Alley

The patrol around the mansion is already finished and Gracia is already preparing to leave the mansion. While she is walking towards the mansion gate, she mumbles,

"Just as I thought... There is no sign of the killer around this mansion."

She continues to walk and mumbles,

"Then... It's according to my plan,"

As soon as she passes through the gate, she then mumbles,

"If the case is the same as Dominik's case, I believe the killer will try to kill me after I leave the mansion,"

She continues to walk, and this time she takes different routes to the inn. She remembers there is an area at Lerwick where there are fewer people living in the area.

She hopes that the killer will take the bait and attack her in that area alone.

Gracia continues to walk and stops for a while. She looked above her and could see the moon shine brightly without any clouds. At that moment, she heard footsteps coming closer to her.

When she looked at the source of the footsteps, she could see a person around her height with a ragged cloak hiding its face walking towards her. Gracia keeps calm and lets the person pass through her.

The moment the person walks beside her, Gracia notices something fishy. In a split second the person's hand starts to move with a knife on its hand and tries to stab Gracia.

Gracia immediately focused her magic towards the location where the attacker tried to stab.

The knife hits a green mist near the stomach, and the person immediately jumps away from Gracia. Gracia then says,

"It seems... You are the one who kills Dominik back then,"

The person didn't answer her and immediately took out several knives and threw them towards Gracia. Gracia immediately knock on the ground with her staff and says,

"Mist Veil"

The person was quite surprised to see a green magic circle that immediately vanished and made a green mist around Gracia. The knives that it throws immediately stops when hitting the green mist as if they hit a hard surface.

Gracia observes the person for a moment and then notices that the person is a bit surprised and immediately intrigued by the situation. The person immediately laughs, and Gracia recognizes the voice is the voice of a woman.

The woman in front of her laughs and says,

"Ah... I thought you were easy prey..."

"Unfortunately, I'm not an easy one," replied Gracia

"That fat man didn't notice who you are... He said that you are the weakest from all..."

"That fat man?"

The woman looks at Gracia, and she notices a burn mark on her face with a dark brown eyes colour. She smiles at Gracia and laughs for a moment, and then says,

"I can't believe this at all..."

"..."

"The Smiling Angel of Death is standing in front of me... And act like a normal girl,"

The moment Gracia heard that she was quite surprised. She immediately prepared her staff, and asked her,

"How did you know about my old identity?"

"How? Of course, I know... I'm the one who hunts from the shadow of Lerwick always knows someone else like me..." replied the woman.

"..."

"After all... We are the same..."

Gracia takes a deep breath and asks her,

"Then... Are you one of Alma Taylor's assassins?"

"Alma Taylor? That old granny?" replied the woman.

The woman laughs at Gracia and says,

"What if I said that... I hate her?"

"..."

The woman immediately laughs at Gracia and asks her,

"What happens with your bloodlust? Are you already done playing as a walking disaster?"

"Yes, I am..."

Hearing that answer, Gracia notices that the woman in front of her looks surprised. She then smiles at Gracia and says,

"Oh... So... You are not pretending now..."

"..."

"I thought that you are targeting that fat man,"

"..."

"And playing the long game to take his life... My... You indeed disappoint me,"

"But, I didn't disappoint my friend," replied Gracia as she prepared herself

The woman laughs at Gracia and suddenly throws a knife. The knife hits the mist around Gracia once more, and it immediately falls to the ground. The moment Gracia looks at the falling knife, she notices a hand trying to catch the falling knife.

She immediately uses wind magic to push her away from the attacker before the attacker slashes her.

Gracia almost falls on the ground and thinks,

"Her movement... Too fast,"

She immediately dashed away from her attacker. The attacker looks at Gracia and smiles at her. She later says,

"Go ahead... In the end, you will meet the same end as your friend,"

Gracia ignores her rambling and continues to run away from her. She knows that she will take her bait. What she needs to do is to find the right distance to make a commotion and cause a ruckus. At the same time, a good place where anyone could find her.

She then immediately uses telepathy to inform Volya regarding her situation. Volya immediately replied to her and she immediately replied to him.

Gracia smiles and notices a knife almost hitting her. She peeks behind her and doesn't see her at all. At that moment, she could see a shadow moving beside her and swing a knife towards her.

Gracia flinched a bit and failed to dodge it. Fortunately, the knife only scratches her cheek. Gracia immediately swipes the blood and looks in front of her.

The woman stands in front of her and plays with her knife. Right behind her is a big road near Gracia's inn. Gracia then tried to hide her smile and then says,

"It seems you will not let me run there, huh..."

"Of course... If you run there, a lot of people will see me kill you. If I do that, I failed as an assassin," replied her

"Ehehehehe... You are right..."

The woman is surprised to hear Gracia's response and then looks at her. She then asks,

"It seems you..."

"Well, I don't have anything else under my sleeves. It's my end..." replied Gracia

"..."

"Isn't it good for you... An assassin manages to eliminate the Smiling Angel of Death. It will indeed cause a lot of uproar amongst your kin, and you will become famous,"

The woman looks at Gracia full of disgust and slowly walks towards Gracia. Gracia notices it and starts to lower her defence. The moment she stands right in front of Gracia, she whispers,

"I hate you..."

"Is it because... I could get redemption..." replied Gracia

"For someone strong like you... To become weak like this..."

"Maybe..."

At that moment, Gracia could feel something cold on her stomach. She then touches her stomach and could see the woman stab her on her abdomen. Gracia smiles at her and says,

"Ahahahaha... It seems... My end is now huh..."

"..."

"Hey... Maybe... You could tell me... What's your name..."

"..."

"Ah... Stay silent, huh...."

Gracia's face starts to become pale and her body starts to fall towards the woman, but the woman immediately shoves her body to the wall near them. She then takes out the knife from her body, stabs her neck, and looks at her full of disgust.

She then says,

"Tch... I thought our battle was epic. For a well-known murderer like you to become so weak like this... You indeed disgust me a lot..."

She then spits on Gracia's body and then starts to walk away. She looks at Gracia and says,

"Well... I will tell you my name... As if you could hear me now,"

She then looks at the moon above her and says,

"My name is Yuri Petrova... But again... As if you could hear me..."

And together with that, she vanishes into the night.

At the same time in the tavern, Helena, Romain, Volya, Akantha, and Aliz stay quite late. They are waiting for Gracia to arrive soon. But, after several hours they didn't hear anything from her.

Helena starts to feel uneasy, while the other looks anxious. Right before Helena could say anything, they could hear a shout comes from outside the tavern,

"Someone murdered in the alleyway!"

All of them startled to hear that with Helena says,

"Don't say..."

She immediately rushed to the outside with the other tailing behind her. Volya looks at the other and starts to dash to follow the crowds.

When they arrived at the alleyway, they could see someone at the alleyway. The knights already gather there and examine the lifeless body there. The moment Volya see the lifeless body there, he immediately shouts,

"Gracia!"