While the battle was taking place, Solene took the opportunity to capture Rebecca by opening a red portal beneath her feet. The two maids were also pulled inside after trying to help her. The portal transported them to another room, far below the place where Elara was fighting. In that room, three mages were already waiting to capture her. As soon as she regained her balance, Rebecca looked ahead, and her face turned slightly pale. The bodies of the two maids lay on the floor. They had already been killed by the mages.
'This is bad. I have a few spells to defend myself, but I'm not a seventh-rank combat mage, much less someone physically strong.'
Rebecca watched the mages approach while silently activating her magic. As soon as the first one tried to seize her, she used her wind magic to push him backward. Her mage rank was six. Even though she wasn't as strong as a knight or a specialized mage of the same rank, she had been trained to lead a noble house, so she was perfectly capable of defending herself.
Since the mage had been pushed back, Rebecca concluded that he was probably the same rank as her or lower. The real problem was that there were three opponents. The mage on the right summoned a crimson eel, while the one on the left created flames of the same color. The two attacks rushed toward her at high speed, but a sword split them in half before they could reach her.
"My apologies, but injuring you is not allowed."
Surprised, Rebecca turned her gaze toward the person who had just arrived. Her eyes stopped on the Solfyr House crest displayed on the knight's armor.
"Are you one of Leon's knights?"
"Yes, my lady. I am Maito, the Rank Seven leader of the Solfyr Knights."
That man undoubtedly looked extremely powerful. Rebecca took a few steps back, allowing him to take over the fight. Maito nodded several times, as if approving her decision.
"I expected nothing less from Leon's wife."
The mages looked at the knight for a moment with irritation and even a hint of exhaustion on their faces. The first one, who had been pushed back by Rebecca's wind magic, stepped forward.
"Why are you—"
Before he could finish speaking, his head fell to the floor, shocking the other two mages. Both quickly retreated, staring at Maito in complete disbelief.
"What do you think you're doing, idiot?"
"Giving you idiots a beating so you'll learn how to do a mission properly."
Maito appeared between the two mages and swung his sword. With a single movement, he cut both of them in half. That knight's speed and precision were astonishing. Leon had truly trained him well. Rebecca noticed that the three mages came back to life, but instead of fear, there was dissatisfaction written across their faces.
'Why are they...'
"Maito, my lady ordered you to help, not interfere."
"I already told you to learn how to do the job properly. Injuring the target would ruin our chances, you idiots."
Rebecca's eyes widened as she took a few steps back. She had finally understood why those mages had such strange expressions. Apparently, that knight was a traitor. She needed to warn Leon as soon as possible.
"I'm sorry, Lady Rebecca, but I can't let such a perfect chance to kill Leon slip away."
Maito turned toward Rebecca and began walking in her direction. The other three mages surrounded her to prevent her from escaping.
Neither Leon nor Enrico knew about this betrayal because it had never happened in the original story for several reasons. The first was that Maito had never managed to find a true weakness in Leon. The second was that he had been raised by Solene since childhood and obeyed all of her orders. In the original story, Solene had ordered him to remain undercover until something went wrong with the plan to gather evidence of Leon's alleged crimes. Since the plan was working perfectly, he remained by Leon's side. The third reason was that, before he ever had the chance to betray him, Maito ended up being killed by the reincarnated protagonist. A story that should never have been revealed was now coming to pass.
"If you don't resist, nothing bad will happen to you."
Seeing Maito approach, Rebecca clicked her tongue in irritation and raised both hands in surrender.
'The only thing I can do now is follow their orders and find a way to escape without them noticing.'
"Excellent. Just as promised, nothing will happen to you."
The knight approached with a small smile. Before Maito could touch her, a hand emerged from the floor, grabbed Rebecca's leg, and pulled her downward. The four quickly looked down and saw Jirena emerging from beneath the floorboards. The next instant, the two of them disappeared from sight. Maito reacted immediately, activating the room's magic to open a huge hole in the floor and pursue them.
"How did she manage to activate the magic that only we use?"
"She may have learned it after capturing someone and forcing them to reveal the secret."
"Damn."
All of them jumped down and saw Jirena already opening another passage into the next room. The two women ran without stopping. When they reached the third room, two maids stood in front of the four pursuers. They knew they were going to die, but they chose to sacrifice themselves so Jirena and Rebecca could escape. Since Jirena had already expected that decision, she simply closed her eyes for a brief moment and kept running. Rebecca looked back and saw the two maids begin fighting.
'Leon... has so many loyal subordinates.'
Rebecca also had a few subordinates she had managed to recover from her former house thanks to Leon, but they had stayed behind to prepare her bath. Maybe they would have done the same... maybe not. That trip to the city was supposed to be quick, but it had turned into a battle where everyone was risking their lives to protect her. That left a bitter feeling in her heart.
"Lady Rebecca, keep your focus ahead."
"...Right."
Rebecca turned her eyes back to Jirena's back. That woman seemed weaker than she was, yet there wasn't a trace of fear on her face.
'Maybe we'll make it out of here. I just have to keep following her.'
"Lady Rebecca, if anything happens to me, I'll explain how to open these rooms."
The two continued running without stopping while Jirena tried to teach Rebecca how to open the walls in case something happened to her. She had discovered the method after observing the mages' magic, noticing that certain points in the rooms were wrapped in a specific type of energy. After identifying those locations, she captured one of the mages and tortured him until he revealed more information. She made that decision because, when she tried opening those points by herself, she discovered that some kind of lock existed.
"That's when I discovered that there's a magical code at those points. The name of that code is—"
Before Jirena could finish the sentence, a fire spell coming from the front slammed violently into her abdomen. Her body was thrown into Rebecca, and both of them fell to the floor.
"Do I really have to do everything myself? How irritating."
Standing before them, Solene slowly opened a fan, her face filled with irritation. Every part of her plan was going wrong, one disaster after another, and ever since that brief confrontation with Elara, her anger had only continued to grow, on the verge of exploding.