Chapter 18

Part 18: We're Going on an Outing (2)

"Hurry! We need to get back to the carriage!"

Bianca shouted, holding a long sword that seemed impossible to hide.

The moment she drew her sword, she became the leader of the group. A maid leading the children of high-ranking nobles.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been absurd, but the presence she exuded with her sword left us no choice but to agree.

Bianca possessed skills that could rival any ordinary knight.

Was she a knight secretly trained by a marquess? Or perhaps a hidden noble?

We didn't know which, but even Simon followed her instructions closely.

We ran through the fortress, which had turned into a maze of remaining walls and pillars.

Everyone in the group, except Bianca, was still young, but we all moved much faster than ordinary adults.

Before we could even escape the ruins, someone blocked our path.

It was an ordinary man in leather armor.

He raised his sword and shouted.

"Found you! You're right h...!"

Before he could finish his shout, Bianca, who had already closed the distance, swung her sword fiercely.

Swish!

Blood spurted from his chest, and Bianca, now covered in blood, continued running.

"Don't stop!"

She seemed to have eyes in the back of her head.

She immediately noticed the hesitation in Simon and Adria.

Thanks to her words, the two of them continued running without stopping.

Had they heard something? Unfortunately, we were attacked again before we could fully escape the fortress.

"Die!"

A man with a sword, uttering a cliché, jumped out from behind a collapsed wall.

The moment Bianca passed, he lunged at Adria.

Bianca didn't have time to turn around, but Simon was in front of Adria.

Simon, the heir of the duchy, calmly swung his sword at the approaching enemy.

The attacker seemed to have some skill, but he was no match for a young noble trained by a proper knight.

Clang!

The attacker's sword was deflected, and he fell to the ground, struck by Simon's sword.

"Huff, huff. You came at me with this level of skill?"

Simon roughly shouted at the fallen man and turned around. His self-esteem, which had been shaken, seemed to have returned. He looked like the confident heir of the duchy again.

However, Bianca and Adria didn't praise him.

"It's dangerous!"

"Danger!"

The two of them shouted in alarm, and Simon quickly turned his head.

Thud!

Simon saw a man lying on the ground, about to throw a dagger.

It was a green, gleaming dagger.

However, the poison dagger, which was about to be thrown, didn't leave the man's hand.

Instead, blood gushed from his mouth, and a sword was deeply embedded in his back.

"This isn't a sparring match. We need to make sure they're dead."

I said, pulling the sword out of the man's back.

Thud, thud.

As I pulled the sword out, the attacker took his last breath and stopped moving.

I swung my sword to shake off the blood. Suddenly, the surroundings became quiet.

When I looked up, everyone was staring at me.

Bianca looked relieved, and Adria was looking at me with sparkling eyes.

Surely, she's not suggesting another sparring match?

And Simon.

He looked at the corpse and me with a pale face.

"You killed someone?"

I tilted my head at his unexpected reaction but soon understood the reason.

"Oh, you haven't experienced real combat yet."

He had never killed anyone, so that's why he had that expression.

But Bianca also killed someone; did he not see it clearly because they were in a hurry?

"You've never done this before! You've only been at home!"

Huh? Simon was right.

I had died many times, but this was the first time I had killed someone.

I looked at my blood-stained sword and then at the corpse again.

Hmm... There was nothing particularly different.

My heart was still beating, and I didn't feel any fear or nausea.

The shock of the first kill didn't seem to affect me.

Will it hit me later when I'm safe?

Or maybe I'm just too used to death.

Well, it's better not to be shocked right now since we need to keep moving.

"This isn't the time to debate this. Let's move quickly."

My words snapped the group back to reality, and we started running again.

Bianca led the way, I brought up the rear, and Adria and Simon were in the middle.

We formed a protective formation to guard the two of them and quickly ran out of the fortress.

"Unbelievable. How are you still alive? I made a mistake. I should have killed you."

I heard Simon muttering from the front, but it wasn't a pleasant sound. I let it go with the wind.

As we exited the fortress, a knight was running towards us. His armor was splattered with blood, indicating he had been in a battle.

"You're safe! The diversion was successful!"

A diversion? So, this outing had a hidden agenda.

What could be so important that they used the daughter of a marquess as bait?

The knight's expression hardened when he saw Simon.

"Why is Master Simon here...?"

"Indeed, you didn't tell them."

Bianca's words made the knight look at the group.

He saw Bianca's blood-soaked clothes and the blood on my sword.

