The Law of the Silent Gentleman

"why are you laughing?"

The assassin let go of his hair.

"How is your sword skill?"

Giuliano didn't see how the Assassin's questions were connected. "Swordsmanship is a compulsory course for every nobleman, of course I...uh..." He wanted to say "Of course I'm not bad", but the assassin in front of him could instantly kill several enemies by himself, how could he dare to stand in front of a master swordsman? Overreaching. So he hurriedly changed his words: "Of course not as superb as you."

"The silent one is a weapon." The assassin said suddenly.

"What's the meaning?"

"Yord City never saw the Silent as a person, but as a weapon. Every street in the city-state is a shop selling weapons. If a man kills with a knife, people don't blame the knife. But breaking a It's not illegal to use a knife. When the city guard expands the search area to the lower city, they will attack everyone wearing a mask indiscriminately. The silencers are all highly skilled in martial arts. You only need to do a few tricks to know that this person is a real assassin .Then the two sides will put away their swords, greet each other politely, pretend that nothing happened just now, and go their separate ways. But you can’t.”

With Giuliano's swordsmanship, he is absolutely unable to fight against a whole team of guards. I am afraid that he will be hacked to death in the first round of the fight.

"So you want me to dress up?" Giuliano stroked his hair.

"Yes. Find a place to dye your hair first."

"Now?"

"Wait until evening."

After speaking, the assassin got up and left. Giuliano didn't know where he was going, and didn't want to. Assassins always come and go without a trace. As long as he doesn't betray himself, it doesn't matter where he wants to go. The young man crawled into bed, covering his wound with one hand, and resting the other under his head, staring at the moldy ceiling. He stayed in this cramped hut and didn't know everything outside. The group of pursuers who were killed by the assassin yesterday must have been discovered. They know where he fled, and they will soon search the Lower Town. When fleeing last night, many people had seen his face, and some of them must have fresh memories and would sell the news to the governor in exchange for a generous reward. The cabin will be revealed in no time. He must find a safer hiding place! But where is the "safe" place? By order of the governor, the whole city will be against him. He would be the first to die before he could see his innocence. Unless leaving Vanessa...but where would he go? He had no other relatives or friends to rely on. And if there were, how would he know that they were not Fernando Infonçon's accomplices, or traitors like his cousin, waiting for him to kill him? Compared with those relatives who couldn't tell the truth from the falsehood, he was more willing to believe this stranger who was silent. If the assassin wanted to betray him, he would have informed the City Guard long ago, so how could he help him. But he still couldn't trust the assassin in his heart. His father once said that one should be upright and upright when interacting with others, but he has never even seen the face of the assassin, let alone his name. Is such a person really credible?

At dusk, the assassin returned. He changed his mask and clothes again, and brought back dinner and a hooded black cloak. After Giuliano had a rough supper, the assassin ordered him to put on a cloak. "Don't let anyone see your face," said the assassin, pulling the hood of his cloak roughly around Giuliano's head.

"I can't see anything!" Giuliano complained. Even if it is to cover the face, it is impossible to pull it so low! He raised the hood and adjusted it to the proper position, making sure he could at least see the road under his feet. The assassin had little comment on his actions. Giuliano didn't know if he agreed with him, so he lifted the brim of the hood slightly and looked at the assassin.

Then he was so frightened that he pulled the hood down completely over his eyes.

The assassin took off his mask.

He was far younger and…handsome than Giuliano had imagined. Giuliano thought that he must be a weather-beaten and seasoned swordsman with such a good skill, with a face full of unkempt stubble and maybe a few hideous scars on his face. But the assassin was very young, maybe not a few years older than Giuliano, with long platinum-blond hair tied in a random bundle, matched with his gorgeous clothes (although probably not his own), it was not an exaggeration to say that he was a playboy. Such a person should appear at the ball with rich clothes and shadows. Giuliano couldn't imagine that he would walk in the dark night wearing a mask, his hands stained with the blood of his prey.

He secretly pulled up the hood and looked at the assassin secretly from the edge of the fabric. Whenever the assassin caught his peeping eyes, he immediately put his head down and pretended he had done nothing.

"You...why don't you keep wearing the mask?"

"That's suspicious for where we're going," said the assassin.

"Where are we going?"

"follow me."

The Assassin led the way, followed by Giuliano. Once outside, the Assassin hung the mask on a protruding nail in the doorway. Giuliano looked at him puzzled. The assassin shrugged: "It means 'not in use for now, if necessary, just take it away'."

"Will the other Reticents be here?"

"This is a kind of preparation and courtesy." The assassin said.

Giuliano was bewildered. But the assassin didn't intend to explain to him in detail. They entered the messy and dirty but orderly shack again. This time, they met no one on the road, but Giuliano always felt that there were many eyes watching him from the dark. hide away. Giuliano couldn't help walking a few quick steps, closely following the assassin, even timidly tugging on the corner of the assassin's clothes, like a child who was afraid of getting lost in a strange place.

