Silence

Chapter 25

As Adalina was outside tending to the flowerbeds that Finnian had once again murdered, she could just barely make out quiet footsteps approaching the manor. She looked up and saw someone who was unsuccessfully trying to hide from her amongst the many trees surrounding the manor. The more she scanned the grounds, the more people she could see. She counted five, but she had no doubt that there were more of them hiding out of her sight.

She pretended she didn't see them so she could go back inside and inform Ciel that he had intruders. She was sure she could not fight them on her own.

As soon as she turned her back, she felt someone grab her shoulder from behind. On complete instinct, Adalina grabbed the hand of her assailant and twisted him around so she was free. With his arm twisted in such a painful position that he couldn't move, she kicked him hard in the gut. More intruders came out of hiding and ran to attack her. There were indeed more than she had initially seen.

Adalina fought all of them with her own bare hands, dodging each and every attack and inflicting many of her own. She managed to incapacitate a couple of her attackers and was beginning to lose stamina when gunshots were fired from above her.

She spun around and looked up towards the roof of the manor to find Mey-Rin and Baldroy. Baldroy held a large shotgun and Mey-Rin held two handguns that they were aiming from two different look-out posts. They both sent her small nods.

Her eyes widened in surprise. The useless servants were expert snipers?!

Another intruder Adalina hadn't yet seen aimed his gun at the head maid.

"ADALINAAAAA!"

Finnian came in front of her and tossed a huge marble statue they kept in the back gardens at the assailant. The intruder couldn't run away fast enough, and the statue came crashing down on both legs, undoubtedly breaking at least one of them.

How in the world had someone as young as Finnian been able to lift a huge statue?!

"Are you okay?" the young boy asked her.

Adalina looked at the gardener with wide eyes, stunned at the realization that no one working in this manor was normal.

"It's okay! I know I'm strong, but I would never hurt you!" He lightly touched the thin sandy-colored scarf around his neck. "I could never hurt you. You made this for me...It helped me to hide something important..."

She took a step back from him and from the dead intruders and looked at her hands in disbelief.

...How had she just done all of that fighting? She had never learned any of those moves she had just performed. And yet, the injured intruders in front of her proved otherwise.

"Finny, go inside," a familiar voice announced.

"Yes, sir," Finnian said quickly as he bounded back inside the manor.

Sebastian approached a wary Adalina. She was still breathing heavily and was not taking her eyes off her hands or the intruders she had taken down.

He lightly touched her shoulder, and she nearly jumped a foot in the air as she turned around. She tensed up and backed away from him a little.

"I trained you to do all of those techniques," he told her. "We spent hours nearly every day together so I could teach you how to defend yourself. It appears that though you've lost your memory, your muscles have not forgotten what you learned."

This was far too overwhelming for the young woman. In her time at the manor, she had served alongside a demon, two expert snipers, and a kid with more strength than an army, and then learned self-defense from said demon? What was this life she lived?