Chapter 18

Chapter 18. We Are Going on an Outing (2)

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

Holding a long sword that did not look as though it could possibly be concealed, Bianca shouted.

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

Under normal circumstances, that would have been absurd, but faced with the force of presence she exuded with a sword in her hand, all of us had no choice but to accept it.

Even by our eyes, Bianca possessed skill beyond that of most knights.

Was she a knight the marquess’s house had raised in secret? Or perhaps a hidden noble?

I could not tell which it was, but even Simon followed her instructions without protest.

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

Aside from Bianca, we were all still young, but every member of the group moved far faster than an ordinary adult.

Before we had even fully escaped the ruins, someone blocked our path.

He was an ordinary-looking man in leather armor.

Raising his sword, he shouted,

"Found them! They’re right he-Ck!"

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

Slash!

Blood burst from his chest, and Bianca, now splattered with blood, kept running.

"Do not stop!"

It was as though she had eyes in the back of her head.

She had noticed at once that Simon and Adria were faltering.

At her words, the two of them managed to keep running without stopping.

They must have heard the noise.

Unfortunately, before we could get completely out of the fortress, we were attacked again.

"Die!"

Spitting out the stale line, a man with a sword leaped out from behind a collapsed wall.

The very next moment after Bianca passed him, he rushed straight at Adria.

Bianca had no time to turn around, but Simon was standing in front of Adria.

Simon, the heir the ducal house was so proud of, calmly swung his sword at the charging assailant.

The attacker seemed to have some skill of his own, but he was no match for a young noble who had been properly trained by knights.

Clang!

The assailant’s sword was knocked away, and he was sent crashing to the ground by the blow.

"Huff, huff. You dared come at me with only that much skill!"

After shouting roughly at the fallen man, Simon turned around. It seemed that bringing down an enemy in a single exchange had restored his wounded pride.

When he turned, he once more looked like the confident heir of the ducal house.

But neither Bianca nor Adria praised him.

"Look out!"

"Danger!"

The two of them cried out in alarm, and Simon hurriedly turned his head.

Thunk!

And then Simon saw the man lying face-down, just about to throw a dagger.

It was a dagger with a slick green sheen.

But the poisoned dagger, which looked as though it would be thrown at any moment, never left the man’s hand.

Instead, blood was pouring from his mouth, and a sword had been driven deep into his back.

"This is not a spar. You have to make sure they are no longer breathing."

I spoke as I pulled out the sword I had just plunged into the man’s back.

Grrk. Grrk.

The moment I withdrew the blade, the assailant gave his last breath and stopped moving.

I flicked the blood from my sword.

Suddenly, everything around us fell silent.

When I raised my head, everyone was staring at me.

Bianca looked relieved, while Adria’s eyes were shining as she looked at me.

Surely she was not about to ask for another spar.

And Simon...

He was staring at the corpse and at me with a deathly pale face.

"You killed someone?"

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

"Ah, so you have not yet seen real combat."

He had never killed anyone before, so my killing had drawn that expression from him.

But Bianca had killed an enemy too. Had he failed to see it because everything happened so quickly?

"It was your first time too! You have done nothing but stay at home!"

Oh. Simon was right.

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

I looked at the bloodstained sword, then back at the corpse.

Hmm... nothing felt particularly different.

My heart was beating just the same, and I felt neither fear nor nausea.

As expected, I did not feel the shock of a first killing.

Perhaps it would surface later, once things were safe.

Or perhaps I had simply grown too accustomed to death.

Well, for now, it was better that I was not in shock, since we still had to keep moving.

"I do not think this is the time to worry about that. Let us move quickly."

At my words, the others came back to themselves, and we started running again.

Bianca took the lead, and I guarded the rear. Adria and Simon stayed in the center.

With a formation properly set to protect the two of them, unlike moments ago, our group ran swiftly out of the fortress.

"Unbelievable. How is he completely fine? I made a mistake. I should have killed him myself."

I heard Simon muttering from ahead, but it was not especially pleasant to listen to. I simply let it drift away on the wind.

As we emerged from the fortress, we saw a knight riding toward us. Judging by the blood splashed across his armor, there had already been a battle somewhere.

"You are safe! The decoy worked!"

A decoy? As I thought, there had been some hidden scheme behind this outing after all.

Just what was going on, for them to use the marquess’s daughter as bait?

The knight’s expression hardened when he saw Simon.

"Why is Young Master Simon here...?"

"So you really did not tell them."

At Bianca’s words, the knight looked over the group.

He saw Bianca’s clothes drenched in blood, then confirmed the blood spattered across my sword as well.

His expression shifted slightly when he saw the bloodied blade in my hand, but he did not comment on it.

"So there has already been an attack. If Young Master Simon is here, we cannot proceed according to plan."

"Yes. I know. The plan is canceled. Let us return quickly."

Though I still did not know what was happening, Simon had realized that matters had gone wrong because of him, and his expression darkened again.

