The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman

“Mom…”

Evelyn called out to Sella, her voice thin and childlike, choked by the blood rising in her throat.

“Yes, my daughter.”

Sella smiled gently, as if that one word was enough to make her happy.

But despite her smile, her complexion was rapidly darkening—like a final flare of life before the end. Death was already at her back.

“Evelyn.”

Sella wiped the blood on her sleeve, then stroked Evelyn’s violet hair.

“You may not remember, but the first time you used magic, you hurt the child beside you. The shock of that was seared into your mind, and that’s why you couldn’t use magic.”

She gave a faint smile, saying it was Evelyn’s kind heart that had bound her hands.

“Even if you can’t use magic, you are a Fara. And you are my daughter.”

With a trembling hand, Sella pulled Evelyn into a tight embrace.

“Mom… I’m sorry. I was too…”

Evelyn’s eyes squeezed shut as she blamed herself for everything.

“None of this is your fault. Still…”

Sella shook her head and raised a finger.

“If you want to marry a good man, you’ll have to be a little quicker on your feet.”

She poked Evelyn’s cheek playfully.

“M-Marry…?”

“I have one last favor to ask—Mom’s last. Forget today. Go far away, marry a man who loves you, have children, and live an ordinary, happy life.”

Sella asked Evelyn to live the life she herself couldn’t, then pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“M-Mom! Together… ah.”

As Evelyn tried to lift her head, Sella struck the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious.

“……”

Sella gazed at the sleeping Evelyn with deep affection, then turned away.

“Lokta.”

She carefully placed Evelyn into Lokta’s arms and nodded.

“Please, take care of Evelyn.”

She repeated her plea, then stepped back.

“Your Majesty…”

Seeing the shadow of death in Sella’s eyes, Lokta bit his trembling lip.

“It was an honor to serve you.”

Holding Evelyn close, he ran west.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

Even with countless knights blocking his path, Lokta didn’t hesitate. He charged straight in.

CRASH!

He threw off his armor as he leaped, blue light flickering around him—then the massive body of a dragon revealed itself.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

In his true form, Lokta held Evelyn tight, smashed through the encirclement, and soared north.

“Stop him!”

“Unleash your Aura and Sword Aura!”

“Cut off his wings!”

High-ranking knights fired Aura and Sword Aura to bring him down.

“You will not!”

Sella, even as she coughed up blood, raised a wall of Mana and blocked every slash aimed at her daughter.

WHOOOOSH!

Watching Lokta fly away and batter the knights back with a violent gust, Sella’s lips curved into a weak smile.

‘Be happy.’

As she sent her final farewell to Evelyn, a grotesque sound rose behind her—bone and flesh knitting back together.

CRUNCH! SQUELCH!

The Sage, whose face Sella had crushed with a lightning-charged fist, slowly stood.

As if time were reversing, his body and face restored themselves to their original form.

“So he was a Draconian.”

The Sage touched his perfectly healed face and nodded.

“I thought the Mana flow was strange.”

He smiled thinly, as if the final piece had clicked into place.

“You…”

Sella stared at him and swallowed dryly.

“What in the world are you?”

The man had definitely stopped breathing. She had caved his face in; not even a Troll’s regeneration could have saved it.

Yet he returned to himself, flesh and bone restored.

She knew countless spells and curses, but she had never seen anything like this.

“I am merely a common man who wishes to change the past.”

The Sage shrugged, as if that were all.

“Of course, right now, all I want is to save our poor Your Majesty…”

He looked up at the sky where Evelyn had disappeared and slowly licked his lips.

“Never…”

Sella forced her heavy arms up and brought her hands together.

“I will never let you have that child!”

She condensed the Mana slipping from her grasp, drawing out a brilliant light.

“It’s only right that I accept your final struggle.”

The Sage smiled and raised a finger.

KABOOOOOM!

Their magic collided head-on, and the resulting explosion tore outward, reaching all the way to the heart of the royal capital.

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Even within the raging vortex, Sella endured—an absolute wall holding back the Sage and the knights for more than ten minutes.

But in the end, the toll of her wounds became too great.

Her breathing stopped, and she sank to the cold ground, her eyes unable to close.

“Perhaps, as you wished, I will not be able to find the child. However…”

The Sage stared into Sella’s eyes—eyes that had not lost their fighting spirit even in death—and briefly licked his lips.

