Chapter 93
All the creatures she had met until now had their own individual consciousness, but those Sentinels were different. Since they were clones Segleninde had personally created, they were, for all intents and purposes, none other than him. They moved solely by Segleninde’s will.
If the Sentinels ran at her or tried to kill her, it would only mean Segleninde wanted it. Cynthia’s face was tense with anxiety.
But a nonchalant voice replied.
“We’ll see how it goes.”
“…What? Are you saying you won’t help?”
“No, not you… those guys.”
He frowned and gestured with his chin toward his clones.
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know how they’ll move.”
She wanted to ask, If you don’t know, then who does? But Cynthia swallowed the question. At this point, it was ambiguous whether his amnesia was real or not. Was he still lying, or did he truly not know? She couldn’t tell.
Still, Cynthia didn’t press any further. From here on, she had to make a desperate dash for the gazebo, avoiding those monsters with extreme speed. They were monsters so difficult to deal with that a single hit meant an instant death scene.
“If you’re not sure, then just help me. I’ll trust you.”
Saying that on purpose, Cynthia stepped outside without looking back at him.
There was quite a distance from the entrance of the Sky Garden to the gazebo. So, making sure she was as prepared as possible, she plunged into the garden at full speed.
And just as she expected, the Sentinels began rushing toward her.
Cynthia was appalled as she saw the large men, coming at her from all sides, intent on her.
Slash!
Blood spattered behind her. When she turned in surprise, Segleninde, who had followed her, was swinging his sword at his clones. With each slash, the clones turned into white petals and scattered, and amid them, he looked at Cynthia with a complicated expression.
Cynthia averted her gaze from him and darted forward. Mixed feelings collided within her.
Why was he helping her? He’d just said he wasn’t sure how those things would move, that he’d act depending on how things went. Did he mean that if the Sentinels didn’t obey his will, he’d intervene?
Or could it be that even his own will was conflicted now, just like hers? The will that didn’t want to let Cynthia go, and the will that wanted to help her.
“Ugh!”
Cynthia twisted her body to narrowly avoid a hand that suddenly shot out to grab her.
Her usually useless ‘Agility’ stat finally shone. She barely escaped that grasp and dashed far away in a single burst.
Even she was amazed by how light her body felt. If only she’d used her agility sooner, instead of always being scared. She even felt a bit resentful.
But immediately, another clone tried to grab her from the side.
“Ahhh!”
Cynthia spun and dodged, the missed hand scraping the air, and she quickly sprinted away. More clones waited ahead, but she darted nimbly past them, weaving around and finally arriving just in front of the gazebo.
Desperately running with all her might, she managed to evade most of the clones, but even though Segleninde was handling many of them, there were simply too many. Several quickly caught up to her.
Just as three or four Sentinels were about to grab the back of Cynthia’s neck, she twisted acrobatically to avoid their hands, and at the same time, Segleninde—who had just cut down the clones rushing at him—sliced through the Sentinels’ waists with his sword.
The Sentinels’ upper bodies split in half, and gasping for breath, Cynthia finally reached the gazebo at the center of the Sky Garden.
At that moment, the clones lying in ambush around the area all rushed her at once.
“Agh!”
Cynthia quickly ducked to avoid two hands reaching for her from both sides, rolled across the floor, and tumbled into the gazebo.
With urgent eyes, she scanned the inside of the gazebo and spotted something placed at the center of the table.
A round silver pendant adorned with four jewels, set atop a soft cushion.
That was the magic device that would open the mansion’s door.
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