Book 5, The Godsword, Bloodviolet – Chapter 14, The Auction

Within the private reading room of Bernard, leader of the Debs clan.

“What? You failed?” Bernard stared at the woman in the red robes. “Even if you failed, why can’t you continue making further attempts? Since when did the Bloodrose organization give up so easily?”

Bernard was extremely dissatisfied.

When he went to ask for the help of the Saber organization, he was refused. He successfully enlisted the services of Bloodrose, but Bloodrose was only willing to agree to destroy the sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’. As for killing Linley, the price they demanded was far too high, as high as the price for an assassination of a Cardinal! Such an astronomical price, the Debs clan was unable to pay.

Per the words of Bloodrose, assassinating Linley would cause them to simultaneously offend both the Radiant Church as well as the Dawson Conglomerate.

What’s more…

Nowadays, Linley was a master sculptor. A master sculptor held an exalted societal status, and many people with rank and power esteemed master sculptors. Killing Linley meant killing a master sculptor, which would generate a degree of hatred towards Bloodrose amongst those sculpture aficionados.

This was why the cost they demanded to assassinate Linley was actually on par with...