Chapter 285 - One Thing Holding Her Back (1) (1/2)

“Who’s there!”

Mary’s face whitened when she realized her mistake. But it was already too late. Their location was no longer hidden. Elena’s two guards quickly pulled out their swords and rushed towards the assassins with a loud battlecry.

“Raaaaah!”

The assassins stood up at the sudden attack, and one of them let out a comment.

“…Looks like rats.”

Elena swiftly pulled a small dagger from her ankle to protect herself from the assassins starting to rush towards them. Mary stood behind Elena with a shocked expression, her voice quivering as she spoke.

“I’m sorry, because of me—”

“Mary, you have to stay close to me, or I can’t protect you.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Mary did not want to be a burden, and with tears in her eyes, she tried to stick by Elena’s side as much as possible. Elena quickly took count of the men coming towards them.

‘One, two, three…seven.’

They were more than she expected. More importantly, inferring from the assassins’ conversation earlier, there was the probability of another group nearby.

However, the biggest problem was…all seven of the assassins looked to be elite fighters.

Chaang!

Elena blocked an attack with her dagger and knocked back her opponent with a swift kick. At the same moment, her opponent crossed his arms to blunt the attack.

Dozens of steely attacks and counter attacks were exchanged in the blink of an eye. Elena knew even from this short amount of time that the men would not be easy to take out.

It was then.

“Gaaaah!”

A sword ran clean through one of her guard’s stomach, and he fell weakly to the ground. While her knights were also well-trained, they could not overcome the disadvantage of much smaller numbers. Elena wanted to help them, but she herself was in a tight spot.

As one of the assassins grabbed Mary, Elena whirled around in a flash.

Swiig!

She jumped in the air with feline grace, struck the assassin’s chest with a powerful kick, and plunged her dagger into his neck. Elena rushed towards Mary and held her up.

“Mary, you go ahead and warn the others.”

“Y-Your Majesty?”

“I’ll take care of this. Quickly now.”

Mary bit her lip reluctantly, but she knew it was no time to argue and started running in the direction of the tents. Several of the assassins noticed her fleeing and tried to follow her, but Elena blocked their way. As she took quick stock of her surroundings, she noticed that both of her knights were already dead on the ground.

Elena gritted her teeth and glared coldly at the men before her. The number of assassins, who initially numbered seven, had now been reduced to four. They also looked confused by Elena’s extraordinary fighting abilities.

“She’s troublesome.”

Their expressions were twisted in displeasure, while one of them checked the time and spoke with a troubled look.

“We’ll miss the Emperor at this rate. We can’t delay any longer.”

“Damn it.”

They spoke in secret code between themselves, then one looked towards Elena with an irritated gaze.

“…Let’s go.”

Elena could not help but wonder what their mysterious coded words meant.