"So it’s a trap?" I muttered, looking at the people who were pointing their weapons at us.

"More like they already know that we know what they’re doing and instead of accepting their fate and face it honourably, they decide to be cowards and fight instead."

Err... I really hate to point out the fact that fighting to live is actually a less cowardly thing to do than to just lay down and die...

Obviously, that wasn’t a good time for me to point that out so I just kept my mouth shut and watched the crowd for signs of attack.

I idly wondered if any of them were actually members of the Nilm Family and were just pretending to go along with the attack?

Well... If they are here, I hope they make themselves known soon because I’m not going to risk the Prince dying while he’s with me so I’m going all out with the exception of my Shadow Guards.

"Master, the window," Ein’s voice suddenly reverberated in my head.

I immediately shifted my gaze towards the window in question and I saw a male Nekomata looking out the window with their palm pointed at Prince Hisasmi’s direction.

Light seemed to gather in his palm and I instantly realised what he was trying to do.

I raised my hand and used [Light Forge] to create a shield made of light in front of him, just as a beam of light was fired from the window.

Their [Laser] beamed across the garden to strike against my shield.

I was afraid that the shield might not be enough to hold against their spell since I had to cast my spell instinctively while they had time to charge their spell, thus I also reached out and pulled the prince away from where he was standing.

Sure enough, my shield only managed to hold for another second before the light pierced through the construct and also the space where the prince’s head would have been if I had not pulled him away.

That seemed to be the signal as the others charged towards us, some of them holding weapons while others started chanting spells.

"Don’t hold back! Go!" I ordered, already buffing my girls silently with my spells.

Odeta charged towards their front lines and they didn’t seem interested in clashing directly against her in favour of getting to the prince so they ended up scattering to the left and right before she reached them.

Odeta was obviously miffed at that but she didn’t try to chase after all of them. Instead, she switched her target to the mages at the back, trusting the rest of us to be able to handle them.

Delmare and Emilia rose to the challenge as they moved to intercept the ones charging towards us.

I buffed them with a [Strength] spell each before hitting those charging enemies with a [Darkness Infusion], robbing them of their sight.

It wasn’t that effective against them since they were Nekomata and could see in the dark but the fact that their sight dimmed without warning was enough to make a few of them pause in surprise.

Delmare and Emilia did not waste this chance as they intercepted the ones that had peeled away from the group, their swords quickly cutting them down before they could defend themselves.

As for the ones who managed to get past them, Katsuki appeared from above and threw out her throwing knives, the blades embedding themselves in their necks and causing them to stumble onto the ground, their corpses sliding for a few feet before finally coming to a stop.

Lisa has also shot a [Laser] at where the first [Laser] spell had come from, her light beam piercing through the head of the mage at the window before he could even try to shoot his spell again.

At the front lines, Odeta smashed into the mage that had been closest to her, literally sending the guy flying back towards the manor and smashing into the wall.

She then leapt towards another mage that tried to run away from her mid-chant but she was faster than he was and her hand grabbed him by the throat like she was grabbing a chicken.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she spun around and tossed the guy towards another mage, sending both of them sprawling to the ground and interrupting their chant before she jumped on top of them and smashed them into the ground.

The prince wasn’t just sitting back and watching the show either.

He had lowered himself into a stance and slashed out his sword in an arc, sending a blade of air that flew straight towards a few of the mages that were on the other side of Odeta.

The air blade sliced through their necks before they even realised they were being targeted, sending their heads flying into the air.

As though on cue, more people burst out from the manor’s main entrance and started charging towards us.

It looked like all of them had been using the time earlier to prepare themselves as they were now armed to the teeth and were clearly prepared for a fight to the death.

The number of people running out from the manor also suggested that every remaining person that had been in the manor was rushing out at us... And there were way more people than I thought would be present here...

I was prepared to face maybe a few dozen or so people in case the family and their servants choose to fight but it looks like we caught them in the middle of their organisation’s gathering or something because I think there’s at least a hundred or so people currently running out the door.

Maybe this was why they decided to fight since they knew they were doomed anyway and they had more numbers so they might still have a chance to fight their way out.

Great... Maybe I might need to call up my Shadow Guards after all...

A few fireballs were sent hurtling towards our direction and I got ready to intercept them, only to see several other fireballs come out of nowhere and shoot them out from the sky from the side.

Everyone turned to see who was responsible for the attack, realising that it came from a woman that was wearing a maid uniform standing on top of the manor’s wall.

No one could see her face as she was wearing a mask but I immediately knew that she belonged to the Nilm Family since that was our family’s maid uniform.

"Who... Who is that?" I heard the prince mutter.

The maid was ignoring everyone that was staring at her in favour of turning to me, tilting her head slightly as though to ask for my instruction.

Well... Since you’re already here, might as well just help us right? Prince Hisami already knows who I am and this family is already sentenced to death according to the prince anyway so there will be no witnesses.

What’s more, I wouldn’t need to worry about accidentally attacking someone who is working for us as well.

I gave her a nod and she returned the nod with one of her own in understanding.

I thought she would jump directly into the fight but she raised up her hand into the air to shoot a ball of fire into the air, letting it explode like a firework.

I wondered if that was her trying to draw attention towards the sky when explosions wrecked through the manor.

There was absolutely no buildup before the explosion either, like it was just waiting for that specific signal before they set off.

I was wondering if the fireball she fired up into the sky was actually some complicated spell that set off the explosion when several figures suddenly leapt out from the manor to land in the garden around us, surrounding the others that had appeared from the house.

There were a mix of maids and butlers mixed in their midst and all of them were wearing the Nilm Family’s uniforms so there was no doubt about who they served.

I’m guessing these were the servants that had infiltrated into this family and were now donning their masks to fight on my side.

Prince Hisami turned to me, "You... Already prepared an ambush for them before we got here?"

Obviously I didn’t do that, but I knew better than to admit that so I simply nodded at him before gesturing to the crowd of enemies before us.

"How do you want to handle this? You still planning to just cut them down anyway?"

He raised his sword up and smirked at me, "Is that even a question? That has always been the answer before we even got here. In fact, I was ready to spare the servants of the family but I see that even they are in on this so there’s no reason to spare them anymore. Their entire family dies today, Lady Aster! Leave none alive!"

Without waiting for my response, he charged straight towards the crowd.

Guess we’re doing this then.