"Your whole family is about to die. If both of us don't move together, the plan won't work."
Cory didn't outright deny my words, but it looked like he wanted to do it alone.
"I was just tired because I just woke up earlier, but I'm okay now. I'm really okay."
He wordlessly looked at me as he rested his hand on my cheek. It was a gesture full of affection.
"Shuraina."
He called my name, voice low.
"I trust you, but I can't trust you in this moment."
His green eyes were shaking slightly in uncertainty. He looked as if he was looking at a bubble that was just about to burst. As if he was looking at a glass bowl with a crack in it, moments away from shattering.
He gripped my hand anxiously. He opened his mouth and closed it again and again, as if there was something he couldn't seem to say. I could tell that he didn't want to send me over.
"Ugh, seriously! What's going on? I feel sick."
Viedielle's loud voice broke through the brief silence.
One of the magicians rearing to attack had been trying to remove a protective spell on the Unhorse, and the magic they had been using was making the Unhorse shake a lot. Because of it, it looked like Viedielle had gotten motion sickness. She peeked her head out of the window.
"Cory, block the explosion."
I immediately discovered the magician drawing a circle to drag Viedielle out of the carriage through the window and immediately headed down to face them.
Cory watched as I disappeared out of his view and said something from behind me, but I was already far away and couldn't hear him. Cory seemed like he finally decided to do as I said and swiftly moved towards the direct attack circle.
Viedielle had about half of her body out through the carriage window as she stared outside. She saw me coming down from above and stared at me with wide eyes.
"Huh, isn't it Shushu unni? Why are you….?"
Viedielle, who had leaned out further to look at me, waved her hand slowly as she smiled.
"Hurry! Go inside!"
The magician activated the circle to drag Viedielle out of the carriage, and I quickly drew a circle to prevent that, but I was slightly late. I yelled at her to get her face back into the carriage but Viedielle just frowned.
"Huh? Why?"
Viedielle, who just raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in confusion, ended up falling out of the moving Unhorse because of the magician's attack. As soon as she fell out of the carriage, the assassins quickly approached her and threw their hidden throwing weapons at her.
Viedielle, who knew a bit of self-defense, immediately unsheathed the short sword on her waist and deflected all of the weapons flying her way. She couldn't block every one of them, though, as one stabbed her through her thigh.
I ran towards Viedielle, who began shedding tears from her pain. I could see the assassins getting closer to her with their swords, ready to slash and kill her.
I casted a spell towards the assassins to decrease their strength and speed as much as possible and moved quickly to strike at their pressure points. The combined use of magic and movement made me feel like throwing up, but I bit my lips to stay concentrated. I could feel a metallic tang. I must be bleeding.
"Damn it."
After blocking the few people who almost succeeded in getting close to Viedielle, I watched as more people ran towards us.
It was the first time I had killed someone, but I was surprised at how unsurprising it was. I didn't know if it was because of my current state and the lack of strength I had to be surprised, if it was because of the amount of subjugations I've been to when I killed living beings, because I'd witnessed Yves killing someone in cold blood, or it was a mixture of all of the above.
I only focused on the enemies in front of me. I occasionally got hit by their attacks, but I was able to clear them pretty easily. Viedielle sat behind me as she cried and tried to stop the flow of blood.
Viedielle seemed scared at the amount of blood pouring out of her body. She kept crying and couldn't seem to wake up from her trance.
The attacks kept pouring in relentlessly. When I blocked an attack, I saw someone trying to attack Viedielle from behind, and when I saw magic shot towards Viedielle, I had to rush to nullify it.
If it wasn't for the magic accessories that reflected the attacks right back to the attackers, I would've died a long time before.
In the midst of my rushed movements, I saw that the Unhorse that had been moving earlier was stopped.
It seemed like Cory had already taken care of the direct attack circle. The magicians had seen that it had been nullified and had rushed to stop the Unhorse. Now that the direct attack circles were off the table, it seemed like they had changed their plan to kill everyone right here and now.
I witnessed a few assassins and magicians running towards the Unhorse where the marquis and marquess sat. I thought about how I couldn't just protect Viedielle when the two of them were in danger.
Viedielle sat behind me, crying that the blood wasn't stemming. I felt like I was going to pass out right then so I opened my mouth. My head felt like it was ringing because of her crying.
"Stop crying!"
Viedielle immediately stopped crying when I suddenly yelled in the middle of my fights against the assassins.
After checking that she was quiet, I sighed.
Then, as I still threw attacks at the attackers, I ripped off all of my protective necklaces, bracelets, and everything else. I threw everything at Viedielle.
