The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 125: Hot Pursuit

The horse bolted with the Black Widow on its back, breaking the wind and dodging bullets, while its rider shot back at those who targeted her, injuring no fewer than three Harland Grenadiers of the Royal Guard, two with the same bullet.

The door to a certain parked carriage opened as the rider passed by, and two young men peeked their heads out, just as a group of Royal Guards rode in pursuit. Two riders from the pursuit stopped; they turned out to be Richard Marshall and Ronald Morgan.

"Your Highness," Richard stopped his horse at the sight of Prince Liam and reported everything to him right away.

Eyes wide, the Prince looked at the group of pursuing guards and shouted at his underlings:

"Quickly! We can’t lose her." He jumped into the carriage alone as his guards prepared their horses. He then peeked his head out and spoke, "Richard, catch up to her. Ronald, assist him."

"Your Highness, I’ll mobilize the Blackguards on standby. We’ll fan out across the streets and catch her," Ian said as he bolted off.

"You do that."

The Prince was in no mood to fail this pursuit and held on tightly to his carriage as it sped along, pulled by four horses. He held on with his left hand, and his right found the hilt of the blade resting at his hip. But rather than drawing it, Liam hesitated as he looked at the ring on his finger—his golden spell ring that he never displayed in public.

Harland is a kingdom of knights, proud of its legacy as the home of King Arthur Pendragon. The Harlands are a branch family of the Pendragon Dynasty, and each member trains with the sword from an early age. While a family of knights, Prince Liam grew up to be more than a knight; the truth he had always hidden was that he was a Sorcerer.

A very powerful sorcerer.

Only a few know the secret, and he doubts that even the King knows. That’s the reason he participated in the Musical Performance rather than the Martial, which would have been expected of a prince.

He can’t reveal his power just yet; he can’t reveal his true ambition, which may make him the target of everyone and everything.

But as he was lost in thought, the carriage stopped all of a sudden, and he almost lost his balance. Enraged, Liam opened the door to shout at his coachman/bodyguard, but the mute man pointed to the person walking towards them in the middle of the street.

"Ed... Edmond?"

Prince Liam frowned as he saw his friend approach the carriage, holding his abdomen and leaning hard on his right as he stepped up into the carriage and threw himself on the opposite seat to Liam.

The carriage picked up speed once again, and Liam looked at Edmond with disbelief.

"What happened to you?" he asked while looking at Edmond’s injuries.

"The Swan," Edmond said and kept holding his abdomen, "Don’t underestimate her."

Liam sat back in his seat and looked at the injuries of his friend before asking:

"How badly are you hurt?"

"I’ll live," Edmond replied.

"We need to get you to a healer."

"I can endure it. Shallow injuries, that’s all."

Seeing Edmond shrugging it off, Liam looked at him and recounted his injuries:

"Your sword hand is swollen, your shoulder looks bad, and you were cut badly on your belly."

"Told you... shouldn’t have underestimated her."

"The Swan is that good?"

"No." Edmond shook his head, "She’s better. She fights like a devil possessed; every hit is aimed to kill. Urgh! That bitch... she knows aura, but she’s merely Bronze-ranked. If she were a man..."

"I see." Prince Liam could see the frustration on Edmond’s face and the pain that surfaced on his face because of the carriage’s movement.

"And the insurgents?"

"Probably all gone. She bought them time."

The two looked very annoyed, as they were hanging high hopes on tonight’s raid. According to intel, the place they raided belonged to a high-ranking member of the insurgency. Catching him would be like catching the entire Kabal.

But now, it has become evident that the Bloody Swan is part of the Kabal, the organization that threatens everything Elgard stands for.

But with this many men, they will catch her no matter what. Almost the whole district is surrounded, Richard has the fastest horse, and Ronald is a sorcerer; the duo is no mere pushovers, and if one of them is faced with a problem, the other can resolve it.

Surely there won’t be...

BWAAAANG!

CRUMP!

SHATTER!

"WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!"

"IT’S FALLING OVER!"

"STOOOP!"

... complications.

The carriage stopped very violently, and this time, even the Prince couldn’t hold his ground. Immediately, he opened the door and looked outside to see something he had never expected to see.

His bodyguards surrounded him, urging him to get back to the carriage, but one thing is for certain: the current firepower of the insurgents has reached a new height.

— — —

—A Minute Earlier—

Vivian rode as fast as she could, almost crashing into a carriage, only to see the dumb faces of Prince Liam and Ian Grayson peeking out.

"Holy shit!"

This was no simple crackdown on insurgents; the Crown Prince himself is taking the lead, after all.

She never believed he was the type to get his hands dirty, and now she needs to get the fuck out of here. If a Prince is in a place like this, his bodyguards are surely nearby, and they are far more formidable than mere Silver-ranked knights. Fortunately, the role of a bodyguard dictates that they only act if the Prince is directly threatened, meaning they won’t distract themselves with a pointless pursuit, adhering strictly to the protocol of guarding the body of the Prince and nothing else.

Vivian sped on the horse, which wasn’t of any quality, and felt a presence nearing her from behind.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU CUNT!"

Looking back at the foul-mouthed pursuer, Vivian had a gun ready, and seeing that it was Richard Marshall, a sadistic smile appeared on her face.

"HYA!" She urged the horse to run ahead and aimed her gun, slowing her mind and...

BANG!

One shot aimed skillfully at the face of Richard, who ducked immediately, but the shot still wouldn’t hit him, as Vivian fired with Juliet from her left. The real killer shot, however, was the one from Romeo in her right, and it was aimed at the horse.

