“Alright, do as you want.” Rina closed her eyes and relaxed her body as she muttered these words.
“Hehehe, putting up a brave face, aren't we? You guys, go first, don't be gentle! I love unmoving bodies the most!”
At the urging of the man behind her, the others closed on Rina, each one groping different parts of her body. Though she shuddered inwardly at each touch, it was nothing, that she couldn't bear. The only problem was, what they would do with her afterwards. It wasn't hard for her to reach the conclusion that they would probably try to get rid of her so that she couldn't tell the authorities about their crime.
So while the men's hands were roaming all across her body, she mustered up all her mental strength to secretly place small magic circles infused with gravity magic through skin contact on them. That way, as soon as they tried to end her life, she could remotely activate the seals with her Mana to increase the weight of the men, pulling them to the ground and rendering them immobile.
“Shit, this brat isn't moving at all? What's wrong with her? Is she really a child?” After a while one of the men seemed to get fed up with Rina's lack of reaction.
“Forget it, just go for it. She'll start crying as soon as the pain gets too much for her.”
“Aye.”
But before he could remove his pants, one of the others shouted, “W-what's that? L-look at the door!”
At the surprised voice, even Rina couldn't help but open her eyes to look at the entrance, only to see the wooden door slowly burning down. After the fire had died down, a girl could be seen behind it. From the dress the girl was wearing, it was obvious that she belonged to the nobility.
With a slightly haughty expression, full of an aristocrat's pride, the newcomer stepped into the house with her arms crossed. After she looked around the room, swaying her blonde, curly hair side to side, her face twisted at first in confusion, then in shock, and then in anger, when she saw the state Rina was in.
“Y-you lowlifes! W-what are you doing to that girl? Let her go! Right now!” She pointed at the men, but it was apparent to the people present that she was frightened as she trembled slightly.
Noticing that one of the men grabbed a nearby knife and slowly approached the blonde with a nasty grin, “Hehe, or what? If you want you can also join the fun. It may even lessen the brat's burden... hehehe.”
“No! Run! They want to do terrible things! I can manage somehow, but you must run.” Overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events Rina shouted at the girl who didn't quite seem to understand the current situation. In contrast to her, the noble girl was a normal child without memories of a past life after all. Rina then turned to the men. “Please, let her go, as I said, you can do what you want with me!”
Unfortunately, or fortunately, Rina's plea only calmed the blonde down, who looked back with strong-willed eyes. “I am Clara Dragonherz, daughter of Viscount Eric Dragonherz and granddaughter of Rick Dragonherz. As a noble, I cannot permit what you lowlifes are doing to this poor child! Furthermore...” Clara turned her head towards the man approaching her. “... I will see your words directed at me as a will against the nobility and will hereby execute you!”
With the declaration she then opened her mouth and formed a red magic circle with it. After a few seconds... “[Fire Breath]” … a red medium-sized flame came out of her mouth, setting the advancing man on fire.
“AHHHH! HEEEELP ME. IT HUUURT.” He shouted as he writhed and turned on the ground in pain.
The others and Rina were so shocked that they could only watch as the man burned to crisps. A few minutes later, after the fire had died down, leaving only the black remains of a burned body behind, they all turned their eyes back to Clara.
“Haaaaah, haaaaaaah, haaaaaaaah...” The girl in question was breathing heavily from Mana exhaustion after casting the spell.
'Oh no! She is out of Mana.'
Coming to the same conclusion as Rina, the men let her down, each grabbing a knife and closing in on Clara. “Damn you bitch, you killed our friend!”
'I have to do something, They're going to kill her. Should I activate the magic seals I've put on the men?' Activating them would mean, that she had to show that she was capable of using Dark magic. Rina wasn't entirely sure what would happen to her if that fact was revealed. Would the public condemn her as a demon and hunt her down? Or would she only be kicked out of town? After all, she didn't know what it meant for a human to be able to use Dark magic. But on the other hand, was it worth risking the safety of an innocent girl, who had even risked her life to protect her, just to hide her own magic affinity?
'No! I have to stop them... and upon closer look... the girl is really cute...Nononono, what are you thinking stupid Rina? This isn't the time for that... And besides, she looks ten to twelve years old, that's too young for my over thirty-year-old mind... NOOOOO, that's not it! It's not that I don't have any chance with her anyway...' In contrast to the seriousness of the situation though, Rina's mind was in a state of mayhem.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Nevertheless, she managed to calm down a split second later and stuck a large black magic seal on the floor. As a result, the black magic circles on the men, who where just were about to grab the blonde, started glowing and pulled them to the ground, rendering them immobile.
“W-w-what is that? I feel heavy?” “Dammit! What is happening, I can't move!” “Hiiiiiiih. H-help!” They cried out pathetically, unable to understand what was happening.
“Now, you, run! As long as they can't move...” Before Rina could finish her sentence, however, several men in civilian clothes, but with swords hanging on their waists stormed into the house. Three of them stepped up to the men lying on the floor, unsheathed their swords... “W-w-w-wait please don't kill m...” and stabbed them through their hearts.
Afterwards, another man, this time in a knight's attire, entered the house and kneeled before the blonde girl. “Lady Clara, please refrain from such actions in the future. Lord Eric is sick with worry.”
