The Royal Deal

Lunia couldn’t even follow as she was ordered by Amethyst to take care of the nobles in the duke’s mansion. And the Skad family knights had not accompanied them in the hunting tournament.

Alexcent, Gen and other masters were hunting demons, but they couldn’t beat the demons with the remaining people.

Amethyst wanted to know, “Count Glacia, can you fight?”

“Of course. I’m a knight after all.”

She nodded and began to address the remaining knights. “Everyone listens. First evacuate those who can’t fight. There’s a barrier over the stream so they won’t be able to chase you there.”

“You must also evacuate, ma’am!”

“The duke isn’t here so I’m the commander here. So please follow my orders. The people you must protect first are them, not me!”

It was Duchess Skad who was the highest rank after all, not Count Glacia.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Hurry now! Evacuate them.”

The knights moved urgently at Amethyst’s order. She turned toward the servants and maids who were trembling in fear.

“Go follow the knights towards the stream! Hurry!”

Everyone started to mobilize at her command.

“Everyone else needs to hold back the demons until the people are safely out of here!”

“Count Glacia, I’ll cover you!”

Amethyst grabbed a gun with both of her hands.

“Of course.” Count Glacia swung her sword and tip instantly turned carbon black.

***

On the other side, Gen rushed with the magical messenger pigeon to the valley where Alexcent was fighting alone. No one had a chance to stop him.

“What!”

A sharp shout was heard. “My Lord, we’re in trouble.”

“What is it?”

The ground shook.

“The group of demons suddenly changed their course.”

“What? How.” Alexcent’s red eyes flashed.

“It seemed like there were some intelligent ones with them. I’m told that they’ve attacked our base. Everyone is evacuating to the streams right now.”

“And?”

“Ma’am is staying back with Count Glacia.”

“Ash?”

“Yes. Thankfully it’s only the vampyres, the weakest of the demons, but as they always move in a group, it seemed like a lot of them have come.”

Gen withdrew his sword and spoke.

“I’ll take care of it here.”

Alexcent imagined Amethyst in his mind with guns in her hands and Count Glacia was there with her.

“They’ll be fine.”

“Pardon me?”

“If Glacia is with her, she will be okay.”

“But…”

He was aware of her skill. Shooting was her specialty. Also, her swordsmanship was almost as good as most knights. He made her into that.

“We’ll leave it to her.”

He believed in her more than anyone. Also the situation here was quite dire too. There were top tier demons here. Even if Gen was very skilled, it wouldn’t be enough to do it alone. Also, he’d leave the related family masters in danger if he left.

He couldn’t let that happen.

“Are you really ok with this?”

“Yes. If anything, the shades will step in.”

“.. okay.”

Gen put down his sword.

“Anyways, I’m curious. Who is the intelligent one amongst the demons?”

“If anything, this is first demon hunting in two years. The numbers have grown, and they were perhaps surprised at such a sudden ambush.”

Alexcent glanced at those who were following him. He decided to trust them a little.

“That would be a relief. Let’s finish up quickly.” He went on the offensive and began his attack on the demons without any mercy.

***

The demons ambushed nonstop.

Amethyst aimed the barrel right at their heads and blasted them with gunfire.

She was thankful to Lunia who replaced her gun with the one with magical stone in it so she wouldn’t have to reload. “I won’t have to worry about number of bullets.”

Then she shot the demon who was about to attack Count Glacia from behind.

Count Glacia looked at the demon that fell behind her and exchanged glances with Amethyst.

As the demons kept on attacking, Glacia focused all her energy into her sword. And then drew a line on the ground. Then the ground opened up and stone pillars popped up.

“Count Glacia! How did you do that?”

“My sword was made with dark magic stone so it has an earthly magical attributes within.”

“That’s amazing!”

She remembered Buer saying that his attribute is fire. It seemed like Count Glacia’ attribute was earth.

“It’s only for a moment so they’ll get through soon.”

“I’ll try my best then. Rest for a bit.” While Count Glacia was taking a breather, Amethyst aimed through the stone pillars and shot the demons straight in the head.

The gunshots echoed for a while. But the demons began climbing the stone pillars.

“Be careful!”

Count Glacia quickly swung her sword and managed to kill the demons.

“Thank you.”

“They should have arrived at the stream by now.”

“That would be good but…. Ah!” The stone pillars were collapsing. Count Glacia quickly hugged her to protect her. “Now we have to hold until the duke arrives.”

“No, we have to finish this.” Amethyst insisted.

“Excuse me?”

“I think his side is probably worse.” Someone must have sent Alexcent a message already, but the fact that he still hadn’t shown up must mean that his situation was dire too.

Count Glacia nodded.

They lean their backs against each other while Count Glacia clutched onto her sword and Amethyst raised her arms and started shooting at the demons. As she came back to her senses, she shot the last demon that was running towards her.

The demon corpses were everywhere and the ash-colored knights showed up amongst the corpses.