At the bar's back door.
Ji Min, Thirteen, and the others watched the target get into a seven-seater car.
The doors closed, but the car did not drive away.
The men hiding in the shadows exchanged glances, vaguely sensing that something was wrong.
Inside the car.
A man in a white cloak sat in the back seat.
He held a palm-sized cross in his hands.
"Mashiu, did they follow you?"
The man's voice was low, as though it held some magic that made anyone who heard it feel an inexplicable warmth toward him.
Like the chanting of a god.
"Yes. Thank you, Bishop. Without your warning, I might already have been attacked."
"The Holy See never forgets its friends," the man in the white cloak said unhurriedly, his gaze shifting through the rearview mirror toward the shadows by the bar's back door.
Ji Min and the others were hiding there.
"What if they don't come over?" Mashiu volunteered. "Should I go draw them out again?"
"No." The white-robed man smiled confidently. "Do not underestimate the faith of the First War Zone's deathsworn. Even knowing they will die, they will still strike."
"The people of the Dragon Kingdom are strange. They always value things that do not exist more than their own lives. Duty, for example."
"Trust me. They will act any moment now."
No sooner had he spoken.
Sure enough, the handsome man in a red suit stepped out first.
Then six masked men spread out, approaching the seven-seater car without drawing attention.
Mashiu could not help giving the white-robed man a thumbs-up.
"You were right, Bishop."
"The Dragon Kingdom has a saying: know yourself and your enemy, and you will win every battle." The white-robed man gave a contemptuous smile.
At the same time.
The cross in his hands