That night, after a tiring day of travel, Joan did not go to the research center and went to bed early, hoping to have a peaceful night's sleep. But contrary to her expectations, a slight tremor woke her up.

"What was that?"

Still sleepy, Joan grumbled.

Rolling to the side on her huge bed, she stretched her hand out to the bedside table, where she lit the lamp by inserting mana into its base.

"What's the matter?"

A good-looking blond man who was on the same bed rolled over to her and put his head on her shoulder.

"I think I heard an explosion," she said.

Looking from side to side, Joan noticed something strange. Besides her and Mike in the bed, there was supposed to be someone else, Vincent. But no matter where she looked, the only one in the room were her and Mike, Vincent was nowhere to be seen.

If a woman becoming leader of a household was considered unusual, one becoming ruler of a kingdom was one in a million. Because of this, when she took the throne, Joan encountered many adversities and this was made even worse when she openly took on her three husbands. Because they were from backgrounds unsatisfactory to the nobles of her kingdom, this put her in an even more difficult position.

Her first husband, Vincent, was just an ordinary commoner who rose through the military ranks. He rose to the rank of marshal and currently holds the command of the kingdom's army in his hands.

Jack is the second husband and also the second son from a family of earls. He is in command of the exploration troops and is currently on a monster extermination mission to open up more farmland.

Mike is the third, he is the fourth son of a marquis and before he met Joan, he was a professor at the royal academy. Currently, he is the head of the research and development center under Joan's direct command.

Even though many belittled her, she didn't care what others thought about her. Using her capabilities and unbeatable charisma, she stood firm in her position. With the help of her unique skills, she intended to further solidify her position as queen.

"Where's Vin?" she asked.

Tardily noticing Vincent's absence, Mike was about to say something, but then-

*Boom!*

The explosion was so big that Joan felt the vibrations in the air.

"We are under attack!" Mike shouted.

Jumping out of bed, he immediately grabbed Joan's hand and hurriedly led her into the secret passage of the room that was behind a bookcase.

Pushing the brick into the wall, a passage opened up.

"Go to the underground shelter!"

Mike pushed her into the passage.

"But what about you?" she asked when she saw that he didn't go in with her.

"I'm going to go find my little sister. Don't worry, I'll be fine!"

Without waiting for an answer from her, Mike closed the passage door and all she heard were his hurried footsteps.

Joan was worried about Mike, but knew that if she accompanied him, she would only get in his way. Even if he was a researcher, because of his background, he had to go through rigorous training, so he still had some strength left.

Following the dark, narrow corridor, Joan walked until she came to a staircase leading to the lower floors of the castle. Since her room was on the upper floor, she descended quickly as she heard the explosions and tremors becoming more frequent.

Just as she was about to enter the basement to go to the underground shelter, she saw a flash of light pass through the tiny gaps in the stone blocks. At the same time, she heard a pitiful scream.

"Vin!"

Joan shouted as she recognized the owner of the voice.

Following Vincent's shout, other shouts also sounded.

Knowing there was nothing she could do at the moment, Joan gritted her teeth and grabbing her long sweater, she rushed forward.

Unlike what the enemies might think, the secret chamber for the royalty was not in the castle, but below the research center. This was the most secure place in the entire kingdom, and in case there was trouble her soldiers could not handle, there was an escape route through there. The underground shelter was also just a few hundred meters ahead of where she was.

By getting there, she could probably get a good view of the situation Vincent was in. Although she could not help in direct combat, she believed she could distract the enemies.

Even though she has a system to help her get stronger, Joan has always put everything into magic to increase her mana. Besides a few basic spells, she never gave priority to learning complicated spells or training her body. All her time and resources were spent on her research and as a consequence of her weak physique, it took her a while to get to the research center.

Instead of following the original route, Joan took a detour and went to the first floor and followed the walls leading outside.

