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By the time I was done feeding Mo Ning, night had already fallen. Today was the last day of the bonfire celebration so a portion of the villagers were now busy cleaning up the aftermath.

This period had been especially rough on Mo Ning. While her original form was a horse as well, but that was the form of a Nightmare Steed, a rare, bonafide creature of Purgatory. Her intelligence was equal to a Human’s, perhaps even higher. Despite all that, she now had to live in an ordinary stable… definitely not the most pleasant smelling place ever. However, she chose to bear with such adversity, all just so she could spend time with me… Perhaps… just perhaps… have I been mistreating her a little too much?

I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty then, but I still patted her on the head and said, “Alright, it’s about time for me to turn in as well.”

Her eyes quivered a little upon hearing that, clearly reluctant to let me go. However, she still abided by our agreement and kept quiet.

Counting the time, Regine should be about done with her shower as well. Our resident timid girl should already be waiting on the bed for me while Zurnalin… Hmm, I guess with Regine nearby, she should still be dressed in something at least…

Having said my farewell, I was just about to turn in for the night when a black figure suddenly jumped in front of me, knees in a half kneel. “Your Holiness, please leave this area immediately. We’ve detected a horde of at least ten thousand monsters en route to our location, they should arrive in roughly fifteen minutes…”

“Monsters? What’s going on? I need more details.”

When she mentioned monsters, that Dark Elf was referring to creatures like that Vampire, Werewolves, Undead and other evil lifeforms. They all fell under the umbrella of creatures of darkness. Devils and what not could be counted inside as well.

The figure who suddenly appeared before me was one of the Dark Elven Assassins assigned to guard me. Normally, she would have complied with my request immediately, but the situation being what it was, she instead stood up and tried to lead me towards Mo Ning. “There’s no time… My apologies for being rude, your holiness, but… Lady Mo Ning please evacuate her holiness from this area immediately… there’s no time for questions!”

“I’m not leaving by myself!” I did not mount onto Mo Ning as she wanted. Instead, I forcefully broke free from her grip while Mo Ning watched silently from the side. This standoff lasted for a full ten seconds before I finally said, “inform Zurnalin and the rest to make preparations for departure. There’s someone I have to inform as well.”

“But there’s no time…”

“Do it!” I knew there was no time to dawdle about now, but I wasn’t going to leave without ensuring Nicole’s safety first.

“Understood, your holiness.” The Dark Elven Assassin acquiesced in the end, not daring to waste any further time arguing this matter.

What’s going on here? Why is Lyon under attack again? And exactly how many creatures are we facing? There’s a number of Eight-stars with us this time, but a hundred thousand is technically more than ten thousand as well…

Blast it, what is that damned lord doing anyway? This is the second time his territory has been invaded by these monsters already. That Vampire is one thing, but over ten thousand of them?! Are his troops all blind or something? What’s the point of even having a lord like that? You might as well put a farmer in his place!

Curses. I need to get to Nicole!

The two of them were currently resting inside of their room. By the time I rushed to their doorstep, I could vaguely make out the two of them chatting about something through the door. Unfortunately, the situation did not allow me to wait for them to finish. “Lady Nicole, Neneth, are you both in there?” I anxiously knocked on the door.

“Sister Mo Na?” Neneth called out in a surprised but delighted voice. “Sister Mo Na, are you here to sleep with Neneth as well?”

“We’re here. It’s late, what business do you have with us?” Nicole’s response, on the other hand, was more orthodox.

I stopped knocking and quickly stated my purpose. “You need to get dressed and pack up your luggage, quickly. I’ve just received word that there are at least ten thousand creatures of darkness heading our way. If we delay any further, we might not make it out in time…”

“Creatures of darkness?” A while later, Nicole opened up the door, all dressed up, to let me in. “Tell me more.”

“There’s no time. We need to leave now!”

From within, I could see that the both of them were already dressed up and had their weapons at the ready. However, Nicole did not seem to agree with my plans as she walked towards the door. “I’m staying here, you guys can leave first.”

Stay?! You must be joking -that’s just suicidal!

“Absolutely not! Both of you have to leave with me right this instant!” I yelled, finally unable to restrain my emotions when I heard what she was planning. “There’s too many of them, there’s no way we can hold them off…”

“Is that your reason for abandoning the villagers?” Nicole paid no heed to my warning at all, stepping around me to leave the room. “A Demon Hunter’s job is to slay evil and protect the common folk. Unlike mercenaries, we do not do this for gold… We stand up so that others can live in a safer world, that’s all.”

“And Neneth?” I pointed shakingly at a confused Neneth. “If you don’t leave, what about her?”

“Eh? Neneth is going to accompany Nicole, of course.” She turned to look at me first then turned to look at Nicole. She cocked her head to the side and said, “there’s no question about it, Neneth is going to follow Nicole.”

“No! Neneth, you need to leave with Mo Na!”

“Wha- no way… Neneth doesn’t want to be away from Sister Nicole…” As she said that, her eyes started to water up. “Sister Nicole is such a bully…”

Now that even the waterworks had been turned on, there was no going back; even Nicole wouldn’t be able to change her mind at this point.

Yet time wasn’t going to wait for us either. From the time I received that news till now, at least five minutes had passed. That meant that we only had ten minutes to evacuate. After that, the village would face utter destruction. Had this been any other situation, I would have tried to come up with a plan to save the village. But Nicole was here… for her sake, I didn’t dare to take that gamble…

However, Nicole wasn’t about to budge either… looks like I can only force her at this point. Just as I was about to drag her away, a set of anxious footsteps echoed through the corridors, followed by Regine’s cold voice, “Master, we’ve been surrounded.”

Already?! What happened to that fifteen minutes I was promised?

I turned to look at the still expressionless Regine. “Why are they here already?”

“They probably picked up their pace.” Said Regine as she tried to pull me to leave. Having just taken a bath not too long ago, she wasn’t averse to touching me. “Master, we can still escape from the east, the guard there is weaker.”

“They haven’t launched an attack after surrounding us?”

“Not yet.” Regine shook her head. “They’ve only surrounded us.”

“Let’s go, I want to see what’s happening outside.” If the entire village was really encircled as she said, that meant we had to force our way out… I turned to look at Nicole, face as expressionless as she was silent. I had no way of knowing what she was thinking at the moment.

Bah. We will just have to take things one step at a time.

By the time we climbed down the stairs, everyone had already gathered. Even Mo Ning had left her stables and was here. Their eyes all fell on me in unison, their intentions clear: I was to decide what to do next.

Yet if I could really have my way now, I would immediately drag Nicole away from this village. The problem was that she did not want to leave. In my honest opinion, our current firepower was more than enough to ensure a safe withdrawal. The biggest problem was whether or not Nicole would cooperate.

The creatures had only encircled the village in secret and hadn’t shown themselves to the villagers yet.

Strangely enough, the village wasn’t the only thing being encircled right now either; we were as well. Despite being the dead of night, the villagers weren’t sleeping at all. Instead, all of them were now gathered around us.

“Sirs and ladies, may I know where you are rushing off to?” The one at the head of this group was Leeder, that former bandit leeder. He cautiously approached me, stopping just five meters away. His voice was quivering as if he was afraid I would suddenly take his life without warning.

However, even I was a little unsure as to how to react in such a situation. That was why I threw the question back to him instead. “What are you guys doing up in the middle of the night?”

“We got word that the village has been surrounded by monsters so we came out to check…” Under my withering gaze, Leeder subconsciously shrunk into himself before weakly explaining. “I’m not sure who said it first, but just as a precaution, I had some of the villagers go out to check… that’s when we met you…”