Chapter 4: Chapter 4

"Why is there a massive plume of smoke rising just behind that hill?"

The two continued their flight. Not too soon after were they able to look at the grand building she had spent many years of her life in. Rika could not believe her own eyes; despite the fact that it was already late at night, strangely-illuminated smoke was visible as it rose from various windows. The voice was quiet for a moment.

[Looks like something pretty bad happened. A house fire perhaps? We should check it out.]

Rika needed no further prodding and ran ahead as quickly as her legs could carry her. She fought the exhaustion from her earlier bouts of flying, her pride at showing off to her parents what she had learned already a distant memory that was replaced by fear. Fear that her parents might be in grave danger. She came to a stop close to one of the gates, urged by Jufu to not rush ahead too far.

[This stench is unmistakably that of many things burning. Breath Protection!]

So shouted in her mind, Rika's body performed the quick motion and already she felt much better.

[This magic will continuously drain a little bit of your mana to keep you safe. Breathing in this stuff is pretty much the same as swallowing poison, and we can't have that.]

Of course Rika knew that, but nodded anyway.

[Silent Step!]

Another magic, and Rika's presence was suddenly much harder to spot. Even her breathing made no sound.

[I might just be paranoid, but the lack of guards suggests that this fire isn't some accident. Someone set it and that means your home is under attack. So be careful when going in.]

It made sense. An estate like this had armed guard patrols walking the perimeter pretty much at all times, yet nobody was around. Trying to stick to the shadowed areas, Rika went ahead. Her mind was abuzz with possibilities, each worse than the last.

[Clear Mind!]

Her thoughts suddenly stopped and she completely focused on taking in her environment.

[Can't have you be distracted now. Do what I say and we can probably get this sorted out.]

With another, albeit more hesitant nod, Rika slowed down for a moment to take everything in. As she observed the inner courtyard, she heard a scream come from the servants' quarters.

"Jufu, that sounded like..."

[A woman, might be a maid. Alright, move over there quickly. If we can rescue her, we can probably get some intel about the attackers.]

So she did, staying in the shadows of the dimly-lit courtyard until she reached an adjacent door, and quickly snuck inside.

 

The interior was a smoky scene straight from hell; fire was slowly spreading through the room to everything wooden, and bloodied corpses littered the floor. Sounds of fighting could be heard from further in. Rika felt the urge to retch, only held at bay by Jufu's prior mental magic.

[Shit man, this is right out of a horror flick.]

A confused Rika wondered for a moment about the strange choice of words before forcefully getting her thoughts back on the matter at hand again. (Go in and save who can be saved!)

Staying low, she stepped ahead and quickly found a corridor leading further inside where she found...

"Hahahah! Cry more, bitch!"

An unfamiliar male voice could be heard from a side room. Several more voices accompanied him.

"Look at her go! Lord must have trained her well, hahah!"

"Didn't think he'd hire cock-hungry sluts like this girl. Go faster, bitch!"

Muffled, feminine sounds rang out, mixed with pleading sobs.

"Those bastards can't possibly...!?"

Rika didn't know what was going on, though judging by the comments and sobs, it couldn't have been anything good.

[Righto. There are at least three dudes in that room. You need to knock them all out. Can you do that?]

She wasn't entirely certain, but nodded. With Jufu's help, she should manage.

[Okay... go!]

Rika ripped the door open and rushed inside. Normally the scene before her would have made her hesitate; three men surrounding a single maid who was barely wearing anything more than ripped-up rags and had her head at one of their nethers as he forcefully grabbed and moved her about. With unbridled fury, she called upon her mana.

"Ice Shower!"

A barrage of sharp, jagged icicles launched from the tip of her staff - swung towards the criminals - and sliced into each of them. The men had no time to react, their armour plating granting barely any protection as blood spilled out from their wounds. The maid, thankfully, was only grazed by a few.

"You little cunt!"

A fourth voice shouted from the side and Rika swung around just in time to see a stronger man swing his axe at her. She stepped backwards, just in time for only a bit of her clothing to get torn by the strike.

[HELL BOLT!]

Jufu, for the first time livid with anger, channelled all his power through Rika. Her body felt as if it was burning from the sudden influx of what seemed like pure evil magic, but she moved anyway and one dark cloudy flash later, the man was nothing but a corpse, smoking and stinking as if already half-decomposed.

"Wha... wh-what was that, J-Jufu?", Rika barely got out through her sudden exhaustion, her voice barely a mutter.

[That... was one of my favourites. Anyway, check the maid. She's still alive but needs medical attention.]

Getting her bearing, Rika rushed over to look at the poor girl cowering on the ground.

"Be calm. I'm Fredericka, and you are?"

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"F-F-F... Lady Fredericka? Is it really you? Everyone th-thought you died..."

The brown-haired maid seemed delirious and confused, so Rika tried her best to at least get her out of the building. With a small knife she cut off some cloth from a nearby curtain for the poor girl. Together they went back to the courtyard, the cloth firmly around the maid’s face to keep the smoke out.

