Chapter 26: Assassination Quest
After waking up Elly and eating breakfast, the half-breed decided to listen to her partner's request and go with him to the middle of the city, at some event she had never heard of until now, also wondering how the boy who had been with her all this time had heard of it.
The streets were crowded, more than usual that is, and most of the people present were heading in the same direction they were, almost as if there was something big there.
This only made Max more confident though, it meant that this "assassination quest" thing was the real deal, and he was probably on his way to meeting his target, hopefully it wouldn't cause too many issues though...
[This won't be an easy task Host, but I won't spoil anything]
Max didn't care, he kept going while holding Elly's hand to not lose her in the crowd, he was eager to finally get into action after almost two weeks of slacking off, which was kind of weird as you would expect someone like him to want peace after everything he went through, maybe it was the feeling of dominating your enemies or becoming stronger that pushed him to think this way.
And after around 2 hours of constant walking, resulting in Elly asking for a piggyback ride as she was tired, they finally arrived at the center of the city, and it was without a single doubt the most lively place in the kingdom.
There were some of those machines that sold food everywhere, as well as holographic screens much like his system panels to advertise some local shops, reminding the boy of his past world, but he wasn't too fond of it so he didn't care.
The architecture of the buildings had also slightly changed, making them more "modern".
This confused Max even further, just how weird was it that a magic-oriented world had some of the characteristics of his previous one, yet it felt familiar in a good way.
Max could feel that the commotion there was all around the place was related to that event he was supposed to attend, so he decided to ask an old lady for information.
"Did you not hear boy," she gently smiled, "the saintess is giving us a visit today!"
"The saintess...?" Max repeated, now the excitement replaced by a painful feeling in his stomach.
[You're not backing down Host, you already accepted the quest!]
His eyes widened as he read the message and the bad feeling he had only increased in intensity.
"Yes, she has been blessed by the 'Divination of the Saintess' since her youngest age, and has been helping the people ever since!" the old lady explained before eventually deciding to leave as to not be late.
But Max was left in place, speechless.
"Divination... don't tell me...?" Max mumbled, almost certain that he was right.
[...]
Yet no answer.
"C'mon Max, we gotta go fast if we wanna see the saintess!" Elly, who was still being carried by the boy, complained, she was now excited to also meet that prodigy in person.
"I..." the boy didn't want to go anymore, and yet something else took over his emotions at that very moment, "let's go."
Every ounce of excitement Max had was now gone, he was only advancing forward as to confirm his suspicions and gather information about his target, hoping that deep inside it wasn't who he thought it was.
***
[30 minutes later]
The event was on the verge of starting, Max and Elly were both in the crowd around the stage that the saintess was supposed to step on to show herself to the public.
And when the clock struck 2:30 PM, it finally happened: a beam of light appeared out of nowhere and all of a sudden a figure came out of it.
"OOOOOOOHHHH" the crowd cheered upon seeing the young woman appearing.
She had short blonde hair that reached her shoulders and blue eyes the color of the sky, her beauty was astonishing and the aura around her would make anyone guess that she was an important person.
She was wearing a luxurious white uniform as well as a skirt short enough for all the men around to wonder what was under it but revealing in the slightest, yet they all knew none of them had even a sliver of chance to be with her.
Max was also surprised, but he definitely could recognize her as someone with a powerful divination.
[Divination of the Saintess - SSS Ranked]
"..." Max just observed as the beautiful girl advanced until she reached the end of the stage, making everybody around able to look at her and understand her words, some kind of "enhanced voice" magic put around her mouth so that nobody would miss out on any of the words she spoke.
"Hello everybody! It's been a long time, and I'm sorry for not giving any news but I've been so busy recently with some business I didn't have a single second to scratch my head," she bowed and apologized, resulting in a wave of cheers from the crowd.
Apparently, the saintess was the same age as Max and Elly: 18 years old, yet she was extremely powerful already.
But Max didn't care about any of that, because infront of him appeared something else.
[Assassination Target: The Saintess]
[It is time to show these fools who the strongest one is Host, eliminate the saintess, and show your superiority!]
[Quest Reward: +2500 APs, +10 levels, Middle-Grade Item]
[Quest Penalty in case of failure: weakness for one week (massively decreases your strength)]
"..." Max sighed, he knew his divination would do some weird shit like this, but he knew that the rewards were worth it, "let's get this over with..."
[Good going Host, I knew you wouldn't let me down, that's why I chose you after all]
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[Author Note]
The first assassination quest, now will Max just go ahead and kill her for the rewards or think things through to find an amicable solution?
You'll see :)
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone