The knights clench their teeth as they desperately hold themselves back. It would be fine if they were insulted, but their captain’s being treated like a joke. If they had one thing they take pride in as knights it’s their captain. Not their fighting ability or formations, but a single person.

[Since you’re busy playing around with the weaklings around here I won’t waste much of your time. Just point me toward Pavise so I can save some time. Of course you could be stubborn and refuse, but I wouldn’t recommend it.]

[It isn’t very often I come across someone with the balls to blatantly threaten knights of the kingdom. I would be lying if I said I’m not curious where you get your confidence from.]

[So, do you intend to find out? It’s starting to get late and I want to go home, so if you keep wasting my time I’ll show you. Of course one of you will have to live long enough to point me in the right direction. If you want I can let you choose who the lucky survivor will be. I’m a gentleman after all.]

[If you’re a gentleman I’m the royal princess of five different kingdoms.]

[Oh, then I apologize for my rudeness your highness.]

[Hehe, how could I be a princess if I hold a grudge over such trifling matters? It is unfortunate mister gentleman, but my loyal knights and I must be off. We have a kingdom to protect after all. The fine city you are looking for is northeast of here. Do have a wondrous trip my good sir.]

[And you as well your royal highness.]

Arcs of electricity begin rolling over Jellal’s body in a flashy manner before congregating around his right hand. The lightning forms into a giant claw as he lifts his hand high above his head. To get the electricity to stay in the shape he wants he manipulates the mana in the surroundings.

To achieve the desired look and shape he mixes in some wind mana. Part of the mana is easy to merge with to form the shape while a layer of resistant mana is secured around it. Doing this he can theoretically make the magic hold the shape he desires.

Bringing his hand down the claw follows and extends in length as if reaching out. The claw slams into the ground, with the captain positioned in its palm. By some miracle the attack strikes the ground around her without harming a hair on her head as a hole opens in the palm to accommodate her.

A painful wail leeches out from behind her as a bloody figure is ripped from her shadow. The claw closes around the older man as he screams out in pain. Electricity courses through his body as he’s forcefully dragged in front of Jellal.

Jellal releases the magic, causing the man to flop on the ground. Most of the man’s clothes were destroyed by the attack leaving him with only a small patch of cloth covering his nether regions. The attack also caused the rest of his body to be covered in severe burns, making it nearly impossible for him to stand up.

The man’s long gray hair falls over his face as he struggles to lift his head. He manages to tilt his head enough to glare at Jellal, who’s looking down on him.

[Hey there little rat. Didn’t your parents teach you it’s rude to listen in on other peoples’ conversations? You never know when you’re going to hear something you can’t afford to know. Of course even if you don’t learn anything important you could seriously offend someone you really don’t want to.

I may not have said anything worthy of being listened in on, but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to hear my voice without my permission. Now that you have I can’t very well let you go now can I? So tell me, would you like to die a slow and painful death, or die a quick and agonizingly painful death?

I don’t have all day so you if you don’t answer quick you’ll get the honor of taking the third option. What is the third option? I’m glad you asked. For wasting my time you get the luxurious privilege of dying in a fashion which leaves no body behind. But wait, there’s more! For a limited time only I’m offering you the exclusive slow and agonizing death upgrade, free of charge!

That’s my exclusive no body left behind package coupled with the slow and agonizing death upgrade, all for no charge! But you have to act now; this exclusive offer is only effective for the next three seconds!]

The discovery of a hidden assailant and Jellal’s subsequent “as seen on tv” style pitch leaves the knights unable to understand the situation. The only thing they can be certain of is the stalkers fate. Jellal may have used a bright uplifting tone for his pitch, but the terrifying contents didn’t go unheard.

They may not know much about him, but he has enough confidence to insult their entire group to their faces and find a rat hiding in their midst. There is also the state of the area he appeared in. There’s evidence of a horde of monsters being wiped out in a single attack, though they didn’t personally witness it. If they follow the evidence to its logical conclusion it’s safe to assume the masked stranger they happened upon isn’t someone to trifle with.

Unfortunately for the spy his luck is even worse than knights. If he had been doing this job on any other day everything would be coming up millhouse. Yet today, for some inexplicable reason, the knights coincidentally crossed paths with a masked madman who’s lost in the forest.

While the knights are baffled by Jellal, the captain is focused on the spy. The knights may not recognize him due to their standing in society, but as a knight captain she’s different.

