The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 39: Thirty-eight

"That was easy." Jannah mumbled under her breath, feeling the surge of energy around her body disappeared, the red glow on her skin vanishing.

"Come on, it’s okay to come inside now." She called the three cubs, lifting the limping one into her arms and held the door open until the two baby leopards got inside.

"Mmpph?!"

Jannah closed the door, locking it. She took a quick scan around the room before her gaze collided with Jeriel’s.

"Mmpph!"

"Jeri!" Jannah sighed out, making her way across the room to kneel beside her little sister, she completely disregard the dead mad beside her and eyed the binds on Jeriel’s wrist.

She placed the leopard down on the floor, being careful not to hurt the baby further before she pulled the cloth down so Jeriel could speak.

"What the hell was that?" Jeriel’s first words were ignored as Jannah grabbed the dagger from her hip, that was placed horizontally on her sword’s sheath, and cut the rope on Jeriel’s wrists.

"What do you mean by what was that? I simply came here to rescue my people." Jannah decided to play dumb and move to Marco, cutting the rope around his wrists.

"You suddenly appeared in the door way!" Jeriel hissed, watching Jannah free Lucienta next.

"Oh, that?" Jannah blinked as she set her knights free from their binds, Jeremiah and Haile, "Just a skill I got after I left Kentucky with the Duke and his knights."

"I don’t understand." Jeriel’s face scrunched up, "It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me what happened, but please tell me that you’re not a witch."

Jannah ceased her movement from cutting the rope around Aran’s wrists and looked at them, "Will you guys leave me if I were one?"

"No!"

"No, my lady."

"Never, Countess!"

They simultaneously answered, a specific look crossing their faces, similar to offended and disdain.

"Then why does it matter if I were a witch or not?" She smiled at them, going back on freeing Aran from the rope before going to Lilo and freeing her from her binds.

"So I will know what to do just in case someone else we don’t trust see you use your abilities." Jeriel stated with a matter-of-fact tone.

As if to back Jeriel with her words, the three baby leopards let out a cheerful mewl.

"See? Even these cats agreed with me." Jeriel threw her hands in the air, sighing dramatically as she cross her arms in her chest.

Jannah thought about it, a distant look crossing her eyes for a moment before she shook it off as quickly as it came.

"Actually, I don’t know if I’m a witch or not." Jannah chuckled out, cutting Kirie’s rope and got off her knees, "It suddenly appeared so I didn’t think too much about it."

"Appeared? What do you—" Jeriel stopped her words midway which made Jannah look at her, "Is that blood on your coat? Why is there blood on your cheek?!"

Jannah flinched, her soul jumping out of her body at how loud Jeriel was being.

"Shh! Be quiet!" She hushed them as she shot a glare at her little sister, "I sneaked in here to free all of you! If you start making noise now, we’ll be ambushed before we get out!"

Realizing the situation they are in, all of them grew silent.

The only sound that can be heard inside the room is the blood dripping on the pool of blood by Marco’s side.

Jannah blinked, glancing in that direction.

The sound of dripping was awfully loud to her ears, but when she looked around to observe her people, she could tell that they couldn’t hear the blood dripping to the pool of blood.

Weird. Jannah thought, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Am I the only one who can hear it?

She shook her head, erasing the thought in her mind and walked towards the window. The glass is covered by dark curtains, blocking the view outside.

She pushed it aside, watching the people on the street talk to each other.

She saw someone pushing the Duke towards the town’s hall, one by one, the knights followed behind the one who had the Duke by his neck.

"Everyone, clean up the place!" Jannah barked the order in a hurry as she let go of the curtain and look at them, "They have the Duke and his people. They’re going up here."

In an instant, Marco, Lilo, Kirie, and Lucienta sprung up from the floor, scrambling around the room to clean it, putting everything back into place.

"Shit." Jeriel cursed out, standing up from her spot on the floor and helped the servants on picking up the ropes.

"My lady, how about the body?"

