Chapter 144

Chapter 144

The man who approached us briefly paused to gauge the atmosphere, but he soon headed straight to Leo’s side.

Just by the way the man leaned down and whispered urgently, the tension in the air strangely grew further.

And besides that, as Leo continued to listen, his expression gradually hardened as well.

Then, a few more sets of footsteps came in.

The men donned full military uniforms. Four or so were knights, and two of them seemed to be mages.

Leo looked around for a moment before he stood up from his seat, his expression serious.

“Apologies, but it seems I’m needed elsewhere.”

“Did something happen?”

It definitely seemed like something happened, but I asked anyway.

A slight hint of hesitation passed through his red eyes, but it soon disappeared.

“There are intruders near the north gate of the residence. Some disturbance arose, but fortunately, it’s not anything major. I believe I still need to check how things are going, however. I’m ashamed. Something like this has happened even when you, my guests, are here.”

Followed by his explanation of the situation, a polite apology was added.

However, the issue was still quite serious for anyone to just reply, ‘Oh, I see,’ and move on.

“Intruders?”

Intruders at a ducal residence.

Who would have dared to do such a thing?

If those intruders had managed to infiltrate through the residence’s tall surrounding walls and run across the spacious expanse to reach the main mansion…

Either those intruders had great abilities, or they just had that big of a grudge against House Carter.

‘It’s either truly spontaneous or planned from the start.’

Of course, if it’s the third time, what’s there to wonder?

If they were going to forcefully capture me and Alicia, they wouldn’t have situated the intruders so far away.

I’m quite sure that the intruders should have made their ‘sudden appearance’ in the middle of this garden instead, while we were still off our guard and idly drinking tea.

If not that, the blue monsters should have shot out of the ground or something.

However, none of these happened, the target must be someone else.

Under this same sky, but some distance away.

Only one face came to mind.

My escort knight, who was waiting at the north of the garden for alleged security reasons.

Maxwell.

“By any chance, is my escort fighting against the intruders?”

When I unhesitatingly posed the question to Leo, the complexion of the knight who relayed the message just now gradually became ashen.

As if he was in the middle of realizing it.

Soon after gulping down briefly, the knight answered with a conflicted tone.

“…Yes, that’s right.”

“Ha.”

The one who let out a sharp breath was not me, but Leo.

Perhaps taken aback, Leo sighed and shook his head as though he was suppressing his anger.

However, it was still of little use.

“And you did not think to mention that until now?”

The low, but menacing roar fell like lightning.

The knights and mages who came here all bowed their heads, mouths zipped shut.

“I apologize, sir. He was fighting using magic, so I mistook him as a person from our side for a moment.”

That shouldn’t have been the case since he was wearing a mask, but perhaps the situation was quite hectic.

If not that, perhaps they knew, but pretended not to notice.

“What a thing to mistake. This mansion has so many hired hands, yet you’ve put my guest’s escort knight at risk?”

“I apologize. I have nothing to say.”

“…Ha. Enough. What’s the point of hearing useless apologies?”

Laughing bitterly to himself, Leo faced both Alicia and I.

And as he bowed slightly to us, his red hair fluttered.

“I apologize for allowing such a thing to happen. Even Your Ladyship’s knight has gotten involved. I know I have no right to face you now. I am deeply ashamed.”

“…No, it’s alright. The one at fault is the intruder, so it was out of your hands. Still, where is my escort knight now? Why did he not come with them?”

At that moment.

BAAANG!

The same moment I tried to ask, a deafening boom resounded all throughout from somewhere.

Everyone’s heads turned to the source of that sound.

And there, people were starting to flee.

As if to further emphasize that something had gone wrong, thick smoke began from there.

Ah, goddamn it.

I sprang to my feet.

* * *

The masked man looked at all the collapsed people around him and sighed a little.

“What the hell.”

The commotion was quite sudden and quite coincidental.

To the point that one might think that this was all prepared for ‘Maxwell’.

The servants who had been on standby here went away for a while, and the guards on patrol weren’t here because they were in the middle of changing shifts.

And, once he ‘happened’ to be alone for a brief period of time…

That’s when the commotion broke out.

People rushed in from nowhere, and as he was left without no one by his side, he had to deal with them all hastily.

Of course, alone.

“If this is supposed to be a coincidence, I don’t know what a ‘coincidence’ really is.”

A sigh-like murmur left through his faintly smirking lips.

Although there were some people who came to the scene belatedly, they all took a quick look at the circumstances and scuttled away again, saying that they would call for back-up.

You’d think that there’d at least be one who’d stay, but there was no such person.

Amidst the rushing intruders, the man was again left alone to deal with them.

