"Mosquitoes."

The room went silent.

"I had been capturing the annoying mosquitoes one by one and putting them in this pouch," Lucien explained casually, shaking the bag. A faint, angry buzzing sound emanated from within.

I knew he won't be saying anything easily. And assassins are mostly trained for physical torture. They can endure pain.

So generic torture won't work on him either. So I came up with an unconventional annoying idea.

Lucien stepped closer and placed the opening of the pouch against the man's ear.

The assassin's eyes widened in horror. "W-what are you trying to do?!"

"Alicia. Hold his head."

Alicia stepped out from the shadows, grabbed the frantic man's head with an iron grip, and held it still so he couldn't move an inch.

—Eeeeng. Eeeeng. Eeeeng.

That sound.

That high-pitched, vibrating whine that instinctively repulses even the least sensitive person.

Not one, not two, but dozens of them buzzing inside the pouch, angry and hungry.

"I'm going to put these in your ears," Lucien whispered. "One. By. One."

"You crazy bastard...!"

"Thanks for the compliment."

Lucien slightly opened the drawstring just enough to press it against the ear canal.

"Go on, my little friends. Feast."

Once the sensation of tiny legs crawling into the ear canal registered, the assassin's body spasmed.

Lucien immediately pulled the pouch away and took a pair of earplugs from his inventory. He jammed one deep into the ear, sealing the insects inside.

"…! STOP!!!!"

The assassin screamed, thrashing against Alicia's grip.

"I've only done one side, why stop now?"

Lucien grinned maniacally and moved to the opposite side. He repeated the process—shaking the pouch, letting the swarm enter the other ear, and then plugging it tight with the second earplug.

—Eeeeng. Eeeeng. Eeeeng.

The buzzing sound echoed inside his skull.

It wasn't external anymore. It was internal.

The mosquitoes' movements felt vivid—tiny legs scratching against the sensitive eardrum, wings beating against the canal walls, moving deeper inside with no way out.

It was a sensory nightmare.

"STOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!"

The assassin shrieked, his composure shattering completely.

"Hahaha! It's mosquito ASMR!"

Lucien laughed heartily beside the suffering man, watching him writhe.

Watching from the side, Alicia stared at her master with a complicated expression.

'...I'm not sure who the villain is here.'

****

"S-Stop it now..."

The man who had come to abduct Lily was slumped in the chair, eyes rolled back, drool pooling at the corner of his mouth. His body twitched rhythmically every few seconds, likely still hearing the phantom buzzing of insects deep inside his skull.

"Ugh, disgusting."

I frowned, wiping my hands on a handkerchief.

"If someone didn't know better, they might think I was sexually torturing him."

Looking at the pathetic, broken sight of the man, my earlier amusement evaporated, replaced by cold indifference. He had served his purpose.

Snap.

I twisted his neck.

It was quick. Merciful, even, considering what he had planned for Lily.

[You have defeated a Human Assassin (Lv. 15)] [Experience Points Acquired]

I stared at the floating blue text.

'Even hopeless trash like this sacrifices himself to offer experience points,' I mused. 'Maybe there's no such thing as non-recyclable garbage in this world?'

Still, what was the author thinking, making it so killing humans granted XP?

It was a dangerous mechanic. If I were some unhinged serial killer, I could just massacre a village and level up. It's a good thing I'm a kind, rational, and upstanding intellectual. If they'd given this ability to a psychopath, the Empire would have fallen before the Demon God even invaded.

"Boss."

Alicia stepped forward, holding a notepad. She didn't even glance at the corpse.

"Oh. Are you done?"

"Yes," she said, her voice crisp. "I've recorded the location and the client."

"That was easier than expected."

He was all high and mighty earlier, claiming he wouldn't talk even under torture. Yet, he couldn't last a single hour against the mosquitoes. In fact, he had spilled everything minutes into the ordeal, blabbering like a masochist who'd been edged by a sadist.

Of course, I knew he had confessed early. I just wanted to torment him for a few extra hours. Call it a severance package.

"Read it," I ordered.

Alicia flipped the page.

"The client is a man named Heney. He operates a large trading firm in the lower district."

"Heney…" I tasted the name. It sounded greasy.

"He is the brother-in-law of Viscount Garon," Alicia continued. "Using his brother-in-law's influence and connections, he has forcibly acquired multiple businesses in the capital. Publicly, he has the reputation of a wealthy businessman with great insight."

"But in reality," I finished for her, "he is just a thug in a silk suit who coerces businesses into selling or arranges 'accidents' for those who refuse."

"Correct."