[I wonder what a duke’s most trusted butler is doing stalking the forest in such dangerous times. It would really be a shame if something were to happen to you. Then again, being caught stalking the kingdom’s knights when they’re completing a mission given directly by the king isn’t a good look for the duke you serve.

With all the strange occurrences we faced earlier it truly makes me wonder what your purpose is. Perhaps you’re responsible for us coming upon so many hordes. No, that couldn’t be the case. If it was it would mean you and the duke are planning a rebellion which I’m sure you’d never do.]

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[Don’t you try to spin things you bitch! When the news gets out you’re slandering a duke you and your knights will be put to death. Even if you try to pin false allegations on us it’ll never stick. Do you really think some commoner has any power to influence a true noble like the duke? You’re going to regret ever crossing paths with us!]

[I didn’t know dead men had such bravado. Not only do you talk big, you also ignore a superior being such as myself. I’ve got to say, for someone about to die, you really don’t seem to understand what kind of a position you’re in.]

[Some masked freak dares to call me a dead man? I’m a duke’s s-butler. Do you really think a commoner like you can do anything to me? If you some much as harm a hair on my head the whole kingdoms army will come after you.

What’s wrong, shaking in fear now that you’ve realized your mistake? It’s too late for that! There’s nothing you can do to make up for your transgressions against the duke; unless you obey my commands that is. If you work under me I’ll forgive you this once. You can only thank my magnanimous nature for this chance. Now help me up and capture that woman!]

‘A duke’s illegitimate son is it? And one with a major superiority complex at that. Not only that, they seem to have some issues with the little princess here. For her to be able to be trusted by the king while having bad blood with a duke is pretty interesting. I guess she’s hiding some secret of her own. Who knows, maybe she actually is a little princess and that’s why the duke wants to catch her?

Regardless of her identity it has nothing to do with me. The same goes for the idiot butler. For him to think he can make me a subordinate with just the duke’s name is pretty unbelievable. Does he really think everyone he comes across will kneel down and beg to lick his boots if he mentions having a connection to a duke?

I really hope such people aren’t the norm here. If they are my time traveling will be a lot less entertaining. Maybe I should find some people to take care of these types of people before I show up so I don’t have to deal with them.

I can even spin it as doing a necessary evil for the good of the world, kekeke. If I do, tons of people would be itching to sign up to prove their moral righteousness. Not a bad idea at all! Sometimes I even surprise myself with how much of a genius I am.

Of course I’ll need funds for the organization to use and someone to run it while I kick back and relax. For now I have plenty of money I have no use for which is perfect to blow on this plan. Finding someone to run the organization isn’t so easy. I might be able to convince Kite, but the goody too shoes doesn’t seem like the type to do something illegal for “the greater good”.

I guess finding a good leader will have to wait until I set up the organization. Until then I’ll keep an eye out for potential candidates.’

Jellal looks at the butler with eyes filled with pity as he shakes his head. The butler is utterly shocked someone would turn down working for someone related to a duke. The shock quickly changes to rage as he blows his top.

[You dare to disobey me? Do you think I’ll let you off? Not a chance! The kingdom’s army will hunt down your entire family and everyone you ever cared about. No matter where you hid you’ll never escape your punishment.]

[Your brain must not function properly. Since you’re slow on the uptake and don’t know how to read between the lines I’ll spell it out for you. This is secret so don’t go spreading it. You ready?]

Jellal looks back in forth suspiciously before putting his hand by his mouth as if he’s trying to be secretive.

[I. Don’t. Care. Did you get that? Well, it doesn’t matter. Your time to choose how you’ll die has already run out. Slow and agonizing, with full body removal it is, kekeke.]

The arrogant butler unknowingly resigned himself to the worst fate imaginable: being used as a test subject for Jellal’s teleportation experiments.

Unlike what he did with the monsters his plan with the butler is for small scale tests. First he’s going to continue his previous experiment on a single body part. By doing this he can simulate what would happen if someone was caught up in a partial teleportation.

To save as much of the butler as possible for future tests he decides to only do this on a single finger. Due to him gathering space mana since he noticed the guy he already has an ample amount ready for his experiments.

Beginning with the pinky on the butler’s left hand his experiments get off to a loud start. He targets the destination just slightly above where the finger currently is. He’s careful not to overlap the starting point and the destination since that’s an experiment for later.

Out of nowhere the man’s the man’s finger explodes into a cloud of blood, causing the arrogant fool to scream out in pain. His other arm shakes as he desperately reaches for his deformed hand. The knights are all confused, and only able to offer up conjecture about what happened.

