"I can understand it logically, but it still feels miraculous."
Lucy looked at Sloan.
Even with her current level of power, she couldn't distinguish the difference between the Professor from her world and the Sloan standing before her. On the surface, it was as if they were the same person.
Of course, that inability was only superficial.
Internally, this Sloan had long since fallen into corruption. Still, he carried Isu blood-true Assassin lineage-and his physical condition remained remarkably strong.
"I am willing to obey every one of your commands!" Sloan turned toward Lucy, his voice trembling as he pleaded.
At this point, dignity meant nothing to him.
Only survival mattered.
And in his desperation, he believed that Lucy's strange evaluation of him might be his one remaining chance.
This time, however, Sloan had miscalculated.
Lucy did feel that his appearance resembled the Professor.
But she was not someone who confused people simply because they shared a face.
Sloan's behavior didn't move her.
It disgusted her.
She held deep respect and admiration for the Professor in her original world. She had helped him, shared knowledge with him, even granted him immortality-because he was an elder worthy of such treatment.
Seeing Sloan wear that same face while acting like this made her feel physically sick.
She turned to Morin.
"Can I kill him?"
"Of course," Morin replied calmly. "He should have died a long time ago. Probably... I don't know how many years ago, by my timeline."
"No-no!" Sloan shouted, scrambling backward. "I have the artifacts! I should be the new leader of the High Table!"
"I'll take the Assassins to an entirely new level!"
He rushed to the side, grabbed the Golden Apple, and raised it high.
"You called them 'Assassins,' not the 'Assassin Brotherhood,'" Morin said lightly. "If an old Assassin Master were here, you'd probably be the first one they'd purge."
"Ridiculous!" Sloan roared.
He activated the Golden Apple.
His face twisted as blinding golden light erupted outward.
Lucy and Morin stood unmoving.
"Oh," Morin said, unfazed. "This thing would make a decent flashlight."
"It does possess a certain level of mental interference," Lucy added calmly.
"Who... who are you people?!" Sloan's earlier act of hysteria collapsed into real panic.
His final trump card had failed.
There was truly no way out now.
"We are-" Morin paused.
"Not telling you."
There was nothing more satisfying than being cryptic.
And nothing more infuriating than being on the receiving end of it.
"Forget it," Morin said, waving his hand. "I'll send you to meet your predecessors."
"If you even end up in the same place as them. Maybe."
He looked bored.
Compared by power or vision, calling Sloan a frog at the bottom of a well would've been generous.
It was time.
"I-I'm very good at managing organizations!" Sloan blurted out, desperately listing his supposed merits.
"And you managed yours straight into extinction?" Morin laughed.
He raised his right hand.
Clink.
A blade snapped out.
The iconic weapon of an Assassin.
The Hidden Blade.
"As a Templar," Morin said, lifting the blade toward the sun, "there's no problem with me using a Hidden Blade, right?"
Light reflected off the metal, sharp and brilliant.
"Accept my backstab of justice!"