A few minutes passed that felt like hours. I crouched behind the Duke, watching the front of the Viscount’s mansion.

Neigh!

Just then, with the sound of a horse whinnying, Viscount Miles came galloping on horseback from the opposite direction towards the front of the mansion.

As the Viscount stopped his horse in front of the main gate, a soldier from the guardhouse near the gate approached and opened it wide. The Viscount dismounted and stood beside him. It seemed they were exchanging a few words.

“Father!”

At that moment, the Viscount’s daughter in a teal dress came running from the mansion, calling out joyfully. She leapt into the Viscount’s arms with her arms wide open. I saw her delicate hand reaching out to embrace her father’s neck.

And at that moment, I grabbed the Duke’s shoulder blocking me and shouted loudly.

“No! Get away from that person immediately, Viscount!”

“…What?”

Startled by my scream, Viscount Miles instinctively took a step back.

At the same time, the Duke, who instantly recognized who the assassin Roylott was upon hearing my scream, ran towards the Viscount while shouting to his knights.

“That woman is the assassin! Don’t let her get near the Viscount!”

“Huh? Ah, understood, Your Grace!”

Though confused by the sudden turn of events, the knights swiftly followed the order. One of them immediately nocked an arrow and drew his bow. With a swish, the arrow flew between the Viscount and his daughter, embedding itself in the wall. The Viscount immediately drew his sword and shouted at the Duke’s approaching knights.

“W-What is this! Who are you people? What nonsense is this about my daughter being an assassin!”

“…Tch!”

At that moment, the Viscount’s daughter, who had nimbly dodged the incoming arrow, clicked her tongue roughly. The movement was as natural as if she had long been trained.

The Duke’s knights with drawn swords instantly surrounded her. She looked around at the knights blocking her way to the Viscount with vicious eyes, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Ha, to think the White Lion Order led by that whelp of a Duke would show up. So it’s true that the rat bastard backstabbed our Marquis.”

“E-Emily…!”

“Looks like I’m in for a proper night workout.”

She kept giggling as if amused, looking at the Viscount’s face frozen in shock. Then suddenly, with her left hand, she tore off the flowing front of her dress.

This revealed well-trained, taut male body in black pants good for concealment. Emily, no, the assassin Roylott, still with Emily’s disguised face, smiled menacingly and charged at the surrounding knights. Roylott easily subdued one of the knights pointing a sword at him, then jabbed the back of the knight’s neck with his fingertip.

“Ugh!”

The knight let out a short cry and collapsed forward at that seemingly insignificant attack.

Roylott raised his hand with long fingernails and flexed his fingers as if playing an instrument. The Duke and knights glared at him warily, taking a step back.

I tugged on the clothes of the knight shielding me and said.

“That person’s fingernails are coated with viper venom! You absolutely must not let him get close!”

“Is that true? Understood!”

After hearing my words, the knight urgently shouted to the others surrounding Roylott.

“Don’t let him near you! His fingertips are coated with viper venom!”

“I see. Then we should surround him and end his life with crossbows.”

“Crossbows! Draw your crossbows at once!”

The Duke ordered. Soon, except for some knights surrounding Roylott, those in the back all raised their crossbows.

The Duke at the forefront brandished his sword fiercely, driving Roylott back.

“Damn it!”

Roylott cursed roughly as he drew three daggers from his side and resisted.

But those daggers alone were barely enough to defend against the attacks from the Duke and his knights. Roylott was gradually forced back. He desperately tried to secure an escape route while resisting, but ended up trapped between the mansion wall and the Duke’s knights.

Roylott glared in turn at the Duke and his knights pointing swords at him, the knights aiming crossbows behind them, and Viscount Miles watching the situation from afar.

The Duke took another step closer to him with his sword pointed and said.

“Further resistance is futile, Roylott. Throw down your weapon and surrender.”

“Damn it…!”

Roylott shouted, grinding his teeth in frustration.

He looked around desperately as if trying to find a way out of this situation. That’s when it happened. He suddenly seemed to realize something.

Then, with his head lowered, he muttered in an eerily low voice.

“Ah, ah. How did it end up like this? My plan was perfect. So the execution should have been perfect too. I don’t know where it went wrong.”

“I don’t know what you’re muttering about! Can’t you hear me telling you to surrender!”

