Previously...

'What the- was I overthinking too much?'

Deon saw the blood dripping onto his hand and tried to cover his nose. While some did drop onto the floor, most of the blood went onto the handkerchief Cruel carried with him. And Deon could recognize that handkerchief anywhere, there was now blood on it but it was definitely the one he gave to Cruel!

***

"Sorry-"

"Don't talk, there's still blood running down your nose, it might get in your mouth."

Cruel continued to wipe the blood off of Deon's nose who stood still and let him do so. He noticed that Deon was bleeding a lot more than before, usually, he'd bleed just a little but now he was bleeding a lot worse than just puking up blood ever since the hunting competition. Cruel was beginning to worry even because this amount of blood should have killed someone already.

Deon had no time to explain what was going on since he never told Cruel that his soul was starting to break. Well, he didn't know that Cruel was aware of it all and that this was the second phase, but if he knew that he'd start cussing the God of Death out.

"Now it's all gone. What was it that you wanted to say that you followed me?"

"Umm... This, I wanted to give it to you..."

Deon put the box with the protection necklace into Cruel's hand. He could see Cruel opening the box and looked at the necklace skeptically, Deon thought that Cruel was still skeptical and tried to explain.

"It's a necklace with protection runes engraved on it-"

"Thank you."

Cruel smiled as he ruffled Deon's head while putting on the necklace. Though, unbeknownst to the two, many people were able to witness the sibling's interaction. Their faces were a mix of shock and pleasantry, they didn't know how to react since they all thought that the two brothers hated each other, but here they were acting like actual siblings!

"You should get home before it's late."

"Okay..."

He said okay, but was Deon really going to listen? No, not at all, he's gonna go to the God of Death's temple today and scam the shit out of the priests and make them. Deon waited for Cruel to leave before heading in the opposite direction to the Hardt manor.

By the time he made it to the God of Death's temple, he could see priests waiting outside for him already, his guess? It was obviously the God of Death's doing since he could send out messages to his priests as long as they were in the prayer room. The priests went out of his way as he continued walking inside the temple.

When he got in, Deon could see what seemed to be the high priest talking to someone of his age. The person was very loud and arrogant, just watching his expressions and tone annoyed him. He guessed it was the supposed saint candidate since saint candidates could also exist, if the candidate was deemed not to be an actual saint then they could either leave the temple or remain as a priest there.

"Are you the high priest?"

"..S-saint-nim..."

'Ugh... he also already knows I'm a saint.'

Deon internally groaned as he gave a fake smile to the high priest. He ignored the supposed saint candidate who was clenching his hands like he was about to punch him.

"I am Deon-"

"Saint? What saint?! I'm clearly a saint, don't you remember choosing me as a saint candidate-"

"I apologize but we have recently received a message from our lord that one of the real saints has arrived at our temple."

The high priest immediately retorted back to the angry saint candidate who stomped out of the room in anger which left only Deon and the high priest left. Deon sweatdropped at the saint candidate's personality before he spoke to the high priest. Well, he would have spoken if the high priest was even there.

Deon wondered what the high priest left for, was he chasing after the saint candidate to apologize and then kick him out for interrupting their conversation? He sat down on one of the benches and waited for the high priest to return.

"Saint-nim! I have brought back what you wanted, I heard from the Lord that you needed these while praying and these items appeared on the altar."

"This is..."

It was definitely the top's whip and... a gun.

"Ahaha! How do you like my gift? We never talk a lot but I wanted to give you this anyways, it's a gun powered by ancient powers!"

Suddenly a really annoying and loud voice was talking in his head. It was the God of War, if it served Deon's memory correctly in Greek mythology his name was Ares. After learning that Gods existed and many had the same titles as Greek Gods, he wondered if the God of War's name could also be Ares.

"It's good, but why did you send me this?"

"Hmm, I wanted to give you something since Abyss always spoils you and we never get the chance to."

Deon casually talked to the God of War while the high priest felt even more inclined to follow Deon. It had been long since a saint from the God of Death had chosen another apostle and this time he chose two people.

When he finished talking to the God of War, he checked outside of the window and could see that it was already sunset. He should really head back now before the people in his house go crazy while looking for him.

***

"Oh? Isn't this interesting..."

"Here you are snooping through my things again Temptation."

"Oh but Death, you can't blame me. I just wanted to have a look at this interesting artifact here."

She held up a black spear and played around with it like it was a toy. This was one of the many things he hated about the Goddess of Temptation, she always snooped through your stuff as long as you were below her.

"You act all high and mighty when you only bribed the other higher-rank Gods for that position."

"Jeez, it's not that big of a deal no? I say it worked out quite well."

"Quite well for you, not well for those poor people at all."

The Goddess gave a laugh before she reached for a broken shard. She held it up in the air and her eye was reflected upon the shard and plopped it into her mouth, the God of Death grimaced at the thought of even eating a demonic crystal as he sighed at the Goddess of Temptation's actions.

"Thanks for the demonic crystal, I'll head back now."

"You crazy bitch."

The God of Death cursed at the Goddess of Temptation as she flapped her wings, creating a massive mess in his room. He snapped his fingers and rearranged everything back into place before hearing someone else's footsteps.

"Oh, Sui Khan you're here."

"Didn't you tell me to come whenever I missed my dongsaeng?"

"Right, that's what I gave you and Choi Jung Soo that tablet for."

The tablet he gave to both of the Soos allowed them to travel to the Divine Realm. Of course, only with a God's permission. But since Choi Jung Soo was already a wanderer, he didn't really need it but he gave it to him anyway.

He looked at Sui Khan who was previously Lee Soo Hyuk observing Deon through the holographic screen, his wings fluttered with delight every moment his (self proclaimed) younger brother appeared on the screen.