“I am sorry. Thank you for your help. But I had to intervene. As a noble, I can't allow such atrocities to happen to her.” The blonde responded in a calm tone and pointed towards the still-naked Rina.
“I see... Then what should we do with her?”
“Let's take her back at first. She has to recover from th...”
“W-w-what is this?” Clara was interrupted by one of her guards who suddenly screamed as he pointed into the air in the middle of the room directly above the corpses of the men. Dark mist flowed from them and formed a cloud that was gradually growing.
“Calm down. It seems a demon is about to spawn! Everyone, get into battle formation.” The man in the knight uniform in front of Clara stood up and gave orders to the men around him. “Protect Lady Clara at all costs!”
Rina, however, didn't notice the panic of her surroundings at all. Her eyes were drawn to the dark cloud that was forming. 'This is bad! I have to stop it!' Her instincts were screaming to her to prevent the process from finishing at all costs. But how? What could she do?
As she was about to get closer to inspect the mist, the knight grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back. “What are you doing? Are you insane? Don't touch it!” He shouted at her angrily.
“What do you mean? What will happen if I touch it?” She looked at him into his eyes, waiting for him to answer, but he only returned her gaze without saying anything.
Their staring contest was promptly interrupted when Rina's vision was suddenly obstructed by blonde, curly hair.
“Ahem!... Captain, why are you staring at the naked girl.” The young noble girl had placed herself between Rina and the knight. “Give me your cape!”
“Ah, excuse me.” At Clara's command, he cut his cape with his sword and handed it to her, who then turned around and wrapped it around Rina's naked body.
“Here you go. You should have a bit more modesty, especially in front of men!”
“T-t-thank y-y-you,” was all, the red-haired girl could mutter, blushing like a ripe tomato, as she saw the blonde's face only a few centimetres away from hers. Although she was able to speak normally to people in this life, it was the first time she had ever spoken to a girl of around her age (biologically seen), and a very cute one at that! Based on her experiences in her previous life, Rina thought that her taste lay in eastern-looking girls with long, straight, black hair. But now, she might have changed her mind. 'Western-looking girls are nice too...'
Unbeknownst to Rina's inner problems, Clara's worry gradually grew. “Are you all right? Don't worry, those men are dead. They won't hurt you anymore.”
Fortunately for Rina, the blonde seemed to have misunderstood the stumbling. “Y-yes, I'm fine. A-again thank you for saving me.” Unfortunately, though, the fact that a girl was being nice to her, didn't calm her down at all. So all sorts of fantasies were running wild in her mind.
They didn't hold for long though, as the seriousness of the young noble's voice snapped the red-haired girl back. “As for your question earlier... I've never seen it myself, but it seems that if you touch the dark cloud, you'll lose all your reason.”
“You'll lose all your reason?”
Clara nodded. “Yes, your behaviour would suddenly change in another direction after touching the cloud. For example, kind people would become extremely violent. Others would get a mental breakdown and cry the entire day. There were even cases, where some have committed suicide.”
Hearing the blonde's explanation, Rina shivered and couldn't help but be grateful to the knight who had stopped her. But when she looked up at the mist again, she still couldn't shake off the ominous feeling it gave her. So she turned back to Clara. “So what are we going to do about this thing? We can't just leave it alone.”
This time, the blonde shook her head. “We do nothing, just leave it to the guards. After a while, the cloud will turn into a demon monster. Then they'll deal with it. It's not like you can help anyway. Now come, let's leave this place.”
In fact, in Rina's mind, she could do a lot to help. For example, she could place her Gravity magic on the ground to pull the beast down, as soon as it spawns. That way the knights or guards or whatever they are, would be able to kill it without taking any risks, just like they did with the men earlier. But unfortunately, this meant that her ability to cast Dark magic would come to light. After all, it seemed to her, that neither the girl named Clara nor her guards had seen her activating the magic seals on the now-dead men, which suggested that her secret was still safe. So she nodded to Clara and prepared to leave the house with her.
'But before that, I should probably disable my magic on these men at first. Otherwise, the guards will be suspicious, as soon as they dispose of them.' Under the cape, Rina formed a black magic seal with her hand to normalise the weight of the dead bodies, but at the same time, the black mist suddenly began to move.
“C-captain! Dodge! The cloud is moving towards you!”
At the shout of one of the guards, the only man in the knight uniform quickly jumped aside to avoid the rapidly approaching mist. But soon after his face paled as he realised that his lady and the commoner girl who had been behind him, were now defenceless. “Lady Clara, dodge it quickly!!”
Unfortunately, the girl in question was frozen in place due to the sudden turn of events. So without thinking, Rina stood up and pushed the blonde away. A split second later, the cloud clashed into the red-haired girl's body, causing her to scream in agony.
“AAAHHHHHH!?!”
'What is this? It huuuurts!! It's like my body is being torn apart from the inside!'
As if to fight off the pain, Rina crouched over with both arms on her stomach and threw up everything she had eaten today.
“W-w-w-what's happening to her!?” Clara panicked upon seeing the younger girl crying out in pain and wanted to rush over but was held back by one of her guards.
“Lady Clara, it's dangerous!”
“W-w-we have to help her!”
The guard closed his eyes and shook his head.
“It's impossible. She's already done for.”