"I beg for your forgiveness for my failure," The assassin pleaded as he knelt down on his knees.

"Failure?" My mom asked incredulously as she paced her big room. "How did you fail to kill a toddler?" The pressure coming off from her was intense.

"H-he figured out how to escape the shadow field," The assassin struggled to say his words.

"You could've just put out the fire!" My mother yelled out, throwing a glass cup across the room. The noise caused the assassin to tense up.

"The shadow field took away all my mana," He said, closing his eyes.

"Excuses!" She yelled again, her volume and rage not dropping. Her yelling caused the glasses in the room to start vibrating. "My husband is gone and you just ruined your golden opportunity!"

"Y-your son lost a lot of bl-" The assassin began to say before getting interrupted by an even more rage-filled voice.

"Do not call him my son!" She exclaimed. "He is a disappointment!"

"The target lost a lot of blood," The assassin amended his statement. "He could've died."

"Could've?" She repeated. "No, I want a guarantee, and if you can't do that-" She raised her hand, ready to cut the assassin into a thousand pieces.

The assassin's eyes widened as he looked up. They began to fill with tears. "F-forgive me, my patroness. I-I'll guarantee his death!"

My mother paused her hand as the assassin started to speak before she put her hand down slowly and readjusted her clothes. Her face and demeanor changed from rage to coldness. "You have two days until my husband comes back."

"Y-yes patroness. I-I won't fail you!"

"If you do," She said in a low voice. "Well, think about your friends and family."

The assassin gulped. "And if anyone finds out my involvement, I'm taking you and everyone you know down with me. Understand?"

The assassin quickly nodded his head. He rose and disappeared into the shadows, leaving my mother alone in her room. She continued to pace around the room, lost in thought. She continued this behavior until the sun rose.

I never found out the truth until years later, but at that point, it didn't matter. I'd lost too much.

On that happy note, let's go back to present me.

I was awoken when the door to the store opened. My eyes slowly opened as the light entered my eyes. Judging from the outside, it looked around noon time. I was lying in a corner at the back of the store which allowed me to stay out of sight.

I quietly looked around before turning to look at the person who entered. He was a thick man with big muscles and was a dark tan color. He had brown overalls and a gray shirt. His hair was black and messy.

I watched as he placed a case on the table and opened it. He placed his hand in and took out the pistol.

'Damn, that was fast!' I thought as I began to walk out. Their voices, which I couldn't hear before, began to get louder and more audible.

"-really advanced," I heard the man, who I guessed was a blacksmith, said. He turned to look at me when I went through the back door.

The blacksmith quickly turns to the shop owner. "For god's sake, did you kidnap another kid?"

"You kidnapped a kid before?" I asked.

"Who hasn't?" The owner said, shrugging. "And I didn't kidnap him. He paid me to sleep here."

I stared at him with a confused expression before turning over to the blacksmith. "You made these fast," I commented, beginning to probe for information.

"Heh, did you make these?" He asked. "He mentioned that someone else did."

"That someone is me," I said as I picked up the gun and took out the magazine. "You made these in one night?"

"Yeah I did," He said, sounding a little boastful. "Normally, I can't use magic to make objects. However, your drawings were extremely detailed making magic-smithing possible."

'Magic-smithing.' I thought. 'Maybe developing technology won't take as long as I thought.'

I picked up a bullet and began to examine it carefully. I noticed something odd as I kept holding it. It was vibrating.

"Did you do something to the bullet?" I asked.

"I couldn't find the gunpowder you asked for, so I used something else with similar properties," He said. "Solid and condensed mana. It has similar properties as gunpowder."

"Hmm, interesting," I commented as I began loading the clip of the magazine. In total, there were only enough bullets to completely load three magazines.

"So what does it do?" The shopkeeper asked.

"This is called a bullet," I said as I held it up. "There's something called a firing pin which strikes the primer. This causes the gunpowder in the bullet to launch it forward extremely fast."

"Uh huh," He said, a little lost at what I was talking about.

"Do you want to see a demo?" I asked. "I'm gonna try it out in the woods."

"I'll admit I'm a bit curious," The blacksmith said. "Do you mind if I follow you?"

I nodded and faced the shop owner. "And you?"

He had a small smirk on his face as he answered. "Sure, I'll go."

