Surviving As A Cannon Fodder

Chapter 138

The lights on the city square began to flicker. 

While Ann was expecting to see the face of the man who had pushed her off the cliff of Mount Zion, the peculiar combo of light blonde hair and hazel-colored eyes in front of her proved otherwise.

What was more baffling was that the man was none other than the priest belonging to the Temple of Theodore, who had greeted the Nero mercenaries at Lorem a few weeks back.

'What is going on? Why is he here? Why is he trying to kill me?' Ann's brain was overloaded with unanswered questions.

Priest Hansom was the last person she could have guessed to be underneath the snake mask, much less the leader of an assassin group. 

The sweet and kind persona he had shown in the past was in stark contrast with the present reality.

In his hands was the necklace Maria had gifted Angelica as a good luck charm when she was a kid. During the struggle between the two, he had ripped off the necklace she was wearing while she removed his mask.

'Handsome?'

Hearing Ann's surprised voice, Noah and Oliver dropped the men they were holding and walked towards her with equally confused expressions.

The entirety of the masked assassins was wiped out by the trio and the only one standing was their leader.

"I mean Hansom!"

Ann corrected herself in a fluster. In the moment of heat, she had blurted out the first name that came to her mind.

"Not handsome, Hansom. Of course, you ARE handsome. So that's not entirely wrong either"

"You are going off-topic" Noah whispered into Ann's ear, before taking his place behind her.

"What I was trying to say is... ahem" Ann took a deep breath to clear her head and bellowed,

"Why the hell are you here!?"

"..."

"Since when were you a part of the snaky boys?! And their leader at that!"

"..."

"If you are after that..." Ann pointed at the abandoned relic that was lodged into the wall and added,

"Why are you trying to kill me?!"

"..."

"I have nothing to do with it. Or the people I probably think it belongs to"

"..."

Priest Hansom didn't answer but simply stared at Ann as she bombarded him with a truckload of questions. 

Seeing him act like a lifeless statue, the crease between her brows deepened. 

The situation was getting more and more complicated as time went by to the point that she feared what more was headed her way.

Though the assassins could have snatched the relic back when they first arrived at Lorem, they waited until the entourage reached the destination to attack. 

Thus, as Ann had speculated, they were tracking her movements all along and quite possibly wanted to expose her identity to finish the job.

'There's no way the universe would let me have a peaceful life. I should've seen this coming!' Ann wanted to scream but held herself back so as to not appear like a crazy person.

To make matters worse, the necklace in Priest Hansom's hand turned black, emitting a slight sizzling sound. The bright golden coat it had for years disappeared, leaving its rusty counterpart.