I was in my room, the best and the most s.p.a.cious room in the entire inn.

The room was large enough to encompa.s.s even a gathering of more than 100 people, but the only ones monopolizing this humongous s.p.a.ce were Meri-san, and myself.

The room itself was huge and lavish, but it felt scary. The room was empty and silent. There wasn"t much furniture. There was huge couch, a table made of gla.s.s, a closet, and a dressing table. Well, they did say that this was a newly constructed room.

Meri-san is an adamant.i.te-rank adventurer, same as myself.

I"ve had contact with Meri-san before, but it was solely in my adventurer persona, so this journey was the first time that I had actually "met" her.

During our carriage ride, while Toru was soundly asleep on my lap, I had discussed a whole lot of things with her.

We found out that we had a lot of things in common. While I was telling her about the situation with Toru, she blushed and kept pestering me about more details. She even said that she would support me as a fellow maiden-in-love.

Meri-san told me that she was in love with one of her childhood friends, so she was trying her best to appeal to him as a woman, and get him to marry her.

Oh~ How I wish that Toru would just accept me and keep me by his side. I have no desire to monopolize him whatsoever, and neither do I wish for him to make some sort of commitment to me.

I would be more than happy just standing by his side.

"Oi! Sylvisama! You did it again!"

My shoulders were held, and shaken wildly by an enraged Meri-san, after which, I snapped out of my fantasy land.

"Hehehe. Sorry."

I stuck out my tongue and apologized to her with a not-so-guilty sounding tone.

"You"re not even denying it at this point."

"Putting that aside, what were we talking about?"

"Fine. You were telling me about yesterday"s party. You mentioned that Toru-kun was acknowledged by the Prince, but you didn"t mention the reason."

"The reason why he got acknowledged?"

"Yes."

"Well… because Toru is strong? I mean, they just kept staring at each other for some time, then my brother abruptly stood up, and announced his decision."

"Is that so? Well… whatever. Does Toru-kun know that you kept kissing him on the cheek for 3 hours straight-"

I reflexively moved my hand to cover her mouth, which was spouting some embarra.s.sing things.

"Shh! Somebody might hear you!"

"Fufufu. You"re so adorable, Princess."

She had a very warm look in her eyes, which made me feel all fuzzy and embarra.s.sed inside.

"I mean… I love him. I even had my first kiss today."

My face turned red and my body got hot as I recalled the sensation of kissing him.

"Yeah. He was cool, that kiss made my heart skip a beat."

Wait… what"s happening?

"Meri-san?"

"Yeah… 10? 15?"

"Guess so… let"s regroup."

There were more than 10 people around the inn"s perimeter right now. They didn"t leak any mana, but their presence interception abilities were quite bad.

Meri-san grabbed her staff, and I grabbed the scarf that Toru bought me a few hours ago.

We rushed out. However, we were stopped in our tracks, there were more than 10 men outside our room, waiting for us to enter their trap.

Before I could activate a magic to defend myself, I felt a solid impact on the back side of my head, and I lost consciousness.

When I came to, my waist was held tightly by someone. Somebody was holding me, if it had been Toru, I would"ve been crying tears of joy, but it wasn"t.

I was on the bed in my room. I glanced to my side.

The one who was holding me was a man with a long brown beard, and a slightly pointed nose. He had narrow black eyes with short brown hair. He was covered in an azure robe which had a small dragon engraved on it.

He was groping me, tightly so.

No! This body belongs to him, no other man in the whole world has the right to even touch me.

I tried focusing my magic, but it failed. I couldn"t do anything, it was like my hands were severed, and my legs butchered.

It was the same kind of situation as when those a.s.sa.s.sins attacked me.

I can"t use my magic.

I looked up, moved my neck around to observe the situation.

There were more than thirty people on the ground, all looking in my direction. They even kidnapped the Coachman who were ordered to sleep in the carriages. I turned my neck around, focusing on the face of each individual.

There were many people standing. Each one was wearing a black outfit similar to those men who attacked me. Each person on the ground seemed to be a.s.signed one partner.

I managed to recognize each and every individual and deduced that everybody was here.

No…Wait.

He... is not here.

I glanced around once more, and once again, his figure was not visible.

While I was contemplating about his situation, the hand which was on my waist moved on to my breast and exerted a lot of strength.

"Kyaa~"

I unconsciously screamed.

"What lovely voice, Princess-sama."

He exerted strength once more, but this time I managed to endure.

"Who… are you?"

"Dragon order. What will you gain by knowing our ident.i.ties, Princess? We were ordered to kill you, but now we will have to kill everyone here because now they know who were are."

He pointed at everyone with his left hand with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Why?"

"Orders. I have no personal grudge against any of you. You all are no more than insects to me, I kill you, I get rewarded, that"s all there is to it."

They managed to suppress the Athena Kingdom"s finest so easily.

Dragon order? But why?

Who would go so far as to pay them to come after me?

Wait… what if the men who attacked me before were of the Dragon Order as well?

"So you"re going to kill me… no matter what, right?"

I want to see him.

"Yes, and all of your little friends here."

I want him to touch me one last time.

"Then get your filthy hands of me. This body already belongs to someone. Even if I die here, I want to die being his."

"Is that so…? Well… you are quite devoted, aren"t you? Tell me… who is the lucky man?"

"Someone who is way above lowly sc.u.m like you. If he were here, you would"ve already been dead."

"I asked the name."

"Toru."

Everybody who was on the ground gasped, the only one immune to this was Meri-san.

"Okay then, time to die…"

He gleefully said and pulled out a small knife from thin air.

While I was recalling his face in the final moments of my life.

