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Chapter 81 Part 6 – The rose blooming in the shadows. Countess Rosenthal is prepared to die a horrible death as a villain. Her heart-wrenching determination struck our hearts like moonlight.

The countess desperately tried to keep her fingertips from trembling due to the flood of emotions.

Cornelia took the bow that was as tall as her into her hand and gently shook the bow to check it. It’s heavy. It easily weighs more than 20 kilograms. This bow was designed to launch arrows that can penetrate full plate armor. The tensile strength would need to be at least 70 kilograms. It was not something that could be handled with the physical strength of a woman.

「…… There’s no problem.」

But Cornelia agreed.

Arnold’s expression changed as he stared at the bow and arrows to check whether it had any abnormality.

The arrow feathers had been plucked off in a blatant manner.

「Master!! Those arrows are no good!!」

Seeing Arnold’s flustered reaction, the red nobles laughed. At the center of the circle, Viscount Brewer who had just returned had a cocky and arrogant expression. Needless to say, he sneakily plucked it off on the way to bring it back.

But Cornelia was unfazed.

「Arnold, I told you that there would be no problem. It’s nothing to brag about, but the origin of Melville’s archery is techniques meant for murder. It is also designed to snatch bows and arrows from the enemy to fight a succession of battles. As long as the arrow shaft and the bowstring are okay, the rest can be covered with my skill.」

As if to support those words, Bradd and Seraphy had indeed turned pale, but Scarlet’s complexion hadn’t changed at all. She stepped forward to receive the apple that would be the target. She has full confidence in Cornelia’s skill.

The red nobles all gave a derisive sneer. The only one who did not laugh was Countess Rosenthal, who was being handed an apple by a servant.

According to their common sense, it was a foolish attempt that went beyond recklessness. Arrows with damaged arrow feathers are extremely unstable. They love the sight of blood and are excited at the prospect that a beautiful girl (Scarlet in her adult form) will be shot to death by mistake. However, their despicable, drooling looks soon froze.

Countess Rosenthal did not hand over the apple to Scarlet.

She took a few dozen steps away from the scene. Then she held the apple in front of her chest with both hands as if it were a ceremonial crown and turned to look at Cornelia. Standing still on the top of the wide staircase leading up to the grand hall, the countess looked like a statue of a beautiful nymph.

「I’d like to personally experience how amazing your skills are.」

Even Arnold, who had been critical of her, gasped at her extraordinary courage. Shooting an apple held in front of the chest is several times more difficult than the one on the head. Because, if the arrow hit the apple with normal force, it would easily penetrate the apple and pierce the other person’s chest. Even from the point of view of Arnold, an expert in archery, it is nothing short of suicide.

「C-Countess Rosenthal …… That’s ……!!」

Countess Rosenthal gave a cold glance at the ghastly pale Viscount Brewer.

「Is there a problem? Do you have anything else to say? If you have tampered with my request, I will never forgive you.」

After getting rebuked, Viscount Brewer mumbled a few excuses and then fell silent.

Countess Rosenthal stared at Cornelia as if he was invisible.

「…… Sorry to keep you waiting, duchess. Would you like to use an archer’s bracer?」

「No need. This is enough.」

Cornelia casually wrapped the Atlas silk shawl she was wearing around her left arm. The red noble ladies, who know the value of the silk, look on in amazement. Her action is as nonsensical as using a gold sheet as a picnic sheet. It was a frightening act of intimidation in their eyes. Is she expressing that she doesn’t even need any consideration to do this …… Fortunately, the ladies didn’t see the ghastly pale Scarlet and Seraphy.

In fact, Cornelia, who was unfamiliar with noble women’s fashion, simply had no idea of the astronomical value of Atlas silk ……

「…… I’ll start.」

With a short announcement, Cornelia picked up the bow and nocked an arrow.

The faces of the red nobles, especially the men, twitched in astonishment. With that slender arm, Cornelia easily drew that strong bow. They were unaware of the spring hidden in Cornelia’s slender body. Even if she can’t sustain it, she can squeeze out power that far surpasses that of an average man for an instant.