“Your daughter will find her way to me on her own.”

He nodded as if certain, a chilling smile spreading across his face.

—

Evelyn cried for a week.

She raged, then wailed again, then burned with fury—until at last she came to her senses.

“Revenge…”

She unwrapped the bandage around her neck and clenched her fists.

“I will have my revenge.”

She vowed to kill them all—not just the one called the Sage, but the King of the Roser Kingdom who had ordered it, his knights, and even the people who had hurled stones.

“Princess.”

Lokta knelt on one knee, meeting Evelyn’s gaze.

“The path of revenge is far too perilous. Whether you succeed or fail, only hell awaits you at the end.”

Though he understood her feelings, he shook his head.

“You remember the Queen’s final request, do you not?”

Lokta let out a long breath, invoking Sella’s name.

“You haven’t forgotten that she wanted you to forget that day—to marry a good person and live happily?”

He bowed his head, pleading with her to honor Sella’s last words.

“I know. I remember it all.”

Evelyn nodded, saying she remembered Sella’s words, her very breath.

“But I can’t. I can’t bury that day—bury my mother—in my heart and keep living.”

Her eyes hardened.

“If you won’t help me, Uncle, I’ll do it alone.”

Evelyn ground her teeth, vowing to take revenge on the Roser Kingdom by herself if she had to.

“Haaaah…”

Lokta sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead.

“This can’t be the kind of initiative Her Majesty was hoping for…”

He shook his head slowly, then looked back at Evelyn.

“Then I want to hear how you plan to take your revenge.”

He sat down on the floor, saying that was what mattered.

“There’s something I need you to do first, Uncle.”

Evelyn spoke at once, as if she’d been waiting.

“Me?”

“Gather forces outside the kingdom who hate Roser, and rally monsters. You can do it with your Draconian abilities, can’t you?”

She nodded, showing she knew what Lokta was.

“It’s true Roser is powerful, so many factions have suffered at their hands. And it’s also true I can create guardians, much like a dragon. However…”

Lokta shook his head calmly.

“That alone will never be enough. The Roser Kingdom is a major power—not only in the south, but across the entire continent.”

He lowered his gaze, saying they couldn’t win.

“Of course that’s not all.”

Evelyn shook her head.

“I will enter Roser myself.”

She said she would personally infiltrate the kingdom.

“What? What do you mean…?”

“I plan to infiltrate Roser as a novice mage.”

Evelyn let out a ragged breath.

“If I enter as a mage and distinguish myself, I’ll eventually get the chance to meet the King and the Sage. I’ll end everything right there.”

Her eyes held a chilling intent, as if she meant to erase every name tied to that day—and Roser itself.

“It’s too dangerous! They’ll suspect your identity!”

“I heard there are places that professionally launder identities. If I pay, I can create a new life. And…”

Evelyn bit her lip as she looked at the flustered Lokta.

“Revenge is impossible without taking risks. Just as you said, Uncle—Roser is a powerful nation.”

Her gaze didn’t waver.

“Haaaah… those eyes.”

Lokta let out a long sigh as he looked into Evelyn’s resolve.

“You’re just like Lady Sella. She told you to find a man and get married, but who knew your initiative would take this form…”

He clutched his head in despair.

“You’ll go even if I try to stop you, won’t you?”

“Yes. Even if you tie up my arms and legs, I’ll find a way to break free and go.”

Evelyn nodded without hesitation.

“…I understand.”

Lokta sighed and nodded.

“However, you must prepare thoroughly. That man—the Sage—has the ability to find a Fara.”

He raised a hand, saying they had to block that curse first.

“That’s already taken care of.”

Evelyn nodded and placed a hand over her eye.

A faint light bloomed, and the red cross that had been in her pupil vanished.

“That monster used a Fara’s Mana flow to find Mom and me. All I have to do is make that unique Mana flow identical to a human’s.”

Evelyn dusted off her hands, as if it were nothing.

“W-What…”

Lokta’s eyes widened.

“When did you…?”

He let out a hollow breath, recalling how Evelyn had done nothing but cry for the past week.

“I just made it as I thought of it.”

She had created an unbelievable spell, yet she spoke as if she’d simply eaten a piece of bread.

“Princess… were you a genius all along?”

