Dysfunctional - An Assassin's Guide to Reincarnating in Another World

"This guy doesn't seem to be a spy, but there's something off about h-," I mumbled to myself, cutting off as the subject of my investigation walked past me from below.

I had quietly broken into his house and was in the attic, he was in the room right below me. I had used my dagger to carve a small peephole so that I could see what was going on below me.

I had been investigating him for three days now, and while I was fairly certain he wasn't a spy, there was something a bit...unsettling about him. But just because someone's a bit weird doesn't mean they're a spy.

In order to confirm his innocence or guilt before I report my conclusion to Erhtaph Ragiu, I planned to wait till he goes to sleep and then search the place.

I just had to make sure not to leave any trace of my presence when I'm done, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem either way. This world had no security cameras or burglar alarms or a way to identify fingerprints...this was practically child's play for someone who had pulled off countless investigations and assassinations in the modern digital era of my old world.

Plus, I had brought a couple of useful Spell Scrolls, along with a new custom spell from Elolina. And yes, that's what I'm calling her now. She didn't like it, but that was the point.

We still disliked each other and didn't get along at all, but we had reached a common ground of tolerance towards each other since we both had something to gain...I was interested in her General Magic skills with creating spells, while she was interested in my piano skills and original spell suggestions.

In other words, I was no longer thinking of killing her, while she was refraining from casting any weird spells on me again.

Anyway, back to the scrolls...

I had bought myself two types of scrolls, the first was an invisibility Spell Scroll, it works by putting up an invisible barrier around me. Most barriers stay put after you activate them, but this invisibility barrier moves along with you when you walk, so long as you're holding the scroll. It shimmers a bit if you're moving around a lot, but if you're staying still, you'll be completely invisible.

The second type was an eyesight boosting Spell Scroll. Now, when I enhance my eyes with Lightning Boost, the effect is that I can see things in a kinda slow-motion state, giving me more time to react, but this scroll was different...after activating it, your can extend the range of your eyesight like a telescope, able to see clearly from long distances.

The invisibility spell was crazy expensive, while the eyesight spell was really cheap, mainly because repeated use damages the users' eyesight...but I've got my Healing Factor, so I don't have to worry about that side effect. I had used it to watch my targets' house from a distance for the first couple of nights, and since I hadn't been able to learn anything from a distance, I decided to sneak in and watch from inside, before searching the place.

And as for my new custom spell...it was another spell that required two scrolls, and it was something that should come in very handy.

I called it Record and Play.

The first scroll records sound, it has a limit of twenty minutes. You run your Mana through it to start recording, and then do that again to stop recording. The second scroll, Play, then plays the recorded sound. It's biggest limitation wasn't the twenty minute time limit, but the fact that it could only store one sound recording at a time.

If you used the Record scroll while something is already recorded, it'll overwrite the previous recording. Therefore, I had labeled each of the scrolls so that I wouldn't mix them up. It'd suck if I accidentally recorded over something really important instead of playing it.

I had almost stumped Elolina with this request, it had taken five days for her to figure it out, unlike the Store and Extract spell which only took her a single day. According to her, she had never heard of a spell that captures sound like this.

I used to use recording devices a lot during investigative missions, so I figured...if it was possible, why not request it?

It had been a week since I accepted Erhtaph Ragiu's job offer.

Oh, and side note, I had passed all my exams and would be moving onto my second year without any problems.

The first name on the list of suspects he'd given me had proven to be innocent, I found no evidence whatsoever of him being a spy. Of course, if the spies only verbally leak information to The Empire, then there would literally be no existing proof unless someone actually witnessed them talking to an outsider.

However, I was confident in my judgment.

Physical evidence isn't the only proof that can be used to convict, you could tell a lot about someone by observing them. The job of a spy is very much a risky and stressful role to play, and by watching someone who thinks they're alone, you can gauge their mood, whether they're stressed or relaxed or angry or sad or whatever, if you know what to look for.

The first man I'd investigated was a merchant who often exported and sold his wares in Goldway, so there was definitely reason to be suspicious. He certainly had seemed rather depressed and out of it while I'd been observing him, but on the fourth night of my investigation, I found a diary hidden under the floorboards in his room, and...it turns out he had a lover in Goldway, and she had probably died during the incident a few months ago.

...I kinda felt bad for having spied on him after I found that.

