Hermes, in the old Holy City.

In the past month, the emotions Marwayne had experienced could be described as a roller coaster ride.

When the Sky Lord had brought him up the Deity of Gods, he had made the decision to cozy up with this powerful entity and never falter.

Whatever firearms or iron birds were insignificant in the face of the floating city.

This is the true miracle that humans ought to bow down to!

He did his utmost to prove his worth by sweeping away all past records, organizing the others to work, giving his all in the construction, so much that he earned praises from the Sky Lord. This caused his status among the nobles to become increasingly stable, and just like that, he felt like the leader of the people.

But a single letter from the north broke Marwayne’s smooth and steady life.

He never thought that Sky Lord would attach great importance to the seemingly preposterous piece of paper and ended up disappearing for several weeks. The first thing that happened upon his return was their immediate movement to Hermes and Everwinter Kingdom, to wait for a similar letter—even without knowing who the sender was, how long it would take, or the location for collecting the letter.

In all honesty, Marwayne never wanted to leave the Deity of Gods, even with all the demons around them. None of them were capable of depriving him of his position and power. But the senior lord’s command could not be violated and thus, he chose the former of the two locations, not for any other reason but because it was closer to the Deity of Gods.

At this time, the northern region of the Four Kingdoms had been enveloped by Red Mist and Graycastle appeared terribly busy resisting the demons, while he enjoyed a life no different from a duke’s away from the Deity of Gods, with not only citizens as his subordinates, but with a few nobles at his beck and call. But the mission of waiting for a secret letter that had no stipulated time was worrying. In an attempt to complete the mission early, Marwayne did not hesitate to take the risk of having his subordinates escape by expanding their area of activity. Countless attempts to escape occurred during this period which resulted in him hanging the traitors as a warning, and at the same time, offered handsome rewards for clues. Yet, they never got the letter.

If all of that was down to luck, the following events completely exceeded Marwayne’s expectations.

The Deity of Gods suddenly rose, flew east, and disappeared from his vision. This plunged the duke into a great panic. The miracle city originally floating behind him served as his biggest crutch and without it, his days were fraught with worry and anxiety. To add to the bad news, Sky Lord no longer revealed himself, as though having forgotten all about the secret letter.

Not long later, he heard of news that Graycastle had shot the floating island down.

Marwayne did not believe in the lies from the bottom of his heart. It was a floating mountain with a radius of over five kilometers; if Graycastle had the ability to level the mountain, why would they have waited so long to do so?

It was a pity that not everyone was as intelligent as him.

Instantly, everyone wavered. He discovered that he was no longer able to control the other nobles.

The continued silence from Sky Lord only added to the drama.

His mood became worse. Aside from having alcohol and women to dispel his worries, he no longer had the heart to do anything, and his days returned to how he spent his time in Everwinter.

“Zack, Zack!” When the bottle of grape wine was finished, Marwayne shouted for his butler.

“My lord, how may I assist you?” The butler quickly pushed open the doors to his room.

“Find a few more ladies tonight, I want them young and pretty—” he yelled.

“But, you ordered them yesterday to…”

“That was yesterday! I am the duke and this is the power I wield, understand? They should give up everything to me!”

“Yes… I understand,” the butler lowered his head and replied.

“Right, the people that we dispatched… Have we received any news?” Marwayne disbelief in the absurd rumors through the grapevine did not mean he would not verify the information. In fact, when the Deity of Gods left the Hermes Plateau, he had sent out a few troops to follow the target with the intent of finding out the floating island’s destination. But they were ridiculously inept with barely a few returning even up to yesterday.

The butler shook his head. “At the moment, we only know that Graycastle has not engaged in a large-scale battle with the Deity of Gods, but we might have some concrete news in another two days.”

“Those lazy scums…” Marwayne swore while opening a new bottle of wine. “Fine, you are dismissed.”

Then we shall wait another two days.

The Red Mist was dissipating and there was no guarantee on when the Graycastle people would make a comeback. Marwayne felt that he needed a path of retreat. Even if he was absent from where he was, that did not violate Sky Lord’s command. Whoever obtained the letter was merely making a bit of contribution. It did not matter otherwise.

