Lin Yue stared at the holy spells in front of him, blinding as flash grenades, along with a crowd of third- and second-rank priest-knights, and instantly sensed danger.
Had he dragged things out for too long?
He glanced at the knight he’d just beaten half to death, but felt not a trace of regret.
“Villain, surrender at once! You’ve openly hijacked a carriage and assaulted the Holy See’s knights. Prepare to receive the punishment of the gods!”
Isabella carried the already-dazed Airilla, and beads of sweat gathered on her brow.
This many enemies would be hard to deal with.
If Lin Yue had no trump cards, the two of them alone might not be able to escape unscathed.
“Isabella, take Airilla and go first.”
Lin Yue opened a spatial rift, planning for the two of them to leave first while he looked for a chance to run.
His mana was nearly depleted.
He didn’t have the confidence to teleport all three people away.
For a humble first-rank mage like him, the cost of spatial magic was still too high.
Just then, Ruier suddenly burst from the forest, crashing through and flipping the carriage surrounded by enemies.
“High-grade magic beast! Everyone, scatter!”
The sudden turn of events left the Holy See’s people caught off guard, and their charging holy spells scattered in disarray.
Ruier took a mighty leap and landed in front of the three, apparently preparing to carry them all away in a hurried escape.
“We’ll go together! Don’t play the hero!”
Seeing Ruier arrive to cover them, Isabella’s heart instantly calmed, her earlier hesitation vanishing as she prepared to have Lin Yue escape on the wolf’s back together with them.
This scene reminded her of that exam, when she was powerless before Allen.
Back then, it was Lin Yue who had fended off everything alone, allowing them to escape.
Isabella bit her lip hard, unwilling to abandon this stubborn fool again.
With Ruier’s speed and her own ice magic, escaping would be more than enough.
“All units, formation!”
Suddenly, a priest barked an order, and all the carriages around them began to emit a strange red glow.
“Awoo… howl!”
In front of them, Ruier’s eyes suddenly turned blood-red, his body going berserk.
“This is bad…”
So the Holy See had long been prepared, knowing they’d try to use a magic beast, and had already set up a countermeasure…
Faced with this dead end, Lin Yue sighed and said to the two of them, “See? Someone always has to make a sacrifice. Just listen to me.”
Isabella stared at Lin Yue’s helpless smile, her expression slightly dim.
Is it going to be like this again…
“I understand.”
As long as you understand.
Lin Yue turned away.
He could no longer afford long-distance teleportation, but quick short-range shifts were still possible, enough to avoid being caught immediately.
The rift behind him gave a sound, signaling that someone had left.
“Hoo…”
As he felt his mana drain away from his body, Lin Yue let out a breath of relief.
But why did it consume so little?
While he was still confused, the spatial rift closed, and that cool, exquisite face swept past his side, magic staff raised to block in front of Lin Yue.
“I won’t let you be alone anymore.”
She didn’t want to compromise again.
If they had to fight, then let’s fight to the end.
“You… Sigh…”
Lin Yue had no choice.
She’d thrown Airilla in alone.
If he tried to open another rift, he might not even have the strength to fight back—might as well save it for battle.
“Now our enemies aren’t just the Holy See anymore…”
Watching Ruier, rampaging out of control and attacking indiscriminately, and all the enemies eyeing them like hungry wolves, Lin Yue couldn’t help but feel that he’d acted a bit recklessly.
Just as the two of them prepared to carve a bloody path through the chaos, vines suddenly shot out of the forest at lightning speed.
“More backup?”
The vines struck directly at the most heavily guarded carriage, also sweeping up all the nearby red stones and crushing them to powder.
The Holy See’s people, seeing the carriage damaged, reacted like cats whose tails had been stepped on—immediately bolting for the carriage as if whatever was inside was even more important than their lives.
“That magic… I knew it…”
Isabella seemed to recognize the caster, quickly conjuring an ice wall to block the flying splinters of wood.
Meanwhile, Lin Yue was utterly stunned.
Another expert?
Was this the backup Mapel called in?
Before he could react, a figure in black suddenly leapt down from the vines.
At a glance, the figure’s height was almost identical to Isabella’s.
“Go.”
With that, the black-clad figure gathered the power of her staff, drew a semicircle through the air, and sent it straight through the goods on the surrounding carriages.
Lin Yue didn’t know who this person was, but he wasn’t about to waste this hard-earned chance to escape.
Just then, Ruier shook his head and regained his senses.
Lin Yue promptly mounted the wolf’s back and called to Isabella, “Great chance! Let’s go!”
But Isabella was still staring fixedly at the black-clad figure, who slowly turned her head, showing half of her profile, glanced at Isabella, and then vanished with the vines into the forest.
“Isabella!”
Lin Yue had no idea what she was zoning out about, and could only reach out and call her back over and over.
“……”
Isabella said nothing, but climbed onto the wolf’s back.
Ruier bolted forward, covering over ten meters in a second.
“They’re escaping! After them!”
“Chase? If the ‘cargo’ in the carriage gets damaged, we’re all dead!”
On the Holy See’s side, it was already utter chaos.
They had to urgently deal with the damaged cargo and had no energy left to chase Lin Yue and his group.
…
Very soon, they escaped back into Avelina’s territory.
“We’ve made it here, they probably can’t catch up anymore.”
Lin Yue let out a long sigh of relief and slumped onto Ruier’s back.
Beside him, Isabella hugged her staff, looking like she still hadn’t figured something out.
Once they were near Avelina, the two had Ruier hide in the forest to wait for Airilla to wake up.
At Avelina’s main gate, the two walked one after the other, both seemingly having gained some critical information from this incident.
Lin Yue was wondering just what sort of treasure was hidden in those heavily guarded carriages, important enough that they’d be allowed to get away.
And also the true identity of the black-clad figure and the person who sent the note.
If not for that note warning them, Airilla might have already been taken away, her fate uncertain.
The message Sephina gave at the ceremony was also crucial—had they been any later, Airilla’s face would likely have been ruined.
Lin Yue already had a faint guess about the black-clad figure’s identity.
If he thought it through carefully, he could reach a conclusion.
However, this already exceeded the bounds of the original plot, so he couldn’t be entirely sure.
For now, it was best to let things be.
“Isabella.”
“I’m here.”
Isabella responded calmly, as if she too already had an answer in her heart.
“Don’t spread word of this yet, especially don’t tell Lia. Otherwise, it might cause chaos. I sent Airilla to the camp; be careful on your way back.”
Compared to last time when he haphazardly opened a spatial rift, this precise teleportation cost even more mana.
If he teleported Isabella too, he’d probably collapse from mana depletion.
“Mm.”
Isabella had made up her mind, ready to uncover the truth behind all this.
When Lin Yue returned to camp, he found that Airilla had already woken up, but her expression was rather dispirited.
Upon seeing Lin Yue return, her emerald eyes shone with a pitiful light.