Elvia yanked her hand back.
She didn't understand what he meant by his last words.
She only knew that her current situation was extremely dangerous.
The man opposite her was only a Low-tier High Rank mage, while she was a High-tier High Rank knight.
At this distance, she naturally had nothing to fear, but...
The perfect smile on her face vanished completely.
She took a step back, her face slightly pale, as she warily scanned her surroundings.
Finally, her gaze locked onto the post office entrance.
Theia had stepped out into the open at some point.
She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
Her eerie crimson eyes were locked onto this human woman who had repeatedly leaned in to whisper in Lin Gui's ear.
Her face was filled with undisguised irritation.
Elvia's brow twitched slightly.
Quickly suppressing the turmoil in her heart, an impeccable mask of elegance returned to her face.
She curtsied slightly in Theia's direction.
She performed a flawless, polite gesture, her smile impeccable.
“My apologies for the intrusion.”
With that, she stopped looking at anyone else.
Straightening her back and maintaining the dignity expected of royalty, she turned around elegantly.
She left the post office.
She didn't stop until she returned to the empty, desolate City Lord's manor.
As the heavy doors closed behind her, the smile on her face vanished without a trace.
“Whew...”
Clutching her rapidly heaving chest, she leaned against the cold door and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Her mind uncontrollably replayed the scene in the post office.
The gaze of that mage.
There was no reverence, no fear, and no greed.
There was only a pure, bottomless disgust.
That disgust was so cold that it even carried an undisguised, latent killing intent.
That gaze was more raw and... dangerous than any she had ever faced from rebel leaders.
Elvia suddenly grinned.
She let out a low chuckle, though she couldn't tell if she was mocking herself or just found the situation absurd.
“Heh... I planned to threaten him, but ended up being threatened instead?”
“Is he taking advantage of the fact that I'm currently weak and have no one by my side?”
Alongside her fear, an uncontrollable rage suddenly surged in her heart.
A mere wandering mage!
A Low-tier High Rank mage whom even a guard captain in a backwater place like New Covenant City might not want!
How dare he!
How dare he look at me with those eyes?!
How dare he speak to me like that?!
I am the Golden Lioness of the Royal Capital!
I am Elvia, the one who utterly suppressed all those son-of-a-bitch siblings and stubborn old ministers!
Who does he think he is?! To actually dare threaten me!
Crash!
Consumed by rage, she grabbed a crystal glass from the table beside her and hurled it to the ground!
Glittering shards and liquor splashed everywhere.
Almost at the exact same moment.
Crash! A sharp shattering sound rang out!
The stained-glass window beside her suddenly shattered!
An unidentified object, wrapped in flying glass shards, came whistling into the room!
Elvia shrieked in terror.
Almost instinctively, she rolled and scrambled awkwardly beneath her heavy mahogany desk.
Her heart pounded wildly, her hands and feet went cold, and she tremblingly drew a dagger from her boot.
Her golden eyes were filled with panic and unease.
Who was it?!
Had those bastards from the Royal Capital finally lost their patience and sent assassins?!
She pressed her ear flat against the cold floor, trying to listen for any movement outside.
One second, two seconds... ten seconds...
Aside from her own drum-like heartbeat, there was absolute silence outside.
She gripped her hilt tightly, her palms slick with cold sweat.
She swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry.
She couldn't wait any longer!
Gritting her teeth, like a cornered beast, she charged out from under the desk!
As she quickly scrambled to her feet...
She threw her hands up, her face instantly plastering on a sycophantic yet terrified smile.
Her voice was soft and sweet, carrying a whimpering sob:
“U-Um... did my dear, charming siblings send you here?”
“Surely you didn't just come to deliver a message?”
“Rest assured! Little Seven here has long since lost her right to the throne! I pose absolutely no threat to them!”
“If your esteemed self is still worried... I-I can leave immediately!”
“I'll run away to somewhere you'll never see me again! Like... like that backwater place, New Covenant City, how about that?”
“S-Sibling rivalry... if our supreme Father knows about this, he will be heartbroken...”
Her voice grew softer and softer.
With a perfectly timed sob, the corners of her eyes darted rapidly to scan every corner of the room.
There was no sound of rushing wind, no footsteps, and certainly no expected assassin.
There was only a... brick covered in a bit of dirt lying on the floor?
