What was supposed to happen would happen anyway. Five days later, Archknight Fernando finally led his Shield of Light legion’s main force to Moramatch. At the same time, Suzanna had quietly left Sacred City.
For the past few days, Suzanna had experienced ups and downs. It was hard to describe in words what she had experienced, from shock at the very beginning to denial, recognition, caring, and depending on each other. Suzanna experienced so much alternating confusion, surprise, pain, sadness and other emotions that she almost went crazy. She had to protect her mother as much as possible and force her smiles to try to cheer her mother. Suzanna never cried. If Anfey were with her, she probably would have thrown herself in Anfey’s arms and cried as much as possible to vent her pain. Unfortunately, she had to experience the darkest days in her life by herself.
Maybe, being a daughter, Suzanna had to return the favor and love her mother the way she had brought Suzanna into the world. Suzanna did not recognize her mother at first, but that old woman recognized Suzanna right away and stared at her. She only had a breath left in her, but suddenly showed strength when she saw Suzanna.
Suzanna’ mother actually had been sleeping a lot the past few days. Even Suzanna’s appearance did not change that. Every time when she woke up, she would talk to Suzanna a lot. She repeated some stories many times, while other times she just talked as she remembered something. When she felt tired, she would fall asleep and talk again when she woke up.
In the depths of night, Suzanna was bragging about how well Anfey treated her, which made her mother so happy. Her mother fell asleep with a smile on her face. Suzanna fell asleep alongside her for a while. As she opened her eyes, she found her mother had passed away.
Saul organized the funeral for her. Suzanna was like a log throughout the funeral. She was placed here and there by others. She neither talked, nor cried. Even when Yolanthe showed up at the funeral, she did not interact with him.
As Suzanna left Sacred City, a regular wagon quietly travelled to the north for about twenty miles and then turned into a small alley to the east. It drove fast as it went into a forest. The driver suddenly fell away and hit on a tree in the valley. Blood burst from his mouth as he fell to the ground. People with good vision could see that he was bleeding internally. It did not seem he could survive.
A grey shadow appeared in the driver’s seat. The sun was bright, but did not seem to light the person’s face. The wagon automatically stopped, since there was no one controlling the horse.
Philip was stunned in the wagon and looked angry, but then terrified as a frog looking at a snake. As terror overtook him, Philip said with a coarse voice, "Here you are."
"Master Philip, where are you going?" the grey shadow said quietly. He sounded gloomy. In his gloom, he tried to sound nice but still made others feel threatened and terrified.
"I am going to see a friend." Maybe Philip did not like the way he asked, so he raised his voice. "Do I have to get your permission when I leave Sacred City?"
"As far as I know, Ms. Suzanna is not your friend." The grey shadow ignored Philip’s question. In other words, he did not care to answer the question. "Master Philip, I think you need go back."
Philip went quiet, but he looked even firmer. They say that a baby cow is not afraid of tigers to describe ignorant people who are not afraid of difficulties. When people are young, they are not afraid of death. When they grew older, they started to fear death. However, this did not apply to Philip. He was not scared of death, but afraid of dying for nothing. Today he thought he had found himself a good opportunity to risk his life.
"For decades, I never left the king. I think you know that. If the king asked me to stop you, you know what it means. The king is already very angry at you, very, very angry." The grey shadow did not seem to notice Philip had perk up and was ready to fight. He still said calmly, "The king not only wants a good beginning, but also a good ending. This is the attitude of the king towards all the officials who have contributed so much for the country, including you, Master Philip. I hope you would not waste the king’s good intention and would not test his patience either."
"Yolanthe’s good intention? Hahaha…" Philip suddenly laughed loud. "I have worked for Yolanthe for many years. I know what kind of a person Yolanthe is. Prince Deswright and Prince Dionysos both contributed so much for the empire. What happened to them? Hahaha, they were blamed for leading the troops in a couop. You could lie to everyone else, but not to me. You have killed them and used puppets to act like they were taking the troops to the palace to overthrow the king, so Yolanthe had reason to kill them along with many other government officials he did not like!"