The God of Death could tell he really missed the white-head, that was practically one of the reasons why Lee Soo Hyuk chose to reincarnate with his memories and tried as much as he could to contribute to sealing the God of Despair. It was so that he could be able to remember Kim Rok Soo and talk to him like they used to do, but fate had some ridiculous plans that day and decided not to do so.

"Then I'll let you watch over him while I do some other things, try to resist going into that world. I can tell what you're thinking based on your expression and wings."

"Got it, got it."

Sui Khan rolled his eyes and continued to watch Deon who was now drinking wine on the balcony. Of course, even if Deon could feel someone watching him he would never find out that the Gods were responsible for that.

***

Deon took out a bottle of wine from the cabinet and poured it into a glass as he sat outside on the balcony. He had recently just finished taking a bath after his servants washed his hair like crazy, they said that it was such a waste that hair like that wasn't being taken care of properly and washed it like crazy before brushing it.

"I missed the taste of wine."

He smiled as he continued to drink the wine from the Emperor like it was water. Well, it was like drinking water, to him at least. He wanted to drink all of his worries away before the so-called negotiations would start.

He also ignored the assassins deployed right inside his bedroom. Deon had no clue who sent them but he would to make sure that they'd regret messing with him. Right now he had two guesses, the second prince or the duke sent them after him

Clang!

Deon dropped his glass of wine after one of the assassins tried to abduct him by covering his mouth and such. But something like that wouldn't be able to knock him out so easily, he ducked down and dodged the needle after him.

He looked at the needle and could immediately guess who sent the assassins to him. Duke Illuster wouldn't want his assassins to knock him out with a needle, he'd rather just have him dead on the spot so the only choice left is the second prince.

Only the second prince would want him alive since the needles were laced with anesthetics used to drug people, he would've came to a conclusion that it was the duke if the needles were laced with deadly poison but it wasn't so he could safely assume it was the second prince.

"Tell your prince I don't want his obsessive ass!"

Thwack!

Deon punched the assassin in the face, of course it did hurt his hand but he didn't really care. He continued dodging the needles, he couldn't afford to get hit by them. First of all, it'd hurt getting pricked by tons of needles, and second of all, he would be at a disadvantage. Sure the Heart of Vitality helped with preventing drugs and poisons from killing him, it wasn't omnipotent and the most it could do was disperse the toxins before it affected him even more.

He summoned four Death Butterflies and waved his hands at the assassins in his room. Now that his appetite for wine was ruined, he might as well get it over with and go to sleep.

"Arghh!"

"Just.. what..."

The two assassins fell as two red butterflies emerged from them, the rest of the assassins backed away but it was too late. Deon lunged forward with the dagger made with divine powers and plunged it into an enemy's vital spot, killing them immediately. Another butterfly landed on the other assassin's eye and immediately started feasting on the assassin, after a few minutes the once clean bedroom was now messy and the assassins were now dead, lying on the ground.

"My hand hurts now... That crazy ass prince."

Deon cursed as he waved his bruised hand that was slowly healing. He'll make sure to never punch an enemy barehanded anymore. But now he couldn't sleep, what if they came back again? He incinerated the bodies of the assassins before lying on the bed, he contemplated on running away but that'd mean there was a greater chance of things going astray and his older brother could also die.

This world seriously hated him, why did it keep making him the center of the spotlight? He'll definitely have to talk to the world tree when he gets back. If he remembered right it should only be protecting him in serious situations, not put him in even more dangerous situations. Why did his other self even save that prince?!

'Not to mention that Count Nemour guy is really suspicious, I tried going through both memories but I've never even met him.'

Why would he lie about meeting him? There was no need to lie about it at all, he could have just said he always wanted to meet him.

"No... Count Nemour never existed, I fucked up. He's a hunter."

That man, was definitely a hunter. Hunters had the ability to disguise and manipulate memories as well, that man was either a hunter or a noble from another country. But it was leaning more on the latter side, didn't he claim that they had met in the war? Well, they never did, so he was a hunter.

"Hunter... how did you encounter a hunter already? You shouldn't unless they come after you.."

"I met them a while back in the palace."

"Well this is bad... hold on, I need to give you something."

Deon was a bit confused, what dangers would a hunter have to do with him? He wasn't a a single-lifer like Choi Han, he was a reincarnator and transmigrator. Unless they were working with the hunters, which would explain the God of Death's panic when he mentioned hunter.

"I got it! Make sure to wear this, it blocks the senses of hunters when they get near you so they won't be able to tell whether or not if you're a variable of single-lifer."

"Even if it's too late?"

"Well even if it is, we can at least confuse them. At least until the problems resolved."

A pair of two black stud earrings landed into Deon's hands. What sucked was that there wasn't any piercing machine that could help with getting them pierced like in Korea, thankfully he at least knew how it works after reading a manual about it. He didn't know everything about piercing ears but he at least knew the method of doing so.

(You seem to be reading a lot of random things in your free time Deon-)

He took a needle from the ground that came from the assassins and washed it clean with the Sky-eating water. Sometimes he was glad to have ancient powers, besides using them in battles he could also use them in his everyday life. After that was done, Deon took the needle and pierced a side of the ear and put on one of the earrings before doing the same on the other side.

"Ugh... It really hurts but whatever.."

At least he didn't need to do anything since the Heart of Vitality would be able to deal with it and he didn't need to request for something that could prevent his ears from swelling up. Now he was really decked out in divine items, from his neck and ears to his hands. They were now all adorned with divine items made by the God of Death specifically.

Was this what they called favoritism?

***

WOOOO HAPPY LATE ANNIVERSARY TO TCF!!!!