Max level of Jobs [Whip Fighter], [Acrobat], [Warrior] has been reached

Individual [Human, Ellaine Fiero Helvas] has switched her Main Job to [Whipsword Fighter]

Main Job benefits have been updated due to Job change

Whipsword Fighter Level: 0/15

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Fluid Cast Lv. 2] [Sword Mastery Lv. 5] [Whip Technique Lv. 6] [Whip Mastery Lv. 4] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 7] [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 9] [Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 5] [Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 2] [Holy Resistance Lv. 6] [Water Resistance Lv. 8] [Wind Resistance Lv. 7] [Health Recovery Lv. 4] [Mana Recovery Lv. 6] [Stamina Recovery Lv. 4] [Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 2] [Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 3] [Enhanced Strength Enforcement Lv. 2] [Enhanced Vitality Growth Lv. 3] [Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 2] [Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 3] [Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 3] [Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 2] [Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 3] [Enhanced Stamina Enforcement Lv. 2] [Artificer Lv. 5] [Terror Aura Lv. 2] gained

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 1] evolved into [Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 2]

“Ell—e! —ain—! Wake—!”

[“Ellaine, wake up!”]

“Hmrm? Urck! Guuu— Ark, pffrah!”

A headache, the worst headache I’ve ever had. Like needles piercing my mind the moment I woke up, and it got even worse when I finally realized how much my face began to ache. My nose, my teeth, my forehead; the pain was beyond excruciating and my mouth was filled with the taste of iron.

When I spat it out reflexively, a glassful of blood stained the cold floor in red, accompanied by pieces of skin from my mouth and a few white shards. Touching my teeth with my fingers, I felt a sharp sensation like glass fragments along the skin of my fingers instead of the firm touch of immaculate teeth.

As I continued touching them in disbelief, some sort of warm liquid began dripping onto my hand. When I followed the stream up my face, I ended up at where my nose had to be, but it felt crooked. Broken. Pain coursed through my face at the touch, once again reminding me that this was reality, only for [Absolute Pain Tolerance] to activate, allowing me to suppress my urge to scream.

My fingers grabbed onto my nose, and in one swift movement, I realigned it.

“Eiuk!”

A loud crack echoed through the room, making me flinch as I felt my own nose shift into place. Once it was over, I began taking in quick breaths as more warm liquid escaped through my nose, my body was expelling it like a burst dam.

“Ellaine! Are you okay, now?” a young man’s voice entered my ears from the left.

When I turned around, I discovered that my vision was blurred, making me see the person thrice. I tried rubbing my eyes, ignoring the liquid dripping down from them, blinking as often as I could to regain my sight. But I couldn’t. It was still hard to see.

“Here, drink it. Dammit, they really injured you this badly…” Regret, anger, and disappointment… in himself?

“B-Brother? Is that you?”

I couldn’t see him properly. My eyesight was so terrible that it was impossible for me to make out any details. Thankfully, my ears were still working properly. I would never forget the sound of my brother’s voice after having spent 15 years of my life as his sister.

“Ellaine! Yes, it’s me! Are you not able to recognize me?” Jonathan cried out ecstatically. “Oh! Your eyes! They were damaged when you were brought here. Here, drink this. A medium health potion and some of the drink you had in your satchel.”

Drink? Oh, Hestia’s dragorade. But that only regenerates mana and body nutrients after training.

Regardless, I didn’t have the privilege to decline his offer. My throat was parched and my body aching — I needed to drink something.

Chugging the potion and dragorade down, I began to feel my body rejuvenating as the drinks worked their magic. The aching inside my head and my face mostly disappeared, although I could still feel some stinging in my mouth.

“Here, let me help. This will hurt, so forgive me, Ellaine.” I nodded obediently and closed my eyes, opening my mouth for Jonathan to pull out the broken teeth inside my mouth.

As unpleasant as it was, this was the only way for you to regrow your teeth after they broke into shards. Healing magic and potions would help you regrow them, but you had to remove the old ones beforehand. Father instructed me to do so if it ever happened, so Jonathan must have learned to do this from him as well.

Once they were out, I drank the last bits of the potion. I felt my new teeth growing with my tongue, but I could tell that it would take a while before they regrew completely. My eyesight had also returned and I could finally make out that Jonathan and I were inside a cold cell.

