"Secretary, I need you to contact someone secretly. Tell the shadows that they need to move and get rid of someone before they become a threat to us. They will understand what I mean if you tell them this much."

Minister Calam assured the secretary with a calm voice. He sounded certain about his decision, and the lack of hesitation in his eyes made the secretary flinch.

"B-By shadows, do you mean the imperial shadows that are a secret organization under the emperor's rule? Do they exist? I thought it was all rumors. Are we going to ask them to handle this case for us?"

The secretary asked in an almost scared voice as he looked at the Minister he served.

Somehow, the secretary felt that this was not the right move. Something about this situation had his instincts up in a roar, telling him he needed to run.

But he had nowhere else to run to. The secretary was entirely at the minister's mercy, as he depended on the older man to pay all his expenses.

He had made some…poor financial choices throughout his life, and as a result, he ended up being stranded under the minister who boasted about his wealth and connections.

The fact that he had genuine power and an imperial connection did not hurt.

'Everything else is fine. But Minister Calam has an attitude problem. And he thinks that I can solve everything for him as long as he tells me why. *sigh* He has not led me astray for now, so I guess I will follow his command and head out.'

With those thoughts, the secretary headed out before realizing the minister had not told him how to contact the shadows.

It made him enter the room back, red-faced, and ask the man how he could get to the place where he needed help.

...

"Lady Layla, you should go to sleep if you feel tired. I will keep an eye out for the enemy this time."

Mary smiled as she looked at her young miss with her shining eyes. She had a calm profile, but the danger around her kept Layla awake.

She felt something interesting was about to happen, and her instincts asked her to stay awake for a little longer.

"It's fine. I will head to sleep once we reach home. I do not need to fall asleep here in the carriage."

Despite everything in Layla's body asking her to fall asleep, she did not close her eyes and scum to sleep.

Instead, she kept herself as alert as she could. She even pinched herself to keep her attention span up.

She was certain that something was about to happen. Her instincts about these things were hardly ever wrong, and as a result, she felt wide awake even when her body looked ready to collapse.

"I don't know what you are worried about, young miss. But I promise you that whatever you are thinking about won't happen. I will wake you and Raziel up when I sense something happening."

Mary promised, and Layla looked at Second Compassion with a sigh.

Raziel had fallen asleep not long ago and looked peaceful while sleeping. Layla felt envious of the teen for being able to fall asleep, but at the same time, she knew that Raziel deserved it.

He had spent most of his past few days examining and measuring whether their side had everything under control. He had also started a lot of rumors and kept an eye on things for Layla.

It was not too much to say that he was the backbone of this whole operation. Layla was running from the shadows. But seeing him all tucked out like this did make Layla feel a little envious.

She also wanted to close her eyes and not wake up for a long time.

Her eyes dropped once more, and Mary insisted that Layla fall asleep. And for the first time in forever, Layla acknowledged her words and closed her eyes. She was just about to fall asleep when she felt the carriage shake.

It also made Raziel wake, and Mary's eyes suddenly turned sharp.

"Teacher, what happened-"

"Shh, be quiet. We are currently under attack, and our opponent is strong."

Mary pointed out how her eyes looked around with a serious look, reminding Layla of a well-trained soldier checking their surroundings for enemy soldiers.

"Do we have any idea who the opponent is?"

Layla asked in a hushed voice. She did not want to be heard outside the carriage, so her low voice helped conceal her presence from the enemy.

Mary bit her lip as she thought about this.

Not many people could take her by surprise, but the number of those people was also not insignificant enough to be narrowed down so easily.

There was also the possibility of this being a new threat they did not know anything about.

"Young miss, Raziel, you both stay inside. I will cast a barrier around the carriage while I head out and investigate what happened. If we are lucky, then it will turn out to be nothing."

Mary's tone said this was certainly 'nothing,' but one could always hope for such a miracle.

She quickly walked out of the carriage, but not before she put all the protection around it.

Layla sat down quietly, but her head gave a dull throb, causing her to clutch it in pain. The pain felt familiar, but this was no time for Layla to be concerned about it.

She could only clutch her head and sit while leaning back on her seat. She only had that to support her incoming severe headache.

"Miss Layla, are you alright? Do you need help? You look like you are in pain. If there is anything I can do to help you out-,"

Raziel asked, but Layla did not reply before the carriage shook heavily again.

Despite the barrier around the carriage, the attacks managed to reach it, which was a problem.

At this rate, they could not keep their balance for long.