There were tear splotches in the diary, indicating that he'd been crying while writing the entries. With not so much as a single shred of suspicious evidence discovered, I could confidently write him off as innocent.

And this second guy didn't appear to be suspicious as far as being a spy was either. He was pretty relaxed and calm, a bit too much if you ask me. There was something a bit...familiar about his demeanor, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Every now and then, he seemed to get lost in thought and emanated bloodlust...was he fantasizing about killing a boss or something...that was pretty common for people who weren't happy with their jobs.

He was under suspicion because he had also been a frequent recipient of imported goods from Goldway, and had a close relationship with some of the merchants from the country. But since Goldway doesn't exist anymore, he works as a cashier at a clothing store these days.

Now, then...back to the present.

He went to sleep pretty early, entering his bedroom. The attic didn't extend over his bedroom, and he always had the curtains drawn when I'd been watching from a distance outside over the last couple of nights. I couldn't really call it suspicious though, it's only natural that you wouldn't want people to be able to see in through your bedroom window. I always kept the curtains in my room shut.

I waited for around half an hour to make sure he was asleep and then snuck out of the attic, going through the trapdoor in the ceiling and quietly landing down onto the ground floor.

I quietened my breathing and made sure to silence my footsteps as I made my way through the small house, swiftly yet methodically scanning every nook and cranny as my eyes adjusted to the dark.

I spent the next two hours carefully examining every single room, wall and floorboard, looking for anything suspicious, like loose floorboards or hollow spaces in the walls...but nothing turned up.

All that was left...was his bedroom.

I snuck in quietly and scanned the room.

Nothing appeared to be out of place at first glance...I'll search it just to be safe. I had guaranteed my effectiveness to Erhtaph, after all...so I wanted to make absolutely sure that I would report the right conclusion.

I took out a needle coated in tranquilizer and slowly pricked him with it, to make sure that he wouldn't wake up. I then get to work, searching the room thoroughly, including the bedframe and under the mattress. I searched the hemlines of his curtains, as well as inside the hollow curtain poles.

There was a small attached bathroom in the room, I had searched half the bedroom as I silently opened the door and walked in...I got a familiar scent. It was faint, strongest near the sink...it was a sharp and metallic smell...the smell of blood. Had he been washing his hands of blood? He didn't appear to have any visible injuries. Maybe he was sick and had been coughing up blood?

No...something told me it wasn't anything like that.

I searched the bathroom, and after finding nothing, I got back to the bedroom and continued searching the rest of it...and it wasn't long before I found something suspicious.

There was a large wooden closet in the corner of the room, and there were scratch marks on the floor in front of it. Which meant that it was frequently being dragged forward and pushed back. I carefully lifted and moved the closet forward, raising an eyebrow as it revealed a rectangular opening in the floor, with a narrow staircase leading down.

A hidden basement inside a bedroom? Well, that wasn't suspicious at all...

I headed down into the room and sparked up an orb of lightning in my palm to light up the space. It was a fairly big room, with thick padding on the walls to soundproof the space. As I scanned the space illuminated by the dim light of my lightning orb, that scent flooded my nostrils, as I got a good look at everything inside the room...

What the...?

"This sick motherfucker...," I muttered to myself with a grimace.

It was...a torture chamber.

There were three people chained up in the back of the chamber...all of them children. Two girls who looked to be around six and ten years old, and a boy who appeared to be around eight. A table was next to them, with a variety of torture tools on it. There was also a rubber jumpsuit that had blood splatter all over it...

Now I get it, why his demeanor had seemed so eerily familiar...he was just like the researchers who had tortured me in my old world.

I walked over to his victims and looked them over.

The younger of the two girls and the young boy were already dead, their bodies were cold and slumped lifelessly against the chains shackling them, it looked like they had been dead for about a day at least...the other girl was barely alive, she blinked her eyes opened as I approached them, but showed no almost emotion whatsoever, except for a hint of fear...she had been almost completely broken on the inside by whatever she'd been put through.

I looked over their bodies...they had been whipped, their fingernails and toenails ripped off, several lesions and gashes, their wrists were badly scarred from the rusty metal shackles...it was hard to say if they had died from shock, starvation, infection or blood loss.

"P-please...don't h-hurt...me," The surviving girl whispered in a dry, raspy voice, before letting out a pained cough, a streak of blood running down the corner of her mouth. She had sunken cheeks, was extremely skinny, and her short brown hair was thinning. She looked badly malnourished and starved.

