A scene of terrible torture...
His ears went deaf.
Edgar held his breath and let go.
Several knights are seen attempting to escape with their retainers.
However, they are helplessly subdued by Ryan's soldiers, who were thoroughly controlling the entrance.
All of them are soldiers wearing stolen uniforms of the Wassenberg 1st Infantry Corps.
This means that the 1st Division, which boasted the greatest military power within the family, was annihilated without a sound.
It is an act that absolutely cannot be committed by anyone who is not a person with supernatural abilities.
Bang!
Bang!
In the end, Edgar could not bear to look any longer at his dying son and the son who was killing him, so he turned his head away.
Coaxing Ryan?
"Father told me to dig up what Ryan was hiding. Killing her has become the most definitive proof."
Ryan, who claimed to be helpless even as he watched Vania being tortured to death.
He thought the fact that he couldn't save the child he cherished enough to cough up blood had become definitive proof, just as David said...
'It wasn't.'
It was simply that his will for revenge was stronger. Enough to endure and turn a blind eye to his sister's death.
He merely endured it with the feeling of biting into a gallbladder. For the sake of his plan to kill and eliminate everyone right here and now.
Therefore, persuasion is impossible.
Edgar clenched his trembling hands tightly and closed his eyes.
There was only one escape route he could think of right now.
'Christa, hurry...!!!'
***
Meanwhile, turn back time.
Vania and Kali's journey returned to immediately after their infiltration.
***
"It is a message from His Excellency to escort Miss Christa to the meeting hall."
Kali spoke to the guard on the third floor of the castle's eastern staircase, holding out her Sapphire Medal (Special: Stolen from the Private Corps Commander).
Upon seeing the medal, the guard bowed respectfully 90 degrees to Kali and cleared the way.
Just as she had done on the floor below.
We very naturally ascended the stairs and headed to the next floor.
Our destination was the top floor of the main castle, the 10th floor.
I had assumed Christa was in the basement or on the top floor, but seeing the doorman on the first floor clear the way up, the answer became clear immediately.
Why did I think it was one of the others?
Because the basement and the 10th floor were the only floors where the door could be locked from the outside.
The 10th floor was a space meticulously designed by the father to confine his children.
How do you know?
I didn't want to know either...
"His Excellency the Duke ordered that the young lady be brought."
"Yes."
Before I knew it, I passed the 6th-floor guard.
It is none other than 'that' Duke of Wassenberg Castle. Is security really supposed to be this lax?
That said, in fact, it is a situation where one cannot immediately suspect that Kali is an intruder.
She was wearing the clothes and sword stripped from one of the soldiers who had been killed instantly at the entrance. She was dressed in the uniform of the 1st Infantry Corps with blue epaulets on her shoulders.
The 1st Infantry Corps consists of figures whom the gatekeepers, who do nothing but stand around inside the castle except on special occasions like mobilization days, rarely encounter.
It means that it is difficult to distinguish the faces of each member, excluding the commander.
Furthermore....
It is the commander's order.
She is showing off a medal that only three people in Wassenberg possess.
This medal, personally bestowed by my father only upon his direct bodyguards, aides, and corps commanders, means 'obey their orders as if they were my own.'
Of course, there is no way he would transfer a medal with such power to someone else.
Even so, what would you do if, by any chance, you were forced to hand it over due to an unavoidable unexpected situation?
It is a beating for disobeying orders.
In fact, for the guards, it was practically a wise choice to clear the way for now, even if they were suspicious.
It didn't matter even if they realized later that Kali was an intruder.
Our soldiers entering as the reinforcements will take care of the cleanup.
So, our mission is just to go straight up to the 10th floor.
I had to go as quickly as possible.
Because it's a race against time.
I hope Ryan buys us some time!
Ryan is likely riding the central staircase with Corporal Yannis to the conference room on the 8th floor right now.
Wassenberg Castle, an old building where not only the meeting hall but all heavily guarded areas could only be entered via the central staircase.
Unlike us, who were going up quickly via the eastern stairs, Ryan would take longer because he had to have his identity thoroughly verified on every floor.
'Ha. But can I really get there without getting caught?'
Even though Ryan has the Private Commander by his side...
'Never mind, let me just worry about myself.'
Worrying about the lion is the most useless worry. If he gets caught, he'll just quell the commotion with another Belzer-style infiltration, I suppose.
Anyway, Ryan said that since his father could activate the disabling ability if he saw him, he would enter as slowly as possible to buy us time.
The moment neutralization is turned on?
I am forced to pop out of Kali's shadow, where I had been safely hiding.
On top of that, I have zero physical strength!
If I cannot use this ability, my true value will be revealed, becoming the most useless.
"W-w-w-we have to hurry!"
I was getting anxious, and before I knew it, Kali had reached the 10th floor.