Using her unique skill, she cut a small hole in the solid iron wall. Although it was night, the moon was high in the sky and without the clouds to impede its brightness, Joan could see what was happening clearly.

On the ground, some of her soldiers were fallen, probably dead. Not far away, some were still exchanging sword blows against some unknown men dressed entirely in black.

A few feet away from them, Vincent was also trying to hold his ground while exchanging blows against a man in gray clothing.

Although her soldiers were fighting well and in greater numbers, the enemies looked powerful, especially the man standing against Vincent. Even with his bare hands, he created explosions with each of his blows, and occasionally, he created even bigger explosions that made the ground shake.

The fight between him and Vincent was a bit removed from the others, but it was still enough to affect the soldiers when he created large explosions. Strangely, he didn't seem to mind hurting his allies.

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In Joan's accounts, there were six men completely in black fighting against dozens of soldiers. A man in gray fighting Vincent, and there was still another one wearing a silver, almost white outfit. As if he were the leader, he stood a little way back and just watched everything.

Although she didn't know if it would be of much help, Joan was prepared to test her new prototype in combat.

Expanding the hole in the wall, Joan pulled out a gun with a long metal barrel that didn't exist in this world, a rifle. But it was not a simple rifle, although she couldn't classify it, she was confident that it had even more power than an anti-tank rifle.

Because of the weight, Joan would not normally be able to hold something so heavy, but her skill to manipulate metals made it possible.

Using her unique skill, she lifted a support off the metal floor and attached the rifle to keep it stable. Bringing her face to the telescopic sight, she locked one of the men in black who was a little way off in her sights and fired.

*Bang*

Even though she avoided the recoil of the gun due to the support, she involuntarily closed her eyes due to the explosive sound of the shot.

When she opened her eyes again, her target was still alive, but now he was missing half of his torso as he writhed on the ground. Not letting the opportunity pass, the soldiers attacked the fallen man with their swords.

Seeing the effectiveness of the prototype, Joan was satisfied, but to her misfortune, she is currently the only one who can use this weapon continuously. After a single shot, the explosion of gunpowder deformed the thick barrel.

Reforming the barrel, Joan reloaded her rifle and looked for her next target, but she had a little trouble. After the first shot, the men in black were taking care not to get away from Joan's soldiers.

Because of this, she avoided shooting at them carelessly. Because of the power of the shot, if one of her soldiers were close, they could suffer collateral damage.

With no better option, she chose the silver clothed man as her next target and equipped the ear protector she took from her inventory.

Because of the previous shooting, the man was looking toward the research center, probably trying to locate the source of the shot. Being able to see the man's facial features thanks to the telescopic sight, she noticed that he had pale skin, slightly pointed ears and red eyes.

This was not a race Joan had ever seen in her life on the central continent. Putting her race aside, she locked her aim on the man and fired.

As if ripping through the air, shock waves formed as the bullet went like red lightning.

In the next instant, all she saw was the man being hurled away as he spun a few times in the air. Following its trajectory, the bullet only stopped when it hit the stone wall in the distance.

Betraying Joan's expectations, before he even hit the ground, the silver clothed man regained his balance and stood. But regaining her hopes, upon being hit by the gunshot, the man was not unharmed. He lost his right hand and also gained a fist-sized charred hole in his chest, it was only a matter of time before he fell.

Strangely, instead of appearing to weaken or scream in pain, he was casually standing up as if nothing had happened.

As Joan prepared for the next shot, she got horrified.

The hole in the man's chest was slowly closing up. Even the bones in his hand seemed to be growing back and as this was happening, the man's gaze met hers through the telescopic sight.

Without waiting another second, Joan pulled the trigger again.

*Bang*

Like a red ray that seemed to have the power to penetrate everything, the bullet sliced through the air toward the man. However, something Joan didn't expect happened.

Using surreal speed, the man dodged the bullet like it was nothing.

