Volume 2, Chapter 6 – The Midnight Assault (Part 1)

How many hours had passed since rescuing Lu-chan?

The garden visible from the window, illuminated by the high full moon, drifted with a fantastical atmosphere.

The attack still hadn’t happened.

Unless the target was a ghost, Chris-san was basically a strategic-class weapon.

If they didn’t settle this before she woke up, that man should have no future once his misdeeds were exposed.

——Was he more foolish than I thought, or had he given up? Which would be better, I wonder?

Inside the room, the soft breathing of Chris-san and Lu-chan echoed faintly.

Perhaps the mansion itself was already sealed off, and they intended to keep us confined like this.

As I was thinking such things, I saw figures moving in the garden.

There seemed to be a fair number of them.

Maybe they’ve finally come.

Thinking that, I focused on the sounds.

Multiple footsteps could be heard from the hallway.

They seemed to be trying to muffle their steps, but they were approaching straight toward us.

For now, I shook Lu-chan awake.

“Lu-chan, an attack has probably come. Just prepare to escape and hide in the back.”

Though Lu-chan was bleary-eyed with sleep, she immediately sat up and began preparing.

“Chris-san, wake up! It’s an enemy attack!”

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Perhaps she was simply a very deep sleeper, because there was no sign of Chris-san waking up.

——Hmm, had that much fatigue accumulated, I wonder?

Maybe I’d been relying on Chris-san far too much all this time.

Click-clack

I heard the door being unlocked.

As expected, the mansion’s people seemed to be accomplices too.

It was entirely plausible that not just Alfred, but the entire Count’s family were involved in the illegal slave trade.

Considering the worst possibility, even the town guards could potentially be enemies.

Thinking that, entrusting the women to the guards might have been a mistake.

I glanced out the window and saw about five men with swords in the garden, lit by the moonlight.

They were probably there to catch us if we jumped from the window to escape.

Creeeak, the door opened with a sound. On the other side of the barricade, several men were visible.

Seeing them drawing their swords, they probably had no intention of settling this peacefully.

“Tch, what’s this? Move it.”

Alfred’s voice. That guy was the mastermind of this attack too.

“Alfred-sama, barging into a lady’s room without even knocking? Just what kind of manners are they teaching in the Count’s household, I wonder?”

I tried a little provocation. A sharp intake of breath could be heard from beyond the barricade.

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Both Shadow Dive and Mist Form could only be used for a few seconds, and once used, couldn’t be used again for a while.

Against one person, I might be able to take them down with a surprise attack, but I couldn’t use it recklessly.

Our combat power was essentially just Chris-san alone, and she showed no sign of waking. I gripped my self-defense knife.

“Just hurry up and move it. I’ll take care of the aftermath once we’re done.”

Alfred was giving such instructions from beyond the barricade.

It seemed I had no choice but to fight. I closed the window curtains, making the room as dark as possible.

——Dark Magic, Obscuring Mist, appear!

A faint, mist-like thing that might have made it slightly darker appeared.

I tried it on the off chance there was a stock-standard spell like that, and apparently there was.

It felt almost negligible, but that’s probably how it is at Skill Level 1.

I thought I could use the Vampire race’s characteristics by making it even a little darker to gain an advantage, but it seemed it wouldn’t be that easy.

Still, this room, with almost no moonlight entering, was quite dark.

Even this dark, I could see clearly, but for humans, it shouldn’t be the same.

Muffling my footsteps, I moved to the side of the barricade and drew my knife.

Then, as a man leaned through a gap in the barricade, I drove my knife into his thigh with all my strength.

“Gah!”

The man collapsed. I pulled out my knife and hurriedly leaped back.

“I never gave you permission to enter.”

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I declared in a voice I tried to make cold, filled with hostility and rejection. A click of the tongue could be heard from beyond the barricade.

“Move all the obstructions out into the hallway. I don’t know why the Saint is awake, but the Holy Knight shouldn’t be.”

Hmm, how did they know Chris-san was asleep?

The chairs, desk, and chest of drawers I had placed before the door were carried out into the hallway one after another.

Perhaps wary, this time they didn’t enter the room but dragged the barricade outside.

And finally, the barricade protecting us was gone.

The men’s lamps illuminated the room.

“Do it.”

Alfred gave a short command. The men let out vulgar laughs as they crept toward me. And then,

“Heya!”

One shouted and swung at me. I imitated Char and created a Holy Magic shield right before that man’s eyes.

He promptly smashed his face into it and ended up with a bloody nose.

Seeing that, the men took on a cautious demeanor and surrounded me.

Still, I lacked a decisive move.

If this kept up, sooner or later I’d be overwhelmed.

If so, perhaps there was no path to victory other than taking out the commander.

I checked Alfred’s position.

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He was standing in the doorway.

Since he held a lamp, a frontal Shadow Dive surprise attack would be difficult.

Then.

I raised my knife and charged toward the man blocking the way between me and Alfred.

I held the knife in my left hand in a forward grip, placing my right palm against the pommel.

I was basically copying that classic yakuza-movie charge where someone rushes in with a kitchen knife.

“Hah, such a transparent attack like this—”

The moment the man tried to calmly parry me, I activated Mist Form.

“Wha? She disappeared?”

Keeping my momentum, I reappeared right in front of Alfred and drove the knife into him with my whole body behind it.

“Gah!”

I felt it connect. The knife had sunk firmly into his abdomen.

“You damn, little bitch!”

But it seemed it wasn’t a fatal wound.

After a dizzying sensation as if the world had flipped upside down, I was pinned to the floor.

“Damn it. Damn it. I was going to kill you quickly and be done with it, but I’ve changed my mind. I’ll mash up that prim face of yours, make you regret being born a woman, and then kill you.”

Alfred straddled me, looking down at me with sharp, glaring eyes.