Chapter 95 : Chapter 95
Volume 2
Chapter 95 : This Is the Way Out!
Looking at the withered hand burning with eerie flames, the maid remained calm.
She extended her right hand—the one holding the dagger—before the shriveled palm.
The withered hand slowly curled its five fingers inward and gradually clasped the maid’s right wrist.
Sizzle...
The eerie flame leaped higher, and the stench of burning flesh spread through the entire room.
The maid’s face turned pale, and cold sweat poured down her forehead.
She seemed to be enduring some extreme agony.
Yet within her eyes, a fervent emotion was building, like that of a believer witnessing the descent of a miracle!
A moment later, the withered hand released the maid’s wrist and withdrew into the black hole-like vortex.
That horrifying aura vanished, as though it had never appeared at all.
But those eerie flames remained behind, still blazing fiercely over the maid’s right hand and the dagger along with it!
“An evil priest?”
Selicia’s voice returned to the world once more, carrying an indescribable fury.
“You rats from the gutters still dare show yourselves before me?”
“Rats? To a noble princess like Your Highness, we truly are nothing more than rats.”
The maid lifted her eyes. Flames were reflected in her cold gaze, along with Selicia’s somewhat pale, lovely face.
Her expression was mocking.
“But, noble princess, you are about to be killed by one of those lowly rats.”
The maid vanished again.
Then she reappeared right in front of Selicia.
The flaming dagger stabbed mercilessly toward Selicia’s heart from a vicious angle.
“Hmph, in your dreams!”
Selicia gave a cold snort, and an even more terrifying chill burst from her delicate body. Everything around her was instantly torn to pieces by extreme frost and storm.
But only for an instant.
That brief instant was too short to affect the maid, who was already right before her.
It merely caused the dagger in the maid’s hand to shift slightly off course.
Because in the next moment, that chill abruptly disappeared.
That was right. Without warning, all at once, catching everyone off guard, it vanished.
Selicia froze in shock for a moment, but quickly came back to herself.
She looked toward the flames burning on the maid’s right hand.
“So it is exactly as I thought. This power was prepared specifically to counter me.”
Selicia’s ice came from divine blessing. It was different from ordinary frost magic. What it represented was the power of law.
To freeze all things.
That was the content of the law.
So in theory, she could even freeze fire itself!
But for the moment, that power no longer worked.
She could not even condense the ice sword she wielded most naturally.
Because another law, one that completely countered hers, was burning upon the maid’s right hand and dagger!
“And yet you think that alone is enough to kill me?”
Selicia swiftly calmed herself.
Her strength did not come merely from divine blessing alone!
Before the maid’s second attack could arrive, Selicia suddenly closed the distance, advancing instead of retreating!
Her slender fingers came together into a palm strike. A fierce battle aura surged from her palm as she slammed it toward the maid’s chest!
“I almost forgot. Your Highness’s martial skill is not to be underestimated either. Unfortunately...”
The maid did not dodge. Instead, she met Selicia’s palm head-on with one of her own.
Their battle aura clashed and fell into a brief stalemate.
The violent pressure of the wind lifted the maid’s neatly trimmed short hair.
Her expression remained cold.
“Unfortunately, because you normally rely on an ice sword, and your greatest skill lies in swordsmanship, you did not carry an ordinary sword for self-defense.
And because of excessive confidence, you even disdained carrying any defensive magic artifact on your person.”
“!”
Selicia’s face remained cold, but something flickered deep within her eyes.
“So—”
The maid’s battle aura suddenly reversed within her palm, adhering to Selicia’s hand.
Taking Selicia’s blow head-on had inflicted serious injuries on her in an instant, but precisely because of that, Selicia now had nowhere left to escape!
“So I think I still can kill you.”
The maid had already raised her right hand in advance.
She gripped the dagger in reverse, aiming at a vital point to ensure the precision, force, and lethality of this strike.
Death raised its scythe once more.
This time, it was truly a dead end.
...
“Damn it, what the hell was I thinking?”
Cowering in the corner, Muen suddenly slapped himself hard across the face, forcing himself awake from that thought, alluring beyond reason, yet one he absolutely should never have had.
It was hard to imagine that just now, he had actually wanted Selicia to die!
For the sake of his own selfish desires, he had wanted that assassin to kill Selicia!
“That is right. If Selicia dies, then no one will pursue the crime of my violating the princess, and I will be able to keep living for a while longer.”
“But after doing that to an innocent girl, I actually went so far as to think about taking her life too?”
“What kind of utterly shameless, irredeemable scum am I? Selicia is innocent!”
Muen slammed his fist hard into the ground. The sharp pain calmed him considerably.
And because of that, the feeling of guilt slowly rose up and filled his entire heart.
That was right.
From beginning to end, from start to finish, Selicia was innocent.
She had done nothing wrong.
She had only been invited into this room because of Muen’s cowardice, drugged because of Muen’s despicableness, and robbed of her purity because of Muen’s stupidity.
And now, because of one oversight on Muen’s part, she might even lose her life here.
This should never have happened to her.
She should have lived as she did in the original novel, meeting the one she loved and living a happy life of her own.
She should not die here!
“No. I cannot just stand by and watch Selicia die. I have to help her!”
Muen clenched his fists, and a trace of resolve appeared in his eyes.
But when he lifted his head and looked toward the battle between Selicia and the assassin, that resolve quickly faded once again.
“How... am I supposed to help?”
He could not even see the assassin’s movements clearly.
He did not have divine blessing either.
He had recognized that 【Prayer】.
In the original novel, it belonged to a kind of existence known as an evil priest, a method of gaining power from evil gods through sacrifice.
That was not a level of power he should be touching right now.
He was the pampered son of a Duke, the blond villain whose only purpose was to pave the way for the protagonist.
He was also an ordinary first-year student of Saint Maria Magic Academy, and for most of that year, he had wasted his days away.
At this moment, the only spell he could remember was a practically useless Light spell.
He simply could not help Selicia.
“Perhaps the best help I can give her is to stay out of the way?”
Like those heroines in television dramas who had no ability yet kept making things worse despite their good intentions, perhaps doing nothing and just watching was the best choice for him now.
“Selicia will definitely win. Definitely! She is so strong, she does not need my help at all,” Muen muttered, as if trying to convince himself.
...
Click.
Muen suddenly heard a crisp sound from behind him, like the unlocking of a door.
“It is almost over. You may leave now, Muen Campbell.”
That somewhat weak voice, the one that had appeared once before, sounded in Muen’s ear again.