Of course, he didn’t wish to go to Everwinter; it had proven itself incapable of defending against Graycastle.

Marwayne heard from other Senior Demons that a new Deity of Gods was on its way, and it held the city where the Demon King resided. It was the perfect location to retreat to.

So long as I move according to the demons’ change in route, it should not be difficult to locate it.

At that time, he told himself that only the most loyal of the nobles had the privilege of leaving with him.

Nightfall descended, but Marwayne’s ladies never came.

This infuriated him. Apparently, even his old butler had started to turn useless.

After patiently waiting for another hour, he heard footsteps outside. Curses which had been built up within Marwayne’s heart surged to his throat.

It was not his butler, but a group of dirty-clothed civilians. Some held hoes and carrying shoulder poles, completely resembling a mob of unhappy people. The duke watched them in disbelief as they barged into his home and stained the fur rug on the floor with their muddy footprints.

Upon realizing that his own home was being invaded by a group of lowlifes, he screamed, “Solders, soldiers!”

But he never got a response.

He was interrupted with a blow to the head by none other than his old Butler, Zack.

Marwayne immediately sobered up from his inebriation.

“What are all of you doing!?”

“Everyone’s had it with your oppression, Marwayne Parker!” the leader shouted. “For the sake of your damn orders, many good people died in the quarry from fatigue, yet you never listened to us or asked about us, and you even deducted our pay! We are not your servants, much less your slaves!”

“You nobles aren’t superior to us; Graycastle was right!”

“We have to risk our lives for this monster in the day and send our wives and daughters to him at night. You are the true demon!”

“Surrender and follow us to Graycastle, otherwise, don’t even think of stepping out of this house!”

Damn it , Marwayne thought inwardly. All of these idiots have been brainwashed by Graycastle. If he had known earlier, he would never have sent them to the former Holy City to investigate!

“I am the duke, which one of you dares to touch me!?” He warned them while drawing the sword by his table. Compared to their ‘weapons,’ his was a truly sharp blade. Their ability to charge in without any warnings meant that the guards and servants had betrayed him. He felt the need to get out, contact the other nobles, gather the knights, and quash the rebellion!

The position of duke was meant to frighten the crowd. He was unlike Zack, an ordinary man. The Parker family had ruled over Snow Reflection Castle for many generations, and to any ordinary citizen of Everwinter, he was of a lofty status. Marwayne believed in this and deliberately assumed his supercilious attitude. He did not believe the lowlifes would dare touch him.

Suddenly, a stone was thrown from the darkness and it struck the side of his face.

The pain froze Marwayne in his position.

They actually dare to hurt me?

An old man suddenly barged out of the crowd, weeping and howling as he pounced onto Marwayne. “You demon, return my daughter to me—!”

Marwayne subconsciously raised his sword and stabbed it through the old man’s chest.

But by the time he reacted, the crowd had surrounded him—the old man’s death was like the drain that set free their repressed emotions.

Hoes and shoulder poles smashed down onto Marwayne like rain, and he thought he heard his bones shattering.

“You scum, stop!

“No, stop… Stop, stop hitting…

“Cough, cough, I beg you…”

His voice gradually softened.

The mob only stopped when the duke turned into mush.

“We killed a noble…” someone whispered with his voice trembling.

“So what, Graycastle doesn’t acknowledge nobility, and he is an enemy of Graycastle.”

“What do we do about the other Everwinter nobles? They have horses and armors, if they chase after us…”

“Since we’re already at this point, what can we do.” The leader looked around. “We are not the only ones oppressed. Since the demons aren’t here, why don’t—”

“We fight them with everything we got.” Another person completed his sentence.

“Let’s fight it out with them.”

“Let’s fight it out with them. then head to Graycastle!” In a short moment after the words were spoken, it spread amongst the people and became a catchphrase which was chanted in unison, like a powerful current that rushed out of the house and into the pitch-black lands.