Ch.118118. Assassination Cult (2)

The Roman Empire, undoubtedly the most powerful among nations existing in this era, was naturally also the wealthiest and most prosperous country.

Overwhelmingly vast territories, flourishing culture, wealthy cities, and a powerful military.

The Roman Empire, with such an outstanding civilization that it looked down upon other humans, and its capital city, the Holy City, were equally prosperous, but…

Where there is light, there must also be shadow.

And in the Empire’s capital, the Holy City, this shadow took the form of slums.

The slums formed either in empty districts within the city walls where no deity presided, or completely outside the walls in areas adjacent to the Holy City. They were a kind of shantytown formed by the accumulation of discarded things—necessary for maintaining a massive city but not particularly valued.

It began with day laborers who cleaned sewers and carried loads, but as time passed, it became known that there was no public authority managing these areas.

This environment was extremely favorable for criminal enterprises trafficking in all kinds of prohibited goods, resulting in various criminal organizations flooding into the slums, turning them into lawless zones.

Illegal entertainment establishments, private dueling arenas, and open trade in drugs and human flesh flourished. Gangs and organizations regularly waged war against each other over territory.

The slums ultimately became places where not even a trace of public order could be found, which might raise a question:

Why? Why does the Empire leave these slums—like cancer cells in the capital—untouched?

As someone once said, for a nation like the Empire, slums are cancer cells, places that slowly eat away at the city and become centers of all kinds of crime.

So it would be easier to just send in the army, push everything out, and establish a managed area. In fact, the Roman Empire had announced plans to clean up the slums several times in the past, but…

The problem was that shortly after these cleanup plans were announced, three of the twelve major gods of the Pantheon claimed the slums as their territory.

These gods, who came to be known as the Three Great Deities of the Slums, actively protected the slums. The Empire, unable to antagonize the major deities of the Pantheon, could no longer intervene in the slums.

In this situation, with various bribes exchanged and interests becoming complexly intertwined, the slums eventually became an area that no public authority could touch.

By the present time, the slums had transformed into a territory that was virtually no different from an autonomous district with its own administrative system and laws.

The middle and lower-ranking gods of the Pantheon declared small areas as their protected domains, while the Three Great Deities of the Slums held the largest territories.

In any case, the Empire’s slums were divided into three major regions by the Three Great Deities, each with quite unique characteristics.

*Plutos, God of Death and Rest

The most stable region was the domain of Plutos, God of Death and Rest. Peculiarly, this place was not for the living but for the dead.

As a result, a deformed structure was maintained where people lived in silence every day, paid souls as taxes, and the living worked to the bone for the dead.

Public order was excellent thanks to security forces that would kill immediately at the slightest hint of trouble, but apart from that, daily life was nothing short of torture.

*Iris, Goddess of Betrayal, Discord, and Conflict

In contrast, the most chaotic region was the district ruled by Iris, Goddess of Betrayal, Discord, and Conflict.

As evident from the three principles she symbolized, Iris’s territory was complete chaos, filled with betrayal, discord, and conflict, thanks to her devout followers.

This place specialized in providing political thugs, and even within temples serving the same goddess, political maneuvering was a daily occurrence. There was never a quiet day—it was a hellscape that residents wanted to escape from as soon as possible.

And the largest territory belonged to a god who, after recently recovering his fragmented soul, became more enraged than any other deity when his cherished aspect of wrath was taken by someone, causing the entire divine realm to shake momentarily.

*Phobos, God of Fear, Coercion, and Submission

This was the district ruled by Phobos, God of Fear, Coercion, and Submission.

Unlike other gods, Phobos did not directly rule his slum territory.

Instead, he divided the area and threw it to criminal organizations under his command, deriving pleasure from the resulting strife, conflicts, intimidation, and submission between them. He was a madman who took pleasure in this vicious process of terrifying residents into submission by witnessing these harsh scenes.

Therefore, in Phobos’s domain, daily struggles for territory were commonplace, and fighting desperately to survive due to tangled grudges was quite common.

Among the many subordinate organizations surviving in Phobos’s slums, there existed one called the “Alcatraz Family.”

They were originally a kind of vigilante group protecting the Alcatraz orphanage in the slums, but as public order deteriorated and criminal organizations increased, the orphanage director—

The Great Mother, who had previously worked as an assassin for some order before failing a mission, faked her death, escaped, and established this orphanage—thought that she could no longer maintain the orphanage through conventional means. Eventually, she reorganized the orphanage’s system into a kind of assassination organization.

Thus was born the “Alcatraz Family.”

True to their name, they regarded each other as family, brought in orphans from the slums, trained them as assassins, and accepted them as family. The “Alcatraz Family” was, unexpectedly, an organization with considerable fighting prowess.

The organization’s boss, the Great Mother, had been an education officer in the assassination order she previously belonged to, and although she had aged, she was still a mid-upper tier (Grade 4) assassin.

Therefore, despite their small numbers, the “Alcatraz Family” had been holding up well so far thanks to their unique family bond and excellent skills, but…

A trial had descended upon them.

It began with the death of the Great Mother, the organization’s boss and foster mother to its members, due to old age.

Of course, by this time, there were already assassins of equal caliber to her, and her successor had long since taken over the organization, so there was no problem with maintaining it.

The real problem originated from outside the organization.

As the skills of the assassins belonging to the “Alcatraz Family” became known, they were forcibly subjected to all kinds of hardships.

Attempts to extract or kill members, infiltrate spies, threaten attacks if assassination requests were refused, or take the orphanage hostage.

Well, most of these were just mediocre organizations failing to know their place, so none of these attempts had ever succeeded. Moreover, they retaliated against such attempts as cruelly and miserably as possible to intimidate others and prevent reckless intrusions, but…

This behavior only increased their notoriety, and there was a sense that even several large organizations were subtly reaching out to them.

For a small organization consisting of only about 60 combat personnel and just over 400 non-combat personnel, survival itself was becoming increasingly problematic.

‘…Great Mother, what should I do?’

Thus, the current boss of the “Alcatraz Family,” the Great Father, was lamenting to his foster mother and former boss, the Great Mother, though she could no longer hear him.

It was a situation where there seemed to be no solution at all, and the only variable, Phobos, maintained his usual silence.

So, in this hopeless situation where no answer was in sight, as he knelt and lamented—at that very moment.

“You seem to be in trouble, Assassin Renovel.”

“—Who’s there?!!”

Despite the fact that no one should have been able to intrude, and despite his continued vigilance, a voice came from a direction completely undetected by his senses as a top-tier mid-level (Grade 4) assassin.

Thwack!!!

Shouting thus, the Great Father—Renovel—pulled out a throwing knife from his bosom and threw it, then drew his dagger to charge and attack, but…

“I am not an enemy, Assassin Renovel.”

As the owner of that voice spoke and radiated an overwhelming pressure in all directions.

…Clang!

Involuntarily suppressed by that aura, he lost his fighting spirit and helplessly dropped his knife to the floor.

Such was the tremendous presence emanating from the being before his eyes…