I felt something boiling up inside me...this reminded me of my last three years of my previous life...

"Unforgivable...," I blurted out quietly, shaking with rage.

I didn't know that something like this could rattle me...it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, I had assassinated plenty of fucked up individuals in my old life, and had seen all kinds of horrors, but I had rarely batted an eye beyond slight initial surprise and feeling a bit disturbed...

But this time was different, now that I had experienced it for myself...I had nothing but hatred for those who would torture a helpless victim...

I slowly unchained the children, taking them upstairs and laying them down, cleaning the wounds of the one still alive. She was weak and severely hurt, but her breathing and heartbeat were relatively stable.

I slowly poured some water in her mouth, a slight sparkle of life appearing in her eyes, as she passed out after drinking it, a tired and slight look of relief easing her pained and anxiety-wrought face.

Now, then...

I walked over to the bed and dragged the man off of it, before dragging him down to the torture chamber. I chained his arms up and sat down in front of him, waiting for the tranquilizer to wear off.

It didn't take long, before his eyes slowly blinked open.

"Wh-wha...where am I!?" He exclaimed in a panicked voice, before noticing me and staring at me in shock I lit up an oil lamp I'm found in the room.

I don't need to enter Bloodlust Mode...there's no need to suppress my emotions right now.

"Mr Depol Lieh...you're about to die an excruciatingly painful death. I'll be giving you a taste of your own medicine, you rotten piece of shit."

"Th-this is some kind of mistake-!" He began, trying to feign innocence and confusion as rage fueled bloodlust began emanating from him, before I interrupted him by rapidly using a plyer to rip off his tongue.

He let out a howl of pain as blood poured out of his mouth, I wiped off some blood splatter that splashed on my face.

"How disgusting...now shut up, I'm just getting started here. Tch, now I can't use Record and Play since you can't talk anymore...oh, well. Hm...let's rip out your teeth next," I suggested with a cold glare, reaching for his teeth with the plyer.

His pursed his lips in fear, so I grabbed them with the plyer and ripped them off too.

"Wow, that's pretty freaky looking," I remarked coldly, as I began slowly twisting and ripping off his teeth one by one, "Scream all you want...this room of yours is soundproofed after all."

After his teeth, I used a scalpel to slowly slice off his ears. Then his nose.

I then used another tool to rip off his fingernails one by one. I then chopped off his fingers segment by segment. Then his toes.

Next, I used a corkscrew to screw holes all over his body, making sure to avoid his vitals.

And then I used constant streams of weak lightning to boil and explode his eyeballs.

As I did all that in a rage, my anger fueling me, I couldn't help but...enjoy it.

"Alright...I've had...my...fill," I sighed, panting slightly as my heart pounded and adrenaline pumped through my veins, before adding, "It's time for you to die."

I picked up a rusty saw and slowly drove it through his chest, twisting it as I forced it in. He let out a prolonged screech of pain, before gurgling and fading out as the rusty metal sawed into his heart.

Probably shouldn't just leave the body to rot. I used my wire to tie all the chunks I had cut off onto the main body, stuffing his finger segments and teeth back into his bloody, open mouth. I then used my Store scroll on the corpse. There was blood all over the floor, but there's not much I could do about that.

I then stood up and turned back, calming myself and regaining my composure.

I had...I had gotten way too into that.

I headed back up, covered the opening back up with the closet. I then wrapped up the corpses of the children in white cloth sheets I found in a drawer.

I tied them to my back, and carried the surviving girl in my arms. After making sure that I left no trace of my presence, I silently snuck out through a window.

It was 3 AM in the morning, so no one was around right now, I made my way along the rooftops towards the Ragiu mansion.

...

I arrived at the mansion and ran along the shadows, heading for the back.

Alright, what do I do, he's probably aslee- oh, the light was turned on in Erhtaph Ragiu's study, a dim glow was coming out of the balcony glass sliding door. Well, that's convenient.

I scaled up the wall and jumped onto the balcony of the room. I then tapped on the glass.

He opened the glass sliding door and let me in, giving me a curious and surprised look at what I was carrying.

I decided to get straight down to business.

"First off, that guy wasn't a spy...but..."

I then explained what had happened in that house. He listened, his expression turning grim as I got to the part where I discovered the hidden torture chamber basement.

