Part 1
"You cannot go out there, madam!"
Inside the office of the duke.
The captain was holding back the duchess from exiting the room by blocking the door with his body. After a second explosion, multiple footsteps were heard outside in the hallway. The intruders were most likely looking for something since Olivia and the others heard multiple doors being opened.
"Get out of my way before I blast you and the door, captain."
"P-Please listen to reason! What can madam do against multiple intruders alone!? Even if madam is a seventh star magician, they are bound to have measures against your magic!"
"My people are in danger and you expect me to think about my own life alone!?" Adrianna lifted up her hand in an attempt to cast a spell.
However, Olivia stood between her and the captain.
"Please do not go while the castle is filled with enemies. The castle is big and we have no idea where they could pop out from," Olivia held Adrianna's hand and gazed into her eyes.
Even though Olivia said so, Adrianna was still not convinced.
"I will fight on my own if I have to. You do know that I can simply teleport out of here even if you block me?"
"But that uses a lot of magic power to cast," Olivia said bluntly, "Surely, you do not wish to fight when not at full strength?"
"Guh…"
Adrianna shook her hand loose and walked towards the desk. She picked up a magic item in the shape of a pentagon.
"Who are you contacting, aunt?"
"It is obviously my husband."
"No."
"Olivia, give it back now!"
After Olivia snatched the magic item to prevent her from calling Marcus, Adrianna yelled in anger. Her expression was one of anxiousness and urgency.
"The conference is set to begin soon. He must also go to the banquet before visiting his connections in the empire. The duke will most likely only return in a week's time if not two," Olivia explained to convince Adrianna, "I think we can find a way out of this without having to go about it alone. So why don't we put our heads together and think?"
She looked at the captain and vice captain. The two nodded. Then she looked at the Dark Elf.
Although she only looked at him for a few seconds, he shrugged helplessly.
A knock suddenly came from the door which alerted the five people inside the room. However, they were left in confusion when the person knocked at a certain rhythm.
Olivia's eyes widened and she bolted towards the door.
"Elna!"
Beyond the door stood a female knight with flaming red hair and eyes. She was carrying a little silver fox in her arms.
The little fox jumped straight into Olivia's arms after it saw her. A warm smile spread on Olivia's cheeks.
'Thank goodness. I was wondering where he went.'
The little fox suddenly disappeared when the chaos happened so she was worried when he vanished.
'He smells a little… Did he eat something in the trash?' A sort of putrid odour came from his mouth and fur. 'Maybe it's rotten meat.'
"I have secured the entire second floor. However, I sensed more intruders coming upstairs. Sir Sebastian is handling the majority of them," Elna came inside and closed the door, "Staying inside the rooms is better than being cornered outside."
"Where is Luke?" Adrianna asked worriedly.
"Do not worry about him. I moved him to lord Arnold's former room since it has the highest magical barriers inside this castle, excluding this office. Some of the servants and guards also went that way."
"And Judith? She was preparing to leave for the manor. Did something happen to her?"
"I believe her escorts barricaded her somewhere under the castle. However, I am unsure where. Perhaps the dungeon cells because that is the last place I would look if I was searching for my targets." Elna explained.
"I see… Was anyone killed…?"
"Several people died. I also saw corpses along the way, those intruders included," Elna said, "With the household's private army gone, its only defences are the magic barriers surrounding the castle. Since so many intruders made it this far, I'm guessing that they are capable of breaking magic barriers."
"One of them might have an anti-magic item." Olivia muttered.
An anti-magic item allowed the user to be able to break a spell's basic formula, thus destroying its core needed to cast and maintain the magic. It depended on the type of tool it was so Olivia guessed that whomever they were hired by was a very wealthy person.
The lowest magic barrier inside the castle was 4th rank which was already sufficient for any residence. In addition, there were several higher magic barriers. Those of which this castle had in several of its rooms.
'We should assume that their anti-magic item is at least S-class.'
Thinking that, Olivia offered a theory as to why they were here.
She pointed at the unconscious man.
"Isn't it rather odd how they came here immediately after this man brought this fake imperial force knight?"
"Now that you mention it…" Even the dark elf was confused. A clueless expression was on his face.
"This is only a guess but what if their goal is to eliminate the man before we have a chance to interrogate him?"
"That sounds plausible," Adrianna nodded in agreement, "Whoever hired these men must be working with other members of the aristocracy. If the one who hired the fake knights to kill Al was caught then we would eventually be able to catch others who are involved. They're afraid."
"So this means we have to protect this man?" The captain asked as if he had a headache.
