Chapter 193 …

“Yes.”

The blue-glowing bird flew down toward Lilieta, who nodded. She stretched out her arm to let the bird perch on it, then whispered to the Duchess.

“Thank you, Mother.”

“……”

As if she had heard the words Lilieta swallowed.

The Duchess raised her hand as if to reach out, then stopped and slowly curled it into a fist instead. Lilieta gave a faint smile and turned away.

After briefly checking on Richard—who was being treated frantically by Leonhardt—she hurried off.

* * *

Hannah was holding her breath, pressing a handkerchief tightly against the nosebleed that kept flowing.

Inside a small storage shed in a corner of the vineyard estate’s garden.

Ethan, who had just returned after checking outside, saw her pale face and immediately scowled.

“Damn it, I told you not to do something pointless—”

“D-don’t swear…”

Ethan flinched and shut his mouth. Hannah adjusted her handkerchief and protested weakly.

“A-and besides… me stepping in… helped, didn’t it?”

“…Yeah. If it weren’t for you, we’d be dead.”

Ethan collapsed beside Hannah, clutching one side of his abdomen. Hannah glanced anxiously at the blood that kept spilling through the gaps between his fingers.

“Th-that wound…”

“It’s nothing. Worry about your nosebleed instead.”

Answering curtly, he grabbed Hannah’s nose with his right arm, which moved stiffly from being crudely stitched together with thread.

“Why won’t this stop? Damn it. I don’t know much about communications mages, so I can’t tell. Where the hell did you even learn that insane technique?”

“From… the young lady… Ow, Ethan.”

At Hannah’s weak murmur, Ethan quickly pulled his hand away, startled.

“Jeez, you’re so damn fragile.”

“You’re just too strong.”

Hannah grumbled, pressing her nose with the handkerchief and lifting her head. Then she frowned as she felt the blood sliding down the back of her throat.

Ethan stared at her silently for a moment, then let out a sigh as if he were about to cough up his organs. Holding his side, he leaned his back against a pile of supplies in the shed.

Then he removed his blood-soaked hand and pulled out a shining white thread, beginning to stitch up his wound.

Hannah stared blankly as he sewed his own raw flesh without even groaning, recalling the battle—

No, the desperate fight they had just survived.

* * *

The fight had begun with Ethan already missing his right arm, which put him at a severe disadvantage.

It was even worse because he had to fight while protecting the helpless Hannah.

That was why he had told Hannah to send a message first—because he already knew the situation was bad.

But after Hannah relayed Olivia’s briefing, he immediately refused support.

“The other side’s a complete mess too. They don’t have time to listen to us whining. Anyway, we don’t have to kill all these things—we just need to get the hell out.”

After saying that, Ethan slung Hannah onto his back and leapt over a wall, narrowly dodging the Joker.

After that, it was a continuous cycle of pursuit and escape.

During that time, Hannah realized something painfully clearly.

If it weren’t for me, he’d have escaped a long time ago…

Ethan had stealth abilities. The Joker seemed capable of tracking him somewhat, but the card soldiers spread throughout the garden couldn’t detect his stealth at all.

If Hannah hadn’t been there, he probably would have escaped leisurely without even being noticed by the monsters.

Unable to bear the guilt, she apologized.

“Sorry, Ethan. If it weren’t for me, you would’ve escaped easily. Because of me…”

“What nonsense are you talking about? I came here to protect you in the first place. If I abandon the objective, is that even a mission?”

“Wasn’t the mission objective gathering evidence? We can just leave with the evidence we found.”

“Oh yeah? Sure. I’m sure Rita would be real happy if I left you here and ran off with the evidence, huh?”

“Oh… I see. Because of the young lady—”

“…What do you mean ‘I see,’ you idiot! What happened to you saying you wouldn’t let yourself die?!”

Hannah couldn’t understand why Ethan was suddenly getting angry. She already knew she meant nothing to him, so why was he losing his temper?

“Okay. I won’t apologize. Thank you for protecting me instead of abandoning me.”

“Wow, seriously…”

She truly couldn’t understand why he was getting mad even when she thanked him instead of apologizing—but she decided not to worry about it.

Honestly, she really was grateful.

She hadn’t expected him to protect her this seriously.

Even though he still hadn’t escaped because of the burden she was… even though he couldn’t fight properly and was only accumulating more injuries… Ethan never took his anger out on her because of it.

