Chapter 109: Moment of Chaos (3)

Slash!

During that split second of blindness, there was a rapid whoosh of air being sliced through, followed by a brief silence; then, hurried footsteps that ended with a...

Clank!

A loud metallic sound.

"Oh! What a surprise, haha! This doesn’t seem like something someone who’s supposed to be at Rank One would do." (Miyako)

Miyako said this in a low voice so that only the person in front of her could hear.

The situation was strange: Miyako, who had just been striking Suiren, now held a dagger of a strange metallic crimson color in her hand.

That dagger was stained with blood, but it wasn’t the blood of the person standing before her.

That person had managed to block her attack with her hands, which seemed as hard as metal itself.

"Did you see what just happened?... No, you didn’t. It seems you’ve only just regained your vision; you acted on reflex." (Miyako)

"..." (Reina)

That person was Reina. She was supposed to be the most harmless member of the group; yet, her current expression didn’t seem that way at all.

She was looking at Miyako with all sorts of different thoughts running through her mind.

"Yes, I knew I hadn’t been seeing things before. That appraising look you had while I was hitting that maid—that’s not something the group’s ’mascot’ should have." (Miyako)

"..." (Reina)

Miyako kept talking, but Reina said nothing.

Either the deafening explosion from earlier had robbed her of her hearing, or Reina thought it wasn’t worth speaking.

"Oh! What’s with that look now? Are you assessing whether it’s worth dropping your facade to kill me?... Haha! I get it now. You’re one of the fat rats hiding out here. Haha! I didn’t think I’d find anything here." (Miyako)

"Enough of this nonsense." (Reina)

It seemed Reina could hear her after all and had made up her mind. With a swift movement, she grabbed Miyako’s hand.

Her intention was to prevent her from escaping, even if that meant revealing her strength and abilities.

"Haha! Looks like I’ve been caught! Haha! What’s your rank?" (Miyako)

Meanwhile, Miyako seemed to struggle to break free, but Reina’s grip was unyielding and wouldn’t let her.

Even so, Miyako seemed to find the situation amusing.

"Kyaaa!" (Avelia)

At that moment, their exchange was interrupted by a loud scream of fear from Avelia.

The reason was that now that the stun effect had finally worn off, she noticed there was a corpse.

"..." (Reina)

Reina couldn’t help but glance at it reflexively; she hadn’t expected that either.

It was Ayame. Her throat had been slit, and she lay lifeless on the table, her blood pooling over the cold plates of food.

It was just a quick glance—one that wouldn’t have taken more than a second—but that single action, that fleeting and insignificant action, was something Reina would regret for a long time.

Because when she looked back at Miyako, she saw that Miyako was already in the middle of something.

Slash!

In her other hand had appeared another dagger of that same metallic crimson red.

But Miyako didn’t take advantage of that brief moment to attack her—no.

The dagger wasn’t aimed at Reina; Miyako was aiming it at her own arm.

As if time had frozen, Reina watched as Miyako severed her own arm.

This threw Reina off, causing her to make the mistake of doing nothing once again—another wasted second.

Enough time for Miyako to take advantage of the situation and quickly step back.

Reina was now holding only a severed arm.

"..." (Reina)

But Reina seemed experienced and quickly recovered... and tried to go after Miyako.

But before she could even take her first step, she felt something strange in her hand—which was still holding the severed arm—and when she looked... it was already too late.

Boom!

Another explosion rang out.

Once again, it was more blinding than destructive, but since she was so close, Reina was blinded once more, even more intensely than before.

She was inevitably forced to stop.

It wasn’t just her; those who had only just regained their sight and hearing, were also affected by that second, deafening explosion.

The chaos intensified once more; everyone feared they would be the next Ayame.

Some began to move in panic and try to flee, even though they couldn’t see a thing.

Reina, for her part, was once again the quickest to regain her vision, though she was struck by the light at point-blank range.

Even so, it took her a few seconds to recover.

And upon seeing the scene, she realized that Miyako had already fled even further away from her.

"Protect me." (Miyako)

Miyako had already moved several meters away from her and began to surround herself with her maids, who, being high-ranking as well, recovered more quickly.

What surprised Reina was that, once she saw Miyako, she noticed that the arm that was supposed to have been severed was still there.

It was as if what had happened earlier hadn’t happened at all or was some kind of illusion, but she looked more closely and noticed that Miyako’s kimono had a slit in the sleeve right where her hand had been severed, and the remaining fabric also had a little blood on it.

That meant Miyako likely had a regenerative ability powerful and fast enough to restore her hand in a matter of seconds.

That was terrifying. Doing something like that shouldn’t be possible, even if she had powerful professions and Skills.

She could understand it if Miyako were high-ranking, but it was obvious from the way she’d escaped her grasp that she was weaker than her.

Or was that what the other person wanted her to believe?... Many possibilities came to Reina’s mind.

By this point, Reina was certain that Miyako was someone like her.

She had to be careful.

She didn’t know what Miyako was planning or why, out of all the possible moments, she had chosen this one to reveal herself.

It didn’t seem to be a coincidence.

As she thought that, her eyes grew sharper and distinctly dangerous as she focused on Miyako.

