Chapter 1574: Carriage Out!
While disorganisation—and, dare say, chaos—reigned in the banquet, a bellowing voice resounded across the large villa and its gardens.
"What’s going on here?!" It was the billowing sound of the Lord’s voice, followed by an oppressive aura that made some people freeze, while others worsened in their panic.
Bleumrick’s eyes were red in anger and disbelief, wondering who’d dare do such a thing when he was in the vicinity. He also wondered how in elf’s name this still hasn’t been handled!
He was having serious meetings in the meeting room earlier, with the Sephon family, who were introducing him to an interesting powder that presented a lot of opportunities.
However, before he could send them to study its source, successive loud sounds of explosions resounded around them.
It came from different directions, too, some from opposite sides of the large villa.
He watched as several ementalists tried to sweep the poison, but it was relatively dense and heavy, so it wasn’t so easy to neatly control it.
In fact, it would likely send it to another spot instead, and some clumsy wind user even got a few important people victimized.
Worse was that there were a few more loud sounds all over the villa area, distracting them, making them think the attack was ongoing, so most people were more focused on getting out, rather than containing the threat.
Livid, his elemental ability—earth—unconsciously spread out, and people felt the ground vibrate a bit.
Bleumrick’s jaws were clenched as he looked at the shivering members of the Sephon family. "DEAL WITH THIS NOW OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES."
...
Veronica and the others heard the Lord’s yell. Such a show of anger and force from someone of that level had the ability to shake people a hundred meters away. This wasn’t even considering the man was an earth user, expanding his area of effect even more.
Fortunately, as long as one had enough willpower, one didn’t have to be paralyzed with fear. It just told them to go faster.
Many people entered the carriages, while others just ran as far as they could, particularly those who were citizens here and had places to run to.
There were two ’unknown’ carriages that blended with the rest of them. They had well-made insignias that had made people turn to them back when things were at peace. It even let the passengers enter the nobles’ area without problem, regardless of whether they came from a legitimate territory or not.
Confidence is key, basically.
What people didn’t know was that neither symbol referred to any territory in reality.
These two carriages were precisely Alterra’s escape carts.
"Go..."
Veronica naturally couldn’t go with them because that’d be too suspicious. If she went missing, the investigation would ultimately lead to her and where she had been during this time.
Rin and the others pulled the others inside. There happened to be smoke around the area too, making most avoid it just by association.
Kalfene, Marcus, and the others entered the carriages, having no time to think anymore. Veronica and the others watched them enter, ready to go back to the venue and pretend to be poisoned along with everyone else.
It was just that things couldn’t be as smooth as they hoped.
"Miss Veronica!" a yell came from the side, making them pale. Her eyes twitched as she turned, wanting to strangle someone.
It was that damned Menzon again. He went past the smoke and managed to find their spot. Somehow, he had a cover on half his face, and it seemed like expensive cloth.
He had been escaping with the others too, but he couldn’t help but be concerned for the beautiful Miss Veronica, so he followed her pink hair everywhere.
He covered his mouth and nose like many others did, following her through the smoke. Many of those still didn’t survive, though, and they fell down in a flop, frothing at the mouth a second later. He realized that just covering the mouth was not enough against this mysterious, poisonous fog!
Fortunately, Menzon, back when he had just awakened, was gifted an interesting tool by his family (they had been trying to take it back after his years of failure though).
Anyway, it was a defense equipment with a cooling feature, because they heard that toolmaking was a job that required grinding, possibly in the heat.
The equipment, although only C-class and had low defense function compared to similar ranks, had a passive fan around it that helped keep the poison away from his body.
Anyway, this allowed him to last amidst the fog longer than others, even having the time to look for his crush. She had disappeared at one point, putting up the hood of her silk coat over her characteristic hair.
However, as someone who had been watching her closely, Menzon could still recognize her shape. There was smoke everywhere, but somehow he managed to trail after her, which was partly his luck and another part his obsession.
He followed them all the way to the Beast Carts, running to her as soon as there was a clear path.
"Milady! Are you alri—"
He looked concerned, but his voice died down when he got close enough to see their setup.
His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the sight in front of him. Several people—a lot of whom he recognized but also shouldn’t know each other— were entering carriages with the same insignia.
He also realized that they were moving through the ’poison’ smoke even without a cover, and they didn’t seem to be affected at all.
Then he stared at the outline of the carriages, and then the memory of when he was following them became a bit clearer. In retrospect, it was as if they were heading there on purpose.
Now, Menzon was not as smart as many people in the profession, but he wasn’t stupid.
It almost seemed like... they planned all of this!
He looked at Veronica in disbelief.
"You—"
"You—"
Before he could react any louder, Menzon’s mouth was covered by vines that appeared out of nowhere. He was pulled deeper into the dense smoke and deeper into the carriage.
SLAM!
"ACK!" he yelled as he was thrown smack into the carriage like a ragged doll, and the vine tightened around his body and in his mouth, pulling away the handkerchief that barely protected him from harm.
His eyes were wide in shock as he stared at Veronica, who stood still, and was soon taken farther and farther away from him. No, Menzon soon realized that it was him who was moving away!
Where were they taking him?! He wanted to ask, but the ’poison’ got to him already, and the next thing he knew, everything went black.
Inexplicably, Alterra got another toolmaker, just like that.