Chapter 216: An Attack

BOOM!

The crowd was completely startled as an explosion that didn’t originate from the battle between the two went off.

Both Adrian and the prince looked up at the sky, noticing that it was quickly getting darker, almost as if a storm was coming.

The latter suddenly asked, "What’s going on?"

But even Adrian didn’t know the answer to that.

Of course, the manhwa had covered the Festival arc, but the most that happened was Renelle being an actual Villainess to Noelle.

Nothing else..... Except.

Adrian looked toward the direction the royal family, Grand dukes, church and even the Academy were, and although they were separated by a glass, he seemed to be looking directly at the headmistress.

Perhaps this was what she was talking about?

"THERE HAS BEEN AN ATTACK IN THE CITY. EVERYONE IS ADVISED TO GET TO SAFETY. AS WE HANDLE THIS, THE FESTIVAL HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. "

The herald’s voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts, but before the crowd could react, Adrian and Lucian watched as some figures suddenly placed a hand on their mouth.

From the movements of their throats, it was obvious enough that they were swallowing something, and the butler immediately knew where this was going.

Just as he expected, the skin of said figures suddenly turned black and cracked with red glows within, starting to appear on them.

"The cult," Adrian muttered, watching the crowd suddenly break out into panic as the corrupted humans started attacking.

Well, most of the crowd, save for those from the South.

They looked pretty excited looking at their attackers, after all, they hadn’t had the chance to have fun in a long while, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Some immediately got to their feet, and instead of running away, they ran towards the danger.

At that moment, Adrian finally understood why Darius was the way he was; everyone here shared a brain cell.

Apparently, so did the prince, because the next second, he suddenly launched himself out of the barrier and towards the attacking corrupted humans.

Adrian, on the other hand, cared only about one person, and the next second, he suddenly disappeared, reappearing by her side.

"Are you okay, my lady?" He asked as he looked at Renelle, who was looking at the screen before her.

"Hmm," she nodded before adding, "It seems the headmistress was right."

"She was," the butler nodded.

Cedric looked at the two before asking, "Do you know about this?"

"It’s an attack from the cult," Renelle explained.

A frown immediately appeared on his face. After all, from what he knew, it was the same cult that had attacked the capital and caused the death of their mother.

Still, he didn’t let the anger building up cloud his judgment; instead, he asked, "What do you think they want this time?"

Both Renelle and Adrian were silent at that question, since they were also uncertain of the cult’s true goal here.

At least Adrian was uncertain of the specific goal.

He had suspicions.

Especially given that the timing was too deliberate.

An attack during the convergence festival, with every major political figure in Avera present in one location.

Perhaps they were the targets, after all, they were the biggest obstacles in the path of whatever the cult master’s goal was.

"We don’t know yet," the butler responded, "but given the timing, I’d guess he’s targeting the Grand dukes."

"That means... father is in danger?" Cedric muttered with a frown, but Renelle shook her head.

"Sebastian is with him, so he should be fine," she said, "what you have to worry about now is the corrupted humans."

Normally, she wouldn’t care for anyone else save for her family, which included Adria and Isla.

But she couldn’t help recalling the kids they had met the previous night, and she found herself wondering whether they were safe.

"We’ll help deal with the corrupted humans here and in the city," Adrian suddenly spoke up, knowing what she was thinking.

Besides, this was crucial to his plan of making the entire Avera see her as a fitting ruler.

Renelle nodded, but before they could move, a voice suddenly stopped them, "Wait."

They turned and noticed Linda approaching them before adding, "I’ll help."

Renelle nodded in response as they headed toward the doors that led out of the preparation room.

Darius was way ahead of everyone as he had disappeared the moment he heard an explosion.

Orion went with him, and Conan was making his way towards Isla.

Seth decided to stick with his sister, but the East’s and Church’s representatives had disappeared.

The group of five walked out of the preparation area, and they noticed exactly how much the situation had evolved.

The prince was saving as many people as he could, whilst trying to take down the corrupted humans, but he seemed to be getting overwhelmed.

Fortunately, the Saintess had joined him, and she was handling getting people to safety.

"Linda and Seth," Renelle started, "You two will be responsible for making sure everyone here is safe."

In other words, they were to help the Prince and Saintess deal with the corrupted humans.

Linda nodded immediately whilst Seth looked at the corrupted humans before saying, "As Lady Renelle wishes."

He had basically understood that his father’s goal was to get closer to the Lady of the North, and this was an opportunity as perfect as any.

They immediately made their way towards the Saintess and the prince, quickly enveloping the corrupted humans in vines.

The remaining three quickly moved out of the arena, into the city, and they were presented with exactly how bad this situation was.

Of course, the people from the South were putting up a good fight; there was still the undeniable fact that corrupted humans were a problem for even spirit mages.

There were buildings on fire, people trying to get to safety, and corrupted humans running behind them.

It was chaos everywhere.

"Cedric," Renelle turned towards her older brother, and without saying anything else, he nodded.

He moved towards another part of the city, leaving Renelle in the care of her butler.....though he didn’t fully trust that the damned butler wouldn’t run away again.

Renelle immediately headed towards the direction of the burning building and looked at her butler.

Adrian’s shadow extended as all eight of his clones suddenly appeared behind him.

The shadow covered the whole building, and the next second, everyone who was stuck within suddenly switched places with their clones.

The people were, very clearly, terrified whilst stuck in that burning building, but they slowly realized that they had been saved.

Adrian made sure to get out of the way just in time to let the people recognize only Renelle as their savior.

Which was the point.

Renelle looked at the rescued civilians and noticed that while some were still shaking and others were clutching their children, they all looked at her with an expression of gratitude.

Instead of saying anything grand, she just turned towards her butler again, and he immediately understood what she wanted.

The clone that possessed Marion suddenly appeared again and walked towards the civilians.

"He’ll keep you safe whilst the spirit mages handle the situation," she said.

The civilians looked at the Marion clone uncertainly.

Some didn’t recognize the face since they hadn’t been watching the festival, but since their savior trusted whoever this was, they had no choice but to do the same.

Besides, it wasn’t as if they were capable of keeping themselves safe either way.

Renelle then turned around, heading deeper into the city with her butler behind her.

Every corrupted human they met was promptly dealt with, and soon enough, they had rid the city of most of them.

But Adrian couldn’t help but think that things were going too smoothly.

If this was all there was to the attack, then the Cult master had severely underestimated them.

"Something doesn’t feel right," Renelle muttered, putting his thoughts, "this feels way too easy."

"It does," Adrian agreed as he looked up at the constantly darkening sky.

The next second, as if jinxing themselves, things that seemed like golden glowing dots started falling from the sky.

A few moments later, the two realized that those were definitely not ordinary glows.

Instead, they were humanoid in shape, and even from this distance, Adrian could sense a certain form of mana from them.

BOOM!

One by one, they fell into the city, and for a few seconds, they seemed to do nothing.

That is, until they stood up.

"Those are–" Renelle started as she looked at the creatures before her.

They seemed like corrupted humans, but instead of red glows, they had golden ones, and from their aura, Adrian knew exactly what they were.

Or at least, what they were made from,

"Excalibur’s core."