*SLOW MUSIC*
*CLING*
"Cheers, gentlemen." A man wearing a simple white mask spoke while raising his cup.
"Cheers!" The others surrounding him mimicked his gesture and followed suit.
Looking at the ongoing party below, Charlotte, with red long hair, green eyes, an elegant dress, and a mask covering half of her face, stood on the upper floor of the building.
Behind her stood a little girl, no older than 4 years old, also dressed in a luxurious dress that seemed cute instead of elegant on her.
The girl with chubby cheeks, black hair, and red eyes was Charlotte's goal.
She had to protect her.
A few minutes earlier, her master, Akame, had thrown her and that annoying man, Hai, into this virtual space, and then she received the rules of this "sparring" session if it could even be called as such.
[1- You must protect the little girl, her name is Erica and unlike the people in this space, she is also a real person, a newly accepted disciple of our palace;
2- You can't stay more than 5 meters away from her;
3- If Erica wants to go somewhere, don't stop her unless it is outside the building;
4- You mustn't leave the building;
5- You can't destroy the building (partially or completely).]
Upon reading the rules, Charlotte was initially confused by them.
They were simple to understand and follow.
The problem, however, stems from the fact that she knows her master and knows that she doesn't make things easy.
With this mentality, she has been guarding Erica for the past 10 minutes or so, but to no avail.
Nothing happened.
The luxurious party for what she could perceive as wealthy people kept going on without anything noteworthy.
Briefly looking over the main hall, her pretty face morphed into a small scowl behind her mask, but it immediately disappeared.
'Bad memories…' She shook her head.
Opening her eyes, she looked at the little girl tugging her sleeve.
"Big sis, eat." She spoke in a childish voice that seemed to melt even the coldest of hearts.
With her lips slightly arced up, Charlotte looked over the floor they are in, and noticed that there was no food available.
Glancing at the main hall, she noticed that there was food there.
'You've got to be kidding me…' Pursing her lips, she looked at the little girl and hesitantly picked her up.
Casting a concealment magic on themselves by warping the space near their figure, Charlotte also used her magic to continuously scan the surrounding.
'Where are you?' She kept thinking about where that handsome but hateful man had gone.
Meanwhile, speaking of the devil.
A tall and lean handsome man with fair skin and blonde hair leisurely sat on a chair while supporting his feet on a desk.
Wearing a black mask that covered from his nose up to his forehead, his ruby-red eyes calmly observed the several monitors displaying images from cameras all around the building.
Suddenly, the man's eyes lit up.
In one of the images, he saw something moving through the crowd.
It wasn't something visible, but when one looked closer, they could see that a few people suddenly moved to the side, as if being pushed to make way.
"Her stealth is due to her magic, huh." Hai muttered before moving his eyes to the child.
Seeing that cute face, he bitterly smiled.
Just like Charlotte, he also received a set of rules.
[1- In this building, Charlotte is disguised and protecting a little girl. This little girl is an experimental project of combining an artifact and technology, she is a virtual person, a projection, that behaves like a real one. Assassinate the little girl;
2- You can only move for 5 minutes after an interval of 10 minutes between each "attack";
3- You have to pick up 3 locations in the whole building between each attack. The same location can't be picked up right away and can only be picked up after an interval's time;
4- You can only attack if they are in one of the chosen locations;
5- If they aren't in one of the chosen locations, you can only observe and scare them, but not attack, directly or indirectly;
6- You can't kill anyone else besides the girl;
7- You can't critically injure Charlotte or put her out of commission;
8- You can't leave the building;
9- You can only use one element for magical attacks;
10- Your disguise will change after each interval.]
Just reading the first rule, Hai more or less got a gist of what this training session would be about and he could already see a headache coming his way.
'I have to assassinate a child? Program or not, seriously?' Hai closed his eyes while a few memories flashes in his mind.
Trembling hands.
Blood staining the floor.
And…
*SIGH*
Sighing, he dismissed those thoughts and waved his hand, then a holographic screen popped up before his eyes.
Looking at the screen containing the layout of the building, he looked back to the monitor and pondered for a few seconds.
Seeing as Charlotte didn't seem to exit the main hall, he picked up the locations.
Main hall.
Kitchen.
Balcony.
Confirming his choice, he got up and walked towards the door.
Twisting the doorknob, he swung it open and gave a last glance at the screen displaying the image of the main hall.
"Let's see what I can learn…" He muttered before closing the door, leaving the security room with all the 10 guards knocked out behind.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hearing the music around her and seeing people dressed in flashy clothes, Charlotte closed her eyes and looked toward Erica.
She was sitting on a chair while munching on a chocolate straw and absentmindedly gazing toward the window.
'It's too quiet…' Charlotte couldn't help but comment inwardly at how inactive Hai has been until now.
'Was he all talk?' This thought crossed her mind but she decided to not jump to conclusions, not after the lesson she learned last time.
