“Sial, please eat. You need to eat your food.”

It's been a few hours since they went to the King Castle, and now they are back at An home. Sial had calmed down on the way, but she had been out of focus the whole time.

Both of An parents, the elderly couple, were worried at the sight of devastated Sial. How could they not? In the span of one week, Sial had lost her boyfriend, An and now her parents too.

An father glanced at his dear wife, she also lost An and her best friend. Yet, here she was, trying to feed the distraught Sial. Sial hadn’t eaten for an entire day, and if she still didn’t want to eat, she could get sick.

She had been embracing both the wedding rings and the book very tightly, the things that she thought were the starting cause of her despair.

“Sial please…”

He felt guilty. Immense guilt.

As a father, he was the one who introduced An to the work in the other city.

As a superstitious man, he was the one who introduced voodoo stuff to Sial, making her susceptible to Demon influence.

As an injured man, he is powerless to prevent the priest from taking his own son's life. His old injuries swelled up at that time, and he can feel his once pierced heart struggling to beat amidst the adrenaline of a fight.

Now, as a retired guard, he was the one who introduced Sial parents to the work as servants there. All of the unfortunate events can be traced back to him.

That’s why he decided to do the right thing, to retrieve Sial's parent bodies from the graveyard and give them a proper burial. He gave one last glance to the two grieving women before closing the door and heading out.

As he was leaving, he sensed someone staring at him, prompting him to glance at the rooftop next to his house. There is no one there. Thinking his emotion clouded his instinct, he ignored the false warning and left his home.

Unknown to him, Theresa appeared on the rooftop a few seconds after he was gone.

“Hmm, it seems he isn’t your average old man.”

Theresa then directed her attention to the house, or more specifically, to where Sial and An lived.

She has been silent for a long time, eavesdropping on what actually happened. Her expression changed into a startled one.

“Did 'It' orchestrate this too? No, if 'It' did, 'It' should have known I was here already and didn’t go this extreme with the method.”

Theresa casually glazed her eyes over the street below. The Rebellion that will soon explode is within her scope of expectation.

But this situation regarding Sial? No. She only intended to let An die, that’s it. She didn’t expect Sial to be so unlucky. Theresa felt sorry for Sial.

She silently cast an invisible bubble on An house. Its purpose is to shield what is going on inside, an inception of a new Demon item. The book and the wedding rings are evidently transforming into a Demon item, much more powerful than before.

If Theresa didn’t arrive first, others who could feel it would definitely kill Sial for being a heretic and spawning a Demon item. She made sure to not let out a single aura of the Demon item that was escaping.

While there, Theresa attempted to implement a theory she had been mulling over. Can she influence the effects of a newly formed Demon effects into something she desires?

“If the Demon item effects aren’t dangerous for you, I won’t purify them. I will let you use them as you please.”

She had to be quick and efficient, tomorrow is a big day for her plan.

~~~~~

“Can I ask about something before we start? Maybe three questions at most.”

They had planned how to extract Jacob from the graveyard. A quick in and out composed of two stages. Anna and her Twin Knights will distract them, while her remaining forces will protect me using my Demon item.

I wanted to ask why they trusted me so much but decided not to. I had a feeling they wouldn’t answer. The same feeling compelled me to tell them about the Grimoire of Desire.

As soon as I use the Grimoire, we will proceed to the second stage. With the astronomical number of corpses in the graveyard, I am sure I can Reprint the READ of Adal or sister Yuri.

Their READ is particularly dangerous as the Irregulars they derived come from ancient Irregulars of the past and are quite high in the rank of their times. It is fitting for the top three combat Librarians.

Although there are higher-ranking READs, like the ones owned by department head Wyldan or department head Astra, they aren’t suitable for combat. So only Librarian from the Security division should I choose.

There is the Chief Security Officer READ… but I know the number of corpses needed to Reprint it was innumerable. The Irregular was in the top one hundred and rumoured to have originated from a long-forgotten and perished god.

The Library is weak, very weak in combat, as most of our strengths come from another field. At least compared to the other Major Factions, we could defend ourselves from lower factions like the Hospital or the upcoming new faction, the Tech.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Anyway, I haven’t decided whether to Reprint Adal or sister Yuri READ. My choices depend on the answer to what I wanted to ask.

“What is it?”

Anna replied, tying her pink-red hair into a bun. She probably did it so her long hair didn’t obstruct her eyesight and movement.

“The city residents are acting weird, did none of you notice it? They seem to hate this kingdom so much, very different than what I saw a few days ago.”

The first question is for a follow-up question about something that has been on my mind. Her answer should be…

“It seems you really are from the Empire, yes, we know. It's the Rebellion thing, right? The Saintess had informed us about it and its Demonic characteristics. It appears that the Demon is the one who brought it here from the Empire."

Indeed, they are aware of it. Then why…?

"Then, why are only your forces present here? Where is the kingdom army? And it seems the knights in the castle don’t know about this.”

“Because the Rebellion is a good thing for this kingdom. Originally, we wanted to reluctantly tell the King about it, but after hearing what he did to his own nobles… he is on track to becoming an absolute tyrant with no chance of redeeming himself.”

Anna's eyes flickered with pity as they shifted towards her beloved Twin Knights, Danny and Daniel. She pops a candy into her mouth.

“And despite us seemingly being loyalists of the King, I… wanted him to die for a long time, just haven’t had a good reason or opportunity for it.”

“That’s why we let the Demons brew this sudden, unerupted Rebellion among the city for days. We intend to eliminate the Demons and ignite the Rebellion."

Uhh… Should I tell them?

Well, it's my fault, I should come clean.

“I am sorry, but I think I screwed up your plan. I told the knights in the castle about it just now.”

Danny and Daniel reacted to my statement by turning their heads towards me. Surprisingly, Anna didn’t react, she just nonchalantly said

“It's fine, the Saintess already predicted they would realise it as of today, and she is right. After all, there are many foreigners from the Empire, it just takes one of them telling the King to blow it all over.”

Fyuh, I thought I messed up.

“It's all too late for them though, the Rebellion has already spread all over the city, and they will explode no matter what he does. Now we just need to remove all of the Demons influence tomorrow with the Saintess, leaving only a pure rebellion.”

Hm? The Saintess seem so familiar with this?

If I remember it correctly, there are only six countries existed in here and only the Empire experienced the Rebellion quite recently. How did she know information that took a few weeks for the Library to confirm?

“One last question, it's probably more accurate to say it as a request. Can I meet the Saintess?”

Somehow, Anna gave me a nervous laugh at my request.

“You'll meet her. Come on, we should move now.”