I grinned at their answers. "Alrighty gentlemen, let's go."

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"I'm ready to be amazed," The shopkeeper said in a tired tone. We were in the middle of the woods, only surrounded by wildlife.

I brought the gun up and pointed it to the tree around 10 yards away. "You should probably cover your ears."

The shopkeeper and blacksmith put their fingers in their ears. I let out a breath before pulling the trigger.

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BANG!

The recoil was extremely strong, stronger than I expected it to be. My wrist went up by 45 degrees. The bullet was more powerful than I thought it would be, going through the thick trunk cleanly. Smoke was coming out of the barrel of the gun.

Both men stared at the tree in shock. They both slowly walked over to the tree and examined the hole.

"My god," The blacksmith said. "That was powerful."

The shopkeeper had a smile of interest on his face. "What an interesting weapon."

I unloaded the gun and put the magazine into the pockets of my new pants. "Next time I ask for the bullets, use about half the amount of mana you used."

The blacksmith nodded and put his hand out, wanting the gun. I put it into his hand as he looked all over for any signs of structural damage. When he found no damage, he handed the gun back. He turned to look at me. "This is a masterpiece."

I gave a small smile and nodded. It was the shopkeeper's turn to try out the gun. I gave him the magazine as well and he began firing into other trees. The sounds of the bullet echoed throughout the entire forest causing the birds to fly away.

After the magazine emptied, he looked at the gun in his hand and the damage around us before handing it back.

I saw a glint in his eye. It was like mine sometimes; signs that he was thinking deeply about something.

"If you're planning on selling this weapon, I don't recommend it," I told him. "You've seen how much damage this can do. Imagine if it's in the wrong hands."

"Are you telling me out of self-preservation or because you actually mean it?" The shopkeeper asked.

"I mean it," I responded honestly and seriously. "Only a few people are capable of using bow magic well enough to be on par with this."

The shopkeeper looked at me, thinking over my words. After a few seconds, he spoke. "Well, you've convinced me."

I looked over to the blacksmith. "I understand as well."

"Good," I said with hidden relief. "Well, I must thank you two for helping me."

I brought out two gold coins and handed them each to them. They both took it. "I'll be coming back for more ammo."

The blacksmith nodded.

"See you two later," I said as I began walking out of the woods. "I've got to get revenge."

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I was roaming the giant halls of my family's mansion. My footsteps echoed as I began to approach the charred remains of my room. The closer I got, the more the ash began to smell.

I was still on edge from any source of the noise. Even Leo and Hanson walking behind me caused my entire body to tense and my ears to perk up.

As I entered the room, I felt the humidity increase. Most of the room had suffered damages, but they weren't as severe as they could be. The floor was still damp from their attempts to extinguish the fire.

I walked over to the side of my room and opened the door to the dressing room. As strange as it sounds, doors can slow down the spread of fire. As such, the only signs of damage was the door of the dressing room which was a darker color than the rest of the room.

I made my way over to one of the many closets and shoved my hand all the way back. I had to move both me and my hands around, searching for an object. As I reached the end, my hands clasped a familiar object and I pulled it out.

"What are you even looking for?" Hanson asked.

"My notebook," I responded, sounding detached as I began to examine it. Quickly flipping through the pages showed that they all remained intact. I grinned as I put it in a pocket inside my suit.

"Now, onto the bigger issue," I said as I turned to face my two guardians.

"As we said before, we were told by the staff to leave y-" Leo said.

"Someone's been in here recently," I interjected. "My notebook wasn't where I last left it. The floor is dry here, which means no one entered this room to extinguish the fire."

Hanson's eyes moved back and forth before a look of realization dawned on his face. As soon as he understood what I was getting at, he lifted up his wand and began casting a spell.

Purple light began appearing to manifest out of nowhere and started traveling around every inch of the room in a circle. As it started to reach the wall, it began to collect onto the corner of the roof before going through it. Hanson's eyes widened as he lifted up his wand.

"Looks like you caught me a second time," The assassin said. His voice was different from last night. Instead of the elegance that it once had, it seemed more rough and deranged. Not only that, but his eyes were bloodshot.

The assassin dropped down and quickly launched a magic-infused whip at us, only to be blocked by Hanson's defensive magic.