“B-Brother, where are we? Where is Lady Amelia?” I asked, my eyes widened in shock.

The last thing I remembered was that I was talking with Amelia, having made my reasons for staying with Aurora clear to her. I couldn’t remember anything between then and just now, when I woke up with blood on my face and inside a cell.

“I’ll explain everything, but first… well, you need to put on some clothes, sister. Ahem.” I had only now realized that Jonathan had a blush, and it wasn’t due to a fever, but the fact that I was only dressed in my undergarments.

“Huh? W-Waaaaeekk!!” I covered up my body with my arms reflexively. Keeping his eyes closed now that I had realized my embarrassing situation, he handed me the clothes I always put on under my armor. On top of the pile were my spell rings.

[“Kinky~”]

Klea’Hatma!

Jonathan turned around, but he showed no signs of leaving the cell to give me some privacy. I wasn’t foolish enough to not understand what was going on with that gesture. Something serious happened, anything else wouldn’t have made sense for why I was inside a cell right now… and half-naked.

[“Hope you can still remember how I saved your life not once, but thrice now, my dear. You really know how to lure in death, Ellaine.”]

[“What?”]

Klea’Hatma did not reply to my astonishment, leaving me to silently put my clothes back on. When I told Jonathan I was finished, he came over with a sword and an amulet.

“Things happened, Ellaine. I only realized the severity of the situation when both you and Lady Amelia were brought to Charleslyt by a mercenary unconscious. We need to hurry up, so you nee— Huh?!”

As Jonathan was about to hand me my whipsword back, I quickly recognized my vampiric undying amulet in his left hand and that it was missing from my neck. Ignoring my sword, I snatched my amulet out of his hand and rushed to put it back on, only now feeling safe again when I had it back on.

Jonathan stared at me with confusion but he snapped out of it when I took my sword back. When I asked him about where my armor was, he shook his head, saying it was too difficult to recover at the moment.

“If my previous statement wasn’t obvious enough, you’re— Actually, I’m in trouble too, now that I have revealed my true colors.”

“What do you mean by that? Could you begin by explaining to me where we are?”

“In Charleslyt’s house, or more specifically, the house Charleslyt bought for his party members — the four scoundrels calling themselves wyvern slayers. When I had to stick around, I used this house to sleep and prepare,” Jonathan replied, but that information was different from what father told me.

“Hold on, father and mother told me you were staying at Lord Charleslyt’s mansion! What do you mean you’ve been staying in another house?”

“It’s a long story but esse— Quiet!”

Jonathan held his hand against my mouth and pulled out his sword, the surprise shutting me up more effectively than his actions. At the same time, I heard a door creaking itself open followed by the sounds of footsteps and voices.

“Yeah, if we want Lord Charleslyt to help us out with our position, we need to do this. Don’t think too much about it, nobody will find out about it, and she’s just the daughter of a Greenveil magnoble. Who cares?”

“Huh? Are you sure? That Jonathan won’t like it once he learns what Lord Charleslyt has planned for that girl. Don’t you think he would rebel?”

“And? Who cares? He’s just a broken pup Lord Charleslyt picked up since he sympathized with the pup’s envy towards his little sister that became stronger than him. Hahaha! If you don’t have the strength, you don’t deserve to be the house leader. Just like with Lord Charleslyt and his elder brother Fillion.”

What now? I recognize those voices. Aren’t they from the academy?

As the footsteps came closer and closer, Jonathan brought me over to hide behind a wall next to the cell bars, staying out of sight as two noblemen appeared in front of the cell, bewildered at the opened cell door.

“Huh?! By the Light, how is the cell open?!”

“Did she wake up?! No, wait, we would have seen her if she had tried to escape. She must still be in the cell! Let’s look!”

“Got it! She has to be— Bhurak!”

Jonathan charged forward the moment both of them entered the cell, half-swording to knock one of them out with the pommel of his sword. As the defeated noble crashed on the ground, the other managed to jump back out of the way as Jonathan slashed at him.

Narrowly blocking my brother’s sword, the noble looked at Jonathan in rage, shouting, “I knew you would betray us, you bastard!” Streaks of blue began to show up on his face, shining brightly as he fended Jonathan off and began his counter assault.

