Noticing unusual shadows and leaves rustling, I don’t remember any monsters from the Dradevow Dungeon book that exhibit this behavior, so it's definitely got to be people who are following me.

I stopped walking and turned to face the people following me. I was in a hurry and would rather deal with them now than later.

“Hey, all of you come out; I know you’re there.”

Hearing my shout, there was a moment of silence before they came out of hiding, one by one.

I counted seven people, three of whom I recognized as the people who approached me in the village. They all looked to be well-armed, and one seemed to be a mage.

My intuition warns me that they intend to harm me, which means they are most likely red-listed or black-listed adventurers.

Black-listed adventurers are expelled adventurers who are wanted criminals for breaking the law. However, red-listed adventurers are like black-listed adventurers, but the main difference is that they are in the guild and haven’t been caught yet.

Seeing my predicament, I thought to myself, this is a good opportunity because I get to try out my new daggers.

Pointing their weapons at me, one of them said.

“Hey kid, give us your key, and maybe we’ll let you go.”

The person who said that to me was the guy who approached me first back in the village. His smiley demeanor was gone and was replaced with that of a thug.

Hearing a very generic line you can see from a thug or bandit in most fantasy stories, I was unimpressed by his threat and wasn’t taking it too seriously.

In all likelihood, they want Maria’s key to her house to steal everything inside while she is away. They’ll probably kill me if I do what he says to hide the evidence since a dead body is easily disposed of in a dungeon.

From how they hold their weapons, I can tell they are trained and well-experienced, but they have a lot of rough spots, so they aren’t too much trouble to deal with. However, the real trouble and unknown variable is the mage in the back because I don’t have a lot of experience fighting mages, and I don’t know what attribute he has… good.

A big smile started to form around my face from all the excitement inside me, and eventually, a snicker leaked out.

“Heh heh heh.”

Hearing me snicker, one of them got angry and said another generic line, thinking that this was funny or something, which I didn’t listen to because I was now laughing.

“Ahh, ahh, ahh!. Ahh ha hahahaha!”

As I began laughing out loud from my excitement, they took a step back, as if I were crazy or something.

They had a mage at their party, and I had never fought one on my own; of course, I would be happy about it because Lucia offered me to duel her, but one thing or another came up, which led our duel to be postponed. With them, I get to at least scratch that itch I was having.

The fight started off with three of the closest red-listed adventurers charging at me as their mage’s hair glowed a light blue, preparing to cast his spell, which I’m guessing is a spell relating to the water attribute.

They were surprisingly coordinated because I could tell they were planning to force me to move in a certain direction, which was in the line of sight of their mage, who was preparing multiple large ice shards.

I was not about to let that happen and did the opposite of what they wanted.

Putting my daggers in my right hand in a reverse grip, I ran at one of them who was charging at me.

I dodged a swing of his axe and got really close to him, where he couldn’t use his weapon, causing him to be deeply surprised.

With the hilt of the dagger in my left hand, I struck his chest, causing the air in his lungs to leave his body.

Now disoriented, I move my right hand upward and hit his chin with the hilt of the dagger in my right hand.

To make sure he was truly knocked out, I took another swing with the hilt of my dagger in my left hand diagonally upward into the side of his head.

Dealing with him took a few seconds, which led to the other two people on my left and right to deal with.

They thrust their swords at me and swung them when I moved back. I then twisted my body away and jumped away to get some distance.

Their mage won’t fire on me because I did the opposite of what they wanted, which was to attack them head-on.

“What is with this brat?”

They seemed really confused about how I managed to take down one of them easily, and then they began bickering with each other.

After a couple of back-and-forths, one of them said.

“Screw it, he’s just a kid, and it was just luck.”

He said it angrily and charged at me.

Seeing that nobody is following him, a snicker leaks out of my mouth as I sheath the dagger in my left hand to use as a blunt weapon because I didn’t want to kill any of them. Like the first guy, I dodge his swing and enter into close combat.

However, different from the first guy, he expected it. After seeing his sword swing miss, he let go of one of his hands that was holding his sword and swung a fist.

In response, I moved my head out of the punch and stabbed his fist with my dagger that wasn’t sheathed.

To my surprise, it felt like cutting through butter—or, I should say, piercing through butter, given the ease of piercing through his skin, muscles, and bones.

He, of course, screams in pain and tries to yank his hand back, but all that did was let the dagger slice through his hand.

Before he could register that his hand was cut in half, I knocked him out with a thrust to the forehead and a swing to the side.

As the guy fell to the ground, I turned to look at the mage, who was holding onto his spell, ready to fire at any time because I figured a bandit group or red-listed party would not care too much about their members, especially this hot-headed idiot.

Large shards of ice flew through the air and aimed at me. I rolled on the ground and behind a tree for cover.

Quickly checking myself if I was hurt, I was fortunately not injured anywhere. However, looking at my cloak, there was a big hole, and part of it was frozen.

