The audacity

"..."

Adrianna herself seemed to have lost her temper and leaned back with her palm opening for a slap that she unleashed without a second thought!

Her actions didn't escape the attention of the high priest's bodyguards, and the one closer reached out his hand.

By grabbing Adrianna's wrist, he intended to stop the hit before it could land on the pudgy face of his protectee...

"?!?!"

...but at the moment of contact, his own face twisted in panic as he realized that the interception was impossible - the girl's hand continued moving regardless of his efforts.

"...!"

The other bodyguard realized that something was terribly wrong, so he stepped in to join the efforts to prevent the slap from landing. He pushed out both of his hands against the maid's forearm, engaging his entire body to hold her down…

"!!!"

AND ALSO FAILING!

*KA-WHAM*

With all of that happening in a mere couple of fractions of a second, the high priest, confident in his inviolability because of both his status and the strength of his bodyguards, wasn't ever able to register the devastating slap connecting to his face and sending him flying across the street.

Together with said bodyguards, who were unable to even hold on to the maid's arm, they pierced through the rain as the other people gathered there could only watch in utter disbelief.

"..."

Adrianna raised her hand once more.

She briefly pointed at the three twitching bodies struggling to get up and comprehend what had happened to them down the street...

...and after apparently saying whatever she had to say, she ended the encounter with a very polite curtsy, after which she turned right around to return to her lady's side with her head held high.

The largest man in the other group, and also the first person to shake off the shock, rushed after the maid, reaching out his hand to grab her…

*crack*

"AURGH…!"

"Papa?!"

But the next moment, his pained cry resounded over the storm as he was clenching his hand to his abdomen. The hand that the brown-haired girl slapped down without glancing his way even through the rain seemed to be seriously injured, resulting in Catherine's pitifully yelp full of worry.

"Adiiiiii!"

"...?!"

As the maid returned, Melinda cried out, jumping at her while reaching out her arms and hugging the brown-haired girl, giving her a slight scare.

"M-my lady!?"

Adrianna gasped in confusion over being hugged and having her head patted affectionately.

"I'm sorry you had to deal with such awful person for me! Please don't worry about anything he said to or about you, Adi. You are the best!"

"...about me…? Why would I worry about something that such scum said about m… Ah,…! Never mind that... It's alright, my lady! I'm your personal maid, and this was nothing!"

Melinda declared while comforting the baffled maid, who managed only to let out a gasp before her eyes widened in realisation. She played along shortly before getting a hold of her lady's shoulders, pulling her away, and reassuring her in return.

"That said, it seems the last ruffian was Miss Catherine's father…"

"!!!"

Zane leaned down between the girls and pointed out, making the timid girl flinch and cower, looking as if she was ready to run away at a moment's notice.

"Miss Catherine, do not worry. I believe he learned his lesson already, so there should be no need to reprimand him again."

"...!"

Adrianna stepped away from Melinda and bowed her head to the utterly confused Catherine, speaking in a way that showed she had no doubt that the other party was at fault.

"That said… It might be kind of bad… you know… you did slap the high priest…"

Melinda furrowed her brows and glanced over her shoulder with concerned look, cheking on the whole bunch of people gathered around the rude clergyman and his bodyguards.

"...I know… But! I didn't introduce myself as your personal maid. I didn't have a chance since he started talking before I finished curtsying…"

Adrianna lowered her head apologetically but then looked up at Melinda with a rather mischievous smile.

"...and because of that, and with a small aid for your Background Character ability…"

The gold-haired girl returned the smile, and then both girls looked up at Zane.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better the chance it will all blow over. Understood. On we go!"

Zane rolled his eyes at the two girls, but then he snickered and rushed all three—including the confused Catherine who was out of the loop—to the center of the formation.

"Sir mage, if you would be so kind… The time for our reservation has already come."

"...!"

After herding the girls, the monstrous servant put down one of the suitcases and raised his hand, waving it to get the attention of one of the mages in charge of maintaining the entire structure.

Keeping the proper timetable was necessary while operating a complicated magic construct like the teleportation array. With bad timing, two or more travelers from different locations could try to teleport to the same array, and the convergence of magic gates layering one on top of the other could not only cause their death but also the violent explosion of the array itself.

The magic-powered explosion of the core of the crystal golem could easily swallow more than half of the city like Chainlink, not to mention the mana fallout ending up summoning various monsters not normally seen in the region.

A man-made natural disaster like that had to be prevented at all costs.

Therefore, despite having mixed feelings about letting the person who slapped the high priest slip away, the mage and all of his colleagues began the cast, activating the formation.

The next moment, the group of four and their baggage were swallowed by the rising horizontal gate of light.

"That girl…!"

…all while down the street, high priest Ceto, being helped to his feet by his roughed-up bodyguard, growled in fury with a glowing red handprint across his pudgy face.

"...that…! That…?"

Even though the rage was boiling his blood, for a moment his expression changed into a confused one, as if he wasn't exactly sure who exactly he was cursing at…