The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 177

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 177

The shining hemisphere that completely covered the Arena like a lid, with Olivia’s magic power woven into it, borrowed the nature of Seraphina’s transitional Oath that was intertwined with it to create a phenomenon similar to communication magic.

This meant her voice was transmitted to Gid and Rita at the center of the Arena without any tools.

[Isolation space activation complete. But the monster that just exploded is already recovering. From the looks of it, it seems like it’ll keep reviving endlessly until the Red Queen dies.]

“Just like the Card Soldiers.”

Lillieta replied while cooling down the heat of Silvergrass that had fired the Moment of Twilight. Gideon withdrew his domain and stood in front of her, adding his words.

“I sensed it while deploying my domain just now, but there’s something else besides the Red Queen and King.”

“Yeah, I felt it too.”

[What? Something else came in? I don’t see it on the bird’s eye view?]

“It seems like something with invisibility or stealth abilities.”

Rita opened the grip part of her revolver and took out a small metal cylinder engraved with a magic circle, responding to Oli’s communication. It was the magazine she had used up completely on the way here.

She carelessly threw it on the floor and took out a new magic gun magazine from a pocket hidden inside her dress, loading it into the revolver.

Originally a magazine used for pistol-based magic guns, but thanks to Oli’s modifications, it could also be used with revolvers.

Then Rita used the dagger she had taken out along with the magazine to coolly cut off the bottom hem of her dress.

Gid glanced back and muttered.

“What a waste, it was really pretty.”

“Can’t help it.”

She replied while tearing off the lace ribbon attached to the dress and tying her hair into a single strand.

Meanwhile, the Red Queen, freed from domain control, scraped the floor and stood up. Its bloodshot eyes glared at Lillieta. Gideon kept watch on it and spoke.

“Same as that time?”

“Same as that time.”

“Variables?”

“Ignore them and focus on the Red Queen. The variables—”

Rita kept her left hand tying her hair and spun the gun with her right hand in a flash. The muzzle that had been aimed forward instantly turned direction to point sideways.

Toward empty air where nothing was visible, without looking back, without hesitation, she fired.

With the gunshot of “bang,” her words continued calmly.

“—I’ll keep them in check.”

Something that had been stealthily approaching from that direction jumped back in surprise and hastily retreated. The Arena’s scenery rippled as its form was briefly revealed before disappearing.

[I just caught it! There really is something else hiding in there? But it disappeared too quickly…]

“It was dressed like a jester. The stealth method is similar to Ethan’s. Camouflaging with the environment.”

[A jester? Ah, since King and Jack appeared, so now a Joker comes out too? Really, what a damn mess.]

“Thanks to Ethan, I’m used to this kind of stealth, so leave it to me. And Oli, check the situation outside the isolation space again.”

[What should I check?]

“A deck of playing cards originally has two Jokers. Even though there’s only one Heart King and one Heart Jack.”

[This sticky oil-like thing… Got it, I’ll look for it so don’t worry.]

Listening to Rita’s voice calmly conversing with Oli behind him, Gid’s lips curved slightly.

Lillieta was behind him. Fighting alongside him.

Someone who could coordinate with him without needing long conversations, who could gauge the battle situation and variables to see the same view as him, sometimes even broader. The person he knew her to be.

Despite being in the middle of battle, he couldn’t bear how happy he was.

If Rita knew, she’d make an incredulous face and ask if he was crazy, but Gid was truly happy in this moment. He raised his sword with a smile.

“Good, then like this, let’s begin the subjugation.”

* * *

June 27th, 1770, evening.

A bell rang in the distance. It was the bell announcing the founding declaration.

Hanna, sitting alone in a secluded room of the Podonamu Estate, flinched and trembled at the sound of that bell.

After following Duke Adickl and leaving the ballroom before the succession ceremony began, she had been staying indoors without moving due to the Duke’s semi-forceful recommendation to rest in her room.

‘According to the plan I heard before, the Duke intends to kill me here. Disguising it as an accident…’

She rolled her eyes around in terror.

Then, hidden in the bell’s sound, came small knocking sounds—tap tap—on the glass window.

Hanna looked up with delight. Ethan, who had revealed himself at the window, saw her face and flinched before frowning.

“Why are you smiling? What’s so good about this situation?”

