Rumors of a demonic infestation on the Imperial Palace unfold sooner than some other scandal.

It took lower than half a day for the rumor to succeed in the Academy.

It was Hemil who knowledgeable Liel that Lucy had additionally been on the palace, including that it should be true as a result of he had heard it from his sister himself.

Liel skipped his afternoon class and headed straight to the palace.

“Ha, ha…….”

As if the rumors of a demonic invasion have been true, there was an uproar across the palace.

There have been knights and paladins blocking the doorway of these making an attempt to enter. Liel strode boldly towards them.

The paladins stopped him.

“Even a trainee can’t go in right here.”

The paladin who blocked him stated, holding the burden of his pack. Liel’s onerous eyes slowly shifted to give attention to the knight in entrance of him.

Simply as his eyes have been about to fall to the sword on the paladin’s waist, Kamil, who had all of a sudden appeared, grabbed the paladin by the shoulders and stated.

“Sufficient, let him in.”

Kamil’s eyes have been darkish with compassion as she checked out Liel.

Liel’s fingertips trembled. Even in a state of affairs that would have damaged him, he clenched his fists and pushed previous them. Quickly, his imaginative and prescient caught sight of the collapsed a part of the palace. Solely the again gate, to be exact, near the Princess’s chambers had collapsed.

He may hear the murmur of individuals round him. Principally the voices of the troopers who had come to restore the injury, but additionally the cries of youngsters.

Liel pushed his approach via the gang and approached the crumbling fort.

“Ah, my woman! Not lengthy has even handed since Marquis Anise died. Even my woman……!”

Then got here the sound of Sarah’s wails. Unable to comprise her grief, Lucy’s identify didn’t depart her lips.

He couldn’t inform if she’d adopted her to the palace, or if she’d heard the information late and rushed to her aspect, as he had.

None of that mattered to him now.

“……Younger Grasp Marsen.”

The Empress, who had been staring on the collapsed constructing, turned and known as out to Liel.

“I’m sorry…….”

She muttered in a small voice. To anybody else, it may need been misplaced within the din of the gang.

However Liel heard it clearly.

He opened his mouth to say his personal interpretation of why the Empress was apologizing to him.

“Don’t deal with her like a useless individual.”

It was a really smug factor to say, however the Empress didn’t say something, simply pulled Chloe into a good embrace.

The Empress watched as Liel’s again turned away.

Apparently, the second baby of the Duke of Marsen nonetheless believed that the Marquis of Seywint was alive.

The Empress didn’t dare to crush Liel’s hopes together with her personal phrases.

Subsequently, the Empress gestured to the troopers who tried to dam her method.

The final picture of Lucy crushed in opposition to that crumbling wall was nonetheless contemporary in her thoughts.

In that last second, she had thrown Chloe between her and the knights, and he or she had been swept away by the collapsing constructing herself.

⁂

Liel’s eyes darted about.

To others, he may need appeared surprised, unable to simply accept his pal’s demise.

However he was sure that Lucy was nonetheless alive beneath the crumbling rubble.

His busy pupils stopped shifting and his amber eyes locked on a single level with an insistent depth.

Instantly, he single-handedly eliminated a big boulder that might have taken three grown males to elevate.

A knight working elsewhere dropped his jaw as he watched the stone fly by. Liel continued to clear the rubble of the constructing, oblivious to the stares.

Like a madman, he didn’t blink as soon as as he cleared the stones.

Thump—

Step by step, the ground turned seen.

Till then, he hadn’t seen a single strand of Lucy’s hair. It wasn’t till his palms have been coated in grime and dirt that he realized—

“……Lucy.”

Quickly a small hand emerged from the rubble.

Not not like Liel’s dirty hand, it was stained with grime and dirt, and it was unmistakably Lucy’s.

When Liel cleared away the remainder of the particles, there she was, her eyes closed as if she have been useless.

Seeing the scars on her face, Liel felt much more impatient than earlier than he had eliminated the stone.

Although he had been trying to find her with the understanding that she was alive, for a second she appeared like a corpse together with her eyes closed.

