Chapter 72

The man who had been caught from behind didn't seem frightened at all. His voice even rose with excitement. After dodging the girl's counterattack, he pulled out the large blade from his back and slashed at her with a savage grin.

His moves were brutal and quick. He was clearly a professional assassin who had trained for years.

But even against such a fierce attack, Elara didn't fall behind. In addition to the dagger in her hand, a long sword had somehow appeared in her other hand.

The long and short blades moved as if they were part of her own body. She parried the man's relentless attacks with ease and found the perfect moment to strike. With a slash, she raised her long leg from beneath her layered robe and kicked him squarely in the chest.

"Urgh…"

It looked like a light kick, but it sent the much larger man flying straight into a nearby tree. He crashed against it hard enough to make the trunk shake.

He fell to the ground clutching the bleeding wound on his chest. As he looked up at the girl, he noticed she had completely changed. Though she still wore the same extravagant palace robe, her figure was now taller and more powerful. Her features, though still striking, now belonged to a man.

"You… cough… heh, disguise? Someone from the Thousand Faces? No, none of them could fight like that. The few that are left can't even manage such perfect transformations… cough… and your inner strength… to injure someone from the top blood-ranked list of our organization… cough… who are you?"

The one now showing his true face had been Tres in disguise all along.

Tres ignored the man's rambling. Members of the Wei clan's shadow guards only followed their master's orders. Everyone else was irrelevant.

Tres didn't even give the man time to breathe. He gripped his two sharp weapons tightly and, with his strong form wrapped in flowing palace robes, prepared to strike again.

The man quickly shouted toward the distant forest, "What are you waiting for?! Don't you want the bounty?!"

Several mocking laughs echoed from the quiet forest. They carried a tone of ridicule, mocking his helplessness.

Inside the imperial temple, Elara stood on the second floor, now wearing Tres's clothes. She watched the fight outside while trying to recall pieces of the original host's memories, hoping to find the secret scroll she needed. She whispered her instructions to Mathias, who was behind her. He was to use the fake scroll she prepared and replace the real one hidden in the temple.

Why did she bring Mathias into this? Because the divine temple was the most sacred place in the nation, even emperors couldn't enter without permission. Inside were countless traps, and anyone who tried to steal from it had always died without a trace.

Luckily, the Plumera royal temple had been left unrepaired for many years due to war and an empty treasury. It wasn't until the reign of the emperor two generations ago, when a series of disasters hit, that the ministers used the excuse of "divine punishment" to force repairs.

The one who oversaw the renovation was none other than Mathias's grandfather, back when the Pei Family still had influence.

Though the family later declined, the blueprints of the temple's mechanisms were passed down through the generations.

Mathias showed great talent as a child. His father, seeing this, intended to pass the family estate to him early and had shown him the blueprints when he was just sixteen and already famous across Plumera.

Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to restore the family's glory before he was forcibly taken by the princess.

Now, Elara was the one benefiting. Not only did she gain a brilliant future aide, but he was also calm and mature, someone who endured injustice and still stayed focused on reality.

In short, the items in the royal temple could not be touched carelessly. One mistake could mean certain death.

But because she had Mathias, the living blueprint, Elara moved without hesitation once she entered. After confirming with System 92 that this world had no magical powers, she dared to reach into the stone lantern.

She knew there was no danger inside.

Still, the temple's second floor housed mountains of scrolls holding centuries of Plumera history. Each one was protected by mechanisms, and without knowing the tricks, they couldn't be moved.

That's why Elara had to bring Mathias. During the short time of the ritual, he would use the prepared fake scrolls to switch out as many as she needed.

Just before Tres went out to take her place, she and Mathias had already swapped out a few. Now with the battle raging outside, Elara wanted to move faster. Suddenly, System 92 shouted in her mind:

[Master, be careful! Left side!]

To her left, Mathias was focused on sorting the scrolls. Elara turned her head and saw a silver knife flying through the window behind him.

Without thinking, she yanked Mathias to the right and fell to the ground with him.

More whooshing sounds followed as System 92 shouted again. Elara didn't even lift her head. She rolled with Mathias several times to avoid the incoming attacks.

In the chaos, her face and lips brushed against something soft, but there was no time to think about that. What she didn't realize was that, even though she reacted quickly, Mathias was still a full-grown man. He was taller and broader than her.

So after rolling a few times, she ended up completely inside his arms. Somehow, his thin but broad chest shielded her from the floor the whole time.

Once the attack passed, Elara climbed off him, pulling his hand and dragging him behind a nearby door. She shouted, "Uno!!"

Just as Uno had finished eliminating all the scouts in the nearby forest, Elara's call reached him. He immediately dropped what was in his hand and sprinted toward the temple at a speed so fast he looked like a blur.

A second after Elara's shout, Uno appeared in front of her. Wind from his dash shook the nearby windows. Holding his daggers, he stood like a mountain between her and the outside, eyes cold as ice, staring into the woods beyond.

Bang!

Figures appeared all at once outside the temple windows.

Only one of them was a woman. The rest were men, all wearing strange clothes and face paint that made it impossible to see their features. They looked nothing like the assassins from the ancient dramas Elara remembered from Earth.

Worse yet, these assassins weren't just mindless tools like in the shows. They were smart and strong.

They clearly knew about the temple's deadly traps. Even though Plumera was a third-rate state, the assassins didn't dare step inside. They stayed by the windows.

But staying out didn't stop them from attacking.

The lone woman assassin stared at Elara and the others inside for a few seconds. Then she laughed sweetly and threw several small bottles into the temple. They shattered upon hitting the floor.

"Run!"

Uno turned, picked Elara up with one arm, grabbed Mathias by the shoulder with the other, and dashed out of the temple before the gas from the bottles could fill the air.

But the moment they left, Elara lost the cover she had hoped to use for defense and counterattack.

The assassins had been waiting for this. As soon as Uno brought them out, waves of attacks rushed toward them.

Assassins didn't believe in fairness.

Five of them attacked Uno alone, while he had to protect Elara and Mathias.

Even though they didn't get careless, it was clear they wanted to end this quickly. Every strike was deadly and precise.

What they didn't expect was that this one man, using only a pair of bronze daggers, could block all five of them at once.

His movements were fast and smooth, almost like he was dancing. The speed was so great they could barely see it. When their fierce assault ended, none of them had even scratched the girl behind him. Instead, each of them coughed up blood.

They had been wounded by that same man in ways they hadn't even noticed.

The five assassins backed away, faces changed. Their expressions shifted from shock and disbelief to fierce smiles filled with bloodlust and twisted admiration.