~~~~~

He's back in a prison cell.

This time, there is no other prisoner besides him.

He doesn’t remember how he locked up in here, the last thing he remembered before waking up was the creepy smile of the once-friendly gravekeeper.

"No, he shouldn't be himself. He had died a long time ago.”

He observed the room. The room he is in somehow looks worse than the Old Prison in the Castle.

The room is dark. The torch light emanated from the bottom of the reinforced wooden floor, providing the only faint orange light. He was familiar with the distinct concrete that made up the room's walls.

A black cloak covers the people who bring him food, obscuring their faces from view. Apart from their clothing, he noticed an awful smell of decay emanating from their bodies.

Given the smell of decay and the composition of the concrete, he deduced that he must be inside a graveyard.

Which one? Most likely, it's the main graveyard, as it's where the former old gravekeeper used to work.

He didn’t try to talk to them simply because he was too afraid. They have a connection to a man who ought to have perished, yet remains alive. It's pretty clear to him that they are Demons.

The demons aimed their malevolence at him. Unlike Rivan, he can explicitly sense their malicious intent at all times.

“What did I do to deserve this?”

It's confusing, he is just a normal boy working day by day for his sick sister. Most of the boys in a situation like his are either thieves or even worse.

Now, he lost his job as a clerk because he got duped into carrying dangerous letters. Its fortunate he had his thief Class levelled up into tier two. With his newfound strength, he should be able to afford to steal new kind of targets.

“QUICK! Go outside, we should defend the ritual spot.”

“This is our last chance! We can’t let them screw it up.”

He heard people screaming from the other side of the door. The scream was followed by multiple footsteps.

Just a few seconds after that, a huge, booming sound reverberated into the entire room. The intensity of the tremors caused him to lose his composure.

Jacob's heart was beating like crazy after the sudden explosion from outside.

~~~~~

Anna loves casting spells.

This is particularly true when it comes to her cherished fire magic.

She funneled her mana to her right hand, which pointed to the sky above the graveyard. The dark cloud effectively conceals its contents.

Anna's eyes went to the people in front, protecting her from the Demons that were coming out to stop her.

The Twin Knights who were gifted by her cousin when Anna was just a simple, naive duke daughter. She had a close cousin who was known for her wisdom and excellent governance.

Had.

Her family's association with the Demons led to her execution shortly after she handed over the Twin Knights to Anna. The Duchy of Pendell was no more.

That same day, Anna lost her mother. Her entire family, from mother side gone. Anna managed to survive because she inherited Valoy's bloodline and was the sole heir to the duchy at the time.

She had believed the Demons were the only ones responsible for their deaths, but after learning the truth from her late father, she realized another actor played a role during that time, the King.

Apparently only one family member was guilty of colluding with Demon at that time, an insignificant one even. Who could have predicted that the King would seize the chance to abolish the entire Duchy of Pendell?

“I will kill all of you.”

“I will burn all of you under my fire.”

With her grandiose display of mana spreading all across the graveyard, familiar faces started to emerge from within.

Algor Alloces, along with the wounded Susan Gremory, are present. Anna's body started to giddy up upon gazing at the Demon riding a horse with the head of a lion.

The same Demon who had persuaded her father to work with Demons was also the one who had enticed that one Pendell family member.

“It will start with you.”

Her Twin Knights are busy fending off the Demons that tried to stop her magic. She spoke loud enough so the Demons could hear her.

“Bastard! Its me! It seems your dead horse is back!”

In their last meeting, Anna, the Twin Knights, and a perfectly disguised Saintess managed to obliterate Algor Alloces personal elite guards and his horse. That was also when the Duke of Valoy was finally killed.

“And you, Bitch! Your limbs and lower halves seem to have grown back by now.”

Despite their seemingly excellent recovery rate, Anna can see, as a magician, that Algor's horse still has no innards and Susan's body has much less mana than before.

They might not be able to defeat them without the help of the Saintess but for stalling? Its doable.

“How about you guys taste another of MY FIRE!”

The dark cloud split and revealed what Anna had been casting, she threw a huge meteor of fire from the sky towards the two Demon clan heads.