novelraw Chapter 95 : Midnight Shock
Chapter 95 : Midnight Shock
Chapter 95: Midnight Shock
“Doo…doo…doo……….”
The busy tone echoed in the receiver, then faded.
Levi held the receiver, frowning.
In movies, what he hated most was this kind of scene—where someone was in the middle of speaking when the line suddenly cut off.
But right now, the problem wasn’t someone cutting off mid-sentence, it was………why had the line gone dead?
The telephones of this era required wires to work.
Could it be… that the line had been cut?
With a thought, Levi commanded the puppet bird that had been resting atop the roof of the Baskerville house.
It spread its wings and took to the sky.
Immediately afterward, Levi activated 【Soul Sight】 to investigate the surroundings.
Then, Levi saw something………well, something rather troublesome.
Indeed, very troublesome.
“Madam Gladys.”
Levi put down the receiver and looked at the maid who had been following by his side.
“Call Lady Baskerville here immediately, it’s urgent.”
“Eh? But the young lady right now………”
“Hurry, just tell her I have something extremely important!”
“Understood.”
Although Madam Gladys had no idea why Levi was in such a rush to find Aurelia, she still nodded and hurried away.
Moments later, Aurelia rushed in.
“What happened? Detective? Did you discover something again?”
“How many people are in the manor right now.”
“Eh?”
It had to be said, Levi’s question went somewhat beyond Aurelia’s expectations.
She thought for a moment, then finally gave an answer.
“Twenty.”
“So few?”
This answer truly went against Levi’s expectations, but Madam Gladys quickly offered an explanation.
“Because we have a new master, many matters must be reorganized, and some servants resigned. Right now only the butler, the cook, the gardener, the coachman, six maids………remain.”
“What about the policemen sent by the station?”
“Eight.”
“Tch………can you summon everyone together?”
“What’s going on? What happened?”
“We’re under attack.”
“Attack?”
This answer shocked everyone.
Small wonder—Delicat was an inland region.
Even if the Empire went to war with another country, it was not here that would be attacked first.
In truth, Delicat was mostly peaceful.
There were cases of murder and crime, but an attack on a noble manor?
That was almost tantamount to rebellion!
“Contact Director McMillan at once…………”
“The line has been cut.”
Levi shook the receiver in his hand at Aurelia.
Her face immediately changed upon hearing this, then she took the receiver, listened, and her expression darkened.
“Madam Gladys, find Mace at once, tell him to ring the bell and gather everyone at the front gate—hurry!”
“Ah, y-yes, I’ll go right now!”
“I’ll prepare as well.”
Levi left the room, went to the garage, took out spare ammunition from the car, and checked his cane-gun.
At that very moment, the bell atop the house began to toll urgently.
“Dang………dang………dang……….”
The Baskerville family’s rules were indeed well enforced.
By the time Levi returned, the servants were already assembled.
Even the policemen patrolling the grounds came curiously to see what was happening.
“Just these people?”
Levi scanned the servants and immediately frowned.
Most were maids; the rest included an old butler, a coachman, the old tomb keeper he had seen earlier, and two sturdy young gardeners—the same unlucky pair Aurelia often sent on errands.
In addition, there were four guards stationed in the courtyard.
A group of the weak and elderly—hardly anyone capable of fighting.
Levi frowned deeply.
The timing was truly poor.
Aurelia had just inherited the chieftainship, and with the disappearance of her predecessor, many servants had either been dismissed or resigned.
Given time, she could have hired replacements, but unfortunately, she had no time now.
“Detective, explain the situation to everyone.”
Aurelia gathered the crowd and, seeing Levi return, asked him to speak.
Levi nodded, stepped forward, and glanced at everyone.
“I want you all to listen calmly. According to the information I just received, this manor is about to be attacked.”
“Attacked?”
At this, not only the servants but also the policemen were shocked.
“Who’s attacking us? We should contact the director at once……………”
“The lines are cut. We cannot reach anyone.”
Levi interrupted a timid young policeman.
“Now I need everyone to regroup inside the house. Lock doors and windows, arm yourselves, and prepare for battle! Also light every lamp around the estate. Board up windows and doors just in case. Understood?”
