Hearing Fenfallal's words, the whole group present moved closer to each other on the benches and leaned into the table - to have a more private conversation.

"What do you mean?" Stellmo asked, expressing the thoughts of every warrior apart from the Royal Swordmaster.

The swordmaster was just about to speak, but Adam was faster - and to everyone's surprise, managed to explain the situation.

"It's much harder to leave the city than it is to enter it. From what I saw, checkups are frequent for those leaving, while the entrees are rarely even asked who they are... I find it quite odd, to be honest, it would be much more logical to be stricter to those entering the city..." The young mage said.

"How do you know that? I know for a fact that none of us noticed this pattern while we were entering through the northern gate, even I had to go there for a walk to figure it out." Fenfallal asked, in his usual strict yet stoic tone. His golden eyes focused on Adam's face, giving the young mage chills.

"Well, apparently no one noticed, but I woke up in some shed today - only like a few hours ago did I find the inn again. That's when I saw what was happening beneath the Wind Gate." Adam explained, screeching the back of his head - and while doing so, poking some warrior's head with his elbow.

After Adam finished talking, he could see some surprised expressions, especially on his roommate's face.

"So that's when you found time to take care of that foul beard of yours?" Gravis asked, putting the pieces together.

"Yeah, you guessed right," Adam responded, having already retreated his upper limb from the poor man's face.

"Did you encounter any guards while walking here?" Fenfallal asked in unseen worry.

Adam took a moment to think and put his words together.

"Yes, I met one patrol, and they helped me to reach the gate after I got lost a bit... It's a big city after all." Adam reported.

"They helped you? From what I picked up from locals' conversations, they seem to be evil henchmen of an even more evil guy." Stellmo said his piece.

"Well, it's not like I tried to anger them, quite the opposite. Apart from that, the rumours can't be one hundred per cent true, or even then there must be some outliers." Adam defended his answer from Stellmo's doubts.

Stellmo nodded, agreeing with the youngest of the envoys.

Marvin gathered the group's attention on himself, by banging his bug on the table lightly.

"Let's return to the topic at hand, what are we going to do?" The blond-haired archer asked the gathering. His blue eyes wandered around, searching for someone who would answer his question.

After a moment of silence, the stoic swordmaster finally satiated his subordinate's curiosity.

"We can't decide the detail as of yet, as Algier isn't with us, but we must think of a plan to smuggle Adam out of the city without using gates - the risk of getting caught is too high to take, and we can't afford a crowd of soldiers to track us because we killed some of their coworkers. We can come up with some solutions though, we don't need Algier for that." If they found out that Adam was in ripe recruitment age, the guardsmen would surely try to detain him,- but that was unacceptable for the envoys, as such, blood was bound to spill.

A moment of silence ensued, as everyone found themselves deep in thought.

"How do they even determine that I am of military age? It's not like I am going to tell them." Adam expressed his doubts, which had weighed on his mind since his encounter with the party that morning.

"Do you really think they need any reason? They are probably evaluated on the number of recruits they bring, and a higher evaluation that leads to faster promotion is way more than most people need to hurt some stranger." Gravis explained with a face full of disgust.

"Well, the ones I met were nice - which means you aren't exactly right." the young mage argued.

"Exception proves the rule, and even if not, I said 'most', there will always be an outlier - just like Algier when it comes to sleeping." The warrior defended his position fiercely, masterfully changing the subject at the same time.

"Speaking of Algier.. someone needs to go and wake him up," Stellmo commented.

Having said so, the warrior looked at his superior, who in turn gazed at all gathered, one by one.

"Don't look at me! I am too young and pure to go there!" Adam immediately shouted as soon as he saw the royal swordmaster's passing glance reach him.

"Fair." The golden-eyed swordsman agreed with the youngest and crossed him from the list of possible candidates.

Despite this not being in their favour, the rest of the warriors couldn't resist nodding their heads in understanding.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"so, excluding Adam, we have seven candidates for the mission..." Stellmoe said with a serious expression, debating in his mind the possibilities, and most importantly the chance of his candidacy.

"Six." Fenfallal corrected him. The Golden warrior remained stoic, his voice was firm and resolute - giving no room for refusal.

"What do you mean?" The fiery second-in-command questioned his superior in bewilderment.

"I took away his robes last time, so it's fair I would be excluded this time." The Royal Swordmaster explained.

Stellmo looked at him for a moment, before sighing in defeat and nodding his head. Even though it made his chances bigger, he didn't have an argument to support his disagreement on.

"So... dice?" Marvin proposed hesitantly while reaching into his pocket to take out the little bone pieces.

As it later turned out, it was a bad decision on his part - as the dice apparently didn't like him.

With Marvin out for the envoys' leader, seven men remained sitting at the table.

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Rhitimc sound of water droplets hitting against the wooden plates of the rooftop soon started to resound through the inn.

The usual patron's calm time in the main chamber was interrupted by the furious curing of wet men and women who ran inside for cover - yet hadn't managed to escape the rain unscathed.