Alicia pointed to her notes. "According to the assassin, Heney's eyes are set on Kitchen 21. He believes it has swept up the entire diner market in the capital."

She paused, glancing at Lily, who was standing quietly in the corner.

"And… his order was not to assassinate Lily. It was to kidnap her."

I raised an eyebrow. "Kidnap?"

"Yes. They concluded that the secret to the business isn't the management, but the head chef. They believe that if they secure her, they secure the monopoly. So, it was more profitable to take her alive."

I let out a short, dry laugh.

"Hah. I have to admire their decision."

I glanced at Lily. She flinched slightly under my gaze, looking both terrified and flattered.

"They weren't wrong," I said. "Lily has learned almost all my cooking knowledge. She is single-handedly managing the diners, training new cooks, and maintaining quality. She is the engine of Kitchen 21."

If they had actually succeeded in taking her… it would have been a catastrophic blow.

The room fell silent for a moment.

"What will you do now?" Alicia asked, seeing me lost in thought.

"About what?" I blurted, snapping back to reality.

"Are we leaving right away?" Her hand drifted toward her staff, ready for violence. "To strike them?"

"No? I'm going to sleep."

Alicia blinked. "...Sleep?"

"Yes. Sleep."

I stretched my arms, hearing my joints pop.

"I've been up all day. I attended the academy, did combat training, handled a 'negotiation' with that Baron's son, and now dealt with this trash. I am exhausted."

I held up a finger.

"According to the standard labor laws of Earth—a place you don't know—the maximum working hours per day is eight hours. I have significantly exceeded that. Therefore, I am clocking out."

Alicia and Lily exchanged confused glances.

"...You're not going to deal with them right away?" Alicia pressed, seemingly anxious to burn something down.

"Why would I? The client doesn't even know his man is dead yet."

I nudged the corpse with my foot.

"It's not like they came to me saying 'Please kill me!' Why should I give up my precious sleep time to rush over there?"

I walked toward the stairs, unbuttoning my blood-flecked cuffs.

"And besides…"

I paused on the first step, turning back to look at them. My expression darkened, the shadows of the room clinging to my face.

"I should let him live one more day. Let him enjoy his last breakfast. Let him think he's won."

A grin slowly spread across my face—wide, sharp, and utterly devoid of warmth.

"He dared to lay a hand on what is mine. He won't be seeing another sunset."

"Hehehehe… HAHAHAHA!"

My laughter echoed through the quiet house, distorted and manic.

Lily and Alicia stood frozen in the living room, gulping audibly as they watched the shadows swallow their boss.

'...He really is the villain,' they both thought in unison.

****

"Let's go in~"

I stepped into the alleyway with a cheerful hum, as if I were entering a bakery rather than a criminal den.

"…We'll be discovered first if you do that," Alicia whispered, her hand tightening around her staff. She scanned the shadows, her body tense.

"If we're discovered, they'll come to us first," I replied with a shrug. "Isn't that good? Saves us the trouble of hunting them down."

"..."

Alicia didn't respond, but her expression said, 'My boss is insane.'

We were standing in front of the entrance leading underground, exactly where the dead assassin's coordinates had pointed.

Like a true criminal enterprise, it was hidden in the bowels of the capital—an exceptionally deep part of a dark, narrow, maze-like back alley where the city guards never patrolled. The smell of sewage and rot was faint but persistent.

Without the information extracted via my "mosquito therapy," we might have had to search these back alleys for days. Or more likely, I would have given up because it was too troublesome and just burned the block down instead.

I looked at the narrow entrance descending into darkness.

"It's really a shame we don't have CS gas."

"CS… gas?" Alicia asked, blinking.

"Yeah. Tear gas."

I gestured to the tunnel.

"Think about it. What are the characteristics of an underground hideout? No windows. Or if there are any, they're too small for proper ventilation. It's a sealed box."

I sighed wistfully.

"At times like this, if I could just throw in a CS gas canister and shout 'Gas! Gas! Gas!'… it would be beautiful. They'd either pass out choking on their own snot or come running out in a panic, blinded and coughing."

I mimed swinging a sword.

"Then I could just stand at the entrance and whack-whack-whack—blow their necks off as they emerge. Easy. Efficient. Hygienic."

Alicia looked at me with a mix of horror and awe.

"Is… is that a weapon from your homeland?"

"Something like that. It releases a smoke that makes your eyes burn and your nose run like a faucet. It's painful. Or so I've heard."

'Sigh~ even though there are guns in this world, there are no grenades yet,' I thought bitterly. 'The dwarves really need to step up their R&D game.'

I cracked my neck.

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