Erica meanwhile snapped out of her daze and picked up a glass of juice.
Charlotte looked back at her before looking away again.
As the little girl brought the orange juice towards her mouth, Charlotte caught something briefly shining in her peripheral field of view.
As her eyes widened, she willed her mana and made the glass slip out of Erica's hands.
*SHATTER*
The glass crashed on the floor and shattered, however, as she had already put a barrier around them, no one paid any attention to this small incident.
Looking at the shattered cup with cold eyes, Charlotte saw a slightly darker orange tone among the juice spilled.
'Poison.' She didn't need to think much to conclude this. That was poison, or rather, a liquid metal harmful enough to living beings to be considered as poison.
"Poison, really? I thought you were more than this by how haughty you were when talking with my master, but it seems that I was mistaken."
Charlotte spat those words trying to earn a reaction from Hai.
In truth, she was taken aback by the event just now.
She didn't feel anything wrong with their surroundings, nor with the food, but had it not been by chance, she wouldn't even have noticed the poison until it was too late.
As she was observing the surroundings, her ears perked up.
*TING*
*CLANG*
Looking at the ground, she saw a sharp metal blade lying there.
The blade had collided with her barrier and couldn't pierce through but she also could barely react to it.
'Seriously, what the hell is happening?' First the poison, now the blade. The two attacks up to now went undetected, a bit more and the effects would have been her defeat.
'Is he an assassin?' This is the only reason she could think of. His attacks are stealthy, focused on killing, and almost invisible, even if you cast your glance at them.
Meanwhile, as Charlotte was working her head nonstop, Hai was looking at a portable terminal showing the image of a camera attached to a drone flying just outside the building, in front of the window.
'Charlotte seems to have the means of omnidirectional defense, so I have to bypass it. Her reaction speed is acceptable but is certainly not her strong point. The girl is in range to be protected or dragged along elsewhere… This might be more difficult than I thought.' Hai calmly analyzed everything he gathered from the attacks he made and started to draw a plan in his head.
The only reason he is so relaxed right now is due to his earlier probing of Charlotte.
As he knows that her attribute is space or related to it, it should come as no surprise that her perception and detection should be on the higher side of the spectrum, and as Hai isn't specialized in stealth, he doesn't want to risk having his position exposed for now.
The only saving grace is that Charlotte isn't as strong in the other areas besides magic as he thought she would be.
'And that little girl…'
Just a few seconds ago, while the girl was munching on a chocolate straw, she suddenly turned to absentmindedly look out the window, straight at the drone he is using to see the situation.
~What's up? Ran out of tricks?~
Hearing Charlotte's voice from the terminal, Hai smiled before looking at the digital clock.
'3 more minutes, huh.' He glanced at the image again and started to prepare another attack.
Right now, he is in a guest room far away from the main hall. The reason is that he knows a few things about assassination and one of them is that unless under extreme circumstances or in case of emergency, one should avoid a frontal confrontation as much as possible.
Hence, Hai has been using of his metal attribute to make small golems and scattered them with cameras and mics throughout the building. He also made automatic crossbow-like turrets which he loaded with sharp blades.
Besides, he also tried two different things which he hadn't done before.
The first was to make a harmful metal.
As for the second…
*SWIISH*
*SWOOSH*
*SWIISH*
Hearing the subtle and barely audible sounds among the sounds of music, murmurs, and shouts, Charlotte's eyes narrowed before she strengthened the barrier around her and Erica.
*CLANG*
The three blades that flew at them fell to the ground in unison.
Using her magic to make one float, she brought it closer, but still maintained it outside her barrier.
Inspecting the blade, Charlotte soon blinked her eyes repeatedly.
'What?' She dumbly looked at the blade with confusion on her face.
The blade wasn't made of iron.
Instead, it was made of a metal that rejects mana.
Hai had used his affinity to create a metal commonly used to make magical-resistant materials and weapons, but as it rejects mana by nature, he could only do something close to it.
The result was what Charlotte was suffering now.
An item that rejects mana, and hence, passes undetected by mana sense, and from his test earlier, also by Charlotte's spatial detection.
"What the…" Charlotte muttered but her eyes snapped open and she vanished.
*CLANG*
Appearing beside Erica who had got up and walked toward a more distant side of the table, Charlotte deflected another blade aimed at Erica.
With sweat running down her forehead, she started to think that this training might be harder than she thought.
She and Hai felt the same feeling.
One has several means of attack while the other does the same but in the defensive aspect.
One has to get rid of the source of attack; the other has to bypass the defense.
The paradox of the confrontation between the strongest spear and the strongest shield.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
--------------------------
A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
So, what do you guys think about this chapter?
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Another thing: Please give your feedbacks. I want to know what you guys think, if there are things that could be better or if I could have done something in a simpler manner. If you could also leave a review, that would help me to understand what you think about the novel in general, so it would be really helpful.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