Chapter 117

Turning my head, I saw the legendary assassin, who shouldn't have been home, slowly walking towards me.

It was Marcus du Couteau, her father.

"Father...you're not..." Katarina was taken aback.

General Du Couteau, however, remained calm and offered no explanation in response to his daughter's questions.

They didn't even refute Chen Ce's "slander."

He sat down unhurriedly, then gestured for Katarina to step back with his eyes—as her father and a strict mentor, he never spoke a word to Katarina that could be conveyed through a glance.

Katarina immediately stopped struggling violently.

Chen Ce released her hand and let her step aside.

"You've been deliberately avoiding contact with Miss Katarina these past few days, haven't you?" Chen Ce asked again.

"Yes," General Du Couteau readily admitted without hesitation. "To distance myself from Katarina."

"To avoid implicating you and your family?"

"Yes."

"What about other candidates?"

"Katarina is the strongest assassin I've ever taught."

"It seems you really intend to sacrifice her—given the current situation."

General Du Couteau did not directly acknowledge this statement, but instead remained silent.

Listening to their conversation, Katarina instantly gleaned a wealth of information—but it was clearly not good information.

At first, she was worried that her father would find out about her assassination of Swain, but now it seems... the person she feared most was the real mastermind?

"Father...?" She found it hard to accept for a moment.

But the other party's cold gaze said it all.

The facts were just as she had imagined.

"You assessed the situation and surrendered to Swain early on, but you don't actually recognize his legitimacy as Grand Commander, do you?" Chen Ce sat down as well, his calm tone sounding like he was interrogating the other party.

"You had your Assassin Guild send a commission to Miss Katarina —you knew she would never refuse given her ambition for fame. Then you deliberately avoided contact with her, pretending to be unaware of everything. That way, even if she failed and Swain found out everything, you could absolve yourself as much as possible, at least ensuring your family wouldn't be implicated... Is that right?"

"From the very beginning, you were prepared for the worst, and you were also prepared to abandon Miss Katarina... right?"

General Du Couteau remained silent throughout the entire exchange.

That's a tacit agreement.

After a long silence, he slowly raised his head and asked wearily, "Who are you... and how do you know all this...?"

"Me?" Chen Ce smiled. "Before answering that question, I'd like to confirm a very obvious detail with you—your manor is also protected from Swain's spying, right?"

"Hmm." General Du Couteau nodded.

"Then, my Chen Ce." Chen Ce extended his hand to the other person. "My goal is the same as yours—to eliminate Swain and his accomplices."

"..." General Du Couteau hesitated for a moment, but finally grasped the outstretched hand. "The Faceless... He's not a member of the Assassin Guild, he's one of yours?"

"No, it's Pale Lady's."

"So you're working for the Pale Lady?"

"Perhaps you've got it backwards."

"What?" Couteau was taken aback, thinking he had misheard.

But Chen Ce's smiling response shocked him immensely:

"The Pale Lady is mine."

Upon hearing this, General Du Couteau remained stunned for a long time.

A full half minute later, he finally sat up, trembling. "Well... then... please come closer... I have a secret to tell you..."

Chen Ce nodded and bent down.

But the instant he lowered his head, a cold glint flashed.

General Du Couteau pulled out a Serrated Dirk from somewhere and, while stabbing at his opponent, shouted, "Katarina, do it!!"

In an instant, the father and daughter, both top assassins, launched their attacks simultaneously.

If it were anyone else, they might be facing certain death the next second.

But Chen Ce only found it laughable.

"The Realm of Death..."

After a cold whisper, he and General Du Couteau vanished instantly.

When General Du Couteau recovered from the extreme dizziness and fear, he was shocked to find himself in a wasteland he had never seen before.

The surroundings were deathly silent, with only wisps of eerie mist drifting by.

"This is the Death Realm," Chen Ce's voice rang out from the side, "Also known as the Death Realm... the world where Mordekaiser resides."

"Morde... Caesar...?" General Du Couteau looked in horror at the black mist on the horizon.

It seems... it's drifting in...

Accompanied by an aura of despair and death...

"I knew all along that your hatred for Black Rose surpasses your hatred for Swain," Chen Ce said with a slight smile. "I also guessed that you wouldn't agree to cooperate with me... so, I'm afraid you'll have to stay here for a while."

"What... what does this mean...?!" The aura of the Death Realm began to gnaw at Couteau's will, making it impossible for him to remain calm.

But Chen Ce didn't care about any of that.

As the black mist drew closer, a massive suit of iron armor came into view.

It was Mordekaiser, the lord of the Death Realm.

"I'll leave this person here with you for a few days. Don't kill him, and don't let those ghosts continue to torment his spirit."

"Hmm?" Mordekaiser grumbled, "Do you think this is your daycare?"

"In exchange, I will send you to the material realm again in a while."

"That's all?"

"It is Immortal Bastion."

