Griffins

The journey proceeded smoothly, and after almost an hour in complete silence, they could finally see their destination.

We've arrived!

From the front window of the carriage, Maria watched excitedly as they slowly approached.

Eh?

As the carriage moved forward, Maria immediately perceived that this was not an ordinary place. The structure itself seemed imbued with magic, with towers soaring into the sky.

Are they watching us from this distance?

The stone of the walls had a particular sheen that, under the sunlight, transformed to display various colors, creating a captivating visual effect.

How beautiful…

The garden around the mansion was filled with plants that moved slightly, even without wind, as if they were breathing. The flowers emitted a soft light that illuminated the path to the entrance.

Is that flower watching me, or is it my imagination?

Maria had several questions swirling in her mind, but she dared not vocalize them.

Not in front of…

When her gaze returned to the inside of the carriage, Elizabeth was awake and had a serious look.

This scared Maria, but it appeared she was not looking at her.

She was just alert.

Why?

As they approached the grand door of the mansion, they noticed that the two griffin statues guarding it were not mere steel sculptures.

Their eyes, embedded with stones that seemed like emeralds, glowed with a supernatural intensity, following their every move.

The carriage stopped and without a word, Elizabeth stepped out.

Slowly, she approached the griffins and announced:

"We come so that Hugo may train Miss Aria, let us pass."

"We have no information about this, please leave," one of the griffins immediately replied.

This response made Elizabeth let out a small chuckle.

Was this a joke?

It was impossible that Lucia had lied about Hugo expecting them.

"Go and ask your master," said Elizabeth, visibly annoyed.

"Vampire detected," announced the other statue before charging at Elizabeth.

Heavy!

Elizabeth thought as she shielded herself with her forearms from the griffin's charge.

The other griffin took the opportunity to rise before swiftly descending, trying to attack her with its claws.

Did they want to crush her?

Pushing the griffin in front of her, Elizabeth moved back to dodge the one falling from the sky.

What a mess.

The loud noise of the griffin's fall caused the horses to panic, making the carriage move chaotically.

Without hesitation, Elizabeth pointed her finger at two key points on the carriage, where the horses were tethered, so they could escape without flipping the carriage.

She injured a finger with the nail of her thumb and, using the tip of it, shot blood.

Luckily, it worked. The horses fled and did not cause any damage to the carriage, but now the problem was that it was very close to the griffins.

Should she kill them?

While thinking about how to finish off the griffins, she instinctively jumped back, and one of the energy beams attacking her disintegrated her ankle.

Initially, her reaction was indifference, but then she thought:

What if this had hit Miss Aria?

She is not a vampire yet, and such a wound...

Imagining Aria crying made Elizabeth's anger gradually grow.

Without saying a word, she tore the palm of her hands with her nails to form a large red scythe, twice her size.

Although she was without a foot, she leaned on her other limb to propel herself towards the griffins.

She had to be quick.

Slicing them in half would be easy, but she needed to solve the problem of the beams.

Did they come from the towers?

It didn't matter, first things first.

"Ah!" Elizabeth screamed as she crashed face-first into a barrier that had appeared in front of the griffins.

Damn.

What had broken?

As she got up with the help of her scythe, she noticed her nose was broken and felt a slight back pain, but...

Who had created that barrier?

Looking around, she saw a magician floating in the air.

"Sorry, it seems there was a small misunderstanding here," said the magician.

Elizabeth, now with her foot regenerated, stood up and asked:

"Are you satisfied?"

The magician, hearing that question, let out a small smile, which couldn't be clearly seen because of the distance between him and Elizabeth.

"Your regeneration and strength are amazing, you're a vampire specialized in combat, right?"

"I'm not obliged to answer your question, magician. Are you going to let us pass or shall we force our way through?" Elizabeth asked in a threatening tone.

Certainly, the magician had powerful tools, but Elizabeth was sure that sooner or later she would defeat him.

After all...

He was human.

Maria, who had been watching the fight from the start, didn't know which side to support.

Despite her ignorance about magic, that magician seemed very powerful!

However, Elizabeth's brute force, along with her regeneration...

There was also the factor that they didn't know this magician...

How had they ended up in such a problematic situation again?

If those beams were aimed at them now…

Maria, due to her growing concern, turned to look at Aria, who was also watching the fight, but her face showed total indifference.

It seemed that Aria was just coldly analyzing what was happening, and the outcome didn't matter to her.

How enviable!

Maria wished to be a child right now to have the same mindset, but, thinking about it...

A child of that age would not behave like this in such a situation!

Maria began to curse the day she decided to become a maid…

So many problems for so little pay…