"I'm sorry, but there's more I must do. Please stay here and be quiet. I will be back!"

"Y-Yes, Lady Fredericka. Please be careful, Lord Maxwell's troops are-"

"Lord Maxwell is coming to help us? Good, we could really use the support."

Rika thought it a good thing that at least Albert's father was reliable.

"No! Lord Maxwell is the one who is attacking us!"

Rika stared at the maid, now a little more coherent.

"Say that again."

"It's Lord Maxwell who's attacking us! I'm certain of it, it's *Cough* it's his heraldry! *Cough Cough*"

"Please don't strain yourself. Stay here, I shall investigate this."

"Thank... *Cough* Thank you, Lady Fredericka."

Leaving the weakened maid behind, once more Rika rushed into the building. She knew that she had to be quick or any might-be survivors would soon cease being such.

 

[Maxwell is your fiancé's dad, yeah?]

As she ran ahead, she gave but the barest of nods. It did not make sense to her! Why would he attack the estate of his son's fiancée? And, more so, the home of the very head of the Imperial family?

She once again found the room with the enemy soldiers and stepped inside, the door firmly closed behind her... not that it helped the stench assaulting her nose any.

[Sense Null: Smell!]

So cast, Rika went towards the three corpses. Her earlier spell had mangled them badly, but they indeed bore the winged lion on a crescent, the symbol of House Maxwell.

"It cannot be! I-I-It really is House Maxwell's heraldry."

[Wait! Think, Rika, think! Does this make any sense? I would say this is a false flag operation.]

“A false... flag?”

[Yep. Basically these scum - and they're nothing but base scum to be insane enough to rape a girl while the whole building's on fire - are probably wearing fake heraldry to only make it look like they are Maxwell's troops.]

Rika's thoughts lightened a little at the idea. This was of course much more plausible.

"I get it! Then let's kill all the pretenders and save everyone!"

[That's what I wanted to hear, girly! Move it!]

Leaving the fake troops behind, Rika rushed ahead once more. Her body was getting very tired from it all, but she knew she could not afford to waste any more time. More burning corridors went by until she reached the kitchen, but then...

"Hah... hah... Jufu, I-I cannot go on. Can you cast a healing spell, please?"

[I suck at healing, but I can offer to take over for a bit. Trust me, I'm used to this stuff and with a bit of enhancing, I'll pull us through.]

Under normal circumstances, Rika would not even have considered the idea, but with things being as they were, she wordlessly nodded. Not even a second later, her perspective of things changed in a way she had never even imagined before; she was looking through her eyes, but everything had a more dream-like quality, the colours muted. Similarly her other senses, such as hearing and touch, were weakened too. She tried moving her eyes, but nothing happened; it was as if she had become an observer of her own body.

[Jufu?]

No answer came even as her vision moved on, with only the barest of magical sparks visible implying that Jufu was doing something, but she had no idea what. Her body moved to open the door and as it looked around, she spotted several more of the fake knights standing in a circle. The thick smoke made it hard to see, but two younger cooks and an older one were poised to strike at each other with kitchen equipment to audible, if quieted, jeers.

Then everything happened so quickly, almost literally in the blink of an eye, that Rika had trouble following. The assembled fake troops looked at the open door. Some shouted, others drew their weapons. Her own body went down a little and everything went black all at once. No sound, no touch, and certainly no vision. She was unsure if it had been merely a moment, a minute, or even longer but suddenly nothing was left other than an utter bloodbath; the former ring of men had become nothing but a gory circle of meat chunks. The cooks were shocked, one even lost control of his lower body in terror, but otherwise they were miraculously unharmed.

"Sorry girly, but I couldn't risk you experiencing any of those spells; considering your reaction to the weak bolt earlier, you'd be dead from just one of those."

Jufu's sudden voice disturbed the prior absolute silence as her vision suddenly returned alongside all her other senses.

[Just one!? Jufu, just what did you cast? Who ARE you to know such magic!?]

He did not deign to answer that, and no amount of shouting made him budge. Jufu made her body step ahead and not a moment later she stood in front of the three cooks.

"You three, move the fuck out of here! There's a maid in the courtyard, stick with her. If I find a healer, you're in luck."

"What the-!? L-Lady Fredericka, is that you? And what's with this foul langu-"

"I said MOVE IT you asswipes! I have better stuff to do and you inhaling tons of smoke will kill you soon even without the attackers taking you out!"

Highly concerned for their Lady's sudden extreme shift in behaviour, the three nonetheless ran out of the room, if not without some measure of terror.

"Jufu, stop cussing people out like that!!!"

Rika was understandably very, very angry about her voice being used so, but still Jufu did not answer her. If she had bad premonitions before, now they materialised into a real fear that she had completely given away her body to someone to do with it as he would please... and she could do naught but helplessly watch.

 

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