The first time the carriage shook while being inside, the child could be called a coincidence, but the second time it happened, it was clear that something was wrong.

The shied was not holding on as tightly as the pair hoped.

"Why is the shield not protecting us from the attacks? Is it not strong enough? But I can feel the intense magic that is protecting us…"

Raziel asked as he felt around for the shield to check its strength. Even he felt assured at the shield's strength, as Mary had left no room for other attacks to reach them.

And yet, the carriage was shaking around as if it was being fired at.

Layla remembered one such incident in the original novel, which occurred before Adam became an imperial prince and wielded the royal family's authority.

His half-brother had used a secret imperial organization known as 'the shadows' to try and take care of his competition beforehand.

These people had a lot of magic, but the real threat behind their power was their development of weaponry.

Since it was an organization of talented people, they had developed weapons that did not depend on magic to cause mayhem. Cannons and other weapons that relied on physical strength and other mechanisms were used.

The main reason was that these weapons had an easier time getting behind magical shields.

Shields were only made to keep out magical force most of the time. And since most people attacked with magic, these shields were made to counter that force. Physical and natural forces could not be blocked as effectively by these barriers.

'Tsk, these foxes. If the people attacking us are really from shadows, then we are not safe. We need to get out of here.'

Layla's instincts warned her to do so, which she decided to do.

She placed a hand on Raziel's arm, and her eyes looked at the older right in the eyes.

"We are getting out of here. I have a feeling that we are not going to last long. Hopefully, we will not be followed once we activate our emergency escape plan."

Layla looked at her system screen and noticed three people attacking the carriage while Mary distracted the other three. Mary will be able to take care of those three herself.

The main problem was that their side needed to buy Mary time so she could return to them on time.

"Miss, are we going to use that emergency teleportation spell? But won't we be exposed if we teleport now?"

Raziel had a point.

The emergency teleport magic was installed in these carriages as a safety mechanism. When used, it would teleport the user and others about 500 meters away from the carriage so that they could get to safety.

It was a good fail-safe method to ensure that the user would always have a way to escape in case they got stuck under the rubble during an avalanche or other disasters.

While it was true that it would leave Layla and Raziel all exposed, she would rather take her chances with that than allow herself to die while being inside this carriage.

"It will be fine. The shadows will take some time to find us once I use this spell. If we do things right, we will be long gone before these people notice our disappearance."

Layla assured, but she did not feel as confident as she wanted to.

Still, this was her last option, and she used that spell to transport herself and Raziel as silently as possible.

Her chest ached, and her head felt like it would split open due to the sudden usage of magic. Her legs buckled, but Layla somehow managed to keep herself upright.

In her inventory, the egg she was carrying lightly glowed to show that it was there and absorbing magic at an alarming rate. I was even pulling magic from her weakened core.

"You greedy leech! Do you enjoy watching me torment myself? Ugh, I feel like my core is about to be split in half because of you-"

Layla complained, but she had no choice but to let her core and powers remain as they were. She could also not stop the dragon egg from sucking her dry.

What she could control was her expression and her will to keep going. She forced herself to stand on shaky legs and looked at her partner with the same blank expression.

"Let's head out. We should go as far away as we can."

That was the plan initially, but no sooner had Layla taken ten steps than he and Raziel were discovered.

She felt the cannon shot heading her way before she saw it. Her legs suddenly cooperated with her to get out of the way.

The shot missed her by quite a margin, showing that Layla had never been the intended target for it. But as a result, the earth shook violently, making her and Raziel lose their balance.

The same weapon had attacked her carriage and gotten past her barrier.

"Hey, be careful with her. You saw that kid's hair as well, right? They are silver. We might be able to get a lot of money if we capture her and sell her."

"Don't be ridiculous. She is a ward of Duke Lockhart. We will all die if our involvement with her comes to light. The royal family won't let us live. I have no intention of becoming a test subject for them anytime soon. I would rather kill her soon."

"Hey, you both need to focus. We should not let our guard down because we think our opponent is a kid. I do not wish to die because I underestimated a kid and got my ass handed to me by the said kid."

Layla subtly looked at her system and realized that these three were the same people who attacked her carriage.

They were the only ones who threatened her; she needed to defeat them to live.