There were two guards on duty, one of them was yawning tired that his shift was this late at night. The reason why there would be guards at the mansion was because of the possibility of thieves and assassins that were after the nobles residing in it.

This mansion was built with the intention for it being used for nobles and important people, it would be a dumb move to let it unguarded. Thus, the king decided that the mansion would be protected by guards.

As of right now only one noble was residing within the facility, Raymond Ferrow. He was one of the most successful nobles within the kingdom of Dawnwell, he had many territories under his name and highly lucrative on the money side.

“Ahhhhh…. This is such a pain in the ass. Why do we have to stay here while the others get to stay inside!?”, a guard complained, he was talking to the other guard that was next to him.

They were in an almost full body armor, the chest plate had the insignia of the kingdom implanted on it. It was to show that they belonged to the kingdom’s services.

“It’s because if we see somebody enter the mansion, we will have to get word to the other guards to stay on guard in case we fail. However, I too think it would be better to be inside instead.”, the other guard responded to the guards complain.

As the two guards continued complaining, one of them spotted something. “What’s wrong?”, the first guard asked. “There’s someone nearby.”, the second guard warned him, the second guard readied his spear and the other slowly opened the entrance to the mansion.

“I’ll go tell the others.”, the first guard said, but the moment he turned around the second guard whom he was talking with was knocked out unconscious, Lying limp the ground.

“What hap—“, he said falling to the ground after feeling a small pain on his neck. He tried searching for the intruder before he lost his consciousness, however the only thing he could see was swaying silver hair that almost shone like the moon.

The guard fell to the ground next to the other guard, the intruder Athena entered the mansion without a moments notice.

‘Master told me to take care of the guards that might get in his way. That means I’ll have to inspect the whole mansion.’, Athena thought as she ran through the entrance hall, Shiro was going to choose another route to enter the mansion. In the meanwhile, Athena would be taking care of the guards that might get in the way.

The insides of the mansion were luxurious, the walls looked like they were covered by gold and the lights were radiating with high magic power.

Athena was covered by a face mask, only covering her mouth. She was using a pitch black outfit to be able to blend in with the shadows almost like an assassin.

Athen walked up stairs that led up to the second floor of the mansion, on the second floor was a long hallway with many doors leading to many rooms. Athena didn’t know the layout of the mansion so she simply decided to search throughout the hallway for guards that might get in the way of Shiro.

“Hey you! You’re not supposed to be here.”, one guard spotted Athena, he drew his sword and charged at her. The guard was one-meter distance from her, so she dodged the slash from the guard and used the hilt of her sword to hit the back of his neck.

The guard knew that he might lose against his opponent, thus he chose to end her quickly. But he failed to do so.

‘Master told me that if hit my enemies hard enough on the nape of the neck, they would be knocked out. However, he also told me to not use much force or else I might accidentally kill them.’, Athena thought about what Shiro has told her.

Shiro was no genius, by any means. He had this knowledge because of movies and anime, and because of the times he actually listened to his teacher during classes.

Athena continued her inspection through on the mansion, she found a couple of guards on the way. But, she finished them quickly.

Athenas swordsmanship level was as high as almost a professional swordsman, but not quite. Her swordsmanship skill was already over level five, which is considered high leveled for an adventurer.

“Guards! There’s an intruder!”, Athena heard a voice coming from further upstairs, it must’ve been Raymond shouting for guards. That must have meant that Shiro was already there.

Athena heard footsteps closing in, she ran towards the sound of footsteps and found over twenty guards running in her direction. “It’s the intruder! Stop her at all costs!”, the guard that looked like it was supposed be their leader ordered.

The guards started running towards her with their weapons unsheathed, Athena was confident that she could win against one on five against her. But, this time she was up against twenty of them.

She was scared that she might lose, the guards advantage as of right now was their numbers. They thought that if they outnumbered their opponent, they would win.

The guards were getting closer and she was starting to get even more frightened. ‘I’m outnumbered. I can’t defeat them all and if I lose here… they’ll go after master!’, Athena knew what losing here meant, and she couldn’t allow anyone to get in Shiro’s way!

Athena ran towards the guards, she unsheathed her magic sword that Willow had let her take one for herself while they were imbuing the magic swords as a gift.

“‘Flame Sword Slash’”, Athena said the name of the sword skill and her sword started glowing fire red, the soldiers took a step back. But couldn’t dodge the move, they were blown away by the flames that crossed their way.

Most of the guards were knocked out unconscious, while the others were having trouble standing up. Athena was breathing heavily, she overused her mana to get rid of most of the guards.

“Tch, stand up! We need to take down the intruder, do not let them get close to the noble’s daughter!”, the leader who was covered in burns ordered.