BANG!

Taking a bullet to its neck, Richard’s horse died on the spot with a pained scream. It crumbled with Richard on it, which, if it wasn’t going to kill him, would injure him badly.

"WARDUS!"

A shout came from behind as golden bright energy enveloped Richard all of a sudden and cushioned his fall. From behind him, another young master came riding on a fast horse and gave pursuit to Vivian.

This time, it was Ronald Morgan, the last of the seven charming princes Vivian ever wanted to deal with.

BANG! BANG!

Two bullets were fired right away, but Ronald was fast, enveloping himself and his horse with a colorful force of magic before consolidating it into the shape of an arrow and launching it at Vivian’s head.

Vivian lowered her head immediately, but the arrow was fully under the control of Ronald, as he changed its direction and hurled it at Vivian from her left side.

Without a fighting chance, the arrow hit deep into her left arm, and rather than an excruciating pain, Vivian lost control of her arm, and it turned fully numb.

"Shit!"

"Got you!"

Ronald seemed excited, but Vivian was very alarmed, as she had some speculations about Ronald’s magical abilities. If her guess is correct, and it usually is, she can’t let any magic from that guy touch her, no matter what.

Before he could do anything, Vivian performed a very flexible stunt, fully leaning backward on the horse, and from her sleeve, a baby gun emerged and...

BANG!

The gun surprised Ronald, as he tried to recall his magic right away. The arrow on her left disappeared into thin air, and Ronald’s magical force returned to block the bullet for him.

Enraged, he tried to cast his arrow again, but rather than a bullet, Vivian pulled the reins back, and the horse stopped violently, bumping into Ronald’s horse as he tried to avoid it.

"FUCK!"

Ronald was completely overwhelmed by that bold move and held on to his horse without casting magic, hoping to get some distance from Vivian, who had a gun aimed at him from a very critical close range.

He needed to be faster than her as she shot...

BANG!

"WARDUS!" He shouted the shielding spell and, deciding on speed rather than power, he swiftly switched to the fastest spell possible, "BEAMUS!"

Beamus is the Magic Beam spell, the fastest Cantrip (minor spell), mainly used for direct attacking. While low in terms of power, it can be fired in the blink of an eye.

This would surely hit Vivian and incapacitate her. She heard of the spell before, and it is the equivalent of a semi-automatic gun that a sorcerer can keep firing nonstop.

Terrified, Vivian did the unthinkable and raised her right hand that bore the Spellring she had, as she shouted:

"WARDUS!"

And a miraculous thing happened.

The urge to survive, the fear of harm, and the will to manifest something to defend herself with. All these emotions gathered in one place, and from within, it was all absorbed into the ring on her right.

Then a burst of golden light appeared, and something collided with something.

A force against a force, a will against a will, a mind against a mind.

The will to protect versus the urge to do harm; there was only one victor in the exchange between Wardus and Beamus, and it was always Wardus.

≪ Congratulations—Your first Spellring awakening has been achieved. ≫

≪ Error—Due to restriction, you will be disallowed from Spellcrafting! ≫

The colorful light from Ronald’s spell was repelled by Vivian’s surprisingly violet shield, and Ronald was left dazed.

Vivian didn’t even focus on what happened, and with a gun aimed from her left, she immediately shot Ronald’s horse without the latter noticing.

"WARDUS!"

There was only one breath to react, and Ronald chose it right, letting Vivian run free. But not for long.

There was an ambush at the end of the road.

Blackguards blocked the streets, muskets aimed at Vivian, all ready to take a shot once she was in effective range. Behind them, Ian Grayson was on a horse, looking at her with the most vicious of grins.

Vivian lowered her head and sped ahead, moving left and right with the horse to make the aiming difficult, and as she entered effective range...

WHISTLE!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

A sharp whistle was heard, followed by the sound of gunfire. The horse was hit and fell dead on the ground, but rather than falling...

"Impossible!"

... The Black Swan was soaring to the sky.

She flew over them, and once she reached a certain point...

BWAAAANG!

CRUMP!

SHATTER!

"WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!"

... she descended like a bird of prey, claiming her prey, who was on his horse behind the line of Blackguards. Behind her, an entire building was collapsing all over the line of blackguards, covering the street with rubble and debris.

In her left hand, there was the grappling hook crossbow she used to fly, and in her right, she had her Macbeth (the push dagger), aimed at Ian’s throat.

Ian panicked and tried to move his horse, but the best judgment he could make was to jump off it, as Vivian landed and took his horse.

The horse neighed and raised its forelegs, but soon submitted to Vivian, who fired a shot at Ian and tried to trample him with the horse, but the lucky bastard survived like a cockroach. She couldn’t do more and had to rush through the darkness away from all pursuers.

On the rooftop of a nearby building, Esmeralda stood up with the big gun in her hand, emitting an unholy amount of smoke.

Just now, her artillery-grade bullet put a hole in a building’s pillar and caused it all to crumble, according to the fast calculations she did, assisting Vivian in losing her tail.

Amidst the chaos of collapsing buildings and scattered debris, the Black Swan vanished into the night, leaving behind a scene of utter pandemonium. Prince Liam, witnessing the extent of the Swan’s audacity and the insurgents’ newfound firepower, could only surmise that the game had irrevocably changed. The hunt was far from over; it had only just begun, with the stakes higher and the shadows deeper than ever before.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss