The Lowest Royal Returns-Chapter 85: Shadow Of The Past, and Attempt

"There you go, lad," Girgon said, passing over a small black box containing five steel knives.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t let Raelis inside his workshop and made him wait by the front door. Still, after nearly half an hour, it was time to check the results.

He grabbed the box and set it on the table, then opened it.

And to his surprise, the knives, perfectly tailored to his specifications, weren’t steel at all. Instead, they were made out of iron. Unlike the shabby coal sword earlier, these five knives looked like works of art.

"This is..." Raelis mumbled, turning to the dwarf. "You know I’m not paying extra for this, right?"

"Naturally." Girgon nodded. "But it’s my fault. I thought I had steel, but as it turned out, I had mixed steel and iron up! Well... you can’t complain over higher quality materials, can you?"

"I can’t, but why are you doing this?" Raelis asked. "I’m sure we’ve never met."

Girgon smiled. "You and I have never met, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been acquainted with someone like you. Rather, just 30 years ago, the exact same scenario played out."

He raised a finger. "I had a young man come into this shop, claiming he was going to become the greatest assassin. I called him an idiot liar, but then he swooped into the darkness and reappeared behind me. Sure, he could’ve just been too fast for my old eyes to keep up, but that left a memorable impression in my mind."

He chuckled. "I do wonder where that boy is right now. Did he achieve his goals?"

Raelis clenched his fist, drawing a slight amount of blood.

All the hints pointed toward his father, the one who had become the greatest assassin.

He couldn’t help but feel like there had been one too many coincidences lately. First, he met Clea’s mother, who was also acquainted with his father, and now this old dwarf.

Just who wasn’t my father acquainted with? Raelis mused, then nodded at the dwarf.

"Thank you. If I need something to be made, I’m sure this is the first place I’ll swing by," Raelis said softly.

And yet, the dwarf burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha! Kid, that’s exactly what the other boy said as well. You two really are alike in that way, you sure you ain’t his son or something?" Girgon said. "Nah, I’m just kidding. That guy looked too much like a loner to find himself a woman, let alone settle down. Just like you."

At this point, the dwarf was just poking fun at Raelis. Yet the similarities weren’t something that Raelis wanted to hear.

Raelis simply tossed 20 silver coins onto the table and walked away.

"Goodbye," Raelis said, waving. "Don’t die before I get the chance to visit you again."

"I’m fed and I have a lot of booze. If I die before I turn 300, you can piss on my grave!" Girgon remarked with a hearty laugh.

But Raelis didn’t stick around to hear it.

Instead, he walked to the hunter’s shop and stepped inside.

As expected, Cael was sitting by the table to the side, skinning a boar and cutting off its tendons.

"Hey, you’re back already?" Cael stared. "That was pretty fast. That old geezer usually has a long line of requests he has to do. I didn’t expect you to be back until midnight."

"When will you be done?" Raelis cut straight to the chase.

"Well... I caught a bit more than expected, so I’m not going to be done for at least the next couple of hours. You should probably just head back to the academy. We can go out some other time. I’ll think of a more fun activity," Cael replied apologetically.

"Maybe Mana Beast hunting...? Hmm... anyways, thanks for coming along."

Raelis nodded, and with another wave, he made his way out of the hunting shop.

Cael was a loudmouth and a social butterfly. But he also resembled Instructor Julian in a way. Or maybe that was because they were both alcoholics.

Either way, he made his way back to the academy, admiring the sights of the capital city as he went.

He had lived here for many years but had never felt accepted. So to walk around this freely was really relaxing.

But like all good things that befell him, his peaceful walk came to an end.

A barely noticeable presence dashed into the alleyway, and to Raelis’s genuine surprise, he heard an extremely silent click.

Yet what followed was a thundering explosion as a thumb-sized piece of shrapnel approached Raelis.

Almost as if time had slowed down, he reacted.

A golden-white fire emerged from thin air and enveloped the shrapnel, melting it down until eventually, the only thing that had hit the side of Raelis’s face was dust.

But when he looked back toward the one responsible, they were already gone, nowhere to be seen.

That was a gun, Raelis thought with a frown as he glanced around.

Because of his flames, he caught the attention of everyone present. Some stared at him in awe, while others in envy or fear.

However, the one expression that Raelis was all too familiar with was the most prominent.

Jealousy.

"Tsk... it’s another one of those Imperials. What is this kid even doing here?"

"I know, right? Why bother themselves with us peasants when they can live in their fancy castles?"

"Watch your mouths, otherwise this kid is going to have us hanged."

"..."

It was clear the commoners of Varekan weren’t exactly fond of the imperial family. They were not tyrants, but to people who had nothing, those who had everything seemed way too far out of reach, to the point where they could do nothing but gossip behind their backs.

Raelis’s brows furrowed from the constant insults, but he was mature enough not to react.

Therefore, he quietly made his way past the people and back toward the academy.

Considering someone was bold enough to attempt to assassinate him in broad daylight, with an illegal gun, no less, which meant Raelis had much more to worry about. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

And it was all because of that bounty.

Nevertheless, the walk back to the academy was calm, and there had not been any distractions or assassination attempts.

So he simply went to his room and put the final five knives into his suitcase. And now, he was ready to train with them.

He fixed his posture and glanced at the area below the knives.

I’ll have to stash that away somewhere.

But first things first, since he had so much free time to himself until the weekend, it was time he got some training in.