The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 106: Big Bang

"Chief! Only us two?"

"Do you see anybody else, Voros?"

"But new guns... not tested... this much gunpowder..."

"The whole damn city will know."

Voros looked at Vivian, who was holding the reins and driving the wagon herself, and realized that maybe his crazy wasn’t all that bad. After all, she had just shown up at the company and told him to load all their gunpowder into a wagon.

She told him that she had received word from her informants that the Crown Prince’s Faction was moving large shipments using Royal Treasury carriages. Understanding what the word "Royal" meant was enough to make Voros dig a hole in the ground and hide himself, but understanding the word "Treasury" would make that hole seven times deeper.

And to think Vivian would go happy-go-lucky and attack that convoy in the middle of the night.

"Chief... the security..." Voros spoke.

"There won’t be any. Not even knights," she said.

"How do you know?"

Vivian looked at him with a maniacal smile, reflecting the moonlight over her wide, beautiful eyes.

"Cause it is not the royal family who’s moving it."

She said and took a sharp turn with the wagon, causing the horses pulling it to neigh as they scraped the ground and caused sparks to fly from their horseshoes.

If it is not the Royal Family that is moving its own convoy in Royal Treasury carriages, then who?

"Wait! You’re saying..." Voros’s eyes widened as he understood what Vivian was after.

"Indeed."

As Voros understood what Vivian was doing, he shuddered from the aftermath of her villainous plan. They had gone over the structure of the Crown Prince’s Faction a few times, and this new discovery of using the Royal Treasury outside the authorization of the Royal Family, let alone the King, was just asking for trouble.

Vivian wasn’t the type hellbent on revenge, but as she found a spot exposed in the defense of her enemy, she knew this was high time to weaken them all at once. It was a daring move for sure, but there was more to it.

Vivian couldn’t believe it herself, but once she heard from Lumi that the kidnapped Mrs. Becky—the missing exotic party bird—and Natasha Ivanov—the fugitive spy—would be at the same place at the same time in that so-called Royal Treasury Convoy, Vivian knew this was an encounter with fate, and she wouldn’t miss it no matter what.

How Lumi obtained information on that convoy was a miracle in itself, and luck played a great role as well. She was singing at an underground club party when one of her lackeys overheard a conversation between a royal guard and an unknown man that some treasury carriages would pass through the city and then switch routes to the city’s outskirts, heading towards a certain warehouse.

That royal guard was anxious about a certain package that was added without the Prince’s knowledge, but the other party convinced him that the agreement to secure that secret convoy was to allow the "syndicate" to have one carriage for themselves whenever the need arose.

Just how deep that "shithole" went was something neither Vivian nor Lumi could fully process, but one thing was for certain: a ton of flies would start buzzing if someone were to throw a gunpowder keg into the mix.

And that was exactly what Vivian had in mind.

She had everything she needed from Lumi, who graciously sent her brother to snoop around Graytemple. After paying a hefty sum on Vivian’s tab, both the route and the timeframe were revealed.

And now was the time for action. Vivian drew near the intersection where she planned to ambush the convoy and left the wagon to Voros before walking through the street herself and looking around the place to make sure no one was wandering about.

Voros drove the wagon slowly behind Vivian and parked it at the side of the road before jumping off and approaching Vivian on foot at the center of the intersection.

"Chief... what now?"

"Have you pressurized the gunpowder as I told you?" Vivian turned to him while making sure her Bloody Swan attire was secure.

"Tightly packed... sealed well... left some room for air too," Voros confirmed with a double thumbs-up as he repeated her instructions.

"And the new rifles?"

"Brought them but... not tested, Chief... too dangerous."

"We don’t have time. It is 2 o’clock now, and they’ll be here in less than twenty minutes. We have one shot at this."

"What Voros do?"

"Bury the kegs all around this place, ten paces apart, and link them with a fuse and sprinkle some gunpowder around as well. We need everything to boom all at once."

"Hmm!"

Voros nodded and got to work immediately.

Some time passed, and Vivian almost thought the route she got was wrong, but as soon as she started to grow impatient, she saw a light approaching further down the road.

With sixteen horsemen on each side, eight carriages drove through the road, each with two coachmen and pulled by two fine steeds. Thirty-two men in total, all of whom were royal guards.

The Royal House of Harland had various military divisions operating under its command: the Royal Knights, the Harland Grenadiers, the Royal Footmen, the Morvian Guard, the Emerald Guard, and a whole bunch of other divisions, each with a specific job.

Guarding anything going in or out of the Royal Treasury is primarily the job of the Royal Footmen. This division recruits from those who failed to join the Royal Knights, and in terms of combat prowess, their ranks consisted of bronze-rank knights and regular soldiers. As for their gear...

"Pistols and swords."

