Chapter-41
Erik used his ability to move through shadows to directly escape to the floor below them, not wanting Mayumi to witness the powers of his [Hollow's Body], he simply asked her to close her eyes, he already had decided his next course of actions and what he would say to her if she asked about his magic.
He activated his [Hollow's eyes] and looked around intending to see if they were alone or the attackers were patrolling the area.
'Doesn't look like they are anywhere near here, guess we have some time until they decide to patrol this floor...'
He then turns towards the beautiful woman within his arms, Mayumi was standing within his embrace with her eyes closed, and a calm expression could be observed on her face as she quietly waited for Erik to tell her to open her eyes.
Erik continued to look at her for quite some time, admiring her beauty and personality.
'I must admit, Mayumi is truly an attractive woman...…'
An amused smile appeared on Erik's face as he remembered how even though Mayumi seemed like a naïve girl, not once she has let down her guard when interacting with others, always maintaining a certain level of professionalism when interacting with the students.
Mari and Erik, both of them were the exceptions to Mayumi disguise due to one the former being her childhood friend whereas the latter was someone she had feelings for, it wasn't that she didn't try to mask her true feelings from Erik but the Saltzman always saw right through her disguise.
'Well time to move on, it's not the time to think about these things...'
Erik slowly let go of Mayumi's waist, almost "regrettable". The latter felt the palm holding her waist move away as a sense of loss occupied her mind. Mayumi forcefully suppressed the feeling and focused on the situation at hand.
"You can open your eyes, Mayumi...…"
Hearing the soft whisper within her ear, a shiver ran down her spine as she berated herself for having indecent thoughts in such a dangerous situation. She slowly opened her eyes and regained her vision; the first thing that entered her view was a pair of chartreuse phosphorescent eyes staring straight into her crimson eyes.
Mayumi quickly looked away as her neck started turning red, her heart was beating frantically as she thought about just how close she was, all the previously collected resolution to maintain her serious outlook was destroyed by a single glance.
'I a-am s-so clo-close to h-his fa-face!.....'
Mayumi thought of moving away from Erik, so to not appear as a weak woman but her body refused to move due to the nervousness she was feeling, thousand of ideas were flashing through her mind.
"It's alright, the attackers wouldn't be patrolling this area since they would most likely flank the above floor to push the people within the main room into moving away from that place...."
Even though he said these words to Mayumi, both of them knew that her nervousness wasn't due to the fact that they were under attack.
Mayumi raised her eye to look at Erik who was looking away from her, his even calm face made her want to pout but she smiled knowing that he was trying to help her overcome the nervousness she was feeling.
"Thank you..." Mayumi muttered under her breath, knowing full well that he would be able to hear her words due to the lack of distance between them. She stepped backwards to create some healthy distance the two of them and adopted a serious expression.
"It is certain that Juumonji-san recognized the leader of the attackers, and judging from the interaction between the two, it is certain that this attack is more of a personal matter and we are just unfortunately caught in this mess."
Mayumi immediately processed the information she observed all this while and came to the most probable conclusion. No matter what, she was not just anyone; she was the eldest daughter of the Saegusa Family.
"Hmm...while your analysis does hold viable, it fails to take into account of other factors. Judging from the orderly manner of the attackers, they aren't some mercenaries, more likely they all belong to a certain organization; they were able to get through the security measures of the Juumonji family meaning that they must have some corrupt high-members within the clan, also the outline of this building."
"The weapons they were using had anti-magic bullets, these things aren't easy to access, meaning that the organization behind them is quite a force. It is safe to assume that they have access to the control room even though the cameras have stopped working after that short-circuit, not to mention I strongly believe that the attackers we saw until now were just bait."
"Bait?...."
"Yes, even though they had anti-magic guns, they didn't wear any other equipment, not even normal body armour, for someone who is backed up by a possible big force, it doesn't make sense...."
"Not that I think about it, you are indeed correct! But then why would they be used as bait? Wait a minute! You don't mean….."
"Indeed! They wanted to bait out the magicians who could pose a threat to them, they would probably mark those individuals and take them out first before capturing others..."
"That makes sense! Though it doesn't matter if I, Juumonji-san and Chiba-san, use magic to oppose them since they already expect us to oppose them due to our individual status….."
"Yes, they would guard against the other members of the [10-Masters Clan] so it doesn't matter if you took the bait or not….."
"Then other than us, there is probably some other individuals hidden, especially the ones who dispatched more than half-of the attackers in a moment when the lights short-circuited!"
"Indeed, fortunately, they acted within the veil of darkness so no one would know their identity; this gives us the benefit of doubt as the attackers would surely try to find those magicians first."
"This gives us the time to regroup with the others and plan how to deal with this problem….."
"Let's head towards the storage room, knowing Mari, she would surely ask Naotsugu to head there, there is a high chance that Juumonji-san would also come to this conclusion….."
Both Mayumi and Erik started moving towards the storage area to regroup and strategize with the others who had escaped from the main-hall.
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