W-What the hell? Why is she smiling like that?

Seriously? In this situation? I was just trying to calm her down, but I didn’t expect her to go all blushing and smiling. To go on an ecstatic trip. I know what I did, I think that was the quickest way. But can’t you react a bit more normally, Mera?

Whatever, let’s just get on with it.

“Mera, don’t tell anyone what happened here tonight, okay? Especially what I am doing.”

While keeping her eyes joyfully closed, she answered. “Yes, of course, milady.”

Ignoring what kind of a nutcase she was, I retracted my hand. That snapped her back to reality, and she blinked several times at me.

“Alright. Let’s wait a bit.”

“Wait? Why?”

I walked to the window. “Everyone is still heavily battling it out. We’ll wait for a couple of minutes for things to cool down.”

There could be two outcomes with that, either my allies defeat most of the enemies that we would face, or the opposite happens. I’m betting on the former, of course. Best-case scenario, no matter the outcome, it reduces the enemy’s overall forces in the palace.

“... Are we going out through the window?”

“No. Not from here.” I slightly drew the curtains apart. “Enemies are outside.” There weren’t even allies. The empire had the palace surrounded. Just below my window, a group of enemies were standing by. Not only that, there were enemies atop, moving around the roof. Can’t tell how many exactly.

If we go through here, the area’s too open and risky for me to fight. Not enough cover. I don’t want to face down a whole gang of them at once, not when I’m wasn’t alone. Compared to that, the interior hallways should be easier. And more fun.

I stepped back. “By the way, Mera, you could have tried taking care of those two. Why didn’t you?”

“... W-What do you mean?”

I slightly tilted my head. “Can’t you use Physical Enhancement? Vernon lauded your capabilities and potential.”

“I…” She lowered her head. “I can’t…”

From what I can see, she was afraid. Guess it can’t be helped. Mera had never been in a fight. She could perhaps overpower them, but experience was still an issue. I don’t even know if she was willing enough to kill.

“That’s fine.” I grabbed my cloak on the chair and slipped into it.

“What about you, milady? H-How are you capable of…” She glanced at the corpses. “Of this?”

“There’s no other choice.”

“... I see…”

I drew the hood of my brown cloak, covering my head. I stand out too much, and I was a primary target, better cover myself, you know.

“Mera, a little tip… Use your power when necessary. Don’t forget what you can do.”

She pursed her lips, clenching her own trembling hands. “Yes…”

I mean, she was even better than me with the technique. If she utilized it well, she’ll be a tank!

Shortly after, it was time. I peeked at the window, and they were still there. I need to move out so I can check how the others are doing. I wanted to go straight for the targets, but I’ll put that for later.

“Let’s go.”

By the door, I looked left and right. Oh, shit. A lot of my knights were dead. Damn. Further back into the corridor, a fight was still happening, but on the way to the stairs, there were only enemies left. Only just killed my knights. In any case, at least I can move without my allies seeing me.

“Stay close behind me.”

We began moving, going for the staircase beyond. There was really nowhere to hide in this corridor, so a pair of enemies ahead instantly found us.

“Hold it right there!” a knight shouted.

“Just kill them,” added another.

I drew out daggers for each of my hands. Provoked by my show of weapons, the knight charged against me. He raised his sword and brought it down. I shifted to the side with a swift turn and threw my glowing dagger in the momentum towards the enemy at the rear. Surprised, he frantically covered his face with his arm. It stabbed his flesh through the armor, but the damage was far from fatal.

And I was using a part of my Physical Enhancement too. Damn metal plates. But whatever, it wasn’t over yet. A second later, magic burst out, and several small slashes emerged.

“Aagh!”

The slashes cut through metal and flesh, shredding all in their path. Meaning, it messed up and severed his hand. Both his sword and hand fell to the floor. Geneva convention? More like Geneva suggestion.

“What?” The knight before me eyed his friend in shock.

I swung down my dagger to the enemy’s side, and fired an arc of crimson light. With the power into that attack, it cut through his armor, reaching his flesh, and pushing him into the wall. He groaned, his severe wound spilling out blood.

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“Ggh, h-how…?”

I heard running footsteps, I turned to see the one-handed enemy coming at me. His sword was held with his other hand. He swung in the air, hurling towards me a magical arc. I quickly dodged, and he hit his own ally, accidentally finishing the job. Pouring more mana into my body, I promptly threw my dagger into the enemy’s unguarded throat. My weapon struck him, and he limped with wide eyes before collapsing to the floor. Huh. I canceled the Armament Magic imbued in the dagger.

Ah, this is amazing.

I felt a sense of elation within me.

“Let’s continue onward.”

“Y-Yes.” Mera looked at the corpses with a small wince.

I pulled out my dagger out of the man’s throat and picked up the other one. With my enhanced strength, I easily flicked off the blood clean. As we continued on further, we heard voices at the next turn.

“The queen and the two princes have escaped.”

“Should we chase them?”

“Nah, already have people on it. Our job is to secure this floor.”

Sticking to the wall, I took a quiet look at the hostiles.

Ooooh.

There were four of them, with one being a particularly big guy. And they didn’t seem to plan on moving. Can’t just outright fight them head on. Unless I really use my magic. But, I'm not really keen on doing that yet. Dagger killing was more fun.

I turned to my maid. “Mera, I need your assistance.”

Time to be useful, little loyal maid.

“Y-Yes?” She looked frightened.

“I need you to get their attention.”

“Really? H-How?”

“Just try showing yourself and go a little ahead. They should try to investigate and follow you.”

