Ch.7777. Like a Ghost

In the capital of the Griffin Kingdom, Greyford, unprecedented chaos was spreading.

Debates and discussions continued day and night, everyone’s voices were hoarse, and the streets were covered with people’s spit.

The reason violence hadn’t broken out was due to Saintess Lucia’s mediation and the iron-fisted sanctions of the silent royal family.

Knights who protected the royal family came out to the streets with fire in their eyes to mediate citizens’ arguments before they escalated.

Their ability to quickly subdue situations that might lead to fistfights or riots was truly remarkable.

The reason these knights could patrol outside was because the royal palace had been settled faster than anywhere else.

The nobles who opposed the royal family before Deus Verdi demonstrated his holy power were all those who harbored dissatisfaction with royal decisions.

King Orpheus, who had deliberately remained silent to identify those dissatisfied with the royal family, drew his sword at the Great Debate.

Though not a purge, proper backlash came in the form of exile or confiscation of property by investigating corruption.

The power of the royal family was skyrocketing, and nobles and bishops could only keep their mouths shut, bow their heads, and remain silent.

But that didn’t mean the poison-coated daggers hidden below their waistbands were also silent.

Rather, they were crying out more fiercely and intensely than ever before.

“Kiya!”

Findenai, who had ventured into the streets, felt her brain tingle as she sensed the footsteps of assassins following her.

If she had to describe it, it was like having a nail hammered into her head with electricity flowing through it.

It was a day that freshly reminded her of the electric torture she had endured in the Republic long ago.

Hiding in the shadows of this outwardly classical city for covert operations.

She remembered feeling similarly when fleeing after committing acts of terrorism in the metropolises of the Republic of Clark.

Back then, she ran until her feet were blistered just to survive.

‘Now I’m running to kill.’

As she entered an alley, there were thugs smoking inside.

“Huh? What’s this?”

“Look at her outfit.”

They gaped at Findenai’s maid uniform, but without hesitation, she rushed at them, snatched a tobacco pack like a pickpocket, and jumped up using a garbage can as a foothold.

“What the!”

“Crazy woman!”

But their shouts couldn’t reach Findenai. After using the garbage can as a stepping stone, they could only stare blankly as she climbed up the wall.

“Did you see her panties?”

“Shit, couldn’t see because of the laundry.”

“Me neither.”

As they grumbled about missing the view because of hanging laundry, people began pouring into the alley.

They looked ordinary—a fruit shop owner, a neighborhood unemployed man, a proselytizing middle-aged woman, and so on.

But the thugs instinctively pressed themselves against the wall when they saw the cross-shaped daggers in these people’s hands.

These people followed Findenai toward the building’s rooftop.

After fleeing for quite some time, Findenai was on the rooftop, smoking the thugs’ tobacco.

“Tsk, kingdom tobacco is so bland. The ones made in the Republic would probably put a few holes in your lungs after just a year.”

Findenai exhaled smoke toward the sky, complaining of boredom. The sky was covered with dark clouds, blocking any sunlight.

Suddenly, she wondered if the laundry she’d seen while climbing up should be brought in soon.

“Deus Verdi’s personal maid.”

“Hmm, what if I say I’m not?”

When Findenai sassily asked with her hands on her hips, the assassins pointed their cross daggers and answered.

“We already know everything.”

“Then why ask, you bastards?”

If they’d already decided on the answer themselves, they were just making her waste her breath.

“Sigh, let me finish this before we start.”

“……”

Surprisingly, they waited for Findenai to finish her action.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

As the tobacco burned down with each regular puff of smoke, the assassins could only swallow nervously.

And so.

When all the tobacco had burned down.

Swish.

Findenai lit another one with a match.

“……”

The assassins were dumbfounded by how naturally Findenai added one more cigarette.

“Hmm, it’s weak but has a strangely addictive taste. Smooth and gentle because it’s mild.”

Seeing Findenai start a tobacco review, the assassins finally couldn’t hold back and rushed at her.

After all, they were on a rooftop.

With nowhere to escape, they naturally formed an encirclement and thrust their daggers, but.

Keeeeeng!

The forearm-sized club at Findenai’s waist extended.

With a click, a sharp axe blade popped out.

“Bastards.”

Findenai’s axe roughly drew a semicircle as she held her cigarette in one hand, looking contemptuous.

The assassins were pushed back and fell, rolling across the rooftop floor from just one strike.

Their cross daggers shattered like glass fragments across the floor.

“Inhale.”

Putting the cigarette back in her mouth, Findenai rested the axe on her shoulder and said.

“Since you waited for me, I’ll at least listen to your last words.”

Having no intention of letting them live, Findenai shrugged her shoulders and asked.

The assassins bit their lips tightly but shouted without any hesitation or fear.