His expression changed slightly when he saw my blood-stained sword, but he didn't comment on it.

"It seems there was already an attack. With Master Simon here, we can't proceed with the plan."

"Yes, I understand. The plan is canceled. Let's go back quickly."

Simon's expression darkened again when he realized the plan had been compromised because of him.

But there was no time to comfort him.

The knight took out a small metal rod from his pocket.

He raised the rod and focused mana on his hand.

The rod gradually turned red.

Then,

Thud! Whoosh!

The end of the rod exploded, and red smoke shot up into the sky.

He must have used mana to ignite the gunpowder and launch it into the sky.

A signal device using gunpowder as a propellant.

Wait, they have gunpowder here? What kind of world is this?

"Since the signal has been sent, reinforcements will come. Let's hurry to the carriage."

Following the knight's instructions, we ran towards the carriage.

* * *

At the same time.

The duke was listening to the report of the knight captain in his office.

"I have deployed ten knights around the area and prepared a company of soldiers in the rear. The mercenaries for tracking are also in position."

The duke confirmed the last detail.

"Absolutely, the marquess's daughter must not be harmed. Have you made that clear?"

"Yes, I have emphasized it several times."

The confident knight captain's words made the duke nod.

"Then, there should be no problem."

The duke's response prompted the knight captain to ask cautiously.

"Is it really alright? Even if it's safe, using Lady Adria as bait and with Prince Alex here..."

"Prince Alex..."

The duke's words made the knight captain look awkward.

"He is diligent and skilled. I don't intend to ignore his abilities just because I don't like him."

The duke said coldly.

"He is a guarantee for any eventuality. At his age, with such skills, I can't just let him sit idle."

The knight captain smiled bitterly at the duke's cold words.

"And we must end this, even if it means using Adria as bait. If the marquess and the Grecia duchy are to form an alliance, they must be able to overcome this level of crisis."

The knight captain inwardly sighed. The kingdom's situation was even more chaotic than the rumors suggested.

There were forces trying to disrupt the marriage by killing the bride, and the duke and marquess were using the bride as bait to catch them.

This would never happen in peaceful times.

But such complex matters were not his concern.

"Then, I'll return to my post."

As the knight captain was about to leave the office,

"Report!"

A soldier rushed in.

The duke stopped the knight captain from leaving.

"Just now, we received a message from the neighboring territory, Tenerife. Two mercenary groups have been heading towards our territory for a week. The last group left four days ago."

The duke frowned at the soldier's words.

"Two? Did any of them enter our territory?"

"No new mercenary groups have entered in the past week."

"Wasn't there one group from Lanzarote?"

"Yes."

"Then, three mercenary groups have disappeared in between?"

The plan was prepared for one or at most two mercenary groups.

The duke stood up, gripping his sword.

"Can the forces we have out there handle three mercenary groups?"

The knight captain shook his head.

"Maybe if they were ordinary mercenary groups... But if they are disguised, it will be difficult."

It made sense. Mobilizing three mercenary groups to kill a single teenage girl.

"Are they planning a war?"

It would be impossible unless they were planning a territorial war.

The duke was puzzled.

"With this many people, it's impossible for them not to be caught, and the political damage would be severe."

"Could they not care if they're caught?"

The duke's expression hardened at the thought.

He immediately gave orders to the knight captain.

"Are all the troops on standby?"

"Yes!"

"Cancel the plan. Mobilize the nearby troops and send reinforcements!"

"Yes!"

"Raise the alert to the highest level and send a messenger to the marquess to inform him of the situation!"

"Understood!"

The duke continued giving orders as he left the room.

"Prepare my horse. I'm going too."

"Yes!"

The soldier who had given the report ran to the stables.

At that moment,

An old man approached quickly from the opposite direction.

The butler.

"There's a problem."

The duke stopped walking.

He was not the type to miss the urgency in the butler's demeanor. If it were a trivial matter, he wouldn't have mentioned it.

"What is it?"

"Master Simon has been missing since this morning."

"Simon?"

It didn't seem like something that would stop him, but there was a foreboding feeling in the butler's words.

"Upon investigation, it seems he secretly boarded the carriage with Lady Adria."

The butler's words made the duke's eyebrows twitch.

His expression didn't change, but mana began to surge from his body.

The faces of the nearby staff turned pale, and the knight captain's voice was heard.

"Ah! The signal flare!"

The knight captain was pointing out the window.

From the south, red smoke was rising one after another.