"Although Earl Gross was a believer in the Goddess, some aspects of his private life were far from proper, especially his fondness for young boys...
"However, since he never forced anyone and every encounter was a 'transaction,' the Church could only discreetly 'advise' him. The results were poor.
"Earl Gross clearly knew that the Church disapproved of his 'hobby,' so whenever he went out for 'entertainment,' he deliberately shook off the Nighthawks assigned to him by the Church Faction.
"But what the Earl did not know was that the Church's protection came both openly and covertly. His past actions had always been documented by the Nighthawks in the shadows.
"That was why he had truly never crossed the Church's bottom line even once. Otherwise, the official Beyonders would have cleaned house long ago.
"And this time, Earl Gross was assassinated on a day when he had shaken off the visible Nighthawk. Unfortunately, the Nighthawk protecting him in secret had come into contact with a Sealed Artifact the day before, leaving him in poor mental condition and showing signs of losing control. For a moment, he actually thought he was still dreaming and failed to keep up with the Earl.
"Furthermore, among the four Beyonder bodyguards Earl Gross had hired, the strongest one, a Sequence 6 Dawn Knight, happened to run into an enemy at the time of the assassination and was unable to do anything.
"Of the other three, two had failed to bring their corresponding Beyonder items due to various oversights. As a result, they were helpless against the Nightmare who assassinated the Earl and could only watch him die.
"As for the last Beyonder bodyguard, he was the murderer himself... The killer had replaced him a day earlier without arousing anyone's suspicions, including those of the two Nighthawks.