“I don’t really know either.”

Evelyn shook her head calmly.

“It’s just that, since that day…”

She raised both hands toward the empty air.

“I can see and feel the flow of all Mana.”

Evelyn nodded, saying she could now read not only spells, but the very phenomena of the world.

“Ha…”

Lokta blinked, dumbfounded.

“Now you see, don’t you? It’s dangerous, yes. But I’m not trying to break a boulder with an egg.”

Evelyn nodded, saying there was a real chance.

“And as you saw, Uncle, Roser doesn’t have many mages.”

“Indeed. Most of the people who chased us were knights.”

Lokta nodded as if the memory finally resurfaced.

“I’m young. If I show even moderate talent, I can earn their trust.”

Evelyn thumped her chest.

“There is a possibility…”

Lokta exhaled softly and nodded.

“I’ll acknowledge that. But, Princess… you’ve changed so much.”

He narrowed his eyes, saying she seemed like a completely different person.

“I’m still timid. But Mom told me to be proactive. From now on, I’ll act as I see fit. For the sake of revenge.”

As she said “revenge,” Evelyn clenched her fists so tightly they cracked.

“That’s not what she meant…”

Lokta let out a long, weary sigh.

—

On the day of her fifteenth birthday, Evelyn headed for the Roser Kingdom as a novice mage.

Just as she’d predicted, knights formed the backbone of the kingdom, and mages were rare.

“Roser…”

Evelyn closed her eyes as she looked at the main gate—the same one she had once entered while holding Sella’s hand.

‘Beyond this point lies hell.’

But she had to go.

Before, she had only trembled in fear.

Now, her heart pounded for a different reason.

“Hoo.”

Evelyn let out a ragged breath and stepped inside.

“Excuse me…”

The moment she entered the capital, a young man in an official uniform approached her.

“Are you Lady Merlin?”

“Yes.”

Evelyn nodded at the borrowed name—Merlin, the great archmage of antiquity whom Sella had admired most.

“I am Bellin, a third-rank assistant at the Magic Tower. This way, please!”

Bellin bowed, offering to guide her.

“Thank you.”

Evelyn returned the greeting and followed him up toward the higher part of the capital.

‘It’s gone.’

The execution platform that had once been built for the villagers was gone.

In its place stood a clean, fortified wall that looked newly constructed.

“That is the royal palace. Only royal mages may enter.”

Bellin shook his head, explaining one couldn’t enter carelessly.

“The Magic Tower is this way.”

“Okay.”

Evelyn released the power gathering in her clenched fists and followed Bellin toward the Magic Tower.

“The Tower Master will be waiting. Despite his appearance, he’s a good person, so…”

Bellin continued talking about the Tower Master and the tower, but none of it reached her.

‘Just wait a little longer.’

Evelyn bit her lip as she looked down at the royal palace through a window of the Magic Tower.

‘I will erase everything you hold dear.’

—

Ten years later.

Evelyn stepped out from the Magic Tower, draped in a robe embroidered with a golden lion.

“Lady Merlin, congratulations!”

“You’re finally going to the royal palace!”

“To become a Royal Grand Mage in just ten years is a first in history!”

Her fellow mages bowed and offered congratulations.

“Thank you. It’s all thanks to you.”

Evelyn smiled thinly and waved a hand.

“We’ll be sure to attend the ceremony tomorrow.”

“Don’t forget us even when you go to the palace!”

“Call for me later, too!”

They waved, saying they would definitely attend her inauguration the next day.

“Of course. I’m sure we’ll see each other often even after I go.”

Evelyn bid them farewell and entered her private quarters near the Magic Tower.

“Haaah…”

She sat on the edge of the luxurious bed and let out a stifled breath.

‘Ten years. Has it already been ten years?’

Ten years had passed since she entered Roser’s Magic Tower.

In that time, she had honed her magic and achieved countless things, but the King and the Sage had never once sought her out.

The Sage occasionally moved outside, but the King remained shut away in the audience chamber, refusing to meet anyone. She hadn’t seen him even once.

‘But…’

Tomorrow, he would have no choice but to appear.

Tomorrow was the day she would leave the Magic Tower and become the Royal Grand Mage.

On that day, even the reclusive King would have to show himself.

‘I have to end everything tomorrow.’