In Hannah’s mind, Ethan was upgraded from “handsome trash” to “handsome delinquent.”

Up until that point, things had been relatively peaceful.

Just as Olivia had said, Isaiah’s summoned creature had flown in and provided an aerial view transfer, allowing them to slowly but safely escape the card-soldier-filled garden while avoiding the Joker.

Then suddenly the card soldiers’ movements changed, and the situation deteriorated.

The creatures that had previously wandered around chaotically suddenly formed orderly formations, dividing the garden into sections and conducting a systematic search.

Like a military unit.

They even shot down the blue bird circling overhead—eliminating suspicious elements like humans would.

The Joker, who had previously been rummaging around randomly, also changed its movements. It began methodically checking locations suitable for two people to hide, using an efficient route—and quickly found them.

Now that they had lost the aerial view as well, they could no longer evade the Joker.

When Ethan reluctantly tried to fight it, the creature didn’t attack immediately. Instead, it quickly retreated.

Then the card soldiers rushed in and surrounded them.

The Joker hid among the soldiers, repeatedly launching ambushes at Hannah. Whenever Ethan blocked it, the creature vanished into stealth again.

This was not the behavior of a mindless monster.

It was moving like something executing a carefully planned strategy based on analyzing weaknesses.

Ethan, who knew of only one case where this many monsters acted in such perfect coordination, cursed loudly.

“Shit… don’t tell me it’s a Commander? We’re screwed.”

Hannah didn’t know what a Commander was, but she knew one thing for sure.

Ethan was in danger.

And she was his weakness.

Trembling behind his back, Hannah recalled a conversation she once had with Lilieta.

Back when Lilieta was preparing to become the Grand Duchess.

While asking about the various abilities a transfer-type communications mage could use, Hannah had asked out of curiosity.

“All of those are communication abilities. Does that mean communication mages have no way to fight at all?”

“Not exactly.”

Lilieta hesitated for a moment before telling her about a technique she had once seen a communications mage use on the battlefield.

“I’m not a transfer-type myself, and I didn’t know that communications mage personally… I only saw the result and guessed the principle behind it. My guess might be wrong, so don’t try it recklessly.”

She had said she would ask Olivia and Isaiah to verify whether the technique was actually viable. And until then, Hannah must absolutely not practice it because she might get hurt.

Hannah had followed her instructions well.

Between practicing communication magic, the basic training Ethan forced her through, and crash-course noble etiquette lessons, she had no spare energy for anything else anyway.

So this was her first attempt.

The Joker suddenly appeared right in front of Hannah.

Ethan, who had been surrounded by card soldiers, ignored the spear piercing his body and yanked Hannah toward him.

The Joker swung its cane down toward Ethan’s head as he shielded her.

Impaled by the spear, Ethan couldn’t dodge.

At that moment, Hannah moved her aura (Od) exactly the way Lilieta had speculated.

She screamed at the top of her lungs—

and amplified that scream with aura, transmitting it as communication.

Not to people.

But directly into the ears of the monsters.

She transmitted it to every monster around them—except Ethan, who was holding her.

The sharp, piercing scream was amplified and driven straight into their eardrums.

The card soldiers froze, dropping their spears or clutching their ears. Some staggered and even collapsed.

The Joker was no exception.

Startled, it dropped the cane it had been swinging and shrank back.

Ethan didn’t miss that opportunity.

He instantly whipped his thread, slicing off the Joker’s head—then, before it could revive, slung Hannah onto his back and fled.

They hid in the garden shed in the corner.

While being carried away on Ethan’s back, Hannah felt a ringing in her ears and warm blood flowing from her nose.

It was due to excessive contamination flowing back through the communication with so many monsters.

Also, because she had consumed a massive amount of aura in a single instant, her resistance to contamination had dropped.

Inside the shed, as she sat there dazed with blood streaming from her nose, Ethan grabbed her and shouted.

“Hey! Pull up all the aura you’ve got left and push it into the contaminated areas! That’s the only way you’ll endure it!”

“Uh… I-I don’t know where that is…”

“Anywhere that feels weird! You have to do it! Damn it—I don’t know how to inject aura without hurting someone like Gid does!”

Through the ringing in her ears, Hannah heard his shouting and somehow gathered her remaining aura.

She directed it toward the place where the ringing wouldn’t stop—her ears.

As a result, she barely managed to push the contamination out and stabilize herself.

But the nosebleed stubbornly refused to stop.

And that was their current situation.