Ren was pondering the possibilities in his head.

“Could Earn possibly have been among the evaders? he thought.

Ren only just noticed now that Earn was wearing a glove on only one of his hands, his right one, and also noticed black marks drawn on his head.

Ren ignores all these details and straight up asks Earn

“What was your mission in Aledia? Did you burn it down?“

"No,” replied Earn, after a brief pause.

"Liar, if you didn't, why did you go there then?" Ren says, screaming at the face of Earn.

Earn studying Ren sees hurt and a troubled past in Ren’s eyes and feels apologetic towards him, but he was not among the culprits, and nothing can be done about the past.

“Why are you quiet all of a sudden,You were there weren’t you?” Says Ren

“I was not ,My mission to Aledia was not to burn it down but rather was to assassinate someone ,It was a search and destroy mission but for a human and not a thing. I feel sorry for you but I cannot stress this enough,I did not destroy village “

Ren after hearing this statement falls and begins to cry until Earn pats his back and says

“Don’t cry,you showed potential earlier on ,You we’re able to tap into Malice and I know you did because not only did your eyes glow but you also bruised me while I was I was tapped into malice and so I’d like to teach you the ways Olof an assassin “

“What why me” asked Ren

“You’ve been through a lot of pain, but if you let me train you, I could teach you how to use that pain as strength, and who knows, you could track down the real perpetrators and maybe exact revenge.“ Earn said it charmingly.

“Revenge “ Earn though in his mind

He remembered what his Dad was saying in the darkness and realized something,he has to kill the man from his dreams ,Its his destiny.

And so Ren accepted Earn’s deal and Earn smiled saying

“Great training starts now”

***********

It had now been around ten minutes since Ren agreed to let Earn teach him, and Earn and Ren were just outside the wooden home.

“Okay firstly ,You’ve got to understand that we assassins gain our strength from a special source called Malice.” Said Earn

“Why’s it called malice “ said Ren

“Because it can only be harnessed through dark emotions and, most importantly, the desire to kill,“ replied Earn.

Ren, after hearing this, says

“That probably makes it very accessible to you assassins, seeing as killing is your job.”

"Yes, it does, but a human can only tap into it when they have felt a series of intense pain, struggle, and misery, or if they get hit with an eternal curse. But anyway, let’s forget about it and focus on the job at hand,” says Earn.

Earn coughs and then continue saying

“Earlier today, you tapped into malice, but you see, that was due to the fact you were poisoned and relieving your past, making it easier to use the power of your sorrow, so now you are going to do that again, but without the poison.”

Earn then raises his right hand and flicks his fingers while saying the words.

“Shadow technique: Endless Void”

All of a sudden, Ren's entire surroundings are encompassed with darkness, just like they were earlier on when he got poisoned. He didn’t understand how, but he could feel that this was the exact same one as earlier on, and it didn’t take long for Ren to realise that Earn used the technique on him earlier.

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“So that dark place I was in after I took the poison was created by you, and I wasn’t imagining it because of the effects of the poison, “asked Ren.

“Oh yes, that was me. All the cursed fruit was to ensure you remembered all your bad memories all at once, and I trapped you in darkness to make it that bit more scary just to amplify the effects and all,Earn said while smirking.

“So what do you want me to do now? “Ren asked.

“Simply break out by overwhelming this place with your own malice, just like you did earlier, but don’t worry, I’m currently tapped into way less malice than I was earlier, so it should be easier. Good luck,“ said Earn.

At that point, Earn disappears, leaving Ren in the darkness, and so Ren begins meditation in hopes of that being the key out.

************

“What! What do you mean by Hiroki is wanted by the Northern Regions?” asked a large, fat man with a round face and short body build wearing grey robes with a crown over his head.

“He is under arrest for entering the sacred moon temple and is suspected of stealing an artefact of some kind,” said a man in blue armour.