“I-I see.”

“If that doesn't work, throw some insults or anything.”

“I-Insults? But I don’t know how to insult.”

Sweet Mera. Look at you, too kind to know how to insult.

“You’ll do fine. I’ll take care of them before they can do anything. Now go.”

Her face full of hesitation, she stepped forward. She was clearly in such distress.

You can do it! I’m cheering for you!

“Hey, who’s that?”

The enemy noticed her.

“Hold it right there!”

Mera slowly stepped back. From the sounds of it, they were moving towards her. My maid, despite trembling, kept stepping back into the corridor. Eventually, all four enemies were in sight, coming for Mera with their weapons.

“Is she a kind of servant?”

“No matter, interrogate her, just in case.”

I stuck close to the wall, and once all their backs faced me, I stepped forward with completely silent steps. Targeting the two by the rear, I slipped in between them.

“Wha—?”

I plunged each of my daggers into their throat. With a twist, I pulled them out as one enemy at my front turned around. I leaped forward with my dagger extended forward to strike him, only to be blocked by a barrier.

Dammit.

The bigger guy ahead noticed, and he turned around. I immediately sent an arc of light at him, which he blocked with a barrier.

I fucking hate magic.

Just as the guy in front of me swung his sword, I leaped back. As his shield was still out, I threw my dagger to the floor beside him. He glanced at my dagger and grinned, believing I had missed. But then he realized it was still glowing. Before he could respond, I triggered the magic, and slashes swirled around it.

“Agh!”

Multiple slashes lashed his leg, and he fell on one knee, his shield disappeared. His face contorted in pain as his leg palpitated blood. I was intending on finishing off right there, but the bigger guy came running at me. He swung down, and I dodged. He attacked again, but I parried it off. Pouring more mana into my free hand, I punched him in the gut, but that only made him back off a couple of meters.

I charged towards him and thrust my blade forward. And again, he used his shield. Our eyes met, and we glared at each other. Before he could strike at me again, I swiftly backed away to safety. The downed enemy, while kneeling, swung his sword to fire an arc of light towards me. I spun around as the slash went past me by an inch. Simultaneously, I threw my dagger, and it stabbed through the guy’s head.

I sighed. Now, one left.

The enemy knight stared at his downed allies. “You’re fast, I'll give you that.”

I slowly picked up one of my blades on the floor.

He continued, “But you can’t beat me.”

“You overestimate yourself. Don’t even need to go all out on you.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, I rushed at him. He fired an arc, but it was useless. After I dodged his magic, he continued with swinging his sword at me. I evaded the physical attack and proceeded to slash the back of his right elbow. As his arm limped, he quickly used his one other hand to strike me. But I easily evaded and moved behind him, lacerating the back of his left knee.

Before he collapsed on one knee, he turned around and swung an attack. I deflected his sword and followed up with a punch to his face, resounding a small boom. That stunned him for a brief moment, but that was enough for me to stab an electric filled blade into his throat. The smell of roasted flesh filled the air as he dropped to the floor.

I stepped back and took heavy breaths.

That was thrilling and worrying. But oh well…

I grabbed and cleaned both my daggers before sheathing them back in under my cloak.

“Let’s go,” I said to Mera.

“Y-Yes.”

We continued onward, and a moment later, we arrived by the staircase. I heard loud sounds of clashing. We hid by the ledge and peeked at the area. The stairs, even the floors upon them, were littered with corpses, both from friendlies and enemies.

There were still a lot of people fighting. Light arcs were fired left and right, crashing into walls, and one damaged the stairs. Not only that, more enemies kept coming in. I expect friendlies will get overwhelmed shortly.

There was a loud rumbling as a Wisterian knight was blown away up to our floor. Thankfully, he was further away. An enemy knight came after him and they continued their fighting in the hallways ahead, sending debris all over the place. Sheesh, felt like I’m watching some superheroes fighting and some shit.

I lowered and hid back on the ledge. “Alright, there are more enemies than I hoped.”

“W-We’re going down there?”

“Let’s check another path.”

We moved to one side of the floor near the staircase. We arrived at one of the few windows around here. Lying on the ground was a knight that was supposed to guard this area. Mera whimpered quietly as she looked at him.

I unlocked and slowly opened the door, looking below. There were no enemies there. I fully opened it to see more of the area outside. They should be here somewhere. And I did find what I was looking for.

It was my servants and my family, fighting at the side of the palace, a bit further from the entryway. Even Lucious was there. Huh, they must have met on the way or something. He was holding a sword, but he didn’t appear to be going in direct combat. Better to have a weapon than none, I guess.

At any rate, with their presence, it resulted in lesser guard on the outside by this window, or rather, none at all. With the enemies distracted, we can safely get out through here. Wew.

“This is the window where we’ll be going down.”

“But it’s three stories high.”

“It’s fine. If you use your Physical Enhancement especially on your legs, you should be able to land fine…”

Her eyes looked very pitiful.

“But it may hurt,” I added.

She lowered her head.

Anyways, if we do that, the landing won’t be pretty quiet. I like a quiet approach so…

“Fine.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist.

“Eh — m-milady? W-What are you doing?”

“Hefting you.”

I carried her to my side with one arm.

“This i-is e-embarrassing…” Her face was red all over while pouting.

I casually shrugged and jumped down from the window. Wind swirled beneath my feet and we slowly landed on the ground. To spare Mera from further embarrassment, I quickly put her down.

“T-Thank you,” she said.

A loud rumble resounded close by from the fighting.

“Let’s join them,” I said.