Chapter 318: In the Assassin’s Hall

The maid stood motionless by the door, posture upright and discreet, part of the décor yet radiating silent threat. She didn’t need to speak; simply being there, still and watchful, made it clear she wasn’t just a servant. Charlie, Luke, Mason, Allison, Evangeline, and Ronan held a tense line before Erza. Every glance carried the same understanding: one wrong move could cost them everything. The air smelled of cold stone and iron, laced with the sweet, unsettling perfume Erza wore.

“Lady Erza…” Ronan began softly, aiming for diplomacy. “We didn’t come here to cause trouble. As you know, we’re all—”

Erza lifted her hand before he could finish. The gesture was slow but absolute, like a command that required no words.

“Did I say you could speak?” Her voice was velvet, her smile almost warm, but her eyes shimmered with authority and danger.

Luke, standing to the side, tracked every detail: the angle of her body, the way she sat, the distance to the door. Even reclined in a chair, surrounded by silence, she seemed defended by an invisible army. If he struck now, he’d be stepping into a game he couldn’t win. Still, his mind mapped every exit, every weakness, trying to solve the puzzle of the woman in front of him.

What does she really want?

Erza didn’t look like someone who would summon enemies just to stab them in the back. Pride and precision radiated from her. If she betrayed, it would be done flawlessly, with a show of superiority, not a coward’s cheap shot. Luke imagined her as the type to let an opponent believe they had the upper hand, only to crush them with elegance. Yet at the end of the day, she was still an assassin — and assassins, however refined, knew how to strike low when needed. He kept his muscles coiled, ready for anything.

“Kidding,” Erza said at last, her voice gliding through the air like silk. “This is a conversation, isn’t it? If only I spoke, it would be a monologue.”

She leaned forward and gestured gracefully to the chairs arranged nearby. “Please, sit.”

Allison said, “Erza, we’re not sitting. We don’t have time. People are dying out there.”

Erza sighed, as if already bored. “Well, Allison, more than anyone you know I don’t care about that. But if you won’t sit, I’m hardly going to force you.” A faint smile curved her lips, almost playful.

“I want to make a deal with you, Erza,” Allison said.

Erza’s eyes slid toward her, lids narrowing. “Darling, in the art of negotiation you don’t reveal how desperate you are.” She rose with the calm of someone in complete control, setting her wineglass down with a soft clink.

“You’re here because I called you. Let me lead the discussion.”

Mason narrowed his eyes. “Lady Erza, you understand why we’re here, don’t you? For someone of your rank and ambition, staying in this tutorial can’t be what you want.”

Erza laughed lightly, biting at a fingernail as though bored, then exhaled. “You’re not entirely wrong. I don’t want to be in this world. But I’m a priestess. If my order told me to leap into a volcano, I’d do it with a smile.”

She stepped forward, heels clicking against the stone. Luke’s attention sharpened. Having Erza up and moving, even without visible weapons, was more dangerous than her sitting still.

Suddenly her gaze snapped to Charlie. “You’re strange,” she murmured, almost curious. “Everyone has a heartbeat. The kukri-wielder’s is the quietest of all. But yours… It’s like there’s nothing inside you at all. How curious.”

Erza turned her gaze away and drifted toward a door at the back, where the hallway dissolved into shadow. Her voice was unhurried, intimate, as if she were telling a secret. “I made a pact with Bartholomew, as you already know. I’m bound to protect anyone who threatens this fortress, and Bartholomew himself. Within these walls, I am his faithful guardian. But…”

Her eyes settled on Allison. “My master Siegfried gave me a clear order: ‘Do nothing that interferes with the tutorial.’ That also means I shouldn’t try to complete the mission myself. I must let the others in the tutorial carry things forward.”

The pause that followed thickened the air, as though the stone itself had grown heavier.

“The problem,” she went on, “is that at this moment my agreement with Bartholomew is void. It was one thing to face Marshall’s people invading this place. They had no intention of completing the mission. And then there’s you.”

Her left hand turned in a lazy arc and, with a flicker of light, a karambit appeared between her fingers. The curved blade glinted in the dim light. She twirled it idly, an ornament more than a weapon, though no one in the room doubted how quickly she could use it.

“You came here to activate a mechanism, didn’t you?”

“Correct,” Allison replied, her voice steady.

“That means if I kill you, you who are on your way to activate it, I’d be disobeying my master.” The blade spun again, effortless in her hand. “Isn’t it curious? My deal with Bartholomew collides head-on with Siegfried’s command. And on top of it all, Bartholomew himself broke the damned deal he made with me.”

The blade stopped spinning, its tip resting toward the floor, an extension of her arm. Her voice remained calm, but every word coiled tighter, like wire around a throat.

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“He disabled the mechanism and put this fortress in danger. By the terms of our pact, he became a threat to the fortress itself. I should kill him. But at the same time, I can’t. The contract also says I must protect him while he’s inside. Isn’t that funny? Bartholomew built the trap that now holds him.”

A humorless laugh slipped from her lips. “Sometimes I wonder how stupid people can be. In a desperate moment, he should have stayed cautious, strategic, as always. Instead, he tripped over his own arrogance.”

Allison stepped forward. “And what exactly does that mean, Erza?”

“It means something simple.” Her tone was soft but unshakable. “My word is worth more than any gold in this world. If I’ve given it, I won’t retract it. I will protect this fortress as promised, even though he’s jeopardized everything.”

She ran a finger along the edge of the blade, drawing a bead of blood as if it were nothing. “So I will continue guarding this place. You came to activate the mechanism, by your own admission. The time for our deal has come, Allison.”

Her face stayed smooth, almost maternal, but her eyes were cold and precise. “If you activate the mechanism, the fortress is no longer in danger, and I can fulfill my pact with Bartholomew. If I activate it, I’d have to kill him myself… and I can’t. So I wash my hands of it.”

She spread her arms like a hostess presenting a feast. “The deal is this: promise me you’ll go and activate the mechanism so I can return to sleep. I hate being woken up.”

The group exchanged heavy looks. The offer was tempting, safe passage at least for now, but steeped in risk.

“You’re going to let us pass?” Allison asked.

“Yes. Go through that door. None of my servants will touch you. I sent them to kill the Midnight Wardens in the Safe Zone.” Erza inclined her head slightly. “Good luck. This gray zone in my contract lasts only a few hours. After that, if you’re still inside, you die.”