I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

Chapter 366

As soon as we heard the woman’s voice coming from the alley, Ethan, Agnes, and I moved without hesitation.

What we found was a brown-haired woman, Lisa, leaning against the alley wall with her head down, while a green-haired woman, Mel, lay on the ground, coughing violently.

"Hrk, cough, gasp! Hrkk..."

"......"

"Wait, stop! Both of you, stop fighting!"

...Damn, are we too late?

Even though I shouted for them to stop, it was clear the situation had already escalated. Lisa stood silently leaning against the wall, while Mel lay on the ground with red bloodstains spreading from her side. The bitter feeling that I could have saved at least one of them sooner lingered in my mind.

‘If I had acted a little faster, I might have been able to save one more...’

But regretting it now wouldn’t bring back the dead. Preparing for the upcoming battle in Bridget Village, I quietly pulled a dagger from under my skirt.

Mel, who was lying on the ground bleeding, recognized us and began to slowly rise.

"Ssshh..."

"Help me! That woman! She... she attacked me!"

"Thud, thud!"

"Don't run! If you move like that with those wounds..."

"She called me out here in the middle of the night and then suddenly pulled a knife on me!"

"Thud, thud!!"

"I'm telling you, you can't run! You need to stop the bleeding and head to the village hall! You need to rest there!"

"No, I can't! That woman... she just tried to—!"

"Slash!!"

"I can't hold back any longer! I’m going to make her pay for stabbing me like this!!!"

Mel, gripping her thigh, suddenly charged toward us, revealing a hidden dagger in her hand. As she thrust it toward me, I had already anticipated this pattern. With a swift movement, I deflected her dagger with my sword and, with my free hand, struck her wrist, causing her hand to fall to the ground.

"Thud!"

"...What?"

Mel hadn’t expected her attack to be countered so easily. Clutching her severed wrist, she staggered backward in shock.

I stared at her coldly, gripping my daggers tightly, fully prepared for the fight.

"I told you not to run, you bitch."

"..."

"If you didn’t want your wrist cut off, you should’ve stayed down. How can someone who was just stabbed be running around so energetically?"

Despite the lack of blood flowing from her severed wrist, Mel kept backing away as Ethan and Agnes also prepared for combat.

Before long, dozens of thin tendrils began sprouting from Mel's severed wrist, gathering and forming into a new hand.

"Impressive, isn’t it, self-defense instructor? I didn’t think you’d have the guts to cut off my wrist without hesitation."

Agnes took my advice to heart and immediately incinerated the groin of another bandit, silencing him instantly.

Fear began spreading through the remaining bandits, and fewer of them dared to focus their attention on me and Agnes.

"See? Much more efficient."

"Yeah, that was a good tip."

"...I don’t mind you using it on scum like this, but you might want to avoid using it on people you’ll have to see again."

"I’m aware of that."

Even Ethan, normally composed, couldn’t help but offer advice after witnessing Agnes’s devastating fire magic.

A few of the bandits tried to flee, but the tentacle-woman blocking our path quickly put a stop to that.

"Damn it! No one told me there’d be a damn mage! How the hell are we supposed to fight a crazy woman like that..."

Stab!

"Guh...! Khhh..."

"Don’t run away. It’s rude to leave the playground I created just for you."

Sharp tendrils shot out from Mel’s hand, impaling one of the bandits trying to escape.

Thud.

His body crumpled to the ground, lifeless. The sight sent a ripple of fear through the remaining bandits, but any thoughts of fleeing were quickly abandoned.

"I made this playground for you. Your job is to rape these women until they cry and beg...!!"

"Screw it! If I’m gonna die, I’m taking that bitch down with me! Kill the guy first!"

"Kill him! We’ve got the numbers, let’s just swarm them!!"

The bandits, driven by desperation, rushed toward us in a frenzy.

None of them seemed particularly skilled, so any one of us could probably handle them alone. Since Ethan had a bad matchup against Mel, it was obvious who should deal with the bandit mob.

"Dan, your attacks won’t work on that woman. You won’t be able to keep up with the regeneration speed of a demon like her if you’re just slashing at her."

"Yeah."

"While Agnes and I deal with her, I need you to keep the rest of them off us. There’s a lot of them, but I don’t think any of them are Sword Experts."

"Don’t worry. I’ll make sure every one of those bastards who insulted you has their tongue cut out."

Excessive anger can lead to recklessness, but for Ethan, it didn’t seem to matter.

After all, the reason Ethan became so strong as a child was closely tied to his... desires. In his case, a certain level of anger would probably serve as a kind of emotional doping.

"Vision, sharpen the blade."

Zzzap.

"Take care, Dan."

"You too, Lis. Don’t get hurt."

With our final words exchanged, Ethan charged into the bandit mob with his sword drawn.

The final battle for the defense of Bridget Village had begun.@@@@