“Wait.”
A guard spoke up quickly.
“This is completely passive defense………what if they trap us inside………”
“I said we’re under attack, but I never said our attackers are human.”
“???”
Levi’s answer left everyone bewildered, even Aurelia looked at him in surprise.
“In any case, start moving. By my calculations, the enemy should arrive after sunset. We don’t have much time!”
Levi glanced at the distant horizon.
The sun had already dipped behind the mountains.
At most an hour remained before total darkness.
“………………………”
Faced with Levi’s orders, everyone hesitated and looked to Aurelia.
She looked at Levi, then bit her lip.
“Do as the detective says. Open the armory, men fetch weapons and ammunition. Others, lock and barricade all doors and windows!”
At Aurelia’s command, everyone stopped hesitating and began moving quickly.
The menservants and policemen went to fetch rifles and shotguns from the armory, while the maids inspected doors and windows, locking every entrance tight.
Fortunately, as a descendant of one of the Twelve Knights, the Baskerville family manor was ancient and built with military features.
Had this been some indulgent villa full of floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights, defense would be impossible—they could only wait for death.
Night fell.
The entire manor was brightly lit, gas lamps illuminating every corner.
The men held weapons, staring out from the first-floor windows and second-floor balconies, restless and bored.
“Hey, you think that detective’s reliable?”
A guard with a shotgun yawned, chatting with a companion.
“Gathering us all like it’s dangerous. What’s dangerous here? Even if it’s animals, so what? Sometimes wild beasts wander in. City folk are just fussy, making a big fuss over nothing………”
“Awooooo———————!”
Suddenly, a wolf’s howl pierced the night, cutting the guard’s complaints short.
“Wolf?”
The guard froze, quickly raising his gun, but he kept talking.
“See? Just a wolf or two, nothing to panic about. City people really don’t know better……….”
But before he finished, howls erupted from every direction.
“Awooooo—————!”
“Awooooo———!”
“Awoo———!”
At once, everyone’s face changed.
“Wha………what is going on?”
The guard stopped joking, his expression grave.
They had accompanied their masters hunting before, and a wolf or two was nothing.
But few had ever faced a wolf pack.
Now, with howls echoing from all sides, it felt as if they were surrounded.
Just how many wolves were there?
“At least a hundred. Possibly every wolf from the nearby mountains.”
Lying on the roof, Levi gripped his cane-gun with its unfolded stand, glancing at the minimap in the corner of his vision.
Densely packed glowing dots filled it.
Above him, the puppet bird soared, faithfully surveying the battlefield like a drone.
Levi felt like he was in a shooting game—first-person, gun in hand, minimap at the corner.
The battlefield was one-way transparent to him—nothing to fear.
Gamers had joked in forums before: if you gave an FPS protagonist a minimap and regenerating health, they could fight from Dunkirk to Berlin in WWII—a true “King of Soldiers” setup.
Levi didn’t have regenerating health, but the minimap was plenty.
Now, night had fallen.
Inside the manor the lights shone, but beyond the glow, pairs of gleaming eyes peered from the darkness.
If this were the wild, such a pack could easily annihilate everyone.
But here………at least they had the wisdom of human construction.
Thankfully, the house was not made of straw or wood.
Levi pulled the bolt of his gun, staring ahead.
Behind him stood Aurelia, gripping a hunting rifle, her face tense as she watched the wilderness.
Normally, this was a place of beautiful pastoral scenery—wind over fields, cattle and sheep grazing.
Aurelia liked it very much.
But when what emerged from the grass were not cattle or sheep, but wolves, it was another matter entirely.
The wind rose stronger.
In the distance, the wheat fields swayed like waves, toppling and rising again, occasionally revealing lurking beasts.
They pressed low, eyes gleaming, fixated on the bright manor ahead.
Inside, the people gripped their weapons, holding their breath.
“Everyone prepare! No one fires without my order!”
Aurelia shouted from the second-floor window.
Since their foes were beasts, not humans, there was no need for secrecy.
“Rooooooar—————”
The wolves crouched, glaring fiercely at the house.
Then, like arrows loosed from strings, they leapt and charged forward!