The Two People to Be Rescued (Please Read to the Last Page!)

A few minutes later, Lilith suddenly stopped in a mountain forest.

[This presence is...]

She had a thought and quietly hid behind a large tree.

Before long, a woman with two horns on her head, black hair on the left and white hair on the right, appeared in Lilith's sight.

The woman was tall and wore a tight, deep-V leather outfit and round sunglasses. She held a cigar in one hand and a Den Den Mushi in the other.

"A Marine holding babies? I understand... I never expected that guy who loves kidnapping people to have such a peculiar hobby..."

The woman's conversation with the person in the Den Den Mushi made Lilith's expression shift.

[A Marine holding babies? Isn't that the person Lord Annus wants to save?]

[Could it be... this woman is looking for that Marine too?]

Thinking that, Lilith hesitated slightly as she watched the woman about to disappear from view, then followed her.

[She doesn't look like a Marine. She should be one of God's Knights...]

Although Lilith did not know much about the legendary God's Knights, she knew they were the elite among the Celestial Dragons.

Unlike those foolish, ugly ordinary Celestial Dragons, members of God's Knights were often handsome or beautiful, intelligent, and possessed formidable strength.

The woman Lilith was following was Maffy of God's Knights, a member of the Chaterz Family and the Celestial Dragon who, in the original timeline, had snatched Shamrock away from Dragon.

Lilith did not know that, however. By sheer chance, she had found someone to lead the way, and secretly following Maffy actually led her to the two red-haired infants Annus had asked her to rescue.

"Ah! Found them!"

[Found them!]

Maffy and Lilith almost simultaneously locked onto the young Marine hidden in the bushes ahead, wearing a cloak.

Having found her target, Maffy launched a sneak attack from behind without a second thought.

A laser beam shot from Maffy's fang-filled mouth, but just as it was about to pierce Dragon's back, Lilith moved.

"Cloud Puppet Show!"

With a sharp cry, the blade equipped with Iron Cloud scattered in Lilith's hand into countless fine cloud threads. Those threads precisely pierced Dragon's cloak and entered his body.

"Th-That hurts!"

Before Dragon could understand what was happening, Lilith had already controlled his body like a puppet on strings. He dodged the laser beam while clutching the red-haired twins and flew toward Lilith.

"Damn it!"

The sudden turn of events caught Maffy off guard.

"What happened?!"

The Celestial Dragon on the other end of the Den Den Mushi sounded even more anxious than Maffy.

"A pirate is trying to steal them from me!" Maffy said as she lunged at Lilith.

"What? Who is it? Not many people should know Garling has children!" the voice in the Den Den Mushi said.

"It's Enchanted Angel Lilith, that monster from the Rocks Pirates!"

Maffy's lunge missed. Lilith evaded her, retreated with Dragon shielded behind her, and assumed a fighting stance.

"Where are you? I'll support you immediately! If we lose Garling's children, Garling will kill us!" said the Celestial Dragon in the Den Den Mushi.

"I'm in the forest inland from the coastline, probably along the southeastern shore. Hurry over!" Maffy took a drag on her cigar. "I can't handle a monster from the Rocks Pirates alone."

Because Rocks had once invaded the Holy Land of Mary Geoise and had even entered the Room of Flowers, his infamy was well known throughout God's Knights. And the officers under Rocks were notorious for their ferocity...

Most importantly, Lilith had come for Garling's children!

Garling possessed the immortality bestowed by the Supreme, but his children did not. If anything happened to them...

At that thought, Maffy suddenly shuddered.

"You're... a pirate!? What do you want?!"

Dragon, whose life Lilith had saved, recognized her as well. As a member of the Rocks Pirates, Enchanted Angel Lilith was one of the most famous figures in the entire crew.

Strictly speaking, all the female officers of the Rocks Pirates were among the most famous.

According to Dragon's understanding, many Marines had wanted posters of those beautiful pirates pasted beside their beds, with Shakuyaku's poster being the most sought after.

Whenever night fell and silence settled in, someone would secretly reach out, tear a wanted poster off the wall, hide it beneath the blankets, and find a new one the next day.

Having trained at a Marine camp, Dragon remembered such details especially clearly.

But this was obviously not the time for such messy thoughts, because Lilith was already reaching for the babies in his arms!

"Hand those two children over to me, Marine!"

Lilith said this as she reached out.

"No!"

Dragon immediately held the two red-haired baby boys in his arms even tighter.

"This is my atonement! I won't give them to you, even if I die!"

"What are you even talking about?" Lilith had no patience for this. She swiftly knocked out the Marine before her and seized the two red-haired baby boys.

Cradled in Lilith's arms and catching her flower-like scent, the two baby boys, who had been fussing moments ago, immediately quieted down.

Not only that, they waved their little arms and legs as they tried to burrow into Lilith's soft, ample bosom.

"Ah! So cute! Be good, okay? You're the people Lord Annus wants to save! I'll protect you properly!" Lilith's maternal instincts instantly overflowed.

"You want to protect them? Those are children with the most noble bloodline in the world! What nonsense are you spouting, you lowly pirate slut!" Maffy flew into a rage, as though she had heard something revolting.

"Huh? You ugly woman, say that again if you dare."

Hearing Maffy's words, Lilith's once-gentle expression turned cold. Her rapidly whipping cloud lash struck Maffy across the face with lightning speed.

"Smack!!"

After the burning pain, Maffy froze in place and raised a hand to touch the deep lash mark on her face.

"LOWLY PIRATE SLUT!!!"

A moment later, the knight of God went berserk.

That attack, low in damage but immensely humiliating, caused the ever-arrogant Maffy to completely lose her composure.

One laser beam after another erupted from Maffy's throat, leaving holes throughout the nearby tree trunks...

But then, a sudden and immensely powerful flying slash cleaved through Maffy's body, along with the entire stretch of forest.

"Move!!!"

The enormous flying slash also engulfed Lilith, but she evaded it with an urgent duck. She looked toward where the slash had come from, anger appearing on her beautiful face.

"Newgate! Are you trying to kill me?"