"That is correct. However, I have a feeling whoever sent these people is not the same person who sent the fake knights. It must be one of our enemies who want to take this chance to eliminate us as well. That's why we must protect this man as well as ourselves."
Seemingly troubled, the captain nodded gravely, "…We shall follow the duchess' orders. I think the men I brought with me must have been killed already so it's only me and the vice captain that are able to guard this man."
"Then please move into that room where I sent my students," Adrianna pointed at the room next to the bookshelf. The four servants hadn't come out yet.
'They're probably scared. Bunch of useless idiots. Why bother training them in magic even though they're so weak?' Olivia grumbled but kept her thoughts to herself. 'I should've brought an Imperial Knight with me at least. Elna strong but not on the level of an imperial knight.'
Imperial knights were the most elite army of the empire. They were warriors who protects the nation and its emperor's family from harm. Even the weakest of them could be as strong as a 5th star knight while the strongest few reached 7th star. Of course, the latter group were only the captains of the Imperial Army.
The captain and vice captain took the unconscious man towards the room. Adrianna began speaking after the door was shut and reinforced with magic barriers.
"We will need to locate all the intruders before thinking of attacking blindly. Without Sebastian—our strongest combatant—we can't charge in without a plan. What do you know so far, Elna?" She looked at Olivia's knight.
"Two groups were sent in as sacrifices to cause disturbance in the household while the main attack units stood by. That explosion that went off earlier signalled them to move. I have spotted three teams—including the two-ten men group downstairs currently fighting sir Sebastian and the group who killed the knights and servants outside. The fourth team have not shown up as of yet."
"They must be waiting to see what we will do."
"That is what I think as well. I have tried contacting the airship's crew members but to no avail. It seems that they managed to get control of our airship as well."
'They shouldn't be able to steal it since they would need my activation key.'
Airships designed for royalty had a requirement whenever it set sailing: at least one royal must be on the ship. Olivia's key was in Elna's possession since it was easier for her to protect it.
Although they wouldn't be able to steal the airship, that didn't tell for the items on-board. Olivia brought many of her collection of jewellery with her which would be a let-down if it was stolen.
"What should we do first?" Olivia looked at Adrianna who was pondering deeply with her eyes closed shut.
She didn't immediately reply since she seemed so lost in thought.
"Since we don't have much manpower on our hands, our only choice is to contact Anna and tell her to mobilize adventurers," Gathering her thoughts, Adrianna replied, "She is always protected by strong knights whenever she is out for work so I am certain that nothing has happened to her yet. While we wait we can figure out a way to lessen the number of our enemies. Thus, lessening the burden on her end when she actually decides to bring troops."
"Ah, I see!" Olivia exclaimed happily when she realized the solution to their problem was the eldest daughter of the Berkley household.
Anna possessed enough connection and influence on the level of a noble. She had connections in the Imperial Order and could quickly mobilize a small rescue team of elite knights. It would be a godsend if she managed to send 6th star knights.
They needed at least that much manpower to take on the enemies. Seeing as how they had to resort to infiltrating the castle using surprise attacks, there weren't that many powerful members on their teams.
'We should only take on the amount of people we can handle. Sir Sebastian should be enough for one group but I think we need to at least send back-up.'
That was because he was fighting two groups of ten that joined hands after coming to the castle. A total of twenty people was no joke.
Olivia looked at the dark elf.
"Why don't we send this man to fight with sir Sebastian?"
"That sounds like a good idea but what if he plans on joining the enemy?" Elna voiced her concern.
"I wouldn't join the side of scum. Besides, I have an unofficial contract with this man called Arnold that our leader apparently signed." Ziom took off his cloak and threw it aside, his muscles shined from his sweat.
"However—"
"Stop questioning his motives, Elna. If he says he will help then let him." Olivia silenced Elna. She nodded, indicating that she understood.
'I can always have him be hunt down later on if he doesn't follow my orders.'
"I will clear the left wing of the castle. Olivia will take the south after reuniting with Luke and Elna will take the east. The great hall where Sebastian is fighting is at directly below us so we need to go left once we exit the office, to avoid confrontation," Adrianna took out the castle's blueprint from her husband's drawer, "Before we even think of taking on the intruders, it is important to be fully equipped. That's why we will go to the treasury. Since Olivia is a non-combatant, we should get you an attack staff filled with spells just in case."
The staff she was talking about was a magic item with pre-installed spells inside of it. Through simple enchantments and runic magic, craftsmen are able to attach any kind of spell inside a magic item. It was similar to magic sheets which are wrapped around the user's staff.