He was silent for a while after I finished explaining. I didn't leave out anything, including exactly how I had dealt with the man before killing him. I told him that I planned to get rid of the body in the Goblin cave or the swamp area or somewhere else where monsters and wild animals would wipe out any trace of his existence.

"I understand, I shall leave the disposal to you then. As for the child you saved, I shall get her treated in a hospital and then look for her family. I apologize, this must have been a rather unpleasant experience-."

"No...actually, in addition to investigating spy suspects, I'll also investigate anyone suspected of doing something like this...I'll gladly cut them down," I responded with a grimace.

...

...

It was the next day...or rather, the morning of the same day, considering that it had carried on well past midnight. After I reported the result of my mission to Erhtaph, I snuck out to the Goblin cave, made my way to that maze, and used Extract to dump the body there. The Goblins can scavenge it or whatever they do.

Anyway, I was taking a break from the whole investigation thing today. Especially after what happened last night, I could definitely use a day off to clear my head a bit.

During the day for the past week or so, I usually trained Persia in one of the Academy training halls. Since it was currently a break, no one else was around, so we didn't have to worry about being seen. Until she had a solid grasp on staying in control while using her Retractable Anima, we had decided to keep it between us.

Today, though...I was taking a break from that too. I was currently in my apartment, getting high with Az and Rai. Since I was relaxing during the day today, I was planning on sneaking out with Persia at night to the Goblin cave area to train.

"I win," I yawned, taking a deep puff and exhaling relaxedly as I became the first to reach the goal square in a game of snakes and ladders that Rai had made.

"No fair...no one stands a chance against you with dice games, you just keep rolling the exact number you want," Complained Rai, his tail swaying lazily as he rubbed his stoned, red eyes.

Pero was swatting at his tail playfully, grabbing onto it and biting it, though he didn't seem to notice. She had grown quite a bit since I'd first adopted her.

"All the board games you made use dice though...," Pointed out Az drowsily, "And the ones that don't are usually just two player games, like checkers."

"Hey, question...doesn't this world have playing cards?" I suddenly inquired, as I began thinking of other games we could play.

"...I totally forgot! Yeah, you can get playing cards here, they're pretty expensive so I never bothered to get myself a deck, but...with the money we earn from Quests, it's definitely easily affordable now," Rai responded, sitting up a bit unsteadily.

"Okay, so now the question is...," I began, "...which of us is gonna go out and buy a deck?"

"..."

"..."

"Not it!"

"What he said."

"Not- ah, damn it!" Groaned Rai, as Az and I volunteered out before he could, "Come on, Kuro...you can instantly sober up if you use your Healing Factor, I'm really high right now, dude..."

"Oh, I'm sorry...did you not hear me call out 'not it'? You'll be fine, use your tail as a third leg so that you don't stumble or fall or something," I replied, yawning contentedly, "Or...we could just not get the deck at all."

He reluctantly got up and headed out the door, his legs buckling slightly as he left with a stoned yawn.

...

He got back an hour later, opening the door and walking in. He was kinda dusty and had a few scratches and bruises on him.

"...you fell over, didn't you?"

"Yeah...my head got really spinny for a moment...," He sighed tossing the pack of cards onto the bed before heading into the bathroom to clean himself up a bit.

Five minutes later, we sat in a circle on the bed, with the deck in the middle. I shuffled it and placed it down.

"So...what should we play?" I inquired, rolling another joint.

"Something without too many rules," Yawned Az immediately.

"How about Bluff? We divide the cards equally, and then place them facedown while declaring the number on it, they can either lie or tell the truth...the suit doesn't matter. The next player must either play the same number, skip their turn, or call out the previous player if they think they were lying about the card they played. If it turns out to be a bluff, then the player who bluffed will have to add all the cards played during that round to their hand. First player to get rid of all the cards in their hand wins," I suggested.

I had played Bluff a lot through online apps...it was pretty fun.

"Uh...I think I get it?" Az replied uncertainly, rubbing his eyes.

"It'll be clearer with an example...allow me," Chimed in Rai, "If the first player starts off by declaring an K as the card they played facedown, the next player must also play a K...they can lie if they want, the others won't know for sure since they're playing it facedown. If they don't have a K, they can either put another card down and lie about it, skip their turn, or if they think the previous player was lying about their facedown card being a K, they can call out the bluff. If it turns out to be a K after all, then the person who wrongly called out a bluff will have to take all the cards played during that round, and if they were right, then the person who was caught bluffing will take the cards. Oh, and let's say the first person plays one K, and your turn is next and you have two Ks in your hand...you can play both of them. Oh, and-!"