The fat man then said

“Hiroki is a respected lord here in the Eastern Circle, and so as king, I won’t stand by and watch you slander one of my men.”

The armoured man then calmly

“If Lord Hiroki Saito isn’t arrested and sent to the Northern Regions before the next fortnight, then Queen Kaida of the north will have no choice but to come to the east herself and actively search for him, and any sort of obstacle placed in her way will be seen as an attack against the Northern throne, and she will have no choice but to defend the throne by eliminating its attackers.”

The armoured man then calmly turned his back and left, but not before saying, "Goodbye, King Darius of the West.”

*************

Queen Kaida Yukiguni of the North was the Queen of the Northern Regions, one of the most powerful nations of the four that existed, with the only other contender for power being the Southern Empire.

Queen Kaida had long, silky black hair and was as beautiful as she was clever. She may only be 15, but she has made a name for herself as one of the greatest rulers in history.

Kaida was only seven years old when she lost her parents during an assassination that almost took her away too, but she luckily survived and since then has gone on to do many incredible things as ruler of the north, like establishing one of the six main assassin guilds in the world known as the Night Watch, a guild completely loyal to the Northern throne.

Queen Kaida was the lady who took a chariot to the moon temple and questioned a guard.

The temple was a very sacred place to the people of the north. People would come to the northern capital, Kita,kita just to look at the temple.

The temple was thought by the people of the north to have once housed Erydnor, a being who they believed had created this world, and so they thought of it as disrespectful to enter the temple, so no one was allowed to even get three feet close to the entrance, and so the destruction of the moon temple was a big deal.

Queen Kaida was on her throne when she was approached by three elderly men in blue robes. These men were the royal priests, and they came to ask Kaida about the investigation into the destruction of the moon temple.

Kaida, in a lustrous voice, spoke

“I’m looking into it, though it’s extremely hard to see as I have no idea what anyone would want in the temple unless there is a priceless item in the temple that I do not know about.”

The priests informed Kaida that the constituents of the temple were unknown to them too.

The priests also said

“My Queen, we all have had visions telling us that Erydnor is angry at us and will destroy us all for breaking his home.”

“Then what do we do?“ asked Kaida.

“We must prepare a sacrifice,“ said the priests.

"We'll, if that’s all well, make arrangements,” said Kaida as the priests left her palace into the snow.

The northern regions were the coldest of them all, with there being constant snow for nine months of the year.

**************

Ren was meditating quietly, trying to tap into his malice, but for some reason, his desperate attempts never seemed to work.

He tried shouting Earn’s name for help, but each time, he received no answer.

Growing tired and frustrated, he laid on the floor as frustrated as ever when he realised something: if he gets his power from negative emotions, then meditating was not the way to go, and so he instead started to imagine that one person he wanted to kill so badly, the man in his dreams.

Ren’s eyes started to glow, and he could feel a sudden increase in physical strength flowing through his body, and cracks started to form on the void. All he had to do now was harness this power and repel it from his body to shatter this void, but as he was about to do it, he accidentally imagined the man from his dreams killing his mom and dad.

Upon imaging that scene, Ren quickly lost all his focus and completely stopped all progress he had made in tapping into his mana. The cracks in the void even started to repair themselves.

Ren tried to focus once more, but he couldn’t seem to use his memories as strength; instead, they just kept making him weak, and so he fell to the floor, giving up.

Ren, after a series of soliloquies, decides not to give him and screams

“Earn I know you don’t want to help me by giving me any advice, but could you please just pass a knife?”

After a few seconds, Earn’s hand appeared in the void with a knife being held firm by it, and so Ren took it, and then

"Aaaaaaahhhh!” Ren screamed loudly as he dug the knife into his shoulder and started bleeding profusely. Then he used that pain to tap into his malice, and it worked.

The void is completely shattered, and Ren passes, but at a price.

Ren faints, and Earn, looking at him, smiles, saying

“What a unique kid!“

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