Assassin's Chronicle

Anfey walked up to Suzanna. He squatted down to look at her. She was covered with lights shaped like scales on a fish. Anfey could barely see her face. Without knowing how much time had passed, the lights on her body started to dim. When the last few scale lights went out, Anfey held Suzanna in his arms. She was still in coma and rested in Anfey’s arms with her head slanted to one side. Anfey felt her softness in his arms. Her hair was down and blown in the wind.

Anfey laid his eyes on Suzanna’s chest. Her chest slowly moved up and down with a strong pulse. He put his ear on it to check. He could clearly hear her heartbeat. He finally heaved a sigh of relief.

Anfey turned around, carrying Suzanna in his arms, looking at Saul and Niya not far from him. A question suddenly flashed in his head. There was a big age difference between Saul and Suzanna, almost forty years difference. Perhaps Saul had dedicated himself in magic and could not spare his energy in marriage, but something didn’t make sense. Where was Niya’s mom? Why had no one talked about her at all, not even Niya. When they were running away from Sacred City, Niya called "dad" when she had nightmares. It was a little weird. No one talked about it. Anfey never bothered to ask since it involved her personal life.

"Professor, is Suzanna really going to be fine?" Anfey did not want to interfere with Niya and Saul while they were trying to bond, but he had to. He had always been good at not asking too many questions and rarely nagged anyone. Now he was just worried for some reason.

"Don’t worry about it. She is fine." Ernest said it before Saul could even say anything. He paused before patting Anfey on the shoulder. Ernest was not good at expressing his feelings. It was pretty rare to see him to give this kind of gesture.

"Even if she has lost something, what she gained is way more than what she has lost. You don’t have to worry about her," Saul slowly said.

"William must be enraged. Saul, aren’t you afraid William will come to see you and blame you for everything?" Bruzuryano said with a bitter smile.

Annunciata had not made any move for a long time. The Evil Abyss must know she was killed by Ernest. Both Church of Light and Evil Mist had suffered serious losses. Church of Light lost a Priest of Light and a sacred item. Evil Mist lost a senior stateswoman. Judging from the way the phantom dragon showed up, it must have been released from a seal. The magic tool that sealed the phantom dragon might not be as good as Glory Scepter, but should be very similar to that sense. Church of Light seemed to suffer the same amount of loss as Evil Abyss.

"Slanbrea and Annunciata came to the end together. Even if William wants to take revenge, he should not seek me out," Saul said calmly.

"Do you think William will believe your lies?" Bruzuryano twitched his mouth. There was a roaring behind them. A group of zombies wobbled over. The two zombies in the front were big. They actually used to be the druids of Bruzuryano. With no control over them, zombies went after any living organism by instinct. They had no idea what terror could feel like. They just wobbled over.

Seeing his subordinates turned into zombies, Bruzuryano thought about what he had paid for the battle, He was upset about it. He released Nature magic. Countless vines grew out of the ground and tied all the zombies together.

"It depends on how William thinks of it," Saul said. "If William were as honest as he claims, he would believe me. If William only pretended to be honest, he would blame me for it even if what I told him were the truth."

Bruzuryano was quiet in thought for a while. He heaved a long sigh. It was just like Saul said. If Pope William really aimed at wiping out necromancers, he would pay any price to fight the evil. He would not create conflict or make it worse than it should be at this crucial moment. If Pope William had ambitions of taking over Pan Continent, he definitely wanted to do more than wiping out necromancers. If he could not even wait for his bigger plan, he might use this as an excuse to create conflict with Maho Empire. Even if Slanbrea were killed by Annunciata, William still could blame them for something if he wanted to. He could stir up his followers and made them angry at Saul and Anfey.

"We probably have not seen each other for about five years, have we?" Saul looked at the horizon and squinted. There was a group of knights moving fast in their direction.

"Something like that," Bruzuryano nodded.

"Would you like to come to my house?" Saul asked.

"To Sacred City?" Bruzuryano was shocked for a second.

"Yeah." Saul smiled. "We are getting old. We do not have too much time left. If we miss this time, I do not even know if we would see each other again."

