◇

Dropping from the roof, jet of dust and splinters from the rock b.a.l.l.s destroyed by Liza"s magic edge cannon fly about to the room that"s filled with the red afterglow.
Slightly later, debris from the destroyed roof also fall.

From the side, I quickly s.n.a.t.c.h maids who are about to be crushed by the debris, saving them.
The surrounding view was obstructed by the dust so I had used Ground Shrink freely.

Two holy knights seem to be injured by the collapsing debris and the rock b.a.l.l.s, their health gauges have been reduced by half.
On the other hand, a sommelier-like male waiter escaped by himself with difficulty. Men have to be like that after all.

Then, heavy vibrations that shakes your abdomen intermittently a.s.sail.

Surprised by the shaking foothold, the maids whom I"ve just rescued hug me from both sides.
I endure my cheeks not to melt with the help of [Poker Face], and open the map to check on the situation.

With the 3D map, I see that the mansion has begun collapsing.

There"s no mistake, it"s the fault of the four volleys of rock b.a.l.l.s from just now.
Aside from one volley that Liza intercepted, this mansion was attacked by rock b.a.l.l.s that are normally used for castle siege, so it"s understandable.

I quickly check the positions of the servants inside the mansion.
Unexpectedly, there are only 23 of them in all. I invoke the usual [Magic Hands] to catch them and then put them outside the mansion.

Fortunately, there wasn"t anyone who got directly hit by the rock ball and died.
There are several people who are in critical conditions, but I can just deal with them after we"ve escaped outside.

During the several seconds when I was desperately arranging the escape plan, an incident happened in the room.

"--Guh, wh, what are you doing."

I heard m.u.f.fled scream from beyond the dust cloud.
Accoding to AR, Bauen-s.h.i.+ the kata.n.u.ser is dying, and beside him, Julberg-s.h.i.+ has been injured to the point of half-dying too.

Next to them is the middle-aged man colored in red in the radar--Jizon the temple knight.

--The bombing earlier was in order to a.s.sist this guy"s a.s.sa.s.sination huh.

Relying on the Radar, I kick the debris below toward him.
Jizon the temple knight raises a m.u.f.fled scream with a heavy thud sound on the other side of the cloud.

The cloud of dust is cleared for an instant from the debris"s track.
Jizon who was stabbing his magic sword on Julberg-s.h.i.+"s back pulled it and retreated back while looking annoyed.
The debris earlier seems to have broken one of his shoulder, his arm hangs listlessly.

"Tsk, unarmed b.a.s.t.a.r.d being a nuisance--『Wicked Magic Peerless』"

Jizon"s magic sword that received the [Command Word] at the end of his cursing turns black.
And then, the blackness moves to his body from his hand, turning his whole body black.

--Well, no one would wait till it ends though.

In defiance of the floor that"s begun collapsing, the great sword of Heim-s.h.i.+ the [Weed] and the scythe of Ms. Ryouna the [Mower] attack him from both side.

Jizon kicks Bauen-s.h.i.+ the kata.n.u.ser toward Heim-s.h.i.+, stopping his attack.
The scythe of Ms. Ryouna that comes next grazes his shoulder, but then the scythe flows upward as if slipping from his blackened body.
Jizon swings his largish magic sword toward Ms. Ryouna who"s full of opening after missing a large attack, forcing her to retreat, and then he slips away from there.

The blackened Jizon who runs off in low posture like a c.o.c.kroach heads toward me and Liza for some reason.
I might look like an easy target since I"m hugging two female servants on both sides like this.

Certainly, coping with him might be difficult for me who"s concentrating on getting the servants out of the mansion.

--However, I have a reliable bodyguard on my side.

"Liza."
"Understood."

With a b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword-sized magic sword, the approaching Jizon stabs Liza who"s standing in front of me.

Liza parries it with a silver knife covered in Magic Edge.

"Impossible, Magic Edge on a tableware?!"

Did he not see Liza intercepting the rock on the roof just now?
Certainly, Liza had used up most of her magic power with the attack just now, but I"ve already re-charged her with [Magic Power Transfer].

"Still have remaining magic power--『a.s.sasin"s Dagger』"

Receiving Jizon"s [Command Word], the surface of his magic sword emits dark red light.

"Your flesh will fall off just by touching this 『Rotting Poison』. Come at me if you think your scales can block this."

He probably said that to scare us, but it was a bad move.
Liza has completed her preparation during his unnecessary remark.

There"s a red glowing spear on Liza"s hand.

It"s a spear knitted from Magic Edge with the silver knife as the core. It consumes large amount of magic power, so she normally doesn"t use it, but its attack power rivals that of a normal magic spear.

Liza"s red spear flicks Jizon"s poisonous magic sword, and then gouges his arm.
Liza blocks the slight poison scattered by the magic sword with a red membrane produced on her body--[Magic Armor] that"s deployed partly.

Jizon is still trying to attack even though his shoulder is pierced, but that never manifested.
Faster than Jizon swinging his sword, Liza"s spear pierced Jizon"s shoulders, and the wrist that held the sword, at a speed eyes couldn"t track.

--Oh dear, she"s merciless.

"A spear made from Magic Edge!"

Jizon who"s been neutralized by Liza artlessly, collapses to the floor.
I saw Jizon taking out something behind his body.

Three black lumps the size of fists--magic bombs for suicide bombing!

Fortunately, I"m the only one who notice it.
The moment the activated magic bombs are separated from his hand, I touch them with [Magic Hands] that aren"t being used to get the servants, and put them into my storage.
Jizon probably saw it as if the bombs suddenly disappeared.

