“Elysee!”

Blake ran to her. Her vision and senses went dark. He quickly rushed in and hugged Elysee who had fainted in Mary’s arms.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?”

His body which embraced her was shaking so hard that Elysee wanted to soothe him.

‘Oh yeah… I almost died.’

She died once, but she refused to perish again. In addition, wouldn’t it be extremely painful to die by a knife? The thought of Cain Liberto, who took special care to kill her without pain, came to mind for a millisecond and disappeared. Of course, she didn’t say thanks or anything, but the method hadn’t been bad.

“I’m fine, Blake.”

Elysee thought she spoke in a fairly clear voice, but she was pressed so hard against Blake’s chest that only a murmur could be heard.

“How can you say you’re okay when you are trembling like this?”

‘No, it’s you—not me—who’s shaking right now.’

It appeared that Blake wasn’t sane. With the Order of the knights watching behind his back, Blake was fumbling around—frantically checking her body for injuries. Elysee was very embarrassed.

Elysee managed to pull her hand out of his grasp and remove his hand from her earlobe.

“I’m really okay. So please let me go.”

“But…”

“Come on.”

Blake was forced to let her go due to her determined tone. Even after that, his trembling eyes scanned her for any traumas.

‘Should I say it’s a relief?’

Blake was so distracted by Elysee that he hadn’t paid any mind to Mary’s strength.

Elysee chose to release a breath she had been holding. Only after she was convinced that her voice would be no different from usual that she looked at Mary and opened her mouth.

“Mary, thank you so much. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been in big trouble. Are your hands okay?”

“Yes, of course. It was just a little iro—o-n-on…?”

Elysee pretended to be moved and quickly pulled her head and hugged her, not forgetting to sneakily cover Mary’s mouth. Gritting her teeth together she fiercely whispered “(Shut up),” Mary nodded.

Meanwhile, everyone had been frozen as they watched them, and belatedly burst into astonishment.

“Wh—what?”

“That maid just now…”.”

Elysee hugged Mary, turned around, and naturally hid Mary with her body.

“I think you should show your hand to the doctor, so please go to my room.”

Then, she held her hands well and wrapped them around with a handkerchief. Of course, there was crushed iron inside. For the destruction of evidence.

Mary, who watched her, nodded resolutely and limped toward the main building.

‘…Why are you limping?’ [t1v: HAAAA]

Mary seemed to think that she should pretend to be injured.

Nonetheless, Elysee had solved Mary’s dilemma instantly and turned around in relief. And immediately her eyes met intense blue eyes. Blake’s face was close enough to touch her, Elysee was so startled she stumbled back.

He hurriedly supported Elysee, which saved her to circumvent a troublesome fall.

‘What? Just now….’

Elysee leaned on him and stiffened because of the violent emotions found in Blake’s eyes.

Meanwhile, the two knights rushed to kneel in front of them. One seemed to be the owner of the blade, and the other seemed to be the one who broke the blade.

“I’ve committed a crime worthy of death. Please punish me.”

“I’ll take any punishment willingly.”

The two knights shouted almost at the same time and bowed their heads to touch the ground. Claude, the commander of the Black Knights, also knelt down with them.

“It’s my responsibility as the leader. I’ll take responsibility for everything.”

Elysee leaned against Blake’s arms and quietly looked at them.

‘Hmm… What should I do?’

The sound of Blake’s heart ringing in her ears was fast and loud. Anger, anxiety, fear, murder. All of that would be intertwined and make him violent. She had a foreboding that if she didn’t step up, one of them would lose their life.

Elysee pulled herself together and looked up at him.

“Your Grace, this is not just their fault.”

It was a little scary to face his blue eyes, but Elysee spoke firmly,

“I was amazed by the astonishing skills of the Frozen Knights. As His Grace has said, there was nothing lacking and no shortage of praise for being the two pillars of the empire.”

At her sudden praise, both the knights and Blake remained silent, not knowing what to say.

“But perhaps poor quality swords have been distributed, the kind that should be for daggers. My maid is said to be skilled and ‘strong’ but she was able to ‘crush’ it with her bare hands.”

Elysee said with a cutesy articulation on a few words.

Claude, the Knight Commander, clenched his jaw. What the Frozen Knights used for practice was blunt steel containing mana. It wasn’t something worthy of being called poor quality.