Unfortunately, the gravity of the real world showed him no mercy, and the mossy, slippery stone slabs in the alley were even more heartless. *Splat!*
A dull, solid sound of flesh hitting the ground echoed through the narrow dead end.
There was no cushioning, and no cool three-point landing.
The high-spirited youth’s entire face was flattened like a pancake against the moldy ground.
The air seemed to freeze.
Even the three thugs preparing to commit their crime were stunned by this sudden acrobatic performance, standing frozen with their knives raised.
Leo sprang up with startling speed, quickly brushing the dust off his clothes.
He wiped a nosebleed with the back of his hand and tilted his head up, speaking in a tone that suggested as long as he wasn’t embarrassed, the embarrassment belonged to someone else.
“Hmph! To think you would set such a despicable grease spell trap on the ground. It seems you villains have some skill after all.”
“However, that won’t stop this young master. What happened just now was merely a… Tactical Prone performed to break the trap!”
Standing not far away, Ailiya watched the scene in silence, the corner of her mouth twitching imperceptibly.
That wasn’t a trap; it was just a pile of squashed, rotten vegetable leaves.
“Pfft—hahahaha!”
The thug trio finally snapped out of it, erupting into a fit of piercing, mocking laughter.
Walker wiped tears from his eyes as he toyed with the dagger in his hand, looking at Leo with derision.
“I wondered who it was. It’s just little Master Leo, who hasn’t even been weaned yet. What’s the matter?”
“Instead of drinking milk in your mother’s arms, you came out here to play the hero saving the damsel? Or has your backside stopped hurting from the beating your mother gave you yesterday?”
“Boss, why waste words on him? Since he’s delivered himself to us…” The lackey beside him revealed a murderous glint.
Walker waved him off, his eyes sinister yet holding a trace of caution. “Don’t use knives, just give him a beating. He’s a sprout of the Marquis’s house, after all. Killing him would bring trouble.”
“But if it’s just a childhood scuffle where someone accidentally got hurt, I doubt the Marchioness would have the face to go around announcing it.”
“Hehe, understood. We’ll take good care of the young master.”
The three of them slowly approached, the mockery in their eyes making them look like they were watching a lamb headed for slaughter.
Leo was completely infuriated by those words, his face instantly turning beet-red.
He suddenly raised both hands and began chanting an incantation. It was a jerky, long-winded, and poorly pronounced sequence of words.
“Great Fire Element… heed my command… that… gather into a ball…”
‘Too slow,’ Ailiya commented coldly in her mind.
Finally, just as the opponents reached him, a *pop* sounded from Leo’s palm, and a flame the size of a fist flickered into existence.
“Take this—Burst Fireball!”
*Whoosh!*
The trembling little fireball flew out and struck Walker squarely in the chest.
And then…
*Poof.*
Like a dud being squeezed, the fireball exploded into a cloud of black smoke. It merely scorched a black patch onto Walker’s leather armor and happened to singe a few of his chest hairs.
Walker looked down at the pathetic bit of ash on his chest, then looked back up at Leo, who was still maintaining his casting posture.
Silence.
Then, pure rage.
“You little brat! You dared to burn my clothes?!”
“Beat him! Give him a hell of a beating!”
Before Leo could even attempt a second incantation, he was kicked to the ground, followed by a flurry of punches and kicks that fell like rain.
“Ouch! You dare… ah! Not the face! I’m a Mage! I am a noble… ow!”
The supposed magical duel turned into a one-sided street brawl.
Ailiya remained where she was, arms crossed, watching with a cold gaze.
She actually felt a bit bored.
This plot development felt like one of those low-level scripts from an early RPG game designed specifically to force the protagonist to take action.
The NPCs had low IQs, the performances were melodramatic, and even the screams of the victim felt unoriginal.
Though she really wanted to watch this guy get beaten into a pulp, her hearing was too sensitive. It was too loud and very uncomfortable.
“Tsk. Such a hassle.”
Ailiya sighed. In that instant, the lazy aura surrounding her vanished without a trace.
*Bang!*
It was the sound of a leather boot kicking off the ground.
The two lackeys who were ganging up on Leo only felt a blur before their eyes as a sudden gust of wind swept toward them.
Before their brains could process the visual signal, sharp pain radiated from their chests.