The innkeeper and his daughter hurriedly ran around the chamber, bringing warm drinks, food and alcohol to the escapees, refilling the cups of the ones who came before between serving the guests and managing the counter.

Among the patrons, a group of large, muscular men sat with their smaller companion around a large table and conversed quietly about topics known only to them. The man gained quite the attention of the new arrivals, who never have seen those people.

Their fair, whiteish skin stood out from the tanned workers gathered in the tavern, which along with the weapons hanging from their waist gave the onlookers some ideas of who they may be.

The most interesting though, was the moment when a man in tattered clothing came with the escort of one of the burly warriors, cursing wildly and complaining about the weather while trying to squish water from his soaked pants.

When he sat down at the long table, the quiet voices stopped talking over themselves and gave one of them a chance to explain something to the newly arrived companions. Then, even the last one stopped, waiting for the tall man with wavy, light-brown hair to speak.

He, though, remained silent for longer than expected, leaving the table quiet except for the roaring thunder crying in the outside sky.

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"So, we have to take Adam out. Repeat your ideas." Algier ordered after a long while.

Thunder cracked mightily outside before Stellmo could open his mouth.

"I think we need to somehow change his appearance - as long as they believe he is far too old for recruitment, there is nothing to worry about." The fiery warrior explained.

"What about your idea?" Algier turned to Tensyn, a quite tall, wide-shouldered archer with sharp features, black hair and brown eyes.

"I thought about smuggling him out at night. Making some distraction some distance away should be enough for the guards to let us out without a rigorous check." The archer's reasoning was okay, but Algier wanted to hear more, so he turned towards Adam - the subject of their debate who turned out to have an idea himself.

"I was thinking about your capabilities, Algier..." He paused for a second or two. "Maybe you could carry me over the walls - flying," Adam asked with sparkling eyes.

"Carry you over the walls?" Algier looked the younger mage up and down, judgingly. His expression was sour, and his eyes disgusted. "You think I will be able to carry your fat ass as high as three or four metres?" The wind mage criticised.

"I mean... yes?" Adam responded without certainty.

"Well, technically I could... But is it wise?" Algier commented like a true wizard should. He looked unwilling and seemed to try to get the possibility out of the equation.

"I.. think it is." Adam made the next instalment into the mage-to-mage conversation.

"Then you think wrong, next." Algier dismissed Adam's idea mercilessly.

Stellmo raised his hand, like kids do in school, before sharing his idea.

"Blackmail?" The fiery warrior asked with a happy face.

Algier squinted his eyes at him, ruthlessly staring into the black-haired warrior's red eyes.

"You know, I like this idea - good work Stellmo." Algier praised under the scrutinous eyes of the royal swordmaster - who in turn stared at them in bewilderment.

"No, it's not." The golden warrior said.

"And why do you think that's the case?" Algier looked at Fenfallal with unhidden dissatisfaction. "The first one is plain stupid, considering that we have no idea how to make him look older, other than beating him up into a pulp.

The second one reeks of failure, and doesn't differ much from plain running away after bombing them with spells and your sword thingies, other than that happening at night - which by the way would alert much more attention to the Pruinian higher-ups than a fight in broad daylight.

As for Adam's idea - it is good as long as we can guarantee that no one sees us, otherwise, it completely blows our cover, in a way that will make us a much bigger target than even the night brawl with the guards, as we will be exposed as competent, and unknown mages that managed to sneak deep into the empire." Algier stopped to take a deep breath. While he talked, Adam felt slight fluctuations of wind mana move around - which he guessed was Algier's way of muffling the conversation to the outsiders.

"Blackmail seems risky at first, but considering our other options, if we don't go overboard and stay in line, for example using corruption instead of hostages, the guards are less likely to expose us after we leave," Algier explained to Fenfallal, and all others around - as he did so, the warrior's faces gradually shifted from expressions of doubt to those of agreement.

"Also, they are less likely to issue a manhunt for a group that used money to get scot-free than any of the previously mentioned options," Stellmo added excitedly.

A moment of silence ensued, as the warriors and Adam thought about what Algier and Stellmo said.

"Admit it, Stellmo, you hadn't had all those things in mind while proposing blackmail, you were just excited for the opportunity..." Adam accused while pointing his finger towards the suspect.

"I will neither admit nor deny it." Dismissed the fiery warrior.

...

"Any other ideas?" Algier asked.

No other ideas came forward.

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After the meeting had ended, the group scattered around the inn. Most of the warriors went alone, socialising with the locals, drinking and laughing freely.

Only one of the burly men was bound, forbidden to drink and responsible for more than his own ass - Gravis.

Gravis was given a task most important of them all - guarding Adam from alcohol.

After hearing about his early-hour escapades, Algier and Fenfallal agreed to ban the young mage from any form of drug until they reached a 'friendly' place.

This meant, that Adam would stay clear-headed for many months to come, as a 'friendly' town nearest them was still under construction.

Poor Adam.