“According to the scriptures, three things were needed to resurrect the dead. The body, the soul, and God’s breath.

What constituted the body and soul was clear, but the expression ‘God’s breath’ was somewhat ambiguous.

After killing God, Yupheon had embedded the red heart, the source of His power, into his own soul, becoming a being that was neither human nor god through the fusion of a human soul with the divine nucleus.

Thanks to this, he could wield the infinite life force that Arne had extorted from pure souls in ancient times, but he couldn’t use divine authority like Arne could.

Instead, he could infuse that life force into people’s bodies and souls. The red heart he had stolen from Arne was, in fact, the nucleus where God’s breath was condensed.

“If you killed God… then you now…!”

Yupheon quietly looked at Jella, who had frozen with a distant expression.

Her red eyes, turbulent with shock and confusion, seemed to ask if it was really true, what would happen to him now, and if he was really alright.

This is why he had tried to tell her as late as possible.

Because she would be surprised. Because she would worry. And ultimately, after knowing the truth… because she might feel sorry for him.

Then he should rightfully ease her sense of debt.

Separate from wanting her attention, he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable because of him.

“Yes, that’s right. Yuphe is now unemployed.”

So he spoke in a playful voice mixed with a slight laugh, as if talking about something trivial.

“No, that’s not the issue…”

“With God dead, the believers will leave, and the priests will turn their backs too. Poor Yuphe, with nothing lef,t will starve to death.”

Yupheon pulled Jella’s hand and rubbed his cheek against her palm.

“So Jella should take responsibility for pitiful Yuphe, okay?”

He saw her eyes twitch at his puppy-like whimpering.

Fortunately, she seemed to fall for his playful attitude. Judging by how her serious expression from earlier had softened a bit.

“What on earth are you talking about? Explain so I can understand.”

She demanded an explanation with a deliberately stern face.

Well, as long as he didn’t mention cutting out his heart with his own hands, it should be fine.

“It’s exactly as I said. I killed God. And then I got this strange power.”

Yupheon explained with a slight smile.

“Is that even possible? Then perhaps my awakening in this body too…”

She still looked confused.

“No, more importantly, is your body alright after doing something like that? Why would you… don’t tell me, to save me…?”

Her questions were gradually extending toward the essence.

“Hmm, just.”

Yupheon, noticing this, cut off her words.

“Because I thought it would be fun.”

“…?”

“I thought killing God would lead to something cool and interesting happening.”

When he gave this clever answer that half-concealed the truth, she made a dizzy expression.

“But not really, it’s not that fun.”

“What? Fun?”

Yupheon smiled gently as he watched her grab the back of her neck.

She might be looking at him like he was crazy, but so what? Better to remain a madman in her eyes than burden her with guilt.

***

The assassins who had infiltrated Jella’s pharmacy were suspended in midair, begging for their lives.

Cail looked at them with a cold face.

There was no need to keep all of them alive. Leaving just one would be enough to find out who was behind this.

With that thought, just as Cail was about to take a step forward to end their lives.

[Hey, hey, Cail. Handle it moderately, moderately.]

Helasio, who rarely showed himself when Jella was nearby, emerged and restrained him with a worried voice.

[Are you going to go berserk? What are you thinking with Jella nearby?]

“……”

Jella. At her name, Cail pressed his lips together and clenched his fist.

The magical power flowing through Cail’s body had been surging violently for a while.

To be precise, since the moment he had faced Niel Alpenhayer, that man.

“After killing her.”

“You killed her. By stabbing her heart with that sword.”

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have died.”

Right. If it weren’t for me, Jella wouldn’t have died.

In fact, he also agreed with those words.

Cail knew this fact better than anyone.

Though people around the world referred to them as the three heroes who killed her, in the end, he was the one who had killed her.

With this sword at his waist, he had stabbed her chest.

The cruel sensation transmitted to his fingertips as the sharp blade cut through her flesh and pierced her heart still remained on his hand even now, five years later.

So, ridiculously for a knight, he hadn’t held a sword for a long time, but provoked by Niel’s words, he had drawn his sword.

Then, at some point after losing the sword, he had fought with his fists, engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

He had even been caught by Jella. How pathetic.

“My goodness, what is this! You’re not ten-year-old children, what on earth…”

Recalling her exasperated voice as she touched her forehead, he felt dejected again.

‘…Is she disappointed in me?’

It was always like this. He wanted to show only his best side to her, and he had tried so hard…

He had shown her too many pathetic and disappointing sides of himself.

To be honest, at that moment when she caught him earlier, he had wanted to cry. He truly wanted to become a ten-year-old child and sob loudly.

In reality, even when he was around ten years old, being passed from one slave trader to another, he had never cried even once.

Her space, which he had entered following her.

How anxious he had been waiting for her while she was alone with that man in the next room.

But the kind-hearted Jella had worried about him.

That warmth she bestowed upon this colorless slave who only ever disappointed her was so sweet…

Just like long ago when she had pulled him out into the world, her sweetness, unchanged, seemed dangerous enough to eventually corrupt him, and before that warmth, he had finally spilled his true feelings.

“I… have always envied that man.”

He regretted it as soon as he said it.

“That man seems not to be lacking by your side, but compared to him, I seem so shabby, so I…”

How pathetic he must have looked.

She seemed to have lost her words because he was so pathetic.

It must be laughable.

After picking up a dirty slave who had been rolling in the mud, washing, feeding, and raising him. And now what he was doing was being jealous of her man.

No matter how much he envied that man, he shouldn’t have said such things.

As suffocating silence continued, how grateful he had been for the assassins who invaded at that moment.

So the moment he sensed the killing intent, he immediately restrained her and rushed outside.

But the moment he left her sight.

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have died.”

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have died.”

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t…”

“If it weren’t for you…”

“If it weren’t for you…”

Simultaneously with the curse-like voice that had been echoing in his ears, the energy he had been suppressing burst forth uncontrollably.

The assassins who had infiltrated to kill Jella and steal the Holy Grail were instantly crushed and blown away by that energy.

Five out of nine died. He deliberately let one escape who had been lurking around her bedroom, where Niel Alpenhayer was sleeping.

So now there were only three assassins left.

“P-p-p-please spare me…”

The assassins who had witnessed their comrades’ deaths forgot their duty and begged for their lives.

The red bloodstains splattered on his cold face made him look like a grim reaper from hell.

Just as Cail was staring at them with bleak eyes.

He froze.

Cail’s energy momentarily faltered as he sensed something.

He immediately turned his head. He spotted a figure jumping out through the window. Despite the darkness and distance, he could instantly recognize who it was. It was Jella.

‘…!’

Cail was startled. This was the second floor.

He immediately launched himself toward her. Too shocked to control his power properly, the remaining assassins all lost their breath and fell down as corpses.

But the fate of the assassins didn’t matter to him at all.

“Where are you going?”

Cail asked as he embraced her body tightly. With such a careful gesture, such an affectionate voice, as if handling the most precious treasure in the world.

Of course, he knew too. That jumping from just the second floor wasn’t dangerous for her at all. That she could handle fewer than ten assassins on her own easily.

But Cail, Cail Aleret, who ultimately failed to protect her and killed her with his own hands five years ago, hated the thought of even the tiniest scratch on her beautiful body.

He landed slowly with her.

She turned her head to face him slowly.

“……”

“……”

Cail looked into her agitated red eyes and muttered in a bitter voice.

“…Trying to disappear again.”