“I wonder if Vivi’s okay...” Clara murmured in the dark of her chambers.
Hilda, her handmaiden, watched painfully as Clara looked up at the night sky outside the window.
Vivi, Hilda, Doris, Heidi—saving these women had been a calculated move. Clara hadn’t cared about them personally; their backgrounds and circumstances had simply been a perfect fit for her motivations. Clara had failed to stop the emergence of the heroine of the otome game, who was a lady of House Melrose, and now could only operate from a defensive position. She’d begun building her own information network, independent of the Order of Shadows.
It was then that she’d found Hilda and Vivi. While she had sympathized with their circumstances, Clara had taken them under her wing as pawns. But...she’d gotten a little too attached to them.
This was due to the influence of Clara’s previous life. She couldn’t be completely ruthless and instead had gone soft. While she and the women had grown close, that meant Clara could no longer freely use them as disposable pawns. Because of Clara’s inadvertent weakness, these women were willing to lay down their lives for her—but this was a source of anxiety for Clara, who couldn’t stop them.
And that wasn’t the only thing making Clara afraid either. She feared the heroine might steal something precious from her. She feared the pink-haired girl and her cold gaze. Most of all, however, she feared herself.
She hadn’t thought that she, knowing the fate of the villainess in the story, would grow so obsessed with Elvan. Clara didn’t understand how it had come to this. She should have been working to avoid the villainess’s end, not stepping onto that path herself, yet here she was.
Clara didn’t think of this world as a game either. To her, it was a world that had perhaps inspired the otome game. This was exactly why she was so terrified. She was afraid to consider the possibility that she hadn’t reincarnated as Clara from the game but rather, that she was the real Clara, who had become the inspiration for the game character.
But Clara believed the future was not set in stone. In otome games, the player could choose to pursue a specific character and thus change the outcome of the plot, and she thought that she could likewise change her own path depending on her actions. Still, she couldn’t seem to prevent those dear to her from getting hurt.
She was truly afraid of her own foolish sins.
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile, Vivi had been ambushed while attempting to infiltrate the middle-ranked nobles’ dormitories. She felt cold sweat flow down her spine.
“Who are you?” the boy steward asked, glaring coldly at her.
Her mistress had told her about this Krus boy—Alicia Melsis’s steward, young but exceptional. House Melsis was a branch of the Melrose family, and Clara suspected that this boy was an apprentice guardian steward sent by House Melrose. Though Clara had said the boy couldn’t be much of a threat yet, Vivi could tell now that they were face-to-face that he was about as skilled as she was, roughly Rank 3.
That wasn’t anywhere near the skill level of Cinders, who had destroyed the Northern Border District’s branch of the Assassins’ Guild, or of the feared Witch of Thorns, whom none dared approach. Still, only about a hundred individuals in the kingdom were that skilled. Rank 3 represented professional-level ability in one’s field, and Vivi was stunned that a twelve-year-old-boy had already reached that.
And so, even after being discovered and addressed, she found herself unable to move, inadvertently yielding initiative to the boy.
I’m in trouble!
Sensing the boy’s intent to attack, Vivi finally turned to flee.
Many humans had high combat power, but only those with the resolve to kill and be killed could emit that kind of aura. This wasn’t just a guardian steward—Vivi suspected he was a battle steward with the Order of Shadows. The order was known and loathed in the underworld, and she was well aware of what its members could do.
Something flew past Vivi as she moved, wedging itself into the wall.
Slinging pellets?!
Some assassins used metal pellets in similar fashion. Though they were inferior to throwing knives and arrows in both range and power, in expert hands, these stones were lethal weapons and very difficult to avoid at close range.
“I won’t let you escape,” the boy said flatly as he flung throwing knives to cut off Vivi’s escape route.
A throwing specialist?
Figuring he had to be specialized in ranged combat, Vivi picked up a knife stuck in the ground and threw it back at the boy, then drew her own dagger and lunged into melee range.
Clang!
The boy deflected the knife with his bare hand. At the sight of this, Vivi froze, and the boy kicked out, grazing her mask.
“Ngh!”
She backed away from the sharp kick, and the back of the boy’s fist roared through the air as he leaped in with a sliding rotation. Vivi tried to block with her arm, but the impact was worse than she’d expected. She swung her dagger in an attempt to counter, and the boy simply ducked low to avoid it. Placing a palm on the ground for leverage, he kicked up at the small Vivi, sending her flying back.
“You’re making it worse for yourself by resisting,” the Krus steward—Theo—said as he rotated his legs and bounced back up into a fighting stance.