“Huh… it seems she’s still alive.”, a man said coming forth from the shadows, he had different armor from the guards. He only had some parts of his body covering him with metal plates, while the rest of his body was covered by leather armor for easier movement.

Athena recognizes that cold voice that pierced all meaning, it was the person who took everything from her. It was her previous tutor.

Athenas body reacted to his voice. She ran towards the man with incredible speed and swinged her sword skillfully at her opponent.

The tutor used his sword to parry her attack, a veteran at swordsmanship could not be beaten by a starter. “Not bad. You got, better didn’t you?”, he said in a manner of fact tone.

The other guards just watched them fight and slowly retreated. They knew very well that they couldn’t interfere, they weren’t skilled enough to do so.

Athena clashed swords over and over with her precious tutor, it was like a small light show with every single hit of their blades. Athena was tired from using her mana for the magic sword, so she kept her moves to a minimum.

Her tutor, on the other hand was striking fiercely without a single shred of mercy nor hesitation. “Was this how you slaughtered that village?!”, Athena asked in the middle of the battle, still concentrated on the movements of her opponent.

“Yes indeed. One of them was really troublesome, I had to make sure that one suffered.”, he said trying to irritate her. Her attacks became more powerful, she knew that she had to hold back or else she might overuse her stamina.

Athenas parents, friends, everything! Was taken away by this man. There was no way she could ever forgive him!

Athena clashed her sword one more time, due to the force of her sword, her tutor jumped back in a defensive stance. “Is have a question. Why did you do that? Why did you kill my parents? Were you contracted by someone?”, Athena asked, whipping sweat off her face.

“Alright, I’ll tell you.”, her previous tutor said. “My contractor is Lucina Ferrow. I however, was paid by her father, but the idea was hers.”, he said with smile, hoping to see what Athenas expression was.

“Figures.”, Athena whispered loud enough for him to at the very least hear her. “You already knew?”, he asked a little amazed.

“Yes, my master told me it might be the case.”, she responded holding her sword in his direction. “It seems that you are done waiting. Don’t worry I’ll send you to parent without any pain.”, he said springing into action.

He jumped off from the ground and reached all the way to the ceiling. He hit the ceiling with the sole of his feet and jumped off again, but this time towards Athena with tremendous speed.

Athena held her sword in a defensive position to block his enemy, he was too fast for her to react and that’s why she chose to protect herself instead.

Kling the sound ran throughout the entirety of the mansion, Athena was gripping her sword tightly against her opponents. The only difference though was that he was only holding it with one hand. “Not bad, however not good enough!”, he took out a dagger and threw it at Athena.

Fortunately, she barely dodged the dagger and slightly grazed her soft cheek. A small amount of blood started flowing out slowly from her wound on her cheek, she could later heal it with either a potion or ask Shiro to share his spirit.

Athena couldn’t waste time any further, if she took any longer, then the guards that retreated will report about the attack and if her previous tutor was here. That meant that there was a possibility that ‘she’ is here and she couldn’t bear to lose an opportunity like this.

“Give up! You know you can’t win!”, her tutor said activating a sword skill. “‘Silver Light Cut’”, his sword started glowing with light attribute magic. Light attribute magic is meant to manipulate ‘Light’ with ‘Light Attribute’ mana.

Unlike Shiro’s case, where he can manipulate flames without ‘Fire Attribute’ mana, but instead ‘Dark Attribute’ mana. It is a skill that he can possess thanks to ‘Dark Attribute Magic’.

Athena could barely keep her eyes open because of the shining light radiating from the sword. “Now die!”, the radiating light started gathering in the shape of the sword, then got released like a light blade.

Athena couldn’t evade the attack, she wasn’t fast enough and her Vitality and Endurance weren’t high enough to sustain the light blade.

‘…… Master…..’, Athenas voiced her last words in her mind as the radiating light blade reached her.

Suddenly, she was engulfed by a sea of black flames, she took some moments to process what happened. The black flames weren’t hurting her, they surprisingly were warm and comfortable. The light blade got devoured by the flames, absorbed and turned into mana.

As the sea of black flames disappeared, there could be a shadow seen behind Athena.

The shadow stepped out and showed itself, it was a young boy with white hair and blood red eyes. His face would make you think he is a girl and his small body looked weak, as if wind itself could blow him away. His aura is almost transparent, but if you looked closer you could see black smoke like substance coming out of him like a torrent.

“Phew. I thought I was too late.”, Shiro muttered entering the scene.

YeetusFeetus

We are almost reaching the end of Vol. 1 or at the very least what I would consider the end of 'Vol. 1' it's just 10 more chapters. I hope you all are enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it.