Blood Feud

Ezio rose from his computer desk, his eyes vacant and his deadened face devoid of expression. He was an orphan abandoned at a children's home. More than ten years ago, a man named Giovanni Auditore had carried him away from its entrance through the falling snow, treated him as his own son, and taught him everything he knew without reservation.

Giovanni was a Master Assassin, but also a foolish father who burned every meal he cooked. He was a strict teacher and a loving father. During the ten years they spent together, they had leaned on each other for warmth, quietly becoming the ones each relied on.

But that rare, precious warmth had shattered now.

On the computer screen was an email opened just minutes ago: Giovanni's final letter, his last farewell to Ezio. He had prepared it for a long time, updating its contents every year. He had long been ready for the possibility that he might die and be separated from Ezio.

It was simply his nature, or perhaps fate—or maybe something else. Giovanni was never one to stay out of trouble. Or rather, he could no longer escape the mire he was mired in, or the life he led, walking a tightrope.

Today, the man had become a scheduled email, a line of scarlet words written in blood. (The letter is in the author's notes.)

[New quest activated]

[Blood Feud Quest: Investigate the cause of Master Assassin Giovanni Auditore's death (Quest reward +★★)]

[Difficulty: ★★★]

[Quest hint: He is buried where the Twelve Moons rise]

[Quest reward: Piece of Eden · Excalibur · Sword of Promised Victory]

"You're a real bastard, you know that? Well, there you go. You really are dead."

Ezio flinched slightly, then squeezed his eyes shut, as if opening them would reveal an empty computer screen and prove that everything he had just seen was an illusion.

He remained silent for a long time, until a clear eagle's cry rang out. Ezio opened his eyes. The redness had faded from them, and he was calm again. Controlling his emotions was another essential part of being an Assassin. He had lost control for a moment, but he knew he couldn't let those feelings linger. Only with a clear head could he deal with what lay ahead.

As an Assassin, Ezio was qualified. From the time he could barely toddle, Giovanni had put him through basic training. Back then, it had been about cultivating a hobby—or, more accurately, developing instincts like conditioned reflexes.

For ten years, Ezio hadn't let up for a moment. He hadn't been an oblivious infant when Giovanni took him in. As a transmigrator, he had spent ten years playing along with Giovanni, pretending to be a precocious, clever child without seeming like a monster.

He no longer needed to play pretend or keep up the act. The person he cared about was gone, and he would never see him again.

"I'm even more capable than you thought, Giovanni. How could you underestimate me?"

Looking at the letter still on the computer screen, neither vanished into a blank screen nor faded like an illusion, Ezio spoke softly. "I'm strong. I'm even more capable than you thought. I may not be grown up yet, but I'm no ordinary child. There's a soul from another world inside me. I came here with a gift. Maybe I should've told you that secret. Then you might not have gone off risking your life..."

As he spoke, Ezio suddenly pulled his lips into a smile, a trace of bitterness in it. "If you'd known, you might've died even sooner. Once you knew I could protect myself, you probably would've been even more reckless in pursuing what you called your dream? Your mission? Or your freedom?"

Ezio couldn't say. Even now, he didn't understand why Giovanni had been so devoted to this 'profession' of dancing on the edge of a blade, walking a tightrope.

"Maybe this is just the fate of an Assassin."

A three-star quest was one of the highest-level quests Ezio had received, and its reward was the greatest he had ever been offered.

With the Blood Feud Quest's bonus, the reward rose to five stars. It was one of the few legendary artifacts in Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Excalibur, a Piece of Eden also known as the Sword of Promised Victory or the Sword in the Stone. It was the legendary sword of King Arthur, but in truth, it had been made by the Isu, the First Civilization, as a weapon to fight the Prophecy of the End of the World. Unfortunately, they had failed.

And this was the gift Ezio had received after transmigrating to this world.

Once certain conditions were met, the system would generate and issue quests for him. Before this, most of his quests had involved completing various kinds of training, such as stealth, disguise, and assassination techniques. Most were one- or two-star quests, and their rewards were various items, weapons, and skill upgrades from Assassin's Creed. He could also enter a trial ground resembling a Training Space.

Giovanni had always thought Ezio was still in the training stage he had prepared for him. What he didn't know was that every night, when Ezio went to sleep, he entered that mysterious Training Space and used swords, axes, daggers, firearms, Hidden Blades... every tool at his disposal to assassinate one trial target after another.

Compared with Giovanni's words, "My hands are stained with blood," Ezio had long since been steeped in a pool of blood.

He had forgotten how many people he had killed with his own hands. Death no longer stirred anything in him, because in the Trial Space, he had faced his own death countless times.

Training like this should have long since drained the color from life for Ezio. But the emotions an Assassin was supposed to cast aside had become his final shackle—or, rather, the anchor that kept him from losing himself.

He treasured every moment of the past ten years more than anyone. Only when he was with that fool who always burned the food could Ezio laugh from the bottom of his heart.

But it was all over now. The quest was over, too.

[You have completed the long-term quest: Disguise]

[Giovanni never discovered how fundamentally different you were from the other children. You successfully concealed your special identity for ten years.]

[Quest difficulty: ★★★]

[Time taken: 3855 days]

[Quest evaluation: Perfect (Reward +★)]

[You have received the quest reward: Broken Spear of Leonidas]

[Item name: Broken Spear of Leonidas]

[Rank: Piece of Eden · Legendary Artifact · Half-destroyed]

[Effect: Breaks defenses, enables targeted teleportation]

Looking at the spearhead, just over a foot long, that had appeared in his hand, Ezio didn't find it unfamiliar. In the hands of players, this broken spear had another name: the Flying Thunder God.

But Ezio felt no excitement at all. If he had perfectly concealed his identity until he graduated from Giovanni's tutelage, the quest reward should have been five full stars. But even then, he wouldn't have been happy. If completing the quest required Giovanni's death, Ezio would rather never have triggered the damn thing.

"I'll find you, Giovanni. I swear I will."

Even without the scarlet Blood Feud Quest, Ezio had sworn he would find Giovanni's body and avenge him. It was the least—and perhaps the only thing—he could do for him.

"Where the Twelve Moons rise?"

If this was the world of Assassin's Creed, then that description had to involve one faction: the Templar Order.

Ezio naturally assumed this was the modern-day world of Assassin's Creed. Everything his gift had given him came from Assassin's Creed, and the man who had adopted him on that cold winter night was also a Master Assassin named Giovanni. He had been trained in assassination from childhood.

He wouldn't underestimate the vast organization hidden behind the scenes, one with ambitions to control the world. Any contempt for them would surely become a keen dagger one day, piercing his heart.

As Ezio packed his things, preparing to leave the home that was no longer safe, his keen ears caught a faint gunshot from outside. It was a sharp pop, easy for an ordinary person to miss, but to him it rang like thunder.

Ezio bit the pin off a flashbang and closed his eyes. His trained falcon became his eyes. Eagle Vision opened, and the target was marked.