I looked at the ground where the shards of ice landed; the ground and the tree I was taking cover at were frozen solid and covered in a thin layer of ice.

I don’t know what kind of spell it is, but it is quite interesting and dangerous. It is probably an intermediate or advanced-level spell since it can freeze whatever it hits.

I reach my hand to my thigh, where I keep my throwing spikes, and take out 6, three in each hand.

Determining it suitable to move out of cover, I threw three spikes at the mage when I spotted him then dashed him as he was the main threat to me right now.

One spike hit his shoulder, while the other two hit his arm as he reflexively guarded against the spike I threw at him.

This gives me an opening to throw another three spikes, but the three people closest to the mage seem to panic and get in the way of me aiming at him, trying to stop me.

Seeing that, I decided to target the three of them with one of my three spikes in my hand.

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Aiming at non-lethal areas, I threw my spikes at them as I continued to run toward the mage.

The first one hit the closest one, in the back of the hand that was holding his sword, which I promptly struck the back of his head. The second one was hit in the throat, where his airway was, not his carotid arteries, causing him to clutch his throat. I hit the side of his head, making sure he didn't fall forward to not have the spike pierce through his spine. Finally, I hit the third one in the forehead, which stunned him, leaving him unable to fight back. I hit his head to the side, the same reason as the second guy.

Since there were no more obstacles in the way, I went for the mage. However, dealing with the three that got in the way gave the mage enough time to hastily cast another spell.

Sensing something big about to happen, I began retreating back into the cover of a tree.

A layer of ice formed around him on the ground, and suddenly ice spikes shot out, rapidly coming toward him.

When I got to the tree for cover, it fell over as multiple huge spikes pierced through the thick trunk of the tree.

Seeing the tree about to fall on me, I got out of the way. However, the ice spike did not stop at the tree I took cover from and began following me again.

I looked at the mage and saw that he was holding his staff with sweat falling from his forehead in deep concentration as I was making erratic movements.

I tried to move toward him, but he moved the ice spikes coming after me in a way to stop me.

Knowing what to do, I threw the dagger in my left hand at him. I intentionally missed as the dagger I threw at him hit the tree behind him, but that did take his attention elsewhere and gave me the opportunity to run straight toward him.

Realizing that I was coming straight for him and the spell too, he stopped the spell and looked like he was going to cast another spell, most likely a barrier.

It was too late, however, because I punched him in the stomach. Then I pulled out my dagger, from the tree behind him that I threw, and kicked behind his knee to make him kneel.

Pointing my dagger at his neck, I look at the last two people I haven’t knocked out yet.

They looked visibly shocked at everything because, in less than a minute, I had taken nearly all of them out.

Dropping his sword, he raised his hand and said.

“We surrender; please don’t hurt us.”

Upon hearing his words, I was disappointed that he would say that because that wouldn’t be fun.

“Heh heh heh, why would I?”

Knocking out the mage I was holding hostage on the back of his head, I ran to attack the only person holding a sword while the other ran.

He swung his spear at me, but I dodged out of the way and cut the wooden shaft of his spear with my surprisingly sharp dagger. Then I kicked his side and hit his head with my sheath dagger.

Seeing the last guy run away, I wasn’t going to let that happen, so I—

“Gahhh!!!”

Feeling the air around me that hit me like a truck, I went back several meters and hit a tree.

Hitting a tree from being blown back, I fell to my knees. Thankfully, my armor protected me and stopped me from breaking a rib or two, but that hurt a lot, and what was that?

My smile was gone after I got up and looked at my surroundings to see what just attacked me.

I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, except for the last guy, who was groaning in pain, attacked by the same thing I was attacked with.

I then heard slow, deliberate clapping a couple of meters away, so I turned in the direction, which was behind a tree.

The clapping continues, and someone walks out. I stood there in shock because I knew who that person was.

Boras? Why is he here?

The slow clapping stopped as his glowing dark green hair turned back to its normal color. He then spoke with a genuine smile that caught me off guard, as I had never seen him make an expression like that before.

“I’ve finally found you, Lady Rita.”

He said it reverently and respectfully, still acting the same when we interacted before I ran away.

However, what surprised me was that he wasn’t hiding his true feelings too much because I could tell he was expressing some playfulness and genuine joy seeing me, not a fake one.

“I apologize for not coming fast enough.”

“Then why did you just attack me, and why are you clapping?”

I said it with scorn, not putting up with his charade.

“Whatever do you mean, my lady? But I apologize if my clapping offended you. I was merely admiring how much stronger my lady has gotten, especially when my lady doesn’t have any magic.”

He was not putting away his false pretense like he was trying to get me to react, which was working by making me very agitated, but I didn’t show it on my face.

Father probably already knows I’m here in Acton, and I’m guessing Boras is not alone.

Almost as if he guessed what I was thinking through my expressionless face, he said.

“Allow me and everyone to finish these low lives off for my lady.”

