Daniela, gripped by fear, grabbed Gray’s shoulder with a pale face. Gray let out a hollow laugh, a corner of his mouth lifted, and whispered to Daniela.
“From now on, I will risk my life to clear a path to the carriage. So, Your Grace, don’t worry about me and focus on making a safe escape.”
“W-What are you going to do? How can you face all those people alone?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll make it happen somehow.”
After saying that, Gray roughly tore the hem of her dress.
This revealed her legs, clad in black tights, and two medium-sized swords strapped to her thighs. Gray drew them without hesitation and swung them at the assassin closest to her.
“Ugh…!”
The assassin let out a shriek and fell to the floor. The other assassins, horrified by the sight of their colleague’s instant death, swore coarsely and rushed at Gray.
“That damned bitch!”
“Kill that bitch right now!”
Gray swung her swords relentlessly at the assassins surrounding her. Horrific screams erupted, and blood gushed from the wounds on the assassins’ bodies.
Ignoring the gruesome scene unfolding before her, Daniela shoved the letter box she had found in the study into her robe pocket and began to run toward the carriage.
“Damn it! The Grand Duchess is escaping!”
“Chase her! Go after her!”
The assassins shouted at the departing Daniela and tried to follow her. Gray blocked them and swung her swords relentlessly. The assassins who were heading for Daniela’s body crumbled helplessly and fell at Gray’s feet. Gray wiped the blood that had splattered on her face with the back of her hand and said in a low, somber voice.
“You won’t touch a single hair on the Grand Duchess’s head before you get rid of me.”
She looked like a killer.
Some of the assassins, overwhelmed by Gray’s momentum, flinched and took a step back. The assassins’ leader glared fiercely at his subordinates and shouted.
“Damn it! This won’t work! Hey, Jack! Markel! You two come with me and chase the Grand Duchess! The rest of you surround that bitch!”
“Yes, boss!”
The assassins, following the command, split into two groups. Some surrounded Gray, and the leader, along with two subordinates, chased Daniela, who was running toward the Duke of Enchanto’s country house.
Gray relentlessly cut down the assassins who surrounded her, then ran to block those who were chasing Daniela. A fierce battle began between Gray and the assassins.
Daniela tried her best to ignore the screams, shouts, and sounds of clashing swords coming from behind her, and ran forward, forward.
She wanted to turn back and check if Gray was okay, but she couldn’t. She knew that such an action would be no help to either herself or Gray.
‘I see the carriage!’
Just as she was panting and quickening her steps as if she were about to collapse, Daniela saw the carriage.
All she had to do now was open the carriage door and get in. Daniela opened the closed door of the carriage.
“…Ahk!”
At that moment, her vision flashed, and she felt a strong impact on the back of her head.
At the same time, Daniela felt extreme dizziness and her vision blurring. She desperately tried to regain her consciousness, and with her eyes wide open, she looked behind her.
“My, I didn’t think you would be this persistent.”
“…!”
“It’s a good thing I was on guard, just in case.”
Standing there was the head butler of the country house. He was smiling maliciously as he looked down at the fallen Daniela. Daniela bit her lower lip until it bled and glared at his figure, which was getting more and more blurry.
“Grand Duchess!”
Gray, who was dealing with the assassins chasing after them, turned around at the sound of Daniela falling.
At that moment, the leader’s sword pierced Gray’s left shoulder. Gray’s eyes widened in shock, and she collapsed forward, spilling blood.
‘Gray!’
Daniela’s beautiful face was contorted in despair.
The head butler chuckled as if he was amused, and then asked the assassins who were raising their feet to kick the fallen Gray.
“Is this the end of it?”
The leader smirked and answered.
“Of course not. …We have to clean up the mess properly.”
He then approached Daniela and lifted her limp body. Daniela struggled and thrashed, but it was no use.
Because of the impact on the back of her head just moments ago, she was dizzy and couldn’t see clearly, and the strength of the leader who was holding her was so great.
He left the garden where the carriage was parked and returned to the place where he and Gray had been ambushed moments ago.
He then stood in front of a well and threw Daniela into the hole that was gaping open like a black maw.
“…!”
Daniela’s body slowly fell down the well.
She desperately stretched out her arms and managed to grab a protruding rock on the wall, but she couldn’t hold on for long and fell to the bottom.
Her body hit the soft, dry dirt floor, and a cloud of dust rose up. A rotten wooden bucket and the letter box inside it were crushed and shattered by her fallen body. The assassins and the head butler looked down at Daniela, who was lying on the bottom of the well, chuckled with amusement, and said.
“Now all we have to do is cover it, and it’s over?”
“That’s right. Although we still have to cleanly dispose of the bodies of the guys who lost their lives to that damned sword-wielding bitch.”
“By now, Grand Duke Alberich must have headed north, boss?”
“Hehe, that’s right. Without even knowing that it’s a trap set by the Count.”
“…!”
Daniela’s eyes, which had heard their conversation, widened in shock. The leader kept smiling maliciously and said.
“And when the Grand Duke realizes he was tricked and comes back here to find his wife…”
“His wife will have ‘died in an unfortunate accident’ by falling into this well.”
“Hahaha, that’s right! And we’ll make it look like the two bitches who followed the Grand Duchess either ran away or killed themselves out of fear of being questioned by the Grand Duke for failing to properly serve her!”
“What a perfect plan!”
The assassins congratulated themselves on their perfect plan. Daniela tried to move somehow, but she was so dizzy and had such a headache that she could barely move a finger.
The villains laughed at her for a long time and then soon brought a huge lid and began to cover the entrance of the well where Daniela was trapped. Daniela, seeing the round sky visible from the well slowly being covered in black, desperately tried to get up.
“No… ugh…!”
But by then, the lid had already covered the well.
The evil laughter and footsteps of the assassins and the head butler gradually faded away.
Thick tears welled up in Daniela’s eyes as she looked up at the black sky. She squeezed her eyes shut as if to deny this terrible reality. Tears rolled down her cheeks and fell to the floor. Acid and Lowell, along with five knights, spurred their horses forward, rapidly heading for their destination, the Asland estate.
Soon, the dilapidated castle walls of the Asland estate appeared before them. They passed the old drawbridge and the unguarded castle gate and headed straight for the Duke of Enchanto’s country house.
Acid stopped his horse in front of the mansion and jumped lightly to the ground. He looked up at the mansion, which seemed peaceful from the outside, and said in a cold voice.
“It’s quiet. Too quiet.”
“…Yes, it is.”
Lowell, who had dismounted from his horse, agreed quietly. The five knights exchanged meaningful glances and gripped the swords at their waists.
Acid led them inside the main entrance of the mansion. Then, standing in front of the entrance, he shouted.
“Hey, is anyone there?”
A moment later, the head butler and a maid came running toward the entrance from what seemed to be the servants’ quarters. For some reason, they were pale-faced and flustered as they bowed to Acid.
“Y-Your, Your Grace Grand Duke Alberich, we greet you. But what brings you here…?”
“I was told the Grand Duchess would be visiting here today. Where is she now?”
When Acid asked in a blunt voice, the head butler and the maid were startled and answered.
“What? H-How could that be…”
“…We have not seen her.”
“Oh, really?”
He repeated the question and approached the two servants. At that moment, Acid smelled a faint scent coming from their bodies and his face hardened.
It was the scent of blood from a person he was all too familiar with. Acid twisted the corner of his mouth and said.
Can he really… Tell that it’s her blood by smelling it..?