The Violet Lightning Empress Dons Golden Armor and Dotes on Her Sole Servant - Golden Resolve

The darkness stirred. The night silence that had enveloped the abandoned building shuddered, a faint ripple passing through it. Victoria, her bare skin still wet with drying blood, slowly turned around under the moonlight. Her golden hair, reaching down to her waist, rippled down her back in a mix of curls and straight strands from the heat of battle. In her amethyst eyes, a golden light flashed like lightning, sharp and sudden. "...So you've come." Her voice was cold and quiet as ice. Outside the window. Beyond the crumbling walls. In the darkness, numerous presences rustled. No footsteps. Even their breathing was suppressed. But their killing intent—that they could not hide. The distinctive atmosphere of master assassins closing in on their prey crept steadily around the abandoned building. Ten. No, more than that. Kuro silently stepped in front of Victoria. His small frame, barely a hundred and sixty centimeters, positioned itself to shield her. The silver earring on his left ear sparkled faintly, catching a sliver of moonlight. "Step back, Kuro." "Milady." "This is an order." The moment those words ended—or perhaps before they even finished—every window in the abandoned building shattered simultaneously. BANG! Wooden frames burst into splinters as countless arrows stormed in. A crossfire from the assassins. The density was such that an ordinary person would have been riddled into a honeycomb. But. Clink, clinkclinkclink! The sound of metal rang out in rapid succession. Every single arrow bounced off Victoria's skin without leaving a trace. The golden bikini covering her body gleamed eerily under the moonlight. Against a body with the hardness of steel, neither arrows nor blades could prevail. "Fools." She raised her right hand. Violet lightning crackled at her fingertips. The sound of electricity searing the air. Her magical power swelled, and the golden bikini emitted an even stronger light. Dust inside the abandoned building floated up gently, lifted by static electricity. "You are prepared, I trust." The next instant— A thunderous roar. The lightning blast unleashed from Victoria's right hand tore through the darkness. A thick pillar of light obliterated one assassin, along with the wall of the abandoned building behind him. The smell of crushed bone and seared flesh filled the air. "GYAAAAAAAHH!!" A death cry echoed through the night. But the remaining assassins did not flinch. Their jet-black robes billowing, they attacked from all directions. In their hands were daggers, hatchets, claw weapons—each wielding a different armament. It was clear they were a seasoned group. "—!" Kuro drew a sharp breath. One assassin had loosed an arrow from a blind spot. It was not aimed at Victoria, with her steel-hard body. The arrow pierced deep into Kuro's left shoulder. "Guh...!" Kuro dropped to one knee. His black eyes widened in agony. Blood seeped from his shoulder, soaking his black clothes. In that instant— "—Ah." The exact same wound suddenly bloomed on Victoria's left shoulder. Nothing had struck her. No one had touched her. And yet, the smooth skin of her shoulder split open, and fresh blood gushed forth. It was as if she had been shot by an invisible arrow. From the golden bikini, a thread of golden light extended toward Kuro's body. A transfer of protection. Her flesh was shouldering the wounds and pain that Kuro sustained. "...So this is the power of the protected." Though her face twisted in pain, she smiled. A mad, ecstatic joy dwelled in her amethyst eyes. "Wonderful. Now all of your pain becomes mine." Blood dripping from her wounded left shoulder, Victoria raised her right hand once more. Lightning wreathed her entire body, and her golden hair stood on end. "Vanish." A storm of lightning was unleashed. BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!! Violet lightning engulfed the entire abandoned building. Walls collapsed, beams fell, rubble scattered. The assassins who failed to escape in time were struck by lightning one after another, convulsing and collapsing. The stench of burning flesh. The sound of shattering bones. Screams of the dying. All of it melded into one, transforming the abandoned building into a vision of hell. When the storm subsided, only Victoria and Kuro remained standing. A mountain of charred corpses lay strewn across the floor. Among them, one man barely clung to life. He appeared to be the assassins' captain. His robe was scorched, exposing his bare face. The right half of his face was festering, and his left eye had been crushed. "H-hiii..." The man tried to crawl away. Wordlessly, Victoria stepped on his wrist. CRACK. The sensation of bone breaking transmitted through the sole of her foot. "Gyah...!!" "Who hired you?" Her voice was terrifyingly calm. "L-like I could ever tell—" She crushed his other wrist as well. This time slowly, taking her time. As if to let the man fully savor the sensation of his wrist bones being ground to powder beneath the sole of her foot. "AAAAAAAHH!! Stop, please stop...!" "I have only one question. Who hired you?" She held her hand over the man's chest. A weak electric current discharged from her fingertips. An output calibrated for torture—not enough to kill. BZZZZZZT!! "GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The man's entire body arched backward like a bow. His muscles convulsed, and foam bubbled from his mouth. The pain of his internal organs burning raced through his entire body. "L-Leonhart... It was the First Prince, Leonhart-sama...!!" "I see." She quietly pressed her hand against the man's chest. All emotion vanished from her amethyst eyes. "Goodnight." A powerful lightning strike stopped the man's heart in an instant. The corpse crumpled. She did not look back. She walked directly toward Kuro, who was still on his knees. The wound on her left shoulder had yet to close. Blood trickled down the golden bikini, dripping to the floor. "Milady... your shoulder..." Kuro's black eyes wavered with pain—and