What followed after my sudden appearance was a quick, one-sided massacre.

When I jumped out of the thicket and sent a massive, rippling shockwave at the largest group beside the carriages, it immediately became quite clear that my masked opponents were no seasoned warriors.

The shockwave hit the carriages at point-blank range, smashing all the precious elixirs to bits.

At that moment, everything was drowned with the sound of shattering glass as the crates full of vials exploded, sending a wave of shrapnels in all directions, piercing all those unlucky enough to stand in the immediate vicinity.

As the quiet night quickly turned into a scene of pure chaos, I began mercilessly slaughtering all those who survived the initial blast with a combination of earth spikes and stone bullets.

Seeing this, the thugs who were not hit by the shrapnels and were still standing promptly dropped their weapons to the ground and began running in all directions like headless chickens.

"P-Please... don't kill me!"

'Huh?' I furrowed my brows, finding this voice weirdly familiar. I ripped the mask from the kneeling person's face and froze. "Sam?"

"Please! You have to understand... I was just following orders! They said you are already out of the picture... if I knew you were still alive, I would never have come here!"

My eyes turned cold as the identity of the assailants became quite clear. "Where is Dominic?"

"I-I don't know... He took the Alchemist with him and skipped the town... I was told to get the elixirs and follow after him." Sam hurriedly answered. He looked utterly terrified from seeing me effortlessly slay all his men.

"To where?"

"He didn't tell me! Only that I should wait for him in the next town down the main road!"

‘So Dominic's gang had some sort of agreement with whoever was behind the plot... But then he decided to double-cross the nobles and steal Theodore for himself? How gracious of him...'

I couldn't help but burst out laughing as I found this whole situation absurdly hilarious for some strange reason. They still seem to have no idea it was me who was crafting the potions in the first place.

I would find it extremely funny if it weren't such a horrifying situation for poor Theo, and I would give anything to see those bastards' faces when they finally find out the truth and realize that all those hefty profits they imagined for themselves are gone.

Looking back at the cowering figure of Sam, who appeared to be in a state of shock, I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything else out of him.

Thus, I finished him off with a quick hand gesture as an earth spike manifested behind him, running him through, 'I won't be leaving alive anyone who could threaten the lives of my family or me...'

I looked around once more while making sure that every attacker was dead before I hurried forward.

As I ran across the spacious courtyard, everything was eerily quiet. The only thing I could hear was the sound of crunching glass underneath my feet.

There were countless broken vials everywhere I looked. Usually, losing such a mind-boggling amount of money would make me furious, yet right now, I didn't care at all as I had much bigger worries.

First, I threw a quick glance into the servant's building on the left side of the courtyard to see if any of my servants had survived.

Yet, as soon as I entered, an unmistakable stench of blood struck me. I widened my eyes as everyone who slept there was dead, including the rest of Jorn’s party who were off-duty.

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They once again slit everyone's throats. Still, as I looked at all the bodies, one particular was missing. 'Where is Bernadette?'

There was no reason for her to be anywhere else in the middle of the night, and if she heard the attackers and woke up, there was no reason not to warn the other servants before making her escape. Unless...

A gnawing suspicion began to manifest in me. However, I didn't want to come to any premature conclusions before I learned all the facts, so I exited the building and ran across the courtyard into the mansion without wasting a breath.

A sense of dread grasped my heart as I entered, not detecting any signs of life anywhere on the ground floor.

But I reassured myself that this didn't have to mean anything as my magic sense couldn't pass through walls, so there was still hope. Therefore, I hurried toward the winding staircase that led upstairs.

Ascending the last few steps, I came to a sudden halt as a horrifying image welcomed me. The hallway in front of me was full of charred corpses. 'What happened here?'

Yet the grim answer was quickly revealed to me as I stepped forward. Some distance away, in front of my sister's room, Lily’s dead body lay in the middle of a circle of mangled corpses. I released a wistful sigh as I ran up and kneeled beside her.

She always acted so cold and indifferent... I had no doubts that she certainly must have been given the option to stay out of this given her exalted status, or even if she didn't, she was more than capable of escaping... yet in the end, she chose to stay and fight.

I couldn't help but smile bitterly as I stretched out my hand to close her eyes. "Thank you... for everything..." I whispered softly.

Even though they must have taken her by surprise and forced her to fight against overwhelming odds in close quarters, which was the worst possible situation for a mage, she still managed to take out a whole dozen of them before they seemed to finally overcome her with numbers.

With another sigh, I quickly sprang back to my feet as there was nothing else I could do for her, and I didn’t have time to linger.

Without wasting a breath, I traversed the few remaining steps before barging into Helga's room, terrified of what I would find inside.

Yet, as soon as I entered the dimly lit room and spotted my sister sitting on a chair, I exhaled in relief as I immediately noticed her chest slowly moving, signaling she was alive.

'Thank the gods...' I quickly ran up to her to make sure she was okay.

Helga raised her head, looking at me with a distant look in her eyes. "Darian… Y-you came…" She whispered with great effort as she showed a weak smile.

It was then that I noticed the large wound in her belly and the small pool of blood underneath her.

'Oh no... I hurriedly took out an elixir from my satchel, and without wasting a moment, I poured it all over her belly.

The wound softly glowed red, sizzling as it slowly disappeared. Yet Helga's body remained cold, and her condition wasn't improving at all.

With horror grasping my heart, I realized that she must have lost too much blood. I began to panic, and for the first time, I didn't know what to do.

I briefly considered giving her some of my own blood, yet I didn’t know if our blood types were the same, not to mention I had already lost too much blood back in the Fortress’ dungeons, so I, too, would risk passing out.

Helga, on the other hand, kept smiling the whole time and then, with her last remaining strength, took my hand. "It's alright... Tell our parents... that I love them."

She then paused for a moment before looking into my eyes and saying. "I'm so glad... that I got to spend all this time... with you..."

At some point, I started crying. My tears slowly dropped from my face, mixing with the crimson blood beneath us as I held Helga in my arms as she breathed for the last time.

I stayed like that for some time. I had no idea for how long, at that moment, I didn't care about anything, but then... I overheard a sound that finally brought me back from the depths of my grief.

I blinked a few times as I couldn't place it at first, but then a realization dawned on me - the bells were loudly tolling with insistent urgency.

'Ah, at last, they decided to sound the alarm...'

I stood up before looking again at the tragic scene before me. I clenched my fists as the images of my enemies flashed before my eyes.

Dominic and his mysterious merchant friend... Sir Roderick... The haughty Chancellor... And finally, the mighty Count, who I hated the most as he got me to this situation in the first place by making me into a target of hatred and envy of all the nobles with that damned betrothal of his.

My eyes shone with incandescent light in the dark. 'I will kill them… I will kill them all…'

Overcame with hatred and grief, my essence surged forth, and everything around me was enveloped by hungry flames. 'If I can't have this... nobody will.'

Throwing one last look at the burning room, I tenderly picked up Helga's lifeless body and jumped out of the opened window, quickly disappearing into the darkness of the moonless night.

***End of Volume 2: Apprentice***