The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 187

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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 187

At that call, she stopped the thoughts that had felt long but were actually completed in a brief moment.

Lillieta immediately shot the head of the Joker that was causing a ruckus at her feet.

The loud bang of the gunshot seemed to momentarily clear her complicated mind.

After confirming that the creature could no longer revive and crumbled into complete destruction, she raised her head. Oli was holding a communicator with a pale face.

“You seem strange somehow. What’s with that face? Don’t tell me you were crying earlier? Gid suddenly disappeared too, and it feels like there’s a lot to talk about… But this seems more urgent.”

Rita wiped her face with one hand and calmly asked back.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“It’s a communication from Senior Is.”

Olivia swallowed dryly and quickly relayed the contents.

“They can’t completely stop the card soldiers that spread throughout the city, so contamination is occurring everywhere. The number of knights and mages turning into monsters is increasing, so the Special Task Force alone can’t handle it and they need support—”

“Damn.”

“—And monsters have also appeared at the Imperial Palace Guard Training Grounds where the nobles were evacuated, so they’re under siege, but they don’t know how long they can hold out.”

Oli groaned and added.

“Additionally, the summoned creature sent to Ethan has been destroyed. Communication there is completely cut off too, and Luca who followed the Heart Jack hasn’t returned either…”

“A complete disaster.”

“Yeah, so what should we do… Where did Gid go? There’s no way he’d leave you and go somewhere.”

Rita squeezed her eyes shut and opened them.

While doing so, she kicked away all the confusion, agitation, nausea, and despair to a corner of her heart, and barely managed to gather her crumbling reason and composure.

“For now, don’t look for Gid.”

“What?”

“I’ll explain the details later. Let’s solve the immediate situation first.”

She quickly prioritized in her head and divided the currently available cards. Distinguishing between the most vulnerable places and those that could hold out.

“There’s no need to maintain the isolation space anymore. Tell Sister Sera to support the Special Task Force. That should help them hold out somewhat.”

“Got it.”

“Oli, you go with them too. Go help Senior Is while looking for Luca. Also check with Senior about what Ethan’s last aerial view looked like and send me a communication.”

“Okay, what about you?”

“I’ll go to the Imperial Palace first. There’s only one covenant holder there.”

There are no covenant holders there except for Richard. All the family members are there.

Thinking of that fact made her somewhat, no, very anxious.

‘I did tell Lindsey to provide support if necessary.’

She gritted her teeth and gripped Silvergrass tighter.

“Then, let’s move.”

* * *

The guard unit was engaged in an unexpected siege battle.

They were excellent knights good enough to enter the Imperial Guard, loyal to the Crown Prince, yet they couldn’t easily become covenant holders.

It would be fortunate if they awakened as enhancement types, but if they became some other type, everything they had learned and mastered until now could become completely useless.

Gideon didn’t particularly recommend making covenants to them either. There was no point in telling them to make covenants when no disaster had come, as it would only amount to coercion through power.

He was separately raising the Special Task Force anyway.

As a result, there wasn’t a single covenant holder in the Guard Knight Order. The Captain of the Guard was deeply regretting this fact.

‘Maybe I should have done it too.’

Duke Duilebog, who had said she would return to the manor, came back with two monsters in tow. One of them was said to be a knight named Pabein who had gone with her.

Along with the testimony of the Duke and the noblewoman who had directly witnessed him transforming into a monster, the knight’s uniform he was wearing served as evidence.

There were only two enemies, but since using aura or magic would turn one into a monster, there was no way to fight them. They trusted the defensive magic circle that the Crown Prince had asked Olivia to install, barricaded the doors, and held out indoors.

Then the two became ten, and soon dozens.

The problem was the commotion the monsters caused while circling the closed door. Card soldiers who heard the signal from their kind that there were many humans here gathered, and those who fought them without knowing better joined as monsters after being contaminated.

As the commotion grew, more monsters gathered. Before long, there were more monsters contaminated by them than card soldiers.

A novice mage who was watching the festival, a priest who had followed the Shadea delegation but couldn’t attend the banquet, an executive from a back alley organization trying to make a profit, an apprentice knight who came to break up what he thought was a fight, a mercenary who thought there was a fight and wanted to beat up anyone to work off some stress.

