****
Walking down the hallways of the mansion was a woman wearing a silver dress
The shade of her hair was as dark as the night, and her pale face was showing signs of complete exhaustion. Normally, she would be walking down their house with a smile on her face as she greets the servants who pass by her, but now she can't even be bothered
Once she finally reached her destination, she opened up the door and sluggishly walked towards her bed. She plopped down her body with a sigh as she cuddles with a certain pillow. This pillow was the one being used by her husband, and it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for her to indulge in it like this
"Haaaaa...they're all growing so fast..."
She couldn't help but feel happy and sad at the fact that her daughter was finally about to experience the world all by herself. And a couple of months later, her baby boy would follow suit.
She was lucky enough to be born with children who were all prodigies, but having children like those also had its drawbacks. Her daughter had always been too kind and trustworthy for her own good...and her son was...more or less always drifting into his own world without a shred of care for anyone but himself...
She honestly wanted them to stay here forever but alas, the fact that the mama bird has to kick the baby birds out of her nest when the time comes has always been inevitable, and she just has a hard time accepting it...
"Urgh...we still have a couple of arrangements to do for the banquet tomorrow...Haaa...I need to get my beauty sleep"
Saying this, she closed her eyes and surrendered herself to the comfort of her bed...
...That's what she was planning until...
"Graaaaaaahhhh!"
"Come out here you bastards!"
"Gyahahaha! I'll slaughter you all!"
She heard screams coming from a distance
It was growing louder and louder with each passing second
Standing up from her bed, she quickly headed towards their balcony and saw something that she never thought she would see. Bandits, charging into their manor. Due to the reputation of the Albion family, any criminals who directly challenged them were considered to be clowns making fools out of themselves.
And the last thing she expected to appear before their daughter's big day was a circus
Luckily for them, their guards were able to respond and intercept their attacks. Their servants had only sustained a few injuries, and she would prefer to keep it that way. She was about to jump down in order to join into the fray, however...
"-!" She ducked down and dodged a dagger that was mere inches from hitting her back
...It seems that there were a couple of uninvited guests...
They were about five cloaked men covering their faces with a mask. In their hands were daggers that seemed to be smeared with poison, the woman instinctively knew that one scratch from those and it's lights out for her...
"Clara Albion, our boss has invited you to visit his place. I suggest that you quietly come with us, or we'll have to use a bit of force to make you come. Let's not make a big scene out of this one, yeah?"
"Heh, seems to me that you folks already made a big scene out there in our gardens. Who are you people and what do you want?"
"That is not, the right answer" The man says as he shifts into a stance
"Now tell us, do we have to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"
"We're gonna do this my way, which will end with all of you being dog food!"
Saying this, she took out a knife from her pockets and sliced her own wrist
The cloaked men seemed to be caught off guard, and they slowly watched as her blood dripped down to her shadow. Suddenly, Clara lets out a massive surge of magical energy, which immediately sent them running toward her to stop it
" [Oh goddess of fertility, hear mine wishes and grant the blessing of thine follower in the name of thine eternal bounty for us to keep. Send out thine hounds for the hunt that will grant us eternal nourishment from the hunted]. Come out, Skoll and Hati!"
From the sky descended a white mist
And from her shadow was a black mist
The mist began to form two heads of massive hounds. Each of them was layered with teeth that were sharp enough to pierce through steel as if they were butter. And the moment Clara pointed her fingers to the cloaked men, both of the hounds jumped into action with saliva oozing from their mouths
"Graaaaa!" The wolves growled as they latched into their prey and tore them to shreds
The cloaked men began to panic and hurl their weapons at them, but they merely passed through them as if they were nothing more than air. Her one-sided slaughter continued which ended in all of them being nothing more than piles of meat and red stains on the ground...
They didn't even have time to scream...
Clara then walked close to the corpses and carefully observed what was left of them
"I may have been long retired, but they really have a lot of guts to send these measly goons at me"
If this was a distraction in order to delay her, then that plan was a failure considering the fight didn't even last two minutes. She turned to look at the balcony, and from the looks of it, the situation is growing worse and worse. They're being completely overrun, and It's only a matter of time before they completely breach their defenses
The fact that her husband or her children weren't out there helping them in the fray probably means that they also encountered these assassins...
With panic in her heart, she bolted out of the door and run towards their rooms...
"Oh my, it seems that those guys failed..."
But stopped in her tracks the moment she heard a voice
She turned around and saw a man with a rapier in hand. From his purple dress, he seems to be of nobility, though Clara didn't really recognize his face. One thing is for sure though, this man was a threat, and he needs to be disposed of as soon as possible
Clara ordered Skoll and Hati to be ready to attack at any time...
And seeing this, the man couldn't help but chuckle
"Ahaha...the twin puppies of the goddess of fertility, huh? I'm impressed that you're able to summon and control both of them. No wonder those fools lost to you...welp, I guess the job of bringing you in falls to me in the end. It seems that if you really want something done, you have to do it yourself"
"...Who are you?"
"Oh, you don't know me? Well, that's quite disheartening. Because I do know you, Clara Albion...you're a prodigy of magic back in the day, graduated with honors from the Gates of Tartarus, and one of the toughest court mages in history..."
"You know this and you still want to challenge me? You either have guts or you're a complete fool"
"Oh? Ahaha! I'm sorry to say lady Clara that it is you who's a complete fool. You've been out of the field ever since you've had those little spawns of yours, and somebody like that could never beat me. I may have been in the management side of things recently, but I still make sure to polish my skills around the world...I do it so much that they call me..."
The man suddenly disappeared from Clara's view
Before she turned around and look, she heard a whisper in her ears
"The Hunter"
Followed by blood splurting out of her shoulders
Before she had realized it, the man was already behind her, with his rapier stained with her blood. Clara collapsed to the ground, but she gritted her teeth as she tried her hardest to prevent herself from fainting...
"Kgh...that speed...I see now, you're that one famous traveling swordsman that everyone is talking about"
"You got that right. And I'm here to bring you in, so I suggest that you just peacefully surrender and stop the useless struggle. Once I get what I'm looking for from you people then I may let you and all your family live...no promises though"
"You bastard...you bring a gang of savages into our doorstep, you send assassins to kidnap me using poison daggers, and you threaten the life of my entire family and expect me to come peacefully? Peace is the last option in my mind right now, I'll make sure that you die and slow and painful death!"
"Oooo, scary~ I've heard that you're a kind and gentle woman but...it seems that this is your true nature. I don't dislike it though, come at me then!"
Their fight then began which shook the entire mansion...
****
And on the other side of the mansion was a certain room, the room of Vergil Albion
Standing at the door were about twenty cloaked men who were armed to the teeth
The reputation of Vergil spread far and wide among the lands of the Empire, and everyone knew that it won't be an easy job apprehending a person who was a champion at a tournament where hundreds of powerful warriors joined it. This was gonna be a bloodbath that will end with some of them losing their lives
But even with sacrifices, they had to make sure to bring him into their boss...
With this in mind, one of them held the doorknob...
Only to be stopped by the sound of footsteps
All of them turned to look at the unfortunate person that they were about to silence, and to their surprise, it was a maid walking towards them. Her azure hair was fluttering with the wind as she greeted them with a smile
"Hello, may I ask what you gentlemen are doing at this hour?"