But there was no time to comfort him.

The knight pulled a small metal rod from his breast.

He raised the rod and concentrated mana into the hand holding it.

The metal rod gradually turned red.

And then—

Bang! Fwoooosh!

The tip of the rod exploded, and with the blast, red smoke shot up into the sky.

That was unmistakably gunpowder being ignited with mana and launched skyward.

A signaling device that used the force of an explosion for propulsion.

No, wait. This world has gunpowder too? Just what level of civilization is this place supposed to have?

"I have sent the signal, so support will come. Let us hurry back to the carriage."

Following the knight’s words, we ran down toward the base of the ruins.

---

At the same time.

In his study, the duke was listening to the knight commander’s report.

"I have positioned ten knights around the area and prepared a company-sized force of soldiers in the rear. Mercenaries have also been deployed for pursuit."

After hearing the report, the duke asked one final question.

"The young lady of the marquess’s house must not be harmed under any circumstances. You made that perfectly clear to them, did you not?"

"Yes. I made sure they understood it several times over."

At the knight commander’s confident answer, the duke nodded.

"Then there should be no problem."

At the duke’s reply, the knight commander asked cautiously,

"But is this truly all right? Even if it is safe, Lady Adria has still been put forward as bait. And Young Master Alex is there as well."

"Young Master Alex..."

At the duke’s words, the knight commander showed an awkward expression.

"He is diligent, and his skill is good as well. Just because I do not find him pleasing does not mean I intend to ignore his ability."

The duke spoke in a detached tone.

"That child is collateral for an emergency. At his age, with talent like that, I cannot simply leave him unused."

At the duke’s cold words, the knight commander gave a bitter smile.

"And even if it means putting Adria forward as bait, this matter must be ended this time. If the marquess’s house of Hierro and the ducal house of Gresia are to form an alliance, then they must be able to overcome this level of crisis."

The knight commander clicked his tongue inwardly. It seemed the situation in the kingdom was even more chaotic than rumor suggested.

There was a force trying to interfere with the marriage of two great powers by killing the bride, and both the duke and the marquess intended to use the bride as bait to catch that force.

In peaceful times, such a thing could never have happened.

But such complicated circumstances were not his concern.

"Then I shall return to my post."

Just as the knight commander was about to leave the study—

"Report!"

A soldier hurried inside.

The duke stopped the knight commander, who had been on his way out.

"We have just received word from the neighboring territory, Tenerife. Over the past week, two mercenary companies set out in the direction of our territory. The last company departed four days ago."

At the soldier’s words, the duke frowned.

"Two? Was there a mercenary company among them that entered our territory?"

"No. There have been no newly arrived mercenary companies within the past week."

"There was only one mercenary company that came from the Lansarote side, was there not?"

"Yes."

"Then does that mean three mercenary companies disappeared along the way?"

The plan had been made with the expectation of one mercenary company, or at most two.

The duke gripped his sword and rose from his seat.

"Can the men already out there stop three mercenary companies?"

At the duke’s question, the knight commander shook his head.

"If they are ordinary mercenary companies, perhaps. But if they are merely disguised as mercenaries, then it will be difficult."

That was only natural. To mobilize three mercenary companies just to kill a single teenage girl.

"Are they planning to start a war?"

As the knight commander said, unless they intended to provoke a territorial war, it was not the sort of thing anyone would do.

The duke could not understand it.

"If there are this many men involved, then whether they succeed or fail, there is no way this will end without consequences..."

Not only would it be obvious who was behind it, but politically, the opposing side would surely suffer a devastating blow.

"...Could it be that they do not care whether they are exposed?"

The duke’s expression hardened at the thought that came to him.

He immediately gave orders to the knight commander.

"All forces are currently on standby, yes?"

"Yes!"

"Cancel the plan. Send the nearest forces to join them at once, and dispatch reinforcements!"

"Yes!"

"Raise the alert level to the maximum, and send a messenger to the marquess with news of the situation!"

"Understood!"

As the duke strode out of the room, he continued issuing orders.

"I will go as well, so have a horse prepared."

"Yes!"

The soldier who had delivered the report ran toward the stables.

Just then—

An old man was approaching quickly from the other side.

It was the Head Steward.

"There has been a problem."

The duke stopped walking.

The old man was not someone who would fail to notice an urgent atmosphere. If it had been a trivial matter, he would never have spoken.

"What is it?"

"Young Master Simon has been missing since this morning."

"Simon?"

It did not sound like something worth stopping for, but there was an ominous note in the Head Steward’s voice.

"After looking into it, it seems he secretly boarded the carriage Lady Adria was riding in."

At the Head Steward’s words, the duke’s brow twitched.

His expression did not change, but mana began to surge from his body in waves.

The faces of the servants nearby turned pale, and at that moment, the knight commander’s voice rang out.

"Ah! The signal flare!"

The knight commander was pointing out the window.

The south-facing window.

From far away, red smoke was rising into the sky one plume after another.