Masked men were squatting at the ledge of the palace. They had bird-like claws as hands and the masks had depictions of different birds.

They charged at them and tried to kill Rufus with their claws. Rufus was able to dodge and was trying to kill them but was just too slow. The three assassins didn't care at all about Yosef and only aimed their attacks at Rufus.

They kept cutting Rufus apart and didn’t allow Rufus to get any distance so he could throw his divine sphere.

“Run away!” Rufus yelled at Yosef.

Yosef then without a second thought fled as Rufus was fighting the masked people. Rufus saw an opening and lunged in to attack the assassin's head.

The mask shattered but Rufus was unable to kill the person. Behind the mask was a creature with the face of an owl, with a beak and large round eyes. It was a martiya from the world of Zoroaster.

A martiya assassin then kicked Rufus and made him fly against the wall. These assassins were clearly strong ones and this was not the first time he had fought someone on the level of Rufus.

As Rufus was laying almost helplessly on the ground a martiya stepped on the hand of Rufus pinning him down. The assassin looked down readying its sharp talons to deal the final blow to Rufus.

A puppet with hands of mops then flew at the assassin knocking him off Rufus.

Rufus got up and saw another one of those ugly puppets standing next to him.

“Wow…you really are a bad slave owner. You should have just used me as a shield or something?” Yosef said controlling the puppets with his mannequin controller.

“Wow…and you really have a weird sense of humor. Maybe that is why your siblings sold you to slavery,” Rufus said as a joke.

“Wow…I mean. That hurt me. I mean seriously, after telling you my life story,” Yosef said who looked like I he was holding a tear.

“No, no, no. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m so stupid…..”

“Naah, It’s okay. I was just messing with you,” Yosef said calmly.

“Wow…... You are horrible with a really sick sense of humor.”

“Well, many years of a slave will do that, I guess.”

The assassin composed himself. He then charged again.

Yosef controlled his two puppets to attack the assassins, but they were just destroyed instantly.

“Wow…who would have guessed mops and buckets wouldn’t make good weapons,” Yosef said looking at his puppets being shredded to pieces.

“Do you always just make jokes in the middle of battle?” Rufus asked

“I guess I just want to always lighten the mood.”

The assassins charged at the two of them. Rufus threw his divine sphere that started to expand. The assassins were trying to run away as the sphere expended trying to get away from it.

When the sphere had engulfed half of one of the assassins, Rufus made the sphere vanish and destroy everything inside it.

Half of the assassins got disintegrated while the other assassins stared in horror. Rufus and Yosef smiled, but they soon disappeared realizing the assassins hadn’t yet given up. They attacked again with Rufus not being able to defeat them in close combat and Yosef not having any more workable puppets.

Just then all the Ghersengs rushed in and cut the assassins into pieces with their glaives. The last assassin was able to avoid the Ghersengs and ripped his clothes. He had bombs under his clothes and went for a suicidal attack hoping to take down Rufus with him. Edward then jumped and cut the assassin in half with his sword saving them all.

~ ~

Back in the throne room, Rufus was on his knees while both Haley and Doreen looked angrily at him for disappearing. Yosef was standing at the side with Ghersengs around him pointing glaives at him.

“Rufus…... You realize what you have done right?”

“Uhmmmm…….”

“You always have to have guards around nowadays. You are no longer a commoner on the streets. You are the king,” Doreen explained.

“But I must have my own time. I don’t want to be surrounded by people all the time. I am not that social person,” Rufus said trying to be playful.

“This is not a thing you should joke about. Doesn’t matter how strong you are you still are a human who can die like any other,” Doreen explained.

Yosef looked at Rufus.

“Is he really the king or am I just in some comedy scene or something?” Yosef said sarcastically.

With distrusting eyes Doreen looked at Yosef.

“Don’t think you will get away yourself without punishment. You never told anyone that you have divine power. When were you thinking of telling about this?” Doreen asked angrily.

“Uhmmmm.....never.”

“Why is everyone taking this too casually. We just had assassins who almost killed Rufus,” Haley said looking around.

Rufus stood up and commanded the Ghersengs to leave Yosef alone. He walked up to him and looked at him straight into his eyes.

“Why did you save me?”

“Well to tell the sarcastic truth the assassin was kinda interrupting my skipping work time.”

“And how about the actual truth?”

Yosef took a moment to think.

“Kinda don’t have one. You seemed like a person worth saving. I mean you saved me from those dokkaebi slavers from putting me to work for them. You also wanted to free me straight away. I mean isn’t that kind of person worth saving?”

Rufus seemed pleased with the answer.

“So you can control puppets or something?” Edward asked.

“Something like that, but the better the puppet the more I excel in a fight. That is why I also know how to build stuff from weapons to small machines.”

“Why would the dokkaebi let you go if you have such a useful talent?” Doreen asked.

“If I didn’t plan for all of you to find out you really think I wouldn’t have hidden it from the dokkaebi.”

Rufus was pondering about something.

“What would you need to make better puppets?” Rufus asked.

“The usual stuff to build a durable suit of armor. Iron plates, weapons, something durable, but flexible enough to build the body out of,” Yosef explained.