"Not gonna lie, I'm kinda zoning out with all that talking. You know what...let's just start, Az can figure it out as we play," I cut him off, before dealing out the cards.

Since there were three of us, we couldn't evenly divide the 52 cards, so I took 18 while I dealt 17 each to the other two.

We then began.

After a couple of games, Az got the rules and we began playing more seriously.

Az played two cards facedown, declaring two aces.

Rai was next, he played one card facedown, declaring one ace.

I glanced at my hand...I had two aces, which meant that...one of them was bluffing.

Since Rai had played over Az, I couldn't call out Az, he was safe now, if I was going to call out a bluff, I could only call out Rai.

I glanced at his face carefully...he averted his gaze. Nice try...but that was obviously fake, he was trying to trick me into thinking that he was bluffing by acting like he had something to hide. Can't fool me with a poor feint like that...

"Two aces," I declared, placing an eight and a five facedown.

It was a gamble, but I was willing to take the risk.

"One ace," Responded Az, placing a card facedown.

Looks like his previous turn had been a bluff. And since he had played over me, I was safe now.

"Ah, damn it...pass," Sighed Rai, as he stared at his cards.

He had about twenty cards in his hand right now, I was down to five and Az was down to four. The rest had been discarded after being played in the previous rounds.

"Two aces," I declared again, this time actually playing me two aces.

"Pass."

"Er...you're bluffing!" Rai declared, not very confidently.

"Dude...just pass," I sighed, flipping the cards face up to reveal that I hadn't been bluffing, as his hand now held more than twenty-five cards.

Come to think of it...this might be the first time that just us guys of Group D had hung out like this...usually, I either spent time with the entire group together, or with Persia alone.

It felt different to when the girls were around, it's kinda hard to explain, but...this was pretty fun.

And just what I needed to get my mind off things for a bit.

I was having a great time hanging out with these two...though I doubt I'd ever admit that out loud...it was kinda embarrassing.

...

...

Later that night, I was making my way to the west side of the wall with Persia, as we headed for our usual training spot.

"Hey, are you alright, Kuro? You get this dark look in your eye every now and then...did something happen?"

"Well, I can't really talk about it, but I guess you could say that last night's job was a bit unpleasant...it's nothing to worry about," I assured her, ruffling her hair playfully as she swatted my hand away.

We soon got to our training area, and right as we were about to begin...

"Someone's coming!" Whispered Persia, as her cat ears twitched, nodding towards the direction of the road leading to Goldway.

We silently and quickly made our way to the cave entrance, hiding inside the shadow of the opening.

A few seconds later, a figure appeared, walking back in the direction of the Rustlands from the rocky road.

He was carrying a dagger and a couple of Spell Scrolls, as he nervously glanced around while walking in the direction of the west gate.

He looked familiar...wait, wasn't he...

Yeah, he was the fourth name on the list of suspects I'd been tasked with investigating. Before I started my investigations, I looked up each of the suspects so that I'd know what they look like.

He was acting pretty suspicious...and he wasn't an Adventurer, so he wouldn't be able to enter and leave through the gates as he pleased.

He appeared to be really paranoid and nervous, constantly looking around him as he headed back.

...I'm going to follow him.

"Hey, uh...well it's hard to explain, but I think I might need to tail that guy for my job, do you mind waiting here for a bit? I'll be back as soon as-."

"Can't I come with you? I can be quiet and sneaky too, you know. It'll be too boring to just sit and wait."

And so, the two of us carefully followed after him, I activated the invisibility spell to keep ourselves hidden, since there wasn't much cover to hide behind as we got closer to the gates, it was kind of a sandy, open space. If the top of the walls were more thoroughly guarded, it'd be pretty difficult to walk around here without being spotted.

Wait, he's not heading for the gates...he's heading for an unguarded section of the wall.

As he reached the wall, he once again nervously glanced around him, before tentatively scaling up the wall.

He was sneaking back in...

"Huh...I thought we were the only ones who did that," Persia remarked quietly, "This guy just screams 'suspicious'."

"Yeah, no kidding...well, I've seen enough for now, let's get back to training, Kitty Cat," I suggested, as we turned around and made our way to the cave area again.

Well, then...it looks like I had stumbled across quite an interesting lead...

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