Chapter 56
Alice screamed and stepped back. Assassins in front and behind.
Seeing the slightly open door, Alice first shouted:
“Help!! Fire!!”
She’d heard that in emergencies, yelling “fire” would make people come out to look.
Whoosh-
Barely dodging a dagger thrown by either the front or back assassin, Alice saw one closing the door and turned.
She grabbed a vase from the visible table and threw it at the nearest assassin.
“You die!! I absolutely won’t die!”
Crash!
“Ugh!”
Whether she had some talent for accuracy or not, the vase hit the assassin’s head squarely.
The assassin staggered and the other one hesitated.
Is he dead?
“You, bitch.”
Contrary to Alice’s hope, the assassin wasn’t dead.
Instead, he targeted her with an even more intense killing intent.
This is bad.
Alice turned to look for something else to throw, but the vase was all there was.
Confirming Alice had nothing left to grab, the assassins quickly closed in.
“If you struggle more, we’ll cut off each of your joints.”
“If you want to die a little less painfully, stay still.”
Stay still, they say.
“Are you crazy, who’s dying! I absolutely can’t die, no, I won’t die! Get lost!”
Alice stretched out her hand towards them.
Strong holy power could become a weapon.
It was definitely written so in the book.
So, please. Save me.
-Flash!
At that moment, a bright light burst from Alice’s hand and the assassins’ eyes widened.
But while a bright light flashed, the assassins didn’t fly away or collapse with screams.
“What? It’s all healed.”
Rather, the wound from the vase hit had been healed.
You useless deity bastard.
Why is healing power activating now!
“I thought it was magic to blind us, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone stupid enough to use holy power on assassins.”
The assassins’ mockery echoed in the darkness.
“You, damned deity!”
Are you really telling me to die like this!
Alice shouted in frustration as she dodged backward, but the assassins who had hesitated at the bright light had already regained their senses.
Their gazes focused precisely on her.
-Thud.
Alice’s back hit the wall.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
A sneer was clearly heard beyond the mask of the assassin who stopped in front of her.
I don’t want to die like this.
I don’t want to die, but there’s nothing more I can do now.
Alice saw the knife flashing above her head and tightly closed her eyes.
And at that moment, a painful scream rang out.
Alice, imagining being stabbed, contorted her face thinking the scream was her own.
Then she suddenly realized. It didn’t hurt at all for being stabbed.
Moreover, she hadn’t just screamed.
Then who?
Alice slowly opened her eyes.
She saw the assassin who had been in front of her collapsed on the floor.
The knife he had been holding lay beside him.
The remaining assassin had his back to her, looking somewhere.
Where the assassin was looking was in front of the wide-open door.
Then a familiar voice echoed in the bedroom.
“How dare you come here.”
“…Kylus.”
As Alice murmured his name softly, a cold voice continued.
“You rats.”
As soon as the words ended, Kylus rushed at the hesitating assassin.
In less than a few seconds, the assassin’s body fell with a thud.
In the darkness, Alice couldn’t properly see what had happened.
She only knew that Kylus had taken down the assassin in an instant.
Kylus stepped over the motionless assassins and approached her.
As he came closer, his handsome face, previously invisible, became somewhat visible.
Black hair, black eyes.
Even without being wrapped in black clothes, he blended perfectly into the darkness more than the assassins.
Perhaps that’s why.
The blood dripping from his knife was exceptionally vivid.
“Are you alright?”
“…Yes. I’m fine.”
“We’d better leave here for now.”
Just as Kylus was about to reach out to the frozen Alice, more assassins appeared at the door.
Simultaneously, a boom- sound of something exploding was heard from below.
“Thieves!”
“Thieves have broken into the underground storage!”
The knights’ shouts were heard.
Thieves… you say?
At this point, suddenly?
It doesn’t make sense.
Surely those thieves must be the same assassins. It must be to draw others’ attention to quietly dispose of her.
Her death, too, could be neatly handled as an unfortunate accident by armed thieves.
It was so perfect it gave her chills.
While the duchy was in an uproar with thieves, more assassins pushed into the room.
Somehow, assassins also invaded the bedroom from the terrace.
Though it wasn’t clearly visible in the pitch darkness, their number exceeded at least 10.
Crazy.
How many did they send?
The Empress seemed determined to kill Alice today no matter what.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t send so many assassins just to kill one powerless woman.
“So there weren’t just two. Quite a large number for thieves.”
Kylus’s low voice, tinged with mockery, echoed in the quiet room.
The assassins hesitated upon seeing Kylus. He seemed to be an unexpected obstacle.
Kylus hid Alice behind his back and gripped his sword again.
“Having dared to try and steal the duchy’s treasure, I assume you don’t expect to leave alive.”
Even though she could only see his back, the thick killing intent made Alice’s arms break out in goosebumps.
Whoosh-
Kylus spun his sword once and gripped it properly.
“Alice.”
“…Yes?”
“It’d be best to close your eyes for a moment. It won’t be a pleasant sight.”
Before Alice could reply, Kylus rushed at the assassins.
And each time he swung his sword, the sound of something being sliced echoed heavily in the bedroom.
Alice finally squeezed her eyes shut after seeing chunks falling from the assassins’ bodies.
As Kylus had said, it was far from a pleasant sight.
How long had it been like that?
It didn’t seem like even a few minutes had passed when suddenly she felt the surroundings brighten.
And then voices were heard.
“Your Grace!”
“Your Grace, are you alright?!”
It seemed the duchy’s knights had arrived.
Alice opened her eyes slightly.
The assassins were sprawled around Kylus, looking completely lifeless.
Alice finally covered her mouth upon seeing the blood flowing from them.
“Urgh!”
She tried to hold it back, but it was impossible.
In her previous life, she had never once had occasion to see corpses.
But now this was a real situation, not in a novel or movie.
Real dead people were strewn before her eyes.
The pungent smell invading her nose confirmed the reality.
She knew this world was different from the one she had lived in, but this was the first time she had properly faced it like this.
Alice finally turned and emptied the contents of her stomach.
“Urgh, ugh…”
She hadn’t eaten dinner, so there was nothing to come out.
Still, only after throwing up even stomach acid from the uncontrollable nausea could Alice breathe.
As her body went limp and she staggered, someone quickly supported her arm.
“Alice.”
It was Kylus.
He furrowed his brow upon seeing Alice’s face.
And Alice also furrowed her brow seeing the blood on his cheek.
It didn’t seem to be his blood, but right now even the color red was difficult to look at.
“Davit, I’ve left one alive, so take him to the underground prison. Make sure to thoroughly silence the servants to prevent any unnecessary rumors from spreading.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“You’d better come out with me.”
Kylus clicked his tongue and led Alice out of the bedroom.
Alice had no strength to refuse him, so she was led along like a sheet of paper.
Kylus brought Alice to his own bedroom.
Cool air.
As she breathed in the clear air, free from the bloody scent that had filled her bedroom, Alice’s stomach quickly settled.
Kylus supported Alice and seated her on the sofa.
Then he brought a blanket and wrapped it around her body.
Just then, the butler entered carrying a steaming mug.
“It’s a tea to calm your mind and body, Young Madam.”
“I’ll change clothes and be back, so drink it while you wait.”
Clothes?
Alice unconsciously looked at Kylus’s clothes and covered her mouth again.
She hadn’t noticed earlier due to the confusion, but looking again, Kylus’s clothes were covered in blood.
“Urgh…”
“Oh dear.”
The sound of clicking his tongue echoed in her head as Kylus moved away.
When she raised her head, Kylus was no longer visible, presumably having entered the dressing room.
“Drinking the tea will make you feel much better.”
The butler said.
“Okay…”
Alice picked up the mug and took a sip of what seemed to be medicinal tea.
Despite the unusual aroma, the taste of the tea was surprisingly good.
After a few more sips, her mind and body quickly calmed as the butler had said.
“You seem to be feeling better, so I’ll take my leave now.”
After checking Alice’s complexion, the butler withdrew, and Kylus immediately came out of the dressing room.
In that short time, he seemed to have also visited the bathroom connected to the dressing room, as Kylus’s hair was damp with moisture.
The bathroom water… would be cold if not heated in advance.
The bathroom water was ice-cold and needed to be heated with magic stones for about an hour beforehand to be usable for washing.
That’s why the maids brought pre-warmed water for washing every morning.
Well, imagining Kylus shouting that the water was cold… was unthinkable.
Having completely washed away the bloody scent, he sat down across from Alice.
Wearing a white shirt and light pants, he brushed back his damp hair.
I don’t want to think this in this situation, but really… he was sexy.
“You seemed quite shocked. Are you feeling a bit better now?”