Unwilling to waste time Jellal continues to his next experiment. This time he targets the left thumb. Quickly setting up his magic he initiates the test. Once again the finger bursts into a puff of blood, leaving nothing resembling a finger behind.

The most recent test revealed bit of new information regarding whether or not having the initial location and destination overlapping. It also gave him some insights into a potential reason why he’s unable to move the mana as a cluster.

By carefully observing he noticed the mana in the overlapping area didn’t move like he had anticipated. He had thought everything would shift up, but reality was different. The mana in the overlapping space stayed put, only shifting slightly.

Through this abnormal behavior it’s clear to him his control over how and where each bit of mana moves is even worse than he originally thought. It turns out he hasn’t even been controlling the mana to move in the shape it was in as he had thought. This discovery is only possible due to him paying extremely close attention to each particular bit of mana instead of observing the situation as a whole.

Putting his thoughts aside until he finishes his first round of tests he moves on to a much anticipated experiment. This time he’s only using one finger but the follow up will be with two.

Targeting the middle finger he prepares to test the viability of swapping. To give himself the best baseline he’s starting without switching two fingers since there are too many variables for an initial test. That’s why he’s doing it afterwards, to finish off his first round of tests along with what’s left of the victims fingers on his left hand.

The pair of experiments go off without a hitch as the butler is left with a fingerless left hand. With the first round of testing over Jellal takes a short intermission to gather his thoughts and prepare for round two.

‘In round two I have a lot to figure out. Finding a way to more accurately control the mana is of the utmost importance since it’s directly correlated to my chances of successfully teleporting in the future.

A new important discovery is how viable swapping is. Previously I learned how necessary it is to clear the destination to ensure an accurate movement. Now I’ve proven the lack of interference amongst space mana and the objects moving along with it.

My main concern is not knowing why. My lack of control I have over the mana means I can’t be sure things are going exactly as I plan them. I can only throw up conjecture why it went smoothly due to the difficulty in examining the tests.

Most likely the mana avoided coming in contact with the mana swapping with it. If this is true it makes perfect sense why the physical objects would never cross paths. If I can get the mana to follow the path I want, I can redo the test to see if there are any changes.

With everything I’ve learned I think it’s best to focus on how to control the movement of the space mana for round two. After I figure it out I can move on to other tests, pending the continued existence of the lab rat.’

Starting with the victim’s right fingers Jellal begins his second round of testing. Due to the nature of the tests he goes one finger at a time to increase his chances of success.

The first five tests ended up going poorly. The subject’s fingers disappeared without Jellal gaining much insight how to fix the control issues, which he found quite wasteful.

While Jellal is pondering how to improve his magic the knights have figured out what’s going on, at least they think they have. With no evidence they can’t up and accuse Jellal of making someone’s fingers explode into clouds of blood one after another.

No matter how obvious it is who’s responsible they’re still in the dark on how he’s doing it. Regardless of how carefully they watch him or the rat there’s no evidence of him doing anything, leaving them terrified. Without a sound or movement this stranger they came across randomly in the forest can make someone’s fingers disappear.

All of the sudden the mocking they received from him seems normal. How could a group of knights be worth anything in such a person’s eyes? They can only thank their lucky stars they’re not the ones who offended a random monster into erasing them from existence.

Round two continues for the rest of the butler’s life and beyond as Jellal tries every way he can think of to control the mana’s movements.

‘How annoying! To control things perfectly I need to control each bit of mana individually. How many ways would I need to split my focus to move even a small cluster in the exact arrangement I want? At this point I can either look for other ways or buckle down and practice until I can perfectly control enough mana to move a person.

With only the head left I suppose I do have one last thing I could try. If I merge with space mana and increase my familiarity with it there’s a chance I could see some results. If it works I have a way forward, but if it fails the chances of me teleporting anytime soon will go the way of the dinosaurs.’

For his final test he targets the whole head. Instead of moving it he increases the chances of success by making the target destination the same as its starting point. This will reduce the movement of the mana as much as possible.

To preserve his hope of teleporting in the near future he doesn’t merge with the space mana. In this way he has a baseline for teleporting objects in place.

From the outside it doesn’t look like anything happens to the head, but Jellal knows the truth. For the first time he’s proved the viability of teleportation magic!

To keep his discovery under wraps he promptly makes the head disappear into a cloud of blood, finishing what he started.