Chapter 1: The Assassins

Master Olivia had her blood dripping down her silver axe. Her animalistic grin looked down at the ruby eyes as she slung her infamous weapon over her shoulders, as if it was that light. Hint: it was not.

Helen couldn't take all this practice. They had been in the training room for several hours now, sparring nonstop. She panted heavily as she stared straight into Master's shining eyes, grinning along with her lips. 

What good would this all do if she wasn't yet even allowed to execute an assassination on somebody? Telling her to gain more strength and then preventing her from doing what she was trained to do was tiring. Nine years she has been trapped in this hell hole she called home, a boarding school filled with experts in the field of homocide. Nine years she had dwelled in the presence of the most significant serial killers and the most deadly weapons in the entire globe, and yet they tell her she couldn't still go outside the school and hunt people?

Helen gripped on her daggers tightly and in a split second picked the most precious one, flicking it towards Master Olivia, her breath getting heavier by the minute. With luck on her side, the dagger came in contact with her master's skin, but simply grazed it a bit. Master Olivia winced, and with a sigh, called it a day off.

Finally. Hell week was half done.

Helen seized all of her daggers and put them inside a stash in the corner. It was almost time for the annual examinations in Serpent's Cordial Academy, and the week before it was this intense moment of training and prayers. The whole girl's dormitory was always active, but twice as much during hell week, and if Helen thought about sleeping, she would go somewhere else because the dormitory was barely soundless during the night that she could hear metal swords clinging in contact and maces being swinged every second and every minute.

She left the training room with a boulder pulled away from her shoulders. She could finally rest again as she could feel her feet getting numb from all that running away from Master Olivia's humongous axe.

While heading towards her room in the dormitory, she overheard screams and fists and crowds in the nearby kitchen, their yells echoing through the halls. Helen rushed to the voices, forgetting her aching body.

There was a pool of blood in the floor, and all of the girls were in a circle, surrounding two figures that were hidden by the thousands of bodies that were in that room. Helen pushed herself closer to the middle, and without heads towering over her anymore, she spotted two girls fist fighting, their faces messed up and their clothes somewhat tattered.

She couldn't make up the one on the right's face, but the other was someone that made her stop their fight and split them far from each other.

She looked at the girl on her left, a small, brunette woman with an evident scar marked on her face. "Gartha! What is this?!"

Gartha refused to look up at her and instead stared at the wooden floor. Her fists were worn out from punching the other girl's face repeatedly. "She laughed at my scar and bet me she could beat me with only those two hands of hers. I bet her she wouldn't even last a minute when I'm done with her."

Her scottish accent was heavy but Helen was used to it enough to understand what she was saying.

Helen faced the other girl and recognized her as a new student, a freshman, which was quite obvious. Freshmen had this subtlety and presence that deemed them still untouched. Untouched by the horrors of years and years of hell week. "Who are you and why do you speak what you cannot even justify?"

The freshman hesitated but spoke up, her eyes swollen, perhaps from Gartha's punches. "Edith Maill, from the Lira's."

Gartha scoffed. "Now, what in the hell was the headmaster thinking, picking up a fragile girl like her, someone from a pure place like that. Tch. She thinks this is a school for saints, eh?"

Helen glared at her even more, her eyes a burning red. "Gartha, shut your mouth or else this will be the moment where I tell them you come from an even holier place than The Lira's."

Edith cleared her throat and backed off, almost blending in with the crowd. Everyone was now eager to watch them fight again, their eyes pinned on the three, but Helen waved them all away, so they groaned and went about with their own business. Now, only the three figures remained in the kitchen, trying to clear misunderstandings.

"I do not think The Lira's are holy places. The Sacred Temples are full of corrupt officials and deteriorating laws. I only came here to relieve myself from those sugarcoated men and filthy scum," Edith spoke as if she was not from that place and hid her face from the two.

She had a white cloak to hide her sash, which from a distance may hold potions, but when Helen leaned forward, she could see the liquid of Blue Barrel, a poisonous plant. Her golden hair shone even from afar, and that was what the two were afraid of. Hair of the pure bloods.

Helen grabbed her by the shoulders and squeezed it a bit. "This place is not a refuge. This will replace all those pure memories in the Lira's with dark, impure ones. If you want to maintain your mental capacity whilst you stay here, you must never talk with arrogance and you must never battle with your brethren."

Edith simply nodded, but she knew that she understood well. This couldn't possibly be a refuge.

They decided to go back to their rooms. When Helen opened the door to her chambers, she felt a certain aura lingering in the room. She picked up the picture frame that fell, leaving shards of glass on the floor. There were two girls in the picture, one was a miniature Helen and one was a vague face with similar features.

A shadow cast on the wall in front of her. She put the picture frame down on a side table.

"Kiru, please don't do this again." She looked behind her, a tall man with a dark velvet cloak leaning behind a wall.

Kiru faced her with arms folded in his chest, a whip in one of his hands. "I just wanted to visit you. I have news about what will happen during the annual examinations. And it's the best one yet."

He grinned at her and moved forward until they were only five inches apart.

Helen pushed him back and shook her head. "What is it?"

"They will send us outside."

There was a moment of silence for her to take everything in, and then she jumped up and down until she fell unto her bed because of happiness.

"Woah, settle down, are you even the best assassin in Serpent's Cordial Academy?" He laughed but soon joined her in the bed, the two facing each other.

"You speak like we assassins have no right to act like children." She pouted. "Anyways, what are they planning? Do you think... Do you think we're going to assassinate someone real now?"

Kiru nodded ever so slightly. "Let's see."