That grey shadow did not respond to him, but just took a casual look at Philip.
"If Yolanthe could kill his brothers, he would not show any mercy to anyone else. Now he sent you to fight me only because I am old and not useful for him anymore. I am telling you that you will one day be like me," Philip yelled fiercely.
The grey shadow looked at Philip sympathetically, "Do you know why the king never gave you any real power? Because you are too simple. You are good as a swordsman, but if you are asked to be in charge of anything, you would cause trouble. If the king had to punish you for your mistakes, you would not understand it and even hate him for that."
"Bullsh*t!" Philip yelled.
"After the king made reforms, many royals were against it, including Prince Deswright and Prince Dionysos. They were the leaders of nobility and controlled half of the entire military. What did that mean to the king? He would have had to stop his reforms unless they died." The grey shadow shook his head. "I know what I told you means nothing to you because you were one of those against the reforms. I support every decision of the king. If Prince Deswright and Prince Dionysos had not died, how could Maho Empire get as strong as it has become?"
"You are the victors. People will believe whatever you say," Philip said with a sarcastic tone.
"I also know you are still bothered that the king did not allow you to take revenge on Anfey," the grey shadow snorted. "You and I both know what kind of a person Zeda was. If you do an investigation, you will know Zeda was behind more than a dozen murders."
"There are so many dalits in the world. It is not a big deal for some of them to die," Philip said.
"It seems that whatever I told you did not go through your brain. You think Anfey killed Zeda. In fact, you killed him. If you had not spoiled him, how could Zeda have grown into what he became?" the grey shadow said helplessly. "This is another reason the king did not want to give you a high title. How to put it? Maybe you have different values than the king. He thinks nobles should enjoy their lives, but he hopes they know who provided them food, shelter and entertainment at the same time. They need to learn to appreciate, respect others. If they cannot do that, at least they need to learn to treat others with respects."
"Appreciate? Don’t you think it is ridiculous to ask us to appreciate those dalits? Hahaha…" Philip laughed out again.
"Dalits? Right, you liked to call them dalits to show your nobility when you were young. You probably think I am a dalit as well." The grey shadow looked up at the sky to check the time. The temperature had suddenly dropped. "It’s getting late. I have talked too much with you. I think I have done what I am supposed to do. Philip, are you going back?"
The smile on Philip’s face got bigger and brighter, and he looked so arrogant. "Do you think you stopped me so you can save that bitch? Do you think Wester and Granden would do nothing about it? Do you think Wolf King Manstuly would just stay in Sacred City?"
"The king thinks you are simple, and so do I. It seems like I am wrong. You are more stupid than I thought," the grey shadow said calmly. "If you know about it, don’t you think the king also knows. Besides, you should have not told me about these. With your reminder, the king could quickly make up his mistakes."
Philip’s face got frigid. The crazy look on his face suddenly withered. He knew the grey shadow’s fighting ability well. He was thinking of a suicidal fight with him to bring some loss to Yolanth,e and then Yolanthe would not be able to protect Suzanna. Saul and Steger would go to the northern border soon, while Miorich had to say in Tumen Commercial Union. Philip wanted to take advantage and kill Anfey’ wife, since Anfey killed his grandson.
"Philip, I do not want to waste my time talking to you anymore. You either go back or draw your sword," the grey shadow said slowly.
"I…" Phillip grit his teeth and forced an embarrassing answer out. "Ok, I am going back to see king."
"Please," the grey shadow said casually.
Philip broke out of the wagon and ran toward Sacred City as fast as a meteor. Perhaps because he could not bear the embarrassment, he did not look back at all.
"Dalit? What a nobleman, that Philip!" the grey shadow murmured. The wagon he stood on suddenly shattered into pieces as he was covered with white light combat power. The four horses of the wagon were knocked far away, neighing loudly, as the grey shadow disappeared. His disappearance was as sudden as his appearance. If Yolanthe were there, he would have known how mad his old friend, Philip was now. The consequence of making Philip mad would be really, really bad.