However, the difference between the two methods of installing magic was that an enchanted magic item could store more spells whereas a magic sheet spell needed multiple pages of the same amount of spells which would be far more expensive.
The upsides of magic sheets were that you could seal powerful magic spells. On the other hand, you can store multiple spells inside a single enchanted magic item.
'I have never used magic before but I'll need to get used to it whether I like it or not.' Olivia continued listening to Adrianna's plan:
"—Elna will be on the lookout while we grab whichever items we find inside the treasury. Olivia's group's destination will be the heir's room where Luke and the others are locked up in. We will need to grab enough weapons and potions for a small group," She looked at the dark elf next, "Your job will be helping Sebas downstairs and taking down as many opponents as you can. This might be the last time we see each other but allow me to offer my gratitude for informing me of my son's wellbeing. You also brought the one involved in my son's attempted murder."
Adrianna lowered her head politely. The dark elf seemed embarrassed as he scratched his cheek.
"I-It wasn't like I had a choice. I'll see myself out and go help the old man." Ziom quickly left the office.
Adrianna noticed Elna looking towards the door in disgust.
"What is the matter?"
"How could we allow a demon breed to enter this castle? It is because of him that these intruders showed up."
"But the good thing is that we have one of the perpetrators in our hands. If we survive this battle then we can find answers to our questions. I don't know why my son was targeted first but my guess is that they'll hunt him down if he ever showed his face in the city."
"This is clearly a message to the Berkley family." Olivia said to the two of them.
She was certain that the enemy was thinking of getting rid of a future nuisance known as Arnold.
Now that Luke became the heir, there was no need for them to hold themselves back from killing Arnold since he had no worth or power as a noble. He was just a city lord of a small city.
Looking at the timing of everything that happened so far, her brother might've also been involved in this.
'I hope I'm wrong about this.'
"Message or not, they will face the consequences once this is over." Adrianna said coldly, "We are wasting time standing around here any longer. Let's get moving."
Part 2
Sounds of metal hitting metal resounded even from upstairs. People's cries of sorrow reached Olivia's ears but she kept on moving with Elna and Adrianna.
The three had found servants who were hiding themselves in the rooms that they passed by after leaving the office. About five accompanied them, making them a group of eight altogether.
Olivia suggested keeping them inside the office but Adrianna had other plans since she said that it was better to arm more people than what they had before.
Since it made sense, Olivia left it at that without bringing up the matter any further.
"Eek!" One of the servants shrieked when she saw a knight whose head was missing from his body.
The group came to a halt.
'Why are they slaughtering the people when they are after only one man?' Olivia couldn't understand their goal. Perhaps there were some who had other plans besides killing one of their own?
"This is a sign that they might be lurking on the second floor as well. Keep your eyes open and report whatever strange movement you detect."
All of them nodded.
The group began moving again, while being cautious of what they heard and saw.
As they neared the treasury, Olivia noticed that there were more and more bodies that was on the ground.
'It looks like they were ripped apart by sheer force.' Olivia frowned when she saw a torso with no arms, head and legs.
Perhaps the others were too focused on being alert of their surroundings to notice the horror on the ground.
'Did some beast run rampant during the chaos?' She quickened her pace after she noticed that she was lagging behind.
The treasury finally came into view. It was a big metal door with multiple runic patterns surrounding its hinges. It was located down a long narrow hallway.
Adrianna stood in front of it and spread out her arms. Mana slowly drifted from her hand towards the metal hinges of the door. The multiple magic circles on the door were then released and it opened after a screeching sound of metal scraping against each other.
"Grab as many things as you can from the artifact section," Adrianna turned towards the group, "We need to gear up to protect against the intruders who invaded our castle. Take enough potions, items and weapons for potential survivors because we can only protect ourselves since our private army is absent."
"Yes!"
"Now go."
The group of servants and knights hurriedly entered the room and began picking things up. Adrianna kept a watchful eye of the currency that was in one corner of the room. Since it was unwise to keep all the city's money inside the castle, the duke had moved only a small percentage—enough for the family—inside the castle while the rest was kept in the bank of the city.
"Seems like nothing is out of the ordinary. The gold coins seem just as much as when I checked it yesterday morning."
Most nobles' wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small, that might include fields, pasture, orchards, timberland, hunting grounds, streams, etc. Since the duchy was one of the wealthiest cities in the empire, it was obvious that the ruler would also be rich.
'That being said, it's odd how the intruders haven't thought of breaking in yet. They would definitely be rich if they stole the money.'
