“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Avril Gallagher ran towards the depths of the mansion, all to escape Luzer Fisher.
“Liar, Papa! You said you had Jared Murphy under control and that there were no problems. How could I possibly fight someone who would attack a manipulated person without hesitation?”
She didn’t have the luxury of childish speech. All she wanted now was to escape Luzer as quickly as possible.
“Those eyes… if he’d found an opening, he would have killed me. He definitely would have killed me! He wouldn’t have cared at all about killing me; he would have just thought it was convenient to have one less enemy.”
Luzer Fisher, the young man Leonard had investigated. He had a past of being captured and manipulated as part of Waalthe. He had assassinated many people, but it wasn’t all of Luzer’s own will. Or so she thought.
“What do you mean he was brainwashed? That man can kill people he has no connection to with a straight face. Just like me!”
Because Avril herself was someone who didn’t care how others felt, she could immediately recognize someone similar. Her instincts told her not to fight. Seeing the ruthless attack unfold before her eyes, she decided to follow her instincts.
“Damn you, Luzer Fisher! I’ll definitely kill you!”
As she said this, Avril continued to run, trying to put as much distance between herself and Luzer as possible. His Magic Power, his rare Lightning Element, and his decisiveness in attacking innocent boys and girls without hesitation—all of it rivaled her revered father. She even had a chilling premonition that if he fought seriously, he might surpass her father.
“No! I can’t let Papa fight him! I have to kill him myself—”
She stopped, turning back. There was no sign of him pursuing her. Or, perhaps, he was just slowly following. Avril was a Jutsushi, not a fighter. She couldn’t sense her opponent’s presence, and if attacked suddenly, she would have no way to deal with it. That was precisely why she manipulated people, creating pawns. Her body trembled involuntarily. Fear. Avril was afraid of Luzer. She was truly terrified of an opponent she couldn’t defeat with the dirty tricks she had used until now.
“I have to kill him, I have to kill him—but! I’m scared, Papa!”
Luzer would undoubtedly kill her with pleasure if she appeared. He probably predicted that if he killed Avril, the brainwashing of his students would also be undone. Avril, whose father had betrayed the country, had no reason to be spared. She would be captured and executed anyway.
“That’s it—”
Trembling, Avril, who had been thinking about how to turn the situation around, had a flash of inspiration-like revelation. Her lips curved into a smile, and she started running again. Her target was the mansion’s basement. The pawns necessary to defeat Luzer were there.
“Heh, heh heh, heh heh heh! That’s right. There’s no way I’m going to die in a place like this!”
She ran down the stairs and opened the door. She encountered the Knights along the way, but she ignored them and kept running.
“You’re just a plaything for a stupid Noble anyway, so you might as well be useful—Olivier Alway!”
She sought out the hostage, who must have experienced despair as a woman, her dignity and everything else in tatters.
“Olivier! I’ll let you out—as my pawn, as a tool to defeat that man!”
She forcefully opened the hidden room where Olivier was confined. Any troublesome Noble could be killed. A pampered kid who wasn’t even a Magician was nothing to fear. With her composure restored, Avril’s sadism resurfaced, and she looked forward to seeing what kind of face Olivier would have after being defiled in her resentment.
However, what greeted her as soon as she opened the door was not the despairing face of a Duke’s Young Lady—but the sole of a shoe.
“—Huh? —Bbbbbrrrraaaahh!?”
Her face received a strong impact, and her body was lifted.
“Eh? Why?”
Avril, still in mid-air without even realizing it, looked up at the ceiling and muttered in a daze. Her lips hurt, her teeth hurt, and tears welled up naturally. Next, she felt impacts on her back and the back of her head, her vision turned white, and she lost consciousness. Avril lost consciousness without understanding what had happened to her at all.
