne wanted to return. She had made assumption after assumption, and she had almost truly lost the only home she'd ever had, all because of her own foolishness. She was out here, pursuing an empty life, instead of supporting and protecting the person who had given her meaning.
Then, she came to a much more frightening realization. Baron Morel. She had been so lost and twisted up in her own head that she had nearly forgotten. Elias Morel was not the kind of man who would listen to the advice of an anonymous assassin, no matter how notorious. He would keep looking for someone to go after Verena, and not all of the assassins in the city were as sensible as [The Black Death] was.
"Verena!"