*drip*

*drop*

*drip*

*drop*

The blood oozing from the back and chest of the assassin dripped on the ground drop by drop. In a blink of an eye, a small puddle of blood gathered underneath the black boots of the assassin, and the distinctive metallic scent filled the entire room.

''.....'' Raven's nose twitched in irritation. Her brows scrunched together, clearly expressing her displeasure towards the metallic scent. This was the only reason why she hated murder. The scent of blood was too disgusting for her.

It seemed her sensitive nose from her former life followed her to this life.

''Why don't you hurry up and spill it? Your scent is making me nauseous.'' Raven spoke as if she wasn't the reason for the stomach-churning feeling. She was an impatient person to begin with. Now she was even more impatient and irritated because of the disgusting metallic smell in her room.

''......'' The assassin never said a word. The shock he felt upon failing his mission had resided a bit and the feeling of confusion settled within him.

The information he had received from the higher ups was that the fourth young lady of the Langston family was the weakest of all the Grand duke's children. She was also his least favored child and deemed worthless in the entire grand duchy. Even her mother, the sixth madam, had ignored her from birth.

Her life was just as tragic as that.

But....

Who was the child in his gaze?

A weak person was never one with that gaze ready to end his life at any moment. That empty but chilling gaze, a gaze he was very familiar with as someone with blood of many people on his hands.

'I didn't sense her...' A sudden thought came to the assassin.

Right. He didn't sense her when she was near him unless the one whose blood dripping would not have been him.

How was it possible for him not to sense her when she was near him?

''Not talking? Then allow me to begin.'' Raven wasn't disappointed with the silence. A moment later, a knowing smile gradually appeared on her lips, as she revealed. ''it should be one of my siblings.''

It wasn't a question but a statement like she was absolutely and a hundred percent sure of her words.

''......'' Though surprised, the assassin did not show it on his face. Well...there was nothing to show when his entire face was covered, only leaving out his eyes.

''As for who, I am not too sure about that. Their mothers should be involved as well.'' Raven mused out loud. Before the family dinner, she had also suspected her siblings and their mothers for the prickling gazes she had felt in the main manor.

Now an actual assassin really came to visit her in the night. It wasn't too hard to figure the people who wanted her dead and gone.

'But his gaze is different....' Raven realized something very minor but important. There was just this feeling she could not put into words. Was it weird if she felt the gaze of this assassin was really different from the gazes she felt in the hallway of the main manor?

Yes, she could feel killing intentions from the assassin and that was clearly evil, but it was just different from the gazes she had felt in the hallway.

There was another thing she realized just now.

'I am not shaking....' Raven looked down at her body. The fact that this terror-stricken body was not shaking in the presence of an obvious danger was new. It seemed the original owner had never experienced something like this before.

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But...that was weird.

In a family where the weak got killed without knowing, there was no way no one would miss an opportunity of eliminating the original owner. Even if the rule of her not getting killed until her age of succession was her saving grace, Raven still felt that her siblings and their mothers would have surely find a sneaky way of ending her life.

Unless....someone had helped the original owner, secretly.

'Who could it be?' Raven leisurely wondered, like a bleeding human being was not in the same room as herself. The assassin, at this point, struggled no more when he realized there was no way for him to escape his ending.

What exactly was holding him down? It was as if his whole legs were chained to the ground, forever to remain on the same spot.

If he had known this would have happened, he wouldn't have taken this mission. There had been news of his fellow colleagues' death when giving this particular mission but he had dismissed them like there were nothing but false rumors.

The not favored and weak fourth young lady was not someone capable of those deaths. That had been his thought until now....

''.....!'' A stabbing pain brought the assassin from his thoughts. Unlike before, this pain was worse than the ones on his back and chest. Deeply inserted in his neck was the knife that was previously in Raven's grasp. The assassin's eyes rolled down to the sight of the knife stuck in the middle of his throat before his eyes returned back to the child sitting casually on the bed.

Empty eyes but a pleased closed-lipped smile, just at the sight of his bloody self.

The fourth young lady was clearly not a normal child. The information given to him was very different from this reality.

She really had deceived many with the reputation of being the weakest child in the Langston family, and he was among the deceived who was just about to welcome his death.

'...Right...She's a Langston...' The assassin had his last thought with his eyes remained on Raven, his body falling sideways.

No one in that family was truly innocent and weak.

This was a truth that many failed to realize, including himself.

*Plop*

The body of the assassin crashed to the ground and Raven watched all this without a sound escaping her lips. Under the lone candle light from the nightstand and the clear moonlight from the outside, her eyes caught the trembles in the eyes of the assassin before his body dropped, and she let out of a faint scoff, finding it funny.

Fear was a regular emotion for Raven. A sentiment that exalted her ego and excitement when facing an interesting prey of hers. She had seen fear many times on people, and her heart had an experience with the same feeling....a long time ago.

This moment was the first for her to experience fear from others again in this world. However, she didn't feel as elated as she had felt in her former life.

An assassin scared of death....it wasn't the first time she witnessed something like this. There was an incident an assassin sent to kill her, had begged for his life. He didn't want death, but he wanted death for others, including herself.

What a load of bullshit.

Did she spare his life?

Of course not.

His act had thoroughly irritated her, and she had retaliated by slaughtering him in the ugliest and most agonizing way possible.

Humans were selfish creatures, and Raven despised that selfishness.

''I know you are there.'' Raven suddenly called out to no one in the room. Her eyes were fixed at a corner, focused and waiting for the thing present with her in the room to appear in her gaze. Before the assassin's death, Raven felt the same gaze from the main manor in this room. Her body also had the same reaction but she used her will to control the trembles of this body. It was the same as in the main manor. During the family dinner, Raven had to use force and her own will to control those irritating trembles.

She was with no fear, but this body of hers was the opposite. What a funny scenario.

Raven waited and waited, but nothing presented itself to her.

'Was it my imagination?'

No. It couldn't be her imagination. The trembles on this body were real and she could feel a gaze on herself in this room. That was the only difference from the main manor. It was just a sinister gaze, not as many as in the main manor.

Now getting impatient, Raven's feet got to ground, and she walked to the dark corner of the room. Upon moving there, the trembles on her body suddenly disappeared.

''......'' Raven stood on the spot, halting her movement and noticing the cease of her trembles which told her that there was something clearly in this room. However, the thing disappeared without a sound.

''I guess the Grand duke's power is real....'' After a moment of silence, Raven murmured to herself. She then turned back and walked in direction of the night chilly air. Standing by the window, she looked at the scenery for a moment before grabbing the handles and pulling the glass windows closer until they touched and a clicking sound was heard. She also made sure to bring the curtains together until the moonlight was no more in the room.

'No need to leave the window open anymore.' Raven returned after shutting the source of the night chilly air. After climbing onto the bed, Raven pulled the quilt up to her waist level. Still sitting, her eyes looked down on her small hands that were not shaking anymore, but were a little sore.

She really needed to start training this body as soon as possible for her safety and also for the upcoming battle with Edwin.

'I wonder if the original owner inherited the power....Maybe I also...' This was Raven's last thought before she laid on the bed and slept peacefully, ignoring the bloody spots on her night gown and metallic smell in the room with a dead person.

Apart from one, every breathing person in the Langston Grand duchy was not aware of the weak fourth young lady's first kill.