"Listen here, guys! Our mission is to protect Lady Amastacia, the daughter of Lord Legolas, and kill the assassins who are tasked to kill her Ladyship. Since her ladyship will be in the room on the top floor of his Lordship's manor, we need to attack them like last time but, instead of having snipers being on the hill, we need the snipers, Hikaru and I, to be near her ladyship's window because the assassins are not stupid to go in the front door of the manor. We need Yako and Aragorn to be near her ladyship to kill the assassins who are coming in from both the window and the door and if necessary, bring her ladyship to safety. As for the other two, Alviss and Amelia, you are to block the stairs from incoming assassins. Am I clear?" The others nodded and we turned to head towards Lord Legolas's manor but I heard a voice shouting my name and froze. 

"Qinrel?!" I yelled in surprise and the young woman smiled.

"Hey. So long never see." I smiled warmly and Qinrel nodded. She pulled me into an alley and pushed me to the wall.

"What are you doing?" I whispered and she glanced at me with a serious look.

"Aaron, This map is for you." Qinrel placed the map into Aaron's pocket and Aaron smiled in thanks.

"Aaron, you know that the assassins are targetting her ladyship but I confirmed one of the assassin's identities and that assassin was very close to her ladyship until three years ago when her ladyship lead one of the older team in the Eliminator Association to capture him because he killed a son of one of the nobles, who was also very close to her ladyship. Here is the file." Qinrel handed me the file and I went through it quickly but almost dropped the file when I saw the person's name.

"Shit! Number 6?!" Qinrel nodded and I was speechless because Number 6, or Ryuji Sato, was one of the people who I respected and befriended the most during my year as a member of Xurenth until the day of my punishment. He was a nine-tailed fox but had lived in the elven kingdom during his childhood before the age of 14 which he decided to join the ranks of Xurenth and managed to rise to Number 6 at the age of 19. I never knew that he killed her ladyship's friend because he was always kind to me even though he was sent to torture me in the dungeon but never wanted to betray Xurenth as Xurenth was home in his heart. I still remembered the letter that he sent, explaining why he never helped me to escape and why he never went to kill me, instead, he argued with the other leaders of Xurenth to let me go and not be branded a betrayer but failed. I stared at the file again, hands shaking. Qinrel noticed and place a hand on my hand, calming me down.

"Hey, I know that facing Number 6 is going to be tough because you are his friend that he holds in his heart and he is one of your friends and a mentor that you hold in your heart but you can change him, I know you can." I nodded at Qinrel and smiled determinedly.

"I'll turn him back into the Ryuji that I love and respect. I swear I will." Qinrel nodded and we both ran to meet my friends.

-----arrived at Lord Legolas's estate-----

"Guys, please don't hurt or kill the main assassin in this operation." The others stared at me in shock.

"What?! Are you out of your mind?!" I shook my head and glanced down at the letter that I took out of my mission bag. Tears started forming in my eyes as I thought the Ryuji that I knew all those years ago, now turned into a killing machine.

"Please guys, let me be with Yako because I can convince him to turn back to the true him." Aragorn and Yako silently communicate with their eyes and nodded to me. I smiled gently and stared at the letter again, knowing that I had to fight Ryuji after all those years of training under him and Allen.

"Let's go. The mission begins." Everyone ran to their places and held their breaths as they knew that the enemy was arriving soon.

-----in the room where Lady Amastacia is-----

"You know you don't have to do this," Yako whispered in my ear but I shook my head.

"I have to because I love him as a friend and he was one of my trusted mentors. Without him, I won't be able to get this far." Then they heard a voice.

"Except that you betrayed Xurenth." Both Yako and I turned around to see Number 6 himself holding a sword towards us.

"Please Ryuji, I don't want you to kill Lady Amastacia." Number 6, or Ryuji Sato, shook his head.

"Sorry Aaron. I can't because she betrayed me when I loved her." I saw in the corner of my eye that Amastacia was trembling with fear and I sighed sadly.

