"The escape plan failed?" Daniel said mockingly as he stared at the one-armed man in black in front of him.
"I see... so the intel was wrong." The man in black sighed. According to the information they'd received for the assassination, Daniel Noir was supposed to be just a rank C.
But he had just seen it with his own eyes—this boy flew! How could a rank C Awakened possibly fly?
That made him furious. Was it possible the Goblin Guild had just wanted to get rid of them and gave false intel on purpose?
Or maybe even they didn't know this boy was actually a rank B.
'But how is that possible? The Goblin Guild controls one of the best intelligence networks in the country,' he grumbled to himself.
In the end, he decided to put that thought aside for now. His current priority had to be figuring out how to get out of here alive.
"I'll give you a deal. Who sent you? And why? Answer these two questions and I'll let you live," Daniel said indifferently.
"Hmph. You really think I'd betray my team?" The man in black growled as he pulled out his dagger and prepared to fight.
Daniel looked at him, but this time, he didn't draw his sword.
The one-armed man charged in with full force, but Daniel just stood there and blocked his strikes with his fists.
Then, with a single kick, he sent the man flying dozens of meters and crashing hard into a wall.
"Cough—cough!" The man spat a few drops of blood and was about to curse.
He was a peak rank C Awakened, but having one arm cut off had halved his combat strength.
Daniel slowly walked toward him and gave him a mocking look. Unlike the others he killed for refusing to talk, he didn't want to kill this one right away.
"Which one of you knows how to torture?" he asked.
Suddenly, all of his Fallen—who had been hiding in the shadows—appeared.
"My Lord, I used to be a general. I'm familiar with torture methods," Nariok stepped forward.
"Just don't kill him," Daniel said as he stepped aside to let Nariok begin.
Nariok walked up to the one-armed man and, after taking his dagger, began using all kinds of Elven torture techniques.
The man's screams filled the area. Just from the sound, Daniel could imagine how brutal the torture was.
Especially since Nariok was doing all of this with just a dagger—no proper tools, no setup.
It didn't take more than ten minutes for the man's screams to turn into begging.
"Please! Please! I'll tell you everything! Aghhh—just stop!"
Nariok looked at Daniel, who simply gestured for him to continue.
Nariok nodded and went on with the torture for another ten minutes before Daniel finally told him to stop.
Even though Daniel could've stopped it ten minutes ago, this way he had completely broken the assassin's mental defenses.
He walked over and looked down at him. His body was in a horrifying state—Nariok had stripped off all his skin and flesh.
His bones were scraped, and many of his veins had been torn. If he weren't an Awakened, he'd definitely be dead by now.
On top of that, during the process, Nariok had removed his mask and even torn off half of his nose. Now even his face was unrecognizable.
"Now are you ready to answer my questions?" Daniel asked with a sweet smile.
"Y-Yeah..." the man managed to say weakly.
"Who are you people?"
"We're from the Crimson Night Assassination Organization... We have branches all over the continent," he said, coughing up blood.
Daniel frowned a bit. He couldn't understand why a continent-wide assassination group would come after him.
As far as he remembered, he hadn't provoked or insulted anyone.
"Who sent you?"
"The Goblin Guild. We were sent under their orders."
"I see... So it's my old friend's doing." A cold light flashed in Daniel's eyes.
Now it all made sense. The Goblin Guild had even tried to kill his friend Linor before—so now they were targeting him.
"You're the leader of the assassins sent to kill me, right?" Daniel asked. Even if this guy wasn't the strongest, the others had listened to his orders.
"I'm the acting leader. The real leader of our squad is a rank B Awakened," the man replied, coughing more blood. His body trembled, and he screamed in pain.
The torture had ended, but the pain hadn't.
"Makes sense... So now that you've failed, what happens next? You give up on killing me?"
"No... The assassination operation will continue. Next time, they'll probably send a stronger squad."
'A stronger squad of assassins? That could be dangerous.' Daniel frowned. He wasn't worried about himself—he was worried about his family.
With his current strength, only a rank A Awakened might have a chance. Even a peak rank B couldn't kill him easily.
"What do I have to do to cancel the assassination?"
"Pay the fee... Pay the cancellation cost, and the operation stops. But each time a squad fails, the cost doubles."
"How much do I need to pay?" Daniel sighed calmly. As long as he could cancel the operation, he was willing to pay any price.
"You can't... This operation was requested by the Goblin Guild. We wouldn't dare anger a client like that."
For a moment, a wave of killing intent surged from Daniel—but he quickly reined it in.
"Looks like I'll be paying my old friend James a visit sooner or later."
"Can I go now?" the man asked fearfully. If he didn't get treatment within the hour, he'd definitely die—he was losing too much blood.
"Eh? Of course not. You really thought I'd let someone who tried to kill me walk away alive?" Daniel smirked.
"But... you... you said—" the man panicked, but before he could finish, Daniel exploded his head with a single strike.
Blood splattered, staining Daniel's clothes.
He stood up, dismissed all of his Fallen, and then went home. After taking a shower, he changed into clean clothes.
"I need to come up with a plan," he said as he sat down and thought things through.
In this situation, he could no longer guarantee his family's safety. And if stronger assassins were going to come, it could get really dangerous.
He glanced at his phone—and an idea sparked in his mind.
Maybe there was something he could do.