Not to mention that in this situation, there is no need to engage in a grueling battle of attrition as in the battle against the demon dog Gallam, where she has to pay attention to the number of arrows remaining while blocking fierce attacks on an unstable footing. Right now, all she has to do is focus on shooting. What may have seemed impossible to other people was tantamount to a game of entertainment for Cornelia.

The clouds hid the moon and the darkness of the night covered the area.

The red nobles who were watching with bated breath let out a scream.

When the moonlight peeked out once again, the sound of string snapping resounded and two arrows pierced Countess Rosenthal. The apple had not fallen. Cornelia had shot Countess Rosenthal to death along with the apple ……!! It’s no wonder the nobles mistakenly thought so from a distance. Cornelia’s divine archery skill was so far beyond their imagination.

「…… As expected from her.」

However, Countess Rosenthal muttered quietly and smiled faintly. Only she and Scarlet’s group knew exactly what had happened.

The countess was unharmed. And the apple was still held in front of the countess’s chest, as it had been earlier. The only difference was that two arrows had pierced the apple, one from the left and one from the right.

Cornelia fired two arrows in quick succession with the longbow. Her speed was so fast that the snapping of the bowstring could only be heard once. The arrow made sharp curves to the left and right, respectively, and simultaneously pierced the apple held up by Countess Rosenthal. The impacts offset each other, causing the apple to barely shake, so it didn’t even roll out of the countess’s hands. Moreover, the arrows were adjusted so that the center of gravity was in the center, so that the apple would be balanced like a balancing toy. If the arrowheads made even the slightest contact with each other, the apple would have been blown away along with the two arrows. She took into account the width of the arrowheads and used the arrows with broken feathers to launch a simultaneous double blow without letting the apple get crushed or dropped and not grazing the fingertips of the countess who was holding the apple.

After demonstrating such skill, Cornelia quietly lowered her bow without getting worked up. For her, this is only natural. The Atlas silk shawl around her arm unraveled and shimmer iridescently in the moonlight. She looked just like the reincarnation of the goddess of war wearing the banner of victory.

「…… Amazing!! This is the master I have chosen ……!! Just how strong is she ……!!」

Arnold let out a trembling groan.

「That’s amazing.」

Bradd smiled proudly and the calm Seraphy let out a whistle of admiration.

「Mother, you’re incredible ……!!」

Scarlet forgot to pay attention to the ears and eyes of the red nobles, and hugged Cornelia with her cheeks flushed.

In contrast to Scarlet and the others who rushed over to Cornelia and burst into joy, the red nobles stood stunned. They were so shocked by her divine archery skill that they felt as if their soul had been punched. Coming down from the stairs like an actress, Countess Rosenthal looked down at Viscount Brewer who was unable to stand up due to fear in the midst of the red nobles.

「If you’ve learnt a lesson from this, next time, don’t try to do any tricks.」

After saying that, she spread both of her hands and spoke to the red nobles.

「Everyone, I’m sorry for spoiling your eyes with a barbaric show. It astounds me to see how amazing the archery skill of the mountain-raised duchess is. However, are you aware of this? The manufacturing method of the Atlas silk requires a large quantity of the『Poison Lady’s Kerchief』. Perhaps the duchess possesses enough deadly poison to exterminate us tens of thousands of times. And as you can see, her skill with the bow and arrow is ……」

The blood visibly drained from the faces of the red nobles as they listened.

They realized how dangerous their actions were.

The characteristics of the 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 are that even a small amount will be lethal, there is no antidote, and its victim will meet a gruesome end. Just by applying it to the arrowhead and making the arrow graze the target, one can easily achieve the purpose of assassination. To make things worse, they were made to realize that the demon-like expert archer Cornelia could do that even with her eyes closed. There’s no way they can escape from such a monstrous arrow. If she wants to, Cornelia can easily kill them.

It was not the red nobles who had the upper hand. They were only kept alive because Cornelia overlooked their actions. The red nobles realized with horror that they had been playing and poking at a terrifying man-eating tiger in front of a cage with a broken lock.

「…… Ooh, that’s terrifying. Everyone, please be careful when playing. If you thoughtlessly make fun of her, poisonous fangs will suddenly fly out of nowhere and …… you might end up dead.」

Countess Rosenthal had a dreadful smiling face.

It was paler and more beautiful than the crescent moon in the night sky.