The Sword and The Shadow

Blood Relative

"Innie!" The other two paled immediately. The blade of the assassin was poisoned!

Annelotte was the fastest one to react. She snapped her head around and saw that the assassin had stood up before they noticed. She picked up her arm and took out a rock before anyone could react. A light flashed and a portal appeared in front of the assassin.

"A spatial stone!" Annelotte hesitated for a moment at the sight of the portal. She didn't think the assassin would have something like that. Leguna had used it to allow Annelotte to infiltrate Seatide before, but currently, she didn't have the specifics of that memory.

Though, she still remembered what they did.

The moment the portal opened, Annelotte attempted to use a space-aspect magic to cause some interference to stop her from escaping. However, spatial magic was rather dangerous and its misapplication would cause a spatial collapse. Should that happen, the infirmary, or rather, the whole campus, would probably be vaporized.

That hesitation allowed the dark elf to slip away into the portal like a lightning bolt. She even managed to avoid a disintegration spell Annelotte flung at her in a rage.

"Pffft…" Innilis vomited another mouthful of blood and her face paled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Damn it!" Annelotte grew ever more anxious at the sight of that. She rapidly approached the male dark elf looking at her and demanded, "The antidote!"

"But beautiful lady…" the elf said after his shocked expression shifted back to an elegant smile, "That girl was harmed by the woman from before--"

"If you don't give it to me, you shall die!" She didn't wait for him to finish and raised her hand. A red-hot ball appeared in her hand, radiating temperatures so low it could chill any soul.

The dark elf swallowed audibly and found the world to be too odd. While he was a 16th-stratum assassin and couldn't compare to the magi in his household or the devotees of the goddess, Ross, he was considered to be among the elite in the household too.

Yet, he felt fear facing a high-order magus at close proximity. Didn't that woman know the threat an assassin posed in close range? It was too weird! What's funnier was that he didn't think he could harm the human woman in the slightest. Distance aside, dark elves had naturally good magic resistance. However, he didn't know how he should act against her as every instinct in his body told him that it would only lead to death. And what was with the freezing fireball in her hand?

The dark elf was complete dazed and confused.

But Annelotte didn't have the patience for that, Innilis's dire condition considered. "Hand it over!"

"Oh, alright!" The elf snapped out of it and hurriedly took a vial of medicine out of his dimensional pocket and handed it to Annelotte.

"It's a secret antidote of my tribe that can suppress any poison dark elves make," he explained, "But the keyword is suppression. It can't solve all problems. This is the only thing I can provide for now. Whether you want to use it is up to you."

"Ugh…" Innilis grunted in pain. The wound at her shoulder blade was corroding nonstop. If the poison wasn't treated, then Innilis could well lose her life in ten minutes.

"If something happens to her, I'll make sure you experience a fate worse than death!" Annelotte dictated a petrification spell on the dark elf and paid attention to his expression. Apart from rage and helplessness, there wasn't a hint of panic on his face. He didn't seem to be lying.

She felt a little relieved and approached Innilis. Eirinn was praying hard for Pyro's grace, but the detoxify miracle Pyro granted wasn't able to treat the poison at all. All it did was lesson Innilis's pain.

"What should we do, Sis Annie?" Eirinn was at the brink of tears and praying frantically. However, Pyro seemed to have refused her prayers. If he infused even more divine power into her, she might end up injured. What happened to Innilis didn't matter. Eirinn couldn't afford to die no matter what.

"We have no choice!" Annelotte opened the vial and poured its contents into Innilis's mouth.

After that, she gradually opened her eyes under the nervous stares of the other two. While her body still hurt somewhat and her wound was still prickling, at least she no longer felt as pained as before.

"Innie, how are you feeling?" Eirinn asked.

"I'm fine. Don't worry, Sis." She smiled weakly.

"Eirinn, get Leguna to come. I will wait for you in my office." Annelotte decided after giving Innilis and the elf a look.

"Okay." Eirinn nodded. Even though she was incredibly drained, she forced herself to run. She knew that Annelotte wasn't simply trying to order around. Instead, she was the only one who stood a chance against that dark elf. If Annelotte had been the one to go to call Leguna, Eirinn might not be able to take care of Innilis while keeping an eye on the elf

Annelotte carried Innilis and took the elf to her office. She stared at the uncomfortable elf without saying a word.

The dark elf seemed rather troubled. He had made many plans before he came and the vial of antidote he handed over was reserved for some other purpose. However, he was forced to hand it over. Now he worried whether that thing was still as useful as initially thought.

I've heard that it won't be a good idea to mess with the principal of Second Magic Academy, but I didn't think I'd get this involved… He felt his scalp tingle at what Annelotte did earlier.

He could more or less tell the strength of the female assassin. She was around the 15th stratum. But Annelotte simply used a level-three spell to cut off a high-order warrior's arm and pierce through two walls!

Little did the dark elf know that Annelotte had used strengthen, enhance and upgrade spellmutations on the icicle spell she fired. Even so, stacking three spellmutations on a single spell wasn't an easy feat in the slightest.

The atmosphere in the office was really tense. Annelotte carefully took care of the intoxicated Innilis while the dark elf stood to the side awkwardly. He had hoped that he would be treated well at first, but now, it seemed that he would be lucky to escape with his life. He wondered how he could push things to how he had planned initially.

At that moment, the office door was pushed open. A youth with short, black hair entered with a nervous look. The moment he saw Annelotte, he asked, "Where's Innie? How's she doing?"

"She's here and fine for now." Annelotte didn't seem to mind his barging in. In fact, it was already quite rational of him to not bust through the window and enter.

Leguna looked down and saw that while Innilis didn't look well and the wound still seemed to be corroding, she seemed stable at least just like Annelotte said.

After making sure of that, his head snapped to the dark elf in the office.

The day was just getting weirder and weirder for the poor elf. He was already surprised the magus could strike fear into him when they were in close range. This time, the youth that rushed over didn't seem much stronger than him. However, he felt a shudder when he locked eyes with him as if he was staring straight into the eyes of the reaper.

"Was this fellow the one who hurt Innie?" he asked with a growl. Eirinn only told him that she was hurt by a poisoned dagger from a dark elf, so it wasn't surprising that he suspected him.

"It's not him." Annelotte didn't even turn around as she fed Innilis some water. "It was another female dark elf. She escaped with a spatial stone. It was my fault that she escaped."

"Big Brother, don't run so fast!" Eirinn finally caught up and was huffing at the entrance. Leguna didn't carry her on his back this time.

"Sorry, Eirinn…" He apologized to her awkwardly under Annelotte's gaze.

"Since you're all gathered, let's interrogate this fellow here." Annelotte used a sleep spell on Innilis and stood up. "Your race should know magic well too, so don't force me to use Scry on you. It'll hurt."

"Understood…" he helplessly replied.

"Your name?" Leguna asked.

"@#!#" he said in his dark elven tongue. "In the common tongue, you would call me Linq."

"Why did you come here?" Annelotte asked. She had secretly used a lie detection spell on him.

"I came on behalf of my household," Linq said, "According to our investigation, one of the matriarch's daughters ended up here, so we're here to bring her home. She would be the silver-haired lady behind you. If I'm not mistaken, you're called Eirinn, right?"