To Sarah, those words were the height of disrespect.
She was Sarah Smorguth—the one people came to, not the one who was left behind. Did this scoundrel truly think he could flee, tarnishing the reputation of her "Electra" company in the process? How dare they.
To Sarah, this act—done without her knowledge—was nothing short of public treason.
Even though Lawrence was merely an investor, she would not let this insult slide.
With lightning speed, Sarah's hand clamped around the old servant's throat.
With staggering strength, she forced his body down, pinning him to the ground under the weight of her grip.
"Which airport?" she demanded coldly.
Even though she knew he might have already departed, she intended to hunt him down no matter what.
"airport... huff... huff... kghhh!"
The servant couldn't speak under her iron grip, so she loosened her hold just enough. He clutched his throat, coughing violently and gasping for air.
"It's... it's Sofyanov Airport... That's all I know! Please, my Lady, have mercy!"
Without a shred of pity, he was thrown into the car under Sam's tense gaze. "You're coming with us. Now!" Sarah barked.
She climbed into the car, and Sam followed instantly without hesitation.
As soon as the doors slammed shut, the engine roared to life. The car tore through the streets, heading toward the airport at a breakneck speed to catch Lawrence before his escape.
"My lady... I think we're going to crash at this rate!"
Sam tried to swallow his words, but he couldn't help it. He was terrified, and the old servant beside him looked as though his heart had stopped from sheer fright. At every turn and with every car they dodged, Sam saw his life flash before his eyes in vivid colors, his soul ready to depart his body.
As for the other servant, Sam could have sworn for a split second that he saw the "soul-leaving-body" effect from a Tom and Jerry cartoon right before his eyes.
But even that wasn't enough to make the "Toxic Loli" sitting between them so much as blink. In the alphabet of her world, 'H' didn't stand for 'Happy'; it stood for 'Hurt.' Sarah was in no mood for mercy.
Sam couldn't help but wonder: Does every member of the Smorguth family have a "Bulldozer Mode" encoded into their genes? This was beyond toxic—it was lethal.
When the car finally screeched to a halt and the driver wrestled the steering wheel to a stop, Sam lunged out of the vehicle. He cleared the way for Sarah, who emerged looking like a twisted version of a Magical Girl.
A Moon Reaper? Wow... absolutely surreal.
Sarah unleashed radiant pillars of fire that flared at the edges, shaping themselves into wings extending from each of her arms. Without a second's delay, she took flight, soaring directly into the airport.
Sam grabbed the old servant, hauling him out of the car. Together, they scrambled to keep up with Sarah, desperate to catch her before she turned the entire airport into an inferno.
Ordinary strides were no longer enough to keep pace with the winged fire dragon they were pursuing. Sam and Lawrence's elderly servant were slowly draining their energy.
Acting on instinct, Sam surged Mana into both his legs. He immediately pumped his Dexterity stat, raising it from a measly 3 to 15 in an instant.
Stats:
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 15
Adaptability: 30
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 155
Mana: 23
Free points: 45
Sam's legs felt weightless; finally, he could run with real speed.
They burst into the airport, where Sarah had deactivated her phoenix-fire mode and was now moving on foot. Or rather, she was moving so fast she was creating afterimages of herself—a blur of human form trailing behind her actual position.
"Damn it, is all of this really worth it?" Sam could only lament his miserable state.
Eventually, he and Lawrence's servant—whom Sam held hostage—managed to reach the last spot where they had sighted Sarah. But she had suddenly vanished amidst the vast, cavernous, and eerily empty aircraft hangars. The sheer scale of the place felt overwhelming.
However, it wasn't as empty as it seemed.
Swoosh!
An arrow tore through the air, slicing through the atmosphere like butter.
It aimed straight for Sam's eyes, moving too fast for him to even register—until a flash of crimson fire erupted.
The arrow was incinerated instantly, leaving only a spray of ash that stung Sam's eyes as he collapsed to the ground from the shock.
Beside him, Lawrence's servant hit the floor, narrowly escaping the same fate.