Young Theo, who had once taken his talents for granted and never trained seriously, had fallen in love with an older girl and wished to grow stronger so he could “take responsibility” for something he’d done. Dreaming of meeting the girl again, he’d trained endlessly, surpassed his peers significantly, and had just managed to reach Rank 3 before entering the Academy. He’d become better than the adult staff members. Under the right conditions, he could even go toe-to-toe with knights of the Royal Guard.
And then he’d heard that his first love, who had been missing, had resurfaced. Upon finally meeting her again, Theo had realized he was still arrogant when it came to his capabilities. The girl, only a year older than him, had reached Rank 4 all on her own—a level that most skilled practitioners couldn’t breach through talent alone.
Not only that, she’d grown into such a notorious presence that while her fame in the surface world was still low, in the underworld, everyone knew of her. She had even taken down a Rank 5 monster solo. This had made Theo realize he’d never catch up to her by trying to mimic her. He’d since switched tactics to focus on his own strengths.
With a loud metallic clang, Theo struck together the magic steel gauntlets fitted on his fists.
His new strategy was to focus on martial arts and concealed weapons that best utilized his Martial Mastery techniques. He kept weapons hidden in his sleeves, shoes, and other such places that were inconspicuous from the outside. His main weapon, the gauntlets—capable of intercepting enemy attacks—doubled as offense and defense.
Theo sighed inwardly at the intruder.
Alicia Melsis might have been the adopted daughter of a viscount, making her a middle-ranked noble, but she had relationships with Prince Amor and Crown Prince Elvan. She also displayed eccentric behavior completely unbefitting a noblewoman. Various noble houses despised her, and incidents like this, where spies tried to infiltrate her dormitory, had become increasingly common.
Theo could tell the intruder before him was likely female, but she was different from the ones he’d fended off before. She was desperate. He wasn’t sure why just yet, but he assumed her employer detested Alicia.
This is such a hassle...
He actually felt the same way. If he was being perfectly honest, Theo found Alicia’s behavior unpleasant. She’d already cozied up to the crown prince, the king’s brother, and the high priest’s grandson—and she kept trying to do the same with Theo. He’d already reported as much to Houses Melrose and Melsis, but since royalty was involved, resolving the matter wasn’t as simple as pulling Alicia from the Academy.
But while he sympathized with Alicia’s detractors, he was still committed to his task. If Theo was to become an official knight of the Order of Shadows, and if Alicia Melsis was under the protection of House Melrose, he couldn’t let a spy sneak past him and jeopardize his employers and their branch families.
The opponent was on the lower end of Rank 3, the same as himself. But she was a scout, and he was a combat specialist. As long as he kept his focus, he wouldn’t lose.
But for all his skill, he couldn’t prevent irregularities.
“Theooo! Where are yooou?” came a voice from Alicia’s dormitory.
“Y-Young Miss, please, stop this,” another voice pleaded.
Ignoring her servant, Alicia stuck her head out from the terrace window. Theo and Vivi were both momentarily shocked.
Since she’d been bullied by other girls in the past, Alicia refused to keep maids nearby unless it was absolutely necessary. The only servants she would invite into her room were male—since she could charm them into compliance—and they couldn’t physically restrain her, as touching her would be inappropriate.
Theo wanted to click his tongue but held back. In that brief moment, his attention turned to Alicia.
Vivi didn’t waste the opportunity.
She was so grateful to Clara that she would risk her life for her mistress. But she was a little different from Hilda and the others: Vivi craved approval. She’d joined the Assassins’ Guilds to follow in the footsteps of someone she admired. She hated Cinders not for destroying the guild but for killing people she relied on.
Vivi still adored even Tabatha, despite the fact that their former leader had betrayed, trapped, and tried to kill them.
Right now, it was Clara and Hilda whom Vivi was attached to. That was why she was more than glad to work for Clara and why she, fearing for Hilda’s life, had volunteered for the assassination mission.
She would kill Alicia Melsis here. Clara and Hilda would praise her for her success. And to that end, she leaped without a single thought spared for her own safety.
“Wait!” Theo shouted.
The pellet Theo unleashed pierced through Vivi’s shoulder as she ran, but she didn’t stop, instead tossing the small bottle in her hand toward the window.
Vivi, fighting for Clara and Hilda. Theo, protecting his target for House Melrose’s sake. With both their resolves in the balance, the scales tipped in Vivi’s favor.
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the night, but when Vivi fled and Theo made to pursue her, screams from the mansion halted his movements.
“Damn it!”
Theo hesitated for a moment, then dashed toward the direction of the screams.