If the King hid again, there was no telling when he would emerge. She had to end it tomorrow—when both he and the Sage would be present.

‘My heart is trembling.’

She was stronger now. Strong enough to block the Sage’s curses.

But she had no certainty she could win, and her heart refused to settle.

‘Still… I have to do it.’

As Evelyn lay back with a hand over her forehead, a faint ringing sounded.

[Princess.]

It was a message from Lokta, sent through the artifact she’d given him.

[It is tomorrow. Are you prepared?]

“Yes.”

Evelyn nodded at the blue light.

[This is truly the last chance. You can still stop.]

Lokta’s voice was heavy.

“……”

Evelyn didn’t answer right away. She closed her eyes instead.

‘Ten years…’

It had been a long time.

Living in Roser for ten years, she had learned too much.

There were good people here and bad people—just like the village.

There were people who treated her with kindness, people who taught her, people who became friends and colleagues.

Whenever she thought of them, the question returned.

Was she really going to do it?

Sometimes she wanted to give up and leave.

Sometimes she even wanted to keep living like this.

But she couldn’t.

The King, the Sage, the knights, and the leaders of this kingdom were monsters who had carried out a massacre while knowing full well the Fara were human.

“I’ll do it.”

After a short but deep silence, Evelyn nodded.

[…Understood.]

Lokta’s voice lowered, then faded.

“I’ll do it. No…”

Evelyn pulled the blanket over her head—just as she had as a child with Sella—and bit her lip.

“I have to.”

—

Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!

A huge stage had been erected in front of the royal palace, and a curtain shimmering with brilliant light draped down over it.

It was the first time in twenty years that the Royal Grand Mage was changing, and the inauguration ceremony was more splendid than any before.

Evelyn bit her lip as she stared at the stage rising nearly to the height of the castle walls.

‘Death and light, huh…’

The Platform of Blood—where she had humiliated her own kind and watched their heads fall—had been remade into the Platform of Light to welcome her. The irony was so sharp it almost made her laugh.

“His Majesty the King enters!”

As she waited below the platform, the knights’ earth-shaking cries rolled out from within the castle.

Evelyn lifted her head slightly and watched the man’s back as he climbed the stairs.

‘So he wasn’t dead, then.’

She’d assumed he might have died, since he hadn’t shown his face in all this time. But the King was alive and well, ascending the platform.

‘And…’

That bastard too.

Evelyn bit her lip as she watched the man climbing one step behind the King.

The monster called the Sage.

She had to kill him today as well.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been out like this.”

The King stood at the edge of the platform and looked down at the people gathered below.

‘That face…’

Evelyn chewed her lip as she stared at the King—handsome, no older than a man in his twenties.

‘So he really did commit human sacrifice.’

In her ten years in the Roser Kingdom, she had secretly dug into the truth and been sickened by what she found.

The King had captured the Fara under the pretext of colluding with the Demon race and used their blood to treat the illness that caused his rapid aging.

That glossy skin and clear eyes were stained with the blood and flesh of her people.

“I haven’t been able to show my face often due to a lot of work, but I will try to be more attentive in the future.”

The King waved as if promising he would appear more often.

Waaaaaaaah!

Long live His Majesty Sipeleen!

The people, ignorant of what he’d done, roared their devotion.

“Then we should call today’s protagonist.”

The King stepped back and nodded.

“Merlin Friarres. Come up here.”

He looked down and gestured to her.

“Yes.”

Evelyn nodded and began to climb.

Each step dragged memories up with it—the burning village, her people humiliated here, her mother smiling as death stood at her back.

Hatred and anger pressed against her ribs, but she didn’t slow.

She stepped onto the platform and stopped before the King.

“Welcome.”

“You have worked hard.”

The King and the Sage—monsters in human skin—smiled as they greeted her.

“Let’s begin without waiting.”

At the King’s gesture, the Sage stepped forward.

“We highly value your contributions—such as monster subjugation in the Muran Mountains, the development of brilliant magic, modifications to the Magic Tower’s system, and improvements to the Kingdom Protection Magic. We hereby appoint Merlin Friarres as the Royal Grand Magician of Roser.”

As he finished, the King approached with a red cloak and a staff.

“You’ve worked hard.”

He thanked her and draped the cloak over her shoulders.