Love and desperation. Two emotions that make us do stupid things. Love makes us settle down, become partners, or have kids, only for it to slowly rip us apart. Yet, it's something we can't resist and sacrifice everything for. Desperation makes us take bigger and bigger risks without considering the consequences.

In the assassin's case, these two emotions made him attack me while being surrounded by two highly trained guards. He knew that it was a bad idea. Hell, he even thought it was a suicide mission. But this was his first opportunity and he feared he wouldn't have another one.

"I'll give you a chance to surrender now and keep your life," Hanson said.

The assassin gave a crazed laugh. "Surrender? No, that's not an option. I'd rather die."

He channeled mana into his sword and his body started to lunge forward at an incredible speed toward me only to be blocked by Leo. The clank of their swords reverberated throughout the room. Leo not only parried but began to counterstrike in one fluid motion, forcing the assassin to step back. "Run master!"

"Fuck no, he's gonna run around you and chase after me," I said as I began to take my gun out and load it. My two guards were too busy to pay attention to this motion.

"Damn it, now's not the time to be doing this!" Hanson yelled out. "Just flee! We'll handle this!"

"Move so I can get a clear shot!" I replied back as I kept moving the pistol around with one eye closed. I kept picturing the bullet path and adjusting, but by the time I had a clear shot, everyone moved.

I saw the assassin begin to channel even more mana as his speed began to increase and his attacks became more violent.

"Attack perpendicular to me!" I said while moving to the right. Leo began to rapidly attack to force the assassin into defense and start moving to where I suggested. Hanson helped defend Leo and used some offensive spells, yet I saw a lot of sweat begin to pool on his head.

The fight continued to rage on as Leo and Hanson were no longer straight in front of me but to my right and left. I watched the assassin's movements, picking up on patterns and timing.

The assassin tried to throw a dagger at my head, only to be blocked. However, I had to keep my focus. I waited and waited until I got an opportunity.

As he moved back and began to push his feet to attack, I recognized the movement and moved my wrist to predict his location. I fired two bullets in succession.

The sound of the bullet leaving the gun was louder than anything that was previously in the room. It was so loud that it instinctively caused all eyes to turn towards the source of the sound.

Just as quickly as everyone's heads turned, the fight was over. The assassin's body flopped over lifelessly. He had two holes, one on his chest and one on his head. Blood began pooling out of each hole as well as tiny pieces of his organs.

In movies and books, they always show that the first kill is something that one should be disgusted about. Something that is deplorable. But why?

People often define evil as actions that they wouldn't want to experience themselves. As our good friend Jesus would say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

However, it was me or him. One of us couldn't live. I'm sure that he would agree with that sentiment, but he's too dead to object.

So, did I really do anything wrong? I did unto him what he planned to do unto me.

I don't think I did. In fact, I didn't even feel anything after seeing his lifeless body slump to the floor. The only feeling I had was relief. My life wasn't over for the second time.

"The hell was that?" Hanson asked in a strained yet curious voice.

"That was anticlimactic," I said as I tilted my head. My heart rate was through the roof. I felt every pump that my heart did.

"I meant what did you do?" Hanson clarified.

"I know what you meant," I said. "You have to promise that you won't tell anyone what you just saw. Including my parents. I don't need to become a bigger target."

"Okay, I won't," Hanson replied immediately before turning over to Leo. He nodded his head.

"This little device," I said as I shook it around. "is like a bow and arrow, except it's smaller and shoots a small arrow way faster," I began to explain what a gun is.

"Where did you get this?" Leo asked after all my explaining was over.

"That, I can't tell you," I said as I put my finger to my smiling mouth.

"So what now?" Hanson asked.

"Now, you two tell everyone you killed the assassin," I said. "My dad is coming home in two or three days, so I should be safe until then."

"But what about the person who ordered the hit? We can't interrogate the assassin."

I shook my head as I began pacing the room to think. "Whoever had the resources to hire him would've covered their tracks well enough that we wouldn't find out. We have to wait for them to slip up to get any clues."

I walked up to the window and looked out onto the field. My siblings, with the exception of Alex, were training. I watched over my mother who sat beside a depressed-looking Jane and who had a wicked grin on her face as she watched Dominick.

If only I knew how close I was to finding the mastermind.