"Ryuji, this isn't you. Don't you even remember that kindness you showed me when you first taught me how to kill a person silently and cleanly?" Ryuji gave a small sad chuckle as he recalled how scared I was when he first taught me to kill cleanly and said that there was no need to be afraid.

" You've grown, Aaron. I could see that in your eyes." Aaron smiled sadly and showed Ryuji the letter that Ryuji had written to him after his escape.

"You remember what you have written, didn't you? I owe you one, Ryuji." Ryuji then gave a small smile and whispered in Aaron's ear.

"Then kill Amastacia for me." Aaron shook his head no and Ryuji stayed silent.

"Ryuji, please stop killing Amastacia because of a feud. This isn't the Ryuji I know." Ryuji remained silent.

"You know, I love you because of your kindness and your willingness to help me even though I knew I was expelled from Xurenth. Qinrel love to see you in our secret meeting spot you know. She misses the old times that we have in that meeting spot so please, just come back to me. Be the Ryuji I know and love, please." I said desperately and Ryuji froze.

"You.....Do you love me? As a friend?" I nodded my head and gave a sad smile.

"Yeah. I never wanted to see you suffer, Ryuji.  I always love you as a friend." Ryuji started to tear up.

"But, I did so many unspeakable things." I shook my head and smiled sadly.

"Even if the world is against you, always know that I'm always on your side whether you killed many people or not. I always love you as a friend with all my heart. That's what you told me and now, I am saying the same thing to you." Ryuji started sobbing and I smiled. He smiled back at me when suddenly, there was a sound of glass shattering and we all knew that the enemy was surrounding Yako, Ryuji, and me.

"Run Aaron! I can't hold the assassins for long!" I shook my head and together with Yako, we both defended Ryuji's back.

"No. I will not abandon you!" Ryuji smiled at this and we all hacked and slashed the assassins until all were dead.

" Guys? Are you guys alright?" I heard a relief sound from the others and I grinned, proud that we managed to keep Amastacia safe. Ryuji smiled sadly at me and started to go but was stopped by a pull on the sleeve by me.

"Ryuji, always know that you can find me in the academy or the place where we usually hang out if you need someone to talk to or if you just want me to be with you. I'll always be there for you, I promise." Ryuji smiled at this and left, leaving the windows open with a blast of cold wind blowing into the room.

Ryuji's POV

Aaron...... I started to recall all those years that I had with Aaron in Xurenth, still remember his laughter, still, remember how he scrunched up his face when he saw a corpse of a person who had defied Xurenth. I still remembered what Aaron had said just now and butterflies started to form in my stomach. 

Is this love? Do I love my best friend and mentee?

-----meanwhile-----

Third person's POV

"What do you mean you can't find Number 6 and that Amastacia is not dead?" A man demanded in an annoyed tone and a bodyguard cowered under the glare of the man.

"Number 6 has betrayed you, sir. He protected Amastacia against his comrades rather than killed her." The man stared at the bodyguard in disbelief and then proceeded to throw a vase into the door before calming down afterward.

"You will not escape me, Aaron. This I swear you will cower under my feet, begging for mercy." The man's insane laugh echoed around the room, filling the atmosphere of the room with chills.

Hey guys, this is part 2 and I'm so happy to see how this turns out. I am going to give you guys a small gift when I get 100 reads so look forward to it. Also, I may start my patron/ko-fi around June/July next year so for the different tiers, there are different privileges and for those who are not supporting, there may be some things that you will miss out on so please support me. Lastly, I am starting to relearn anime drawing and doodling so for some of the tiers, I will add the drawings as a privilege for those who are in the second tier and above. So see you guys for Part 3 and I have some ideas for my new books and will post them at the same time or at different times with this book so please support these books as well. Thank you and see you guys at Part 3! Love ya!

                                                                                   -Angeline Chin Rue Ying