The large ship of the Venice envoy mission sailed into the Ionian Sea, and the members of the mission had long lost the vigor they had when they first boarded the ship. They had finished their arguments and discussions, and each returned to their cabins to rest, leaving only the accompanying guards to keep watch at the bow.
In the dark storage room, five Assassins who had stealthily boarded the ship pressed against the bulkhead, one hand gripping their weapons tightly, the other pressing the short crossbow tied to their waists, their eyes fixed on the closed cabin door, and their ears perked up, trying to catch any movement outside the cabin from the dead silence.
After a long time without hearing a sound, Stirile cautiously pushed open the heavy cabin door. Seeing no one outside, he then glanced at the time on his watch by the faint firelight, getting a rough idea of their current location, and then quietly closed the door again.
"Sir, when do we make our move?" Assassin Twenty-Four asked impatiently. This was his first mission, but at this moment, his heart was full of anticipation, without a hint of fear.
Stirile pondered for a moment and replied softly, "Wait a little longer. We should still be too far from shore now, and it will be difficult to land after we make our move. We will act when the direction changes."
The Assassin did not respond, but Stirile keenly sensed his doubt and continued, "Our mission this time has three objectives: first, to prevent the Venice from sending a request for aid to the Ottoman Empire; second, to obtain evidence of the Venice's collusion with the Ottoman Empire; and third, to ensure that the identities of all of us are not revealed.
To achieve these three points, all personnel on the ship, including the Venice envoys, nobles, guards, and sailors, must not leave a single living person. We must first eliminate all the guards and sailors on the ship, and then kill everyone else remaining, and obtain the documents they were ordered to deliver. All of this must be carried out in secret to avoid alerting anyone.
On such a large ship, there must be lifeboats for escape in case of emergencies. On one hand, we must prevent any stragglers from escaping using the lifeboats. On the other hand, after completing the operation, we will leave by lifeboat, land on the Anatolian Peninsula nearby, and then find a way to return to the Papal States. Do you all understand?"
"What about all these things on the ship?" Assassin Twenty-Eight, who came from a poor background, asked reluctantly. Although he could not see them, the 觸感 told him that these items, which Venice intended to give to the Ottoman Empire, were very valuable, and it would be a pity to let them sink to the bottom of the sea.
"What, do you want to take them all back?"
"Perhaps we really can take them back after seizing the ship," Assassin Twenty-Eight suggested.
"If we just openly sail the ship back, won't all our identities be exposed?"
"We can dock the ship along the coast of the Papal States, and then we quietly leave. This way, these treasures will still flow into the Papal States, and it won't be a waste."
"How can five of us sail the ship back?"
"We can spare the lives of ten sailors on board first. They are not professional soldiers and will not pose much of a threat to us. I also know how to sail a ship, and we can silence them after the ship docks."
Weighing the pros and cons, Stirile still rejected the idea: "Forget it, leaving so many alive carries too many variables, and they may not honestly help us sail the ship. Moreover, these few things are nothing to the Papal States. As long as we cooperate with the army and win this battle, the gains will be more than a thousand times over, and His Holiness the Pope will not be stingy with his rewards to us then. There is no need to create extra complications."
"I will follow your arrangements," Assassin Twenty-Eight said obediently.
"We will do this..."
The captain of the mission's guard stood alone at the bow, gazing into the boundless darkness. When the Papal States envoy presented the declaration of war, the captain was in the Dodge's Palace and had volunteered to escort the mission. Knowing the severity of the situation and understanding that the Papal States' ambitions were not small, a touch of sorrow appeared in the captain's expression.
"When dawn breaks, will Venice be able to welcome allied forces, and will the Venice Republic, which has been passed down for hundreds of years, be able to weather this catastrophe?"
A metallic glint flashed by. The captain was about to turn back to check the situation when he suddenly felt a sense of oppression, without any sound. The captain was greatly alarmed. Just as he was about to shout for an alarm, a large hand tightly covered his mouth.
Immediately after, a sharp dagger slashed heavily across the captain's neck. Accompanied by a "slish" sound, blood splattered, and the captain's cry was choked in his throat, turning into an inaudible groan. In an instant, he lost his breath and slumped down powerlessly, his eyes wide with horror, full of fear and confusion.
Stirile gently lowered the captain of the guard's body, no longer making a sound.
At the same time, patrolling guards at various locations on the large ship were also silently slit at the throat without warning, not making a sound.
After dealing with the guards on the ship, the five Assassins rendezvoused outside the storage cabin, loaded their short crossbows, and then headed straight for the sailors' cabin at the bottom of the ship. They immediately shot crossbow bolts upon entering and then quickly switched to daggers to kill the remaining sailors one by one.
The sailors were usually responsible for rowing and were not even issued weapons. Faced with the sudden slaughter, the unarmed sailors were powerless to resist. Some sailors even died inexplicably before they could put down their oars.
Because more than a dozen sailors were in the same room, even with the fastest movements, it was impossible to kill so many people simultaneously. A few sailors reacted and hastily cried for help, but the sailors' quarters were on the lowest deck, and their cries for help ceased abruptly before anyone on the upper decks could hear them.
The five Assassins dispersed again into five areas, breaking into the sleeping quarters of the mission members in their respective areas. Most of the mission members were killed in their sleep, and the few who were awake were killed with a single blow before they could react. In a short while, most of the Venice mission on the ship had been killed.
"Who's there?"
Stirile, as before, was about to gently push open a door. As soon as his hand touched the door, a voice suddenly came from inside.
Seeing that he had been discovered, Stirile no longer hid. He violently pushed open the door and flew in with a short knife in hand. Unexpectedly, the direction from which the voice came was empty, and a sword qi struck from behind Stirile.
Stirile changed his footwork, dodged to the side, and thrust his dagger directly at the opponent's heart, but it was blocked by the opponent's horizontal sword, and the two immediately pulled apart.
"Quick, someone, an assassination!" the chief envoy shouted, but only dead silence answered him.
Stirile realized that the opponent was skilled and advanced again, launching several consecutive attacks, each aiming for a fatal blow. The chief envoy barely dodged them but was already at a disadvantage.
"You must be the chief envoy of the mission, right?" Stirile sneered.
The chief envoy's eyes froze, and his mind raced: Knowing that his group was a mission proved that they were not pirates robbing for wealth but a targeted assassination. And to intercept a mission sent by Venice for aid, the other party could only be...
After a long wait with no response, the chief envoy understood that no one would come to save him. A flash of indignation suddenly flickered in his eyes. He swiftly dodged and swung his sword, but his target was not Stirile. Instead, he knocked over the burning candelabra, and the flames quickly spread.
Stirile was slightly stunned and immediately understood that the other party intended to destroy the evidence! He stepped forward and thrust with all his might, the dagger sinking to the hilt, passing through the chief envoy's heart and emerging from the front.
With a violent shove, the chief envoy crashed heavily to the ground. Stirile quickly reached into the fire to snatch the burning documents, his hands covered in blood from the burns, but he only managed to retrieve some incomplete documents.
Stirile did not look at his bleeding hands but looked at the retrieved documents as if they were precious treasures, full of annoyance: "Damn it! I didn't expect the Venice envoy to be so resolute! I hope it's still useful."
The Assassins completed their mission and reassembled. They took the documents, set a large fire on the ship, and then left in a lifeboat. The people and things on the ship, and everything that had just happened, were annihilated in the raging fire.