They left the shack and walked down a street in the Upper and Lower Town. It is muddy and filthy, unlike the clean and beautiful streets in the upper city, but it can accommodate two carriages side by side, which is considered "magnificent" in the lower city. There were a few dilapidated shops on the street, all the doors were closed and locked several times, and the windows were dark. However, one of the shops was still lit and its doors were open to welcome visitors. A plaque over the door reads "Aromatic Decoction" and next to it is a picture of a small bottle containing a pink liquid.

"The alchemist's shop?" Giuliano asked in a low voice. There are also alchemists in Uptown, who sell perfumes, herbs, lizard tooth pendants and the like, but their shops are far more beautiful than the "aromatic decoction" in front of them. Moreover, the "aromatic decoction" does not smell a trace of "aromatic", but has a faint smell.

The assassin enters the shop. Giuliano hesitated.

"Why don't you come in?"

"I... I'm afraid... can the store owner be trusted?"

The assassin snorted, his lips pursed into a mean arc. So that's the way he laughed—full of sarcasm. Giuliano had just taken a liking to him, and it was gone.

"The boss is our man."

"A reticent too?"

"You should say: also a silent gentleman."

After speaking, the assassin got into the shop. Giuliano looked left and right. Although there was no one on the street, his piercing eyes followed him everywhere. He shivered, and hurried into the store.

The shop is dark and small, the shelves are crowded together, allowing only one person to pass through. A candle was burning on the counter, and its light was dim, illuminating only a small circle. Behind the counter there is a narrow and steep staircase leading to the second floor.

There was no one in the store. There was a brass rattle on the counter. The assassin grabbed the rattle, shook it roughly twice, and then randomly grabbed an animal skull on the shelf next to it to examine it. Giuliano couldn't recognize what kind of animal it was, he just thought it was eerie, like some cursed evil weapon. He decided never to touch a single thing here.

"Come here!" There were thumping footsteps and grumbles on the stairs, "Damn it, I will be like the boss next door, closing the door at sunset! What 'alchemists should serve the people', bah !"

Assassins drop animal skulls. "Ah, it doesn't matter, I'm not a citizen anyway."

A man in a black robe and a white beak mask walked down the stairs. Alchemists, pharmacists and doctors all wore beak masks to show their status, and Giuliano took it for granted. But today, walking with the assassins, he realized that the silent ones also wear masks. This masked figure is both an alchemist and a reticent.

"Ah! Enzo! Long time no see, I thought you died in some stinky ditch!" The alchemist greeted him warmly, and pecked the assassin's cheeks with the beak of his mask. They were probably acquaintances, but the assassin had a cold face, completely lacking the joy of reuniting friends. The alchemist let go of the assassin, only then noticing Giuliano in the shadows. He looked at Giuliano, then at the Assassin, and exclaimed suddenly, "Oh, shouldn't I call you by your name?"

The assassin rolled his eyes.

"You're silent. It seems I'm right."

"Dye his hair," the assassin said feebly.

The alchemist looked at Giuliano meaningfully, and the young man couldn't help pulling down his hood again.

"This young man is so kind. As soon as I saw you, I thought of our Supreme Governor of Jod, Mr. Luce [the side of the gold coin of Yod City has the head of Governor Luce, called "Golden Luce".]..."

"Ahem!" the assassin cleared his throat.

"...He is really a great and memorable ruler, isn't he? Long live Luce!" the alchemist added the second half of the sentence insincerely.

"What color do you want to dye?"

The assassin said: "What color is popular now?"

"Blue and purple. Several people came here today, either dyed blue or purple. I don't understand the hobbies of young people nowadays."

"Then dye it blue-purple." The assassin made a final decision.

"No!" Giuliano clutched his hair tightly, "Why can't it be dyed black? Black is so low-key!"

The alchemist giggled. "The smell of hair dye is very strong, and it takes a long time to dissipate. Are you afraid that others will not know that your 'low-key black hair' is dyed? It's like putting up a sign above your head with the words 'Come and catch me'. How about Dye it in an exaggerated color, at least it doesn't look so suspicious."

The assassin frowned and smacked his lips irritably. "Can you talk less nonsense? I don't have so much free time, and I have to go to other places later."

The alchemist muttered another curse, turned and went upstairs. Feeling safe, Giuliano took off his hood. He stared at the assassin curiously until the assassin was stared into something wrong, and then he asked, "Your name is Enzo?"

"That's one of my many names."

"Is that what everyone else calls you? I mean, the other Reticents."

"...sometimes yes."

"Then can I call you that too?"

"Ha!" The assassin curled his lips, walked around the counter, and climbed up the weak stairs.

"Hey! Wait!"

The assassin ignored him. Giuliano hated being ignored. He sat angrily by the counter until the assassin told him to come up quickly on the second floor, and then he left the counter angrily, stepping on the stairs deliberately hard until the alchemist yelled "Do you want to step down my stairs?" Although the Assassin was noncommittal to his questioning, Giuliano had decided to call him "Enzo". Now that he had seen the Assassin's face and knew his name (though it might not be his real name), the Assassin seemed less mysterious and unattainable.