a suffering far greater than that. Watching her get hurt to protect him was more agonizing to him than anything else. "It's nothing. More importantly, let me see you." She knelt before Kuro and opened his torn black clothing. The wound on his left shoulder was deep. But fortunately, it was not life-threatening. She tore strips from the ruined fabric and began binding Kuro's wound as a makeshift bandage. Her touch was astonishingly gentle. It was as if the hands that had been torturing a man moments ago belonged to an entirely different person. "Stay still." "...Yes." As she wrapped the bandage around Kuro's shoulder, she suddenly reached out toward the silver earring swaying on his left ear. Gently, she touched it with her fingertips. The cold sensation of silver transmitted through her fingers. "Ten years ago, it was a night just like this." Her voice softened slightly. It was a voice reserved only for when she spoke to Kuro. "The day I first met you. In the corner of the orphanage, not speaking to anyone, just silently clutching this earring." Kuro listened in silence. "I decided then. That I would protect this child, no matter what. No matter what happened to anyone else, I would absolutely protect this child." She placed her hand on Kuro's cheek. Her blood-stained fingers touched his skin. "That vow remains unchanged even now. No, it has grown far stronger than before." "Milady... I..." Tears spilled from Kuro's black eyes. He, who was so taciturn and rarely showed emotion, had shown tears for the second time. The droplets reflected off the silver earring, glinting with light. "I... cannot bear... to see you hurt, Milady." "Even so, it is better than you being hurt." She gently embraced Kuro with both arms. His body heat transmitted directly to her bare skin. She could hear his heartbeat. It was fast. Within Kuro's chest, loyalty and a love he could never voice aloud pulsed fiercely. "Being wounded for your sake is my pride." She whispered softly into his ear. "So don't leave me. Stay by my side forever. As you have until now, and from now on." Kuro let out a wordless sound. His arms hesitantly wrapped around Victoria's back. Her back, so slender it seemed it might break. The back of a woman who, despite possessing the hardness of steel, showed her fragility only to him. "...Wherever you go, I will be at your side." His voice trembled. He was no longer desperate to hide his love or stop his tears. Just for this moment, he wanted to be allowed to bare his emotions before her. The two of them held each other for a long time, in the abandoned building littered with corpses. Dawn was approaching. Several hours later. With his shoulder wound still unhealed, Kuro had infiltrated the outer castle of the royal capital, Granseid, alone. Information gathering was his greatest forte. He hid in the shadows, listened carefully, resorted to bribery at times, and collected every scrap of information flowing through the capital. All the while, the exact same pain as the wound Victoria had sustained continued to pulse through his left shoulder. The protection transfer was bidirectional. The wound she had taken on from him was further shared back to him. In other words, the two of them were living while feeling the same wound, the same pain, twice over. (*This is fine. This is good.*) Kuro murmured deep in his heart. Being able to share pain with her was, for him, a secret happiness. It was well past sunrise when he returned to the abandoned building. "Milady, I have information." "Tell me." She leaned against a crumbling wall and gazed quietly at Kuro. The wound still ached. But she did not let it show on her face. "Under the Death Declaration system, Milady is legally treated as deceased." "Naturally." "The Rebellion Kin Liability Law has been applied. All assets have been confiscated, and the name of the Valentine ducal house has been expunged from official records. The Valentine family is now treated as having never existed in history." His voice was restrained, but anger seeped through. "Furthermore, the Four Great Ducal Houses have jointly placed a bounty on your head, Milady. The amount is one thousand gold coins. Dead or alive, apparently." "A fine price for a dead woman's head." A smile played on her lips, but her amethyst eyes were not smiling. "And multiple assassin guilds have already begun to move. The ones tonight were merely an advance party with ties to the Kagra Imperial Guard. The real threats are—" "The Silent Fang. And, most likely, the Drak Mercenary Corps as well." Kuro nodded. "Yes. Those two are among the largest factions even in the underworld. Their combined combatants alone exceed four hundred." "Perfect." She pushed herself off the wall and stood up. The golden bikini gleamed in the sunlight. She was practically naked, but there was no longer any shame or hesitation in her bearing. There was only a cold, blazing determination. "If I am dead, then there are no more shackles of this world. The protection of the law, obligations, the duties of a noble—I have lost them all. Which means—I can live as I please." She began walking toward the exit of the abandoned building. "Let's go, Kuro. To the underground of the royal capital. To the city of extraterritoriality—Nevarow." "As you command." The dark society sprawling beneath the royal capital Granseid—Nevarow. Its entrance was hidden deep within the sewer network of the outer castle. Following the route Kuro had investigated beforehand, the two of them passed through culverts thick with the stench of decay. Before long, signs of human presence increased, and a distant clamor began to reach their ears. The First Underground Stratum—the Gray Market. It was an entirely different world, where the common sense of the surface held no sway whatsoever. "...This is." She stopped involuntarily. Countless street stalls

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Episode 2

Name: The Violet Lightning Empress Dons Golden Armor and Dotes on Her Sole Servant
Author: Novelia

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