All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 284: The Manor Breach

Hajin crossed the square while the converted manor’s breach bell struck a third time above the unfinished eastern command wing.

The building remained the same empty lord’s manor Marrick had opened, with only its first conversion stage funded for command use.

Its central roof and route hall stood repaired, while rain-dark scaffolding still covered the eastern records rooms beneath an unfinished edge.

Someone had cut through that roof edge without disturbing the secure doors installed along the finished main corridor.

Garret lay beneath the breach bell with one hand closed around its blood-covered striker.

The miner who had taken the region’s first back-pay coins had survived the Gate line, then sounded this warning before dying.

Tallis guarded the dispatch doorway beneath a black needle through his throat, while Nera had fallen across the upper messenger stair.

Two more guards, Senn plus Pava, remained alive near the route hall with wounds that prevented either from rising.

[ New Sixth Region casualties ]

[ Garret, Tallis, and Nera: deceased ]

[ New serious injuries: 2 ]

[ Sixth campaign ledger: 19 deceased / 53 serious injuries ]

Nine figures in gray cloth occupied the command wing, moving between the scaffolding, dispatch office, and central route hall.

Their clothing carried no Flint field insignia, although black contract marks covered the inside of every weapon wrist.

Aria compared those marks against Corven’s counted formations while Hajin entered through the damaged eastern passage.

[ Assassin-house contract assets detected: 9 ]

[ Included in Flint field-army ledger: no ]

[ Active Flint siege force: 1,122 — unchanged ]

Marrick crouched behind the overturned route table with two dispatch clerks plus four messengers trapped near the western stair.

The table still carried the field loop, quarry track, plus shelter routes planned when Hajin chose roads over residential rooms.

Three assassins held that group inside the hall while four searched the dispatch office and unfinished records rooms.

An eighth guarded their cut roof entrance, leaving the veiled leader standing between Hajin and the wounded guards.

"The lord reached his house," the leader said, turning one narrow blade beneath his wrist, "close the western stair and finish the witnesses."

Two assassins moved toward Marrick, forcing Hajin to spread Aegis across the route table before either weapon reached the clerks.

Black needles struck the barrier from separate angles, each carrying a silence seal that swallowed its own impact.

The remaining attackers changed position without calling commands, following finger movements from their leader near the eastern passage.

Hajin widened Aegis beneath Senn plus Pava, lifting both wounded guards away from the weapons surrounding them.

"Western stair stays open," Hajin said, sending the barrier toward Marrick, "take every clerk upstairs and cross through the messenger bunks."

"The exterior ladder ends above the kitchen roof," Marrick said, pushing both clerks forward, "the eastern scaffold is their entrance."

The unfinished wing had given the assassins access, while the funded western messenger rooms still offered the household another exit.

Hajin curved Aegis into a covered passage from the route table toward that stair, forcing three attackers outside its surface.

One assassin drove a hooked blade beneath the barrier edge toward Pava, continuing after the wounded guard dropped his weapon.

Hajin formed one Ring around his right forearm and slammed the hook sideways before it reached Pava’s opened ribs.

The attacker rolled through the impact, recovered both feet, and returned to the formation without lowering his blade.

"Drop every weapon and lie down," Hajin said, keeping Aegis around the evacuees, "nobody who stops fighting dies here."

The veiled leader answered with two fingers toward the western stair, sending four assassins across the hall together.

Their silence seals struck Aegis at matching points, drawing its protection outward while another needle entered through the route-table gap.

Hajin caught that needle beside Marrick’s ear, then folded the table beneath a second barrier to remove the opening.

The Chains remained in inventory while links would threaten clerks, wounded guards, plus the unfinished supports inside the narrow hall.

Marrick carried Senn through the western stair entrance while two messengers lifted Pava between their shoulders.

"All five command guards are accounted for," Marrick said, looking once toward Garret, "there is nobody alive inside the eastern rooms."

The statement freed Hajin from searching the leaking records wing, although eight assassins still surrounded the evacuation route.

He drove Aegis outward without breaking the walls, throwing every attacker away from the stair plus wounded guards.

Four struck the route hall columns and landed under their own control, while the others used silk lines to change direction.

The veiled leader remained beyond the pressure wave, watching the first Ring rotate instead of approaching the protected stair.

"He favors the living before the opening," the leader said, marking Hajin’s barrier rhythm, "cut where the shield returns to them."

Two attackers entered from opposite columns while three more crossed behind them, making every weapon line pass toward an evacuee.

Hajin intercepted each strike with narrow Aegis plates, refusing the broad impact that would drop the unfinished eastern ceiling.

The formation used that restraint to reach the central hall, placing six assassins between him and the last messenger plus final clerk.

One messenger crossed the western stair beneath Marrick’s hand, but the final clerk stumbled over Nera’s fallen spear.

An assassin changed targets at once, driving a short sword toward the clerk instead of maintaining pressure on Hajin.

Hajin crossed the hall and caught the assassin’s wrist before the blade entered the clerk’s back.

He broke the attacker’s grip against the route table, although a silk line pulled the assassin outside his follow-up range.

The clerk reached Marrick while Hajin kept his body between the stair and every returning weapon.

"The household is clear," Marrick said, pulling the clerk upstairs, "the western roof team has both wounded guards."

Hajin closed Aegis across the stair after them, separating the living household from nine armed contract killers.

No assassin lowered a weapon, and the leader’s hands continued directing attacks toward the barrier protecting their intended witnesses.

"The offer ends when another blade moves," Hajin said, allowing the first Ring to widen, "choose before I remove the room around you."

Eight assassins advanced together, accepting the lethal boundary while their leader disappeared behind the unfinished passage column.

Hajin opened a second Ring and released Aegis from the empty route table, sending pressure through every occupied escape line.

Silk anchors tore out of the walls, trapping the eight secondary attackers inside the hall they had entered through.

The veiled leader had never attached an escape line, using the others to map each instant Hajin redirected his defense.

Divine Eyes found her beside the eastern column when one black blade crossed through the space vacated by Aegis.

She entered Hajin’s reach before the second Ring finished forming, aiming the blade toward the center of his exposed chest.