Anyone who could use even a little aura, magic power, or divine power was contaminated.

Ordinary people were killed or devoured, and those with fighting ability became monsters. Some of them transformed into powerful monsters that could become named ones.

And those monsters would again devour other humans and contaminate those who opposed them. They multiplied.

Though no magic contamination zones had formed, it was a desperate situation comparable to that.

The disaster that had driven humanity to the brink of extinction had occurred at a relatively weaker level, but three years early.

Richard looked at the various forms of monsters clinging densely to the windows and finally experienced what the world Lillieta had lived in was like.

‘Damn, I should have gone out and killed the first two immediately.’

The Captain of the Guard, frightened by hearing that people had turned into monsters, wouldn’t open the door. This was even after Richard revealed he was a covenant holder.

In fact, Richard himself wasn’t confident whether he could really resist contamination, so he couldn’t be forceful about it.

Because he had never experienced it. If something went wrong, it would be the end.

His family members, his parents and his brother whose throat still wasn’t fully healed and shouldn’t overexert himself, were behind him, so he couldn’t rush out alone and take risks. Rita had even asked him to protect the family while she was away.

There was also the worry about what would happen if they carelessly opened the door with monsters outside and the defensive magic circle got damaged.

Thump, thump, every time the monsters collided, the doors and windows shook violently. The monsters’ roars and groans echoed from beyond the thin glass windows. The nobles gathered in the center of the training ground flinched in surprise each time.

The vibrations and noise were becoming increasingly intense. They had no way of knowing how long the defensive magic circle would hold.

There were mages among them, but the contamination prevention magic circle installed by Olivia was in a format that the mages of this era had never seen before.

Spine-chilling howls came like a chorus from hell.

Lavinia, trembling in her mother’s arms who was embracing her with her whole body, thought.

Coming here was the right answer for them, but hadn’t the people who were here become more dangerous because of them?

Then shouldn’t we somehow take responsibility?

She glanced toward Richard, who had said he was a covenant holder and wanted to go out and fight, but had been blocked by the Captain of the Guard.

‘He’s the teacher’s brother, and since he’s a covenant holder… he must know the method well, right?’

Lavinia swallowed dryly.

Her whole body trembled uncontrollably. Her eyes stung and hurt from crying earlier. Her heart was still pounding with fear.

But.

She grasped the black dragon’s eye attached to her clothes. The one Lillieta had put back on for her.

“This is the fruit of Rabi’s efforts, isn’t it? Since it’s yours, Rabi, be proud of it.”

The first fruit of effort she had achieved herself. A sense of accomplishment and confidence. The memory of success.

The courage that came from that.

She mustered her courage.

Lavinia broke free from her mother’s embrace and stood up. The gazes of the nobles who had been sitting and cowering all focused on her as she suddenly stood.

Not caring, she escaped from Duke Duilebog’s panicked attempt to grab her and walked toward Richard.

The red-haired young man looked at her with puzzlement. Standing before him, Lavinia spoke haltingly.

“Duke, Duke Raskail, you said you were a covenant holder, right?”

“…That’s correct.”

“Then, then you know how to make covenants too, right? Please, please teach me that.”

She stared straight at him while trembling.

“I, I want to become a covenant holder now.”

“…!”

“I can’t just, just keep trembling like this. If you teach me how to make a covenant, I’ll… fight together with you.”

Richard’s eyes widened. At the same time, a commotion arose among the nobles. One noble among them who knew how to use aura jumped up.

“Teach me too!”

“Me too, me too!”

A mage who had attended the banquet raised his hand high in response. A priest from the Shadea delegation also stood up and said.

“I’ll do it too, this thing called a covenant. The Saint also called it a new blessing from God.”

One of the guards protecting the entrance also stepped forward.

“The noblewoman is right that we can’t just keep trembling here. Those things keep multiplying… Those who can fight should fight.”

Like that, one, two, five, ten, twenty.

Lavinia looked at the people rising to follow behind her and once again clutched the brooch at her chest. She had learned a new fact.

Courage is also contagious.

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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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