And here, he had no choice but to laugh once more.

In a way, he was a guest. What kind of noble household would treat a guest like this?

Using one hand to reach up, he pulled down the collar of a man’s shirt roughly.

A neck, bruised black and blue, appeared.

His cold, black eyes scanned his surroundings once more, then he turned towards one of the collapsed men who looked the most normal.

He roughly yanked the man’s head and pushed one pill into the man’s open mouth.

Soon, the man who swallowed the pill opened his eyes.

And Maxwell spoke the moment he saw this.

“Who ordered you.”

Though the question was short, it contained a lot at the same time.

What was pushed into the man’s mouth was a truth serum pill.

Once ingested, the drug would immediately take effect, and the person would not be able to lie for a few minutes.

Of course, it didn’t work on everyone, but it seemed to be working for this man.

His unfocused eyes quivered several times.

As his gaze became relaxed, he looked like a drunken man.

Eyes half-lidded now, the man opened his mouth slightly.

“The one, who ordered…”

However, his answer did not continue further.

Cough—

Letting out a loud, reverberating cough, the man spewed out red blood as well.

“Ugh…”

Maxwell took a step back, then crouched down to meet the man’s eyes.

Every time the coughing fit wracked through the man, blood poured out endlessly.

“Kgh… keugh…”

And soon after that single shriek, the man fell to the ground.

When Maxwell brought one finger under the man’s nose, he couldn’t feel any inhales or exhales.

Just like that, the man died.

Looking down at the man’s body with his black eyes, Maxwell thought,

‘He died as soon as he ingested the pill.’

No— To be more precise, he died in the middle of trying to answer.

‘…A prohibited spell?’

Among the many types of prohibited magic, this was likely a restriction spell.

The moment that one would try to reveal a secret, they would die.

But with just one example, he couldn’t be too sure.

Now, wasn’t this just a dastardly coincidence?

With his black eyes still as cold as ever, he took out more pills from his inner pocket.

But then.

BAAANG!

A deafening sound exploded out of nowhere, and smoke rose from its origin as well.

And along with the smoke, a few other things popped up as well.

About five people.

It looked like they were all human.

No, at least, they only had human forms.

They had black masks over their faces, and as they unsteadily prowled forward, they growled menacingly.

“…Seriously. It’s just one thing after another.”

He was in such disbelief that he even let out a sardonic laugh.

‘But really, no matter how hard I think about it, they’re really just flinging one troublesome thing after another.’

As he thought this, Rosetta’s face flashed across his mind.

In the meantime, those who were stumbling forward suddenly increased their speed.

“Ku-ahh!”

Garbled voices and incomprehensible speech roared through the air as they rushed forward. Unlike with the quick attackers earlier, Maxwell didn’t immediately use magic to thwart these new ones. He simply used his physical strength.

However, they started using an unexpected attack pattern.

He sidestepped their blows, but he couldn’t avoid them completely. Half of his own mask got slashed away.

…In any case, he’s glad that his face didn’t get hurt.

With his lower face now bare, he clicked his tongue.

It’s impossible to think that these were ordinary humans.

Perhaps monsters to the fullest level.

Or perhaps human beings who had at least developed something else.

In the case of the latter, that ‘something else’ was not necessarily abiding by the laws of nature.

‘Blue humans.’

This was the likeliest possibility that he could think of.

However, their faces were masked and all the exposed skin that he could see was of a normal complexion. He couldn’t be too sure that they were truly blue humans.

“Graaaah!”

But right then, without giving him any more time to think, his opponents rushed towards him once more.

.

.

.

Then, a few minutes passed.

He was starting to doubt whether those people earlier, who said that they’d be calling back-up, would still return.

“Guoooh!”

And it was around that time that another of his opponents came from behind. Maxwell hurriedly turned around.

He couldn’t care less what it was that he was facing.

But when he noticed his opponent’s approach, it was already close enough that he couldn’t avoid it completely.

And it was already about to hit him on the back right then, but the thing that rushed in suddenly and perplexingly stopped mid-swing.

“…Guruk.”

Then, it collapsed sideways with a short groan.

It was not moving anymore.

Looking closely, Maxwell found that there was a black mark on its chest. The smell of smoke also started to rise.

After scanning the dead body, he raised his gaze.

Then, he looked exactly at the place where the fireball might have flown in.

Sure enough, people were approaching quickly.

A man and a woman.

Leo and Rosetta.

“Maxwell, get down!” Rosetta shouted.

Without any hesitation at all, Maxwell crouched to the ground the moment he heard her voice.

And a split second later, the ball of fire that was launched from Leo’s hands sailed right over his head.