Chapter 175.


    <strong>Chapter 175. A Secret Meeting between a Devil and Assassin. (2/2)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmph! You think you can hold my daughter’s future over my head to get me to cooperate with your absurd little n? There will always be hardships for people to ovee on the path they choose to walk. If that event is one of those hardships she has to ovee, then so be it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then… what about your own profession? You could lose out on a lot of potential jobs because of this event.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If that is the case, let it be. The only thing that matters is that I gain something of value in exchange for thepletion of the mission I ept. You, boy, do not have the financial resources to make the eptance of such a mission lucrative for me in any way.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You could be a hero who saves the world as an assassin. Does that sort of thing have no appeal?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hero? Hah! And who would know of such a thing?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Your wife would. Maybe your daughter as well. Don’t you think your daughter’s respect is quite worth it? She would be the daughter of the man who averted a global economic crisis.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t give a damn about that sort of thing. Look, boy, in the end, you have nothing to offer in exchange for such a daunting task. I’d be a fool to ever ept it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaah. Fine, I understand. I have onest trump card I didn’t want to y.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? And what is that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If I said I was a devil, would you believe me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Pfthahaha! A devil? Are you an idiot? Who’d believe that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right, I didn’t expect you would. I wouldn’t believe in such nonsense either. But… in the off chance that I was, what if I said you could stop aging? You would still be able to die, but you would remain in your peak condition where your appearance remains as you are at present and you will continue to live so long as you do not suffer a fatal wound or die of illness. Is that something you’d be interested in?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you going to try and sell me some water from a sham fountain of eternal youth? You know, I’m not dumb enough to fall for such an absurd scam, boy.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No, there’s no water involved, all you would need to do is… sell your soul to the devil. It’s that simple.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahahaha! Sell my soul to the devil to stop aging? You’ve truly read too many absurd stories, boy.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then… how about we let that be the cherry on top? If it works then great, if it doesn’t, then oh well. What I truly have to offer is a chance to repair your fractured rtionship with your daughter should you sell your soul to me and ept this request of mine. I can even get her topletely forgive you for the time I almost died because of you. In fact… I could get her to say something like, ‘Daddy, I wub you’ in a cutesy tone if you really want.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The instant he heard what I could get her to say to him his body froze up.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You… could really get my daughter to… say something so embarrassingly cute to me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? Are you suddenly interested?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Boy, I’ll be quite mad if you’re lying to me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not lying, I can definitely get her topletely forgive you and even say that awful embarrassing line to you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa’s father closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well? What do you say?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If you could truly get my daughter to say such an ungodly embarrassing line at this age to me, I’d be willing to ughter as many institutions as you want.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, really? Aren’t you too much of a doting father? You’d value something like this more than living forever?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Screw not aging, it can’t possiblypare to my daughter saying such an adorable line to me.” He made such a bold deration without any shame as though it were a factual statement.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then, I suppose that’s what I can offer you. In terms of any concrete action, let’s wait until after the election. Only then will you take my words more seriously. What you said is correct, right now I just sound like a crazy kid making up some oundish story.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I doubt whatever the contents of this envelope are will convince me of anything.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Good, that works in my favor, just treat it like that. Just take everything with a grain of salt. When it’s time to open it, do so and make your decision at that time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If that’s how you want to go about it then sure. I’ll keep this safe for the time being and store it somewhere nobody will ever find it. If I forget about it don’t me me though.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sure, no problem. A couple million people in the world dying isn’t that big a deal when there are billions in it anyway. It’s none of my business what happens after this. I’ve already done what I can by making these arrangements with the very limited resources at my disposal.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You really think an assassin who kills for a living can be used to stop millions of deaths?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Killing only leads to more killing, is that what you want to get at?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course. Once you kill one person, the people close to that person will want to get revenge and find the killer to kill them. In that process, they’re going to get innocent people killed as well, giving birth to more of such like-minded kill-happy people. If you only kill a single person, it may be possible to end the cycle, but when you kill everyone working at an institution like this… the repercussions would be noughing matter. The process is an exponential growth function. For this very reason, assassins are trained to take an approach to minimize the number of unrted kills. We are taught to only aim to assassinate the target when possible to minimize the effect of this positive feedback loop. Our rewards when at the academy were always deducted for extra people killed who were not targets on mock training missions.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, you’re not wrong, but in this case, it only takes a single person at this institution for something to go terribly wrong in the future. Any result where someone working for this institution escapes is considered a mission failure.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“This mission would likely be categorized as an end of life mission for an assassin going by the academy’s standards. Fleeing from this country alive would be near impossible with the way they operate. Even for a veteran like me, my odds of a sessful escape would be 20% at best with such a shy mission that will draw so many eyes.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You actually have a 20% chance of escape? That’s a lot higher than I would expect. I was sure it would be 0%.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Tch. Who do you think I am? I’m the top assassin in the world, I’m a very busy man.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Aren’t you just overestimating your abilities?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not the one who gave myself that title, that’s just the title other assassins dumped on me. The number of contracts offered to me on a daily basis is sky-high. On average it’s about 100 a day. I couldn’t even keep up with the demand even if I wanted to. I’m a pretty hotmodity, boy. The fact that my wife even convinced me to meet you is a miracle in and of itself.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wow, no wonder it took so long to get a response back from her.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You think that’s long? I have such arge backlog that there are people on a waiting list that is several years long. They’re still patiently waiting hoping I’ll ept their mission to this date.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wow. It must suck to be you. I’ll just kick back and enjoy my peaceful lifestyle in this dead city.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Damn brat. One day I’ll drag you by your ass and throw you in the middle of a battlefield and watch how you enjoy that peaceful lifestyle of yours there.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I will be sure to go into hiding before that ever happens.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, you think you can hide from the top assassin in the world when he wants to find you? Good luck with that. If I want you dead, boy, it would be as simple as snapping my finger.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t doubt that. Because of you, I’ve been skipping school afraid a transfer student who’s secretly an assassin will show up one day.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahahaha! Have you? Good. Good. Live in fear, boy. That transfer student you’re so scared of will definitely show up sooner orter. I’m sure they’ll cause lots of trouble for you and I’m looking forward to receiving reports on it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. So you really didn’tpletely dodge that time with such an objective in mind.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, yes, I’m quite petty. It’s a surprise that you realized that it was done intentionally with malicious intent. I must at least make sure my future son-inw isn’tpletely useless. He can’t be someone who relies solely on my daughter to survive if put into a dangerous position. So if an assassin shows up, think of it as a challenge.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll just run away with my tail between my legs. Don’t seriously expect me to confront an assassin.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, well, that certainly is one way to go about it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? You think there is another way?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course there is. Such as seducing them.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m romantically involved with your daughter?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So what? From what I understand, you have two women already. Oh, wait, make that three now. I was quite shocked to learn you snagged such a celebrity. Aren’t you actually quite good despite your looks, boy?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why do you even know about that? What’s with you? Are you a stalker?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, I have eyes everywhere, boy. That includes eyes on you. The method you used to take care of that other celebrity was quite interesting. Even I don’t know every individual detail or how you did it and only have a vague general idea. You''re just a high school brat with average grades after all, you shouldn’t have the knowledge at your age to pull off what you did. I know my daughter was involved and helped you with it, but you entered the room by yourself, all alone, where my eyes couldn’t reach.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">So there had been someone watching me the entire time. No wonder I always felt on edge despite nothing significant happening during the operation.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You really are just a creepy stalker. Please stop stalking me, it’s extremely unpleasant.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I am an assassin, it’s part of my job to be a creepy stalker.”