Red-Painted Canvas

[Ichiko's POV]

I had noticed a change in the air around us and I had a feeling that we were being attacked but before I could even react, Renzo, my bodyguard, and the Agnus bodyguard had appeared before us to block the attacks.

And before I could even put my glass of wine down, in what felt like I had teleported, my location had shifted instantly.

"What the—" I muttered in Japanese.

I was in Bell's arms and although I wanted to enjoy this feeling, the danger we were in kept my mind straight.

I watched as Renzo pull out one of the assassins' hearts.

I counted them with a quick glance and realized that there were fifteen dark figures in the room with us. And there could be more waiting outside if we try and run away.

'What to do,' I pondered.

The gears in my brain began spinning at their fastest rate as one of the assailants told his partners in Japanese, "Over there."

'Are these people from the Goto clan?' I asked myself while Bell took the glass of wine that was still in his hand and drank it in a single gulp.

I also had my glass of wine in my hand and surprisingly, no liquid spilled out.

As five of them began rushing towards us with their blades in hand, I was about to jump out of Bell's arms to fight back when like before, in an instant my body was transferred to a location.

It was a strange sensation but despite that, I didn't feel nauseous or disorientated.

When we arrived, the Agnus bodyguard panicked to find us in his blind spot and he was a mere inch away from slicing the neck of his young master.

"Sorry," he bowed while simultaneously blocking attacks behind him.

Bell placed me down on the ground and he grabbed the sword that was on the bodyguard's back.

In a single fluid motion, he pulled out the blade and vanished from the spot, reappearing in the midst of the dark figures.

He swung his blade, cutting an arm off before vanishing to a different spot as a dagger neared his chest.

Renzo, the Agnus bodyguard, and Bell were engaged in battle with the surviving twelve assassins when ten more entered the room.

'Foolish,' I shook my head. 'You could've survived a few more weeks if you didn't do this.'

Now the Goto clan was going to be wiped from existence.

With the failed ambush out of the way, there were no nerves in me because my senses were fully engaged and my mana was activated, allowing me to perceive the quick movements of these dark figures.

Chugging the glass of wine that was in my hand, I tossed it to the side and it shattered.

'How dare you interrupt my date.'

Reaching for my hair, I pulled out four hair sticks, two for each bun on my head.

Pushing the sticks together, it formed a makeshift shortsword and I coated it in my mana to enhance its durability and power.

Then I ripped the dress in the lower parts where my movements were constrained.

'I wore this dress for a special occasion. How dare they ruin it.'

While Renza was like a brute animal pulling the bodies apart with his bare hands, the Agnus bodyguard and Bell were moving in perfect synchrony, a dance of lethal precision.

Their blades cut through the air with calculated grace and after the first mistake, the bodyguard no longer mistook Bell who was bouncing around the room like a blur. Instead, he complemented his master by covering the blind spots or finishing the person who Bell had injured but didn't kill.

A symphony of combat was unfolding amidst the chaos and I wanted to admire it more but with the addition of another seven assassins, there was no more time for me to be so relaxed.

Blocking the sword aiming for my back, I created a shield of mana in front of me to block the fireball charging my way.

These people attacking us weren't weak by any means. If anything, they were probably the most elite assassins from the Goto clan.

If my father was here, he could deal with them in a few seconds but even with the four of us, I was still at risk of death at every corner.

That didn't mean I was scared though.

I've been in this situation plenty of times.

Rolling on the floor, my hair stick sword split in half into two long dagger-like weapons and I used them to block two attacks simultaneously.

As if I was about to vomit, my mouth filled up.

When I spat out what was in my mouth, a ball of lava shot out, melting the face of the person in front of me.

I grabbed the body falling towards me and threw it towards three men aiming for me.

I reattached the hair sticks into their longest form and used them to stab into the skull of the person who had turned his back on me to deal with Renzo who was handling ten assassins at the same time.

Even with all the bodies dropping, the attackers never faltered.

