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“…”

“Throw it away. Now.”

Yelena compliantly took off the ring without taking her eyes off the blade on Liliana’s neck. The ring fell to the floor. Tinkle. The metallic sound echoed.

“Are you carrying anything else? Actually, I don’t need an answer. Take off all the accessories on your body.”

Yelena’s gaze briefly shifted to Rebecca’s side. Rebecca’s voice sounded tense.

“We don’t have time for distractions, do we?”

She brought the blade closer to Liliana’s neck.

“…Hold on. I’ll take them off.”

Clatter, thump, clink.

Earrings, bracelets, hairpins, and other accessories formed a pile at Yelena’s feet. Even so, Rebecca didn’t seem to let her guard down. Instead of approaching Yelena herself, she commanded, “Knock her out and bring her in front of me.”

Her command was directed at Max, who approached Yelena with unfocused eyes.

“It would be a good idea not to resist.”

Yelena took a few steps back and then stopped. Max’s hand wrapped around her neck.

A few moments later, Yelena went limp. Max brought her to Rebecca and set her down. Rebecca briefly looked down at Yelena, whose eyes were closed as if she was dead, and then turned her head like she was about to call for someone.

“Mi—”

At that very moment, Yelena’s eyes snapped open. She sprang forward and grabbed the blade on Liliana’s neck with one hand and Rebecca’s necklace with the other.

“…!”

Rebecca hastily tried to push Yelena away, but Yelena was faster in using all her strength to pull the necklace.

Tumble!

The necklace broke off. Yelena tumbled on the ground, gripping the necklace.

“Gasp!”

“Madam!”

Everyone in the room, including Liliana and the knights, broke out of their trances. Rebecca glared at Yelena.

“What…?! How…?!”

Yelena let out the breath she had been holding.

‘Thank goodness Sir Max–no, all of the knights, weren’t completely controlled by the necklace.’

Earlier, when Yelena had been removing her accessories, to be precise, she had noticed something strange. Rebecca hadn’t seemed to notice because she was too focused on Yelena, but the knights were blinking more often than the other people in the room, as if they were fighting against whatever power was controlling them.

Yelena’s suspicion was confirmed when Max strangled her. There was almost no strength in his grip. His palm was drenched in sweat and he was even slightly trembling.

‘He’s resisting,’ Yelena had thought, and once she had realized that, she had mouthed to him, “Do as I say,” and then pretended to faint.

And then everything else happened. Her palm was in pain from when she snatached the blade, but this wasn’t the time to be worrying about her wound.

“Seize that woman!” Yelena shouted. Max and Colin stayed by her side and Thomas raced forward.

“Michael—!” Rebecca screamed.

Bang!

A man appeared in the blink of an eye and attacked Thomas. Thomas reflexively blocked the attack with his sword, but not without being pushed back.

“…Cough!”

“Thomas!”

Thomas fell to his knees, throwing up blood. The shop employees saw the blood and belatedly sank to the ground and screamed.

Amid the chaos, Rebecca trembled, unable to hold back her anger. She spat out commands to the man.

“Forget about handling things quietly. Kill them all. Knock the duchess unconscious so that she’s barely breathing, but kill the rest of them.”

“Understood.”

“…!”

The man was incredibly fast. After killing two employees who tried to run away in a heartbeat, he dashed over to Yelena. He closed the distance between them in a flash, not even giving Yelena the chance to be startled at how he killed mercilessly and without hesitation.

“Yelena!”

Liliana covered Yelena and Colin and Max blocked the man’s way.

Crack!

Sparks ignited where their swords clashed.

“Urgh!”

“Who the hell is this bastard…!”

Veins popped on both knights’ foreheads. Although the two of them were fighting the man at the same time, it didn’t look like the man was going to back down anytime soon.

“Where did he come fro—kugh!”

“Kurk!”

They clenched their teeth, trying to stand their ground, but they were clearly no match for the man. They ended up throwing up blood, like Thomas had, and collapsed to the ground.

‘The artifacts!’

Yelena snapped to her senses and went off to collect the artifacts scattered across the floor. The moment the man tried to chase Yelena, Colin grabbed onto his ankle from the ground.

“You bastard… Stay away from the duchess…”

“…”

The man peered down at Colin and raised his sword. Then, he dug it into Colin’s back.

Yelena was about to let out a scream, when—

BOOM!

“…!”

The man was thrown back, sword in hand, with a boom. Where the man used to be, now stood someone Yelena knew very well.

“…Kaywhin.”

Yelena’s voice trembled with relief.