The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 37: Thirty-six

"Rescue my people?" Jannah hissed, glaring at the system, "What the hell does that mean?! What do you mean ’rescue my people’, huh?!"

[Oh, no! The Countess’s people got ambushed! The town of Rye has her people!]

Jannah’s arms tightened around the baby leopard as she read the text, her eyes going from left to right.

"Ambushed?" She whispered, disbelief and disdain dripping from her voice.

[The mission (Rescue my people) is now on going! Please, press here if the player wishes to see more details about the mission.]

"Isn’t it obvious that I want to know the details?" Jannah growled under her breath, raising her hand to press the glowing text of here in the system.

The small square shape of the system turned into a bigger one, expanding its size in a blink of an eye.

[Rescue my people:

Jeriel and the Countess’s people she guided to the town was denied entry at first, but when the people of the town saw the carriage and saw the contents of the crates, they captured them.

Seize the townsfolk with another noble to complete the mission!

Rewards will be given according to the percentage of thoroughness of the mission.]

The people captured them because of the powdered Echinacea? Jannah pursed her lips, reading the details of the given task.

Purr.

The vibration on her arms helped her relaxed the tension on her shoulders for a bit, making her read through the system’s texts more calmly.

As she contemplate on what to do about the rescue mission, the knights of the Duke have catched up to her. Each one of them are left panting for oxygen.

"How come you’re so fast, Countess?" Dante heaved out, borderline whining to her.

"She’s a knight just like us." Loren wiped the sweat off from his forehead by the back of his hand, blowing out air through his mouth.

"Women is faster than men as far as I can remember." Arthur backed up Loren’s statement, coughing out because his throat felt dry.

"My lady, why did you run? Are you okay—" Duke Eulicies stopped talking right away when Jannah held up her hand, placing a finger on her lips, shushing the knights.

They exchanged glances, nodding their heads and kept their mouth shut.

She gestured towards the forest, signalling for everyone to make a run for it and run first to lead the knights. The leopards were silent as they they followed behind her almost immediately.

Then, all of the knights had run after her, their footsteps light and quiet, not making a single sound.

"The town still has its people." Jannah informed them, voice hushed into a whisper.

"Then why didn’t they let you in? Why are we still out here?" The Duke asked, glancing at the wooden walls of Rye, catching a glimpse of a person’s silhouette walking around.

"That’s the problem." Jannah sighed out as she glared at the town’s gates, "It seems like they captured my people."

"What?!" Dante gasped loudly before Loren covered his mouth to stop him from making a scene.

"What do you mean by that?" Duke Eulicies stepped a bit closer, leaning down to hear her clearer, but the mother leopard walked between them.

He glared at the leopard, his purple eyes housing an icy look as the leopard’s eyes turn into beads.

"I could hear them whispering inside the town when I reached the gates. I told them my name, my status, and called for my little sister, but they didn’t let me in." Jannah murmured, a displeased expression on her face.

I actually didn’t know they got captured. The system told me by the mission, but I can’t exactly tell them that. She looked away from the town to look at the knights.

"Guess that gives us a valid reason to arrest them." Arthur straightened his posture, standing tall and looking over his fellow nights.

Now that she paid attention to them, she noticed how Arthur is the tallest and the most muscular knight among them. His dark skin accompanied with dark locks and battle scars that is visible in his arms made him look intimidating.

However, as far as she’s concerned, she could tell that he’s the gentlest among them.

Dante struggled against Loren’s hold and successfully freed his mouth from Loren’s hand, "Arrest them? Why would we arrest them if they robbed the Countess’s people? I say we march in there and teach them a lesson!"

"That’s not how it works, dumbass." Kean grumbled out, glaring at him.

"What’s your plan, my lady?" Duke Eulicies decides to disregard his knights and turned to Jannah.

Hearing his question, they also turned to her. After all, the final decision is still up to her.

Jannah stared at them, the cogwheels in her mind turning and clanking as she think of something. Her little sister and servants just got captured for who knows how long.

What can she do to save them? How will she be able to get inside the town without the townsfolk noticing?

[Ding!]

The familiar sound echoed in her mind, making her look at the system.

[Skill window unlocked.]

She raised an eyebrow, not knowing what the system meant by that. She’s familiar with window and skill, but the two words are combined. Does it mean something else?

How do I use this skill window thing? Her mind focused on the most important thing. Should I think of the skill window to use it?

She tried, like how she did when she entered her name when the system asked for her name, but nothing happened. It didn’t work. Her eyes narrowed at that, the same text still in front of her.

What the hell is a skill window? Jannah’s eyebrows creased greatly, alarming the knights around her.

[Ding!]

[The Skill window shows all the acquired skills of the player and it can be opened by saying or thinking: open skill window.]

Finally. Jannah’s shoulders sagged when the system told her how to open the new feature.

Open skill window. She ordered the system. As soon as she thought about it, the square system before her eyes changed shaped and got bigger than the ones she have seen so far.

Not only that, a lot of texts got shown with different plus signs beside it.

[Skills:

Active skills:

Command (+)

Concealment (+)

Elemental Wall (+)

Rebellion (+)

Passive Skills:

Life Wall (+)

Regeneration (+)

Retaliate (+)

Devotion (+)

Endure (+)

More skills will be added once the player has invite another person to her party.]

"Countess? Are you okay?" Duke Eulicies’s voice have brought back Jannah to reality.

She blinked, glancing away from the skill window momentarily to look at the Duke. She pursed her lips, only nodding her head towards him since she don’t know if her voice will work.

There are skills that she’s not aware she has— passive skills? Active skills? Does the system seriously think that she’s in game right now? The system itself doesn’t make sense to her, how could it treat her situation like a game?

I’ll think about this thing later. She swore with her life, pushing the thought aside for now.

She eyed the skill window for a moment, a lightbulb lighting up above her head as the cogwheels stopped spinning and locked into place.

"To be honest, I don’t know what to do to get inside the town." Jannah decided to come clean to the knights, knowing that she will need to convince them to save her people.

Although, they have already voiced out their opinions about the matter, but still, it wouldn’t hurt to score brownie points, right?

"I’m just worried about Jeriel." Jannah lowered her gaze as she squeezed the leopard in her arms, earning herself a quiet mew from the baby, "And my people, they’re not trained like Jeriel."

[Favorability increased.]

The mother leopard started to purr, rubbing her vibrating body against her leg after she sensed that something’s troubling Jannah.

"Just like I said, we attack them head on—" Dante got his mouth covered again by Loren when he tried to shout.

She looked up, meeting Loren’s eyes.

"Don’t listen to this fool, Countess." He smiled at her and tightened his arms around Dante’s shoulders to lock him in place.

"Don’t worry, my lady." Duke Eulicies stepped in front of her, blocking Loren and Dante from her sight, "Me and my knights will do something to get inside the town before sunrise. You just have to wait right here."

She doesn’t like the idea of them making themselves as the bait, but she decided to trust him.

"Okay." She straightened her posture, "I’ll wait here and let you guys do what you need to do."

After that quick discussion, the knights walked back to the gates, leaving Jannah and the leopards by the tree lines.

She watched the Duke slammed his fists against the gates which soon got copied by his fellow knights. They kept knocking on the thick wood, not caring if they bruise their knuckles in the process.

However, the moment the gates opened, she made a beeline to the right side of the town.

"Please let this work." All she could do is pray under her breath as she muttered the skill, "Elemental wall."