Inside an inn, the dwarven merchant family, the ones who had entered Lustburg recently, were ready to execute their tasks. A thing to note was that they were not clad in black. They simply wore their usual clothes. Experienced assassins as they were, they knew that the best way not to be noticed was to look like everyone else.

After a little research, they managed to collect information about Theresa’s whereabouts. Theresa was not particularly elusive or hiding her location after all.

After the war, she would either spend her time in some bar or stay in the Hermes mansion.

Duke Hermes had the blood of dwarves running in his veins and had kept many connections with Greed Dike, accumulated throughout his life. Even now he was one of the main emissaries lobbying for peace between the two kingdoms.

In their initial plan, they would have met Duke Hermes at his mansion under the guise of messengers from Greed Dike, and with a blitz attack, they would have either captured or eliminated the duke swiftly.

Even though Hermes was also in the Duke realm, there was just no way he could be their match.

Their first and main objective was to eliminate Theresa. Capturing her was only to be done if there was a decent possibility of that.

At least that was the initial plan. Now though, things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse before they had even made a move.

“How is the situation?” The mother dwarf asked. Her expression was taut and her hand was languidly resting on her dagger.

The deathsworn of Greed Dike worked in family cells. The Mother or the Father was the leader of their group. The children were the second rank and the guards represented the third rank. They were obviously not related by blood. But this was extremely useful when it came to infiltration.

“I do not know what happened. But that explosion of power was definitely from the Birth of a new King.” The father dwarf scowled as he looked at the direction of the Hermes mansion.

“Theresa?” The daughter asked, almost rhetorically.

“Impossible. Theresa is not even in the Duke Realm. She has not managed to advance in decades. Even if she did have some miraculous epiphany, she would at most become a Duke.”

Only those who had ascended to the Duke Realm could understand how far away the King Realm was. It wasn't something that could be attained with just effort and time. It was a power only those supremely talented and blessed with luck could hope to reach.

In every generation, the number of Kings that were not Blessed was extremely limited. In some generations, no such person would even exist. As long as one didn't count the witches, of course.

This was how large the disparity was between a Bless and Non-Blessed. The probability was so minuscule that it was inconsequential.

“For Theresa to become a King from nothing in one night. She would need to realize her Truth, build her Legend, and find her…” The more he talked, the weirder his expression became.

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Realizing her Truth? Theresa was without a shadow of a doubt one of the most self-serving women he had ever known.

Build her Legend? Even if most people did not know the name of the creator, the Rangers were currently building a true legend for themselves. Everyone in the world knew about them. After all, this was the first time in history someone created a way for a mortal to actually face literal Dukes.

Even before that, Theresa was a household name in Greed Dike. She had so many feats to her name that, he wouldn’t be able to count them all even if all night went by.

“This… Really?” He asked out loud. Though the probability was minuscule… it wasn’t exactly zero, which only served to be against them.

He closed his eyes. “We abort the mission for now. Tomorrow we will go to the guild and take our certificate then act like normal merchants for some time. We will find a way to determine whether she had really ascended to the King Realm.”

There was no need to hurry. Deathsworn they might be but that did not mean they would mindlessly throw their life away. They needed to succeed and even if they failed, confirming Theresa’s current realm would also be a great service to the kingdom.

“Well. I thought you guys were only third-rate at best. But I see you are not so incompetent.” A feminine voice reached them abruptly.

The ten dwarves were elites, the ones with roles of Father, Mother, and Daughter were all bonafide Dukes. The seven guards were also very close to ascending to the Duke realm and could put up a decent fight against one if they joined forces.

The very moment they heard the voice, whispering so close to them, they all realized that the intruder was far beyond their level. In such a situation the first action should have been to flee. But they knew it was not the best option.

Attack!

They all moved simultaneously. The three Dukes were already prepared to release their Zones. No matter how strong that person was, as long as they weren’t a King there should have been some effect if they retaliated desperately enough. But…

“How cute.”

They found, to their horror, that they were completely unable to even move. They did not know when, but wriggling shadows were slowly climbing up from their legs and covering, nay devouring, their entire bodies.

The shadow did not just paralyze them, it also gnawed away at their mana, completely devouring their reserves. They were… powerless.

The mission is a failure.

Father Dwarf thought calmly in his mind.

Once they accepted that there was no escape possible, they only had one option left. All of them bit hard on their molar, breaking down the poison hidden in their mouth, and swallowing it in one fell swoop.

No one could ever say that they would stay silent in the face of torture. This was why all deathsworn had lethal poison on them. In fact, they had more than one type of poison as contingency. Just in case they were stopped from taking the first.

The poison was very effective, and Father Dwarf could feel death slowly creeping in, ready to take him in its embrace. He only had one question as his body lulled away toward death’s embrace,

But why did she not stop us?

Those were his last thoughts as the ten dwarves slumped on the ground, their bodies now devoid of life.

While the whole suicide spectacle took place, Milia leisurely watched their antics, sitting languidly on the bed. She had no intention to stop them. There was really no need to.

After all,

“I will leave everything to you. Miss Isis.”

They had a necromancer in their rank. Death was never an escape in front of Isis. Far from it, in fact.

It was the road toward eternal enslavement.