I was reborn as an orphan, But I won't let that stop me

"That is no good Mr. Quincy, if you do not get used to seeing a little skin how can you attend any banquets? After all, it is your duty as a member of the nobility. Times are changing you need to adapt." Annette whispers sultrily into his ear, finding a kindle of excitement from teasing him. seeing his face turn red makes her want to do it even more. " Y... you, can you please be more modest." Loyd stammers. "My apologies, but I am everything but modest." She says and then pulls back. "Anyway, I am not done here." She speaks and walks away to find the duke, not waiting for Loyd. It takes him a while to come to his senses but once he does he quickly follows her. On the way, more guards are coming and she cuts down every one of them, leaving some runaway lower servants. But she does not find him anywhere inside the mansion. 'He must be inside the secret passway.'She thinks and quickly walks towards the yard where the shed is. 

"where are you going?" He asks. " To their hideout," Annette answers, walks directly to the shed, and unlocks the secret passage. She walked first to the office but it was empty. Then she walks to the factory and before Lyod can say anything she used shadow magic to bind every worker in place and killed everyone in one fell swoop with an ice shard that pierced through their hearts. Seeing this scene Loyd is overcome with disconcerted and unsettling emotions. He was frozen in place until Anette turned around to walk out of the room. Then he quickly comes to his senses, quickly turns around, and shouts at her. " Why did you kill them? They are just hired, workers that have nothing to do with this except doing their job!"

Anette halts and turns her head to look at him. " No matter what unintentionally or not by law they would still be considered traitors, after all, they did contribute to the overthrow of the throne. I at gave them a quick and painless death." She says with no emotion at all, like what she did was something so mundane that it did not register at all. Heating this Loyd clenches his fists so hard that he starts to shake. He clenches his teeth and says: " They are just ordinary workers who most likely did not know anything at all or have been threatened to help. They at least should have been given a trial." He argues. "Do you think that the justice system here that favors those in power would care to investigate every one of their motives? After all, there are so many of them. They would just think that is a waste of time so they will just use the evidence we have already collected and just kill everyone in bulk anyway. They would only get a more gruesome and painful death than I have already given them. Not only that it will be a public display so that even their loved ones will get implicated and be branded as traitors even though they did not do anything. You are too naive." Annette says and then continues to walk towards the laboratory where the phoenix is. 

After hearing what she said Loyd feels like he has just been stabbed with a knife. No matter how much he disliked what she did he could not deny that she is right. It is not her who is wrong but the justice system. He could not blame her for doing such a disgusting act. It was still better than the other alternative. He tries to calm himself down and then proceeds to follow her. And once they arrive their target is finally found together with the two scientists that have been experiencing the phoenix. The Phoenix is now in an even worse state than before Annette saw her. She could sense that if it doesn't get help soon the phoenix will most likely die in less than a day. "Who are you and how did you find this place!?" Duke Salone screams with anger. "All you need to know is that your happy days are over," Annette says with a gloating smile. "Hahaha, you two are just kids still wet behind your ears. I don't know how you managed to get in but don't think that you can come out alive!" The Duke says not taking them seriously at all. 

"Dont you know that you should never underestimate your enemy? After all, that is how all villains die." Annette says teasingly with an innocent excretion on her face. Hearing this the duke finally snaps and orders the others to attack them. Of course, Annette quickly decapitated one of them with one of her swords while Loyd uses his magic to burn the other one to ash. Now the only one left is Duke Salone. The duke notices that he has seriously miscalculated and he knows that the only way to get out is to kill the two brats himself. So he casts a powerful air spell that covers him just like a shield that pushes Annette back if she went straight in it would be like she was in the middle of a tornado. It also deflected Loyde's fire spell and killed it. The duke then shoots air projectiles from the shield which Annette only can dodge while Lyod uses his white magic to cast a powerful shield that sends his attack back at him like a boomerang. Sadly it doesn't do much except for pushing him back. Annette then decides to use her shadow magic to disappear into the shadows while the duke is distracted. She then emerges behind him and discovered that because he uses his shield to launch projectiles the airflow of the shield is slower at the back. It must be because he uses the air at the back for his attacks. So she decides to both of her swords and covered them with both black and air magic and slashes down as hard as she can to break the shield.