Eir was startled by her own thoughts.
It wasn’t just the overwhelming hatred she felt toward the imagined “assassin”…
It was the fact that the idea of her young master being gravely injured…
And completely dependent on her…
Didn’t seem so bad?
She even found herself… accepting it?
W-Why?
Was this the mindset “300 Questions on Blackening” had been trying to instill in her?
“Eir? Are you okay? You look a little off,” Will’s voice pulled her out of her chaotic thoughts.
“Young Master… I…”
Before she could answer, the carriage ca to a screeching halt. The sudden stop, accompanied by flashes of fire outside, snapped Eir out of her daze.
In that mont, ti seed to slow…
The steady motion of the carriage was interrupted by the brakes, scattering its contents with the force of inertia. The armored vehicle skidded sideways, its heavy fra screeching against the road.
Outside, explosions erupted.
The mont Eir heard the blast, she instinctively threw herself over Will, shielding him.
For so reason, she thought she saw a faint, calculated smile on Will’s face.
“W-What’s going on?”
“Y-Y-Young Master… we’re under attack?!”
The panicked voice of the coachman echoed as Will opened the carriage door. The sll of burning grass wafted in from outside.
Eir followed him out, only for another explosion to go off nearby. This one grazed the armored vehicle, landing behind them as a flaming projectile.
Eir instinctively activated her Ice Armor and wrapped her arms around Will.
The temperature around them spiked in an instant.
The exposed skin on her body could feel the intense heat of the nearby flas.
What was happening?
An explosion?
Where had it co from?
Who had caused it?
And why?
Could it be…
Were they…
…under attack?
How could this be?
Just monts ago, they had been discussing such a scenario, and now it was unfolding right before her eyes.
In her mind, ti seed to stretch, each second dragging on endlessly.
Eir’s thoughts raced as she processed the chaotic information, fighting through the ringing in her ears to open her eyes.
She looked down at her young master.
“Young Master—Young Master, are you okay? Please, don’t scare …”
“Oh… it hurts… oh… I’m so dizzy… oh… I’ll just lie here for a bit. You… you handle the assassin…”
Fully armored, Will was, of course, unhard. He closed his eyes with exaggerated dramatics, his acting clumsy at best.
He wanted to see how Eir would perform under pressure. If she sohow failed, he’d use the armored vehicle as cover and fire off an Extre Fla teor using a coin coated with the expensive catalyst he’d bought.
Everything was under control!
But Eir… was overwheld.
“Young Master? Wake up?”
Will was perfectly safe, his armor intact, and her Ice Armor hadn’t been breached. There was no way he could be hurt.
He couldn’t…
…be hurt…
…right?
Will didn’t respond, his eyes shut tight as he leaned against the overturned carriage.
“Y-Young Master?”
He didn’t answer her.
But he was still breathing.
Had he… passed out?
And now, approaching them…
Was it the assassin?
Just like in the scenarios from her maid training?
Another explosion erupted nearby.
In that mont, Eir didn’t have the capacity to question how soone unconscious could keep their eyes so tightly shut. (tln : fck, this guy, really testing his theory)
Her expression froze, her eyes losing their usual sparkle, as if the light in them had been snuffed out.
Silently, amidst the flickering flas, Eir lifted the hem of her dress—careful not to let the fabric Will had chosen for her touch the burning embers—and stood up.
As she rose, several fiery projectiles whizzed past her shoulders, their glowing trails visible to the naked eye.
The narrow road was now surrounded by burning grass, thick smoke rising into the air, erasing the tranquil mory of the riverside afternoon in an instant.
Looking past the fiery projectiles, Eir saw a shadowy figure through the smoke.
The figure wore a large witch’s hat and was relatively short—judging by her height, she didn’t seem much older than Eir.
The hat obscured half of her face, while the other half was hidden by a low-level concealnt spell. No matter the angle, her features beneath the brim remained a pitch-black void.
She raised her staff, which looked battered and poorly maintained. The small crystal orb at its tip was scratched, the staff’s body was covered in marks, and the end was even missing a chunk.
“So… you’re the one trying to kill my young master~?”
—
The one responsible for this chaos stood amidst the swirling smoke, about ten ters from the Hysterm family’s carriage.
The Witch Leah.
She appeared to be around twelve years old, standing at just 140 centiters tall. In reality, she was a century-old, experienced witch.
She possessed enviable, dazzling golden twin-tails—hidden by her concealnt magic.
She had srizing, fiery red eyes—hidden by her concealnt magic.
She had a flawless, porcelain doll-like face—hidden by her concealnt magic.
She had a flat, healthy A-cup chest—well, there wasn’t much to hide there anyway.
—She was a seasoned witch.
“What’s going on here?! The client didn’t tell I’d be dealing with an armored vehicle and a heavily armored horse!”
After firing her last standard modern fireball, Leah began counting on her fingers.
In truth, Leah was more panicked than Will and Eir combined.
She was losing it.
“This is a scam! They said it’d just be a fancy little noble’s carriage, all decorative and fragile! How did it turn into a heavy-duty armored carriage?! Am I going over budget?”
“Ugh, how much was the commission fee again? How much have I spent so far?”
“…Am I going to have to beg for stale bread from the school kitchen for the next week?!”
—A sowhat seasoned witch.
If not for her concealnt magic hiding most of her expressions and muffling her voice, her aura of intimidation would’ve plumted.
“It’s still standing? Do I need to throw another bomb?”
“This is so weird… so suspicious… if I’d known there’d be an armored carriage, I wouldn’t have co. Ugh… this is too much.”
As Leah rummaged through her pockets…
She suddenly felt a chilling sense of killing intent.
Looking up, she squinted, trying to locate the source of the murderous aura through the smoke.
Through the flas, soone—or rather, a beastkin—was standing. Her wolf ears were impossible to miss.
The wind from the riverside blew, causing the ribbons on her dress to flutter.
Using her magical “witch’s sight,” Leah observed the thick layer of Ice Armor encasing the beastkin’s fists—a basic Holy Shield Knight spell.
But for the first ti in her life, Leah felt a sense of unease.
Of course, that unease might’ve started the mont she realized she was up against an armored carriage and horse.
There was sothing terrifying about this aura.
“So… you’re the one trying to kill my young master~?”
Leah heard the words from across the battlefield.
Whether it was the killing intent or her own pride as a witch being challenged, Leah pouted and pulled a coin from her pocket.
“Hmph. I’m only doing this because I’m stingy, not because I’m scared. A re beastkin dares to threaten ? Fine. To complete this commission, I’ll have to use the enhanced version of that spell! I don’t even use this on regular people.”
The coin she held wasn’t an ordinary one. Instead of the first king’s face, it bore the image of a witch wearing a wide-brimd hat, her expression a smug, mocking grin—as if laughing at the person using the coin.
“Though this thing is rare, I can always retrieve it after knocking you out.”
She sprinkled a bit of pink powder from another pocket onto the coin.
“Now then, let show you the appetizer a witch can serve—”
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