Copy Skills with Affinity!

Chapter 25

Raid (2)

Katya Heinkel Craven’s infamy was quite widespread even within the military headquarters.

A maverick, a supreme egotist, possessing a terrifying level of initiative and recklessness.

If she wanted something, she would completely exclude everyone around her until she achieved it. If anyone got in her way, she would never forgive them.

Above all, when it came to anything related to the Lionhearted’s husband, she would stick her nose into every little matter without exception.

It wasn’t that she disliked people, but she didn’t care about them either. Perhaps it was more accurate to say her personality conveyed that sentiment with startling clarity.

So.

Anyone who witnessed her current appearance could very well be suffering from a cosmic terror.

Katya, beaming brightly, smiling radiantly, and cheerfully crossing the corridor with quick steps—such a sight was so out of place it deserved such a description.

“Ah, good morning!”

One of the attendants who received that greeting from her even instinctively stepped back.

Originally, if you so much as made eye contact with her, she would pester you for every detail related to Aiden, questioning, “Shouldn’t this be like that? Shouldn’t that be done this way?” and pressuring you relentlessly. So it was only natural everyone reacted like this.

“-Heehee.”

If she was even letting out this frivolous giggle, the fear was bound to double.

Unlike the unsettling smile she usually wore, the one that made you uneasy just looking at it, she now wore a genuinely delighted expression, unable to contain her joy.

And clutched in Katya’s arms, as she sowed chaos throughout the military headquarters, was the hip flask she had recently received from Aiden.

‘Friend!’

In truth, it wasn’t something Katya herself could do anything about.

Every time she thought of that word for no reason, she would reflexively react like this, so what was she supposed to do?

“Heeheehee—”

Letting out another sound that inspired metaphysical horror in whoever heard it, Katya stepped outside.

Even she didn’t really know what she was moving toward. It was just that she felt so energetic inside she couldn’t stay still for even a moment.

Probably.

The reason she reacted a little more slowly than usual to the ‘something’ that suddenly flew toward her was because her mind was so distracted.

“-!”

In an instant, the peaceful scene was torn apart by an act so violent it could easily be called terrorism.

Even though she was formidable, she only just managed to jerk her head back to dodge it. But it was impossible to prevent the collateral damage.

A massive iron rod smashed through the Imperial Capital headquarters’ window, shattering it to pieces, and screams erupted from all directions.

There were four in total. Long iron rods. They were distinctive for the countless talismans stuck thickly around them.

Those things flew in one after another, crashing down as if to demolish the building, and embedded themselves around Katya in a square formation.

‘A barrier?’

Subjugation Pillars.

It was an artifact produced in the Far East. A spiritual object infused with the shamans’ utmost power to subdue ferocious mountain gods.

Since it had been created to be used against beasts said to overturn entire mountain faces with nothing but their roars, there were few choices as effective as this when it came to subjugating a target.

‘-Something like this, at me?’

Even in a place you’d have to cross an entire continent to barely reach its borders, this was a rare object. It was by no means easy to see one within the Empire.

Anyone who could get their hands on this was very, very, very likely to be someone with overwhelming power or resourcefulness.

Using something like that to precisely target and attack Katya alone was bizarre in itself.

Who, and why?

Before Katya could even finish sorting through those questions.

-!!

-!!!!!!

The four Subjugation Pillars driven into the ground near her began to resonate with each other. At last, the talismans that had been wrapped around the iron rods flew toward her, sticking to her body as if to envelop her entirely.

Her holy power was being shaved away. True to its design to suppress the opponent’s strength, she could feel her supernatural power weakening in real time.

Then, the talismans and pillars resonated together, and the space around her was ripped away in its entirety.

In an instant, the scenery changed. It was clear that the barrier had transported Katya somewhere else altogether.

She closed her eyes once and opened them again, and the transformed scene came into focus one by one.

A wide clearing. She didn’t know how far she’d been hurled from the Imperial Capital headquarters, but she could at least tell this place had been chosen for how deserted it was.

It meant whoever had done this didn’t want anyone else to see what was about to happen.

Sure enough, several armed men surrounded her, waiting.

“-Who are you people?”

Katya tilted her head slightly as she spoke.

“Snatching me in broad daylight like this—are you planning a group lynching?”

“………….”

“You sure you can handle it?”

Instead of answering, colored auras of qi flared up from every one of their bodies, shimmering in a spectrum of hues.

Katya’s gaze twisted faintly.

‘-Knights?’

When qi split into so many colors, it condensed to three or four at most. It was proof they handled qi with a density ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.

Anyone who had cultivated their internal arts to this level had to be a knight. And from the look of them, they weren’t weak ones either.

Compared to Noel, who could draw forth qi in a single, pure white color, there was an undeniable gap in class but even so, this many of them together formed a colossal threat.

At last, that entire group of knights charged at her all at once.

Still.

‘Do they realize who they’re picking a fight with?’

Katya tilted her head again and curled her fingers.

It was the hand seal symbolizing Sia, the God of Purification. And flowing out from her body was a tremendous surge of holy power.

Even under the influence of the Subjugation Pillars, with all those Subjugation Talismans plastered thick over her body, she still had far more supernatural power left to wield.

To pick a fight with someone like this wasn’t it reckless beyond all reason?

So much power had been hers by birth that she struggled to even restrain it herself. That flame now surged out with a destructive aura.

More precisely—

It was just before that happened.

“……”

Katya, who had been about to unleash her holy power without hesitation, suddenly paused, lowering her hand.

As if only then she had barely remembered something.

In that instant, the slashing strike that had been flying toward her cut across her body.

“……She’s not resisting.”

