As the man was about to stab Mom, Edward jumped in and knocked him away.

“Nice!”

Sometimes, I forgot that Edward was actually a Guard.

The cloaked man recovered from the hit fast enough and made a mad dash for the Knights. With his Dagger bared, it was obvious what he was trying to do—and the Knights knew it too.

However, just as they were about to apprehend the man…

“Stay still! Let him do what he wants!”

…Ojisa ordered.

The man gleefully made scratches on the Knights’ bodies. Once he reached the Knight Captain, he removed the Suppression Collar before doing the same thing.

By the way…the man was moving too fast for me to do substantial. All I managed to do was knock out some of the Knights before they went mad. But I could only reach four or five of them before the Dagger flashed red and thin strands of red were shot into the Knight’s heads.

‘Shit!’

I took a step back and observed the battlefield.

Ten Knights and a Knight Captain. The Captain was 4-star, while the others were around 2-star each. The only silver lining in this situation was that they abandoned all of their weapons in favor of fighting with teeth and nails like some kind of wild beast.

Suddenly, I felt someone tapping my shoulder. It was Edward.

“You should escape with the others,” he said as he pointed his spear at the maddened men. “I will win.”

I had no doubt that he would. After all, he was a 4-star—same as the Knight Captain. Not to mention, he had technique and skills, while they would be fighting like beasts.

However, it would definitely come at the cost of him becoming gravely injured. I glared at Ojisa and the cloaked man, who were standing behind the Knights with annoying smirks on their faces. They were going to harm Edward after this, weren’t they?

As for the Judge, he was being held captive by a Knight, who was spared from the fate of falling into temporary madness.

“I’ll help.”

“But—

“She’s right. We’re not leaving you alone.”

Surprisingly, Hannah backed me up. She walked up to Edward and took out a potion.

“Drink this. It’ll boost your strength for a while.”

Edward nodded and accepted it.

Then, Hannah took out two other potions, which I recognized were Acid vials.

“Hannah! You can’t kill them!” I said.

She looked at me sulkily for a bit before taking out other (hopefully) less fatal vials.

Violette and Ria wanted to help, but they were utterly powerless in this situation.

Mom was…less powerless. However, for some reason, she was shaking while hugging Ria’s arm.

Since no one was capable of defending themselves on the back, Ihwa shouted,

“Go! I’ll protect them!”

I gave her a thumbs-up and focused my attention on the Knight again. Then, I noticed something strange. Why weren’t they attacking us?

The answer was Edward. I realized that his usual blue eyes were gray.

“E-Edward, what happened to your eyes?”

“It’s my Gift,” he casually replied. “Eyes of Fear. It’ll only be effective until one of them gets hit. I’m running out of Aura. We should decide on our opening attack quickly.”

“Handsome bastard, are you trying to make me fall for you?” I grinned.

“...What?”

“Nevermind about that. I’ll do the opener.”

Not waiting for Hannah or Edward’s opinions, I gripped the Sabre and used [Star Steps] to stay in the air right about the Knights.

Ojisa was more perceptive than I’d thought. He realized that something was wrong immediately.

“Move, asshats! That vixen’s preparing something!”

I glanced back at Edward. Judging by the Aura left inside his body, he could probably continue using his Gift for another three minutes and still have enough to fight.

So, I took my sweet time and agglomerated Aura into my Sabre until it nearly broke. Pointing its tip downwards, I shouted,

“LAST CHANCE! HAND OVER THE DAGGER NOW OR YOUR KNIGHTS WILL BE KILLED!”

“Not a chance!” Ojisa screamed back with a red face.

I shrugged. ‘He asked for it.’ Then, I dematerialized [Star Steps] and began falling down.

“[Meteor Sword]!”

Sound disappeared.

The only thing audible was the low rumbling of a Meteor flying through the air.

As my sword hit the ground, a large explosion of condensed Aura occurred. It seemingly swallowed the Knights, knocking some of them into nearby walls. The three who were unfortunate enough to be right in the center were burnt badly.

At the center of it was…me. I pulled my sword out of the ground and wobbly tried to make my way back toward Edward and Hannah.

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‘Dammit, shouldn’t have used that much Aura, huh?’

I was feeling a bit light-headed now. Still, I had to push through. It’d be bad to stay here when Edward’s Gift expire—

“RARGHHH!”

As soon as I heard the roar, I felt my throat being grabbed roughly. Dammit, this wasn’t anything like the time Nira choked me! I flailed my limbs around in vain, trying to pry this goddamn hand off me!

The dust finally settled, and I could see that it was one of the Knights that was crushing my throat. Just as I was about to lose consciousness, something whooshed through the air and hit the Knight on the head.

“ARGHHHH!”

Another scream. The Knight let go of me and flailed around on the ground in pain like a whimpering dog.

Before I could make sense of what happened, someone grabbed my collar and threw me backward. I landed on something soft. Glancing back, I saw Hannah patting my head in worry and taking out some Recovery potions.

I then gazed forward and saw Edward making his way toward the Knight Captain with a very cool strait.

‘So he’s the one who threw me back…’

Couldn’t he be gentler? I swear, I’d punish him once we got back.

Still, I was grateful to him and Hannah for rescuing me. Gulping down the Recovery potion that Hannah handed me, I observed the situation again.

I’d managed to knock out six Knights with [Meteor Sword], which was a lot more than I’d expected. One Knight was incapacitated by Hannah’s vial, so there were only three Knights and a Knight Captain left standing.

Speaking of the Captain, he was also injured. Looked like it was an easy win for Edward.

“Hannah, I’ll take out the three Knights. Please support me.”

“What? But—”

“Not listening!”

I dashed forward and used [Vulpeculae]. One Knight down, two Knights down, and the final one was nowhere to be seen.

Just as I felt a rush of killing intent to my right side, it was snuffled out with a pained scream. Immediately looking to my right, I saw the man squirming in a puddle of liquid and broken glass.

‘...I don’t even know what kind of potion Hannah threw at him.’

Just in time, Edward finished taking out the Knight Captain. It must’ve proved to be harder than usual since he wasn’t aiming to kill. Still, Edward sustained some hefty injuries.

And I wasn’t the type to let those that hurt my friends get away with it.

I snapped my head toward Ojisa and the cloaked man, who were looking at everything with shock.

They shuddered as I sent as much killing intent toward them as possible.

Ojisa was the first to run back into his mansion. Shortly after, the man followed suit.

However, I caught the man before he could take any more steps. Although Ojisa was slow and I could catch him right now, taking the Dagger from the man was the priority.

And I did. Snatching it out of his hands, I kicked him in the jaw until he passed out—hopefully from brain trauma.

I turned back, just in time to witness the only sane Knight surrendering and letting the Judge go. Since Ojisa wasn’t going anywhere soon, I approached the Judge and asked,

“What will the Royal Court do about this?”

The Judge still retained his professionalism despite what’d happened.

“Assault, Battery, and Attempted Murder. Those are some of the charges Ojisa Asshol will face. Besides that, we’ll also launch an investigation into his estate.”

I nodded. ‘Serves you right, bastard.’

My [Meteor Sword] definitely caused the City Guards and Royal Knights to begin swarming here, so it was safe to say that Ojisa couldn’t escape. So, I returned to my family.

Hannah was the first to speak to me. She fist-bumped me and said, “Never knew you had that much power.”

O-Oh, right… I just realized that I used my power in front of everyone. I kept my head down low and made my way toward Mom, expecting her to swarm me with questions.

And she did. But they weren’t the ones I’d expected.

“Little one! Are you hurt anywhere?!”

“E-Eh?”

Mom rushed toward me and inspected my body worriedly. She was still a worrywart like always. I was sure that she had many questions, but my safety must’ve come first for her.

I…teared up. S-Seriously, who could ask for a better family than this? And yet, I…lied to them about pretty much everything.

‘...They deserve to know.’

“O-Oh, you’re crying? So you are hurt! Tell me so that I can heal you!”

“N-No, Mom, I’m…fine.” I sniffed. “I’ll tell you about everything. I’m actually—”

“Shhh…” Mom put a finger over my lips and shushed me. “...You don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to.”

“But—”

“I’m sure you have a good reason for hiding your power.” She smiled. “But whatever it is that you’re still hiding, I don’t care. You’ll always be my sweet little daughter. So, take your time. You don’t need to push yourself.”

Dammit, dust got into my eyes again! Still, through my blurry vision, I could make out that everyone was not treating me any differently than before…with the exception of Ihwa and Nowa, who were discussing how cool I was.

Not wanting Mom to worry any further, I smiled.

“Okay…”

.

.

.

.

After calming down, I distanced myself away from Mom and glared at the Dagger in my hand.

“Now, what do I do with i—”

“I’ll take care of it for you.”

An unfamiliar voice. Similarly, an unfamiliar woman manifested right before me. All I managed to see was her long dark hair, dark eyes, and black suit before she took the Dagger from my hand and picked me up by the throat.

“Kh haha, if I were you, I wouldn’t move, Mr. Blonde Guard,” the woman laughed. “You don’t want to see this Fox-kin get killed, do you?”

I could hear Edward grunting and gritting his teeth.

The woman once again turned her attention toward me and spoke.

“You must be wondering who I am. Well, I’ll answer it. I am called Dark—not my real name, of course. Just a title the girls in my organization call me by.”

Dark? It was hard keeping my thoughts straight while being literally fucking choked!

“Is that so?” She loosened his grip a bit. “Better now?”

I gasped for breaths and stuttered, “W-What? You can read my t—”

“I can’t read your thoughts. You’re just that easy to read…” Dark then whispered in my ears. “...Swordsmaster Nova.”

“...! H-How did you know!?”

N-No, it didn’t matter how she knew about it. What was important was that she had to die!

“Nira, Aerin! Come!”

…Nothing happened. Not after a few seconds; not after a minute.

I could see Dark suppressing a burst of laughter.

“I’ve already set up an Anti-Gift field. Your Swords can’t save you.”

After that, she slammed me on the ground and crouched down to whisper to me.

“Swordsmaster Nova, I’m not your enemy. Though, it’s pretty amusing seeing your struggle.”

I grinded my teeth until they felt like cracking and glared at her.

“What’s your goal!?”

“Revival of my father,” she said, dead-pan.

“W-What?”

“Ah, it seems like it’s time already,” she spoke, almost regretfully. “Still, thank you for taking uncle Madness’ Dagger out of Ojisa’s hands. Saved me a lot of trouble. Now, as for your reward…” she glanced at Mom. “I’ll show you the true nature of the one you cherish the most in this life.”

Saying that, she held the Dagger up and ran its blade from the baseline of my neck to the middle of my right cheek.

I felt warm blood trickling down my body as Dark let me go. I watched as she loudly announced to everyone,

“Ah, and no one’s getting in or out of here until that pig Ojisa is killed. Tada, and see you again.”

Then, just as abruptly as she appeared, she disappeared into thin air.

But I didn’t have time to care about Dark right now. I had to get out of here, fast, lest I hurt someone I cared about.

I clawed away at the ground, struggling to fight the madness growing inside me. I even stabbed my own hand to keep clarity.

But they were all futile.

Something cracked inside of me.

And all hell broke loose.