Chapter 181: The Snow Princess’s Intervention

Jeanne Decker quickly turned her head to look.

At the entrance of the villa, Count Gina was emerging with the cloaked guest.

For them, the best outcome would be for Count Gina to bid farewell to his guest right there. Once the guest departed, they could storm the villa and eliminate the Count.

However, to their dismay, they watched as both individuals boarded the same carriage.

“They’re heading back to the city together?” Jeanne Decker’s expression grew solemn.

“It seems they have further arrangements; this won’t be as smooth as we hoped.” Alice Liddell slowly rose. “But there’s no other choice. The opportunity to catch Count Gina in such a secluded place is too rare. Let’s proceed as planned!”

Inside the swaying carriage, Count Gina was speaking voluminously to the guest seated opposite him. “Our materials are guaranteed to satisfy you completely. Feel free to inspect them at the merchant guild. Rest assured, if any material proves flawed during the transaction, we will take full responsibility!”

“Let’s hope so.” A cold reply emanated from beneath the opposite cloak.

“As for the price, we can offer you a fifteen percent discount from the export market price here. How does that sound?” Count Gina brought up the matter of cost.

“Isn’t your export tax roughly the same amount? Do you call that a discount?” The guest seemed unimpressed by the proposal.

“That’s not quite right. You would still be making a substantial profit…”

“Twenty percent off,” the other person stated, cutting him off.

“That’s far too much…” Count Gina’s face clouded with difficulty. “Alright, then, out of respect for you, seventeen percent! I cannot go any lower. You understand that we also bear risks in this endeavor!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a coachman’s shriek and horses’ whinnies erupted from outside.

The carriage lurched to a sudden halt, nearly throwing its occupants forward.

‘What’s going on!?’ Count Gina practically tumbled onto the carriage floor. The first thing he did upon righting himself was to open the small window and roar at the coachman.

“Someone’s here!” The coachman’s voice was grim as he drew his sword.

He was not merely a coachman but also one of Count Gina’s hired bodyguards—a retired knight.

Alice Liddell, her face tightly wrapped in a witch’s gown, stood in the center of the road, revealing only her eyes, along with the horns on her head and the wings on her back.

In her demonic form, she began to cast her Dream Weaver ability.

Her target was not the people, but the horses pulling the carriage. Applying such mind-control abilities to animals was considerably easier than using them on humans.

She drew the horses into a nightmare of her own creation, making them perceive a pack of wolves charging head-on.

With a piercing shriek, the frightened horses stomped their hooves twice in panic, then bolted wildly, veering off the road and galloping into the rough, uneven wilderness.

The wheels bounced violently over the jagged rocks, making the occupants of the carriage feel as though they were aboard a small boat caught in a raging storm.

The coachman futilely tugged at the reins several times. Finally, seeing that the carriage was about to overturn, he made a crucial decision: he swung his longsword, slicing through the ropes that secured the harness and the shafts.

The runaway horses broke free from the carriage, galloping away and vanishing into the night.

Deprived of power, the carriage’s hard shafts dropped, digging into the ground and bringing it to an abrupt halt. The coachman tumbled from his seat, rolling on the ground to mitigate the impact before quickly getting to his feet.

Then, the footsteps of the attackers drew near.

The coachman looked in the direction of the sound, spotting two blurry figures, and immediately pointed his sword at them.

‘Ordinary bandits, he could handle them with his skill’—this thought lasted only a second before he dismissed it. One of the figures opposite him suddenly conjured a green fireball in their hand and hurled it at him.

He dodged, but the fireball grazed him slightly, igniting a small flame on his body, which he swiftly patted out.

However, in the next moment, a strange dread welled up in his heart, sending a shiver down his spine.

“Our target is only Count Gina of the Cauchon family. If you don’t wish to die, leave now,” Alice Liddell’s altered voice commanded.

Driven by fear, the coachman sheathed his sword and fled.

The inexplicably maddened horses and the eerie green flame clearly indicated that his opponents were powerful blasphemers, and there were two of them. He stood no chance of winning.

‘Count Gina doesn’t possess much combat ability, and he had no idea who the female guest he hosted today was.’

The remuneration Count Gina paid was worth risking his life slightly, but not for a battle that was certain death.

“You scoundrel! Where are you going!” The carriage door was kicked open, and an enraged Count Gina leaped out, shouting at the coachman’s retreating back.

Standing behind Alice Liddell, Jeanne Decker silently drew her sword, preparing to advance and swiftly end the man’s life.

Hearing the commotion, Count Gina whirled around, immediately raising his hands in front of him. He hastily cried, “Wait! I don’t know who sent you, but no matter how much that person offered you, I can pay double—no, triple! I’m not asking you to do anything else, just to spare me here. What do you say?”

“The person in the carriage, come down and leave.” Alice Liddell ignored him, repeating her words towards the carriage. “Our target is only him.”

“Don’t, don’t come any closer!” Count Gina suddenly felt as though he might wet himself.

Just then, a clear female voice emerged from within the carriage: “Count, it seems you’ve made some formidable enemies.”

‘That voice…’ Alice Liddell’s eyes widened instantly.

“Don’t say such things! Help me!” Count Gina could only appeal to his guest for assistance now.

Jeanne Decker cautiously halted. Count Gina was appealing to his female guest for help; could it be that…

‘That guest possesses combat abilities?’

“Twenty-five percent off,” the person stated, her tone leaving no room for argument.

“No problem!!!” Count Gina shrieked.

A chilling sensation immediately seized Alice Liddell. She distinctly felt the threat of death, accompanied by an agonizing, numbing pain that shot through her entire body, starting from her right shoulder. After advancing to the Sixth Rank, her precognitive abilities had become clearer than ever.

In that moment, the “exhibition match” she had witnessed on her first day at the Cathedral Academy flashed through her mind.

A dazzling light suddenly erupted within the carriage, casting a brilliant white glow from its doors and windows.

Jeanne Decker instinctively activated Divine Sanctuary. However, Alice Liddell took a drastically different action: she raised her hand and violently shoved Jeanne Decker’s shoulder, pushing her away with force, while simultaneously using the momentum to propel herself in the opposite direction.

One side of the carriage was blown apart, and a blinding bolt of lightning shot out, streaking between the two women and shattering rocks in the distance.

“They actually managed to dodge that.”

Under Alice Liddell and Jeanne Decker’s horrified gazes, the cloaked female guest gracefully leaped from the shattered carriage, drawing a sword hilt from beneath her cloak.

Vapor coalesced, freezing into ice on the hilt. The ice rapidly grew, transforming into a crystalline, translucent rapier.

“Let’s see how long you can last, little thieves.” Count Gina’s guest, the Snow Princess, slowly raised her face, her cold eyes reflecting the figures of the two women.

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