Swords clashed as the two young men began to dodge and strike at each other. Jonathan’s swordsmanship was phenomenal as always, a boon he gained after training to become a knight for years. His opponent was no match against him in that department, but, for some reason, brother had an uneasy look on him.

Strength!

If the nobleman could parry Jonathan’s blades, he did so easily, as if he had far superior strength than Jonathan. It became even more noticeable when his sword strikes cracked the ground.

“Hahahaha! So this is the holy power Lord Charleslyt can give you! You were a fool to decline it before betraying us, you rat! The Goddess and the true heir of Equevanna are on our side! Fall, Greenveil scum!”

His behavior was widely antagonistic. By the Light, what was going on?!

“Lord Charleslyt truly is the— HUH?! What?!”

“Helvas Sword Technique: Flowing Stream!”

The 2nd form of father’s sword style, developed after he trained with the Knights of the Lionheart during his travels with mother as adventurers. House Helvas had never been a martial-focused noble house until father took over. As somebody not talented in magic, he did everything he could to close the distance between his elder brother and himself in order to claim his title as the heir.

This was his gift to his son.

Jonathan’s sword sliced the air like a flowing river, showing no resistance as he effortlessly dodged a wild sword swing to slash open the nobleman’s left thigh. His first reflex was to shout in pain and try to cover the wound, which provided Jonathan the opening he needed to knock him unconscious with the broad side of his sword.

After the nobleman fell unconscious, Jonathan quickly cleaned his blade and sheathed it, before ripping his opponent’s shirt for a long strand of cloth, which he used to tend to the wound. Seeing from how profusely it was bleeding, if Jonathan hadn’t tended him, he probably would have bled to death in a few minutes.

As he was preoccupied with that, he was too late to notice the other noble standing up, prepared to slash him down!

… But that slash never connected as blade segments connected together with a mana thread caught his sword arm, pulling that person closer to me. Using this surprise attack, I vaulted over his shoulder and swung my whipsword over me, dragging him with it to slam him face-first onto the ground. Blood and fragments of teeth poured out of his mouth.

“… Sister, when did you gain such monstrous strength?”

“Huh? Brother, when did you learn how to fight properly?! This was a far cry from when we had our duel!”

Each of us was clearly surprised by the other’s growth as a fighter. He didn’t know that I had [Musclesmass] to power up my arm strength, while I had no idea when he learned how to use father’s sword style.

“W-Whatever, here, help me a bit. We need to hide these people for now.”

As instructed, I dumped both of the young noblemen in the corner of the cell. With the dim lighting, it should be hard to see them. After we left the cell, Jonathan had me follow him into a nearby wine room, where he gave me some water from a nearby barrel to clean myself up.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Charleslyt had to satisfy his mercenaries, and money wasn’t enough, you see. So he added a wine cellar and bought them barrels full of good food and drink. When I first joined them, they told me explicitly to never, ever come into this room. They said the same to Charleslyt’s other followers, too, so we should be safe here, for now.”

Once he made that clear, he began answering my questions and explained to me about the whole situation.

Essentially, Jonathan never really was Charleslyt’s loyal companion. What actually happened was that, during the academy festival, Jonathan accidentally heard Charleslyt trying to woo Amelia into marrying him, only to receive a rejection. When that happened, Jonathan noted how Charleslyt began to essentially beg, even mentioning shady facts to get Amelia to accept his request.

It was then that the four “wyvern slayer” companions found him, literally threatening him when they asked if Jonathan had seen anything. In that stressful situation, Jonathan had to come up with an excuse, noticing how bloodthirsty they were.

“And you told them you wanted to join them?!” I presumed.

“I had to. If I hadn’t, I had this gut feeling that they would have attacked me, Ellaine. I had no choice,” Jonathan added. “It became even worse when Charleslyt and Lady Amelia noticed us. I had to play along, even praising that dastard Charleslyt while I was at it. Lady Amelia noticed the situation and tried to bail me out, but I had to decline her help.”

“Huh, why?”

“Well… I didn’t like how Charleslyt tried to ask her hand for marriage, you see. You know, that isn’t how you are supposed to do it. Also, a man like him, speaking with a lady who is neither his family nor wife in an alleyway like that? Why, that is scandalous! I had to investigate this matter… and then, well, I didn’t exactly expect myself to get into such a bad situation.”

