Volume 4, Chapter 10 – A Succession of Mysteries

The sound of weapons clashing was everywhere. A siege had been formed. Edith could even see the dazzling glint reflecting off a distant hill—the sheen of a crossbow bolt. If she were to try to quietly slip away in the chaos, the crossbows lying in ambush would immediately fire.

However, the enemy had miscalculated one thing. She had never thought about a shabby escape in the chaos. The imposter had presumptuously projected her own cowardice onto her. This line of thinking made Edith want to laugh out loud.

How childish.

“Master, what should we do now? They have twice as many people as we do.”

Although she hadn’t personally experienced the fighting, the series of support spells she provided for Edith had exhausted Refina’s mana, and her face was filled with fatigue.

“Break out to the east in one go. As long as we get close to the City of Termi, this group won’t dare to approach us anymore. Try to conserve your strength. There are more intense battles ahead.”

“Yes!”

Taking a whistle from her chest, Refina blew it in a specific rhythm. The assassins who were originally resisting the enemy immediately changed targets, contracted their defense line, and fought and retreated towards the east. Twenty of them, as if possessed, actively charged into the enemy’s formation, causing a wave of chaos.

The assassins raised by the Pescia Count were all orphans adopted since childhood. After decades of training, they were practically equivalent to humanoid weapons. They had no personal thoughts and no specific master. They only obeyed the whistle. As long as the whistle sounded, even if it meant certain death, they would not hesitate in the slightest.

And the specific rhythms of these whistles were only known to the Pescia Count, Refina, and a few other confidantes. Even Edith had not bothered to learn them, as she was unwilling to waste time on small tasks that a servant could handle.

Sacrificing twenty people to buy time, the remaining assassins covered Edith and Refina as they boarded the carriage, preparing to break out towards the east.

Then.

“Watch out!”

—Boom!

A powerful wind pressure struck the side of the carriage. Fragments from the exploding rock embedded themselves in the carriage’s wooden boards. The dense network of dents gave the feeling that with a little more force, the carriage would be shattered.

The horses were killed by the scattered stone fragments. Inertia caused the carriage to tilt to one side, about to overturn.

But this was the best possible outcome. If Yisi hadn’t just thrown her weapon and shattered the giant rock, Refina and Edith in the carriage would have been turned into pulp by now.

Before the carriage overturned, Refina used her huge metal gauntlets to smash the wooden boards, covering Edith as she escaped from inside. She subconsciously looked around and finally locked her gaze on the sky.

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Two new Wyvern Knights.

“Damn it.”

Cursing through gritted teeth, Refina’s golden eyes were filled with rage. Dispatching five Wyvern Knights at once was enough to show the imposter’s regard for her master. The current situation could be called a guaranteed killing trap.

First, they dispatched three Wyvern Knights to exhaust Edith’s power, and then they would let the two later Wyvern Knights complete the kill. The enemy knew very well that with the Wyvern Knights’ mobility, it would be impossible for Edith to escape.

In other words, the imposter knew all of her side’s combat strength from the beginning, knowing that at least five Wyvern Knights had to be dispatched to completely annihilate them. Furthermore, she even grasped Edith’s future movements, knowing which nobles Edith was on good terms with and which city she would go to next.

“…Clara.”

A whisper like a curse came from Refina’s mouth.

Clara was one of the Pets who followed Edith. She belonged to a rank lower than Refina. Yisi had previously wondered why there were five Pets who became four, and the one who was missing was Clara.

When Refina brought the other Pets and assassins to escort the Imperial Fallen back to the territory, Clara was subverted by the person impersonating the Count’s eldest daughter, becoming a traitor who helped the imposter.

A subordinate who was originally her own had betrayed Edith. The shame she felt for Edith and the hatred for the traitor made Refina clench her fists.

“That wicked dog who forgot her master’s grace, I’ll deal with her myself one of these days.”

“You can deal with her later; first, let’s solve the current problem.”

Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, the surge of blood and qi from the overturning carriage worsened Edith’s pain. She let out an uncontrollable groan, then quickly re-composed herself, suppressed her discomfort, and picked up Gungnir.

“Refina, cover me.”

“But your body—”

“With Wyvern Knights around, it’s impossible for us to safely get to the City of Termi. Clara has already calculated this.”

But how could she get close to the Wyvern Knights flying in the sky?

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Refina didn’t dare to voice the desperate question. Her mana was already exhausted, and she could no longer provide Edith with support magic. And as long as the Wyvern Knights maintained their distance from the ground, even Edith’s Gungnir could not hit them.

The three Wyvern Knights before were just bait.

Finally, the two Wyvern Knights swooped down on Edith and Refina—they didn’t choose close combat but instead drew the short javelins hanging from their wyverns. With the acceleration of their dive, they threw them from the air towards the two of them.

The javelins, enchanted with magic, emitted an azure glow. Carrying a sharp whistling sound of wind, they quickly arrived in front of Edith.

“Insolent!”

Relying on her body that was half a head taller than Edith’s, Refina voluntarily blocked in front of Edith. Her golden pupils, reflecting the light, suddenly contracted into pinpricks as she stared intently at the javelin coming from the sky.

“Haaaaa—!”

