Chapter 175: Told Not to Do Anything Dangerous

The atmosphere changed in an instant. It was the moment I had started to think we might be finished like this. Although there was still distance, I could see soldiers coming from the direction of the restaurant.

From the direction of the gate, a black mass came running at tremendous speed! It was clearly heading straight for the Queen. Escorts who tried to stop it were flung aside. However, that slightly reduced its speed. Three people? Was this the last of them? To the remaining presence-less maid I said,

"Take care of the Queen!"

and to Lily and Stevie,

"Let’s go! Finish them!"

""Yes!""

If we didn’t stop that thing, we would surely be crushed. That one had to be stopped no matter what.

We collided with the three black figures. I took the man in the middle. My diving speed was so fast that the enemy tried to raise his sword but was too late. From a low stance I swept at his legs. The man tried to jump to avoid my sword, but because he jumped while in the middle of raising his sword, his balance must have collapsed — his body tilted forward. The exposed torso came right in front of my eyes. I thrust my sword into it. When I raised my eyes I met the enemy’s. His eyes were wide open, staring at my sword as if looking at something unbelievable. The blood vessels in the whites of his eyes stood out, showing the shock. That shock was about to turn into despair. I slid the sword through, and it passed from the enemy’s stomach out through his back. No blood clung to the sword; it remained clean. It cut well — truly a sliding sharpness.

Even though the enemy had been cut through the stomach, he had not yet died, so he twisted his body to try to cut me. At that moment his body shifted from the cut, and his upper half began to fall. Not understanding what had happened, his eyes took on a puzzled color, then as he realized his upper body was falling after being cut, the color changed to despair.

On either side Lily and Stevie were fighting. Both opponents were larger in build than the two of them. If they simply matched swords they would clearly lose. Therefore both of them were dodging the enemies’ swords and trying to slip under to bring them down.

The man facing Stevie slammed his sword into the road, raising sparks. Stevie dodged by a paper-thin margin, but while her body escaped, the tip of her ponytail became a victim of the sword and was cut by about 10 cm. What a waste. Stevie’s short sword cut upward from below around the man’s elbow. The man’s sword came sideways at Stevie. She dodged by crouching — or rather by flattening herself almost to the ground — and stabbed her short sword into the man’s thigh. A blood vessel on the inner side of the thigh must have been cut, because blood sprayed out. Even so the man swung his sword around and cut at Stevie, but she jumped and dodged. She kicked him in the face, he fell backward, and Stevie mounted him and drove her sword into his heart.

Without me needing to intervene at all, Stevie finished. When I turned my gaze to Lily, she had already sliced open the enemy’s side and her sword had passed through his back.

I looked toward the Queen. Reinforcements had arrived, but even those who came as reinforcements were being brought down by arrows. Shields had been arranged around the Queen and she was tightly surrounded and protected. Even so, arrows continued to fly. Almost none of the attackers were still standing, yet allies who were still on their feet were defending with shields or pieces of board. But of course such things could not stop arrows from strong bows, and some people had arrows piercing through the boards into their bodies. Even though reinforcements had come, they could not approach the windows.

In that case I would! — the moment I was about to take a step,

"Fugu!?"

an unbelievable sound came out. My collar was grabbed from behind and pulled, choking my throat. An arrow stabbed into the place where I had been about to step.

"Robby-sama, reckless actions are not allowed! Please be more aware of yourself!"

Lily scolded me while still gripping my collar from behind.

"Yes."

Even so, Stevie leapt out. She dodged the flying arrows by paper-thin margins and bounded forward. Arrows concentrated on Stevie but did not hit her. She reached the base of the window and immediately began climbing like a rock climber, placing her hands and feet on the protrusions of the wall and ascending smoothly. No more arrows were shot from the window. Stevie took something from her mana bag, tore it with her mouth, and threw it into the window!

A grenade? I thought, but it did not explode. Why? Or rather, did grenades not exist in the first place? Then what was that? As if understanding my thoughts, Lily said simply,

"Smoke bomb."

I see. Indeed, smoke was billowing from the window. Haaa— I watched with admiration. Looking back later, I think I must have had a foolish expression on my face.

In any case, no more arrows came from the window. As the smoke was settling, Stevie jumped in through the window.

"Lily, isn’t Stevie in danger?"

"She is. But someone has to do it."

Lily answered casually.

"More importantly, the Queen."

"That’s right!"

Though it was extremely rude of me, for just an instant I had forgotten about the Queen. Only for an instant, though.

When I turned around, at the Queen’s side there was a maid covering her and defending her. Arrows were stuck in the ground around them, but the maid seemed to have just barely avoided being hit.

I ran to the Queen.

"Your Majesty! Are you all right!? Are you injured?"

The maid slowly got up, and from beneath her the Queen appeared. From what I could see, she did not seem to be injured?