Chapter 435: A familiar face (1)
— Frey Starlight’s Pov —
Leaning against the wall of a dim alleyway, Ghost and I stood out to every passerby.
This place was as rundown as you’d expect from one of Belgrad’s poorest districts.
And yet, this was where the Shadow Court had chosen to abandon Ghost’s mother.
The Court was always searching for the most efficient ways to create assassins, arranging calculated breeding to pass down nothing but genetics.
As a result, all of Ghost’s siblings shared the same father—Mist Umbra—but were born of different mothers.
And once the mothers had fulfilled their sole purpose ..giving birth ..
The Court discarded them, stripping the children of any trace of affection or warmth.
This was how they raised cold-blooded killers, molded solely for death.
But for Ghost, it was far worse.
He didn’t just lose his friends at the Court—
He lost his siblings, one after another.
The last one was Atlas Umbra, who died right before his eyes.
And yet, Ghost didn’t seem affected.
He had simply grown used to it.
It was a harsh reality for the silent assassin, But it was what shaped him into the man he was now.
His resilience and composure in the face of such darkness were, in their own way, admirable.
That’s what made him so sharp ..
Always aware of the smallest details.
And that sharpness had led him to ask about Danzo.
"What made you ask that question?"
I turned the question back on him, and he replied calmly:
"It was obvious, watching you. Every time you looked at him, there was regret in your eyes. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together."
"At first, I thought you were just mourning what happened to him.
But when your sadness lingered for too long, I realized something far bigger was happening... something none of us knew about."
He had figured all that out through observation alone.
And he waited for the right moment to ask ..
A moment that came the second I appeared in front of him from thin air.
"You really are sharp..."
I said, gazing up at the sky.
He was right.
Much like Sansa, he’d read me perfectly, even though I thought I was hiding it well.
Staring at Ghost, I wondered if I should tell him the truth.
There wasn’t much an assassin like him could do to help me save Danzo...
If anything, he’d be more suited to killing him .. And that was exactly what I was trying so hard to avoid.
But Ghost was Danzo’s friend too.
Even though they fought often, the bond between them was real.
In our bleak little circle, Danzo was the only source of energy and life ..
That made him special, in his own way.
Ghost deserved to know.
And after all, he had accompanied me once on my journey to Londor.
"What if I told you there’s a demon living inside him, Ghost?"
I dropped the words suddenly.
Ghost’s eyes widened for a moment, but he quickly regained his calm.
"What are you talking about?"
"It’s a Devil Seed."
And in that moment, I began explaining everything to him.
The truth of the malicious demonic entity dwelling inside our crippled, sick friend .. And that soon, that demon would emerge, threatening everyone around him.
Ghost listened silently to the entire story, saying nothing.
But I could see his expression shift as I gave him more and more details.
"You’re telling me... a demon like that is inside him, and not even Saint Candidate Uriel noticed?"
I nodded.
"You could say... he will become the demon himself.
It’s not a separate being inside him.
This level of fusion can’t be detected, not even by holy power.
All anyone can do is fight him when the time comes."
The cursed one who invented the Devil Seed made it so perfect, so seamless, that it fully merged with the host’s body ..
Making it impossible to detect.
"I don’t get it, Frey.
If even Uriel couldn’t sense it, how did you?"
It was a fair question.
And I couldn’t blame Ghost for not being satisfied.
After all, my reaction had been far worse when I first saw the system’s final quest.
"Let’s just say... I have my own ways."
I answered briefly.
I couldn’t tell him about the system—not yet.
So I had no choice but to leave it at that.
Whether he believed me or not, I couldn’t blame him either way.
Ghost, as always, was unreadable.
His face gave nothing away.
Even his reply was short.
"I see."
That was all he said.
And then, silence filled the space between us.
He took his time thinking, glancing at me every so often.
His eyes fell on the dark circles beneath mine, on the exhaustion written all over my body.
Then, remembering all the madness we’d gone through together,
Ghost made his decision.
He chose to believe me.
I was certain of it ..
Because I had caught a glimpse of his thoughts, Using the third-person perspective ability.
"So what do we do, then? How can we save him?"
He asked directly, wanting to help.
But unfortunately, this was something only I could accomplish.
"I’m working on it."
I went on to tell Ghost about the Nameless Mask, and how the way to save Danzo was hidden somewhere inside it...
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t grasp it.
"I’m the only one who can save him, Ghost. No one else."
His fate rested entirely in my hands ..
and the weight of it was crushing me.
As we walked side by side, we kept talking about it for a while longer.
"How’s Danzo been lately?" I asked, since it had been a while since I last saw him.
"He’s still broken. Honestly, I can’t get used to this new, quiet Danzo."
It was nothing like the energetic Danzo we used to know.
Now, he was far too quiet, looking tired most of the time, unable to walk properly...
Like a ghost of his former self.
If he ever wanted to fight again, there was no hope left in his human body.
Humans simply couldn’t repair shattered aura pathways.
But staying alive this way was still far better than dying in the form of a demon.
That thought had haunted me lately.
And the same went for Ghost, who couldn’t do anything to help this time.
I wanted to visit Danzo again ..
maybe seeing him would push me to search even harder in that cursed library Nameless had built.
Then, out of nowhere,
I heard a sound I hadn’t heard in a very long time...
coming from my stomach.
"Ah..."
It was rare...
To feel hunger in this mutated body of mine.
"You’re hungry?" Ghost asked, and I replied,
"I suppose so."
If you counted all the days I spent in the Ultrass Continent, plus the days after our return and my time in the Shadow Sect...
You could say I had gone nearly a whole month without eating anything, surviving on barely a few hours of sleep.
I had pushed my body far beyond its limits ..
I should’ve died long ago if I were still a normal human.
But the only thing it left me with was some hunger growls.
"What a cursed body..."
I muttered with a tired smile.