Chapter 437 - 206: Hoyev

"Tier Five."

The moment the dark figure used Escape Magic, Anna sensed his Tier.

"Saiyubolana, Credy!"

Without a second thought, Sean chased after him out the window.

"Hey, be careful!" Elise cried, hurrying after him.

A Tier Three chasing a Tier Five... only Sean would have the guts to do something like that. It was as if he had no fear of being turned on and killed.

In truth, Sean wasn’t afraid at all.

He knew a Small Forbidden Spell. A Tier Five might not actually be able to defeat him.

Besides, they weren’t necessarily enemies.

There had been two people in the cabin. The one lying in a pool of blood must have been the real Priest. Since the Priest belonged to the Church Court, the fact that this dark figure dared to kill him meant he wasn’t a follower of the Church Court. That opened up the possibility of "cooperation."

Sean’s goal wasn’t to catch the man, but to get information from him about the Wizards in Gothra Town and the church.

Everything had happened so suddenly.

Neither Sean’s group nor the clergy working at the church could have expected the Priest’s assassination.

By the time the old Priest and the others heard the commotion and rushed over, Sean and Elise were gone from the prayer room. All that remained was the wreckage from the cabin’s explosion, a bleeding corpse, and Anna, who stood quietly in place as if waiting for them.

The Priest had died a gruesome death. Not only was his throat slit, but his heart had been pierced through—the knife was still lodged in his chest. A wallet clutched in his hand revealed a few blood-stained bills and his identification; it seemed the killer had specifically confirmed his identity before the murder. What was even more horrifying was that the Priest’s groin was a bloody pulp. The sight made the old Priest, a fellow man, flinch, his heart seizing as he felt a phantom pang of pain.

Shocked and enraged, he turned to Anna and demanded, "Did you kill him?!"

"Why would you do this?"

The other members of the clergy also glared at Anna with fury.

Someone even drew a Magic Wand.

To kill someone in a church—and a member of the church, no less—gave them the right to execute the perpetrator on the spot.

"I didn’t kill him," Anna explained patiently. "He was already dead when we arrived. The assassin was hiding in the cabin disguised as the Priest. My husband saw through his disguise, so he blew up the cabin and fled. My husband and my sister have already gone after him."

"Nonsense!" the old Priest roared. "I brought the three of you here myself! Besides you, there was only the Priest, hard at work. There’s no such thing as an assassin."

He was convinced Anna was lying.

’She’s trying to pin the blame on some non-existent person.’

"Do you have any idea who a Priest represents?"

"He represents the ’Master’!"

"By killing a Priest, you have forsaken your faith and blasphemed the Gods! It is an unforgivable sin!"

"Men! Seize her and tie her to the gallows!"

the old Priest commanded furiously.

The clergy who had followed him immediately surrounded Anna.

Anna’s expression remained calm. "If you want to know whether I’m telling the truth, why don’t you just check the surveillance footage?"

The old Priest sneered. "What surveillance? There are no cameras in the prayer room."

The church is a sacred place. The prayer room, where a Priest representing the ’Master’ resides, is said to be the place closest to the ’Master’. To monitor it would be to monitor the ’Master’ Himself—an act of great disrespect. Since its founding, the Elderidge Church of Gothra Town has strictly adhered to the rules of the Church Court and the teachings of the ’Master.’ The ’Master’ is paramount in their hearts; they would sooner install cameras in the latrines than in the prayer room.

"There really aren’t any?" Anna asked.

The old Priest scoffed, "Of course not."

Anna replied, "Well, that simplifies things."

A heart-stopping aura emanated from her. Rushing Magic Power, like a tsunami dozens of meters high, crashed over everything, instantly engulfing the entire prayer room and suffusing the air with a hazy, purple light.

The old Priest’s face contorted in shock, his color draining. "A Grand Mage?!"

"Urk..."

The word had barely left his lips before the Magic Power invaded his mind.

The same happened to the other members of the clergy.

The gap in power between them was far too vast to be overcome by numbers alone. They didn’t even have time to react before Anna’s Mind Spell froze them in place. The fury on their faces slowly faded, replaced by the dazed confusion of ’Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?’

"Forget us."

Anna commanded softly.

Two simple words, and the memory of her group’s visit was wiped from the minds of the old Priest and his men.

Then, she left the prayer room.

She used the main entrance, however.

Jumping out of a broken window was far too graceless, unbefitting of her station.

She was nothing like Sean. He might look like a respectable, by-the-book person on the surface, but his actions were downright inhuman.

Like a wild beast.

...

「Elsewhere.」

Sean and Elise were still in "pursuit" of the assassin.

The dark figure was unusually fast, and he knew the town intimately. He ducked into every narrow alley he could find, his entire escape so fluid it was as if the route had been planned and practiced countless times in advance.

Sean had to chase him for more than a dozen blocks before he finally caught up.

Well, not completely.

If it hadn’t been broad daylight, making it difficult for the dark figure to hide, Sean might have actually lost him.

Sean followed the dark figure into an alley.

"Hey, stop running! I told you I’m not here to arrest you... I’m on your side!" he yelled as he ran.

"On my side, my ass!" the dark figure cursed. "Cut the act. You really think I don’t know who you are?"

Sean froze. "Huh?"

’My identity?’

’What identity? How come I don’t even know what he’s talking about?’