From a nearby roof, Voros said, as his superior dwarven darkvision allowed him to see better at night than during the day.

"So... a fair fight." Beside him, Vivian replied while aiming the brand-new rifle Voros had made.

"Voros makes you weapons... not a fair fight!" Voros didn’t seem to appreciate comparing his creations to other weapons.

"Alright, devil man. Let’s see what this rifle is made of."

"Pure BOOM!"

BANG!

Just as the first carriage in the convoy was in the right place, followed by the other carriages in a straight line, Vivian took the first shot that heralded disaster.

WHIZZ!

CLANG!

Alas, Vivian missed.

"Shit!" She cursed and broke the gun’s action to reload it immediately.

"GUNFIRE!"

The horsemen beside the first carriage were alerted as the bullet hit the hard ground, made a visible spark, and bounced off.

"FIRE BACK! HYAAA!"

The Bloody Swan and her Devil Man hid behind cover and could hear the carriages start moving.

"Two inches left!" Voros said and nodded to Vivian before throwing something from the other side of the roof to distract the guards. Vivian immediately took off in the opposite direction and aimed her rifle then...

BANG!

KA-BOOOOOOOOOO...

And an unimaginable blast left... RINNNNNNNNNNNNG!

Vivian was blown back by the force of the explosion and fell onto her buttocks, covering her ears as they began to ring like never before. Even Voros, who had been behind cover the whole time, started to shake his head and slap his face to restore his balance.

As the two felt stunned, Vivian tried to open her system store and spent 200 SP on a common-grade panacea potion before consuming it. Her senses were soon restored, and she got up with a cool flip.

"You good, Voros?"

"No... two chiefs."

"Isn’t that just the dream?" Vivian laughed and shook her head, "Imagine if I had a double just pretending to be me at home."

She picked up the rifle and approached the roof’s edge to see what the hell she had just done.

The scene was nothing short of apocalyptic. Smoke and dust covered everything. The tightly packed street tiles were scattered as shrapnel across the place, the people living in the nearby buildings were screaming and hiding, and the cost of property damage was astronomical.

Despite the devastation, nothing could be seen from their vantage point until the smoke and dust settled.

But...

"Holy Moly Sweet Guacamole!"

The scale of destruction in the street was absolutely dramatic. The art of going BOOM was something Voros was about to elevate into a new school of magic, given how well he had set up that ambush.

"Hey!" Vivian called, "How much did you pressurize that gunpowder in the keg?"

"Earth Singing... so... very much," Voros replied, shaking his hand.

"You used Earth Singing to condense gunpowder?" She asked, her face paler than usual.

"Three kegs... one keg," Voros replied proudly.

"Voros, you beautiful devil!"

Vivian and Voros fist-bumped as they started the second phase of their plan. It wasn’t a complicated plan; all she needed was to find Natasha Ivanov, put a bullet between her eyes, and ascertain the deal with that Mrs. Becky bird.

"Well, let’s hope this didn’t kill it. Voros, the line."

Voros heeded Vivian’s words and picked up a crossbow they had prepared. This special crossbow was a product of Voros’s genius and Vivian’s specifications.

As soon as Voros aimed it, a projectile was launched, carrying a wire to the building on the opposite side of the one they were on; he then flipped the entire mechanism of the crossbow, and another projectile appeared on it. He shot the other projectile at the wall right behind them before handing it to Vivian.

Now the crossbow had two lines coming from its two sides, both attached to buildings opposite each other. All Vivian needed to do was hook her left hand onto the crossbow, hold it tight, and press a red trigger.

ZHIIIP!

Suddenly, the mechanism at the heart of the crossbow tightened, and Vivian was carried up with it. Now, she was held by the crossbow and dangled from the line.

"Cover me! Two inches to the left. Don’t forget!"

"Shame, Voros!"

The duergar held the rifle with disgust for his failed product and aimed it at the scene while Vivian used the zipline to travel off the building. She aimed her gun (Romeo) to secure herself; as she reached the middle of the scene, she used the mechanism once again to loosen both lines and descend slowly until her feet reached the ground.

"Holy fuck!"

With two guns in hand, Vivian inspected the scene up close; everything was scattered all over the place. This was like a warzone in the middle of a city.

Vivian counted the carriages that were toppled all over the place, and she could see seven. This meant that one carriage got away and never looked back.

As for the guards, they were all dead. At least the ones Vivian had encountered so far.

As the smoke and dust settled, Vivian could hear some voices groaning and struggling from the other end of the scene. She walked amidst the rubble and could see that some men seemed to have survived.

"Shit! Hurry up! Push it!"

"I’m injured! I can’t."

"Fuck! Smith, help him out. You two, keep your eyes peeled. We need to get this carriage out."

"Sir, the left horse is injured."