"My lady." (Maid)

At that moment, one of the maids who had recovered from her blindness noticed that her mistress had disappeared and panicked.

Avelia was no longer at the table, and by this point, they were certain it was the second Ayame—who had failed in her task—and that they would end up like Ayame’s maids, who could only stare at the corpse without knowing what else to do.

"H-help." (Avelia)

But, luckily, that wasn’t the case. Avelia was alive; it was just that, in the midst of the chaos, she had run aimlessly and, because they were on a slightly elevated terrace, had fallen off it.

Now she was lying on the grass, but she was alive. The maids rushed to her aid.

That aside, the rest were still bewildered by the rapid flashes of light, as well as by Ayame’s recent murder; no one even had the presence of mind to wonder where Suiren had gone.

No one really knew what had happened, and in that moment of chaos, something was heard that caused even more confusion.

"You! You damn bitch! This wasn’t part of the deal! What the hell are you doing?" (Miyako)

Miyako spoke. She seemed genuinely angry as she pointed at Reina with fury and indignation.

"..." (Everyone)

Everyone—who still didn’t understand much of anything, including Yuna and the maids still present—no, everyone in the restaurant, who obviously couldn’t ignore the situation—looked at Reina.

No one knew exactly what Miyako was referring to, but something was going on.

Setting aside Stella’s murder, one of the people present was definitely Ayame’s killer, and Ayame’s maids—who wanted to make amends for their mistake and avenge their mistress—were paying close attention.

"You won’t use me as your scapegoat." (Miyako)

"..." (Reina)

The situation was anything but clear.

They didn’t understand what was going on, but the words were absurdly suspicious.

It didn’t help that, at that moment, one of Reina’s hands was stained with blood, and there were blood spatters on her clothes and face.

Both Yuna and Avelia—who had returned surrounded by her maids—simply stood by as spectators.

And what they heard next left them both frozen in shock—no, it left everyone who heard it frozen in shock.

"If I fall, you’ll fall with me. I may have helped under orders, but you’re the one truly responsible for Stella’s murder. And even now, with what you did to Ayame... you’re a stupid bitch if you think I’m just going to stand by and take all the blame?" (Miyako)

"..." (Reina)

Miyako spoke again, making insinuations and attributing shocking things to Reina, but Reina said nothing in response.

"Tsk, it seems you don’t want to step out of your role as an idiot. I’m not going to waste my time here. Come on, we have to clear our names. I have enough evidence." (Miyako)

Then Miyako signaled her maids to leave.

Obviously, all of this caught the attention of everyone around them.

There were already some who had even asked their maids to go spread the word, but no one stopped Miyako as she left.

Even Ayame’s maids, who wanted to find the culprit, didn’t follow her, since she wasn’t the only suspect and they couldn’t simply ignore Reina after everything Miyako had said.

Furthermore, unlike Miyako and the other concubines, Reina’s maids weren’t much to speak of, and only three of them were combat maids.

"..." (Reina)

Reina could only watch. You could see a flurry of thoughts passing through her eyes as she weighed her options and considered many things, but in the end, she did nothing.

She simply stayed where she was and acted as if she didn’t understand anything either and was also frightened by the murder that had taken place right in front of her.

"..." (Yuna)

But that didn’t stop everyone from looking at her suspiciously.

Yuna, in particular, analyzed the situation coldly. Although everything was confusing, there were many strange things.

If they weren’t mistaken, the second flash had come from where Reina was standing, and she was covered in blood.

Furthermore, Yuna thought: even if it were a frame-up, why pin the blame on Reina?

Everyone knew she was scatterbrained; even the cowardly Avelia seemed like a better candidate than her, and, more importantly, she herself would be a better target for something like this.

It made the most sense, considering what had happened to Suiren, who was her trusted servant.

Besides, Yuna saw it.

Right after the second flash, when everyone was searching for Avelia’s supposed body, which had disappeared.

Yuna, who didn’t care about that, looked for the source of the second flash—which was Reina.

She saw that Reina had a sharp, dangerous expression, full of murderous intent toward Miyako.

It was brief, but it wasn’t something the Queen, as Yuna knew her, would do.

Something didn’t add up.

There was something strange about Reina, even if she wasn’t actually involved in the murder, as Miyako claimed.

And then there was Miyako herself.

To Yuna, she was a muscle-brained fool who only pretended to act with dignity.

Her recent behavior didn’t seem like her at all.

What if they’d both just been putting on a facade this whole time?

That thought alone sent a chill down Yuna’s spine.

She understood: the harem was a place where facades, hiding one’s true intentions, and other such things were the order of the day.

Even so, both of them—who were pretending to be idiots—seemed to have another plan in mind, something more dangerous than simply rising through the hierarchy.

That, combined with the fact that her most trusted maid had betrayed her, sparked mistrust and caution within her.

As far as she knew, even that coward Avelia might be hiding her true face.

She thought about reevaluating everything she knew and believed about this harem and the way things were done there.

She also had to warn her family, since there was a strong possibility that all these events were caused by the discovery of that great ruin.

The timing seemed too convenient to be a coincidence.

Her family—and most importantly, her eldest son, who was participating in that expedition—could find themselves caught up in something big if they weren’t careful.