I also threw the healing ring that Swanhaden had given me from my finger. I could feel all of my power depleting now that they were off of me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Viedielle briefly just stared at the sheer amount of protective accessories in her hands. She wasn't sobbing loudly anymore, but tears still fell from her eyes, wide with fear.
"Put those on and hurry back to your mom and dad. I'll keep you safe."
I was using Cory's magic stones, so I was able to throw a lot of different spells at the assassins at once. They seemed taken aback by the spells I had casted. When they hesitated, I immediately attacked their pressure points. My head hurt whenever I moved.
"Shushu unniiiii...….. I'm so scared....."
I was busy facing off, but Viedielle still wasn't moving. She was safe now that she had on all of the accessories, but it looked like she was too scared to move.
"Then hurry up and go. When you're in the Unhorse with your parents, I'll cast a strong protective barrier. These people are all aiming for your parents. When I cast the barrier, make sure the marquis and his wife aren't able to come out of the Unhorse."
"But what about you, unni? Hic, you're bleeding from your ears and nose right now!"
She had realized that I was having a difficult time protecting her, so Viedielle shook herself and began to run away. She turned back to check on me ever so often.
At Viedielle's words, I raised my hand towards my face and touched my ears and nose. There was red liquid on my hands. It seemed I really was bleeding. Well, I had been throwing around magic willy-nilly while the black magic and my own magic were fighting within me. It seemed like a bit of my magic had exploded inwards.
"You're taking so long that it feels like my pores are going to start oozing blood, you know? Hurry up and run."
I told her, wiping my face with my shirt sleeve. Viedielle hesitated before she cried and nodded.
When Viedielle ran, another group of people tried to follow and kill her. I casted a few exploding spells towards the people who were following her to make sure she stayed safe.
–Beeeeeeeep!
A high pitched, loud noise rang in my ears. One of my eyebrows raised by themselves as one of my legs gave way. I stabbed my sword into the ground to stay standing. A hot liquid seemed to be sloshing around inside of me.
My head was ringing and the world felt like it was slipping away. I bit my lips harder to stay awake. My lips were bleeding, but it tasted the same as the blood coming out of my mouth so I didn't care about it.
I saw that Viedielle had safely returned back into the Unhorse and had stopped the marquis from coming out. The assassins all around me were crowding towards the Unhorse. A few of them, however, still stayed to kill me. I needed to draw the magic circle right now.
I was just killing the attackers without a thought. I felt blank. It felt apt to describe my current movements as 'moving on instinct'.
I gathered all of the magic that I could to draw a large, strong protective barrier around the Unhorse.
"Heuaaagh!"
I gritted my teeth so hard that I could hear the gnash of my teeth. I yelled to wake myself up and drew all of the strength ipossibly could.
At that moment, I remembered when my past life's parents passed away. It felt like the ground, something that had supported and protected me, had suddenly disappeared. It felt like I was falling from my safe place down to the bottom pits of hell. The fear, despair, and the urge to just disappear when I had to check and verify their cold bodies with my own two eyes. Tears just kept pouring out.
My mind immediately connected it to Cory's situation. The miserable state he was in, gritting his teeth through the pain. How he stared at his younger sister's lifeless corpse in his arms with blank eyes as he tried to kill himself. You probably wanted to disappear then, just like me. I forced my eyes to stay open as I grit my teeth.
I had been pouring my magic into the circle when I suddenly felt a rush of blood coming out of me. I ignored it as I kept drawing the circle. I used all of the stones that Cory had given me as I tried to make a strong barrier.
I kept spitting out blood, but more blood filled my mouth as soon as it was gone.
"…..heugh. Agh...… eugh. Cough."
I gripped tight on my consciousness and was barely completing the circle when someone suddenly appeared to complete it, all at once.
The world felt like it was crawling. I felt miserable. I felt like throwing up. When I decided to just throw up, blood came out instead. After pouring out more and more blood, I realized how serious my current state was. I was slowly drifting off, and the entire world looked like it was covered in haze. I could see someone entering my line of sight. But my vision was too foggy for me to tell who it was.
My body was completely moving out of habit at this point. I could tell that the situation had already been taken care of by someone else, but my hand still stretched out towards the Unhorse for me to finish the circle.
"Shushu stop!"
But someone's voice suddenly rang out. The circle I was about to draw disappeared.
I could hear a familiar voice. A deep, husky voice that was cracking at the edges.
I almost stabbed the person who was approaching me after assuming they were an assassin.
But I realized that the person had a familiar voice, and I frowned as I tried to see who it was. I couldn't see too clearly, but they had messy blond hair and an anguished expression on their face.