A chill ran down his backbone, and shortly he was digging via the grime, pushing away the stones that coated Lucy’s physique along with his fingertips.

He made a number of errors alongside the best way, and a nail or two flew off, however he stored transferring.

Lastly, Lucy’s total physique was revealed.

Along with his mangled palms, he fastidiously pulled her out and positioned his ear close to her coronary heart.

Fortunately, Lucy’s coronary heart was nonetheless beating, albeit weaker than his. He wasn’t positive if his coronary heart was beating too quick or if she was dying.

Realizing that he wanted to get her to the physician as quickly as doable, Liel scrambled to his ft and picked her up.

“Ugh…….”

A pained sound escaped Lucy’s mouth. Liel stopped strolling and appeared down at Lucy in my arms.

“Liel……?”

Lucy’s fiery eyes locked along with his, harking back to a sundown, and Liel bit his backside lip in ache.

Lucy’s voice cracked from her lengthy hours of isolation.

“Uh…….”

“Lucy, are you okay—”

“I assumed I used to be going to die…….”

With these phrases, Lucy’s physique sagged as she fainted once more.

⁂

If Lucy hadn’t been carrying Chloe, she would have been capable of escape unhurt.

Though the demons have been giant sufficient to knock down a ground, there have been solely three of them.

And even then, they’d been practically cleared out by the imperial knights.

However, Lucy was decided to maintain Chloe alive, so she pushed her towards Empress Lexion, even because the ceiling collapsed.

Lucy’s causes for doing so have been easy.

It wasn’t as a result of Chloe was royalty or something fancy like that, it was as a result of she was a baby who wanted to be protected.

Ultimately, it wasn’t a nasty alternative.

Neither Lucy nor Chloe died.

“She’s simply uncooked and bruised, however apart from that, she’s positive. No damaged bones, no flesh torn open neither is she bleeding profusely…….”

The physician now inspecting Lucy was the second physician. And he got here to the identical conclusion as the primary physician.

With the 2 docs’ findings in settlement, Sarah’s legs lastly gave out, and he or she collapsed right into a heap.

Liel, alternatively, sat at Lucy’s aspect, his head bowed low.

“Most people have been crushed to demise, and but…….”

The physician muttered in disbelief, his gaze fastened on him.

A glint of gold shot via him, so the physician shuddered and backed away.

Then, as if his enterprise was performed, he scurried out of the room.

Sarah breathed a sigh of reduction as silence descended for a second, then studied Lucy’s complexion: she was sleeping, her face relaxed and her respiration colourful.

Then she glanced at Liel.

The air round him was so heavy that she didn’t dare to talk.

“……Y, Younger Grasp…….”

“Return to the mansion, I’ll keep right here.”

A stern voice lower off Sarah’s phrases. Sarah shook her head back and forth in disbelief. She was going to attend for to Lucy open her eyes, no less than.

“If one other demon reveals up, I’ll save Lucy first, so that you return.”

By default, Liel was type to the individuals of the Marquis of Seywint. It was as a result of they have been Lucy’s individuals.

However now, his voice couldn’t have been colder as he spoke to Sarah.

“O, after all it is best to, I don’t care……!”

“Go.”

Liel stated once more. By then, Sarah had given up making an attempt to speak him out of it, so she stalked out of the visitor room with a sigh of remorse.

Silence reigned as soon as extra.

Liel closed his eyes tightly.

His thoughts was racing. He’d been instructed that the fiends that had invaded the palace have been high-level demons.

They have been normally giant sufficient that they couldn’t get contained in the empire with out first breaking via the knights and paladins guarding the outer partitions.

So how did they handle to get contained in the palace with out being seen?

Moreover, the palace’s safety was unusually lax. A lot of the knights had been despatched to scout outdoors the palace.

He wonders if he’s overreacting by connecting the dots.

The longer he considered it, the extra questions he had.

Liel’s palms clenched into fists.

“Liel…….”

Liel’s head snapped up as a muffled voice known as his identify.