So, that is why Amelia said sorry when I saw her after Charleslyt spoke with her. She was saying sorry for being unable to help out Brother and keeping it a secret from me.

Jonathan had to act like Charleslyt’s follower, joining him in his party to not only save his life but also keep an eye on him. When he sent that letter to us, he tried to make it clear that there wasn’t anything to worry about.

But, a few days later, he accidentally stumbled on the fact that Charleslyt’s companions were literally still criminals. They brought him to Shaturein, letting him meet quite a colorful bunch of people down there. Once we gave the information where Jonathan was to father and mother, they met with him, and that was when father taught him the first and second form of his swordsmanship.

“Father probably saw through my lie, or maybe he was just worried that I was getting myself into something I couldn’t handle. Honestly, I was glad he taught me some proper swordsmanship before Charleslyt sent me off to do Quests a beginner like me shouldn’t be taking on. Haaaa, Ellaine, I apologize for feeling envious of you. Being an adventurer is not something to be envious of.”

“… I can see it in your eyes. You faced death quite a few times, right? So that’s how you learned how to fight. Hiehie, and here I thought Hestia’s training regimen was hellish.”

In a way, joining them into the depths of Cedraille’s dungeon was not something I should have done either. The monsters there were far stronger than I was and then there was that whole incident with those fire cultists.

“However, it just got a lot more problematic yesterday after Lady Hestia defeated Charleslyt in that duel. For some reason, he called in all these noble children and began giving them that weird power he calls ‘Divine Ambrosia’s Power.’ I don’t know exactly what they are planning with all of this, but, from the looks of it, they are planning to forcefully have Charleslyt succeed as the Duke of Equevanna over his brother.”

“Then, what does Amelia, or I, have anything to do with this? Do you remember who brought me here?”

Uuuuh, whoever did that, how underhanded of you to do that to me. Next time it won’t end that way!

“… No, I didn’t see the person’s face. Charleslyt told him to come into his office immediately.”

Why did he hesitate there?

“In any case, that guy isn’t important. What’s important is that Amelia was kidnapped and you were hurt, Ellaine. You were completely bloody when you arrived and Charleslyt ordered for you to be stripped of your weapons and armor and to be put inside this cell. And, well, this order was directed at the Chezaic twins, you see.”

“Was that why I was half-naked?! Are you serious?!”

Those damn bitches!

“Yeah, I managed to stop them before they did anything even more obscene. From what I could tell, they are only here for revenge, whereas the other young lords and ladies are here to support Charleslyt in their parent’s stead. The fact you helped in the arrest of their parents really angered them, my little sister.”

Well, that’s because their parents were criminals! What am I supposed to do, huh? Stay silent and let the whole duchy get in trouble because of those two fools? I argued, but I kept it to myself as Jonathan continued his retelling.

“That’s when I heard your, uhm, rings. I didn’t know you had such a secret, Ellaine.”

[“Klea’Hatma?!”]

[“Whaaaat? Should I have been silent about it and just let you rot in this prison? Your brother was already trying to get you out but nearly forgot to bring me to you, dear! I saved your life twice against that Eithalr. Some more thanks would be appreciated,”] Klea’Hatma pouted.

Hold on, Eithalr was the one who tried to kill me?! The one who hit me with that sneak attack and kidnapped Amelia?! … And I wanted to pay him back for that…

[“… Eithalr? Thank you once again for saving my life. You are my savior, Lady Klea’Hatma.”]

[“Ah, I was just joking, dear. Playing hard to get is exciting for me, you see~ However, I don’t think you can afford to hide me any further from your brother. This ‘divine’ ambrosia thing isn’t any more divine than a demonkin’s powers, dear.”]

[“Thank you for the insight. Well, it wasn’t as if I had a choice either way.”]

This wasn’t the time to be secretive anymore. Although the demonkin in Griffonpeak might have made a deal with Charleslyt based on what brother said, there should be a lot of other people inside this house. The two of us weren’t enough, and I had the feeling Hestia and the others might be looking for me in Shaturein right now.

I wasn’t like the rest of Aurora, not yet. I couldn’t take on multiple people at once. Most of my new strength came from [Okl’Luthier’s Power], which could only be accessed through Klea’Hatma’s mana. To get Amelia out of this, I had no choice but to rely on Klea’Hatma once again.

