Chapter 64

The young lady addressed as Lilianne snapped her head up and looked at Torre.

Was she an acquaintance?

“A-Ah…”

Having failed to wound Lord Nazel and then having her name shouted at the top of Torre’s lungs, her face turned pale as she retreated in a panic and fled.

“Wait, Lilianne!”

Lord Nazel, Torre, and the others gave chase to the fleeing Lilianne.

However, the estate’s soldiers began to move as if to block their path.

“Just as I thought, it was the Baron’s trap. I have to find Sir Henry and Kelly! Staying here in the middle of a brawl will only get in the way.”

They were currently in the middle of gathering evidence of the Baron’s corruption.

I wasn’t strong myself, but I could at least reinforce my allies’ bodies.

Turning on my heel, I hurried out into the hallway.

It seemed the other nobles had already fled, as there were few people left inside the manor.

Even so, a few enemy soldiers who hadn’t headed toward Lord Nazel’s group were prowling the corridors.

“Hey, have the guests been found yet?”

“No! It seems they’ve all left their rooms!”

From their conversation, I realized they were searching for Sir Henry and Kelly.

“I have to hurry.”

I checked the rooms one by one, making sure not to run into the soldiers.

As luck would have it, I immediately found Kelly, who was in the middle of searching the dining hall.

I rushed over and cast my reinforcement magic on her.

“Kelly, it’s dangerous here. The soldiers have attacked. Let’s get out of the manor for now.”

As we were speaking, the dining hall doors were violently thrown open.

“There they are!”

Since the soldiers came flooding in, I grabbed Kelly’s hand and ran toward the back of the dining hall.

Passing through a small door used by servants, we found ourselves in the Baron’s kitchen.

In front of us, crates filled with ingredients were piled up haphazardly.

“I heard there was a food shortage, but I guess there’s plenty of it in some places. Still, it’s strange.”

There were a lot of potatoes, which keep for a long time, but crops were supposed to be difficult to grow in this territory.

“I didn’t think they could harvest this many tubers here?”

Recently, the improved crop varieties Lord Nazel developed had begun to circulate, but the ingredients here weren’t any of those.

“Lady Agnes, the door leading outside from the kitchen has been locked from the exterior.”

“It doesn’t look like there are any other rooms past the kitchen. If we’re trapped…”

I used my magic to reinforce the entire mountain of potatoes sitting nearby.

“Kelly, for now, let’s throw these at the enemy soldiers!”

“Understood. I have experience playing catch from when I looked after my younger brothers.”

“That’s reassuring. We didn’t have balls back at the Eventail estate.”

We pelted the potatoes at the soldiers crowding the entrance.

A series of unnatural thuds—goh!—rang out, sounding as if they’d been struck by iron cannonballs.

A reinforced potato thrown by a reinforced arm was a lethal weapon.

“So, reinforcement magic can be used like this too.”

The soldiers retreated, crying out in pain.

If they had been wearing armor, the potatoes might not have been effective, but since their job was simply to apprehend guests indoors, they were all lightly equipped.

Continuing our barrage of potatoes, Kelly and I slammed the door shut the moment the soldiers backed away from the entrance.

We piled up tables, shelves, and chairs to barricade the door, then turned our attention to the locked back exit.

“Lady Agnes, if the lock won’t open, let’s just break the door down. If only we had something to ram it with…”

“How about this chair? Will it work if I reinforce it?”

I asked Kelly while applying my magic to a small chair nearby.

“That’s perfect. The house is old, so the door hinges look brittle.”

“Alright, here we go! One, two, heave!”

The two of us gripped the chair legs and swung it down in unison.

When the chair slammed into the decayed hinges, the door was easily blown off its frame.

“We did it!”

By the time we successfully made it outside together, the sky was already beginning to grow dim.

“We have to find Sir Henry and the others.”

“Ah, about that…”

Kelly started to speak, then hesitated for a moment.

“What is it?”

“No, I believe Lord Henry will be fine. Lord Bell is with him, after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lord Bell may be a merchant, but he is quite skilled with swords and daggers. More importantly, enemy pursuers will come if we stay here, so let’s move away for now.”

Kelly and I made our way from the estate toward the town.

There, we successfully linked up with Lord Nazel’s subordinates who had been waiting in the city.