Chapter 26: Are there more experts?

The black-robed man lay prone at the edge of the rooftop, the runes in his right eye glowing faintly.

He had locked onto the silver-haired maid sweeping the courtyard below, her back turned to him.

‘Heh, what a dutiful servant, still sweeping up leaves even with death at the door.’

The corner of the black-robed man’s mouth twisted into a contemptuous and cruel arc.

Although the information from that woman had specifically warned him to be careful of this demi-human maid.

He hadn’t taken it seriously at all.

How much skill could a maid doing odd jobs in a courtyard possibly have? At most, she was just a slightly more perceptive demi-human.

‘I’ll start with you, to add a little panic to this dreary estate.’

The black-robed man slowly squeezed the trigger with his index finger.

Vrrrrm—!

There was no deafening gunshot, only a low, instantly released hum.

Like a venomous snake tearing through the night, it shot towards Ailiya silently yet swift as lightning.

At this distance, this speed, forget a maid, even an experienced veteran warrior would absolutely be unable to dodge if caught off guard.

The black-robed man was even prepared to enjoy the bloody spectacle of his prey being torn apart.

However, just as that fatal magic crystal bullet was about to touch the maid’s back.

An extremely faint silver glint flashed abruptly in the night.

Swish!

There was no panicked evasion, no exaggerated magical shield.

That magic crystal bullet bizarrely split cleanly in two mid-air, incredibly smoothly divided into two halves. It instantly lost balance, changed trajectory, and flew past Ailiya, one on each side.

Boom! Boom!

Two dull thuds.

The split magic crystals slammed into two statues not far away, instantly exploding into a shower of stone fragments.

And Ailiya, at the center of the explosions, was not only unharmed, she hadn’t even put down the broom in her hand, merely tilting her body slightly.

The black-robed man in the bell tower snapped his eyes wide open, his hand holding the gun trembling, almost thinking he was seeing things.

‘What happened? A miss? Did it go off course? Or did it hit some invisible barrier?’

Gritting his teeth in disbelief, he quickly worked the bolt, chambering another high-grade magic crystal.

Holding his breath, this time, he stared fixedly at every movement of that silver-haired maid.

Aim, lock onto the head, fire!

The second magic crystal shot towards Ailiya’s face with a more piercing shriek than the last.

This time, the black-robed man finally saw it clearly.

He saw clearly as that silver-haired maid casually turned around.

Her left hand still held the broom, while her right hand now held something.

He saw her wrist flick ever so slightly, meeting that supersonic magic crystal bullet with an impossible angle and precise timing.

Ting

A crisp collision sound.

The second magic crystal bullet was once again, without any suspense, cleanly split right down the middle, turning into two useless sparks of magic power that dissipated in the air.

And this time, the black-robed man finally saw what weapon she held.

That goddamn thing…

Was an ordinary-looking table knife, used for cutting bread!!

‘What the hell?! There’s a master here?!’

The black-robed man gasped in shock, cold sweat instantly breaking out on his back.

Using a dinner table knife to slice a bullet fired from a magic crystal rifle?!

He stared fixedly at that table knife, finally noticing a clue.

The surface of that ordinary table knife was wrapped in a layer of icy blue magic power, thin as a cicada’s wing yet incredibly dense.

That was… the most basic universal magic, mana infusion?!

Not only that.

What truly chilled the black-robed man to the bone wasn’t this exquisitely perfect micro-manipulation of magic.

It was the opponent’s terrifying reaction speed and danger sense!

In a pitch-black, lightless night, separated by hundreds of meters, facing a silent sniper shot.

Not only could she detect it instantly, she could also predict the trajectory of the magic crystal with extreme precision. Just what kind of monster was she?!

Just as the black-robed man was in a state of extreme shock, in his view below, that silver-haired maid slowly raised her head.

Those ice-blue eyes seemed to pierce through hundreds of meters of night, accurately and unerringly meeting his gaze.

“Found you.”

Ailiya weighed the table knife in her hand.

She had slipped it into her pocket earlier when delivering food to Leo.

She took a slight half-step back with her right leg, her waist suddenly generating force, her arm like a fully drawn bowstring.

In the bell tower, the black-robed man suddenly noticed a point of light appear in his field of vision.

That point of light expanded at an incredibly terrifying speed in his pupils!

‘What is that?!’

The black-robed man’s scalp tingled, his brain screaming warnings.

He didn’t have time to think, almost acting on pure survival instinct, he rolled to the side in a panicked, clumsy motion.

Whoosh—!

In the very next instant after he rolled away.

Crash!

A loud boom. The rooftop statue he had been using for cover was directly shattered to pieces by that silver light.

Stone fragments flew, striking his black robe painfully.

The black-robed man turned his head in terror.

He saw that ordinary table knife, now buried up to its hilt in the bell tower’s hard bluestone roof, the handle still vibrating violently from the immense kinetic energy!

Hundreds of meters, relying purely on physical strength to throw a table knife, directly shattering a stone statue?!

Cold sweat poured down the black-robed man’s back, his heart feeling as if gripped by an invisible hand.

‘Bad, I’ve been discovered! The intel was all fucking wrong! There’s a monster hiding in this estate!’

He completely forgot about the mission, scrambling to grab the rifle from the ground, preparing to flee.

Meanwhile, in the estate courtyard.

“Even with precise throw, this range is still a bit of a stretch.”

Ailiya glanced at her now-empty right hand, casually tossing the broom aside.

Since the target was found, it was simple now.

Thud!

The bluestone slab beneath Ailiya’s feet instantly cracked into a radial depression.

Her entire body shot forward like a cannonball, with a sharp whistling sound, instantly disappearing from her original spot.

Her speed was so fast it left a silver afterimage.

The estate wall was like an illusion before her; with just two light taps of her toes on the wall’s surface, she nimbly vaulted over it.

The black-robed man in the bell tower had just started to get up when a flash of silver in his peripheral vision caught his attention on the street below. A silver figure, stepping on rooftops and street lamps, was rapidly closing in on his position.

‘Damn it! Damn it! What the hell kind of speed is this?!’

The distance between them was shrinking at a visible rate. At this pace, in ten seconds at most, that monster would be right in his face!

[Shadow Escape]

The black-robed man let out a hysterical, low roar.

The shadow at his feet instantly boiled and expanded, like a pitch-black quagmire.

In the split second before Ailiya leaped onto the highest point of the bell tower, the black-robed man completely sank into the shadow.

Thump

A very soft landing sound.

Ailiya’s figure landed steadily on the bell tower’s shattered roof.

The black-and-white hem of her maid uniform fluttered slightly in the night breeze; her breathing wasn’t even slightly labored.

She glanced at the empty rooftop, her gaze falling on the puddle of rapidly dissipating shadow residue.

“A high-tier rare skill from the shadow affinity. That makes it even more important I don’t let you go.”

Ailiya walked forward calmly, extending her pale fingers. With a bit of force, she pulled out the embedded table knife, casually wiping the stone dust from it.

“You can’t escape.”