After sending everyone away, Hel finally began taking stock of the night's spoils.
From the kingdom's side, there had been two individuals. The Sixth Prince, "Gray Fox," was still young—barely a newly advanced Earth Knight, a small fry really.
Aside from his purple-grade swordsmanship and talent entries, he also possessed one orange and one purple identity entry, granting him a total of +100 Knowledge Points, bringing his total to 109.
So the title "Gray Fox the Wise" wasn't entirely undeserved.
However, he also carried a rather troublesome black entry:
[Cursed Bloodline]: Strength -30%. Your bloodline is slowly withering. Unless a god manifests, you will not live past thirty.
Hel guessed that this was why he had personally come to negotiate this transaction.
"Unless a god manifests"—but weren't witches themselves the gods walking among mortals?
And the Church of Ascension, which was said to protect witches, would be his only hope.
As for his escort, Ambrose Fischer, things got more interesting.
Besides his purple-grade swordsmanship, talent, and identity entries, he had two secret art entries:
[Soulburn Secret Art (Orange)]: Temporarily increases Strength by +120%. Causes a weakened state afterward, Strength -120%.
[Bloodflame Secret Art (Purple)]: Temporarily increases Strength by +90%. Causes a weakened state afterward, Strength -90%.
Good heavens—he was a walking self-destruct truck!
If both secret arts were used together, his combat power would increase by a combined 210%.
Even though that was a flat increase rather than a true percentage-based multiplier, it was still absurd.
For reference, Arwen's [Dragon Bloodline] only increased Strength by 180%.
So that explained why Arwen had sensed Ambrose as the most dangerous presence in the room.
Unfortunately for him, secret art entries only take effect when actively used—otherwise they're dormant.
That was why Arwen's sneak attack had succeeded.
On the other side, the two beastmen from the Church of Ascension had more standard builds.
Allen was a 4th-tier High Magister, and his guard a newly advanced 4th-tier Earth Knight.
Both had typical purple entries: skill, talent, and one academic entry—
[Devotee of Ascension (Purple)]: Knowledge +60, Luck -10. A group of ascetic monks seeking to usher the return of the Fallen Witch. Unbeknownst to them, the Fallen Demon they worship never perished—she merely abandoned them.
Reading the description, Hel couldn't help but smirk.
A bunch of miserable zealots—had their god really grown so tired of them that she simply ghosted them?
Or perhaps that "Fallen Demon" just enjoyed toying with her believers.
Still, as the Vice Bishop of the Ascension Church, Allen carried something far rarer:
[Corrupted Lesser Holy Relic (Orange)]: Magic +120%, Charisma +70. The flesh of the Corruption Witch allows you to wield decaying magic.
Corruption Witch? Witch's flesh? Lesser Holy Relic?
Hel immediately sensed the stink of conspiracy.
It seemed she had uncovered a plot targeting witches themselves.
The entire continent believed that the Holy Judgement Church hunted witches, while the Ascension Church protected them.
But looking at this, things clearly weren't as they appeared.
This so-called "protection" was a farce—nothing more than a cover for vivisection.
The proof was right here: a witch's flesh implanted into a beastman's body.
And when Hel opened the sealed container that the church had brought for trade, her suspicions were fully confirmed.
[Name]: Holy Relic – Right Eye of Restoration
[Grade]: Gold – Legendary
[Entry]: [Great Holy Relic of Restoration (Gold)]
[Description]: The right eye of the Restoration Witch allows you to wield restorative magic.
Well, look at that.
No attempt to even hide it—straight-up organ transplants.
What was this, some kind of magical Sharingan? Just plug and play?
In her past life, eye transplants were one of medicine's most complex operations—and here they just popped them in like spare parts.
Was that scientific? Of course not.
But it was very magical.
The artifact itself was impressive, but aside from revealing how dangerously exposed she was, it was practically useless to her—and might even bring her more trouble.
So Hel absorbed all the entries directly.
No hidden entries appeared this time; the golden right eye simply crumbled into embers.
So that's the difference between living and dead matter, she mused.
Or perhaps the original owner of this eye was still alive—making the relic incomplete and thus incapable of producing hidden entries.
Hel thought it over for a while but couldn't figure it out, so she simply moved on.
Next, she opened the container that Gray Fox had brought for trade: the witch's remains.
Inside was only half a jar of ashes.
[Name]: Corpse of Gorgon, the Fishworm Witch
[Grade]: Gold – Legendary
[Entries]: [Lord of Fishworms (Pink)], [Fishworm Witch (Red)], [Queen of the Sea (Red)], [Affinity for Life Magic (Gold)]
Only four entries—and Hel could immediately tell that no soul residue remained in these ashes.
There were also no identity or spell entries that such a corpse should normally contain.
Was it because the soul had completely dissipated?
Or was the body simply too damaged?
But then, the witch of the Nether, Youming, had her soul shredded into dust by a divine spark, and Hel had still obtained all her entries.
So why was this different?
These were questions for another day.
After collecting every entry from the remains, Hel reduced both the metal container and the witch's ashes to their purest form—embers.
She didn't just toss them away either; she stored them carefully in her Necrotic Space, completely erasing any trace of the bodies.
With the evidence thoroughly disposed of, she turned her attention to the other corpses.
Aside from the four involved in the trade, Sebas had already used his control over the Thieves' Guild leader to summon all of its members to a single location—where they were wiped out in one strike.
Not even the guildmaster, "Rat," had been spared.
In total, 203 people had been eliminated—one Tier 2 guildmaster, two Tier 1 officers, and the rest common thieves.
Hard to believe that this band of cutthroats, a ragtag bunch of criminals, had managed to kidnap her people under the watchful eyes of her elite city guard.
She had to admit: when it came to trickery, deception, and underhanded skills—they were professionals.
As always, Hel began her cleanup ritual:
Blood summons blood bats. Corpses summon skeletons.
Duplicate entries were merged and upgraded.
Low-tier ones were casually combined.
Business as usual.