Ailiya’s figure cut into the battlefield like a streak of silver lightning. Using the momentum of her dash, she leaped into the air. Her long legs transformed into a lethal battle-axe—a standard roundhouse kick!
*Crack.*
Accompanying the crisp sound of breaking ribs, the two burly men flew backward like broken kites, slamming hard into the wall before falling unconscious.
“Wh… What?!”
Walker was just about to deliver another kick to Leo when he heard the commotion. He whipped his head around, his pupils shrinking violently.
The seemingly weak maid who had been pushing the cart was now standing right in front of him.
Her silver hair fluttered, and those ice-blue eyes held no anger—only a heart-palpitating calm, as if she were looking at an inanimate object.
Fear made Walker let out an instinctive roar as he pulled a short blade from his waist. A faint, earthy yellow glow enveloped his body.
“Bitch! Die!—Rock-Shattering Slash!”
It was a basic combat skill for a Warrior, using a focused charge to increase the destructive power of a strike.
But in Ailiya’s eyes…
‘Pre-swing time: 0.8 seconds.’
‘Attack trajectory: 45-degree diagonal slash from the upper right.’
‘Hitbox range: 0.5 meters in front.’
‘Nothing but openings.’
Ailiya didn’t even open her eyes fully. Her body merely shifted half a step to the left.
*Whoosh.*
The heavy, powerful blade whistled past her side, failing to cut even a single strand of her hair.
Walker had used too much force and lunged forward, leaving his defense wide open.
Before he could even get a word out…
Ailiya’s right hand had already swung in a wide arc.
A simple, unadorned punch infused with magic struck him directly on the body.
*Slap!!!!!*
A crisp sound, as sharp as a firecracker exploding, rang out in the alley.
The massive centrifugal force sent Walker spinning like a top. He rotated two and a half times on the spot before his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.
***
Three seconds.
The battle was over.
A deathly silence returned to the alley.
Only Bella, standing not far away, had her mouth hanging wide open. The bag of flour in her hand fell to the ground with a *thud*.
Ailiya pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and wiped the hand she had used to slap him with a look of disgust, as if it had been stained by something filthy. She then spoke in a flat tone.
“Trash cleanup complete.”
**[Battle Ended]**
**[Rating: Perfect Victory]**
**[Defeated “Street Thug (Lv. 3)” x3]**
**[Total Experience Gained: 15 points]**
**Assassin Experience: +5**
**Basic Combat Experience: +10**
**[Notice] Enemy units are still alive. Experience gain rate adjusted to 50% for non-lethal subdual.**
Looking at the pitifully small experience bar, Ailiya frowned slightly and clicked her tongue in annoyance mentally.
Her ice-blue eyes swept coldly over the three unlucky bastards on the ground, a flash of regret in her gaze.
‘If only that idiot young master and Bella weren’t here… it’s inconvenient to kill them. Even though this trash mob experience is small, every little bit counts. Full experience would have been better than half.’
At that moment, the “pile of rags” on the ground stirred.
Leo, sporting two black eyes, struggled to climb up from the floor.
His velvet coat was torn, his once-stylish hair looked like a bird’s nest, and his face was covered in bruises.
However, the first thing he did after standing straight was straighten his bow tie.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and forced a confident smile that looked worse than crying.
“Cough… well done, maid.”
“This is exactly part of this genius Mage’s plan. Just now, I intentionally showed weakness to exhaust them, specifically to create this chance for you to land a finishing blow.”
Leo sniffled, trying to hold back his running nose, his eyes darting around.
“And… the fireball’s power was a bit low today purely because… because I left the house in too much of a hurry this morning and didn’t eat breakfast!”
“Yes, it’s because the lack of breakfast led to an insufficient mana supply! Otherwise, these three would have been turned to ash long ago!”
Ailiya didn’t even spare him a glance. She walked straight to the unconscious Walker, expertly searching him and confiscating several coin purses.
“If your so-called tactic involves using your face to scrub the ground to test the wear resistance of the paving stones, then you are indeed a rare genius in the field of physics.”
She pushed the cart away without looking back, her voice cold. “Let’s go, Bella. We’re going to the workshop. The stupidity here is too thick; it might be contagious.”
Lmao