“Brother, let’s go.” I stood up, my spell rings shining brightly.

“Are you sure, Ellaine? You cannot possibly have recovered with a single health potion,” Jonathan asked with worry.

“Don’t worry, I have enough stamina to get Amelia out of here safely,” I said as my mana was turned into muscle fibers and flesh. “Will you trust me, brother?”

“…” He stood up and nodded. “You’re my sister, of course. Let’s go, father and mother are probably worried to death, and I don’t want Lady Amelia to wake up to all of this.”

What’s with his fixation on Amelia? Forget it, it’s not important.

Our goals were to get my armor back and to rescue Amelia. Jonathan was wearing the armor Charleslyt gave him — the silver-plated one — but I was entirely lacking in defense outside of [Musclemass]. Somehow, he could have brought one chainmail, at least, right? … Or a helmet?

The headache is returning…

As we snuck up, Jonathan explained we were inside the middle district and that Charleslyt had rented a building intended for a guild or workshop. It was redesigned to become a living space and headquarters for his party. As such, it was large enough to accommodate multiple people inside.

As we snuck a peek through the door above the basement stairs, I learned that the kitchen was the next area. The young lords and ladies were apparently celebrating the whole situation, believing Charleslyt would solve it swiftly and that they and their parents would reap the benefits. With a small entourage of attendants, these nobles came over to show their houses’ fealty to his cause and, to mark this occasion, Charleslyt had hired chefs to create a feast for his guests.

Despicable! Our capital is in danger but all they are doing is fooling around?! Unforgivable!

In any case, the hectic situation in the kitchen did mask all the sounds from our struggle inside the basement. Regardless, that didn’t change the fact that we had no way out of this except through the kitchen. Saori taught me how to sneak and track down prey, but I didn’t have access to her dark magic to sneak past this situation.

We had no other choice.

“Let me handle this,” Jonathan whispered as I adjusted my ponytail. We straightened our backs and walked into the kitchen with the demeanor we would take on during a public outing. “The two young lords are currently in the cellar. Do not enter it until they come out, even if it means running out of ingredients.”

“W-Wha—” The chefs were surprised to hear this the moment we came out, but, thankfully, none of them questioned me being here. “B-But, M’Lord, we’re about to run out. We need to—”

“What gives you the right to speak back, chef? You stand before nobles. You listen to our orders or you might as well leave this place before I call Lord Charleslyt. Have I made myself clear?”

“““Y-Yes! We humbly apologize!”””

“Good. If you cannot produce any more dishes, go ask the attendants for permission from the other—”

“Kitchen, hurry up! We need more wine and— W-Wha— Lady Ellaine?!”

Attendants would walk around performing their duties. If you were a magnoble, your attendants would most likely be from a schwertnoble house… Just like this woman before us.

With shock on her face, she was about to run for it. I activated [Wind Blast] and jumped, closing the distance between us as I tackled her, pressing her onto the ground before performing the chokehold Saori taught me. I used [Musclesmass] to drastically strengthen my arms to squeeze the consciousness out of her in seconds, only controlling myself enough to not accidentally kill her.

“Get down on the floor, now! Hands behind your heads!” Jonathan ordered the chefs as he drew his swords. Only commoners, the chefs were obedient and listened.

But all this noise attracted the rest of the attendants to the kitchen, arriving just in time to see me placing the maid on the ground. I cast two [Rock Blast], shooting them at the backs of two of these attendants as I stood up and detached the blade swords from the thread of my whipsword.

Now with only a mana thread, I activated [Whiplash] on it, giving the thread a flesh mass which I used to hook and pull to prevent two more attendants from running away. Jonathan dashed out from the kitchen, wielding both his sword and its sheath. Using the sheath, he slammed it against the side of the attendants’ heads to send them to dreamland.

But like a cascading stream whose blockage was opened up, the noise we created spread throughout the house. I just didn’t have enough time to cast [Air Shield] to prevent it from escaping.

“Hey, you! Our lords and ladies are— Huh?! Uwaaahhhh!”

I caught the butler's neck with my whip and pulled him closer to me. Brother took this opportunity to punch the butler’s stomach, using the momentum to land a strong knock-out punch.

