Before he could ask more, a man emerged from the darkness behind Marquis Rodrigo.

The knife in the man’s hand gleamed in the moonlight. Recoiling with a bluish face, he couldn’t take more than a few steps before the man pierced through his body.

Splattering red blood scattered through the air. Rodrigo wiped the splattered blood off his face, irritated.

“Hey, you. You should do it from a bit farther! Didn’t any blood get on me?”

He frowned at the bloodstains on his face and jacket. An assassin who had served beside him, observing Rick’s skills. Among them, Lux, standing before him, was quite skilled.

Although he handled tasks neatly, he never had followers. Marquis Rodrigo stuck out his tongue toward the approaching man.

“Ugh. I need to go straight home, and this is what it looks like because of you!”

“Please.”

The man who approached abruptly extended his hand toward Marquis Rodrigo.

“What?”

“It’s the recipe received from the pharmacist. There was an order to bring it immediately.”

“Really?”

Rodrigo took the formula from his jacket. As he was about to hand it over to the assassin, he remembered that he had applied to meet the empress at the palace tomorrow.

There was no reason to hand it over to Izra right away, especially since he had planned to use this formula to negotiate with the Court Alchemist.

“No, I’ll personally deliver it tomorrow when I enter the palace.”

The chilling laughter of the assassin, who had been observing, reached Rodrigo’s ears.

“Marquis won’t be able to meet the Empress Mama tomorrow.”

“What do you mean…?”

For over ten years, Rodrigo had never heard Izra’s laughter. Faced with the unfamiliar sound, Rodrigo felt his heart tighten slowly.

“Close your eyes here.”

Before he could fully understand the words, a searing pain stabbed through Rodrigo’s lower abdomen. Blood flowed from the pierced belly.

“Why did you…?”

“Well, I’m not moving of my own will. I’m just following orders from my master.”

“That, that means…”

The will of Empress Izra. In an instant, the time Rodrigo had spent as her hands and feet flashed by like a comet.

He dedicated everything to assist the empress, and he took on all the wrongdoing to place Ilay as the emperor.

The one who had undertaken all the unfair deeds for Ilay to become the emperor was Marquis Rodrigo. Yet, to be cut down so ruthlessly by Empress Izra!

More than the pain from the penetrated abdomen, Rodrigo felt a boiling sense of betrayal.
‘How could you, Empress! You…!’

No matter what others did, the Empress should not have rejected me. I have something valuable to her.

He had shown sincerity to her by killing the previous Empress. But returning to such a pathetic death!

Taak.

As the scroll containing the formula slipped from the Marquis’s hand, the assassin picked it up.

At the moment when the assassin was about to put the scroll into his pocket, having temporarily lifted his coat, Marquis Rodrigo desperately began to escape from the assassin.

‘I absolutely cannot die like this!’

He had never thought about facing such a miserable death. He had planned to use this incident as an excuse to gain more power, but to die so disgracefully!

After running for a while, as Marquis Rodrigo reached the edge of the mountain, suddenly his view widened. A pierced sky and, visible, a cliff.

Perhaps the gods were not on his side.

For a moment, he let out a disappointed chuckle at the sound of the blowing wind. As footsteps approached from behind, he turned around.

“There’s nowhere to run, Marquis. The path ahead will be comfortable for you, so give up.”

The knife in the assassin’s hand gleamed sharply. He avoided the assassin, backing up towards the cliff.

‘I can’t die like this.’

Yes, he couldn’t die here. Marquis Rodrigo looked down at the dizzying cliff.

If he fell from here, he would die.

But…

‘If I fall right below, I’ll land on a ledge.’

There was a small ledge just below the cliff. Yes, it was better to gamble here than to die like this.

Marquis Rodrigo threw himself off the cliff as the assassin approached. The assassin reached out towards him in confusion.

“……!”

However, before the assassin could grab him, Marquis Rodrigo descended vertically.

Before the confused assassin could look around, there was only darkness as far as the eye could see.

The assassin, who had been cursing for a moment, seemed to retreat from the cliff. As silence settled in, Marquis Rodrigo, who had been hiding his body below the cliff, got up.

“Ugh, damn it.”

Blood oozed from his pierced abdomen each time he moved. He seemed on the brink of death due to excessive bleeding.

But fortunately, he had survived this much. He could think about future plans after recovering. Putting all his strength into surviving, Marquis Rodrigo began to climb the cliff.

‘Just a little, a little more.’

When Marquis Rodrigo extended his hand to the edge of the cliff, a sudden black shoe appeared, mercilessly crushing his hand.

“Ugh!”

Marquis Rodrigo looked up with an astonished gaze. When the assassin returned was not known, but what appeared in his view was an unmistakable figure.

“Ah, Akia?!”

In his surprised state, Marquis Rodrigo unintentionally called out the Duke’s name. But of course, Akia was already dead.

‘He was found as a corpse in the ashes for sure…!’

However, the man looking down at him was undoubtedly Akia.

Was he appearing as a ghost to see his death? Otherwise, there was no way Akia, who was supposed to be dead, would be here.

“Ugh!”

But just as Marquis Rodrigo’s thoughts were ridiculed, the hand crushed by Akia’s shoe felt numb.

Akia slowly bent his knees, meeting Marquis Rodrigo’s gaze.

Marquis Rodrigo, who was close enough to see Akia’s eyes more clearly, had never seen such a chilling red pupil. It seemed as if Akia was saying it was not a spirit but slowly parted his lips.

“Do you want to live, Marquis?”

Like a Grim Reaper from hell.

With a chilly voice, Akia, with a cold gaze like a shiver, asked.