Chapter 244: Confrontation

The excitement might have been done for most of the Menagerie that night, but for Melissa, it had only just begun. About an hour and a half after the Menagerie had finished their dinner, she strode through the streets of Milten with one mission on her mind and a blade in her hand.

Orange-red evening sunlight spilled over the rooftops and cast long shadows over the streets behind her as she strode toward a three-story mansion near the center of the city. Towering hedge walls rose up around it, blocking out the garden that Melissa knew to be present behind it.

A black iron gate at the front of the house was locked shut; behind it, a stone pathway wound through neatly trimmed grass to lead up to an imposing wooden door inlaid with silver whorls that ran along its surface.

Melissa’s sabatons clicked against the ground as she approached the mansion. It wasn’t just any mansion. It was her father’s — or at least, it had been. One of the Montibeau Estates. Not their largest, but the one in which he had met his end.

Now, she wasn’t even sure if the mansion even still held its name. She’d been away from home for several days. More than enough time for the Kererus Coalition to do irreparable damage to her people or wrest control of the building. Melissa’s heart ached. She was relieved their estate still stood, but walls meant nothing if her family had fallen.

It had been so tempting to return earlier. To strike out the moment after Ifrit had forged her the seemingly impossible armor she now wore. That would have been stupid. He’d given her a tool, but even the most deadly tool could do nothing when it wasn’t wielded by a competent hand.

The area where the Falling Blade assassin had stabbed her tingled. Melissa was all too aware of how close she’d come to death. A poison as potent as the one she’d been inflicted with should have been her end, but it hadn’t. They’d failed to kill her.

She didn’t plan to make the same mistake.

For the last few days, she had practiced tirelessly. Pushed the armor and herself to their limits. By no means was she the greatest warrior to have ever lived. She didn’t even have a combat class — but there was only so long she could wait. Melissa had a decent understanding of how to utilize the gift Ifrit had given her. The time for waiting was over.

Melissa came to a stop before the locked iron gate. There was no guard out. If she hadn’t already known that the Kererus Coalition had taken action against her family, then that would have given it away. There had always been a guard at the gate. She remembered his name well. Tobble. He’d played with her through much of her childhood. Tobble hadn’t exactly been the most competent warrior, but they’d never expected anyone to attack them so blatantly.

Her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword as she pulled it free of its sheathe and drew in a deep breath. But, before she could call out, the door to the Montibeau Estate cracked open and a middle-aged woman dressed in a dark shawl hustled out, her eyes wide with fear.

“Melissa!” the maid exclaimed, her voice a whisper laden with terror and excitement alike. “You live?”Điscover new chapters at novelhall.com

“Alina?” Melissa blinked in surprise. “What are you — wait, you can recognize me through my helmet?”

“It doesn’t cover that much of your face, you daft girl. What are you doing here?” Alina asked as she rushed over to clasp the bars of the gate. “You must leave. I am delighted that you live, but your father—”

“I know what happened to father,” Melissa said, her voice going taut. “And I have returned to avenge him.”

“You cannot,” Alina hissed. “Please, Melissa. You can take revenge if you live, but—”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that.” A voice rolled across the street like a waft of sewer air from a building on the street behind them. Melissa spun, raising her sword, and stared up in its direction.

A gray-clothed assassin sat at the top of another mansion, his legs dangling over the edge. He rolled a dagger across his knuckles before flicking it to the ground several feet front of Melissa. The instant it struck, a swirl of shadow rose up from it and the assassin took form.

Two more assassins emerged from the streets behind him. Even though Melissa couldn’t see the others, she knew all too well that there were at least seven more lurking somewhere in the darkness.

Alina let out a terrified whimper. “Run, Melissa!”

“It’s too late for that,” Melissa replied. She set her stance, keeping her back to the gate. It was far from as safe as a flat wall, but it was the best she had. “Where are the bastards that hired you, assassin? Too cowardly to try their own hand against me?”

“The identity of our employer is of no concern to you,” the man said with a raspy laugh. “I suspected you would return here. Noble brats are always the same. So convinced that they’ll claim revenge for some slight or another. They never do. I’d ask when you’ll learn that there’s a difference between political power and true strength, but you never will. Your life ends tonight.”

“Did the Kererus Coalition also hire you to flap your lips for ten minutes?” Melissa asked. “Or were you going to put steel where your words are?”

“Your dogs are mute,” the Falling Blade said. “I don’t like this.”

“I ordered you to speak!” Alcard snarled.

“Shut up,” one of the black-cloaked figures said. “Leena, is that—”

“It definitely is. What the fuck is with our luck?” the other assassin replied in a distinctively female tone. “This is bad. What if he is here?”

“What are you talking about?” Alcard demanded. “Answer the Falling blade, you buffoons!”

All the Falling Blades in Melissa’s sight readied their weapons.

Both of the assassins flanking Alcard vanished in a flicker of shadow. Melissa flinched as they both reformed at her sides, but neither of them made any move to attack.

“Where is he?” Leena, the female assassin, asked. There was a note of panic in her voice.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you want answers, you’re going to have to pry them from my corpse.”

“Fuck that,” the other assassin said. “I’m quitting.”

“What?” the thin man exclaimed. “You wretched thieves! I paid you—”

“You can take your money and stuff it where the sun don’t shine,” Leena said.

“Well, you could if we didn’t already spend it all on hookers,” the other assassin said. “Hell of a night. You canfuck yourself, though. There’s no way this job is worth it.”

Alcard’s eye twitched. He looked like he was a few seconds from starting to blow steam out of his ears. The assassins at Melissa’s sides exchanged a glance.

“I’ll take my chances against the Blades if you keep the terrifying bastard that made your outfit from coming after us again,” the male assassin said to Melissa.

Godspit. What’s going on? Are they talking about Ifrit? Do they know he made this armor?

“I... uh, sure?”

“Kill them!” Alcard screamed. “All of them!”

“It’s going to cost you extra now,” the lead Falling Blade said idly, tossing his dagger from one hand to the other. “This is your fault, idiot.”

“I don’t care! Just kill them!”

“You heard him,” the Falling Blade said. He pointed his dagger at Melissa. “She’s mine. Deal with the turncoats.”

Shadows leapt through the ruddy evening light as assassins leapt into motion. A dagger flashed through the air toward Melissa’s neck with such speed that she couldn’t even track it, but her armor certainly could. A powerful gust of wind erupted from it, sending the dagger spinning over her shoulder harmlessly. The assassin sprinted toward her and she met his charge with a cry of defiance.

The clash of metal filled the street and the fight started in true. Nobody noticed the body of a Falling Blade slumping in an alleyway, their hands mutely grasping at their throat as thick, congealed blood bubbled from between their lips.