The twin half-elves asked Julia what could be troubling her, as she responded rather quickly. It was the assassination attempt. Something within that event was still leaving her unease. If it wasn’t because Julia had nerves of iron and even after such a thing she hold her ground and didn’t felt weakened nor traumatized, she wouldn’t be worrying about this, but now that she had the time to analyze the event properly and replay it over and over inside of her head… there was something that she couldn’t quite get out of her head.
“Something… about that? Wouldn’t it be rather problematic to talk about such a thing, my Lady? Are you… sure?” Wondered Fiere.
“Yeah, wouldn’t it be too delicate?” Wondered Faerie.
“What are you two talking about? I don’t feel traumatized or something after that, I only feel frustration of being still weak… I want to have more time to level up, damn it!” Protested Julia, as the twin half-elves tried to stop her from swearing so much, that wasn’t what a noble lady should do. “But anyways… What’s troubling me is… how did that one Vampire got inside the manor if there’s a magic barrier, right? The only explanation I got from the mages holding it was that… it somehow just broke when the Vampire got inside but they were unable to see it? Isn’t that weird now that you think about it?”
Julia quickly brought into the minds of her two most trusted maids something that had been making her doubt for a while now. The two girls held their breaths as they realized that something was wrong…
“Yeah, you guessed, right? We got a traitor. Someone willingly let the Vampire get inside, there’s no other way. If it had attempted to break through, there’s no way we wouldn’t had heard the barrier breaking or the figure trying to get inside forcefully… There’s no hiding or concealment magic that can hide such a thing.” Said Julia.
“B-But isn’t this too soon to make such assumptions?” Asked Fiere nervously. “My lady, a-are you sure you want to doubt one of your retainers ?”
“Hm… You’re right, my Lady, I suspect one of the mages, or various of them might be colluding with the damn Vampires. The assassin was a Vampire, and the Vampires are already well known in the underground to be like puppet masters… If they truly want to eliminate you, they’ll employ the strength of others first.” Said Faire, she was very intelligent and pragmatic.
“Indeed.” Said Julia as she nodded and then looked directly at her maid’s eyes. “You’re good at catching up, Fiere. This only means one thing; I am not safe even in my own home. Someone is planning something… Ah, I cannot really sleep . I trust you two because I’ve known you since I was a little toddler, but anybody else… Well, they might as well be a suspect… Even Hector.” Sighed Julia, just thinking about her most rusted butler being a traitor broke her heart, but she couldn’t leave him out of the list just because she was close to him.
“Even Hector, huh?” Sighed Faerie.
“T-This is… sigh…” Fiere sighed.
“I cannot really rest at ease knowing this…” Sighed Julia, as she suddenly stood up from her seat and stopped drinking tea. She walked outside her room once more as her two maids followed her. “Let’s quickly gather all the staff here, especially the mages-“
Before Julia could end her conversation, she sensed at her left side a presence that jumped into the corridor from within a window that led outside, which was opened. The figure was coated in a blood red aura, and rushed towards her at an incredible speed, holding tow sharp blades!
Julia was strong and competent as a fighter, but her reflexes were not able to properly predict this figure rushing to her side, the knives being held by the figure rushing towards her were already reaching her throat!
“It is time to sleep, little princess~” It spoke as her throat suddenly felt the coldness of the knife reaching her!
However, a skeletal claw suddenly protected her from the weapon, as the figure’s eyes opened wide in shock, only for another enormous arm to hit the attacker and throw its body into the ground!
“Uaggh!” The groan of a young man resonated through the corridors, as his body rolled through the ground but quickly got up once more, quickly getting into a stance while looking at Julia and… the entity protecting her.
It was an enormous skeleton wearing black armor, completely encompassed by a threatening phantasmal aura, and holding a tremendous phantasmal sword that was materialized just an instant after hitting the attacker. Julia and her two maids, alongside the attacker himself locked their eyes into the creature. It was nobody else than Darkbound.
“Hahh… I can’t believe the skeleton helped me at the end… T-Thanks.” Sighed Julia, petting Darkbound’s black and rusty armor, as the skeleton groaned loudly.
The man whose entire face was covered in black clothes was visible shocked through the expression of his two red eyes, Julia could clearly see through him as she pretended to feel confident, smirking back at him to give him even more emotional damage, and make him doubt.
“Who are you exactly? Another assassin? This is the second in this week! Who sent you here?! Who is the traitor that let you enter through the magic barrier to begin with?!” Roared Julia, as the man suddenly smiled, the expression of his smile was rather easy to tell below the black clothes covering his face.
“T-To think that the Necromancer you employed raised the skeleton…” Sighed the man. “Well, there’s no way I can defeat this thing but… I ain’t alone, little princess~”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Quickly after, Julia and her maids suddenly found themselves surrounded by dozens of figures covered in black clothes, with pale skin and red eyes! Some were bigger and others were thinner, but they all held similar characteristics… they were all Vampiric.
“Lady Julia, we are surrounded!” Said Faerie, as she took out two knives that were wrapped around her tights through belts. She was a rather competent fighter and would give up her life for her lady.
“T-This is bad!” Cried Faire, as she took out a wand from her pocket, which began to flicker with gold and green light.
“Oh, and it’s going to get worse…”
Suddenly, the voice of a woman resonated behind Julia, as she saw the sexy figure of a mature Vampiress walk through the corridors leisurely, her black boots with sharp heels made loud sounds as she stepped over the floor of the royal manor…