"Fuck! They took the hit worse than us. Cut it loose. One horse can still pull this."

"Aye, captain."

The men were in bad spirits after what happened as they started looking around for attackers and giving casualty reports to the captain.

Vivian hid behind a flipped carriage and waited until the dust settled a bit, allowing Voros to get eyes on the situation. From what it looked like, the remaining guards were trying to rescue one carriage that had gotten stuck in the blast radius but was mostly intact. As all of these carriages were armored, their load would normally need at least four horses to pull them, but having only two indicated that the load was light.

All Vivian needed to do was focus, wait for the signal, and...

BANG!

A sudden bullet broke the sound barrier and passed right beside her head. It was coming from Voros’s direction.

Vivian lowered her posture immediately and looked around, only to find a sword-wielding man falling over beside her.

Despite his injuries, that man had managed to sneak up on her, and if not for Voros...

"Good fucking shooting!" Vivian couldn’t help but swear and praise at the same time, as there was no time for tactical planning now.

"ENEMIES!"

The men who were pushing the carriages immediately pulled their swords and pistols, but Vivian was ready; she had Romeo and Juliet aimed and ready.

BANG!

BANG!

Two shots were fired, and Vivian dropped two Royal Guards from her awkward position as she lay prone on the ground. The other guards charged her, so she sent her pistols back to storage and got her sword ready.

« 40 SP spent on Auto Reloading! »

What she needed to do was buy enough time to use her guns again, as in a sword fight against this many veteran fighters, it would be hopeless to even imagine herself winning.

Thankfully, they were injured and disoriented, so Vivian managed to pull her gun once again and...

BANG! BANG!

She fenced with the blade but started dropping them in pairs. Voros also started sniping from the roof, and it was a fast fight, as none of the men were even able to do much.

Finally, the last man standing was an old soldier who managed to block three bullets by himself using Bronze Aura.

"Fuck! You killed Tom, Dick, and Harry, you whore."

"Wait! These were actually their names?"

"Shut your trap and fight!"

"No, no, you have to tell."

He charged her with his sword, but she dodged sideways and aimed her loaded gun before firing at his side. This time, it seemed his Aura wasn’t fast enough to defend him.

"ARGH!"

The bullet tore through his flesh, and he held his side, struggling to stand but still holding his sword up.

"Come on and kill me." He shouted at her.

Vivian only smiled and approached the man with speed before trying to slice his neck with her sword, but as she did so, he parried masterfully and almost managed to get his rapier through her sword’s crossguard to snatch it away. However, as his maneuver almost forced her blade from her hand, she retracted the sword that Voros had made for her into a dagger before extending it again and driving it into the man’s heart.

"What the fuck..."

"I call him Long John Silver, a tricky sword, eh?"

Vivian pulled her sword as the Royal Guard captain fell dead at her feet.

"What the... what about Tom, Dick, and Harry?"

Even if she was displeased for not knowing if it was true or false, there was no one between her and the treasury carriages now.

Vivian walked to the carriage that was stuck in the explosion radius and discovered that the ground had been almost dug out by the blast, at least a foot and a half deep.

Looking at the carriage, it would be hard to pull it out with one injured horse weighing it down. She knocked on the door in the back a couple of times and inspected it, but she was in for a jump scare.

An arm suddenly emerged from the cage-like window of the carriage door. It started hitting everywhere, and a muffled voice from within started screaming.

"Shit! Don’t scare me like... that..."

Vivian was about to scold the owner of that arm, but as she looked at it closely, she was even more shocked than before: the arm was purple, and there were claws at the end of its fingers.

Vivian backed up and looked through the door’s tight window closely, only to see a face as shocking as the arm. A woman’s face, quite hard to discern its features apart from its non-human yellow eyes and the black hair that covered it.

"A party animal? Could it be?"

Vivian tried to think of what Mrs. Becky could look like, but if she was one of the non-human races with bird features, it wouldn’t be strange that people acted how they did.

And here she thought it was some ostrich. Everyone now will have some explaining to do.

But just as Vivian was racking her brain on how to free that creature, the carriage suddenly started to move.

"What? Shit!"

Immediately, Vivian pulled her guns out and rushed to the front, but...

BANG!

She was fired at and immediately had to jump back.

"Shoot her! Take my gun!"

Two royal guards seemed to have hidden themselves and gotten the injured horse off as the carriage was moving. Vivian tried to chase again, but they shot at her one more time. Voros’s angle made it impossible to shoot at the driver, which was why the carriage started moving faster and faster until it got away.

"Fuck!"

Vivian would have given chase, but her priority was to ensure Natasha Ivanov was dealt with for the sake of House Moore. Between the System’s mission and her House, Vivian reluctantly halted her steps in frustration and anger.

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