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The drug they intended to use was a paralytic poison. The kind commonly used as a muscle relaxant. It was potent, but highly volatile. If used outdoors, it would be nearly useless unless applied directly to the face.

Indoors, however, it would be more than effective enough. In a corridor this size, if they threw the container at someone’s feet and shattered it, the contents would disperse and fill a space of roughly one meter in radius for just under thirty seconds. Covering one’s mouth and nose with a damp towel would block the poison, but very few people would think of that in an instant. One breath was all it took.

Well, even if by some miracle the drug failed, they could always threaten her with a blade. The lord’s daughter… a pampered young girl from a good family would fold the moment she was shown a little violence. An easy job. And since they had been ordered not to damage the goods, settling it with poison would be the fastest way.

The two men pressed themselves against the corner of the corridor and peered around it. Right on cue, the target was approaching with a maid beside her. The two men met each other’s eyes and nodded. They pulled masks over their mouths and hurled the container at the girl’s feet. The distance was less than ten meters. The instant they threw the vial, they broke into a run. The container shattered exactly as intended at the target’s feet. A colorless, odorless gas spilled out, and its effects should have manifested almost instantly.

Each man sprinted toward his respective target, the girl and the maid. The plan was to catch them as they collapsed so their bodies would not hit the floor with a loud noise.

But there was no sign the poison had worked. The girl had stopped and looked down at the shattered container by her feet, yet her consciousness remained clear.

The two men stared in shock, but immediately drew the knives at their waists while still charging forward. Perhaps some current of air they could not perceive had scattered the gas before it could take effect. If one could not adapt in the moment, one had no business calling oneself a professional. So they chose the simplest and most effective method of all. Violence.

The two men lowered their bodies and rushed their targets. The one charging at the girl held a knife in his right hand and spread his left arm wide as though to block her path. He intended to seize her, cover her mouth with his hand, and press the blade to her throat.

His foot kicked off the floor. Just as it seemed his hand would reach her, the girl raised the left hand hanging at her side, and the tips of her fingers lightly touched the man’s right hand holding the knife. At that instant, the man’s consciousness faded.

◇

A shrill slicing sound tore through the air as the man’s body spun at incredible speed like a top. Then came a sharp sound, as if something had exploded.

The right hand of the man who had lunged at Susie, the hand gripping the knife, was violently flung outward. The force dragged the rest of his body with it, sending him spinning through the air before he slammed into the wall.

His right arm bent at an impossible angle. His entire body flattened against the wall like a crushed frog. His face may well have been caved in, but somehow he still seemed barely alive.

“So fragile!? Whyyy? Why? I only used my Friendly Finger as I do on Stephan…”

Tilting her head, Susie spoke as though the result made no sense whatsoever. She apparently thought she was being cute. Yet the carnage couldn’t be ignored.

“My lady… to treat outsiders as equal to the people of Amukham is a grave misunderstanding.”
“Really? Hmm… is that… so?”

Anne-Marie gently admonished her, but Susie only tilted her head again in puzzlement, showing no remorse whatsoever. To her, it was little more along the lines of, “Well, they started it.” She felt no guilt, no pity, no pain for the miserable man plastered against the wall. After all, he had attacked her and even Anne-Marie with malicious intent. There was no reason whatsoever to hold back kindly.

Meanwhile, the man who had gone after Anne-Marie was pinned beneath her foot. The right arm that had held the knife was bent from the upper arm as though a second elbow had grown there, while her foot pressed it into his back. Face-down on the floor, his eyes rolled white, and foam poured from his mouth. He had long since lost consciousness.

The paralytic poison that had been dispersed had already evaporated and lost its toxicity. Susie had noticed that some kind of poison had been released, but before she could even consciously register it, her body had already resisted it. A low-grade poison of this level could never affect her.

And though Anne-Marie had been standing nearby, she too showed no signs of being affected.

“Anne-Marie… They definitely used some kind of poison. Are you all right?!”
“Thank you for your concern, my lady. But there is no need to worry. Since childhood, I have been trained to develop resistance to every kind of poison. A paralytic agent of this degree could never affect me.”
“…Ah. I… see.”

Susie had assumed Anne-Marie must have taken some sort of countermeasure. Instead, she had just casually said something outrageous.

(The fact that she recognized it as paralytic poison at a glance is already incredible… What kind of childhood education does House Bayros even provide?! What exactly were they trying to raise?!)

Susie’s cheek twitched.

As she was thinking that, Anne-Marie lightly clapped her hands.

“I have already given instructions to dispose of this filth. They have caused us needless delay, but my lady, we must hurry to your room.”

As Anne-Marie spoke, several maids silently gathered at the scene. She gave a graceful wave of her hand toward the men. At once, the maids moved like flowing water, carrying away the attackers, scrubbing the bloodied floor and wall, and beginning to clean everything spotless.

“Come now, my lady. Let us leave this place to these girls. We must make haste.”
“…Yes, Anne-Marie. Let us hurry. We must make our preparations at once!!”
“As for these men’s purpose and the mastermind behind them, leave that to these girls, and there will be no need to worry. They do excellent work. Though, of course, it is already obvious who stands behind this. Still… a testimony is necessary. Ufufufu…”
“…Ah… y-yes… I see…”

Slightly stiffened by Anne-Marie’s thin smile, Susie quickly accompanied her as the two hurried toward their room in the Amukham House.