For a moment, disgust prickled across her skin like hives, but she forced herself to endure and stand still.

“Merlin is the name of an ancient Grand Master, and like that great name, I hope you will serve the kingdom well in the future.”

“I understand.”

Evelyn pushed the words out and lifted her chin.

“Good. Now that you have become a Royal Magician, you will be granted one wish. Is there anything you desire?”

The King nodded, inviting her to speak.

“Your Majesty….”

Evelyn felt the moment arrive. She closed her eyes—slowly—then opened them again.

Looking at the King’s flawless skin, she twisted her lips into a faint sneer.

“Do you remember what happened ten years ago?”

“Ten years ago?”

The King narrowed his eyes.

“I have so much work that I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“The people in the southwest called the Fara. Do you remember their deaths?”

“Ah! I remember.”

He nodded without hesitation.

“They looked like people, but they were colluding with the Demon race!”

Even now, he spoke of the Fara as monsters, not people.

“I see. That’s a relief.”

Evelyn smiled and raised her head.

“That I didn’t give up on revenge.”

The King’s eyes trembled.

Suspicion flickered across his face—thin, uncertain.

He knew. He had always known the Fara were human.

And he knew what he’d done to save himself.

“What are you…?”

His eyes widened, demanding an explanation.

“I am the last survivor of the Fara you killed.”

As Evelyn spoke, she raised her right hand.

Her nails dug into her palm, and red blood welled and slid down her skin.

“What color does this look like to you? Is it as black as a demon’s?”

She bared her teeth and flung the blood across the King and the Sage.

“Just because our Mana flow is different and we have a cross in our eyes, you call us the Demon race? Your very souls are demonic!”

Evelyn screamed, venting ten years of rot and fury.

“Seize this woman! She’s a demon!”

“Subdue her!”

“Block the way!”

At the King’s shout, knights surged, and the Sage moved to his side.

“Mother told me to be proactive. So I prepared.”

Evelyn snapped her fingers.

Red and blue light flared across the platform and around it.

“This is the path of revenge I prepared for ten years.”

The air warped.

Colorful magic poured down.

Kuwahhhhh!

The sky roared, the earth overturned, and the shockwave detonated—grinding the gathered knights, the Sage’s entourage, and the nobles into blood without leaving even scraps of bodies.

Among them were Masters and Grand Masters.

None of them endured.

They melted into lumps of flesh.

Squish.

Evelyn stepped through the blood and approached the edge of the shattered platform.

“D-Don’t come!”

The King was still alive amid the ruin, shrieking.

“I won’t just kill you.”

Evelyn shaped the blood clinging to her hand into a blade and drove it into the King’s chest.

“Cough! Keuaaaaaaak!”

His skin dried and blackened, as if the blade were drinking his life.

He aged in an instant.

“Aaaaaaaak….”

Drooling, he clawed at the floor, terror twisted across his face as pain consumed him.

“This is….”

Evelyn hauled the King upright and bared her red eyes to the people below.

“The King of this country.”

She shook her head as she reclaimed the Mana contained in the Fara’s blood.

“Your ugly King killed us to avoid death and drank our blood while calling us demons. So tell me—who is the demon?”

She looked into the trembling crowd and laid the truth bare, one word at a time.

Crack.

As Evelyn tightened her grip around the King’s neck—

The Sage began to revive from the blood.

“He doesn’t die after all.”

Evelyn gnashed her teeth as she stared at the Sage, restored without a trace of change.

“Haa….”

The Sage smiled as he rolled his newly formed neck.

“It was you.”

He nodded, unshaken.

“I knew you would come back. You have eyes that cannot help but seek revenge.”

His smile said he’d expected this all along.

“But can you suppress all of this alone?”

At his gesture, the knights who had died in the blood began to rise again.

More knights swarmed up from below the platform.

“I’m sure you’ve exhausted your preparations.”

The Sage tilted his head, as if urging her to accept defeat.

“I’m not alone.”

Evelyn shook her head.

In that instant, the kingdom’s walls collapsed, and a dragon wrapped in blue light soared into the sky.

Kuwahhhhh!

Evelyn lifted her chin into the earth-shaking roar and let the red cross she’d hidden flare openly in her eyes.

“Today….”

Her voice cut through the chaos like a blade.

“I will erase you and this kingdom.”