Before Jizon could leak out surprised words, Liza attacked him by swinging her tail once, robbing the man"s consciousness.

--Good grief, leave suicide bombs to robot in research lab.

During these chains of incidents, I"ve somehow successfully completed evacuating people in the building besides the ones in this room.
There"s not much time until the mansion collapses, so we have to quickly get out of here too.

Of course, it seems I"m not the only one who think so.

"It"s dangerous here, everyone escapes!"

In place of Julberg-s.h.i.+ who couldn"t move due to the effect of the magic sword"s [Energy Drain] and [Strength Drain], Heim-s.h.i.+ gave instructions to everyone.

Two floors of the mansion"s have already been crushed, there"s around 10 meters down to the ground from this fifth floor.
The people here should be able to escape from only that much height.

I lift the backs of the two female servants who are embracing me from both sides, and jump from the collapsed wall.
My ears hurt from the stereo screams.

While defending myself from the falling the mansion"s debris with Flexible s.h.i.+eld, I"m going down to the ground with poor visibility due to the cloud of dust.
The foothold is bad due to the large amount of debris, so I"m actually secretly using Sky Drive near the ground to move, with the dust as the cover.

The men who ride the tamed monsters shoot bolts from crossbows toward us who are escaping.
It seems their aim is Jizon Liza is carrying on her shoulder.

Making use of the remaining cover, I use [Remote Stun] to alter the course of the bolts.

I had also shot at the eight tamed monsters" heads while I was at it, but it seemed they had countermeasures, the Remote Stuns were blocked by magic s.h.i.+elds that appeared before the tamed monsters, not reaching the bodies.
The enemies who have lost the opportunity to attack fly over the mansion"s sky.

--Maybe I shouldn"t have restrained myself and attacked with 120 shots.

I make a landing while regretting it, and take some distance away as to not get squashed by the mansion.
I catch the holy knights who failed their landing and stopped moving with [Magic Hands] and forcefully hurl them away from the danger zone.
They might get hurt a bit, but it should be better than getting crushed to death.

"Please treat these two."
"Y-yes."

I entrust the two maids-san I"ve carried on my shoulders to the servants who"ve escaped earlier.
I thought the two had stopped screaming, turn out they"re fainted.

Four of the enemies who failed their attack earlier come attacking again in order to get rid of Jizon.

However, the interceptions have already been prepared.

"....■■■■■■ Multiple Light Javelins"
"""....■■■■ Light Javelin"""

The light javelins invoked by s.h.i.+ga Eight Swords members and Jeril a.s.sault the tamed monsters.
The dying tamed monsters plunge with their inertia, but the old knight with a great s.h.i.+eld cuts in.

"> Holy s.h.i.+eld Plitwen"

The blue light that spread from around the s.h.i.+eld block more than 1 ton bodies of the tamed monsters.

He had no presence up until now, but this old knight, Leiras is also one of s.h.i.+ga Eight Swords.
I don"t know his nature since we mostly didn"t converse when he was in the Duchy Capital with the third prince, but it seems his defensive power is quite a thing as expected of someone who lives on after fighting the yellow-body demon.

The members of [Light of Liberty] who have got off the tamed monsters are trying to escape, but Ms. Ryouna and Heim-s.h.i.+ gleefully chase them.

◇

While glancing at it, I open the map and check the surrounding.

A monster appeared in the earl"s tea party this noon, so there are three times the knights and soldiers who are patrolling than usual.
The knights and soldiers are masked, but they don"t look to be in any tense situation like surrounding a specific mansion or something.

I thought that the [Light of Liberty]"s n.o.bles hiding in the mansion would do something during the incident, but they"re not moving in their own mansion that"s being guarded by their private army that"s more than 100 people strong.
Though, the mansions of other upper n.o.bles also have their own varied situations, so there"s no need to especially mention them.
I had also thought that the three elites of the [Light of Liberty] mentioned back then would come as an insurance for the s.h.i.+ga Eight Swords" a.s.sa.s.sination, but they"re not moving from their hiding mansion.

They"re people who are bold enough to attack like this in the capital of the whole kingdom. It should not be over with just this.
If the attack just now was a diversion, then is their true aim the royal castle?

I stare at the map once again in order to understand the people"s movements.

Right at that time, I saw something moving in the corner of my view.

"Master, the patrolling knights have come."
"...Let them in."

A butler with dirtied formal dress reported to Julberg-s.h.i.+.
With that much disturbance, the patrolling knights closest by would have come.

I see their details on the map.
The 12th knight order huh, the commanding knight is level 34. His level is high for a commander of a patrolling unit.

It"s a unit with 30 knights, there are six people who use great s.h.i.+elds unbecoming of a patrolling unit, 10 people equipped with long spears that have fire stones on their tips, four magicians, and other 10 knights.
Those are some excessive forces, like they"re going to a war, but these equipments and number of knights are probably for dealing with giant monsters that appear frequently in the Royal Capital.

Liza who"s standing by beside me becomes tense when she sees the man who"s going here.

"What"s the matter?"
"Master, please be cautious. That"s the man who was the boss of Lost Thieves."

As pointed by Liza, I re-check him with AR readings.
The man"s name is Rudaman--the guy who illegally manufactured Fiend Drugs in the underground Labyrinth.

However, after negotiating with the guildmaster when he was in the guild"s jail after getting arrested by us, he should have become a member of [Crime Slave Unit (Violet)] in the Royal Capital.
What kind of connection that made him transfer to become a normal knight....

Looks like tonight"s disturbance will still continue.