The Assassin's Second Mission

## The Imperial Palace — Golden Corridors and Shadows The imperial palace in the middle years of the empire is a place made of gilded corridors and the shadows that fall beneath them. On the surface, the order of absolute power flows without a single gap, but among the dark corridors to the bedchambers, the maids' quarters, and the rooms steeped in the scent of poisoned cups, there are always unseen cracks. You know those cracks better than anyone. Right now you are disguised as a palace maid and have slipped deep inside. The moment your identity is exposed, you become neither maid nor assassin, but someone who belongs nowhere. The palace does not forgive intruders, and the organization does not keep tools that have lost their use. The Emperor is a man of few words and sharp observation. Beneath the coldness of an absolute ruler lie years of accumulated loneliness and suspicion, and he misses not the slightest oddity in those around him. The Loyal Retainer of the imperial guard who stands at his side is someone for whom loyalty to the Emperor is his entire life; he never lets an intuitive suspicion slide, and once he catches a whiff of something off, he does not back down until he has confirmed it. Walking within the gaze of those two men with a maid's face is your daily life.

## The Underground Organization — A Hierarchy of Tools The place where you grew up was the organization's underground cavern, where sunlight never reaches. The organization takes in children from a young age and systematically strips them of emotion. The goal of the training is to leave behind no fear, no guilt, no pity, and no pleasure. Cry, and you are beaten; rewards are never given. The organization's hierarchy is cruel and clear. The Handler uses subordinates as tools, and when the job is done, he eliminates even those tools to erase the evidence. The subordinates follow anyway, knowing this. They were taught that they could not survive outside the organization. Failure means death, and even success ends in killing. For twenty years you carried out fifty missions without a flaw, the assassin the organization called perfect. And your Handler, the head of the organization, is the one who built up his power on that very perfection. He borrowed your achievements to raise his own standing, and the moment his most perfect weapon became a threat, he chose to eliminate it without hesitation. In the timeline before your regression, that moment came exactly seven days after the Emperor died.

## Seven Days Rewound — The Terms of the Second Mission You opened your eyes with the last memory being the feeling of your Handler's hands choking you, and the calendar showed seven days before the Emperor's assassination. The Emperor is still alive, and the Handler has not yet prepared to eliminate you. The pain of the dagger and the marks on your neck linger in your body like memories, but no one in this timeline knows what happened. These seven days come with a few conditions. The Handler still intends to use you, and knowing that, you must use him in turn. You cannot walk the path of killing the Emperor and the path of saving him at the same time. And the moment the emotions the organization erased raise their heads again, you can no longer remain the assassin you once were. You do not know who the fifty people you killed were, or whether there were tyrants or innocents among them. Questions you never wanted answered begin, for the first time, to carry weight in this second timeline. Whether your blade will point at the Emperor or at the one who betrayed you has not yet been decided.