The First One

Bang!

Before Bach could step forward, a piercing gunshot suddenly rang out from the tiny, dilapidated courtyard.

"Ah! She actually has a firearm? You little brat, you still dare resist?! Grab her!"

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The courtyard gate stood half-open, allowing the people on the street to vaguely see what was happening inside.

A girl of about fourteen or fifteen, with short icy-blue hair and the appearance of a tomboy, suddenly drew a short flintlock gun and wounded the soldier holding her.

Then she swiftly pulled a gleaming short sword from her waist. Like an enraged young wolf, she lashed out at the unreasonable soldiers with a flurry of grim "fangs" carrying the chill of winter wind.

Frost Wolf Swordsmanship

While the soldiers frantically dodged, she easily broke through their encirclement.

Though the tomboy was young, she clearly knew her own limits.

She knew that even if she escaped by luck, she could never defeat a group of fully armored soldiers equipped with firearms. She immediately sprinted toward the door.

Yet at that moment, she ran headlong into the thin, seemingly frail tax officer who had come to inspect the Golden Compass.

The tomboy did not consider him a threat. She shifted her feet, intending to dodge around him.

But the tax officer gave her a cold smile. The sulfurous aura around him surged as he reached out to seize her.

"Hmph, where do you think you're going?"

The tomboy instinctively raised her sword in a backward slash.

Clang!

Yet when that finely crafted family short sword struck his wrist, it rang like metal against iron, nearly knocking the weapon from her grip.

In the instant that the tomboy, an Apprentice Knight, froze in shock, the tax officer had already twisted both her hands behind her back and effortlessly subdued