Just like the commander said, if elite knights were hiding separately, those guards would be bait, but the knights standing watch seemed to have no idea why they were even there.

‘Did they deliberately not tell them?’

Heron was a prisoner holding important information, so it wasn’t entirely illogical.

Boom—!

Just then, a loud crash echoed from downstairs.

It was a sound Leopold deliberately made below to draw attention.

However, the knights who didn’t know this were startled and rushed downstairs.

Once the area in front of the door was empty, Evolaine seized the opportunity and approached the middle room where Heron was.

Then someone revealed themselves in the hallway she’d thought was empty.

“Hey, you.”

“…Yes?”

“Why is a maid here? There’s no one for you to serve in this place.”

A heavy voice caught Evolaine by the ankle.

No way. It can’t be.

Her heart pounded so fast from tension it felt like it would burst.

Should she turn around? Or should she push through and enter Heron’s room?

Evolaine swallowed hard.

The choice didn’t take long.

“Hey, you…”

Crash—!

The opponent couldn’t finish his sentence. Evolaine had turned around and simultaneously shoved him into the wall.

The shoved opponent flew and slammed into the wall.

The sight of the wall cracked in the shape of a person was quite spectacular.

‘Did that maid just push me? A maid has that much strength?’

Leaving behind the opponent who was too busy figuring out what had happened to him, Evolaine rushed straight into the room.

“Lord Heron! Lord Heron!”

Heron lay collapsed under the bed, covered in blood.

He must have attempted escape multiple times—the skin under the shackles on his wrists and ankles was rubbed raw.

When she lifted his shirt slightly to check his condition more closely, she saw improperly healed wounds infected and rotting.

“Lord Heron! Pull yourself together!”

She shook him, practically grabbing him by the collar, while checking if anyone might enter the room, but he couldn’t regain consciousness.

“Lord Heron, please hang in there just a bit longer.”

Since she couldn’t delay any longer, Evolaine had to carry him out even if it meant putting him on her back.

Evolaine struck down with her sword at the four chains attached to the shackles.

Clang—!

The chains broke with a loud noise, but there was no time to worry about that.

Her intrusion had been discovered the moment she’d slammed that man into the wall in the hallway.

Once the chains were broken, Evolaine fed him half the potion.

Since the potion erased one’s appearance for an hour, feeding him half would make half of him disappear.

She poured the rest into her own mouth and began dragging Heron, who was much larger than her.

“What the h*ll, why are you stuck in the wall?”

“No, some maid…”

As she approached the door, she heard voices in the hallway.

The man she’d shoved into the wall earlier seemed to have fully regained his senses.

‘His colleague came too.’

Two people to deal with. Since she had to protect Heron too, she couldn’t even say it was just one person.

A complete disadvantage.

‘I need to get out through the window.’

Even if she safely got out and went down the stairs, she didn’t know how many elite knights might be hiding.

With Leopold and the possibly nonexistent Marchi both silent, the number of opponents Evolaine could handle was extremely limited.

No matter how much Kelic was a powerful force surpassing humans, she couldn’t use it properly in her current state.

After dragging Heron over, Evolaine pushed aside the desk attached to the window wall.

She didn’t have the strength to lift Heron to use the desk as a support.

After clearing all the furniture near the wall, Evolaine drew her sword.

The purple blade caught the moonlight, creating the illusion it looked sky-blue.

Since coming to the Duchy of Radelica, she’d been restricted from using Kelic except during training.

Since she couldn’t handle it perfectly yet, they worried damage might occur.

Because of that, Evolaine extremely suppressed Kelic when Cardel wasn’t nearby.

Even the naturally flowing energy—she feared it might be used incorrectly.

But now, no matter what happened, she had to release Kelic’s energy.

As the purple sword absorbed Kelic’s energy, the sword vibrated like it had a will of its own.

At the same time, Evolaine’s sky-blue eyes also turned purple.

Starting with her eyes, when her navy hair was completely dyed purple, Evolaine swung her sword at the wall.

Crash—!

With a tremendous destructive sound, the wall exploded and shattered.

The sight of an entire side of the room pierced through was so devastated one wouldn’t dare think a person had done it.

Not just making a hole but eliminating an entire wall, Evolaine jumped down with Heron.

To minimize the shock to Heron, she positioned herself below and wrapped Kelic around her sword.

She planned to draw the shock meant for him and offset it as much as possible with Kelic.

And that plan worked properly.

In conclusion, the Duke of Arpi’s annex was completely destroyed from the second-floor room to the ground.

However, one problem arose—Evolaine herself.

She’d tried to channel the shock into her sword, but miscalculating and including herself, Evolaine took the full impact.

As a result, Evolaine, sprawled on the ground, briefly lost consciousness.

When she barely opened her eyes, everything around her had gone quiet.

“Ugh!”

As she regained consciousness, the heavy shock rising from the ground through her back engulfed her body.

In pain that prevented her from breathing, Evolaine struck her chest area.

“Kugh…!”

She’d struck to breathe, but when it only added more pain, Evolaine curled up and trembled.

If she’d offset the shock, she should have expelled what came to her as well, but this was the result of neatly excluding herself from that target.

“Right, who else can I blame…”

Half annoyed, half lamenting, cursing inwardly, Evolaine raised her body that felt like it was breaking.

Her face naturally crumpled from the full-body muscle pain.

Meanwhile, Heron, seemingly not greatly shocked, was breathing faintly just as when she’d first seen him.

Evolaine tore off the uncomfortable maid outfit, gathered it up, and began dragging Heron again.

The potion’s effect would be almost gone by now, so she had to get out of here quickly.

‘Where is the commander?’

Come to think of it, there was no news from Marchi either.

They’d definitely said they’d help if they met, so why weren’t they here?

The more she continued thinking, the more her head hurt.

Her vision gradually became blurry too. Unable to see ahead, Evolaine staggered and lost her balance, falling forward.

Naturally, Heron, whom she’d been holding, also collapsed to the ground.

“…volaine!”

Evolaine lost consciousness with the voice calling her as the last thing she heard.

“…Kugh!”

When Evolaine regained consciousness, it was a bright daytime with the sun blazing.

What? What happened?

Opening her eyes to find herself lying in bed was bewildering.

Lord Heron? Did he return safely?

Evolaine struggled to sit up.

She hadn’t noticed while lying down, but she must have severely injured her abdomen—it hurt enough to bring tears when she sat up.

When she clutched her stomach in pain, something damp touched her arm.

“Bandages…?”

Not white bandages, but bandages soaked in blood.

Is this my blood?

Then the door opened and familiar people entered.

They were people from the ducal household.

“Evolaine…!”

The duke approached first and examined her. The duke’s eyes were red as he carefully checked her body.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“You…!”

The duke started to get angry but soon pressed his temples and controlled his emotions.

His emotions hadn’t been easily controlled since yesterday out of worry.

Taking advantage of that gap, Cardel approached Evolaine and examined her.

“Dame, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine…”

“The bandages are damp, yet you lie again. You there, bring new bandages.”

Seeing that she didn’t even realize her wound had reopened, her condition was serious.

“I didn’t injure my abdomen. So why…”

Evolaine looked at her wound questioningly. No matter how she looked at it, there had been no opportunity to receive such a large laceration.