“……”

At the bewildered voice coming from nearby, Sir Levant frowned behind his visor.

Truly, this was a perplexing development.

Their opponent was who she was, so they had weakened her twice over, and on top of that, they had brought several more contingency measures.

Yet the target hardly seemed inclined to resist.

‘……That bastard swore she’d never go down easy.’

Sir Levant let out a silent sigh as he recalled the administrative officer wearing that detestable smirk.

“……It’s just as well.”

But instead of trying to guess the reason, Sir Levant simply set his sword upright again, reaffirming his resolve.

In any case.

“You lot already know the details.”

By carrying out this slightly filthy work, they could secure the Prince’s favor and deal a blow to that infuriating Lionhearted’s circle.

“She’s not someone who dies easily, so don’t bother holding back. Since we used sorcery to bring her here, the pursuit party will take time.”

Regardless of her state—

They would do what they had come here to do.

▣

It went without saying that the military headquarters had fallen into unprecedented chaos.

When something tantamount to terrorism erupted in broad daylight, of course it did.

But more than the incident itself, what truly magnified the turmoil was the question—where in the world had Katya been transported?

◆ Holy Power Operation: Resonance

Those who possess holy power can acutely sense one another’s presence. Makes it easy to track the target’s whereabouts!

Fortunately, he’d had two of Katya’s skill copy tickets in reserve.

It was a relief. At times like this, he had no regrets about using one right away!

“I’ll give you the coordinates send reinforcements immediately! I’m going ahead!”

[Wait, Aiden! It’s too dangerous to go alone—]

Before he even heard the rest of that sentence, Aiden had already sprinted in the direction he felt her holy power.

It hadn’t taken long to find what he was looking for.

A deafening boom. Air swept aside. The lingering traces of qi all around.

Several knights were unleashing a relentless assault on a single person in their midst, not giving her a moment’s respite.

“—The pursuit party? Already—”

Someone exclaimed, turning their sword toward Aiden. Qi gathered at its tip.

At the same time, he saw someone else hurriedly grab that person’s wrist to stop them.

“—That’s the Lionhearted’s husband. If you strike him directly, we’ll never be able to cover it up!”

“……Tch!”

While they all hesitated at those words, Aiden didn’t hesitate for an instant. He broke past them and ran straight to Katya.

“……”

Even if they’d stopped attacking for a moment, the fact remained a group this large of knights had shown open hostility.

But Aiden didn’t spare them so much as a glance.

“Katya, are you—”

Aiden’s sentence cut off abruptly.

Katya’s condition was a wreck.

Crouched as if hugging something between her knees. Clothes in tatters. Her entire body etched with stab wounds of a grotesque severity. Bruises everywhere.

How long had she been standing there, simply enduring it? She hadn’t even regenerated properly those wounds were still carved into her.

“—Why.”

Aiden ground his teeth as he pulled off his coat and wrapped it around her.

“Why did you just let them do this to you? You could have protected yourself easily.”

“It’s nothing. You know me. I don’t even feel pain.”

Her reply came back in a soft voice, barely above a whisper, sinking into the air.

“That’s not the point—!”

“Because… you told me not to fight.”

……Aiden’s movements stopped dead.

It was true Katya wasn’t the kind of person who would ever stand there blankly and let herself be beaten to this state.

—Don’t go around picking fights with people for no reason. And if you can help it, don’t do anything that’ll hurt others.

……If she hadn’t remembered that someone had asked her for such a favor not long ago, she wouldn’t have acted like this.

A thought connected in Aiden’s mind.

‘If they’re knights.’

If they were knights of the Imperial Order, then every one of them held their own standing public faces of the Empire’s military.

Politically and militarily, they were regarded as the highest tier of personnel.

If a group like this ended up having something unfortunate happen to them because of her—

That could become a serious problem for Aiden.

So.

This woman despite being more than capable of overwhelming her opponents—

Had stood there without resisting, letting herself be beaten to this state.

“……”

While he struggled to find anything to say, as he wrapped his coat around her, his hand brushed her body, and Katya flinched as if an electric shock had run through her.

Then she hunched over even further, as if she absolutely didn’t want to let him see her torso in this crouched posture.

“Are you hurt? Show me.”

“W-wait, th-this—”

Her voice came back, uncharacteristically flustered, but Aiden ignored it and gently pulled aside her arms.

And there, inside—

He saw what she had been holding so tightly, even while she was being beaten like that.

The hip flask.

The object he had handed her not long ago, calling it a ‘token of friendship.’

Despite having hidden it so carefully, in the end, she’d failed to protect it—it was torn up and split clean in two.

“……”

While Aiden stood there, at a loss for words, Katya spoke up in a faintly trembling voice.

“-Are we.”

That was also the moment he first really looked at her face.

She was trying so hard to maintain her usual smile.

But at the edge of that smile, there was a tremor so obvious that even Aiden could see it at a glance.

A trembling, unmistakable unease.

“Are we… still friends?”

“-”

“I… I couldn’t… couldn’t protect it any better than this—”

Was that why?

Why she hadn’t even run away, why she’d just stayed there, letting herself be beaten to this state?

Because she was afraid.

Afraid that if this ‘token’ broke, they wouldn’t be friends anymore.

“-”

Aiden closed his eyes for a moment and drew in a long, steadying breath.

When he finally managed to speak rationally, a little time had passed.

“Yes. Of course we are.”

“……Really?”

“So… could you wait just a moment for me?”

He turned his gaze to the knights still standing there with their swords raised.

“—Because as a friend, I need to collect some compensation from these bastards.”

At last, all at once, supernatural power erupted around him.