As was the case on every floor, the door was firmly closed, and three guards were stationed in front of it.
I was so nervous that I held my breath, which wouldn't even be heard.
Up until now, I didn't need to open that door; I just had to go up to the next floor, but...
Not this time.
We had to open that door and rescue Christa from the room where she was being held captive.
"The commander sent me."
Kali showed off her medal.
"I received orders from His Excellency the Duke to bring Miss Christa to the meeting hall."
"..."
A moment of silence
Soon, one of the three guards, who appeared to be the leader, quietly stepped forward.
"Excuse me, but may I take a closer look at the medal?"
It goes without saying, but since they were in a position where they had to open the door, the guards this time were cautious.
Kali readily handed over the medal.
The chief guard examined it carefully. It was stolen, but it is genuine, so there is no problem.
Eventually, he nodded and spoke with a smile.
"My name is Mark Waltz."
... Suddenly introducing yourself?
For starters, it was a name and a face I didn't know.
However, seeing Mark blushing slightly as if expecting something...
Is he trying to make a good impression? To remember his name?
If the Corps Commander was willing to even transfer a medal, he must have thought Kali was someone with influence within the 1st Corps.
"I don't remember, so please guide me."
"Yes!"
Mark, smiling broadly, opened the door to the 10th floor without a doubt.
'Hiiiiiik!'
It was a familiar scene, but the interior of the 10th floor, spacious enough to make me sick of seeing it again, unfolded before my eyes.
A hallway with no end in sight.
Dozens of rooms with huge doors.
Guards standing at regular intervals in the hallway, arranged like a picture.
'Oh, no wonder they can't suspect anything.'
Who would have thought that someone would break through this tight security alone to do something suspicious, without even being a person with supernatural abilities?
'Who is even the 'lady' we said we would take?'
She is a monster possessing the destructive offensive special ability <Storm's True>.
They probably didn't suspect anything downstairs either.
Unless she came to commit suicide, they couldn't possibly imagine that Kali was an intruder.
"Let's go. I will guide you."
Mark stood beside Kali and began striding across the long corridor.
We have no idea which of the many rooms Christa is in. It’s probably locked, but we don’t have a key.
So if Marc personally shows us to Christa’s room and even opens the door for us, that’s great for us—no bloodshed.
If things had gone as planned, I’d be beating the crap out of him right now, yelling, “Where’s the key? Hand it over if you’ve got it!” But that’s just how it goes.
'But what's that thing stuck deep inside the rock?'
We thought we would reach Christa's room after walking for a while, but we walked all the way to the end of the hallway.
It was a dead end with only one room remaining on each side.
Is it the very last room?
If not that...
'Hmm.'
These heavy footsteps were coming from behind, loud enough to be felt even by my dull mind.
What is it?
Judging by the lookout, it seems the guards stationed in every hallway are following us one by one...
Please hope it's my mistake.
For some reason, I saw the back of Kali's hand, veins bulging as she stretched her arms out while clasping her fingers together.
Ugh.
Please don't warm up in a way that makes me anxious...
"You."
Then, Mark said.
"Why are you speaking informally to me?"
Stop.
"You might not know what I look like. But even after I revealed my name, you keep speaking to me informally?"
"Who do you think you are to ask me to use honorifics?'
It was an instant.
Kali grabbed Mark, who was standing to her left, by the hair and forced him to bow.
Puck!
She brought her knee up at a right angle and struck him in the solar plexus.
“Cough!”
Then, quickly drawing her sword from her waist, he turned around.
As expected, about twenty guards were all following behind.
Wow!
I became a cornered rat!
B... But, as expected!
We came assuming we would face the guards on the 10th floor from the start.
There is no other way to get Christa to willingly open her room.
"As I mentioned, I ask that your protection be healing, not restraint.'
Kali spoke quickly, loud enough for me to hear.
"And only if it's a fatal wound. I don't even know if they'll be able to reach me."
This is a matter that Kali had strongly emphasized in advance.
This was because, unlike healing, which had already been honed to a perfected stage and could be used repeatedly without issue, binding was one of the supernatural abilities that put a strain on my body when upgraded.
She also wanted to keep my existence safely hidden until the very end.
'Sigh. But I'm busy right now, and there are a lot of them, so it's better to tie them up and beat them one by one...'
"Don't worry, it won't take more than five minutes."
Even though I couldn't send a telepathic message, Kali answered as if she had read my thoughts.
Soon, she firmly grasped the sword in her right hand and, without delay, drew a gun from her bosom with her left hand.
Whirl, spin it around once.
Taang!
“Aaaah!”
She fired a shot at the thigh of Mark, who was staggering after being hit in the solar plexus.
With the sound of a gunshot signaling the start of the battle, Kali.
"I will show you how strong the young lady's knight is."
She rushed toward the enemies like lightning.
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