“The feast of Goddess Hertia is at hand!”

“A life of dancing and singing with Her awaits us!”

“We are martyrs! The Goddess is with us from beginning to end.”

Seeing them proudly declare their affiliation, Findenai smirked.

“Okay, so not Hertia’s side.”

Nodding her head while mentally crossing off one goddess, Findenai smiled slightly.

“But I wonder if calling another god’s name right before death will help?”

Findenai tilted her head curiously. The assassins were kneeling with their hands clasped, praying to their god as if reciting.

They were too quick to give up on life.

Findenai, who had fought for freedom and rolled through mud to survive, could only click her tongue.

This was why she didn’t like gods.

The afterlife?

Doesn’t it feel like wasting one’s only precious life?

So Findenai asked a somewhat mischievous question.

“Hey, assassins come after me whenever I go out on the streets, you know? I sometimes go out on purpose because of that.”

“……”

“But they all fail. They say they act under divine will, but they all die by my hand.”

“……”

“At that point, shouldn’t you look for another god? Yours is seriously incompetent.”

“You bitch!”

Those who had been silent with bowed heads immediately rushed at her with bloodshot eyes after one cheap provocation.

After splitting one’s head with her axe, Findenai clicked her tongue.

“Tsk, I’ll tell you a secret since you’re about to die anyway.”

Turning her gaze to the remaining assassins, Findenai smiled and revealed the secret.

“Actually, my master isn’t in Greyford. He’s already gone far away.”

“……!”

Deus Verdi had already left Greyford?

There couldn’t be more valuable information than this. Leaving the royal palace meant he was outside the high walls.

They thought they should report this quickly, but the pressure from the maid in front of them and her blood-red eyes exuded a murderous aura that prevented them from moving carelessly.

“I’ve split about forty assassins so far, you know? I told all of them this.”

Findenai said, throwing her finished cigarette butt on the ground.

“You claim to communicate with your god. If the dead ones met your god, they would have told about my master no longer being in Greyford.”

“……”

“And that god would have told the living believers. So shouldn’t you already know?”

Cold sweat trickled down.

For some reason, only at this moment with death right in front of them did their faith begin to waver slightly.

“Is it because it’s too far and hasn’t arrived yet?”

However, Findenai’s axe had already chopped off their necks without a moment’s hesitation.

* * *

Elenoa Luden Griffin, valedictorian of the first-year midterm exams at Robern Academy.

Like the saying that beauties sleep a lot, she had a habit of quickly stuffing down her lunch and then falling asleep during lunch break.

People praised her as a carefree and free-spirited princess who put aside the weight of royalty to take comfortable naps.

But in reality, there was only one reason Elenoa slept.

Sometimes, she dreamed of him.

The entity hidden inside Deus Verdi that she could never see in reality—the being called Shinwoo Kim.

Perhaps because she had met him in a dream back then?

Although the dream content itself lacked the sweet, innocent situations she desired, the frequency of their meetings was relatively high.

“Yawn.”

Stretching as she got up, Elenoa twisted her body this way and that. The rooftop was perfect for sleeping in this season.

She deliberately carried a winter cloak around to use as a blanket.

If her ladies-in-waiting saw this, they would say it lacked the dignity of a princess.

But right now, she wasn’t the princess of Griffin, just a student named Elenoa.

Checking her wristwatch, she saw there were still about 10 minutes left in the lunch break.

Having woken up earlier than usual, she slowly walked toward the railing to feel the breeze.

Then, as if by instinct, she suddenly looked down. Just completely without thinking.

But surprisingly, there was the man she had been chasing even in her dreams, being escorted by Magic Judges as he was leaving the academy.

“D-Deus?”

Startled, Elenoa rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things.

It really was Deus.

She pinched her cheek, raised her mana, and even tried spinning in place while holding an imaginary elephant’s trunk.

Her cheek stung painfully.

Her mana rose whitish as always.

She had to grab the railing due to dizziness.

Deus had really returned!

“You should have said something if you came back!”

Snorting indignantly, Elenoa immediately headed for the stairs. Bouncing down them, she quickly reached the first floor, not caring about the gazes of students or professors around her.

Rumble!

The ground and sky vibrated.

A phenomenon Elenoa had felt several times before.

“N-No way?”

Warp magic?

Did he really leave like this?

He came to the academy but left without even visiting me, the princess?

With an expression of disbelief, Elenoa quickened her pace.

At the spot where Deus Verdi and the Magic Judges had been just moments ago, only soot marks on the ground remained—a side effect of the warp.

“Ah.”

And similarly, a sigh mixed with pathos came from behind Elenoa.

Glancing back, she saw that Erika, Deus’s fiancée, wore the same disappointed expression as herself.