"I slipped up by noticing that there was no magic in the attack, but it won't happen again," the man said. "First an alarm that doesn't use magic, and now this. That heretic has gone too far."

"Take care of the pawns, I'm going to eliminate that shooter," the silver-clothed man shouted to the others.

Without waiting another second, Joan prepared to take another shot, but as she reloaded, the man was gone.

With a bad feeling, she immediately put the rifle away in her inventory and closed the hole in the wall.

At the same instant, she heard loud knocks on the solid iron wall. Because of the thickness, she believed that the man could not easily enter, but soon she saw the wall being dented.

Putting her hands together, she began to use her metal manipulation skills to fix the wall. To her misfortune, although she held on for a few seconds, her mana was depleting at an alarming rate.

Should this continue any longer, Joan knew it would only be a matter of time before her death. Without a second look back, she turned and ran for her life. Going through the hole that appeared in the iron wall behind her, she closed it and moved on.

Cutting her way through, Joan walked through the walls to the center of the research center. Her intention was to let the man wander around the research center and activate the traps that lay in his path. But like her, her pursuer was not taking a conventional path.

As she ran, even as she took a few detours, the tremors behind her were getting more intense. Without much thought, she realized that he had a way to track her.

As Joan used every last cell of her brain to think of a way to escape, some red lights began to flash in the ceiling.

*Beep beep beep*

This was the general alarm that was only activated when someone broke into the innermost part of the research center. Which meant that besides the man who was chasing her, there was another intruder trying to steal her research.

Although she knew that if she kept going forward she would encounter this intruder, she could no longer go back. The underground shelter was no longer an option either, as she would be taking a dangerous being to where people dear to her were.

Her only hope was to try to use a steel safe covered with electricity that was in the research room. Even though she wasn't sure if this would work, she still had to try.

The instant she passed the last wall into the innermost part of the research center, she found a young man wearing a tattered cloak running around the place.

"What a strange place, I don't feel any fluctuation of magic," the young man muttered. "It wasn't supposed to have anything here and yet I still activated a hidden alarm, it's fascinating."

As the young man muttered to himself, he just gave Joan a glance as he continued running through the place. Mysteriously, as he ran, things kept disappearing as if it had never been in that place.

'Wasn't that the young man who was at the gate earlier?' Joan thought.

Without needing to think much, it was apparent that he was stealing.

Since she was in no position to complain at the moment, Joan ran to the main vault, but then she noticed something.

The safe had also disappeared.

"Whe-where is the safe?!" Joan shouted in desperation.

As Joan was already hopeless, the wall she came through was blown away and the man who had been chasing her appeared. But instead of continuing to chase her, he looked briefly cautiously at the young man who was running around the place and then turned his gaze to Joan.

With an expression of surprise, he said, "I didn't expect our target to be the sneaky sniper. Less work for me."

"I-I am your target?!" Joan asked, not knowing what was going on. "Why? I don't remember doing anything to offend you."

"Just the existence of this place is already a sin in itself," the man said. "My duty is to root out evil and bring punishment to sinners like you."

But then he finally noticed that the young man was robbing the place.

"Boy, the things you took are forbidden and cannot be spread around the world. Return everything you took, otherwise I'll have to take it from you by force," the man threatened.

Turning to the man, the young man looked surprised, "A vampire? It's rare to find one on the central continent."

While Joan was surprised to discover that her pursuer was a vampire, this same vampire seemed wary of the young man.

"Boy, I'm not giving another warning. Hand over what you stole!"

"I'm not in the mood. Bye."

With explosive speed, the young man approached the vampire and kicked him. With the explosion of the air impact, Joan was forced to close her eyes and then heard another loud impact, probably the vampire slamming against the wall.

When she opened her eyes again, all she could see was the vampire passing through the hole he had made while chasing her. As for the young man, she had no idea where he was, he had probably already fled.

Anyway, while they were on a cat-and-mouse chase, Joan stayed behind and was temporarily safe.