I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 387: A Thoughtful Trap

Unexpected didn’t even begin to cover the nature of this strange turn of events.

White Feather froze with a dark frown for a moment, not saying anything to them. Then her regality returned, and she straightened with an unassailable dignity, looking down at them.

"Take me to your Harbormaster-General. I must make clear this misunderstanding."

The Guards seethed with anger, tightening their grips on their swords.

"To hell with you, so you can kill him too?!"

"We read your message clearly — your pretense of being our friend, just to bring down Crystalis. Drop that damn mask of yours; the entire continent has become your enemy!"

"Even if you’re Crystalis’ Grand Merchant, you don’t have the right to act like a god! Killing three of our island’s Harbormasters!" another shouted, his voice sounding with pained anger.

White Feather’s face went paler, her eyes trembling.

Clearly, she didn’t expect this.

The answer, of course, was quite obvious.

The intelligence she received from the Patriarch about that fiend Fairywind was that he wanted to return to the surface, but the Patriarch did not know what exactly he desired to achieve and could not discern it. All he knew was that Fairywind wanted the Thousand Waves Artifact and wanted to return to the surface of Crystalis.

Now, though, from the way I looked at things, it seemed that the charming fiend had deliberately set a trap for White Feather, knowing full well that she was going to chase him.

’He’s trying to stall her...’

He either was after something much greater or trying to reach somewhere, and he knew that White Feather would most likely seek to clarify the injustice perpetrated in her name.

Even as I stood beside her, thinking, she was trying to reason with them, but they were consumed by deep enmity and burning with fiery rage.

’We can’t afford to get caught...’

Instantly, it was clear to me.

White Feather stepped forward.

"I will follow you to your Harbormaster-General, but I demand to be treated with grace!"

The men shouted with rage.

"To hell with you! You think you have a choice in this?!"

"Alert the others! We have found the traitor!"

The soldier in front of us raised his hand and held a flail gun out to the sky. He was about to shoot before a sharp blow blurred into his neck. Before he could even process it, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.

The others were immediately startled, their reaction was swift, even commendable. But they were simply too slow.

One swung at my approaching figure in a wide arc, but in my eyes, his hand moved in a pathetic pattern, layered with openings I could calmly exploit. But I didn’t have the time to spare.

There were still two gunmen behind me, and I was quite sure that they were already aiming.

I appeared behind him and chopped the side of my hand into his neck, knocking him out. At the same time, chains shot out as the guns in their hands resounded. The bullets met the chains in a spray of sparks and bounced back — one rolled irredeemably off course, while the other bounced back viciously and grazed the shoulder of one of the Guards.

He gasped, gripping his shoulder and staggering back. In the same breath as he staggered, I was behind him. My hand rested against his back to stop him from falling further. His eyes widened in pale shock, but before he could speak... or shout, he was knocked out cold.

The last one was smart, putting a wide distance between us with several leaps. He had already turned to run away. Reinforcements were not too far away, after all.

’Uh, no, can’t allow that...’

The chain shot out with blurring speed, latching onto his legs and dragging him back. He let out a ferocious cry but hit the ground quickly, so the shout was cut short before it could last more than a second.

I knocked him out and walked back to the entrance of Gilbert’s ship.

White Feather stood there, slight confusion visible on her face.

"Lord Cade, it would have been better to—"

"No..." I interrupted her. "That would simply be a waste of time. All of this is a diversion to keep you from pursuing him. Fairywind has thoroughly prepared a plan to stall you. He does not want us to chase him... so that’s exactly what we are going to do."

I stepped back into the airship.

"Gilbert, we’re going to be in a race for a while. How confident are you in outrunning all of these Chain Guard forces?"

Gilbert grinned menacingly.

"Hehe, did you forget my elusive nature that brought you to me to begin with?"

I smiled faintly as I settled down.

"But our problem is not going to be the Chain Guard."

My eyes lingered on him, tightening slightly.

"It’s the Naval Prefecture."

He said... and shrugged.

"...Well, the Prefecture, as they call themselves."

A light of recognition flickered in my eyes.

’I remember those...’

I frowned.

"I thought they were simply operating over the sea?"

Gilbert chuckled, already starting Nightyell’s bestial engines.

"Well, that was the point of creating them, but they’re the oldest policing force on the continent, even seeing themselves as the most important of the Harborwatch. They have both the aerial prefecture and the naval ones. Pray we are lucky enough not to run into them."

I smacked my teeth in regret.

’Even if we wouldn’t... wait, wait, wait — don’t even bother thinking about it! Why did this fool have to mention it?!’

Gilbert glanced back before levitating the ship. On the ground, the others seemed to have noticed the the commotion, more so, the noise as the ship roared to life was thundering. They were quite far away but were observing from their positions, even from atop the enormous mother air vessel.

So I couldn’t help but internally question what was so important that he had to pause at this decisive moment.

"By the way... do you think it would be possible to have you and that scary lady defend for a bit while I scavenge some ship parts from..."

He paused and swallowed.

"Never mind."

Turning away, he muttered,

"Gods, it was just a suggestion. You don’t have to look like I killed your mother or something."

Nightyell took to the sky, levitating for a moment before flashing away with reassuring speed.