Crashhhhh!!!
Penelope fell to the ground and saw blood all over her face. But it didn't belong to her.
"Penelope!"
"Young Lady"
For a moment she didn't know what was happening. She looked ahead and saw the body of the toothfang was split into two and a tall and good looking man was standing there with his sword over his shoulder.
"Are you alright, young girl? "
"Y-yes. Thank you"
Wasting no time, the tall man sprinted towards the East along with his two companions. From the way they dressed, they looked like a special security guard team.
Penelope realised how much of a burden she was being right now. Even though she was trained by the best teachers since childhood, she couldn't even pick up a dagger properly right now.
"We need to hurry, Lois. Diana and others are already facing the gnolls in the East. We need to join quickly." The tall man who saved Penelope hurriedly said to his two companions.
"Yes, the adventurers are here. They will handle this place."
Just as they mentioned, in a few seconds, more than fifty adventurers were arrived with full preparation and were already engaged in a fight with all these toothfangs. Not only that, many civilians even with a slight ability to fight started following their lead.
Kieeekkk!!
"Kill them here! "
"These bastards killed my daughter. I-I will kill you all!!"
"Everyone, protect the children"
Biting her teeth, Penelope gripped her dagger tightly and wiped her tears with the other hand.
"I am sorry, I was really unsightly. I will cover the left side."
Princess Violet nodded her head slightly and looked ahead towards the direction of the inn.
"Let's go."
****
At the same time in Blue Sapphire Inn,
Isabelle who heard the sudden commotion looked outside the inn. She saw the guards killing dozens of toothfangs and the people were running away screaming in fear.
There wasn't much of a disaster here as the inn was close to the stadium and many guards were stationed here.
But that is only the case for the people here.
'W-what is happening? Are Penelope and Violet safe? '
Isabelle didn't know what the situation was out there in the market. Are her friends safe? She wanted to run there and check for herself, but knew she had to be logical.
'This is the safest place for now.'
She had no choice but to be a coward and wait here. That was, at least, the price for not being a burden to others.
Knock! Knock!
Suddenly her eyes lit up and she rushed towards the door.
'Are they back?'
"Lady Isabelle"
"Oh! Maria...Are you all right? "
Maria was the maid provided to her room by the inn. She was really kind and open to all the three girls and so they became a little close to her.
"Yes, yes. But....this"
She offered a folded piece of paper to Isabelle with shaking hands and was sweating profusely.
She looked really nervous.
Isabelle also noticed that and suddenly grew tense. She opened to see what was written on the paper to make Maria this nervous.
"𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦, 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘦"
Suddenly the nervous Maria stopped shaking and looked at Isabelle with a criticising smile.
"So, are you coming with me, my little Lady"
A classic but effective threat. Isabelle gripped the paper tightly.
"How did you even think that I will believe such a threat?"
Even though Isabelle replied confidently, she was very nervous right now. Of course, most of the guards are with them so she wasn't afraid much. But it was different now.
She didn't know the situation there and how many monsters the guards were facing. So if anybody was targeting her friends, this would be a very good chance.
And more than that, Penelope already told her that she was being followed and Marcel helped her once. That means they were already targeted for a while now.
"Hehe... I knew you would say that. So I brought you a present."
She rummaged through the pocket of her apron and took out a simple bracelet with a blue gem.
"Tada! Do you know what it is? "
Of course she knew but she couldn't answer. It was a bracelet that Penelope used to wear. Although Penelope had so many necklaces that ahe didn't know herself, Isabelle who was observant of her surroundings saw Penelope wearing this a few times.
"This is the bracelet your friend Penelope was wearing. And with her blood on it... Hahaha"
The blue gem was covered slightly in red coloured blood. Of course, there is a chance that she went to Penelope's room and stole her bracelet, but Isabelle knew that all three of them put their ornaments in the space ring when they were not wearing them, instead of uselessly putting them in a locker where anyone could steal it.
Maria was still laughing uncontrollably as if she found the whole situation very funny.
"Why did you decide to betray us? Did someone gave you money? "
"Hahaha... You really don't understand anything. I never betrayed anyone. I was working in this inn for four months. Someone set me up as a well reputed maid who served several Nobles and four months of my diligent work was enough to get me to serve the VIPs like you and the princess. In other words, we planned this a long time ago"
Isabelle's eyes widened at her words. It was not easy to dedicate four months to a plan which had more chances of failure. Though it was not very difficult to guess which inn the Princess would stay, since Blue Sapphire Inn was the one with the highest level of luxury.
'She is working for someone very experienced...But what do they want? The princess? No, she said they already have both the Princess and Penelope...'
"If you think we want the Princess, then you are wrong. What we want is you, my dear. Do you know why?"
She slowly came near Isabelle's ear and whispered the words into it.
"Because you are special"
Just like she said, Isabelle also knew she had a strange power. An unwanted power with a strange stigmata.
She also trained harder to keep up with the others with that unranked stigmata of hers. And if she wanted to, she could even try to fight Maria here.
Though she didn't know how strong her opponent was, she believed it would be enough to gather the attention of other guards in the inn.
But that was not the problem here.
She didn't know if Maria was alone.
A single mistake might lead to something she might cost her life.
Moreover, she said her friends were in trouble right now. Even if she knew this threat was most likely to be a fake one, but what if? What if they were really after her and her friends were just entangled in it.
Even if its just a wild assumption, what if they never return just because she was a little special.
Could she live with that?
"So My Lady, are you coming with me?"
"..."
***
Thud!
"That's nineteen"
"Twelve more. And they are all together there" Sylas said pointing towards a large room inside the warehouse. The entire room itself was giving off an eerie vibe.
"Is that where the smell of blood is coming from?"
"That's right"
"Time to go all out then. Get ready."
The stench of blood near the gate was so thick that even I was starting to nauseate.
Creak!!!
The gate opened with a rusting sound and the horrible rotten smell nearly made both of us vomit.
"W-what the hell is this? "
Of course, it wasn't the smell alone that made us wanting to vomit. Before our eyes, countless rotten bodies of humans and monsters were gathered like garbage dump.
"W-who are you? "
"Who let them in!? Where are the guards?"
Out of the twelve remaining most of them looked like scientists working with these monsters and humans. Of course, they looked more like crazy psychopaths to me.
Three of them though, looked like guards. And very strong ones at that.
"Well Marcel, they look like the real deal."
I already put my bow back and there was a silver and ethereal glowing sword in my hands. Sylas too covered his sword with red blood. The blood was from both him and the people he killed here.
Of course, he voluntarily used his blood to strengthen the sword, not that he was hurt badly.
I charged at the one near me dodging his attack I rushed to the next just behind him. The other didn't expect this and quickly unsheathed his sword to defend against me.
'I knew he was the weakest of the three. He seemed a inexperienced in killing.'
His perplexed actions created a chance for me and instead of going his sword or pushing him to the ground, I changed the direction of my sword and sliced his fingers holding the sword.
"Ahhhhhhhh! Y-you..."
The guard cried out in pain as the sword from his fingerless right hand.
The others didn't even get a chance to react as my actions were too fast.
"Get him! I'll handle these two "
Sylas nodded his head and another red sword formed from blood appeared in his other hand.