If anything, the attacks persisted as more and more bodies entered the room.

As I was in the midst of dealing with three at the same time by dodging and counterattacking when I had the chance to, I heard a continuous thunderous sound behind me.

Quickly, I jumped backward, and with a little bit of space between myself and the enemies, I looked to the source of the sound and saw Bell without a sword in his hand.

He was no longer teleporting around the room. I assumed this was because the ability to do so came from an artifact and the duration had run out.

Instead, he was punching anything in front of him regardless if it was a body, a fist, a magic spell, or a blade.

As soon as his punch landed, a thunderous sound popped, and whatever his fist landed on exploded.

It was as if his fists were laced with dynamite.

'Hot,' I subconsciously muttered as I flipped into the air to avoid the dragon made of water that was flying at me.

As the dragon hit the wall and tore the wall apart, I saw what was going on outside.

I sensed it with my mana but seeing it with my own eyes was different.

The grand hall of the restaurant had become an arena of fury, the clash of metal and crackling energy echoed through the corridors.

The customers who had come here to eat dinner like Bell and myself, had found themselves in a battle that they couldn't comprehend what the cause was.

Separated back into four, I threw my hair sticks as if they throwing knives and killed two with them.

"Renzo! Protect me!" I called out.

Disregarding the current battle that he was in, Renzo had appeared in front of me and with his bare hands, began focusing on blocking whatever attack came in my direction.

As I began gathering mana in my lungs, my eyes were simultaneously observing Bell who was activated spells of all sorts of elements.

This was unusual as everyone only had a single element they could cast.

But no.

Bell was casting these spells almost instantaneously and he didn't look like he was running out of mana.

'Codes?' I wondered.

"Ready!" I told Renzo who moved out of my way.

Out of my mouth, I spat out what was a tsunami of lava that reached the ceiling and it kept traveling forward, melting everything in its way.

As the last bit of lava left my body, I fell to my knee as my mana had nearly run out.

If I used anymore, death was around the corner so I had no choice but to stop.

Renzo was engaged in battle with a couple of assassins when I felt a presence from behind; it was quickly approaching and I had no energy left in my body.

As I turned my body, prepared to sacrifice my arms to save my own life, a bolt of lightning struck the man in front of me, shocking him momentarily.

It was barely a second but that was an opportunity long enough for me to get up and with a final burst of adrenaline, grab the weapon out of his hand and used it to slice his throat.

As the body collapsed, I looked at Bell who was in the middle of a fierce battle and yet, he had managed to send me an assist.

I heard the sounds outside the exclusive room get louder and when I looked to see what it was, it was the police.

'We survived,' I prematurely sighed.

With the remaining assassins in the room focused on the two bodyguards and Bell, I had the free time to steer my focus toward Bell.

Most people would have anger, hatred, joy, sadness, etc., in their gaze as they took the lives of others.

But despite the number of people he was sending into the afterlife, his eyes looked very void of those emotions.

Rather, his pupils were very calculative, constantly bouncing around, observing, and clear.

It reminded me of Father and Mother but they were veterans when it came to this kind of life.

Even though I had killed numerous people that threatened my clan, I still reacted ever so slightly when I slice someone's neck or melt their face off.

Bell looked far more experienced than me but I was confused because this city and country itself was rather peaceful.

As the police finally reached the room, the surge of power on our side pushed the balance of struggle in the room in our favor and soon, the remaining assassins were killed.

The ones that survived and were captured to be interrogated bit on something in their teeth, and a gas filled up inside them, killing them on the spot.

As I stood there, watching the three men stand in the center of all these dead bodies, their figures bathed in red, I realized that I must be drenched in blood as well.

"Towel," I told the maître de who was also bloodied from the battle.

It didn't take him more than half a minute to come back with a clean towel which I used to wipe myself as best as I could.

The view of Bell covered in blood from head to toe as if he was a canvas splashed with red paint was surprisingly very hot but it reminded me that this grand mess could be contributed to my decision.

'Goto clan... you're dead.'