Kaiz cursed internally. Not only did the man’s glow speak of a high level, he glowed green. Worse still, the bright lights of enchantments featured everywhere on his body. Kaiz had been squinting at the keypad for all of forty seconds. What was Red doing? She should have been watching their backs.

So much for running this silently.

[Wings of Liberty]

Kaiz’s foot surged toward the man in less than a blink of the eye.

“A fast one.” He stepped out of the way as he spoke.

[Steps to Salvation]

His lead foot caught the cloud, halting his momentum before he flew by. Kaiz bent at the knee before lunging into another kick. His leg smacked into nothing but air particles.

“For a Nightwatcher, you fight well in the light.”

Kaiz landed and flowed immediately into a back kick. He caught it, but quickly pushed him away to fend off a separate attack. Red finally decided to join the fight. Darkness overtook the area as she flashed her twin daggers.

Kaiz couldn’t perfectly see what happened within the cloud of black, but he could make out the two bodies. He could also make out that a spell was cast. Red instantly fell to the floor.

“New tricks.”

Another spell.

Kaiz only briefly detected the streak of mana that zipped by him. He tried to dash away from the unknown spell, but the moment he tried to take a step, he tripped over himself. He tried to move again, but quickly found that he couldn’t. His feet were stuck. He looked toward the bottom of his boots and found where the mana had gone. The ground beneath him was glowing.

The man stepped back into the light, “You t—”

Kaiz tossed a pair of throwing knives toward his head. He insta-cast a spell and halted them. They hung in the air half a meter from the man’s face.

What spell is that?

Figuring out what the man was doing would help gauge how he took the fight, but he didn’t really have the mental space to be worrying about that. He still couldn’t move his legs.

“It seems I must reevaluate my opinion of you Nightwatchers.” The knives fell to the floor, “Anyhow, you two are here to return someone to Waldaun, correct?”

Huh?

Kaiz kept his voice cool, “What does that mean?”

“No need to play coy. I was the one who hired you.”

Count Emmrich?! Impossible. There’s no way he’d come himself.

The man wore a physical mask over more than half his face, so Kaiz couldn’t say exactly who was behind it, but he did not believe for a second that the notorious tactitan, the Count Emmrich, was dumb enough to show up in Struleren before the Baron was killed. It simply couldn't be.

“We di—”

“Don’t waste my time with a poor attempt at deception.” He cast another spell, “If you are not here for the job I hired you for, then I’ll have to kill you.”

Kaiz caught a glimpse of the spell this time. It wasn’t an insta-cast, but it might as well have been. He didn’t recognize a single symbol he saw. It was one of those greens.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

That was very bad.

Mana whizzed to the ground below his feet again. Kaiz didn’t need to look to see the reason why. He had felt the ground’s grip on him diminishing over time. He hoped he could distract the masked man long enough through conversation to find an opening and make a break for it. As long as he got outside, they were still fine. He’d have to come up with something else.

“We’re here for Count Emmrich’s nephew! Kilian!”

Well…

Kaiz sighed as the dark blob disappeared. He couldn’t fully begrudge Red’s decision. The two of them were clearly outmatched and she had no way of knowing Tanzer was waiting on standby.

Now they were exposed. This was technically something akin to an inside job so there was a possibility that the man was somewhat involved with hiring them to take Kilian. Kaiz never liked to trust such uncertainties, but now he was forced to. At least until he figured out a way to escape.

“Wonderful. Wait here, I’ll bring him out.”

Or… not?

“And.” He stopped before he crossed the doors and cast a spell, “Try not to be seen again.”

Kaiz finally had the freedom to move his lower body again. A part of him wanted to run immediately, but a more sensible part of him felt like that was just paranoia. He split the difference and waited in the hallway by the single door. He wedged it wide open of course.

An anxious half an hour later, the glowing green man returned. Two people followed behind, a young man and woman. Both also glowed, but notably less so. The woman wore the enchanted attire of a combat maid. The man wore.. plated armor.

“Nightwatchers? What if I’m attacked?”

“They are more than capable of defending you Kilian, I tested them myself.”

“In the dark?”

“In this very room.”

“Hmm.”

“Hurry along Kilian. We don’t want anyone else seeing this.”

“Okay. But I’m taking the armored wagon.”

“That is unwise.”

“I’m taking it.”

A sigh, “Fine.”

Okay…

Kaiz cautiously followed as the masked man led them on a walk to the ‘armored wagon’. He felt more comfortable out in the open, he had a lot more freedom to run away if needed and he made sure to give Tanzer an update on what was going on. It took a bit less than fifteen minutes to reach their destination, an abandoned mine. He and Red waited outside as they drove out another six wheeled motorwagon. This one was even bigger and bulkier than the one the Eternal Oases has taken.

At this point, Kaiz accepted that all of this wasn’t a ploy.

The maid was in the driver's seat. Red joined her in front and took the passenger seat. Kaiz was to sit in the back with Kilian, but he opted to sit on the roof instead. It had a seat up there. He didn’t choose it for any security reasons, though that was what he claimed to the others, he chose it so he could hear and feel the wind as they drove. He figured he would enjoy it.

That last thirty-six hours had been a mess. He’d take a relaxing drive home.

----------------------------------------

“It was a pleasure traveling with you,.”

Annoyingly, Kilian didn’t like his solitude and demanded that Kaiz join him. Kaiz ignored him for a time, but eventually relented. Once inside, Kilian showed exactly why Geyser called him a pompous brat. He loved the sound of his voice. Hours would go by and the man would still manage to not miss a breath.

Kaiz had a thumping headache.

He lied through his teeth though, “The pleasure was all mine.”

“You should receive your payment tomorrow morning.”

With Kilian safely behind the giant golden walls of the noble district, Kaiz was finally free from the ear stabbings. Unfortunately, he wasn’t free from his responsibilities just yet.

Because they had brought him directly from Struleren to Waldaun, Emrich’s convoy had gained the leverage they sought. Even if Heldermann managed to clear out all of the ‘bandits’ now, they still had a justified reason to stay and make nuisances of themselves. It was Kaiz's job to rectify that.

Kilian had actually made this part of his job much easier. Motorwagons were expensive items to begin with. One had to be fairly well off to own one. Huge, metal-plated, six-wheeled motorwagons? Unless you made your living traveling through or around the Screaming Sands, you had to be one of Waldaun’s wealthiest residents. Which meant that as they rolled through the streets up until the noble district, they captured many eyes.

Kaiz contacted several information brokers and agents about identifying who had rolled into Waldaun in an armored wagon. No one knew at first, but he expected that. He was simply laying the foundation.

With small parts of the city already asking ‘who was that?’, and brokers following suit, Kaiz whispered some answers into particularly gossipy ears. Not directly of course, but one would be surprised with how many adults end up spreading the tales they heard from children.

It took the entire rest of the day and into the next morning to set the stage. It would likely take a few more before his trees bore fruit, but that was fine. Eventually, everyone would know that Kilian Emmrich was in Waldaun.