Lin Gui manipulated his staff.
Following behind him were two girls who had changed into simple plain clothes, their faces mostly concealed by hoods. They flew above the fractured urban landscape of the Carter Royal Capital.
The whistling wind blew his black hair into a mess.
It also tugged at the hair of the two girls behind him, forcing them to reach up and hold their hoods in place.
Lin Gui held a piece of stationery in his hand.
His gaze swept over it quickly, and he immediately adjusted their direction.
The staff carried the three of them deep into the commoner district.
"Where are we going?" Elvia couldn't help but ask, her voice slightly distorted by the wind.
Lin Gui didn't even turn his head, merely spitting out four words in a flat tone.
"Rebel headquarters, Dice and Blood."
Elvia: "??????"
For a moment, Elvia suspected that either the wind had blown something into her ears or Lin Gui's brain had been scrambled by the breeze!
He had been right there with her, crouched on top of Duke Joseph's head.
He had heard that "Saintess Assassination Plan" targeting the Saintess with his own ears.
It was impossible for him not to know that the rebels intended to assassinate her. The Saintess wanted him to protect her during the rebel's attempt and help her slip away.
And what was the result? This guy was currently leading the Saintess herself straight into the trap! It was door-to-door delivery!
Elvia's mind went blank.
Earlier, she had been agonizing over whether to secretly sabotage Lin Gui's protection efforts to ensure the assassination succeeded, allowing her to use the Crusaders to purge the capital.
But now... Lin Gui's logic-defying move was practically shoving the Saintess onto the assassins' blades with his own hands.
You're making it really hard for me—the person who wanted to stab you in the back and tell you to mind your own business—to feel okay about this.
Clearly, this situation was extremely advantageous for her.
Yet, a wave of indescribable stifling frustration rose in Elvia's heart.
The oak staff beneath their feet gave a faint hum.
Lin Gui glanced back at the somewhat crowded end of the staff, thinking to himself that he really should find an opportunity to switch to a longer staff; three people was simply too cramped.
In sharp contrast to Elvia's shock and frustration was Holy Saintess Eve.
She seemed completely unaware of what kind of dragon's den or tiger's lair their destination was.
Instead, her eyes were slightly wide as she felt the wind blowing against her face, carrying the various scents of the city.
Beneath the hood, a novel curve seemed to play on the corners of her exquisite lips.
This was an experience she had never had before.
Speeding through the sky, overlooking all living beings.
Elvia was sullen.
Watching Lin Gui search for an entrance in the streets, she initially wanted to tell him how to enter the heavily guarded, secret-passage-filled rebel headquarters.
However, what happened next caused her to fall into deep self-doubt once again.
She saw Lin Gui land in a filthy alleyway.
He skillfully moved several discarded wooden barrels that seemed to be stacked at random, revealing a hidden entrance.
Then, he tapped on the iron door with a specific rhythm and gave a complex code.
The scarred guard who opened the door even nodded to him, greeting him casually.
"Old Scar, you're on duty today? Good luck; you didn't draw the lot for the sewers."
The guard actually grinned and stepped aside to let them in.
"It's you. Brought friends today?"
Elvia watched from the side, her skin crawling.
This guy... How did he know the procedures here better than she did?!
He was even on familiar terms with the rebel guard?!
What she didn't know was that over the past two days, Lin Gui had already thoroughly mapped out the Carter Royal Capital's massive and intricate underground network.
And the node where the rebel headquarters was located happened to be a hub leading to many key areas.
To investigate those potentially hidden secret paths, Lin Gui had entered and exited this place at least twenty or thirty times.
He had even used a certain hidden passage here to reach a spot near the palace's underground, where he discovered a staggering number of alchemical bombs...
Though the yield wasn't enough to blow through the palace, it was sufficient to collapse the palace foundations and sink the whole place into the earth.
Despite it being a matter of life and death for the royal family, Lin Gui had no desire to tell Elvia at all. He had even secretly adjusted the placement of the bombs to increase their power slightly.
As they went deeper, the filthy and chaotic scene inside the casino gradually unfolded.
The air was thick with a heavy mixture of cheap alcohol, sweat, tobacco, and a faint, lingering scent of blood.
Trash and unidentified stains were everywhere on the ground.
The roar and curses of fanatical gamblers filled their ears.
Elvia covered her nose and mouth with her hand.
No matter how many times she came here, she still couldn't get used to this stench.
But the noble Her Highness the Saintess seemed completely unaffected.
She lifted her hood slightly, peering curiously at the red-eyed gamblers staring intently at the dice cups.