"Hmm?" Upon hearing this keyword, Mordekaiser unusually showed excitement. "The Immortal Bastion... the Immortal Bastion that I built with my own hands?"

"Yes."

"Make a deal."

"Okay, then it's settled." Chen Ce slowly removed the Azakana mask from his waist, preparing to use the Realm of Death to leave the Death Realm on this "undying demon of the Spirit Realm"—a trick he had already used once in Ionia.

Before leaving, he emphasized one last thing:

"Remember not to kill him... otherwise, Syndra will bombard your doorstep for forty-nine days straight."

"I don't need you to teach me how to do things...!"

Amid Mordekaiser's defiant growl, Chen Ce left the Death Realm.

The moment I returned to the material realm, Katarina's beautiful yet pale face immediately came into view.

Her eyes were filled with confusion, and she still gripped the dagger tightly in her hand. "What... what did you do...?!"

"I've brought the esteemed General Du Couteau to a safe place—he may be staying there for a while." Chen Ce shrugged, completely disregarding the other's weapon.

Even Katarina at her peak poses no threat to him, let alone an injured Katarina.

"What exactly do you want to do...!" Katarina was anxious—not only at Chen Ce, but also at what her father had just said.

Her father admitted... that he wanted to abandon her...

The job to assassinate Swain was actually placed by her father... and he was prepared to sever ties with her at any time...

"What I want to do is simple—three things." Chen Ce held up three fingers. "First, gain the full support of your Du House Du Couteau; second, gain the support of Darius, the Hand of Noxus; third, kick Jericho Swain out of the game."

Upon hearing this, Katarina was greatly surprised. "You... you're not Swain's lackey...!"

"His enthusiasm for me was half genuine, and half a deliberate attempt to shift the blame for the assassins' attempts on him onto me—otherwise, you would have died in the palace long ago."

"What exactly is your relationship...!"

"He wanted to cooperate with me to overthrow the Black Rose, but he was worried that I would become a threat to him afterward, so he wanted to make as many enemies as possible for me... But unfortunately, I also wanted to overthrow him."

"You..." Katarina understood the man in front of her less and less.

But she still had one question:

"What you did to me... and you even laid a hand on my father, do you really think the Du House Du Couteau will still support you or cooperate with you...!"

Hearing this, Chen Ce smiled again. "Indeed, General Du Couteau is certainly unwilling to cooperate with me—coincidentally, I also don't really want to cooperate with such a treacherous, cunning, and fickle person. Moreover, his hostility towards me is even deeper than his hostility towards Swain."

"Father is the head of the family... As long as he's unwilling, the family will not cooperate with you...!" Katarina gritted her teeth.

"I know." Chen Ce maintained his smile and elegantly extended his hand to the girl before him.

"So... from now on, you will be the head of the Du House Du Couteau."

"I apologize for the mistakes I made before, and I hope we can have a pleasant working relationship in the future."

"Miss Katarina du Couteau."

Chapter Seven: Miss Carter Wants to Get Married

After Chen Ce left, Katarina fell into deep thought.

For several days in a row, she pondered everything she had learned in that brief half hour.

Her father—the top assassin, general, and hero she once idolized, Marcus du Couteau —was actually planning to abandon her...

She couldn't accept this betrayal.

She recalled everything from the past.

As for Marcus du Couteau... he was always so strict and unsmiling, and even when she made a major breakthrough, he wouldn't offer much affirmation, just waving his hand dismissively, as if it were all perfectly natural.

She seemed to have never received any love from him... She didn't even know what fatherly love was.

She had been training since she was a child, spending all her time training except for eating and resting... Day after day, she became increasingly numb. He always told her to see herself as a killing machine, that assassins didn't need honor, that assassins only needed to serve the empire.

He never seemed to treat her as his own flesh and blood.

They didn't even treat her as... a living, breathing person.

From the moment he led her into the path of assassination, she was nothing more than a perfect killing machine.

"It's like a joke..."

A flame burned in the fireplace, and only Katarina's sighs echoed in the warm, quiet hall.

Her father has been "missing" for several days... ever since that terrible man announced that she would inherit the position of family leader. She doesn't know where her father went or whether he is safe; she is completely lost.

After learning everything, her beliefs and worldview, which she had built up over the years, began to show signs of cracking.

She couldn't even describe her feelings for her father... More than a blood relative, her father was like an "engineer," an engineer who turned her into a killing machine, devoid of any affection.

Is she destined to inherit the family leadership? Is she qualified? Will others respect her? Should she "betray" her father?

She couldn't figure out the answers to any of these questions.

Perhaps... to know everything, one should go to that place.

The location was recorded on that piece of paper.

"His Chen Ce..."

Katarina took out a piece of paper from her pocket, which had an address and coordinates marked on it.

It was a manor... but it seemed one had to enter the manor through some secret passage.

"What is the answer...?"

Chen Ce has been keeping the empire's legendary assassin and hero general, Marcus du Couteau, locked in a "dark room" for several days.