"Can't you hear me? I'm telling you what just happened was your doing. Listen here, Lord Avondale."
Even as she spoke while gently pushing his back with her palms, unable to push him away forcefully lest he get hurt, she couldn't compete against someone who heard unfavorable words in one ear and let them flow out the other.
'Is it that good?'
It was arrogant enough to make her face burn just thinking about it, but she couldn't help having such thoughts. While receiving nothing in return, while suffering all kinds of hardships because of Esperanza. What was so good that he was giving so generously?
Esperanza leaned her chin against Cider's body and looked up. Their eyes met.
She felt like she might be entranced. When eyes full of affection looked down without a trace of laughter from such close distance, it felt like lightning piercing through her entire body. Cider had said it was just because they were too close for focus, but there was no way she could look away from those eyes.
Her breathing felt stifled. There were words boiling inside her, but until she spoke them, she couldn't know what those words were or what would change after saying them. However, this relationship was too precious to sacrifice to gambling. She slowly straightened her body that had been leaning at an angle.
Cider's mouth moved slightly. It seemed like he was about to say something. But the next moment, they both spun around simultaneously.
Bang, bang bang!
Loud gunshots disturbed the quiet forest.
"Intruders?"
In a forest with an owner?
"No way."
Cider, who had already pressed down the muzzle of the rifle Esperanza had raised the moment he turned his head, sighed. His displeasure at having his selfish time interrupted was obvious. He added while checking for intruders beyond the window.
"They're probably lost hunters. From their clothes and attitude, they're not professional hunters, but gentry young masters who came to play and got lost."
Bang bang bang bang. Frantic gunshots mixed with shouting. And it was getting closer. Esperanza approached the window where Cider was standing and opened it about two finger-widths.
The previously incomprehensible voices became a bit clearer.
"There's something like a house here?"
"What house in the middle of a forest?"
A man's voice with a slurred tongue as if he'd been drinking heavily.
"Oh my. They seem to have discovered this place."
"Won't they go back if we don't open the door?"
"Security isn't a concern. The stable is more of a problem."
Ah, right. The over-technology wasn't only installed in the main building. It was small welfare for the horse that stayed lonely in the stable all day without another horse because of its owner who wouldn't return home. Moreover, by now would be the time when gardener automatons far more advanced than commercial lawn mowers were roaming outside.
"I'll close what I can remotely for now."
"Then shall I deal with those people?"
Cider lightly tapped the gun barrel pointing toward the floor as he spoke.
"Don't go out, but watch and shoot if it seems like there'll be trouble."
Kill them?
Wasn't she going through all this trouble trying to finish things without killing people?
"...Ah. Just arms and legs?"
If that's what it was. Esperanza drastically reduced the amount of magical power she was circulating inside the firearm. Cider clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"Not that, use tranquilizer darts. And in your ear."
Esperanza, who quickly grasped the meaning of his gesture pointing to his ear, rummaged through her inventory. Cider smiled.
After a brief strategy meeting, Cider headed to the underground control room while Esperanza went to a third-floor room at the western end with a good view outside.
Running to the end of the western corridor and climbing the stairs, shutters came down with sharp, sharp sounds matching her steps. As if completely calculating Esperanza's walking speed. It felt good when even small things fell into rhythm. Esperanza increased her speed even more. A black cloak that fell from her inventory covered her body. The gun on her shoulder was sucked into the inventory, and instead a rifle-type tranquilizer gun was grasped in her hand.
Entering the empty room at the end of the third floor and sitting on the windowsill, Esperanza loaded the dart and looked down below.
Two drunk men were wandering around holding hunting shotguns. Though not particularly threatening, there was an ominous feeling that they might fire their guns at any time due to being heavily intoxicated. It seemed they had been firing randomly into the air just moments ago. But seeing how quiet they were now.
'Did they use up all their bullets? ...No fundamentals.'
"I can see them. Approaching. Disarmed state."
When she muttered quietly, an answer came from the other side. 'Take them out.' Esperanza aimed her gun barrel and waited for the moment like a bird of prey stalking its quarry.
"What is this place? It's late, should we just sleep here and go?"
"It's closed though?"
Bang bang bang. Two pairs of fists frantically pounded on the closed door. They didn't seem to notice the door lock right next to it. Though what would they have done even if they had seen it. Fortunately, they didn't wave their guns around after failing to knock on the door.
"Hey! Open the door! We're lost!"
"Damn, no one seems to be here."
"If it wasn't for that downpour earlier, we'd be home by now. What a mess!"
Was there a downpour? Esperanza tilted her head and aimed her gun at the backs of the necks of the two people turning toward the eastern stable.