I was very surprised to see Jonathan being able to adapt this quickly, making it seem like we had prior synergy, although we never fought together before. Fast reactions and quick thinking was a necessity for life-and-death battles. I wondered once again how severe his training was and if we siblings were fated to endure such torture to become stronger.

“Ellaine, more are coming! Quick, the stairs!” Jonathan called out. I followed him, before using [Terra Wall] to completely block the path from where the butler came out from.

“Shit! That Greenbump Helvas betrayed us—!” I heard as we ran past the room. The young lords and ladies have noticed us. Not a very sneaky mission like the slave auction one.

We dashed upstairs, where I noticed some people coming closer to us with [Enhanced Enemy Sense]. I recalled the segments of my sword with the retrieval runes, reforming it, and jumped up the stairs with [Wind Blast]. Surprising the two noblemen, I swung my whipsword, slamming the blunt side into their faces.

They crashed on the wooden floor, disoriented and groaning. As I ran past them towards the door they left open, Jonathan gave them two good thuds in the heads.

“Amelia!” I cried out as I found her sleeping comfortably in a queen-sized bed, tucked into the blanket. But to my surprise, two others were inside this room, sitting on the bed as they let their fingers stroke Amelia’s sleeping face.

“Ellaine~”

“Helvas!”

My ears and eyes glared at the two girls. They looked almost identical, the only difference between the two were their eye colors — the older sister had yellow while the younger had red ones.

But unlike during our previous meetings, not only did they have the same blue streaks running across their skin as the two nobles from the basement, but weird feather-like objects sprouted from their heads and shoulders. They matched the eye colors of their respective owners, exuding mana I was very much acquainted with.

[“Oh my, the fools, they are mutating. They’ve gone mad with the demonic energy, Ellaine. That Charleslyt gave them too much.”] Klea’Hatma said, but that wasn’t what interested me. What caught my attention and ire was the fact Francesca, the elder of the Chezaic twins, was wearing my armor! The armor Hestia had Master Grimnir had made for me!

“We knew you would be here when we saw Jonathan enter the kitchen. It was so obvious where you would go, especially with all the noise.” There was a raspiness behind Francesca’s voice, as if she’d been shouting these past days. “Ellaine, you bitch. We are so glad you woke up!”

“We’ve been waiting for our turn to have fun with you, you little farm girl!” Red-eyed Iracela, on the other hand, had a certain echo behind her voice as talons began to sprout from her fingers and through her shoes. “Lord Charleslyt told us we could have precious quality time with you — ripping off your nails, cutting off your hair. Doing everything to make you feel the pain we felt for losing our parents!”

Klea’Hatma was right. Francesca and Iracela always acted like two bullies, but their behavior and expression were a far cry from the sophisticated ladies I came to know them as. Insanity was dancing behind their eyes.

In the next moment, a loud blast could be heard from outside, followed by cracking rocks, glass, and wood.

“Shit, Ellaine, they broke through!” Jonathan dashed into view behind the doorway. “You need to hu—!”

“Jonathan, Jonathan. Tch, tch, tch,” Francesca shook her head with a wry smile. “Someone as handsome as you really shouldn’t have done any of this. But, it’s too late now.”

We were surrounded. The rest of the nobles climbed up to the second floor. They had the blue streaks covering their faces and hands just like the Chezaic twins, only they weren’t “mutating” as Klea’Hatma described it.

“This is as far as you two will go! This is Equevanna territory now, you two Greenbumbs. You two should have just stayed quiet and everything would have worked out nicely.”

“We outnumber you and now all have the power Lord Charleslyt shared with us. Don’t think you can take us on by yourselves, even if you two can handle yourself in battle. Surrender, or we will make this even more painful.”

Why do they sound like that ‘bad guy trope’ Hestia has been telling me about?! They are ticking off every point from that checklist!

“True, you are surrounded.” Iracela gave Amelia a backhanded strike, waking her up and causing her a nosebleed.

“Amelia!” I screamed.

“Uuuiiem!” Amelia groaned.

“My, my, what unladylike sounds, Lady Amelia~ But, I guess that is what we should expect from Greenbumps, right? As uncivilized as the farmers they cherish so much, hiehiehiehie!”