She watched the scantily clad girls weaving through the crowd and the drunks passed out in corners as if they were dead...
It was as if she weren't in a filthy, degenerate demon den, but rather some novel and interesting market.
Her attitude of being entirely oblivious to danger—even showing a hint of appreciation—made Elvia, who was tense and internally screaming, feel a deep sense of powerlessness.
As they stepped into the wide underground casino, Lin Gui's arrival didn't cause much of a stir in this mixed crowd of the Dice and Blood casino.
Many had heard that Elvia had married a mage named Lin Gui, but most had never seen him.
It wasn't that the Akara Continent lacked Image Recording Stones, but those items were expensive and usually used only by top nobles or on important occasions. They were far from being common among the lower classes.
As for the post office, Lin Gui had entrusted everything to the managers and rarely showed his face after the first day.
So, no one paid him any attention.
However, the two following behind him, even wrapped tightly in broad cloaks, could not hide their extraordinary nature.
The graceful curves faintly outlined beneath those cloaks and the elegant posture naturally displayed as they walked were worlds apart from the heavily made-up, vulgar women of the night nearby. They exuded a purity and nobility untouched by the mundane world.
And among those who frequented the Dice and Blood underground casino, who were actually good people?
There were poor souls whose families were destroyed by noble persecution, seeking only revenge, and there were also desperate criminals pursuing pure excitement and chaos.
Greedy fraudsters, cruel murderers, and cold-blooded killers for hire... almost none were decent folk.
Soon, several ill-intentioned gazes stuck to the two women.
A burly man with a face full of scars and thick flesh swaggered into the middle of the path, grinning at Lin Gui to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth.
Soon after, a few drunken men with glazed eyes noticed them and approached with malicious intent, followed by crude remarks.
"Hey! Kid in front! Lift the hoods of those two chicks behind you and let us have a look!"
"Hiding them so tightly, are they too ugly to be seen? Haha!"
"Let us see what kind of goods they are..."
Facing this provocative and insulting banter, Lin Gui stopped. Instead of getting angry, he nodded as if he were very agreeable.
"Sure."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he reached out with lightning speed. With a whoosh, he flipped back the hood of Elvia's cloak!
In an instant, a cascade of golden hair and an exquisitely beautiful face filled with shock were exposed to everyone.
The burly man who had come to provoke them froze, the lecherous grin on his face hardening. His eyes went wide as if he were looking at a ghost.
He stuttered, unable to even form a complete sentence.
"Sev... Seventh Princess... Elvia...?!"
Elvia was stunned at first. Then she realized what happened, and her face turned black with rage.
She turned toward Lin Gui and burst out in a stream of curses that had absolutely no princess-like image.
"Fuck you! Lin Gui! You bastard!"
"No wonder you agreed so quickly when I wanted to come along! You were waiting for this, weren't you?!"
Lin Gui raised his eyebrows with slight surprise. "What's there to be afraid of? Don't you know these rebels?"
"Your face will save us a lot of trouble."
Elvia was stunned. How did he know?!
Before she could ask, Lin Gui replied indifferently.
"That day you threw a tantrum at a High-tier Transcendent."
"I thought you had noticed me, which was why you were so confident."
"???"
Ignoring the dazed Elvia, Lin Gui walked forward with the Saintess close behind.
He headed straight for the iron door at the back of the casino, which was guarded by two High-tier Transcendent rebels.
Guarding the door was none other than Ferguson, the scarred adventurer who had once served Elvia.
His expression shifted when he saw the trio, especially Elvia, but he still stood firmly before the door and barked harshly.
"Stop! If you don't want to die, leave here immediately!"
Lin Gui rolled his eyes at him, not bothering with nonsense. He simply left behind one phrase:
"Ridiculous."
Before Ferguson and the other guard could react, Lin Gui stepped onto the circular stage used by the exotic dancers.
The dancer currently swaying her hips on stage, dressed in skimpy clothing, was startled by the intruder.
She froze mid-motion, looking at Lin Gui in bewilderment.
The gamblers below the stage were also drawn by this sudden change. They stopped what they were doing and looked over with curiosity.
Lin Gui stood in the center of the stage.
With a straight face, he untied a simple megaphone made of thick oil-paper from his waist. Putting it to his mouth, he cleared his throat and then gathered his breath to shout loudly:
"Ahem! Everyone, be quiet! Listen for your names!"
"Barton! Forty-six years old, brown hair, brown eyes, has a scar on his left eye. Ten years ago, he was a blacksmith in Woodear Town. He was separated from his family during the evacuation, and his whereabouts were unknown."
"Your third son in Caran City, Eddie, asked me to deliver a letter to you. If you hear this, come up and sign for it."