Their objective was clear before but Olivia had some doubts. Now those doubts had disappeared.
'Either they wanted to create tension in the castle and Arnold was not their objective all along or…perhaps it's something deeper than that.'
Olivia couldn't fathom what that something was. She wasn't that interested in politics so she didn't really know the strife between different households.
Olivia was a simple person after all. She would mind her own business, ignoring any distractions from her normal way of life.
"Should I take this?" Olivia showed Adrianna an enchanted magic staff infused with twenty Fireballs.
"It shouldn't be that useful in a fight but you can at least use it to escape if no one is there to protect you." Adrianna turned towards the others who were searching for weapons, "Hurry up! We need to get to the others as soon as possible!"
The group began moving faster than before at Adrianna's shout for them to hurry up. Many just blindly grabbed what they could find instead of checking the weapon's quality.
'Most of them look afraid.' Olivia could understand why. Not many of them were able to fight.
In fact, a lot of them were but ordinary people like her. The difference was that Olivia was calm because she knew they had a chance to win. Their numbers were superior compared to the intruders.
There was also the fact that the intruders didn't know the layout of this castle and it could be used against them. Olivia and Adrianna had already decided on which path they had to take in order to not alert the enemies.
Since this castle was much larger than even a two-story building, they could move past the enemies and plan a surprise attack.
'But there are flaws. We don't know if there are more waiting outside.' She looked towards the hallway which was pitch black because the windows were all closed due to the security measures, 'We obviously can't go to look either. Only the first and second wives can shut the defences down so we can go outside.'
Olivia had approached Adrianna with this flaw and spoke to her about it. However, Adrianna replied with:
I will not open this castle until we eliminate every intruder inside of it.
They were basically trapped inside.
'What a dilemma…' A sudden thought realization struck Olivia. 'The second wife hasn't been seen all this while. Where is she?'
Standard protocol for nobles was that each member of the family must gather inside the stronghold of the residence during danger. This could be a library, bedroom or even a bathroom. It depends on which room has the highest defences.
'Either she is dead or she's outside. Even with her uncooperative nature, she wouldn't abandon the family.'
If she were to do that then her only way of surviving was to leave this city along with her son. Not only would her husband be extremely upset that she abandoned everyone, the city's people would definitely want to burn her on a stake. Knowing how much the citizens respected and loved their rulers, Olivia could guess the drastic measures they would resort to once the criminals are caught.
'That woman with green hair is also not here. Is she protecting the second wife? That would make sense why she isn't here.'
Olivia concluded that Judith was most likely alive and well because Flora would be protecting her.
Olivia suddenly felt the magic staff leave her hands.
"Eh?" She looked down and noticed that Pluffy was pulling the staff away while growling.
"What's wrong?" It couldn't speak so it obviously didn't answer her.
"Kyuu!"
It roared cutely while looking into Olivia's eyes. This naturally brought a smile to her face as she picked him up.
"Will you protect me?"
"Kyuu!"
'Ah, so adorable…' She patted the little fox's head.
"Hm?" She sniffed Pluffy's breath and noticed an iron-like and a rotting odor.
"Ugh, what did you eat before you met up with Elna?" The smell was even worse when she sniffed it directly compared to before.
She put the little fox down and proceeded to pick up the staff again. The fox tried to grab it again but Olivia didn't let it. She walked towards Adrianna after taking a few magic items that helped with recovery and curse resistance.
"I am ready to go now."
"Good. We can go once the others are ready."
"Okay."
◇
It was nearly ten minutes later that everyone was ready to go. The knights had shed their heavy armour and were wearing enchanted clothing that mildly protected against bludgeoning and piercing damage. Each of them used magic crystals to sharpen their swords' blades.
The servants who weren't experienced in fighting equipped wands and wielded spell books while the others had melee weapons. The entire group was finally armed and ready to move.
"Listen up!" Adrianna got their attention, "I am grateful that all of you have followed my orders. Now comes the difficult part. Each group of five will move to different sections of the castle and seek out any survivors. Once you do I want you to try and head back to the office and keep the survivors there. Those who want to fight with us won't stay behind."
"""Understood!"""
Every member of the group was standing in one line. Adrianna began sending them out one by one. Elna was already outside so there wasn't a worry of sneak attacks.
Olivia could feel her heart pounding wilder than usual.
'Am I afraid? My breathing is normal as is my movements so maybe I'm imagining it?' She began following the others from behind, 'I have an uneasy feeling creeping in my stomach.'
She decided to forget about it since she couldn't come to the bottom of what that feeling was.