As he said that, he snapped his fingers, and people wearing all black emerged from the forest, with their swords ready.

They began finishing off the people I knocked out, while one of them dragged the person Boras had attacked to him.

Being dragged, he was no longer in a daze and looked at Boras with surprise and anger.

“It’s—”

Before he could finish, which I presume was you, Boras cut his head off.

“Oh my, I apologize for the sight; shall we get going?”

Seeing his dead, headless body fall to the ground, Boras looked to see my reaction.

I’d killed people in my past life, during the late part of the war, and I never really felt anything or was affected too much by it because I and Norn were taught to accept people dying and that we might kill people in our missions.

However, I was still slightly perturbed because this was the first time I saw someone kill another person in front of me.

He was making a threat by killing that guy in front of me, but if I went with them, I’d be taken back to my family manor, and who knows what my father would do to me to keep me under control? Maybe a slavery magical circle branded on me at the minimum. Slavery magical circles are banned throughout the kingdom, but knowing my father, he will definitely do that.

Untensing my body to show that I had given up, Boras looked genuinely disappointed.

“What?”

Boras sighed and said.

“I thought you would fight back, my lady?”

Trying to look like I was giving up, I said.

“And?”

“That smile I saw and that laughter, I want to see that again.”

He had a genuine smile that would make anyone blush, man or woman. However, that is only on the surface level because my instincts are telling me he is a psychopath from the genuine malice mixed with the happiness I was getting from that smile.

I wasn’t getting that feeling alone because the people in black, my family knights, had their faces turned pale upon the sight like he was a monster. So, these are his true colors.

It takes a lot to get them to be afraid of something, which I genuinely did not want to find out.

Realizing something, Boras said.

“Oh, is it because my lady thinks we’ve taken Ms. Clare, who is at the hospital right now? Don’t worry, we haven’t gotten to her yet.”

Hearing what he said, a deep anger began to fill my mind for threatening Clare.

I really wanted to beat Boras up, but I set that aside and put my daggers back in their sheath, while not letting a bit of that anger be noticed since that is what he wants.

Seemingly disappointed from failing to provoke me, he sighs another sigh of disappointment.

Seeing him sigh, I saw an opportunity. Seeing everyone slightly loosen their guard, I immediately grabbed two spikes and threw them at Boras.

Expecting my spike to miss, I drew out my sword and began running away. I needed to get away as fast as possible because I doubted I could take on everyone and get back safely since I couldn’t even tell how strong they were or even notice them, and someone like Boras was a no-go.

Bora's Perspective

As Boras saw Rita run away, the slightest bit of joy filled his heart again from his disappointment.

He had expected Rita to comply and come with them; instead, Rita threw a spike at him.

After seeing a completely unknown side of Rita, where she had a big smile and laughed while fighting the red-listed adventurers he had hired, he thought they had found the wrong person, but he was pleasantly, no, absolutely delighted that it was the very lady they were supposed to drag back.

This new side of hers was something he never in a million years thought he would see. It absolutely delighted him to think of a new toy to play with because he originally thought Rita was baseline emotionless and wouldn’t be fun to play with. But after seeing Rita fighting with a smile and laughing, he was proven wrong.

Boras wondered to himself how much it would take to make her angry because the spikes Rita had thrown didn’t have the intent to kill or even express other emotions

Compared to Yulis, who he half-heartedly played with, Boras now saw a new toy to play with that wouldn’t break too easily.

That maid of hers, would that break her? Boras thought that to himself as he playfully told his subordinates to go after her.

Nyx perspective

I swung my sword at one of my family's black knights, who were in the way, to run away instead of fighting them. I had to get back to Clare and leave Acton as soon as possible because it was not safe anymore.

Our swords clash, but I immediately let go of all my strength in my arm and redirect the momentum of his downward swing, sliding down my sword and to the ground, away from me as I pass him. I then positioned my sword, as I ran past him, to slash his right thigh.

However, that did not happen because he recovered his stance and used the guard on his sword to stop my sword from slashing at him, then pushed my sword away and countered.

Seeing the sword coming at me, on instinct, I barely move my body out of the way.

Feeling a stinging sensation on my left cheek and a warm liquid coming out, I threw a spike at him and continued running.

That was close. He is good, almost as good as or better than the Black Knight Captain from the Lungslur family I fought a while back.

If I’m going to escape, I’m going to have to broaden my definition of non-lethal, like chopping off an arm or leg, because I am not about to drench my hand in blood in this life.

I felt a bit of excitement from the stinging cut on my cheek, but I immediately stomped on that repeatedly growing feeling I was getting because I needed to escape, and this was not the time nor place to get excited.

Passing by some trees, I saw a group of my family's Black Knights, 5 in total, catching up to me quickly.

I didn’t see Boras and everyone else running with them, which is not a good sign.

Gritting my teeth, I continued running, but eventually, they caught up.