Chapter 69

I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince - Chapter 69 [Dagger Maid (3)]

Argentian Empire, Imperial Palace, Western Gate Line of Defense.

Slash!

“Maintain proper formation! They’re just a bunch of lake serpents!”

“E-Even so, there are just too many of them! We need to retreat and call for reinforcements…!”

Slash!

“The moment we retreat here, the entire palace will be devastated! Grit your teeth and hold them off!”

The palace guard squad, consisting of a dozen or so members, tirelessly slashed at the crawling horde of lake serpents while maintaining their formation in the urgent situation.

The monsters, each the size of an adult man’s leg, endlessly rushed in and pressured the line of defense at the Western Gate.

Slash!

“Aaaargh!!”

“Damn it…! These damn monsters keep coming without end!”

Each individual lake serpent wasn’t a particularly strong monster.

From the perspective of an average person, they could be considered a quite challenging level of monster to face, but in the end, everyone here was a member of the palace guards.

Since it was a unit composed of individuals with outstanding abilities, even among regular soldiers, they were capable of dealing with lake serpents without much difficulty.

“Aah… M-My arm…”

“Huff, huff, huff…”

However, in a situation where they weren’t limited to just ten or 20, but a wave that endlessly rushed in, even the palace guards couldn’t help but get exhausted.

The soldiers who were slashing at the monsters, swarming in from the darkness like a huge wave, began to complain of painful fatigue after 30 minutes.

“…”

Slash!

…Amidst that, there was someone who silently killed monsters without showing any signs of fatigue.

Ethan Richard Blackwood.

The young noble of the Blackwood family, recruited by Orion to defend the palace, was silently slicing lake serpents without uttering a single tired expression.

The longsword adorned with the double-headed eagle, the crest of the Blackwood family, was currently flying towards the neck of yet another monster.

‘…This much, I can still endure.’

Slash!

‘Compared to the training I received from my father, this much is…!’

Of course, even he had been swinging his sword for over 30 minutes, so fatigue was inevitably accumulating in his body.

He simply focused on killing monsters as quietly as possible without showing his fatigue and kept on defending the western gate.

Ethan clearly understood that just by not showing signs of exhaustion as a noble’s son, he could boost the morale of the other guards.

“Even the young master of the Blackwood family is swinging his sword without any signs of fatigue! Are you guys from the palace guard going to fall first?!”

“””No, sir!!”””

“Kill them all! Hold them off until the end! Think of the people inside the palace as your wives and children and defend with your lives!!”

“Aaaaaah!!”

…Right, he couldn’t fall here.

As that knight said, he had to risk his life to protect the people inside the palace.

Because right now, inside the palace, Lilith, his exclusive maid and his partner for tonight’s event, was there.

‘I shouldn’t have brought her along.’

Why did he have to bring her, humiliate her in front of the August family’s young lady, and drag her into such a dangerous situation?@@novelbin@@

He deeply regretted his decision from a few days ago to bring Lilith to Princess Seraphine’s masquerade ball.

It was all because of his small desire to dance with her as his partner, which ended up putting Lilith in danger.

So, at the very least, he had to somehow hold out until the end to ensure Lilith wouldn’t be in danger.

If he failed to stop the monsters like this and allowed them into the palace, and she got hurt, he felt like he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

‘I suppose it’s fortunate that she didn’t try to join the battle.’

A year ago, recalling the belligerent attitude Lilith had shown at Blackwood Estate Guards’ Station, Ethan had been nervously wondering if she would jump into the palace defense operation this time as well.

As if his worries had reached the heavens, she obediently stayed put this time, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

They had come up with a plan to split up, with Orion, Agnes, and himself blocking the monsters’ invasion at the northern, eastern, and western gates, respectively.

But no matter how much he slashed and slashed, the endless horde of monsters made Ethan feel a gradual sense of strangeness.

‘Considering we expected the northern gate to have the most… No matter how I think about it, there are just too many…’

If even this gate was in such a situation, just how many monsters were rushing towards the northern gate?

Even if he desperately held off this place, if they allowed the monsters to invade through the northern gate, everything would be in vain.

Such troublesome thoughts momentarily crossed Ethan’s mind, but realizing they were unimportant, he silently focused on slashing the monsters in front of him.

Slash!

“…Haa.”

Slash!

He simply prayed that Orion and Agnes, who had gone to the other defense lines, were defending them well.

A horde of monsters began to rush into the palace after breaching the southern gate, the entrance to the main hall.

As soon as a dozen or so snake-like monsters swarmed into the shelter, the hall turned into a scene of pandemonium.

Chomp!

“AAAAAAHHH!!”

A noble son screamed as his leg was bitten by a lake serpent.

Slither!

“Kyaaaa!! S-Save me! Kyaaaaa!!”

A noble young lady screamed and ran around, trying to remove the monster that had crawled into her dress.

