Chapter 73

"Impressive, brother. What sect are you from? You managed to block all five of us from the Heaven List and even counterattacked with ease."

Among the five men, the one who spoke first glanced past Uno at Elara. He spat blood from his mouth and laughed lowly.

"I heard this fallen little kingdom's royal family has a secret group of shadow guards. I didn't think much of it at first, but now I understand. No wonder that guy named Gregory paid so much just to kill a third-rate princess. I was hoping to make a bit of easy money. Never thought I'd run into someone so difficult. But with skills like yours, why stay stuck in such a declining kingdom? If you're willing to step aside, I swear I'll split half the bounty with you and even bring you into our Blood Cloak House. With your ability, you'd quickly rise to the Heaven List. You could enjoy anything you want, even any woman you want."

Standing behind Uno, Elara heard everything they were saying about trying to steal her people. She let go of Mathias and walked to Uno's side. Then she spoke up for him since he hadn't said a single word from the start.

"So you're from the Blood Cloak House. Sounds like Gregory really values me. How much did he pay you? How about this instead? I'll pay you double. Go back and kill Gregory for me. How about that?"

Only now did the man turn his eyes to Elara. He hadn't looked closely earlier. Now that he saw her clearly, he was stunned by her beauty. Then his expression turned into a cold smile.

"Princess of Plumera... looking at your face, I guess it makes sense Gregory offered such a high price. But it's too late. Our Blood Cloak House is ruthless, yes, but we have one rule. Once a contract is accepted, it must be completed. We never take on a second job before finishing the first. No backing out. No breaking promises."

Elara shrugged. "That's a good rule. But it's a shame."

"I think so too." The man's gaze drifted over her face again, then returned to Uno. Seeing that Uno had no reaction to everything he had just said, and his hands still guarded the girl calmly with twin daggers, the man asked one last time.

"You really won't consider it? This is the first time I've invited anyone to join since I started doing jobs."

Being directly targeted for the second time, Elara simply stepped forward and patted Uno's solid arm that was shielding her. She interrupted again.

"Trying to steal my people right in front of me again? That's too much. Besides, you're too late. He's mine. But if you really want to work with Uno, I don't mind. As long as you give up the Blood Cloak House and work under me, I'll take you in. What do you say?"

The man's face instantly turned cold. "Big words for a princess from a third-rate kingdom. In our house, you wouldn't even be fit to serve tea."

As he finished speaking, he raised his hand.

Suddenly, the silent forest exploded with movement. Nearly a hundred assassins appeared, surrounding the royal temple like a swarm of bees.

"When I first saw Gregory's request, I thought he was being paranoid. But now that I see you have a Heaven List fighter with you, I guess all these extra killers weren't such a waste."

Elara didn't respond to his insult. Words of the dying don't matter. She only glanced calmly at the dense group of killers. Her face showed no fear. Instead, she gave a mocking smile.

"So many against so few. That's exactly the kind of cowardly move that trash like Gregory would come up with. But knowing what kind of person he is, did you really think I'd just sit here and wait to die?"

As soon as she spoke, the quiet forest stirred again.

Then, three times more people than the Blood Cloak killers appeared, completely surrounding them from the outer edge of the woods.

Two-thirds of them stood in front. They were tall and lean, dressed in the same black combat uniforms as Uno. They held bronze weapons and stared silently and coldly at the assassins ahead.

These were the Wei guards who were supposed to be kneeling at the royal altar, not allowed to move until the ceremony ended.

The other third stood farther back. They wore armor and carried longbows. They were archers meant for the battlefield.

These were the troops Elara had borrowed last night from Captain Yang.

At the altar.

Gregory, acting as the lead priest, kept glancing at the path behind the altar. Then he looked toward the servant nearby.

The servant shook his head slightly, showing that no news had come from the back mountain.

Gregory counted the time. Elara had entered the path long enough ago. Whether it worked or not, something should have already happened.

Then he suddenly looked up at the kneeling Wei guards who hadn't moved at all since Elara left. He leaned close to the servant and spoke in a low voice.

"Go check those shadow guards. Look at each of their faces and body shapes carefully. If anyone is faking, expose them immediately."

The servant nodded and turned to go, but Gregory stopped him again.

"Wait. Get someone who knows martial arts. Use inner strength to test them. Make sure these Wei guards are really the real ones."

"Yes."

About half a stick of incense later, just as everyone was quietly kneeling and waiting for Elara to return, a sudden scream broke the silence at the altar.

Everyone looked up. A guard had been sent flying and crashed hard into the distant platform. Before the stunned man could react, a wave of strong inner force pulled him straight off the platform and into the hands of "Wei Three" behind Uno. His neck was grabbed instantly.

"Disrupting the royal ceremony. Punishable by death."

Wei Three said in a low voice, then squeezed. The man went limp and dropped dead.

On the platform, the servant standing behind Gregory nearly collapsed in shock.

That man was one of Gregory's top fighters. Yet he was killed instantly by one of the Wei guards, just from a single test.

In all of Plumera, only the top Wei guards could do something like that. No one else.

That result was enough. No more checking was needed.

Gregory stared at the guard now lying dead with his neck twisted. His hands clenched inside the wide ceremonial sleeves.

Losing a skilled fighter like that, normally Gregory would take brutal revenge right away.

But this was the royal ceremony. Even though most of the officials bowed to him, this wasn't a place he could act recklessly. If anyone traced that guard back to him, even if he didn't care about the consequences, the scandal would be hard to contain.

Especially since people from the northern region were definitely watching from the shadows during events like this.

He couldn't act without thinking.

That was also why he hadn't dared to send anyone up the back mountain himself.

Gregory stared coldly at Wei Three until another servant rushed over, voice kept low.

"Lord Gregory, message from Lord Yang. Everything is proceeding as expected."

Gregory's chest rose and fell. He gave one last glance at Wei Three and then turned away.

"Understood. Continue the ceremony. Everyone, return to your duties."

"Yes."

Back mountain, royal temple.

The peaceful green mountains and calm buildings had turned into a place of death.

Bodies lay everywhere, blood soaking the ground red.

Just yesterday, Elara had seen a severed head from Captain Yang. Now she was looking at an entire battlefield of corpses.

Fighting back the nausea, she confirmed that all the Blood Cloak killers were dead. The Wei guards were fine, except for a few with minor injuries. The archers from Captain Yang's army who had stayed back to cover and finish off stragglers were completely unharmed.

Elara then gave the order to start cleaning up the scene quickly.