Jannah looked at Jeremiah. She eyed the dead man on the chair and sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Maybe I shouldn’t have killed this basta—"

[Ding!]

Jannah stopped talking, making her pull her fingers away from her temple, she immediately eyed the system when she heard the notification.

[Your companion is crying out for help.]

As soon as she finished reading the text, a loud pained yowl echoed in the air.

"Meorrawww!"

Her eyes went wide in shock, turning back to the window and pushed the curtain aside, she looked out of the window and searched for the source of the sound.

"What was that?" Lilo asked no one in particular, voicing out her thought.

Jannah’s breath got caught in her throat when she saw the mother leopard get cornered by the house, the townsfolk pointing spears and farming tools on her.

The doorknob twisted, capturing the attention of Jannah’s people.

Jannah’s lips formed a straight line, stepping away from the window and walked to the door, picking up the dagger from the floor on her way there.

"My lady?"

Lucienta called out, watching her master approach the door with a dangerous look in her face.

Jannah could hear the whispers of the townsfolk outside the door, she touched the doorknob, grippingit tightly and waited for the person on the other side to turn the doorknob.

She glanced at the map, the red dots walking around with the blue dots following it.

There’s an enemy outside the door, holding the Duke, she watched the red dot near the door before she felt the doorknob twist.

In a quick motion, she swing the door open, meeting an unknown man’s eyes and saw his eyes widened before she pierced her blade through his skull, eliminating him in a blink of an eye.

She immediately pulled the blade out of the man’s head and threw it in the air, aiming for the enemy who was pushing Dante and Arthur to the second floor.

He hasn’t stepped a foot on the second floor yet, but he stumbled forward, making the two knights flinch at how fast everything happened.

They didn’t notice that the Countess had throw something past them.

"Concealment." She muttered under her breath, feeling a surge of energy envelope her body as she made her way down the stairs, picking the bloody dagger on her way down, the red glow in her skin told her that she’s now undetected.

She clutched the blade tightly, watching as two enemies walked inside the town’s hall, closing the door behind them.

They have Loren, Kean, Diazo, and Alejandro tied their hands behind them, dragging them towards the staircase.

"Won’t the royal family arrest us because we attacked the Duke and his men?" One of the enemies asked his friend, "We also attacked Countess Rafelon’s people and took that powder to the mail house."

"I get the Duke, but the Countess?" The man scoffed in disgust, "Women aren’t supposed to run a territory. They’re supposed to stay at home and do the things their husbands tell them to do."

"Isn’t that the reason why she’s still unmarried despite being beautiful?" The other man voiced out his thought, "They didn’t want a woman who wields a sword so no nobleman asked her hand for marriage."

"As they should." The man smirked devilishly, "Women were born to serve men, always have been. That’s why they’re in the basem—"

The man’s arrogant musing got cut off when he felt an unexpected force on his back, making him stagger forward.

"Who the heck did that?!" He was quick to gather his footing and turn around, glaring menacingly at the knights, he observed then for a moment before his eyes landed on a scowling Alejandro.

The man growled and smacked Alejandro on the face, "It was you, wasn’t it?! How dare you?!"

The knights couldn’t say anything because their mouth are gagged shut, their hands are tied, and frankly, the man is as big as Arthur.

His muscles are peaking through his cheap clothes, the mustache on his face with a scar horizontally on his nose bridge tells them a lot about the man.

"If you have something to say then speak, you fucke—"

He was about to smack Alejandro on the head again so the knight only squeezed his eyes shut to brace himself from the impact.

Only for him to hear someone gurgling on something and a nervous stammer from the other man.

He opened his eyes when he felt the floor beneath him shook slightly and saw the Countess had grabbed the man on the hair to stop him from making a noise.

A chill run down his spine when he saw the dark and cold look in her bloody red eyes, staring blankly on the fresh cut on the man’s throat.

"Next time, you better make sure that you’ll come out alive after talking shit about someone behind their back."