“Damn it…!”

Slash!

‘Gaaah…!’

Even in this chaotic situation, the palace guards were somehow killing monsters and reducing their numbers.

It didn’t take long for the scene, filled with all kinds of people and a significant number of monsters, to turn into a state of pandemonium.

“Miss Lizzy, stay there and don’t move.”

“Y-Yes?!”

“If you happen to run off somewhere else, I really might not be able to protect you then.”

“…”

The young lady simply responded with silence, whether she understood properly or not.

Perhaps it was a situation where she couldn’t even answer due to fear. Since it wasn’t a situation where getting an answer was important, I let it slide.

What mattered to me was solely killing the lake serpent monsters rushing towards me. That’s all.

Lake serpents were Level 4 monsters.

Some might say there’s no need to tremble and be cautious against a mere Level 4 monster, but for the noble children here, even a Level 4 monster wouldn’t feel easy to deal with.

No matter how much magical education they had, there was a limit to overcoming the level difference with a body that hadn’t grown through experience points.

Moreover, the conditions for facing these monsters one-on-one weren’t even met, and there was no way mages that were level 1-2 could properly deal with two or three lake serpents rushing at them at once.

I couldn’t possibly save all those noble children one by one. It was a given that they had to protect their own bodies.

“Stick your backs together! All of you, just block the monsters rushing from your direction!”

In fact, some noble children were already pairing up or forming lines, facing the lake serpents with swords or magic.

If I were to go around the shelter trying to save nobles who couldn’t even do that much, I would only endanger Lizzy, whom I had to protect.

For the sake of the girl who had handed me her dagger, I simply swung my blade diligently to the best of my ability.

‘Hiyaah!’

“Kyaaaaah!”

Slash!

I thrust the silver dagger into the head of the lake serpent rushing towards me and Lizzy, slamming it into the ground.

The monster, its head pierced, wriggled a couple of times on the ground before going limp.

Even with the skill that increases my attack when wielding a dagger, I never thought I would be able to kill it in one hit.

It seemed this silver dagger I received from the young lady was a better item than I thought.

“L-Lilith…? A-Are you okay…?”

“Yes. It’s a good dagger.”

“Ah, no… I wasn’t asking about the dagger…”

Slash!

“Eek?!”

This time, I slashed a monster that flew straight at me with the silver dagger.

Immediately, the second lake serpent also fell to the ground, its head pierced, and died instantly.

“…What was it, if not the dagger?”

“N-Nothing! It’s nothing!”

“…?”

Seriously, what’s with her behavior since earlier?

Anyway, unlike before, she had obediently followed my instructions, making it easier to swing the dagger.

“Kyaaah! Get off! Get off me!!”

If Lizzy had also panicked like that noble young lady over there running around while taking off her clothes, it would have been truly impossible to fight while protecting her.

By chance, I had taken a good position wedged between two walls on either side, making it easy to defend and swing my dagger against the monsters.

I just needed to hold out as long as possible like this until Seraphine and Agnes could somehow resolve the situation.

This monster wave would probably end with Seraphine and Agnes cooperating to kill the boss monster that appeared at the western gate.

‘Judging from how these lake serpents are swarming in groups like this, the boss of this monster wave is probably the ‘King Serpent.”

If it’s around that level, Seraphine and Agnes should be able to take it down with just the two of them.

With Agnes’s full-powered Giga Fireball and the magic used by Seraphine during the full moon, they should have enough power to kill a single King Serpent.

Slash!

“Gaaah!”

While having such thoughts and killing the third lake serpent rushing towards Lizzy and me, I observed the situation.

At that moment, from the direction of the exit leading to the southern gate, loud impact sounds and consecutive screams of monsters began to ring out.

Bam! Bam! Slash!

“Gah…”

“Ugh…”

…This familiar sound effect, could it be?

Hearing the familiar sound of kicks from somewhere, my mind suddenly began to rise with a troubling thought.

In Luminor Academy, there was only one character in my memory who used kicks as her main attack.

The thought that the person who arrived at the southern gate might be her, who absolutely shouldn’t be here right now, slowly emerged.

With a worrisome imagination starting to form in my mind, I turned my gaze toward the southern gate entrance where the sound was coming from. There, a golden shadow appeared, crushing the heads of monsters with a dozen consecutive kicks.

“…Huh?”

“P-Princess Seraphine…?”

Although she was still wearing a mask that covered her eyes, there was no way anyone here wouldn’t know that she was Seraphine.

Everyone’s gazes instantly shot towards her at the sudden appearance of the Moonlight Shadow Princess.

I also unintentionally shifted my gaze to her appearance as she emerged while killing several lake serpents every second, but unfortunately, my gaze reached her for a slightly different reason than the others.

‘Why is she… here now?’

It was the moment I directly witnessed the story flowing in a way quite different from the original work.