"No! Don't kill me, or your family won't be able to live peacefully!" Marley quickly threatened Ana with his familial power.
Surprisingly, it did work. Ana showed hesitation on her face. Arash and Vienna might be a new family to Ana, but they were indeed her family. She had also grown affectionate toward them because of how doting they were toward her. She couldn't do anything that could put her family in harm's way.
Ana was very angry at Marley for using Lily as a meat shield, who was her only friend, but it seems like she has to halt her revenge for her. Lily also saw Ana's expression and understood her, so she nodded her head at her, saying it was okay.
Ada calmed her mind down and took a step back. Seeing this brought the arrogance inside Marley back. He started getting up from the ground while saying something to Ana with a smug smile. "Hehe, I have to remind you, of your place every time. So patheti-"
Marley wasn't able to fully finish his sentence when he felt a metallic coldness on his nape. He wanted to turn back and see who it was, but he knew if he moved just a little, his nape would get cut by the metallic blade.
"You are right. It is indeed pathetic to remind the lowlifes of their place." Hueg's voice, devoid of any emotion, entered Marley's ears.
Ana and Lily were surprised by Hueg's action, as they did not understand his courage. Ana looked at Hueg, who was placing the tip of his sword right on Marley's nape, with an emotionless face.
Despite being in such a situation, Marley lost his rationality and asked with anger. "Who are you calling a lowlife?"
"I am calling you. Your idiotic behavior is really annoying me." Hueg said it with an irritated voice. "I know how you are so confident because you are from a Viscount family, right?"
Before Marley showed any sign of being surprised, Hueg spoke. "Don't be surprised, I only know you because I remembered that greedy Viscount coming to my 14th birthday with his arrogant son. You were truly a brave youngling to speak haughtily with the earl, my father."
"Huh?" Marley was initially confused after receiving this information in his head, but in a matter of a few seconds, he was able to deduce what Hueg wanted to imply. He said it while stuttering. "You highness….Hu…Hueg…it's…you..?"
"Oh…its great that you remember me. It will be a nice way of sending you to the afterlife, knowing you died under the hands of your superior." Hueg said with a big grin and swung his sword to behead Marley, not even considering any kind of consequences.
Ana's eyes widened in shock upon seeing it. She knew this would spell a complete disaster, Marley's family might not do anything to Hueg as he is the son of the earl, but they would surely try to harass her and Lily's in some way or another.
But at that moment, a loud scream resounded that brought the whole road to silence, even halting Hueg's sword and saving Marley from getting killed.
Everyone looked in the direction and saw the beasts that were attacking the students being killed from behind. Everyone was also able to see the source of that scream. It came from a boy who was fighting at close range against the beasts.
Currently, he was lying on the ground, clutching his left arm joint, where blood was spraying nonstop — which was severed by a weapon.
Hueg's face turned stern, looking at the newly emerged enemies. "You are lucky." After saying that, Hueg walked forward, leaving behind Marley, who was breathing heavily.
Hueg stood beside Ana and asked. "What do you think of the situation?"
Ana gave one last glance at her surroundings and gave her assessment. "I feel like we are being tested."
"Oh, it looks like you also picked it up." Hueg gave Ana a surprised look as if he wasn't expecting Ana to be this smart.
However, Ana just rolled her eyes back at Hueg and instead listened to Lily's question, who was beside her now. "What did you pick up, Ana?"
"Do you see any dead bodies among the students?" Ana didn't answer her directly but asked back first.
Lily was surprised by Ana's question and looked around her. Indeed, just as Ana said, there were no dead bodies of any students, and the boy whose arm got cut off also could not be seen, it was as if they all had vanished.
"The reason I said we are being tested, forgetting about the disappearance of the dead bodies first, is because there are no bodyguards. There are many scions here, from earl to baron. The academy wouldn't want them to get killed or ambushed by enemies, and we don't have to say anything about the royal families. Lastly, the sudden beast horde attack was too coincidental, and this new demon horde attack is too good to be coincidental." Ana calmly stated her reason, to which Lily nodded her head, understanding her.
Lily was just suspicious of not having any guards, but she felt it was normal to not have guards in the academy, and she didn't know anything about this type of horde-type attack because she had spent most of her life inside the castle, never leaving outside.
"So let's compete to see who can beat that Demon Knight." Hueg invited Ana with a smirk while pointing at the giant humanoid-looking demon, walking behind the demon horde.
Ana also looked at the demon knight, who had a skinny, dark-skinned body. It had sharp claws and bony wings. Its jagged jaws were visible with a smirk on its face. It had no hair on its head or body, just a pair of horns on its head.
"That looks like a tier-2 demon knight, Corruptor. Do you think we can take it down?" Ana asked skeptically.
Hueg just rubbed the back of his head and said something, shrugging his shoulders. "I do not know; I never fought one, but don't you think it is the best situation to try one."
Ana didn't say anything, just silently agreed with Hueg. She also wanted to go all out against a strong demon that was above her strength.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