Elvia's sycophantic expression froze on her face.
She carefully shed her soft, pitiful act.
She picked up her sword from the corner, tiptoeing like a cat as she crept toward the shattered window.
She peeked out cautiously, looking down.
Outside, the high-end residential district that once belonged to wealthy nobles...
was now completely empty and eerily silent due to its owners having fled.
Her eyes searched carefully in the corners below the manor.
Finally, in the corner of a distant wall...
she saw several ragged street urchins giggling as they stacked bricks on the ground, seemingly playing some sort of game.
There was no assassin at all!
It was just this group of lawless little street rats!
How utterly brazen! To actually dare throw a brick at the City Lord's manor!
“You... you bunch of...”
Her extreme terror instantly transformed into a towering rage, burning away almost all of her rationality!
She leaped up, almost unable to resist jumping straight out of the five-story window!
She wanted to use her High-tier High Rank strength to beat these city pests to a pulp!
But looking down at the dizzying height...
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms.
She endured it.
She returned to her desk in irritation.
Her first instinct was to call the guards to throw the street children out.
But the moment she opened the study door and saw the empty, deep corridor lit only by flickering sconces...
she suddenly remembered that her original guards had long since been taken away by those opportunistic old nobles under the pretext of “protecting the family heads”!
“Dammit! Those wretched old geezers!”
With a loud bang, she slammed the door shut.
She paced in front of her desk on the thick carpet, forcing herself to calm down and think.
Although she had temporarily secured her position as City Lord by riding on the coattails of the Royal Capital Knights' prestige from slaying the besieging demons...
she had gained unparalleled public prestige.
But relying solely on this empty prestige was far from enough.
She needed military force!
She needed an order of knights that could suppress everything and obey her commands unconditionally!
But Caran City was too small and lacked any true hereditary nobility.
Naturally, there was no established order of knights either.
The elite of the Defense Force had been stripped away by the old nobles, and the remaining elderly and weak were of no use.
That meant the only remaining military force was... the adventure groups.
But the biggest problem was...
the wealth of Caran City had already been thoroughly plundered and drained by those fleeing nobles!
And the remaining wealthy merchants... knew exactly how weak she was.
Being left behind alone by the knights was the ultimate proof of her banishment.
Elvia's gaze grew deep and cold.
A wicked scheme rapidly formed in her mind.
Perhaps... she could exploit that half-demon elf's identity?
With some clever manipulation, she could pin the blame for the demon siege entirely on her.
This would easily incite fear and anger among the populace.
When that time came, she could use the guise of righteousness...
to force the remaining adventure groups in Caran City to hunt down that half-demon!
Although her target was a Low-tier Transcendent ranger with formidable strength...
she would stand no chance against a coordinated assault by over thirty High-tier High Rank adventurers!
Once they captured that half-demon...
Elvia could already envision that detestable mage, stripped of his greatest reliance...
kneeling humbly before her, begging for forgiveness, or even...
At the thought of that potentially highly satisfying future scene...
Elvia couldn't help but laugh maniacally under her breath, her shoulders trembling.
“Hehehe... Hahaha... Uh?”
Her laughter suddenly ground to a halt.
An extremely intense sense of danger descended from above without warning!
Her scalp went numb instantly. Without a second thought, she lunged to the side!
Whoosh!
A brick whipped through the air with a vicious gust of wind, brushing past her hair and smashing hard into the spot where she had just been standing.
Still shaken, Elvia quickly drew her sword, preparing to counterattack and shout for help.
But the moment she raised her head...
another brick flew in from an incredibly tricky angle, coming from an impossible blind spot!
Thwack!
It smacked solidly against the back of her head!
A powerful wave of dizziness instantly washed over her, and stars burst before her eyes.
The entire world spun around her as her body stumbled uncontrollably.
Immediately after, a slender, ghostly figure appeared beside her as if merging from the shadows.
A seemingly delicate hand, carrying a sharp, fierce force, struck her unprotected neck with absolute precision!
In the final moment before she completely lost consciousness and collapsed...
Elvia's unfocused golden eyes strained to look upward.
She saw a pair of freezing, blood-red eyes filled with deep disgust.
And, floating in mid-air, a mage with faint air currents swirling around him, weighing another brick in his hand.
Rate on N.U.
