The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

The banquet hall was thrown into chaos by the sudden attack of the assailants.

People scattered in every direction, rushing to the corridors in a desperate attempt to escape the hall.

“……!”

However, the assailants were not only in the center.

Maids, waiters, knights, and even the attendees themselves.

They seemed to have coordinated to block the entrance to the hall.

“What are you doing? Move aside at once!”

A noble shouted, prompting them to finally lift their heads.

“……!”

The moment they raised their heads, they were confronted with white masks.

“Aaahhh!”

They, too, indiscriminately wielded weapons against the innocent.

“Protect the princess!”

The knights of the imperial court, who were on standby, first ensured the safety of Airen, who was in the hall.

“You must evade, Your Highness!”

In the moment that the two girls, still unaware of the situation, were frozen in shock,

A huge red light emanated from the center of the hall, occupied by the assailants.

“What is that?”

A summoning circle.

A type of magic circle that appears when summoning a magical creature.

The spreading red aura and rising bloodlust.

The masked ones around it chanted an unknown spell, and soon, a giant summoned beast appeared within the summoning circle.

“Rrrr…”

Sharp front claws, black fur, eyes glowing red.

Overall, it resembled a hellhound but was much larger in size.

It seemed artificially enlarged during the summoning process, but the problem was that there wasn’t just one.

Whoosh
Beasts were consecutively summoned from the maintained summoning circle.

It was an unprecedented event in the empire’s history for demonic beasts to appear within the imperial palace.

“Summoning circle, demonic beasts…”

Luna, even in the midst of this, closely observed the process of the beasts’ summoning.

Holding her hand was Airen.

“Let’s go, Luna! It’s dangerous to stay here!”

Afterwards, under the protection of the knights, Airen and her companions hurriedly escaped the hall.

“Roaaar!”

As if responding, the summoned beasts roared and soon charged after the place where they had fled.

“Stop those monsters!”

The banquet hall, once glittering in gold, turned into a terrible scene of slaughter, stained with blood.

* * *

The masked villains were not only in the hall.

It seemed as if they knew Airen and Luna’s movements, continuously appearing, and each time they did, the number of knights could only decrease.

“Hurry, take the princess to the shelter…!”

But as if they would not easily allow it, this time the villains broke through the ceiling and attacked Airen’s party head-on.

-Clang!

They were not very strong, but neither were they easy to deal with.

If they sensed a threat, they would retreat immediately, making them a very troublesome foe for the knights who had someone to protect.

For Airen, who could only watch the situation, it was inevitably complicated.

“Where do these villains come from?”

“Who knows? They might not even be human…”

Unlike the anxious Airen, Luna maintained her composure.

“What do you mean by that, Luna?”

“Everyone has different amounts of mana and strength, but these masked people all emit a consistent aura. It’s as if they’ve copied the power of a single person…”

“Growl!”

To make matters worse, a hellhound appeared around the corner.

“The summoned beast is here too!”

“We’ll have to check it out.”

Luna extended her hand forward and concentrated mana.

“Blow! Cold water whirlwind!”

The moment she chanted the spell, water surged from Luna’s hand, and a whirlwind spread out.

The fusion magic ‘Aqua Blast’ of water and wind elements.

It was not a high-level magic, but neither was it easy to use.

An intricate process was required to fuse two elements into one.

The more precise the process, the more powerful the magic becomes.

“Kuaaak!”

The hellhound, hit head-on by the whirlwind, was flung against the wall.

However, the power seemed insufficient, as it got up again, baring its dark fangs.

“It seems we lacked power.”

Sweat dripped down Luna’s cheek.

“Blow! Cold water whirlwind!”

Another whirlwind blew from behind with the same chant.

Unlike before, the water’s force surged violently.

-Bang!

Not merely flung away, but with enough force to break through the wall and crash.

The hellhound did not show signs of getting up again, completely knocked out.

The same magic, but the level was entirely different.

Both girls were momentarily lost in shock.

Then, a familiar voice was heard from behind.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

It was Silica.

“Teacher Silica!”

The joy was short-lived, as Airen’s gaze quickly shifted to another woman beside her.

Judging from the situation, she seemed to be the one who had cast the spell on the hellhound.

The reason for the gaze shift was simple.

Even to another woman, she was beautiful.

“First, we need to sort out the situation at hand! Alice! Please take care of the princess!”

“Yes, Teacher!”

At the mention of the name Alice, Airen’s heart sank.

‘Alice? Could it be Alice Vert? Then, she’s Cyan’s sister?!’

Looking closely, her features did bear a resemblance to Cyan.

Luna was staring intently at her as well.

‘Such immense magical power… I sense an aura similar to that of my senior.’

It was a somewhat delicate situation, contemplating one man while looking at a woman.

-Ziiip

Alice boldly tore off the dress she was wearing.

“This dress is not suitable for fighting properly. Let’s go, everyone!”

“But, Teacher Silica!”

“It’s okay! Teacher Silica is far stronger than we can imagine!”

She pushed the two girls forward as if there was no problem.

“I will escort you to the shelter!”

Following her lead, the knights also gathered themselves and headed to the shelter with the princess.

Left alone, Silica faced five villains brandishing swords at her.

She drew a small dagger hidden in her thigh.

-Swish!

For an assassin, hesitation is nothing but a luxury.

