The Sword and The Shadow

Leguna had never dreamt Annelotte would shriek like that. She was Annelotte, the glacial empress who always kept her cool! Even as she faced the crimsonblood fiend, Saron, she didn't panic!

But now, she was screaming like a common girl molested by a thug, perhaps at a pitch higher than most.

Her scream lasted tens of seconds…

As it went on, Leguna kept trying to calm her down. "Annie, Annie stop screaming… You… You shouldn't let others hear this… At least use a silence barrier…"

She finally realized things would get far worse if this was allowed to spread. She immediately dictated a barrier of silence, but when she looked back at him, she found him still staring at her two pink cherries.

Drip… drip…

More and more blood flowed out of his nose, until the drips turned into steady streams.

"You!"

She was so embarrassed she wanted to find a hole. She quickly covered her chest with her left arm and her crotch with her right.

With the barrier in place, she could finally go wild.

"You're still looking?!"

"Oh, uh…"

Leguna didn't look away, he didn't even react to the liters of blood piping out of his nose, he just stood there like a fool.

It was only to be expected. Annelotte's figure had always been among the best he'd seen, and her skin was fair and flawless. Such a body draped in tight clothing alone was enough to cause men to swoon, to say nothing of… it's current, unveiled, all-natural state. Only a eunuch could withstand it's goddessly allure.

Not to mention, she was hiding her more sensitive parts with her hands.

Direct visual stimulation alone was only capable of so much. A shyly hidden vulgarity drove men truly beyond the pale.

Leguna's eyes widened as he witnessed the soft lumps warp beneath her arm's pressure. His blood warped in his veins and burst out of his nose with even greater fervor.

"Why are you still looking?!"

"I-I-I… I'll stop…"

He quickly shielded his eyes, but left ample space between his fingers.

"Don't look! Stop already!" Annelote screamed, her eyes bloodshot.

She was desperate for clothing, but she didn't dare move her arms from their current position.

In her panicked embarrassment, she had forgotten she could use a simple spell like dark shading to cover herself, or that she could just chase him out with spells.

The usually sharp girl didn't use her brain, couldn't use her brain. All she thought about was getting him to close his eyes so she could dart for her clothes.

But the slimy bastard just kept muttering his lack of looking while his eyes peered between his fingers.

"You little…" Annelotte didn't know what to say. She panicked and swung her hands towards the ground before stomping her way towards Leguna. then, she gave him another square slap on the face, screaming at the top of her voice, "You shameless thug!"

……

Wham!

A teacup flew out from a broken window in Annelotte's room. The curtains shook before once more returning to normal.

All the servants were stupefied. They didn't dare to knock on her door, but they still gathered outside their beloved mistress's room out of worry for her. There were a dozen servants outside, some still holding brooms. They probably came over in the middle of their work to see what was going on.

The sight was surreal to say the least. The silent barrier Annelotte used made it so that everything was quiet before the teacup came suddenly flying out.

"Sis Alaine… The lady is… fine, is she?" a childish youth asked as he came over to her. He was a new servant of the manor. Alaine found him rather cute and made sure to look after him.

"She's fine, she's fine," she said nonchalantly.

"But… I've never seen the lady throw teacups before… She is probably…"

Before the servant could finish, a decorative vase about the size of a human head flew out of the room.

"Ugh…" She seemed rather pensive after seeing the flying vase, but she still forced herself to say, "She should be fine…"

Right after that, a chair came flying out.

She figured that Annelotte was truly mad this time around and hesitated as to whether she should go in to check. After that, the door burst open loudly as Leguna was sent flying out.

He still seemed to be one piece. However, his pathetic state was beyond description.

He got up and looked around like nothing was wrong. When he saw the servants, he waved them away. "Come on, what's there to see? Go do your work! You! Alaine, come clean Annie's room up an hour later!"

"And have your corpse removed as while I'm at it, right?" she snapped.

He ignored her, looked at the broken door, and gulped. Then, he told himself something to muster his courage. "There are some things you must face eventually! Leguna, if you're a man, stand tall and take it!"

The servants watched as he entered Annelotte's room with the determination that he might not come back out alive.

"Alright, alright. Scramble. Nothing here's your business. Leave now!" Alaine knew it was best to not let the servants continue watching just in case her mistress went berserk.

The servants immediately left, but that didn't stop them from chattering. Most of them were quite curious as to what was going on.

"Why was Sir Leguna in the lady's room?" As Leguna often went to Galestorm Manor, the older servants could recognize him.

"Hey! Don't you even know what's going on between Sir Leguna and our lady? I think this most likely is…"

Alaine grimaced at seeing the servants gossip.

The inside of the room was far noisier than it appeared from outside. She was still wrecking chaos in the room, but she didn't use any magic. All she did was fling things around in a mad rampage.

Cups, glasses, pillows, tables, chairs, and even a live person…

The moment she put on her clothes, she began tossing things around to vent. She even dictated Oxen Might on herself, which ended up in her lifting and tossing Leguna out of the room.

He was currently jumping about in the room. He didn't dare to stay in any given spot longer than a second as he didn't want to be obliterated by any rogue projectile.

"Annie, calm down!" he cried helplessly.

"Calm down?" She put down the stuff in her hands and arranged her messed-up hair. "How do you want me to keep calm? You want to tell me you didn't see? You dare to say that you didn't… to me…"

"I… I did see it all," he said after some hesitation.

"Then die!" She flung the table beside her to him.

Hell! I knew this girl was a violent beast! He made a haggard dive and narrowly avoided the fate of being disfigured by the incoming table.

[You're wrong. Truly violent women use kitchen knives,] Gahrona said lazily, [Quick! Avoid that vase! Oh! This blanket's ideal for blocking your vision! Annie's so smart! Oof! I didn't think my disciple would get to taste table leg! Wahahaha!]

[Teacher, isn't that enough?]

"Annie! Listen to me! We didn't do anything last night!"

Stunned, she put down the next thing she was about to throw.

"What do you mean?"

"Huff.. puff…" Even a high-order assassin like him was driven to ragged breath without Annelotte even using a single spell. It would be rather embarrassing if others found out about it.

"Quick! Explain!"

"Just calm down and listen." He saw his chance to explain himself. "I know last night was complicated, but it didn't go as far as you think. At least, I didn't…"

"Didn't what?"

She narrowed her eyes, as if she was ready to fling another article of furniture at him depending on what he said next.

"I really didn't…" Leguna's thick-skinned face reddened considerably at that point. His voice was so soft it sounded like a mosquito buzzing. "I didn't push you down…"