“You two, twins! Charleslyt told everybody not to harm Lady Amelia! Are you two crazy!” Jonathan shouted at them, his eyes bloodshot like mine.

“Huh? Oh come on, a little blood won’t hurt her. I held back, but it was enough to agitate the both of you,” Iracela taunted us. “You just had to involve that damn lizard tramp in everything, ruining our Chezaic house! We said we will do everything to ruin you, Ellaine. Your house, your family, your life! A waste of a noble like you should have just stayed down for us to walk over!”

“Yes, Lady Amelia’s suffering is your fault, no, it is the fault of both of you two siblings,” Francesca added.

“Our fault?!” I roared out in response.

“I mean, who told you to ruin our lives, Ellaine? Who told you to escape and make us do this? Not us. This is just the Goddess’s way to reward us for staying patient, waiting our time to get our revenge on the enemy of our house~”

“You hypocrite! You hypocrite! You hypocrite! You made my life hell! You made my social status even worse than it already was, and you think you can say all of this shit to me! Your mother deserved to be executed for helping that criminal Davison! Your father did everything to help his son, your half-brother, to get better, knowing full well the consequences! If there is somebody to blame for all of this, it is your overly-ambitious bitch of a mother!” I screamed.

I screamed as loud as my voice could allow. I wanted to release everything. I didn’t want to keep all of this bottled in just to attempt to diffuse this situation. I hated it. I hated it. I hated it so very much!

““Hiehiehie!”” The twins laughed, before speaking in unison. ““And this is why we will make your life even more of a hell until you breathed your last, Ellaine! First this beautiful armor, then your family! We will make sure they suffer as much as we did before we have you killed!””

“You!”

[“Klea! Can I use multiple powers at the same time now?!”]

[“Jeez, calm down, d—”]

[“Answer me!”]

[“… No, but you can if you gave me control over my powers for a bit. I’ll help you. Like how I can conjure up my bone shield although you still don’t have that power yet.”]

[“Do it!”]

[“… If I were any of the other demons, you would have just made the worst mistake in your life, Ellaine. A fate worse than death… Unleash your lust for battle, Ellaine Fiero Helvas!”]

That armor was present from Hestia, the person who saved me from the depths of my own despair. That armor was made by the person I have accepted as my master, the person who gave me a passion outside of my dreams of becoming a knight and a daughter my parents could be proud of.

It isn’t just a piece of armor that could be replaced if it were lost. It was the symbol of my new life and new ambitions. My first step outside my shell, into a world where I felt free. My reminder that people could support me to walk forward, but I had to be the one to do the walking.

My spell rings shone, turning my mana into flesh and muscles. [Musclesmass] began to cover my body like armor, covering my white skin in dark red meat. Some on my left arm hardened, morphing the flesh into long claws, while tendrils grew out from my right, wrapping themselves on my whipsword.

But worse of all. They dared threaten my family.

“W-What is this?!”

“By the Goddess, what is going with her?!”

“S-Sister?!”

I didn’t feel much more powerful than before, but, despite that, I still felt like I had the power to triumph against all of these people. In previous tests, I learned that it was more efficient on my mana to use one demonic power only, as using multiple at once would drain my mana too much.

However, in a situation where I had no armor, I had to use [Musclesmass] as armor, and I needed [Claw] and [Whiplash] for damage at the same time. In situations where I was outnumbered, there was no way for me to hold back.

“Hahaha! What is that sort of power, Ellaine? It looks so much like ours,” Francesca stated as more feathers began to sprout from her arms, turning them into wings, while spikes grew out from her back. She picked up the grimoire lying next to her.

“But you are still no match for all of us! Everyone! Let us get rid of this scourge!” Iracela’s feathers also turned her arms into that of an arvisian, but unlike her sister, she did not sprout any spikes. Instead, her talons grew even longer and she was able to fly unlike her sister, shrieking like a feral beast.

“… No, I’m not like the two of you at all.”

Klea’Hatma was regulating my powers, making sure I wouldn’t run out of mana too early into the fight… But I was also aware that I was breaking my promise Hestia’s and Goddess Aurena.

I’m such a failure of a person… but I’ll deal with that later.

I want to be happy with my decisions. I want my life to be more fun. I want my family and friends to continue smiling, even if I always cause them to worry about me.

That is my desire.

“Amelia, I’ll save you!”