Outside the courtyard wall.
Ethan, the old mage, looked at the unremarkable little courtyard, a glint of thoughtful sharpness and surprise flashing through his clouded old eyes.
He hesitated for a moment, but instead of ordering a direct assault, he raised his staff and pointed it at the sky above the courtyard.
An obscure, lengthy, and oppressive incantation poured from his lips.
Standing at the entrance of the cellar, Lucrezia suddenly snapped her head up, her small face turning pale in an instant.
"This... this mana fluctuation!"
The sky overhead began to change. The once clear night sky was instantly choked with dark clouds, and a bone-chilling wind began to howl.
"How does he dare! There are still civilians living nearby!"
Lucrezia grabbed Leo's collar in terror.
"This is a 【Crowned】 grade wide-area destruction spell—【Blizzard】! It’ll be fully formed in about eight seconds! We’re going to be buried alive!"
Eight seconds.
Surging, violent mana gathered above the courtyard like the scythe of a death god.
"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!!"
Vespa, still hanging in mid-air, also felt the devastating aura overhead. Scared out of his wits, he begged for mercy while urging them on.
"Yours truly won't ever do it again! I didn't lie to you! There really is a secret passage down here! You can really get out!"
"Take me with you! I beg you! I’ll go with you! I don’t want to become an ice sculpture, meow!"
'Damn it! Damn it!'
'If it weren't for the fact that 【Shadow Cloak】 is still on cooldown, how could I let this petty binding trap me!'
'This damned dog of a man!'
'Just when did he pull this dirty trick?!'
'So young, yet his heart is so dark. Truly, appearances are deceiving!'
'Lord Vespa might actually suffer a disaster today. This time it's really over for me, meow...'
Leo didn't waste words.
Controlling the Mage's Hand, he unceremoniously threw the "pathfinder" Vespa into the cellar first.
"Since you're the guide, you go first."
Then, he leaped into the darkness, holding Lucrezia.
"Seal!"
The moment he landed, Leo reached back and drained the very last bit of mana from his body.
Rumble!
Several thick stone pillars interlocked at the entrance above, followed by a massive collapse of earth and stone, completely sealing the entry!
This wasn't just to block pursuers, but more importantly...
The very next second after the passage was sealed.
"WHOOSH—!!!!"
A roar like the end of the world came from above.
Innumerable hailstones the size of washbasins and razor-sharp ice blades, carried by a violent hurricane, bombarded the courtyard indiscriminately!
Even through the thick layer of earth, the cellar shook violently, and dust fell in flurries.
Lucrezia was like a frightened little quail, huddling tightly in Leo's arms. Listening to the heart-pounding roar above, she didn't even dare to breathe.
If they had been a step late... even a single second...
The consequences would have been unthinkable.
Five seconds later, the 【Blizzard】 ceased.
The entire courtyard had been turned into ruins. The house had collapsed, and the ground was covered in a layer of ice. All was silent.
"Search!"
The city guard rushed in, scouring the ruins, but found nothing.
"Lord Ethan... over here! There's a collapsed cellar entrance!"
The old mage Ethan walked slowly into the ruins, looking somewhat weak.
He looked at the cellar entrance that had been sealed from the inside. Instead of being enraged, he let out a long sigh of relief, as if he had reached an understanding.
"It seems they escaped."
Right at that moment.
"Whiz—Bang!"
A brilliant firework suddenly exploded over the most central area of Kent Town—the Lord's Manor!
Immediately after, flames soared into the sky!
"Oh no! Our home base was stolen!!"
The second-in-command who had just arrived... no, he should be called the leader now, Harvey, saw this scene and his face turned deathly pale, as if his parents had just died.
"We've been played! A diversion! This was a conspiracy from the very beginning!"
Compared to Harvey's panic, the old mage Ethan was eerily calm.
He watched the soaring flames, the corner of his mouth even curling into a meaningful arc as he murmured in a low voice:
"It matters not..."
"Our appearance here... is perhaps exactly the result our 'old and senile' Baron Hawthorne most wished to see."
The cellar's secret passage was deep and long. The air was thick with the smell of mold, but the ventilation was surprisingly good.
Vespa was still ahead, prattling on and begging for mercy, but his feet were honest and led the way without the slightest hesitation.
'This guy might be talkative and slippery, but he's not actually a bad person.'
'It seems my judgment of people is as sharp as ever.'
Leo mused, a playful arc curling his lips.
"Alright, stop wailing. No one's going to kill you."
The duration of 【Lightness】 had long since passed. After carrying Lucrezia all this way, Leo felt his arms growing sore.
Now that he sensed the vibrations overhead had stopped, they were likely out of the danger zone.
The old man up there was a pure ice mage, so there was no need to worry about him using earth spells like 【Earth Sink】 to bury them alive.
"Hey! You are my familiar, so you should be a good mount! I don't want to walk by myself! It's too tiring!"
Lucrezia hung onto Leo like a koala, refusing to come down.
"Tsk, get off me! You think you're a koala?"
Leo unceremoniously grabbed her back collar and forcibly peeled the octopus-like princess off his body, setting her on the ground.
"Walk yourself. It’s not just exercise; it'll help you lose weight."
"You're the fat one! I'm well-proportioned!" Lucrezia stomped her foot in anger.
Walking in front, Vespa's ears, which had been standing upright, twitched as he heard the commotion behind him.
Combining this with Leo's previous actions, he realized that this guy truly didn't seem to intend to kill him to silence him.
He slowed his pace and looked back, sizing Leo up with an expression one might use for a rare animal, and asked tentatively:
"Hey, I say... you really don't plan on killing me?"
'What exactly is this guy thinking?'
Vespa's gaze darted back and forth between Leo and Lucrezia.
'Is he after my body? Looking at his attitude toward this little idiot... could he really be a perverted lolicon?'
'That's even worse! I didn't think anyone actually had that kind of fetish! How disgusting! I need to stay away from him!'
Whispering in his heart, Vespa instinctively tucked his tail and moved two steps to the side.
"I think we should just slaughter this double-faced dead cat!"
Lucrezia interjected indignantly.
She pulled out that high-grade short dagger she had swiped from Kofman's corpse and made a couple of stabbing motions toward Vespa's back, seemingly intending to vent all the frustration of not being able to cling to Leo onto this cat.
"Speaking of which, I never intended to slaughter you, so why were you in such a hurry to run?"
Leo snapped his fingers, dispelling the lingering arcane restraints on Vespa.
He took a discarded torch from the wall, a small flame sprouting from his fingertip to light it, and then tossed it to Vespa in front.
"Catch. Lead the way properly. Once we're out of the city, I might just be in a good mood and show some mercy by letting you go."
Rate on N.U.