The surface of her spike-covered metal gauntlets gained a layer of earthy yellow light. Suppressing her fear of death, Refina seized the moment between the first and second javelins’ arrival. With her feet in a forward-and-back stance, she poured all her strength into her right fist and swung it forcefully at the first incoming javelin.

Crack—thump.

The first sound meant the javelin and the metal gauntlet shattered together. The second was the sound of the second javelin piercing flesh.

The second javelin, which she had no chance to block, was stopped by Refina’s left shoulder. Due to the inertia, she was directly nailed to the ground.

“Refina!” Flames almost seemed to shoot out of Edith’s bloodshot blue eyes. “You traitors!”

Without hesitation, Edith raised Gungnir and threw it at the Wyvern Knight closest to her, who was beginning his second round of javelin dives. The targeted Wyvern Knight abandoned his attack, instead making a large-angle evasive maneuver. Without the sure-hit effect activated, Gungnir was easily dodged.

At the same time, the other Wyvern Knight’s javelin arrived.

The javelin, mixed with the sound of tearing air, reached Edith in the blink of an eye. The strike, with its azure tail, even made Edith’s skin sting.

No time to dodge.

“[Shield of Arcus].”

“[Shield Counterattack]!”

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Two voices suddenly appeared five meters to the side of the Count’s eldest daughter. The first was Camilla’s taunt effect attached to Mary, and the second was Mary’s defensive magic. The short spear that was about to pierce Edith’s head was forcibly pulled from the side. It changed its trajectory and flew toward Mary instead. Mary had already raised a silver shield almost as tall as herself, and her whole body glowed with golden light.

Thud.

Like an arrow shot at a city wall, the javelin hit the shield with a dull thud, quickly losing its momentum and falling straight to the ground.

“Camilla?” Edith subconsciously looked at Camilla and Mary who had come to help. After a moment of surprise, she immediately grasped the situation and yelled as she dashed toward Camilla, “Give me [Levitation Spell] and [Power Enchantment]!”

“Don’t push yourself when you’re already in this state. Don’t forget this body has a part of me. Camilla, Mary, covers Tiffany while she heals Refina!”

“Yes, Onee-sama.”

“Got it!”

Refusing Edith’s order on Camilla’s behalf, Yisi, who was sitting on Camilla’s shoulder, took back ownership of her physical body. The moment she regained control, she used the inertia of the Count’s eldest daughter running toward Camilla, bent down, and picked up a javelin that had broken into two on the ground. She turned around unsteadily and threw the end with the blade toward one of the Wyvern Knights.

[Crystallization]

[Advanced Strength Boost]

[One-Hit Kill]

Bang!

The incredibly fast javelin carried a sonic boom. In less than the blink of an eye, it hit the wyvern’s head. As if a blood bag had burst in the air, the wyvern with a five-meter wingspan was instantly torn into pieces.

I think I used too much force.

Watching the blood rain falling from the sky, Yisi was stunned for a moment, then opened her Omniscient Map.

Good. The Wyvern Knight was saved by his thick armor and landed in a dense forest not far away. He didn’t just die like that.

Yisi picked up the other half of the remaining javelin.

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There’s still one wyvern left. This time, I won’t use magic. Just physical strength.

With Camilla’s help, Mary withstood the third wave of javelins. Yisi took the opportunity of the Wyvern Knight pulling up and threw the remaining half of the javelin.

However, just as the javelin was about to hit the wyvern, the wyvern, along with the knight on its back, was instantly split in two as if it had been cut open from the middle by an invisible thread. The javelin Yisi threw passed through the wyvern’s shattered body.

“Hmm?”

Yisi was certain that the splitting of the wyvern and the knight was not her doing. She subconsciously glanced at her Omniscient Map and discovered a surprising presence.

The Fallen Angel Samael.

However, Samael did not reveal himself. Instead, he hid in a distant forest, with no intention of fighting Yisi. Following that, a strange whistle, different from Refina’s, rang out in the air. The assassins sent by the imposter quickly retreated like a tide, leaving behind only a ground full of corpses and a bloodstained wilderness.

The attack seemed to be over.

Yisi couldn’t help but tilt her head.

Why did Samael appear here? For what reason did he kill the wyvern? Why did the assassins leave after Samael appeared? And who was controlling the assassins?

There were so many mysteries that Yisi didn’t know where to start. Although going to capture Samael and interrogate him now might give her an answer, Samael was actually not related to her in any way. If she did something extra, Edith would just tell her to mind her own business.

After all, if she hadn’t suddenly remembered that Refina and Edith were together, Yisi wouldn’t have glanced at her Omniscient Map from time to time to check on Refina’s status.

“I guess Edith owes me a favor. But I have a feeling that even if I brought it up, she would say I willingly helped her. I’ll just consider it as helping Refina.”

Compared to Edith, Yisi felt she owed Refina more. It wasn’t just about using the Count’s eldest daughter’s identity to have physical contact with Refina, but also always asking Refina for blood.

“In short, my goal is to find a way for both souls to exist independently, and then, while I’m at it, compensate Refina.”

Yisi glanced at Tiffany who was wrapping herself around Refina not far away. Tiffany had a healing ability that could transfer injuries. Healing Refina would only take a few minutes.

She stretched her body a little, then smelled the mixed scent of blood in the air—this scent was not delicious—and Yisi frowned.

“Since it’s over, let’s get out of here quickly.”