Seeing people staring at them as Chelsie roped down, Maria held Alice's hand and began running with Chelsie following.

Their plan is to go to the adventurer guild because the city guard can’t do much against the people after Alice, while the adventurer guild has a lot of highly armed and trained people, which would deter them from following inside.

The route toward the adventurer guild is about a 30-minute walk, so they should make it in 15 minutes if they run.

More people, who were in black robes, began following them; around 5 people total were going to kidnap Alice.

Seeing they were running after them, Chelsie told Maria and Alice to take the alley to their right because it was a shortcut, cutting it down to 10 minutes, and so she could shoot them with her bow without risking hitting a bystander as she was running.

Chelsie fired off 2 arrows at once, hitting one of them in the shoulder and the other in the chest.

Seeing a pile of crates, Chelsie knocked them over to slow them down.

Catching up to Maria and Alice, Maria directed where they were going. However, Maria suddenly stopped when she made a turn.

Seeing that Maria and Alice suddenly stopped, Chelsie saw two more kidnappers boxing them off.

“Maria!”

Chelsie shouted at Maria, which she knew what to do, while she shot arrows down the alley, stopping the kidnappers behind them from approaching them as they were taking whatever cover they could.

Maria took out a white spherical ball around the size of her palm; she told Alice to cover her eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a smoke bomb, and she threw it toward the two kidnappers who were blocking their way; it hit the ground and exploded into a big powdery plume of white smoke.

The 2 people in black in front of them started coughing, and then Chelsie ran past Maria and Alice, taking out two arrows from her quiver and stabbing them into the legs of the 2 kidnappers in front of them and in their way.

At the same time, Maria turned around to throw another smoke bomb at the kidnappers chasing behind them.

They ran, and eventually, they were out of the alleyway and were now in a crowd. Blending into the crowd, they lost them, causing the kidnappers to lose track of them.

After a few minutes of walking, they reach the adventurer guild. Maria and Chelsie started looking for someone; they were looking for Iris, someone Nyx had told them about, and someone who could help them in addition to knowing about their situation.

Once they found her at one of the reception counters, they waited in line so they could talk to her.

“Hi, how can I help you today?”

Greeting Chelsie, Maria, and Alice, Chelsie said.

“You’re Iris, right?”

“Yes, is there a problem?”

“Ya, I presume Dr. Victor informed you. We’re from the Arcana adventuring party; Alex is our leader.”

“I see.”

Having a serious face, Iris tells them to follow her and apologizes to the adventurers waiting in her line. Then she leads Chelsie, Maria, and Alice toward a room upstairs.

“You must be Alice; it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Iris spoke and bowed really politely as she closed the door because Alice was a noble.

“Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I thank you for helping us.”

Alice spoke in a very ladylike tone and was curtsy to introduce herself.

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“If it’s not too much trouble, could I ask what the name of your family is?”

Giving a deep sigh, Alice said.

“I guess I don’t really have a choice then. I’m from the Lunslur household; specifically, I’m the 5th in line for the head of the family.”

Hearing what Alice's family was, Iris brought up what she knew in her memory, causing her to look troubled, but she masked it away quickly since she was in front of a noble.

“I see, so one of your family members is trying to assassinate you.”

“Unfortunately, that is highly likely.”

Alice began filling everyone in on how the head of the household and successor was dead, leading to the next head being unclear and causing candidates to fight about who would be the successor in the power vacuum left behind. One candidate had already died, and Alice's older half-sister was missing.

As Alice was informing everyone about her situation, Alex entered the room, followed by Wendy and Lucia.

“Thank God you’re safe.”

Feeling relieved that no one was hurt, Alex sat on one of the couches, showing his complete exhaustion.

Maria, seeing that Nyx wasn’t with them, asked where Nyx was.

Alex told them about the person who was tailing them and how they caught the guy, then Nyx told them to leave that guy to him and to check up on Alice just in case she was attacked and needed some backup. Fortunately, Maria and Chelsie were able to get Alice to safety without his help.

“Nyx should be catching up to us soon, but what are we going to do after this? We can’t really go back to our inn since they already know where we're staying. Plus, staying at the adventurer guild is not a permanent solution. I guess the only way out of this is to confront them directly.”

Hearing the plan, everyone nodded their heads to it, except for Alice and Iris.

“That seems too dangerous; I don’t want you all to risk your lives because of me.”

Alice said it, showing her concern that they were willing to risk their lives for her even though they just met a few days ago.

“Don’t worry too much; we will get through this together; I can guarantee that.”

Alex smirked, saying that, making Alice blush seeing how confident he was.

However, the girls, Chelsie, Maria, Wendy, and Lucia, seeing Alice blush, caused the room to be filled with a sudden murderous cold aura. It made Alex back begin to sweat; additionally, Iris and Alice, who weren’t even the target of their ire, felt the deep-seated anger and were beginning to sweat.

Alex thought to himself.

Oh god, I’m dead. I’m dead. Did I say something wrong? Why are they staring at me like that again? Someone please save me; I don’t want to get beat up again.

Just before the girls were about to beat Alex up, the door opened to reveal Nyx.

Nyx perspective

After stabbing the guy who was tailing us in the leg, I climbed up another roof and began watching him. He used a healing potion for his injured leg and hand. Then he began walking, I'll be it unsteadily with the blood loss, and he started running as fast as he could.

I follow him, hoping he will lead me to their base and where their master might be so I could end this farce.

Jumping my way between buildings, I followed him for around thirty minutes, and he led me to the building I’m presuming is their base because he stopped running and was in front of a normal-looking house, knocking on the door in a specific rhythm.

I climbed down the building. I was watching him so I could spy on him better and so I could take down the master if he was there. Maybe I could just take their master hostage and threaten them to stop targeting Alice once and for all; after all, their training is a complete joke.

He was let in, and I began looking around for a window to hear their conversation.

“What happened to you?”

“I was attacked by the people I was spying on.”

“How did you fail that?”

The guy he was talking to showed disbelief that the kids he was following noticed him in addition to attacking him.

Showing some fear in his voice, he explained.

“The kid with black hair and in the white fur cloak is a monster. I doubt that kid is even a kid; he did this to me in that cold expressionless face of his.”

He showed him the blood that covered his clothes from me stabbing him, then he continued telling him how scary I was as I was interrogating him. I kind of pat myself on the back for doing a good job of scaring him.

Eventually, the guy he was describing how scary I was to him shook his shoulder to get him to stop, which he came back to his senses somewhat.

“There is more; that kid somehow knows about people like us; even more, he even figured out what family we belong to.”

The guy he was informing was showing disbelief at how unbelievable it was. However, what he said made him understand who they were dealing with.

“That kid is a noble; I don’t know why he is with that adventuring party, but he is from a very powerful family. We must inform our master immediately, or else we’ll all be killed.”

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, the guy he was talking to had a serious face and said he would try to bring their master here tomorrow to explain what was happening.

Hearing that their master is coming in tomorrow, I guess that is all I need, and I should inform everyone else about it.

Since they sent people after Alice, I guess I should go to the adventurer guild because I trust that Maria’s and Chelsie’s to keep Alice safe.