I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 138: Assassins VS Assassin

"So, how should I find their headquarters?"

"Well, it’s simple, I mean... kind of simple, I guess?"

The two of us sat cross-legged on the bed at her insistence. She just didn’t like talking about important things in chairs when there was a perfectly comfortable bed right next to us.

Calling it ’impractical’ or ’bad for comfort’ if we do.

But if I have to be honest... she probably just wants to lower my guard using the bed’s softness.

Too bad that isn’t going to work.

"Just tell me already..."

"Okay, okay, fine~."

She was clearly padding this interaction out for longer than necessary, okay... maybe I wasn’t that bad when I was interacting with Evelina after all.

At least I was straight to the point.

"I can simply recommend you to the shadow society, they get some of their recruits from us after all~."

"Won’t they find that suspicious?"

"Oh, they absolutely will! They’ll immediately send in their top dogs to assassinate me for treason as soon as I do."

"So...?"

"Their top-dogs don’t have the magic binding that explodes their heads. Basically, if you can defeat them, it’s your key straight to their heart!"

"Then do it then."

Fiona crossed her arms again, shaking her head in furious refusal.

"Nope, not happening, I’d rather not send assassins to you or me! Even I don’t think we can beat them!"

Fiona... an S-Rank herself, and someone who saw me fight back in the tournament and had likely heard all the rumours about me. Yet she still doesn’t think I could beat the shadow society’s assassins in a fight?

I don’t blame her; she probably doesn’t even know how capable they are.

Her family is the society’s strongest backer, but that doesn’t mean they know all of their cards. It’s good that I know, though, and as long as I know they aren’t close to Corvus in terms of magical dominance.

They were absolutely child’s play.

"Do it, I can handle myself."

I said smugly, summoning [Endless Fang] out of thin air as I licked the edge of the blade, more to show off and look big than anything practical.

And...

"Damn... that’s hot."

It absolutely worked. Damn, it’s easy to manipulate people who already like you.

***

"I sent them a call through a transceiver and all the obvious questions and stuff, they all probably think I’ve gone crazy or something~."

She laughed, lunging across the bed to hug me tight. I didn’t really resist; she was being helpful for the moment, and rewarding her would only make her more loyal. Besides, Evelina is still very far away.

No way I would bump into her. I’d just wash myself clean the moment I return home, better yet, burn myself with profaned fire until none of the scent remains.

And it wasn’t like I was going to eventually reciprocate her feelings. Even Fiona knows it...

"I’m not going to like you like that, y’know?"

"Don’t care."

CRACK!

[Light Guardian]

"They’re here!"

Fiona reacted instantly. Her light magic flashed to life the moment even the faintest strange sound reached her ears. Living in the underbelly of society and managing its inner workings had honed her senses far more than I expected.

BOOM!

A bullet pierced through the tinted window but was quickly intercepted by [Light Guardian] before it could reach me. The barrier didn’t just protect the room.

It wrapped around me.

I could feel her protectiveness in the way she held me, her arms tightening like she was ready to shield me with her own body if the magic failed.

"Don’t worry."

I placed my hand over hers, catching her slightly off guard. Once she saw it was me, she relaxed and let me brush her arm aside as I stood up from the bed.

I didn’t want to gather that much attention.

Gunshots were loud, but not that uncommon in this part of the city.

I couldn’t just cast Oblivion Rain and be done with it. I needed to make sure the building I was standing on didn’t collapse.

Destroying one of Fiona’s family businesses was something I needed to avoid.

BOOM!

Another bullet tore through the hole in the window, this time breaking past Fiona’s light guardian.

But—

FWOOSH!

It flickered out once it reached the radius of mine.

Looked like I was right—or at least half-right. They were definitely strong enough to beat Fiona, but they definitely weren’t strong enough to beat me.

[Dark Step]

[Speed Boost]

Two charged at me: one bursting from the wall at the head of the bed, the other teleporting beside Fiona.

A two-pronged assault. One meant to distract, the other to deliver the killing blow.

Amateurs.

[Profaned Serpent]

[Endless Fang]

The serpent handled the one close to Fiona, unwrapping from my body as it lunged forward and swallowed the assassin’s head. As for the other—

FWOOSH-BOOM!

I threw the sword hard enough to obliterate the second one’s head. The explosion looked eerily similar to the one from back then.

Neat.

[Fire Brigade]

The water vapor in the room suddenly turned deadly. My lungs felt the slight burn as the air itself threatened to incinerate everything around us.

[Chaos Manipulation]

Too bad that wasn’t happening. A simple surge of chaos magic, and every single one of those water vapors just turns to normal!

BANG! BANG!

More bullets, this time piercing the wall, while my [Profaned Guardian] had things handled, I still needed to be careful.

"Come here!"

I pulled Fiona closer to me, covering her with my wings as the bullets fizzled just like the rest. Seems like they didn’t increase the caliber from the previous shots yet.

"Don’t leave my side unless you want to die!" I grinned wildly, already preparing for a counter-attack.

[Endless Fang] x [Profaned Serpent]

Never tried this, but better late than never: an endless fang guided by a heat-seeking serpent. What more could a killer want?

"Sick ’em, boy!"

I just needed one survivor anyway.

The rest could die for all I care.