A silent explosion occurred in our flank. One of the walls which made up this large room came crashing down. There was one man from the Dragon Order in that position, he desperately ran to save his body from getting crushed.

The ones who appeared from the smoke and debris were a group of ten people.

8 were females, 2 were males.

All the females were super pretty and had nice bodies, while both the guys were absurdly handsome and charming.

The looks of the men were nothing compared to Toru, but they were handsome.

"Shouldn"t the leaders introduce themselves?"

The voice originated from right beside me. Listening to which, one of the beautiful women came forth and stood with her chest stuck out.

"Dane. Leader of Master"s personal bodyguard unit."

The man beside me didn"t move, but rather, spoke with an amused tone.

"Jerich. Leader of the a.s.sa.s.sin division, Dragon Order."

The woman seemed confused, she spoke in an extremely calm tone.

"Why would you introduce yourself?"

"You reached here without me noticing your presence, you must be truly skilled. Besides, you got to hear my name before you die… isn"t that the highest level of honour?"

"No, it isn"t."

She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. It wasn"t a provocation, neither was it intentional insulting. It seems that Jerich noticed this as well.

"What do you mean?"

"We were allowed in Master"s presence. We all have already received the greatest honour there could ever be."

"Your Master must be a great man. Mind telling me his name?"

"Sorry. I find myself unworthy to say his name."

It was a very self-deprecating statement, but she said it with a sense of pride. It was truly confusing.

"So… Are you here to rescue the Princess?"

"Not exactly. My Master told me to make sure none of the people here die. That includes all of your men, my Master wishes to gain information from them. But it seems like we have a big shot, so he probably won"t need the small fry. Let"s just kill them. Okay guys?"

"Yes!"

All nine of them replied together.

I just couldn"t imagine such beautiful women with such great bodies fighting so many men without magic.

Jerich spoke.

"Kill them."

The woman named Dane spoke at the same time.

"Go. Live for Master, and die for Master."

"Understood."

All the people in the room vanished. n.o.body could be seen fighting, none could be seen clashing.

It was just deathly silence with faraway sounds of crashing blades and screams of people dying.

After what seemed to be five minutes full of perverted groping and my all-out struggling. The fighting came to a close and only 8 of the people who were supposed to save us returned.

One of the ladies who had jade coloured eyes and same colour hair spoke.

"Truly, what an honour. Dying for Master."

"You"re right… However, there"s one more honour on the same level… living for Master."

She said so and rushed off again.

All the people who were laying on the ground started regaining their strength, but they couldn"t get up. Each and every one of them had one or two of their limbs broken.

Why was I left unharmed?

While I was trying to resist Jerich, whose hand was stroking my thighs, the vivid voice of footsteps resounded in the room with silence.

The one who appeared from all the debris was the one loved. He was wearing a clean suit with a tie. Looking at his gallant figure standing there looking over us, my heart started beating faster, and my cheeks turned hot.

His silhouette slowly came into light. His face had the same indifferent expression that he always had.

He raised both of his hands and gave a loud clap. After which, seven females and one male, with four on each side, were standing beside him

"How many casualties?"

He asked with the same abnormal level of calmness.

"Two on our side, and ten on their side."

"Who died?"

"Kodi and Farah."

"They"re both from Shirone"s sector, right?"

"Yes, Master."

Master…?

"Give their families special treatment…"

He glanced all over, then his eyes fell over me.

"... You said ten. There are forty here right now. You did well holding off ten versus fifty."

He said said and brought his hand over Dane"s head.

"I-I"m unworthy of such praise."

She started fidgeting and lowered her head.

"Now then. Who are you? Groping Sylvia like it"s nothing. She"s a Princess, you know?"

His hand stop. He lifted his body up from the bed and took distance from me. All my worries were gone and I was completely relaxed.

I guess that was the reason why… I got stabbed.

"Gufu!"

The small knife in his hand, was covered in blood. My stomach had a hole through it.

I wanted to scream with pain, but I just couldn"t. My body was relaxed to the point where the intense pain I was experiencing seemed nothing more than slight hindrance.

Toru looked at my state and said in a voice which seemed annoyed.

"That"s the big shot, right?"

"Yes. Jerich."

"All seven of you, detain him and st.i.tch her up. I"ll fix everything up later. I am unable to use my magic at the moment."

"Understood."

I could see a faint light swelling up in his body, it was similar in colour to his mana, but I have no idea what it is.

And right after that, he vanished.

In front of me, I was able to witness a one-on-one battle between Dane and Jerich. While the others were busy taking care of me.

"Hey, why are you looking at me with such gentle eyes?"

I asked while they were busy cleaning the wound with a cloth which seemed usable enough.

"Princess-sama, you said "this body already belongs to someone.", we just felt a sense of camaraderie from you."

A beautiful lady with purple hair and purple eyes said to me with an affectionate expression on her face.

"Camaraderie?"

"We share the same feelings. We exist so that Master can utilize us as he pleases. For us, even dying for him is the greatest level of honour."

She said so while taking out the needle and other stuff from her pockets.

"Hey, Yuna. Don"t say misleading things like "utilize"."

Another beautiful lady with Jade coloured hair said that.

"Well… we wouldn"t mind that, would we?

This lady, whose name seemed to be Yuna, said so with her cheeks slightly covered in red.

""""""No, we wouldn"t.""""""

Even Dane, who was having a fight to the death with Jerich, chimed in.

I was sort of uneasy, but I understood what they meant.

"Why do you even call Toru your master?"

"Umm… because Master summoned all of us?"

"Wait… what? You all are, summoned beasts?"

"Yes."

"Yuna. I think that"s enough. Master told us not to say too much."

"Fine, fine."

Toru… Master… Summoned…???