"Where is this place? They said not to go past the signpost... why did we do that?"
"I don't know! All our hunting was fruitless, we got lost, nothing's going right!"
They were stomping their feet. They just won't stay still. Irritation crept into Esperanza's hand holding the gun. The magical power inside the tranquilizer gun responded by spinning smoothly.
"Hey, look here."
Even if they closed the research facility, they couldn't hide animal sounds. The wandering men also heard the sound and headed toward the stable.
"It's a horse. A horse."
"I'm starving to death, should we roast some horse meat?"
"Ride one and roast just one."
"But who lives here? Why is there a horse? And isn't it kind of cool just around here?"
"Probably just confused from being drunk."
It was the air purification system. It maintained the stable at a reasonably comfortable temperature. It was fortunate the men came in the evening—if they had discovered this mansion during the day, they couldn't have hidden it because of steam rising from the chimney.
The moment they stopped in front of the stable, Esperanza quickly pulled the trigger twice. The tranquilizer shots that went out soundlessly accurately hit the backs of both men's necks. Esperanza, who put the gun into her inventory, jumped straight out the window. Her body that landed after two rotations bounced out lightly like a spring.
She used her toes to flip over the bodies of the men who had collapsed beside the stable. They were properly asleep. After retrieving the tranquilizer darts, Esperanza looked at the two who lay motionless like corpses, then spoke into the device at her ear.
"Took care of them. They're by the stable. They didn't touch the door."
—I'll go there.
Shortly after, Cider, who came out opening the door of the darkened mansion, clicked his tongue seeing the collapsed men.
"Do you know these people?"
"How could I? I'm too busy to know and associate with trash like this."
Cider laughed irritably. Then he kicked the men's bodies with his foot as if touching corpses, dragging their legs to put them on the horse.
"...To avoid having the research facility discovered, we'll have to go back too. This has become troublesome."
Esperanza also thought belatedly. It had become troublesome. But on the other hand, she also thought it was fortunate. If they continued to be alone together, she would really be swept away before she knew it.
Still, what a shame to have to return without even trying that good training ground once.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
James Boyle and Darwin Egerton were college classmates who, because their families got along well, often visited each other's homes during vacations even after entering university. The Boyle family had a small estate in Riton Province, so they spent the summer with the Boyle family at a country house near Avondale.
The reason the two, who had no particular talent for hunting, ended up entering the forest alone without a guide was because of words from James Boyle's cousin, Simon Boyle, who happened to be at the mansion.
'Do you know what I caught at this hunting ground yesterday? Wolves came out in this forest. So I went straight there and, wham! This hunting ground's owner, whoever they are, really isn't managing it well. That's probably why not just boring deer come out, but some pretty fearsome creatures.'
To crush the spirits of the two who remained uninterested despite his lengthy explanation, Simon Boyle threw a somewhat reckless move.
'As soon as I caught it, I gifted it to Miss Wilcott and she was very moved.'
Miss Lavinia Wilcott was the only daughter of quite wealthy gentry in Riton Province, a lady that both James Boyle and Simon Boyle were courting while watching each other's moves. James Boyle, easily provoked, immediately got heated.
'I heard gentlemen skilled at hunting look cool. James, you can't even get near Miss Wilcott?'
'...I can do everything you do. Just watch.'
In fact, Miss Wilcott had never said such things. Rather, she clearly showed distaste for dead game, so Simon figured he might as well use the same method to reduce his competitor cousin's score. Adding a bit of spite, he even boasted that though it was his first time, he didn't need a guide.
Sure enough, James Boyle, who had excessive competitiveness compared to his poor judgment, promptly set out to the hunting ground with just one friend.
If he went and came back with a broken leg or something, that would also reduce his score in its own way, so that was fine. Hunting novices wouldn't be able to catch anything proper anyway, so it would be good even if his spirit was broken.
James Boyle also had his own calculations. Though this was his first time hunting, his shooting scores were quite good. If he was lucky enough to catch something, he could humble Simon's arrogance, and even if he failed, there wouldn't be much loss.
The actual person in question, Miss Lavinia Wilcott, didn't consider either of the Boyle gentlemen as potential husband material, but the two who didn't know this just got heated toward each other.
However, the day wasn't good. For them, who had only experienced fox hunting with dogs released in well-maintained hunting grounds, directly holding shotguns and riding horses to catch animals in forests with tall grass was not work they could do well just because they got an A in shooting class.
Moreover, wandering around here and there to avoid sudden downpours, they ended up straying far from the path they had known in advance.
As misfortune piled upon misfortune for the two men who had no skill but plenty of pride, the situation reached its worst.