Chapter 4 - 4

Layton woke up a few hours later to the sound of people running into his courtyard. He got up from his bed, wiped away his drowsiness, and, alert, grabbed a sword. With a bang, the door opened to reveal an injured 14-year-old girl. She had silver hair and blue eyes, her breathing was hurried, and her face was twisted in pain. The girl looked up to find Layton staring at her.

"Please help me."

Those were the only words she managed to say before she passed out.

Layton looked at the girl indifferently before stepping out of the hut. He found 12 knights surrounding his hut, all armed. The one who seemed to be the leader scrunched up his brow before speaking.

"You're new here, right? We are the followers of Young Master Aaron. He wants the girl that just wandered in here. Give her to us, and you won't be harmed." As he said this, he pulled out his sword and looked at Layton, waiting for his answer.

Although the leader was arrogant, he knew better than to underestimate those who would soon be wizards they always had strange tricks up their sleeves.

Like the girl he was chasing for his master. He wasn't allowed to kill her, or he and his master would be doomed since she was a candidate for wizard school. But since she had just arrived today and was only a knight, as long as she wasn't dead, no one would care about anything else that happened. He had been sent to capture her for his master because the master fancied her. With his high position among the acolytes, no one in the Duke's house would care what he did. No one could interfere in matters between acolytes except their followers.

What was supposed to be an easy mission wasn't going well. The girl seemed able to predict their movements and was incredibly lucky, always avoiding capture at critical moments. Although she wasn't able to avoid being poisoned by the aphrodisiac, the amount was minimal, and she managed to get into an acolyte's hut that didn't have its protection barrier activated. The leader signaled for the knights to block the acolyte's path into the house, because if the acolyte rushed back in and activated the barrier, all their efforts would be for naught.

Layton looked at the people surrounding him and ignored the leader's words. He was in a bad mood from being woken up, and he was always cranky when he woke up. The girl had fainted, and Layton didn't have the habit of taking out his anger on unconscious girls especially since she was an acolyte. Layton had caught sight of the badge on her tattered clothing.

These knights, however, were different. Plus, with the threatening attitude they had, Layton had no problem venting his anger on them. Layton smirked as he looked at them. The leader seemed to know he was going to attack and was about to shout a warning for his men to defend, but it was too late. Layton appeared in front of the man like a ghost, throwing a punch that sent the leader flying into the courtyard wall. The remaining knights reacted and started to attack. Layton dodged a sword aimed at his face and kicked, sending another knight smashing into the opposite wall. He then leaped away, dodging the remaining 10 knights. As they charged at him, Layton took a deep breath and disappeared, reappearing beside one burly knight. He kicked the back of the knight's knee, causing him to lose his balance, and then sent another kick to the back of his head. Layton picked up the knight and threw him at the others. The hefty knight took down two of his teammates, leaving only seven.

Layton didn't wait for the rest to regain their footing before leaping at them, dodging their attacks and breaking their legs one by one.

Layton dragged the knights and threw them out of his courtyard before going back to pick up his sword and returning to his hut.

As he walked in, his body started aching from the intense movements during the fight. He had controlled his muscles to the max, making use of all of them. Through rapid contractions, he had been able to explode with much more speed and strength than usual, but it left him sore.

Layton walked up to his bed, feeling tired and sleepy. He seemed to have forgotten there was someone else in the room. When Layton reached his bed, he realized something was wrong.

"No matter how hard I fought, I'm not supposed to be this tired. Damn, I must have been poisoned during the fight."

Layton tried to force himself to stay awake, but he was tackled by a silver-haired figure. The last thing he saw before he fainted was a blue-eyed girl, panting and kissing his lips.