"Matthew! Thirty-five years old, gray hair, brown eyes, has an old scar on his right index finger from stitching shoes."
"Ten years ago, you owned a shoe shop in Woodear Town and often repaired shoes for poor children for free."
"Your second daughter in Caran, Sophia, asked me to deliver a letter to you. She says she's had twins. If you hear this, come up and sign for it."
"George! Sixty years old, hunched back, walks with a slight limp. Every night while on watch, you'd remind residents to lock their doors and windows."
"Ten years ago, you were kicked out due to the Defense Force restructuring and didn't evacuate with your family."
"Your grandson in Caran, Little Tom, asked me to deliver a letter to you."
"He says he's become an apprentice there. If you hear this, come up and sign for it."
"Anita the flower girl! Twenty-eight years old, golden hair always in two braids, with a few freckles on her face."
"You used to sell fresh flowers at the Molo City market every morning; the children often called you the flower-picking Sparrow."
"Your younger sister in Caran, Lillian, asked me to deliver a letter to you."
"She says she's saved enough to open a small flower shop. If you hear this, come up and sign for it."
"Roger! Forty-two years old, teacher..."
He shouted at the top of his lungs, reading out the descriptions on the envelopes.
He called out forgotten names one by one.
In the entire casino, only his shouting echoed.
The previously clamorous casino was shocked into a dead silence by Lin Gui's announcements of the letters.
In that absolute quiet.
Saintess Eve, whose purple eyes had been partially closed, had fully opened them at some point.
She watched the unconventional figure on the stage before her with great interest.
The corners of her lips curved slightly, revealing a shallow but genuine smile.
In the shadows in the corner of the casino.
A man leaning against the wall, appearing to blend into the darkness, narrowed his eyes. He stared fixedly at the conspicuous group on and off the stage.
His name was Muze, and he was one of the rebels Fal had rescued.
As Caesar's confidant, he hadn't directly joined this operation.
Previously, in the slave merchant Erwin's dungeon, he had undergone far too much interrogation and torture for far too long.
Though he had escaped, his body was already broken. He was left with severe internal injuries and incurable sequelae that were no longer suited for missions requiring peak performance.
However, he was a core member, after all.
He knew all the details of the Saintess Assassination Plan.
That included the latest news that the Saintess had temporarily changed her itinerary and insisted on having the Seventh Princess Elvia accompany her to find a Holy Saint called Lin Gui...
The shock currently rising in his heart was like a tidal wave!
Elvia!
Shouldn't she be accompanying the Saintess every step of the way right now? Why would she appear here, at their rebel nest?!
His gaze snapped toward the figure behind Lin Gui, who was still wearing a cloak but whose slender silhouette was still visible.
Then he looked at that young man with the rare hair and eye color.
A possibility that completely overturned his understanding and made his scalp tingle pierced into his mind!
Could it be...
That young man is Lin Gui?
And the person standing behind him... is the Saintess herself???
The incredibly noble Holy Saintess of Light, whom they had listed as their assassination target... is currently standing in their own rebel den where people want her dead???
Muze instinctively raised a hand and rubbed his temples forcefully. He felt his brain couldn't keep up; this was too absurd!
He suppressed the storm in his heart and stumbled back into the deeper shadows.
There was an old but reliable internal transmitter installed there. With a trembling hand, he dialed an encrypted number.
After a brief wait, the call was connected.
Muze lowered his voice and asked urgently,
"Hello? Did you guys... find the Saintess over there?"
A voice, also hushed and sounding visibly agitated, came from the receiver.
"No! Goddammit! After the target entered that 'Pariah Messenger post office' in the Seventh Ring, she just vanished into thin air."
Muze's hand tightened around the receiver. He fell silent for several long seconds before asking,
"Is the Lin Gui the Saintess is looking for... black-haired with black eyes?"
"Yeah."
Muze seemed to be using every bit of strength he had to digest this fact. Then, in a dry voice filled with disbelief, he spoke:
"...I think I might have seen the Saintess."
"What?! Really? Where?!"
The voice on the other end spiked in volume, filled with urgency.
"In the casino."
"The casino? At the Golden Rose? The Crown Club? Or some private place run by a high noble?"
Muze slowly turned his head. His gaze pierced through the moving heads and the foul air, landing once more on the direction of the chaotic stage. His throat tightened.
He squeezed the words out one by one:
"In... our casino."
Opposite end: "...??????"
There was a dead silence on the other end of the line. Only the sound of the other person's suddenly heavy, disbelief-filled breathing could be heard.
Rate on N.U.
