“How far has the inner guard fallen!?” captain Fvna roundhouse kicked one of the guards that just rose to his feed. “Pressing to the ground with your pants down while your lord and dy are assassinated!?”

  Another guard raised his finger and said, “Actually, he was killed earlier, before we had sex with—BWEKH”

  “Not only did you fail in your primary duty, but you also celebrated with an orgy!?” Fvna shouted after sending another guard tumbling. “I still remember when you had both a sembnce of skill and dignity! What happened!?”

  “I don’t know!” another guard cried. “It all happened so quickly! That assassin suddenly killed Lord Belmot, and the p-princess ordered us—GHUAKH~!”

  “She was never a ‘princess’, you spineless simpletons!” Fvna corrected and then adjusted a few strands of her bck hair from her face. “… Well?”

  After three roundhouse kicks the other guards saw the emerging pattern and kept their mouths shut. They stood with their backs straight, arms at the sides, trying not to move while they stared at the cracks in the walls and the ceiling.

  Ember watched this from a slight distance without making a sound. It did not escape Fvna’s notice how effortless it was for the freckled redhead to stay so still that one might have eventually forgotten she was even present. Beatrice still held Olivia’s body and didn’t seemingly notice or care for the dealings with the guards.

  “Hah, so this is it?” Fvna asked and slowly walked along them. “You have fallen so low that you would rather stay silent than confess your incompetence?”

  “L-Lady Ophelia struck down the assaint all on her own,” another guard spoke up with a trembling voice, avoiding looking at the captain. “She then ordered us to rape the assassin as punishment. I didn’t want to do it, but Lady Ophelia killed anyone who did not do as commanded—KHWEHK~!”

  “Since you’re alive, you followed the commands of a deranged, spoiled brat!” Fvna further berated the guards. “Who—by the way—it turns out wasn’t even the real Lady Ophelia! But you all somehow missed that despite practically living with her!”

  “But the assassin turned out to be a demon!” another guard argued. “She put a spell on us! We wouldn’t have done it if not for th-HKWEAKH!”

  “Pigshit!” Fvna screamed. “If you were half the soldiers you once were, you would not have ended up with your pants down and dicks glistening with cum next to the corpse of your Lord!”

  “We’re sorry for this inexcusable performance!” another guard dropped on one knee and bowed his head. “We’ve grown compcent and weak. I beg for your mercy and one more chance to prove myself!”

  “Ugh,” Fvna looked down at the guard with disgust.

  “We have failed you,” the other guard decred in unison, following suit and falling to one knee. “Allow us to prove ourselves once more!”

  Even the guards who got roundhoused by Fvna pushed past the pain and got on one knee like the others, bowing their head as low as they could.

  Fvna sighed and—after a moment of looking at the pathetic lot—said, “To start with, you’ll all be on double shifts down at the ground until all the rubble is shifted and usable material sorted for the masons. We’ll see if you still have the strength that separates you from an average citizen.”

  “Thank you for this opportunity!!” all the guards said in near-perfect unison.

  “Get to work at once!” Fvna commanded. “You might actually be useful to this city for once, if you hurry up.”

  The guards did not need to be told twice. They sprinted past captain Fvna, and then past apathetic Ember, toward the quickest way down they knew, racing to be first to start the grueling work that awaited them. Even the roundhoused guards limped after the others.

  “Not you,” Fvna grabbed the st guard that limped past her by his torn shirt. She then look at Gamesh and asked, “Do you mind?”

  “Certainly not,” Gamesh said and walked over to her and the guard who now swallowed nervously.

  As Gamesh walked he raised his left hand, grabbed the wrist with his right hand and silently chanted a spell that made his hand glow and strange symbols flow across the skin.

  “C-Captain?” the guard shook in fear as he looked up at Gamesh.

  “This won’t hurt a lot,” Gamesh said and put his glowing hand on the guards forehead.

  “Ah-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~”

  The guard’s eyes lit up like the sun as he screamed his heart out. But only a few seconds ter the glow stopped, his scream ended and he fell lifelessly sideways on the floor.

  “Poor fools,” Gamesh said while massaging his hand. “You weren’t wrong in your assessment. It seems that the Sovereign visibly altered that girl toward the end. Though I do not dare to guess how much of it was his direct control and how much was manipution or other such thing. She certainly did not appear to be nearly as strong when they first arrived as she turned out to be ter.”

  “Was she the one who killed Lord Belmot then?”

  “It could have been either her or Emily, her sister, apparently. But thinking rationally it did not even make sense for that Olivia girl to do it at that time. Had the guards been more observant they could have clued in on the imposter.”

  Fvna then looked at Ember and asked, “Is it just me or do you bring death and destruction wherever you go?”

  YuujiEveryleaf