“…Come to think of it, that voice from earlier was quite familiar. The voice that shouted to get away from me. …Ah, now I understand. This is all because of that woman!”

The Duke pressed his sword closer to Roylott’s body, shouting angrily.

At that moment, Roylott suddenly raised his head and threw one of the daggers he was holding towards the Duke’s forehead.

“Ugh!”

The Duke struck down Roylott’s incoming dagger with his sword.

The sword fell to the ground with a loud clang, and as the back of the hilt opened, acrid smoke poured out.

“Oh no!”

“Your Grace!”

“Damn it!”

In an instant, the surroundings were covered in a hazy smoke. The Duke hurriedly covered his nose and mouth with one arm while using his sword to disperse the smoke as he searched for Roylott. Through the hazy vision, he could see Roylott’s figure leaping onto the high wall. Coughing from the smoke filling his lungs, the Duke shouted to his knights.

“Kuh! Roylott, he’s jumped onto the wall! *cough* Quick, after him!”

“Don’t let him escape!”

“He’s escaping along the wall! Shoot him down with crossbows!”

Dozens of crossbow bolts flew through the hazy smoke towards the wall.

However, in the darkness and with the suspicious smoke inhaled, the archers’ arrows missed the quickly moving Roylott. Having traversed the long wall at high speed, he stopped near a corner and briefly scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze.

At that moment, our eyes met. I gasped as I saw Roylott grinning at me in my robed figure.

“Found you.”

Soon after leaping down from the wall, Roylott ran towards me.

“Stop him!”

“Run away, quickly!”

The knights shouted as they blocked the way to protect me. I tried to flee in the opposite direction of the alley, holding my hood tightly so it wouldn’t fall off.

“Argh!”

“Cover your mouths! Don’t breathe in the smoke!”

Just then, along with the knights’ agonized screams behind me, bright red smoke with an acrid smell filled the alley.

“Cough, cough!”

I ran forward urgently while coughing violently.

At that moment, a hand reached out from the smoke and grabbed the hem of my robe. I hurriedly tried to take off the robe and escape. Due to the darkness and dizziness from inhaling the smoke, I couldn’t see the buttons clearly. In the end, I tried to break free by tearing off the buttons from the top.

“Gasp!”

However, rendering my resistance futile, I was caught in strong arms encircling my waist. He held me tightly and brought his fingers to my neck.

Goosebumps rose as the inhuman cold temperature touched my throat. With trembling lips, I turned to look at the one holding me.

“Oh my.”

“…!”

It was Roylott. With his makeup smeared by sweat, revealing his blurry original face, he looked down at me with a sneer and said.

“I thought that voice earlier sounded familiar, and it turns out it was Lady Christine.”

“…Roylott.”

“Ah, ah. To think the young lady was such a traitor who stabbed the Marquis in the back. The Marquis will be furious when he finds out.”

“…Let me go, Roylott. It’s a misunderstanding. I only came here on uncle’s orders to confirm that you carried out your mission safely, and got caught.”

I tried to maintain a calm attitude as I gave him a false explanation.

At this point, I had to buy time and get through this situation until the Duke or his knights came to rescue me.

Hearing those words, Roylott snickered vilely. He pressed his poison-coated nails even closer to my neck, as if about to stab it right away, and opened his vile mouth.

“Do you think I’d believe such a lie?”

“…!”

“You insolent wench, cursed traitor. How dare you bring in that whelp of a Duke and ruin my mission? Since it’s come to this, if I can’t take the Viscount’s head, I’ll at least take your corpse to appease the Marquis’ anger.”

Roylott shouted thus and grabbed my neck tightly with one hand.

His strong grip pressed hard on my throat. Roylott’s sharp, poison-coated nails crawled over my neck like a spider dancing on a web, looking for a chance to cut off my breath.

I struggled desperately to remove his hand gripping my neck.

‘I can’t die so pathetically here! Someone, please, help me!’

As I resisted, my vision grew increasingly blurry. Even breathing freely became difficult and painful.

As I suffered, Roylott’s nails came to rest on my pulsing artery. I squeezed my eyes shut in despair at the impending death.

“Argh!”

That’s when it happened.

With the sound of something thick being cut, hot liquid splattered onto my face. At the same time, I heard Roylott’s terrible scream.