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Alma realized a terrible truth in the interrogation room, but was interrupted before she could say anything.

“There’s another intruder! The shield of my Holy Knight I left in the cell just shattered!”

Mira’s loud shout was faster.

A Holy Knight. When they decided to use Jorg as a lure, Mira left one protecting Jorg as a final line of defense. It stood right in front of him, past the three doors, concealed with optical camouflage.

All of the cell’s defense mechanisms made it virtually impossible to get close to Jorg undetected, so if someone attempted to kill him, they would need to use a ranged attack, so the Holy Knight would intercept the projectile.

Still, Mira had not expected that the Holy Knight would be useful after they captured the assassin.

“Yes, I just realized that too. They sent this guy as a decoy so they could get past the rest of the traps while we’re distracted here!”

The actual deadline was whenever Nirvana obtained the banned truth serum. Ira Muerte knew that, so they felt forced to act as soon as possible, even if their map of the palace and jail was incomplete.

As a result, they sent a decoy to inevitably trip the traps past what they knew, while they watched through unknown means to continue on. With the decoy captured, Alma and the rest would also focus on interrogating him, giving the actual assassin more freedom to kill Jorg.

In a quick exchange, Alma and Mira communicated the enemy’s plan.

“I sent Popot to pursue the assassin, so I’ll go after him too!”

Mira quickly used Sense Sync with the Holy Knight, using his point of view to summon Popotwise.

With a clearer idea of the enemy’s plan, they could also take better countermeasures. But first Mira ran out to give chase to the second assassin, more than excited to try out new ways of restraining him.

“I’ll go too. I’m worried there might be too much collateral damage.”

Noin sprinted after her, as he knew the state Mira left her surroundings whenever she fought. Both the assassin and the palace could end up in very bad shape.
Meanwhile the girls stayed behind, taking things more calmly.

“Ugh, what is it with boys and running around all the time.”

Kagura sent out Piisuke to help with the search, while building up a barrier in case their captive became another assassination target.

“I mean, sometimes it can be endearing too.”

Esmeralda smiled softly as she began putting away the captive’s tools.

“It looks like those two ran towards the training grounds. Maybe if I do this…”

Using a special device, Alma followed Mira’s movements, and then took a book she had fastened to her belt.

As it turned out, that book was a special item that gave her control over the various devices and contraptions built into the palace, allowing her to corner the assassin without needing to be there.

***

Rushing out of the tower with the interrogation room, Mira ran through the palace, making a beeline for Popotwise’s position.

The second assassin reacted swiftly. Realizing his attack was thwarted by the hidden Holy Knight, he instantly pivoted to escape from there, giving up on the mission. Despite Mira’s haste, he was already out of the jail and sneaking through the palace by the time she also moved through the corridors.

“I’ve almost got him!”

Regardless, Popotwise was still right behind him, following his every move.
Noin followed right after her, taking some time to tell the bewildered maids and guards of the palace to not worry, while taking note of the various systems Alma was activating.

“There’s an open training area ahead of here. That would be the best place to fight him and capture him, what do you think?”

Reading Alma’s intent, and knowing the destruction Mira would bring forth once she caught up to the assassin, Noin tried to nudge her to a position that would minimize damage to the palace and non-combatants.

“That sounds good. We’ll jump him there then.”

Mira agreed readily, using all of her Sage Arts to speed up while communicating the strategy to Popotwise.

“Please hold back somehow…”

Soon Noin fell behind, unable to keep up, and all he could do was pray for the safety of the training grounds.

“That looks like the place!”

Bursting through the palace’s inner gates, Mira quickly recognized the training grounds Noin mentioned.
There was nowhere to run there, with tall walls surrounding the area.
Unbeknownst to Mira, those walls had only appeared thanks to Alma, being some of the palace’s various defense mechanisms.

‘Popot will hold him back somehow!’

Now that the second assassin was largely cornered in the training grounds, Popotwise stopped her pursuit of him and switched over to suppress him there, as Mira had instructed her.
Soon the walls began shaking as explosions echoed.

‘Just try to keep him there, don’t overdo it.’
‘Popot understands!’

The assassin was skilled enough to sneak into the deepest cells of the palace’s underground jail, and had the strength to shatter a Holy Knight’s shield. Just one strike from him would make Popotwise go poof.
Her job was to keep him busy and buy time.
As soon as Mira and Noin got there, she would no longer need to do anything.

“Wait, what is going on here…!”

When Mira got there, she looked around in confusion, unsure of what to make of what she saw.
There were around a dozen guards there, training until just moments prior. But that was not what shocked Mira.
Instead, it was their actions. For some reason all of them were rushing after Popotwise, weapons in hand.
Not looking at them, Popotwise cheerfully shouted in a different direction.

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Forming many fireballs around her, she shot them one after another towards a man standing on the opposite side of the guards.
Once the fireballs struck the ground, tall pyres burst from the ground.
The man on that side skillfully evaded all of them, despite Popotwise’s impeccable aim.

“Hey, are you okay there?!”
“What should we do? He won’t last much longer!”