Chapter 203 - Chapter 203: Ambush
After leaving the music box shop, the group headed for Natalia's house.
The Granville family home was located between the noble district and the commoner district. It was a relatively safe area where homes of lower nobles and wealthy commoners were mixed together.
However, not today.
A group of five men, looking like thugs, approached Arthur and the others. One of them glared at Natalia.
"Hey, come along with us for a bit."
Hearing that, Natalia began to tremble. Lilia, who should have attacked first, had no experience in actual combat without guards, and could not move.
However, the other members were not like that.
Isabella sneered at the man.
"Hmph, where would such a sense of duty come from?"
"Your tough talk won't last long."
Saying that, all five men reached for their blades.
However, before they could draw them, they were defeated by Isabella and Arthur. It was truly an instant event. Bella also reacted, but seeing the opponents' movements, she judged that there was no problem in not intervening, and left it to the two of them.
The men were left with broken arms and one leg, rolling on the ground. Even if they tried to do something from here, they could not move quickly, so they were no longer a threat.
Arthur spoke to Natalia, who was still trembling.
"Is the security this bad around here?"
"No, never before has anything like this happened..."
Pale and trembling, Natalia managed to answer.
Arthur then said to such Natalia:
"You'd better close your eyes and cover your ears."
Saying that, he turned his back to her.
And he glared at the men lying on the ground.
"Well, which one of you was the target?"
He asked, but the men looked away and remained silent.
Then, Arthur sighed.
"Hah, missing the last chance. Bella, make them want to answer."
"Understood."
Bella answered matter-of-factly, then grabbed the left ear of one of the men and tore it off in one motion.
"Gyaaaaaaaaa!"
The man whose ear was torn off screamed.
"From now on, I will continue until you speak, and I will not hesitate."
When Arthur said that, Bella grabbed the next man's ear and tore it off in the same way.
Natalia had been told to close her eyes, but because she did not understand the meaning and kept them open, she saw this scene and her face turned even paler. She was so pale she almost fainted.
Lilia was the same.
Noticing this, Isabella stood in front of the two and covered their eyes with her hands.
"Are you not used to this kind of thing?"
Lilia could not answer that question. Being attacked and torturing the attacker were both first experiences for her, and she had been raised far away from such things.
On the other hand, Isabella and Arthur, who had experienced ambushes including Michael, were not shaken by this. Michael, in particular, regretted that he could not move, but felt not a shred of fear.
"It's impossible..."
That was all Lilia could manage to say.
"But you're Arthur's fiancée, right? If you get married, I think the chances of being targeted will increase even more."
"..."
The larger the vested interests, the more opportunities there are to be targeted.
Lilia realized this only now.
However, in this case, Natalia was the one who was targeted. The man whose ear was not torn off confessed out of self-preservation.
The content of the confession was that he had received instructions from a mafia boss to torture Natalia, and if possible, abduct her.
"Heh, targeting Natalia at this timing means the mastermind is already known."
When Arthur said that, the guards rushed over.
"We received a report that the men were beaten down. What is going on?"
When the guard leader asked, Bella responded.
"We are the son of Lord Archibalt and his study companion. These men tried to attack us, so we fought back. We just asked a few questions to confirm the background of the ambush."
"Ah, is this the son of Lord Dragon Head Medal?"
With that said, one could not claim the questions were torture, and the matter ended with just confirming names. Leaving the cleanup of the men to the guards, Arthur and the others left the scene.
A little distance away, Lilia asked Arthur.
"Um, does Lord Arthur always experience ambushes like that?"
"Of course not always. Well, but last time assassins attacked at school. Michael was almost killed."
The story was not widely spread, so Lilia did not know, but there had been an attack at school. Furthermore, Arthur and Isabella had undergone training disguised as ambushes many times.
They were attacked by people playing the role of criminals without being told in advance that it was training. Now, Arthur and Isabella have become stronger, and the ambush role has become dangerous, so they stopped doing it, but in the past, they had done such training many times. That is why their bodies move even in sudden moments.
"Um, about making them confess..."
Remembering Bella's torture, she asked timidly. Thinking that she might have experienced such things too, she found her fiancée terribly frightening.
"No, I'm not used to it either. It was good that Bella was there, but if I had to do that myself, I don't know if I could have done it."
Lilia looked at Bella after hearing that.
There was nothing to read from Bella's expressionless face, but that was what made it even more frightening.
"Steve doesn't want the children to do such things, so I do everything."
Lilia wanted to guess the relationship between the woman guarding Lord Dragon Head Medal by calling him by name, but she felt she should not touch on that and decided not to think about it further. Then, she remembered hearing about a woman called "Hound" in the Archibalt family. The rumor was that she was Steve Tiess Archibalt's mistress and possessed combat abilities surpassing the commander of the Royal Guard Knights Order.
Bella was not introduced to the Margrave Remington family because she was not family, but seeing that story and the woman before her eyes, it was clear that she was Bella.
Once understood, a tension like walking on thin ice arose. The fear that if she provoked Isabella in front of Bella, she would be eliminated without hesitation. Even if it was the other party's misunderstanding, there would be no time to explain.
Next to such a tense Lilia, Natalia, whose crisis had passed, was looking at Arthur with a passionate gaze.