Interview. 09:26

Gray clouds stretched across the sky, as if it might start snowing at any moment.

Slipping through the gaps, sunlight shone straight in from the eastern sky and lit the inside of a ruined chapel.

This was an abandoned village, wiped out long ago by a great horde of monsters and left to rot ever since.

Hardly anyone remembered anymore what the village had been called in its heyday...... and the chapel, its walls once painted a beautiful white and kept spotless, was now simply left to crumble.

......Or so it was supposed to be.

The morning sun, barely managing to slip in, lit up decorations inside the chapel: recent work by human hands.

Yes, someone had certainly been at work in the chapel of this abandoned village, where no one was supposed to live.

But for a chapel, the decorations were not of the usual sort, flowers in vases or wooden statues of the gods.

They were picture frames.

“Growth,” “Labor,” “Motivation,” “Gratitude”...... and “Peak.”

Inside the frames, hung in neat rows on the walls, were calligraphy pieces bearing intensely positive words that made your heart dance and your motivation surge just to look at them, and by the walls, cutely twisted houseplants added a splash of lush green to the room, winter or no.

At the center of this space, where a thoroughly lazy, work-hating person would surely go insane in under 5 seconds, 3 people, men and women, each dressed however they pleased, sat facing one another around a square table.

“......Now then, will you tell me? To you...... what, exactly, is assassination?”

One of them...... a slender man with well-tanned skin, white hair, and narrow, white-rimmed glasses, asked this while resting his elbows on the table and clasping his hands in front of his face, a gentle smile on his lips.

This man wore a jacket, shirt, and slacks, clothing that would remind one of a businessman from our world.

But he wore them sloppily, so he came across as frivolous, if anything, rather than serious.

Several silver rings were slipped onto both his hands, sparkling brilliantly.

“Yes! It is the act of killing people! ......But it is not only that. I believe that assassination is a chance for growth!”

The one who answered the question was a tall, long-haired, good-looking young man, sitting across from the man in white-rimmed glasses.

He wore a long coat that reached the floor when he sat, and around both forearms, bared where his sleeves were pushed up a little, he had wound round and round some bandage-like cloth painted with patterns that meant who-knows-what but looked vaguely cool.

He was smiling and answering crisply, but it was plain as day that his shoulders were tight; he couldn't hide his nerves.

The fists clenched on his lap were soaking wet with sweat.

Now, you've probably figured it out already.

What was taking place here was a hiring interview.

The man in white-rimmed glasses was the one doing the hiring, of course, and the young man in the coat the one hoping to be hired.

Though this was no interview for a respectable organization.

It was a hiring interview for...... an underworld organization formed by a gathering of assassins!

Normal organization or underworld organization, it is only natural, a law of nature, to recruit without relying on personal connections and seek out talent far and wide......

Hence, there is nothing the least bit strange about an underworld organization holding hiring interviews.

“Hoh, a chance for growth! Could you tell me specifically what you mean by that?”

“Yes! I believe that no matter what kind of assassination request it is, it is not simply a matter of just killing the target! In order to kill the target surely, I believe that a thorough understanding of the opponent's behavioral patterns, hobbies, preferences, human relationships, and so on, as well as meticulous prior preparation, is necessary! For that, I believe there are situations where it becomes necessary to deepen one's knowledge and improve oneself, and to put it more simply, if the opponent's combat ability is high, I believe I need to deepen my own study and become stronger!”

Talking a little fast, the young man got his prepared answer out in a single breath.

Then, he took a single breath.

“And above all, my demon sword ‘Soul Devourer’ raises my power by killing my opponents and slurping up their souls. This is precisely why I believe assassination is a chance for growth, the number one reason I aspired to be an assassin, and my biggest selling point to everyone in ‘Purple Dual Rings’!”

Glancing at his beloved sword, propped in the umbrella stand by the door, the young man declared it with a smile.

“I see. So in other words, you...... kill people to better yourself, is that it? Kill more and more, get stronger and stronger. That's your career plan.”

“Yes!”

The man in white-rimmed glasses summarized this with a smile and scribbled something on a memo pad on the table.

Beside him, a half-naked woman over 3 meters tall and covered in massive muscles was busily taking notes, her giant body hunched awkwardly, so as not to miss a single word the young man said.

Perhaps due to her monstrous strength, the giant woman frequently snapped her pencils.

Sara sara sara...... boki...... sara sara sara...... boki......

In the quiet room, only those sounds echoed.

But none of it reached the young man's ears.

All he could hear now was his own heartbeat, drumming faster than usual...... and nothing else.

“I understand perfectly.”

With a sidelong glance to check that the giant woman had finished her notes, the man in white-rimmed glasses said so and sat up straight.

“Let me tell you one thing.”

Then, he dropped the gentle smile that hid his true intentions and began to speak with a serious face.

Seeing that, the long-haired young man gulped too, and sat up straighter.

“If you join us in ‘Purple Dual Rings’ and work alongside us from now on...... there is something I'd like you to remember.”

“Something, you'd like me to remember......?”

What could it possibly be?

The young man had no idea, and parroted the words back in spite of himself.

“Yes. It's my philosophy. I, you see...... ‘Assassination is a contribution to society’...... that's what I believe.”

“Eh......!?”

Assassination is...... a contribution to society!?

At this unexpected view, the long-haired young man's eyes went round.

The man in white-rimmed glasses spread the fingers of both hands wide and held them in front of his chest, leaning forward as he began to speak.

“Yes. An assassin is not just a murderer. We take on the anguish of a client who says, ‘I want someone killed’...... we lay it to rest for them, and we get paid. That's how we serve the world and its people...... how we contribute to society. That is what we assassins are. Hence, our organization is nothing like your run-of-the-mill third-rate ‘evil organization’.”

“I see......!”

The man in white-rimmed glasses spoke calmly.

But to the young man, his words seemed to carry real power.

His unshakable conviction seemed to seep through every word...... that was how it felt to him.

“Say, how many people have you killed so far?”

And here, a sudden change of subject.

The young man hurried to start pitching his track record.

“Yes! First, I killed my entire family—my father, my mother and my little sister! Then all the old men and old ladies who lived in my village too, every one of them...... it was a small village, so that's about 20 people in total! After that, I drifted from one big town to another, killing a few at a time...... all told, I'd say I've killed a nice round 40 or so!”

The long-haired young man puffed out his chest proudly and told of his hideous deeds!

Devilish deeds that would make an ordinary person blanch and want to call the nice guardsmen at once were, to him, one of his important selling points.

“I see, was that to increase your own power?”

“Yes! Because ‘Soul Devourer’ whispers to me every single night to collect souls!”

“I see, I see! That's impressive. You're quite something for someone so young. You've put in the effort while keeping the future in mind.”

“Thank you for the praise!”

The young man blushed in spite of himself.

This interview was going great!

Inside, he pumped his fist and cheered!

“But.”

But the man in white-rimmed glasses, as if he had seen right through the young man's heart, suddenly pressed his lips tight and narrowed his eyes.

The air in the room became heavy and stagnant.

Buffeted by the cold winter wind, the chapel windows rattled.

【Umbrella Stand】

This author has never gone to an interview carrying a demon sword and has no idea of the proper etiquette, so for now, the demon sword goes in the umbrella stand.

Leaving his weapon out of reach shows that he trusts the other side and means no harm.