Sam scrambled on the ground like a worm, looking around in frantic suspicion. Sarah stood before them in a sharp combat stance.
Out of the deep midnight shadows emerged a man. His entire body was wrapped in bandages, with quiver belts strapped across his chest and waist. In each hand, he wielded an automatic crossbow.
He approached with a chilling, sharp calmness, as if he were merely taking a stroll.
Sam was forced to look directly at the bizarre, approaching "mummy." The man walked toward them with an overwhelming aura of authority, while Sarah stood in a combat stance, her gaze unwavering.
Without waiting for a reaction, the stranger unleashed a relentless torrent of arrows at the trio.
Sarah countered instantly, erecting a wall of fire, though sweat began to bead on her forehead as she held the line.
The problem was that the arrows were explosive; each impact sent shrapnel flying and tore massive craters into the ground.
The runway area was unnervingly deserted—a detail whose reason Sarah hadn't grasped yet—but there was no time for questions. They had to survive this assassin.
However, slow thinking is the deadliest sin in a fight.
Suddenly, the mysterious man was above them, hovering like a vulture, aiming the barrels of his crossbows directly at their hopes of survival.
He was practically flying, circling them like a bird of prey.
He pulled the trigger with cold precision, forcing Sarah to manifest a defensive barrier so rapidly that it was fragile and unstable.
"My Lady!" Sam cried out.
Sarah was taking damage.
She was being hindered by the need to shield them.
Alone, she could have held her own against this man, but now, burdened by Sam and the servant, they had become nothing more than a heavy liability.
Sam was weak.
There was no surprise there; he had been pathetic. Since his childhood, he had never tried to defend himself, and the thought of standing his ground like a "real man" had never even crossed his mind. But who knew now... if Sarah hadn't been there, would he still even exist? What if she wasn't there the next time he faced something lethal?
No more excuses. Sarah didn't need him; he was simply a hindrance. Thus, he made his sole, final, and absolute decision: he had to break away, right here, right now.
In a move of pure suicidal bravado, Sam dumped all his points into Dexterity.
Dexterity: 55
He then surged every drop of Mana in his body into his legs to sprint away with explosive force.
This caught the mysterious man's attention, and he tried to strike, but he was intercepted by Sarah, who pounced on him like a relentless fire leopard.
She drowned him in a barrage of flames that forced him into a desperate scramble of evasion.
Sarah wasn't just any third-year student; she was a Smorguth.
She was Sarah Smorguth—the top-ranked student of the entire third year in the most prestigious academy in the Kingdom.
Even veteran warriors had to tread carefully around her.
This crushing "Bulldozer," with her symbolic red flames that seemed to scorch the very vacuum of space, didn't give the stranger even a moment to breathe.
Desperate to subdue her, the man finally grew truly serious. He stood his ground, raising his arms like a scarecrow.
Suddenly, he began to spin with pure magical force, creating a cyclone of arrows and projectiles that Sarah could no longer defend against.
But from a distance, and in a completely unforeseen move...
like a precision-guided missile from above, Sam tore through the air. He lunged through the void with explosive speed, driving his heel downward and aiming directly for the man's blind spot behind his head while still suspended in mid-air
As Sam was about to bring his right foot down to finish him off, the man vanished within his bandages—reappearing instantly behind Sam, his weapon leveled directly at the back of Sam's head.
But...
That word, "But," was a haunting question about the miscalculation Sam had truly made. Yet... it no longer mattered.
"Mike, what are you doing here? Is the plane ready?"
From an unexpected direction, four figures emerged. At the forefront was a boy, no older than fourteen, addressing the mysterious man named Mike. Behind him came the real shock: Lawrence, and his daughter.
They were following the boy's lead.
Mike lowered the barrel from Sam's head and bowed deeply to the boy. When the youth turned his gaze toward the scorched and battered Sam and Sarah, a thin smile played on his lips.
"It seems our guests have arrived early."
Yes, it was clear now from the very start... Lawrence had managed to find himself a "Sugar Mommy."