"NO! STOP HURTING HIM!"

The shocked Mika cried and threw herself on Corvus's body so that the female servant wouldn't be able to hit him again without harming her, but even so, the woman was no longer there - in a blink of an eye she already returned to lord Wrath's side and was grabbing onto his arm as if she never left in the first place.

"Ugh...! Guh...!"

Corvus gasped for air in no shape to get up.

It seemed that his jaw got dislocated from the slap and in a really bad way too...

"Why would you do something so cruel to him?!"

The young girl cried glaring at her father with spite.

"Mika, get away from him! After all the things we did for him, that scum ignored the mission I, as the head of the Wrath family, had given him! The diligence I praised him for on so many occasions turned out to be a lie! And you heard what he had said! He did that because he got bored...! That lazy scum! I should have given you to the Sloths' fishermen when I had the chance!"

Lord Wrath had real trouble containing himself. Time after time the white light of the skills he was using, was turning bright red, threatening to erupt into a violent unique wrath-type skill.

"No! It surely isn't what like it looks like! He must have had an important reason!"

Mika bravely defended Corvus, who was gasping for air unable to articulate even a single word properly because of the damage he had suffered.

"...please, listen to what your father really means, lady Mika..."

The scary servant holding lord Wrath from behind spoke, and it turned out that he had a really soft and gentle voice not really matching his beady eyes of a maniac.

"But he's wrong! He doesn't even want to hear Corvus's side of the story... his reason, I mean...!"

After noticing that the servant isn't nearly as terrifying as his outward appearance suggested, Mika cried out to him, looking for support.

"His reason doesn't matter in the slightest!"

Lord Wrath roared and managed to take another step even though his foot was twisted at an insanely painful-looking angle.

"You silly girl, you don't understand the severity of the consequences of that boy's actions! You don't even know who those three are, do you?! And what does it means that they are here?!"

"Eh...?"

Lord Wrath scoffed and pointed at the three servants holding him back, and caused Mika to flinch and nervously look at the servants.

They all were wearing a standardized servant's attire that all the staff hired by the nobles of the main families was assigned.

Each of them looked considerably young, at most two or three years older than Corvus, so they had to be in their mid to late twenties at most.

The copper-eyed female had her platinum hair cut relatively short in a practical bob-cut.

The scary-looking black-eyed male had his black hair cut short like a soldier.

And the blue-eyed one who was continuously using a healing skill on lord Wrath had blond curly hair making him look like a cuddly sheep.

There was absolutely nothing that Mika could use as a clue to figure out whether there was anything special about them.

"They are the last students of my older brother! Exactly half a year before his death, they all passed the qualification exam and became the exclusive bodyguards of the queen herself and were supposed to never leave her side...!"

Lord Wrath began trembling even more than before and the light of his skill stopped flickering and just straight up settled for vibrant red.

"Eh...? But then why are they...?"

Mika gasped looking at the impressive trio with confusion.

"Why are they here then, you ask?!"

Lord Wrath straightened his back and glared down at his daughter and the young man she was protecting.

"Because of that bastard! Because of his blatant failure to keep an eye on little Cranberry, the competence of OUR ENTIRE FAMILY HAD BEEN PUT INTO QUESTION, AND THEY GOT DISMISSED FROM THEIR RIGHTFULLY EARNED POSITION!"

The older man shouted and the air surrounding him begun to tremble like during a heatwave.

The trio of dismissed bodyguards exchanged worried looks and nodded.

The intensity of the light they were producing increased, becoming almost blinding, proving that they were holding back quite a lot before.

Even so, they were barely able to hold back the weakened avatar of wrath from obliterating the white-haired man.

"Because of his incompetence and lies, the reputation of us all as the bodyguards got shredded into nothing! I trusted him and got repaid with betrayal!"

Lord Wrath's voice trembled and the light of his skill faded as he hung down his head in defeat.

"That... that's not really his fau..."

Mika had still much to learn, one of those things was when to keep her mouth shut...

Thankfully there was someone there who knew what to do.

"Girly. Do this guy a favor and stop trying to get him killed."

The platinum-haired woman sighed and sneered at Mika.

"I would never...! Ah..."

At first, the young girl inflated with anger but as soon as she glanced at her father's face she realized her mistake.

"I understand..."

She mumbled and got off of Corvus, which coincidentally allowed him to have an easier time breathing.

"Cri, Ti, Cal, as of right now Corvus is under house arrest, escort him to his room and then heal him. I'll arrange for someone to keep an eye on him so you three could relax a bit until we'll figure out a way to regain the trust of our clients."

Lord Wrath encouraged the trio to let go of him and take care of the barely conscious white-haired young man.

And of course, they did so with only a moment of hesitation.

Then they approached Corvus and picked him up.

"Umm... master, where is his...?"

The one using healing skills before asked looking around with confusion.

It has been a while since they stayed in the Wrath's household and their knowledge of the location of everyone's bedrooms was almost nonexistent.

"Ah! I'll show you the way!"

Mika offered instantly and rushed to the front to show others the way.

"Haa... The acting is really easy if I'm actually angry at the nasty brat."

Lord Wrath breathed out, watching as the youngsters all left.

"...the rest is up to you three... System, show active quest."

He added and loudly issued a system command.

/You have 1 active quest

Putting things into motion

Assure that CriTiCal, Justice's Wrath, and the Wrathful Protector, will meet up with the heroine

Revard:

+1 year to live

"...I really hope that everything will work out fine..."

Lord Pomegranate Wrath sighed and let the system window fade from his line of sight on its own.