Despite the small size of her leg, her kick was as tough as steel, and all three assassins’ feet were swept out from under them, leaving them suspended in midair for a split second. They floated for the briefest of instants, but during that time the maid mercilessly cut them down. The speed and technique with which she intricately handled her two shortswords were nothing short of masterful.
“Who the hell is that woman?” one of the remaining assassins let slip, finally speaking. This was rare for those in the criminal underworld, who maintained strict silence on the job, but this maid was just that abnormal.
“You can’t tell? I’m a maid,” she replied. She had just eliminated five people in the space of a moment, but she showed no signs of being out of breath.
A beam of moonlight shone through the window, revealing her face. She had unremarkable, yet well-proportioned features. Her expression was somewhat stiff.
Seeing the maid’s face, one of the assassins took off his mask and called out to her. “Hey, hold on. You’re Nia, aren’t you? I heard you took on a request from Eyland and came to Farune. You’re still alive?” Apparently, he knew her.
“I gave up that name,” the maid said. Picking up a dagger from one of the assassins she had killed, she smoothly threw it at the man who had called her Nia, as though saying farewell to her past. The dagger buried itself in the man’s exposed face, killing him before he could even let out a groan. “I’m Violetta now. They call me Vi. I’m not allowed to go by anything else. Whether I want to or not.” Her murmured words contained a hint of melancholy.
Vi had snuck into Farune with the goal of assassinating the nation’s king, Mars, but instead, she had been defeated and lost every one of her comrades. Seeking a chance for revenge, she had infiltrated the castle, had for some reason been forced to join the Hundred, and then had become Third Princess Cassandra’s personal maid. After being exposed to Cassandra’s terrible strength, Vi had sworn her absolute loyalty to her.
Seeing that they wouldn’t be able to avoid a fight, the assassins silently surrounded Vi. Then, so they’d be able to react to anything that might happen, they slowly tightened their circle. They moved with bated breath, the air crackling with tension.
Indifferent to the assassins’ nervousness, Vi nimbly leaped forward, landing a powerful kick on an assassin in front of her, as unerring as the point of a speeding arrow. Unable to dodge it, the man in black was sent flying backward.
The other assassins, not wanting to let this opportunity slip by, closed the distance in an instant. They assailed Vi with daggers that had unreflective black blades, specially crafted for assassination.
Unafraid of their poison-coated edges, Vi used both of her shortswords to sweep the daggers aside, then countered with a kick. She moved almost as though dancing.
“She’s really strong,” one of the assassins groaned. Half of his thirty fellows had already been taken out.
However, the assassins were professionals, and they didn’t just stand there and take it. They had managed to wound Vi several times, though they were only light grazes. And that was enough. Now, the poison on their blades would bring death to their foe.
The assassins momentarily distanced themselves from her, waiting for the poison to take effect. It was quick-acting, so it shouldn’t have taken much time.
However…
There were absolutely no signs of anything unusual happening to Vi. On the contrary, she held the bottom of her skirt, then curtsied to the assassins as if to show off that she was still going strong.
“There’s no point in waiting, milords,” she said with an affected politeness. “As I believe I made clear at the start, poison is useless in Farune.” Then she smirked—or at least, she appeared to. At the same moment, she broke into a dash.
As if to say that playtime was over, she flourished both shortswords, adding footwork to her movements as she hopelessly crushed the assassins. In the end, they numbered only five.
It’s impossible to carry out the job now, the remaining assassins thought. They realized they had failed, and they began to flee.
However, awaiting them outside the door were the protectors of the castle, the Blue Knights.
“Geez, Lady Cassandra sure can be a handful,” said Bledd, their captain, furrowing his eyebrows. “I couldn’t believe it when she ordered us to overlook intruders because she wanted to test her maid’s strength. But I haven’t forgotten about you guys. You’ve got some nerve, sneaking in here as such a big group. You didn’t think it was weird that nobody was around? You didn’t think it was too easy?”
The assassins listened to Bledd’s lecture, unable to move. With that maid behind them and the Blue Knights in front of them, they were surrounded and had no way to run. But they had an idea: that maid may have been a master swordswoman, but maybe they could break through the Blue Knights. The five of them exchanged looks, quickly understood that they were thinking the same thing, and finally all moved at once. They reckoned that if they each went in separate directions, someone would be able to escape.
“Are you kidding me?” Bledd sighed, then nimbly swung his sword. In a single slash, he effortlessly cut one of the assassins in half as if he were made of paper. “You didn’t really think that I’d be easier to defeat than Vi, who’s only just joined the Hundred, did you?” he asked the assassin’s corpse, shaking his head.
In the meantime, the Blue Knights easily took care of the other assassins.
“I’m tenth in the Hundred, you hear me?” Bledd called out. “Though people do say that my fighting style is overly serious, plain, and boring.”
Bledd had an inferiority complex about this. Neither his Blue Knight subordinates nor—needless to say—the fallen assassins gave him any reply.