Obvious Trap (5)

When Alicia escaped the isolation barrier, three cloaked figures immediately appeared and knelt before her. There was no need to doubt that they were members of her secret guard, so she swept her gaze around to check the current circumstances before she acknowledged them.

"How long will it take for you to finish them off?"

"About ten minutes, young mistress," answered one of them.

"Is that the time if you three return to help them?"

"No, young mistress. If we returned, then it would take nine minutes."

"Hmm, fine. Follow me."

She noticed that there was around the same number of secret guards fighting despite the fact that there were casualties, but it was obvious where they came from so she didn't ask.

Alicia wanted to handle this as quickly as possible, so although she would have liked to face the rest of the enemy with her full force, finding Emily was her first priority. Fortunately, she had escaped just in time.

With the unconscious Emily lying in front of them, her three family members had different expressions. Her mother's face was contorted with guilt, her father was pleased and her aunt looked at her coldly.

"How, could you? That's your daughter!" her mother reprimanded.

"Hmph, did she ever treat me like a father? Since she wants to be an independent adult then she should take responsibility for her own problems," the father responded.

The mother was already in despair and was horribly distraught, but that didn't stop her from noticing when her husband crept over to Emily's body.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? Obviously I'm claiming what's rightfully mine. Do you expect me to leave her belongings for those criminals?"

If Emily was awake, then he wouldn't have the balls to do something like this, especially, after with the sight of the kidnapper next to her, but if there was nothing to stop him, then how could he look away from the wealth that was within reach? Emily's mother was appalled by this action, but when she tried to stop him, she was held back by her sister.

"Don't interfere."

"Don't touch me, you whore!"

The mother then tried to slap her face, but the aunt grabbed her hand before it made contact.

"We've been over this already. There are no feelings between us, and if anything, it's your fault for not keeping him satisfied."

The mother struggled to extract her arm so that she could give her sister a good slap, but her efforts were futile. After Shui dropped that bomb on them, the three had gotten into a big argument, and the mother tried to separate from them, but then her husband held her down and told her that if she wanted to escape, then she had to leave the money behind. As far as the mother was concerned, he had no right to threaten her, but when she said that she would just escape with the money, he raised his fist and...

The father shook his head as he heard the arguing women behind him, but they didn't distract him from what was important. However, regardless of who would call it fortunate, he didn't get the chance to search Emily's pockets. Before that happened, the kidnapper who had left, came back to the room along with two others.

The two women alerted him of their presences through their gasps, but before he could get away in time, one of them held his hand out to him and imposed a crushing force on his head with a swift application of mental control.

"Don't do anything unnecessary."

However, after pressing his head to the floor, none of three men moved any closer. Unlike the greedy father, they still remembered that she possessed an artifact with a lethal counterattack function. The sword that she always brought with her was the most obvious guess, so a different man carefully reached for it with mental control. They held their breaths as the sword briefly shook under his manipulation, but after waiting for ten seconds, there was no reaction. They breathed a sigh of relief and then the same man continued trying to pull the sword from her. He was gentle at first, but as the sword wouldn't move out of her grip, he gradually increased the strength of the mental control.

"What are you doing? Be serious."

"I am! It's not budging."

The other two beside him couldn't believe that it was so difficult to pull a sword out of the little girl's hand, but even when all three of them tried, the sword didn't make a bigger motion than a shiver. He began to get frustrated so the first man to attempt taking the sword, tried pulling Emily's fingers off the sword instead. As the result of that careless action, the man dropped to the ground, making him the second corpse here.

The other men flinched, but the small sword that rose from Dull Harmony only went after the one who directly interfered with its master. It had a keen sense for malice so it wouldn't forgive any threats to its master's safety, just like its creator.

The remaining kidnappers realized that they weren't equipped to deal with her, so one of them left to call the others. The man still in the room, folded his arms and kept a vigilant watch of Emily and her family. He believed that he just needed to wait for help to arrive, unaware of when a dagger found its mark in his forehead.

After silencing him, Alicia slipped into the room and checked on Emily.

'Hmm, she's just unconscious. The cause isn't too serious so I should be able to help.'

Alicia rested her hand on her head and used a soul technique to provide a boost to Emily's soul that would forcefully wake her up, but she kept her eyes on the three members of Emily's family. 'Palette of Fate' was still active, so she could deduce what happened without asking anyone. Their value quickly dropped in her eyes, but she wasn't the one who wanted to save them in the first place.

"They don't deserve it, but bring them out as well."

"Yes, young mistress."

The guards picked up the three of them and then they all jumped out of the room and back to the street. However, around the same time, the kidnappers burst through the front door and came after them.

"Go."

Although she would have liked if they gained more distance, Alicia sent the three guards off decisively and looked at the two women who were dropped on the ground. Their colours were dull so she knew that they lacked morale, but time was of the essence so she didn't waste a inspirational speech on them.

"You two, get up and run like your lives depend on it, because it does."

They were slow to process her words, but the illusory blades that Alicia summoned and placed at their necks refreshed their minds. Alicia then lifted the unconscious father through mental control and dashed off while staying just below the speed limit of the two women.

'If we could only make it away without any more trouble...'