"Sure," Bruzuryano agreed quickly. He knew going to Sacred City was not going to be that simple. If he went, as a follower of Goddess of Nature, it would be an indication that Saul was innocent, which would be putting a decent amount of pressure on Pope William.

Anfey quietly listened to the conversation between Saul and Bruzuryano. He felt he had been too naïve. He used to live in a world where laws and rules governed people. He unconsciously believed it was a case of a homicide if he killed Slanbrea before Saul could. Now he understood, Slanbrea was not only Slanbrea himself, but Slanbrea of the Church of Light. One or a few people were responsible for a criminal case in his previous world, but in this world, a group was responsible for the death of Slanbrea, no matter who in the group killed him. In other words, he looked ridiculous when he tried to kill Slanbrea himself. Saul had made it clear that if Pope William could not wait for the conflicts, he would definitely blame Saul for it. It was a trigger. If that were the case, William’s aim was to make Yolanthe lose the whole territory of Maho Empire to Church of Light.

As Saul and Bruzuryano talked, a group of knights rushed over. A knight in the front hurriedly jumped off his horse. He bowed to Saul respectfully first and said in a low voice, "Master, Dean Steger has killed four necromancers and other mages. Two necromancers escaped toward the southeast."

"Where is Steger?’ Saul asked.

"He chased after those two necromancers himself," the knight said.

"Steger came too?" Bruzuryano asked in surprise. "I did not know you were so well-prepared."

Hearing this, Saul frowned. "I almost forgot if you did not remind me. What happened? You should have already reached Mambo territory as we planned. Why did you guys just come here? If it were not for me feeling something was not right and taking people to see you, you guys would have been caught by Annunciata."

"Do not ask me. Ask your favorite student," Bruzuryano shrugged.

Saul scanned the group. Christian immediately walked up and try to calm Saul down with smiles. "Professor, it was my bad. After running away from Sacred City, we have been roaming everywhere and living an unstable life. We finally could come back to our country, finally felt relaxed..."

"I am asking you what took you so long to get here," Saul interrupted.

"I wanted to see some nice scenery on the way," Christian said.

"To see nice scenery?" Saul asked.

"Yes," Christian said timidly.

Saul glanced at Anfey. He never believed what Christian said from the very beginning. This group of kids listened to Anfey. Saul knew Anfey would never let Christian see some nice scenery at this critical moment.

"Professor, it was my fault," Anfey stepped forward.

Saul gave Christian a hard look and slowly said, "Anfey, can you explain why?"

Christian looked worried. He looked at Anfey in confusion. They had worked so long that Anfey should have known to say nothing right now or blame it all on Christian, since he had a very special background. Even if Christian made a big mistake, Saul would not do much to him. If it were Anfey, Saul could be very strict with him, even though Saul was nice most of the time.

"My bad, my bad!" Niya could tell Saul was getting mad at Anfey and wanted to punish him for it. She signaled Anfey by giving him an I-got-it look as she shook Saul’s arm. "I was not feeling good so I asked Anfey to slow down."

"One wanted to see scenery while the other one did not feel good." Saul had a fake smile on his face. "No bad, not bad. After getting some real life experience for about half a year, you learned nothing but to lie to cover for each other."

"I did not. I really did not feel good," Niya complained.

Anfey smiled bitterly inside. Even if they wanted to help him, they needed to come up with some better excuses. These excuses were too lame to be believable.

Saul looked at Niya in surprise. When she was in Sacred City, Niya was the number two person in the household. She scolded people as she wanted, and told on anyone who broke her stuff. She was pretty nice if she did not blame others for her own mistakes. Today Niya stood out to speak for Anfey! Maybe it was a sign that she had grown up.

Anfey was still quiet. He could not let others know the reasons why he did what he did. To be honest, it was not all Anfey’s fault. If Miorich and Bruzuryano could have talked about the plan with him, he would not have made the same decision. Anfey had achieved major accomplishments, but he was still a kid in Miorich and Bruzuryano’s eyes. They did not think he was good enough to work with them as peers.

"Ok, I am not going to force you to tell me the reasons if you don’t want to." Saul waved his hand. "Get on the wagon first."