“Lord Alfredo…!”

Hans shouted upon seeing Alfredo being dragged around by Ines. His face contorted as he watched his master struggling while bleeding from his ankle.

“What have you done!”

“Don’t come any closer! If you do, I’ll stab his throat with this.”

As she spoke, Ines pressed the glass shard harder. Red blood trickled from Alfredo’s throat where the sharp edge pricked him.

Already frightened, Alfredo shouted at Hans.

“D-don’t come! This crazy woman will stab my throat!”

It was a situation where Alfredo could be seriously injured. Hans could only bite his lip, unable to make a move.

Taking advantage of this opening, Ines slowly moved forward, using Alfredo as a hostage to escape from this place. She remained vigilant, worried that Hans and his men might suddenly rush at them.

“Nobody move an inch.”

Though she didn’t know exactly where the exit was, getting down to the first floor was the priority. Just as she was carefully taking each step to go down the stairs.

Ines noticed that Hans’s gaze, which had been fixed on her, subtly changed for a moment.

‘What?’

By the time Ines sensed something suspicious and felt a presence behind her, it was already too late. She quickly turned around, belatedly noticing someone had been hiding behind them.

“Lena…!”

Greta called out to Ines urgently. When Ines’s eyes met those of the man rushing toward her in mid-air, she instinctively knew their plan had failed.

‘We’ve been had.’

Focused only on Hans and his men in front, she hadn’t noticed someone sneaking up from behind. What would happen next was obvious.

“Ugh!”

The man who tackled Ines struck her face with his fist.

With a pain-filled groan, Ines lost her grip on the glass shard. Seizing this opportunity, Hans grabbed Alfredo.

Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, Ines fell to the floor, having lost both the glass shard and Alfredo.

Red blood trickled from Ines’s mouth. The man’s attack had split her lip. And that wasn’t all. The merciless blow had left her so dazed she could barely maintain consciousness.

Ines barely managed to focus her bleary vision ahead. She thought she could faintly hear Greta calling her name from behind.

Meanwhile, Alfredo, now free from Ines, hastily clutched his neck. Hans approached him to check his condition.

“Are you alright? First, we need to stop the bleeding…!”

Alfredo swatted away Hans’s hand as he tried to provide first aid, grinding his teeth.

“That crazy b*tch dared to…”

The horrible pain throbbing in his ankle had long since stripped away Alfredo’s reason. He immediately snatched the sword from Hans and approached the two women, raising it with murderous intent.

“I’ll k*ll you…!”

Alfredo raised his arm higher to swing the sword. Watching the blade rise toward the sky, Ines slowly closed her eyes.

‘This is the end.’

Terrible pain would soon follow. She had neither the strength to run nor the ability to dodge the falling blade.

Just as Ines lowered her head resignedly, as if giving up everything.

With a sharp sound, someone blocked Ines’s front.

‘What…?’

When no pain came as expected, Ines opened her closed eyes.

And what greeted her was.

“Car…los…”

It was Carlos, who had blocked Alfredo’s sword.

A heavy silence fell for a moment. Everyone there froze at Carlos’s sudden appearance.

But the brief stillness didn’t last long. After deflecting Alfredo’s sword, Carlos swung his own blade. In one stroke, Alfredo’s sword-wielding hand was severed.

“Arghhhh!”

A terrible scream echoed through the house. At the same time, Alfredo rolled on the floor clutching his spurting wrist.

“My hand! My hand…!”

Hans, who had been staring blankly at the writhing Alfredo, seemed to finally come to his senses and rushed to support Alfredo.

“Lord Alfredo!”

Hans began tearing his shirt, apparently trying to stop the bleeding.

Watching the series of events unfold in a daze, Ines murmured a sigh.

“How did you get here…”

However, instead of answering her question, Carlos helped Ines to her feet.

“Quick, get up. Stay right behind me.”

Finally coming to her senses, Ines also rose, helping Greta up. Though she had no strength to stand just moments ago, seeing Carlos had somehow given her renewed strength.

After confirming that Ines and Greta were up, Carlos began to move slowly while maintaining his guard. But before long, the mercenaries who had been watching each other’s reactions rushed at Carlos.

The sound of sharp blades clashing rang out.

“Now go downstairs! When you get down, there should be an entrance in the middle of the right corridor. Get out through there!”

Carlos looked after Ines’s safety even while blocking the multiple blades raining down on him.

“But…”

“Hurry! Ines!”

Yielding to his urging, Ines reluctantly moved forward. It was a precarious situation where Carlos could be struck by the enemies’ swords at any moment. Even as she descended the stairs as he had told her, Ines kept looking back, worried about Carlos.

Carlos was repeatedly blocking the swords of the men attacking him and cutting them down. Just how many mercenaries had been hiding? It was nerve-wracking.

Just then, Hans, who had noticed Ines escaping, shouted.

“Catch that woman first! If we take her hostage, he won’t be able to do anything!”

At Hans’s cry, one of the men rushing at Carlos changed direction. Seeing this, Carlos quickly cut down the man attacking him and moved swiftly, unwilling to let that man get away.

But perhaps because he moved too rashly? He showed an opening, and Hans struck a blow to his waist.

“Ugh!”

A short groan escaped Carlos’s lips at the flesh-piercing, chilling pain.

“Carlos!”

As Ines cried out, Carlos’s body staggered for a moment. But Carlos regained his stance and swung his arm. And his sword cleanly cut through the neck of Hans, who had been gloating over landing a hit on Carlos.

With a rolling sound, the heavy body collapsed in place.

The clashing of metal continued for a while. Finally, after cutting down all the enemies before him, Carlos let out heavy breaths.

“Haa, haa…”

Wiping the blood splatter from his face with the back of his hand, Carlos looked at Alfredo who was leaning against the wall. His face had already turned pale from blood loss.

It seemed he wouldn’t live much longer even without Carlos swinging his sword.

“Do you… do you think I’ll die alone? I won’t die alone… I’ll, I’ll definitely…”

As if he still hadn’t come to his senses even at death’s door, Alfredo kept muttering. Barely mustering his strength, he picked up a candle rolling on the floor and set fire to the curtains. It was Alfredo’s last act of desperation.

As if oil had been poured on it, the fire that caught the curtains quickly spread to the second floor. Sensing that the flames would engulf this place in an instant, Carlos hurriedly went down to the first floor.

There he found Ines and Greta struggling with a door that wouldn’t open.

“Carlos! The door seems to be locked and won’t open. No matter how much we search, we can’t find the key, what should we…”

Just as Carlos was rushing to the door at those words. With the sound of breaking wood, a familiar face appeared.

“Your Majesty!”

Jade had arrived just in time, leading others. At the appearance of the familiar face, Ines let out a sigh of relief. Carlos too seemed to relax, letting the tension drain from his body.

“Are you injured anywhere? I apologize for being late. We must get out of here quickly! There’s a fire on the second floor! Now, hurry…”

The three followed Jade’s guidance outside. Just as they exited, the fire that had started on the second floor began to consume the entire building in an instant.

Carlos approached Ines as she blankly watched the building burn and checked her body.

“Ines, are you hurt anywhere? Are you alright?”

“I’m, I’m fine…”

Though she said she was fine, Ines’s body was trembling slightly, perhaps from shock. Relieved that Ines was safe, Carlos pulled her into a tight embrace.

“I… I thought I had lost you again.”

Carlos’s voice whispering in her ear was also trembling.

“Carlos…”

And just as Ines was about to express her gratitude to Carlos.

“I’m so… glad…”

Before he could finish his words, Carlos’s body went limp.