The words darkened the atmosphere, the laughter doing little to alleviate the heft of it all.
The death of an in-name disciple wasn't rare. In fact, it could be said that it happened quite often. The survival rate among in-name disciples was decent at around 60% or so, and that made sense—considering unless you were special in some way, you would never catch the eye of a Lineage Head to begin with.
But that still meant that they died 40% of the time. It was common enough to the point that almost one died for every two that were introduced. It was hardly something that would shock the masses.
That said… the death of one in-name disciple at the hands of another was a different matter entirely. The fact that it was almost near the end of the 713rd cycle only made it worse.