Silica charged at the villains in front of her and swung her sword at an invisible speed, as if the blade were dancing.

However, those who were struck by her sword mercilessly bled and fell.

It took less than 10 seconds to deal with the villains in that area.

-Swoosh

She approached one of the villain’s bodies and removed the mask.

“……!”

The face was so decayed it was hard to believe it belonged to someone alive just moments ago.

It was essentially no different from a corpse that had been dead for a while.

Silica quickly realized their identity.

“Marionettes…!”

Commonly known as puppet dolls.

This was not about resurrecting the dead through necromancy.

It was about injecting magic into a soulless corpse, making it move according to the caster’s will, literally controlling a puppet.

The mask removed, the corpse soon dispersed into dust and vanished.

“Lady!”

Once the situation was handled, some members of the Mist who had infiltrated the palace rushed to her.

Silica immediately gave orders.

“Notify all members in the vicinity to leave this palace, no, to leave this imperial city as soon as possible! Something unknown to our Mist is happening here…”

The members promptly left upon receiving the orders.

“What on earth is causing this…!”

Her eyes were filled with a murderous intent, and her lips were tightly sealed.

It wasn’t just because she was angry about being outplayed.

It was frustration from knowing that an event so massive was unfolding, something not even she could handle.

“Where are you, Cyan?”

All she could worry about was her student, still unseen amidst the chaos.

* * *

The appearance of mysterious assailants and monsters showed no signs of abating.

Even if they recklessly ran towards the shelter underground, the way was blocked at every turn as if by barricades, showing no sign of getting any closer.

Thus, Airen and her party had no choice but to evacuate outside the building.

The central garden of the palace, filled with sculptures on all sides.

For the time being, they decided to hide themselves in a pavilion surrounded by flowers.

The surroundings were so quiet that not even the sound of insects could be heard.

“We’ve managed to get a breather, but we can’t let our guard down yet,”

Alice sighed as she surveyed the situation.

“Is it just me, or does it seem like they’re particularly after us?”

“You’re right. It feels a bit too much. As if they’re running towards us, drawn by our scent…”

Alice agreed with Luna’s suspicion.

Indeed, it felt unusually like they were being pursued, as if beasts were tracking the scent of meat.

At this, Airen asked in an anxious voice, “Is it because of me, then?”

She seemed to think that her identity as a member of the royal family had put everyone in danger.

“We’ll have to check later. Whether they’re after the entire royal family or just the princess herself…”

Alice gently patted her somewhat gloomy shoulder.

“By the way, Alice, you’re Cyan’s sister, right?”

“Huh? Oh yes, that’s right! With all the chaos, I haven’t properly introduced myself. I’m Alice Vert, the eldest daughter of the Vert family!”

Despite the urgent situation, Alice, holding her skirt, introduced herself formally.

“I heard you sent an invitation to my brother? You must be quite close with our Cyan?”

“Oh, that, it didn’t mean anything special! I just felt sorry for Cyan, always at the academy even during the holidays!”

“So, the princess sent the invitation to my senior?”

Luna’s inexplicably droopy gaze made Airen even more embarrassed.

“What’s the use of sending it! After all, he didn’t even show his face to me once he got here…”

Was it a rush of disappointment regarding Cyan?

Airen’s lips pouted out.

“Making a lady wait, especially when it’s not just anyone but a woman, I should scold my brother even though he’s my sibling. I’ll have to give Cyan a piece of my mind later.”

Of course, this was assuming they safely got through the current situation.

None of the three women knew where Cyan actually was or what he was doing.

-Swish-

The familiar sound of swiftly parting bushes.

The knights once again became alert to their surroundings.

“Over there!”

From within a brightly blooming flowerbed, masked assailants revealed their faces.

Roughly dozens of them.

Rather than a surprise attack, it felt like they were slowly tightening the noose around Airen’s party from all sides, as if hunting their prey.

“How did they gather without a trace?”

They hadn’t felt even the slightest hint of their approach.

It was as if they had suddenly appeared out of a flowerbed where nothing had been before.

At this, Alice quickly began to concentrate mana within her body.

With less than ten enemies, the idea of fighting off the assailants while protecting the two girls was practically impossible.

In an uncomfortable outfit that made it impossible to even wield a sword,

Alice thought that magic was the only thing she could rely on in this situation.

-Whirring-

The fluctuation of mana for casting advanced magic.

She intended to draw upon all the magical power she possessed.

“Alice?”

“It seems the flowers have withered quite a bit. It might be time to water them. Though, it might be so excessive that everything gets blown away…”

Of course, after casting this magic, she would lose all her strength and collapse.

The rest would be left to the knights.

-Thud!

“…?”

Suddenly, a giant sculpture set up on one side of the garden fell over with a loud noise.

The attention of everyone, including the assailants, was briefly diverted,

And from the dust that was blown up, an unknown figure soared into the sky.

-Swish-

Beneath the golden full moon, an unknown entity emitting a black mist.

A tuxedo darker than the night sky and a black mask, the identity of which was unknown.

A completely different feeling from the white masks the assailants were wearing.

-Tat-tat-

“What- what is this? This uncontrollable murderous intent?!”

It was a strange energy that Alice had never encountered before.

Holding a violet dagger that emitted a fierce energy,

He charged straight towards the assailants.

(To be continued)