Hanna, who would rather die than tell him she was happy to see him, quickly composed her expression and opened the window.

“How did you… Did you find something?”

“I caught something interesting.”

Yesterday, during the opening ceremony, Hanna had remained alone at the Podonamu Estate.

She had worked with Ethan to create a hole in the estate’s security while the Duke and the Duke’s son were away with their key retainers.

Ethan, who had infiltrated the Podonamu Estate through that gap, had been searching every corner of the house from yesterday until today, before the estate’s owners returned from the founding day banquet.

Ethan, who had been smiling while showing the bundle of documents he had obtained from the secret vault he found during that time, suddenly made a disgusted expression.

“But this secret vault where I found this… Of course it had all kinds of defenses, but damn it, there were no preparations against Oathbinders at all.”

“Is, is that a problem?”

“Shit… Ahem, it means those damn Pascals didn’t lift a finger at all. Even though the plan to release monsters is written so blatantly… What the hell is that bastard’s purpose.”

Ethan, who had been grumbling, suddenly recalled Gid’s speculation. Using Duke Adickl to kill with a borrowed knife.

“…Is it really true, that?”

“Huh? What?”

“Never mind, forget it. You’ve accomplished something big, so now keep yourself safe. You worked hard yesterday and today, so get some sleep or something.”

“How can I sleep in this situation? I’m so anxious I just can’t…”

Hanna sighed deeply while anxiously crumpling her clothes. Ethan unconsciously observed her like that before abruptly turning his head away.

Her appearance, dressed up gorgeously in a dress to attend the founding day banquet, felt strangely unfamiliar.

He walked toward the window and spoke bluntly.

“I’ll be keeping watch, so don’t worry—”

His words were cut short. Ethan instinctively twisted his body and bent his head. Something sharp cleanly sliced through where his neck had been just moments before, now where his shoulder was located.

Something invisible that had come through the window cut his right arm. Red blood spurted up into the air with a splash.

“…!”

“Kyaaaah, hup!”

Ethan didn’t even let out a groan, but Hanna, who saw his arm being cut, screamed before belatedly covering her mouth.

Ethan glared at the window where the curtains were fluttering, gripping his bleeding right shoulder.

The scenery rippled slightly. He gritted his teeth.

He had been too focused on Hanna and noticed too late. The enemy’s stealth technique was also too excellent.

No, that was an excuse. Ethan had been careless. Even while being careless, he had avoided instant death because a ghost was still a ghost, but he had been careless nonetheless.

‘It has abilities similar to mine.’

As soon as he made that judgment, he scattered the blood soaked on his hands. The invisible thing quickly moved away from its position, so the blood drops only stained the white curtains here and there. Still, Ethan smiled.

“Got you, you bastard.”

In the opposite direction from where he had scattered blood, in a position where it would naturally dodge, his severed right arm suddenly shot up and grabbed the invisible thing.

It knocked the arm away and immediately left its position, but blood stains remained clearly on the thing’s body.

Ethan stared at the blood stains floating and moving in the air while pulling the threads connected to his fingertips.

Threads made of Oath bound his right arm and pulled it back, connecting the severed shoulder and arm like sewing.

‘It’s a temporary measure though.’

Ethan gritted his teeth with a pale face, swallowing the terrible pain. This much should be enough for Senior Sera to somehow reattach it later. In exchange for tremendous nagging.

He then wove threads densely to his fingertips so he could control his nerve-severed arm like a puppet. Meanwhile, with his left hand, he scattered threads toward the blood stains in the air.

“You’re already caught. Come out, bastard.”

The thing that had dodged the threads shot at it finally revealed itself.

A gaunt jester standing tall at the window where festival lights gently seeped in.

Dressed in clothes with alternating red and black, wearing a jester’s hat with three-pronged ends with bells attached, pulled down to its eyes.

It held a staff with a demon’s head in one hand, and sharp cards like blades in the other. Ethan’s blood was definitely dripping from the card’s edge.

Moreover, looking closely, what was attached to the hat’s ends weren’t bells but eyeballs. It seemed to see in all directions without blind spots with those three eyes.

‘A monster I’ve never seen before… Could it be related to the Red Queen?’

Suddenly, the monster’s mouth, torn to its ears, opened in a smile. As it spread its arms in a theatrical motion, two more hidden arms were revealed.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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