Jasper and the first guard looked through the alley. Jasper's face was apathetic as he moved his eyes around.

"..."

"There is nobody here?", asked the first guard in puzzlement.

"..." Jasper said nothing again at first, then looked at his colleague. "Must have been... the wind?", he offered.

The female guard shrugged. Her eyes lit up, however, then she spotted Joredan.

'Noo!', the latter thought frantically, standing as still as possible. He and the guards stood two meters apart from each other.

"See that beautiful plant in a pot, Jasper?"

Jasper looked at the spot where Joredan was as indicated by his felow guard.

Jasper shrugged and said, "Yeah, I see it well enough."

The female guard then jumped in the air in apparent excitement and grabbed Joredan, lifting him in the air. She turned and walked out of the alleyway. Jasper followed her.

"You see, I am something of a collector of plants, Jasper, and thus I can confidently say that this plant over here", she spoke with enthusiasm as she motioned to the plant in her hands with her chin, "I determine to be of undescribable quality!"

"Alright, alright, but are your really gonna carry it with you from now on? We are on duty, remember?", Jasper asked cautiously.

His colleague exhaled air out of her mouth in a contemptuous manner. "It'll be fine, if we meet anyone, we will just say this plant is an artifact hiding revolutionary secrets and was used by rebels to exchange messages!"

"An idea most wonderful, indeed", Jasper agreed with a nod after a moment of consideration.

Joredan was rightfully terrified, these guards were crazy and his disguise worked too well on them.

You see, before these guards entered the alley, Joredan reached out and tangled up their mana. It wasn't something he learned out of some textbook on magic but rather a trick he gained through copious amounts of creative freestyle practice.

People had different levels of resistance to having their mana tampered with and Joredan was sad that he let his Mom, his first and most frequent test subject, grow completely immune to this.

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He supposed the reason for her building the immunity to his mental magic manipulations was exactly because he spent too much time on her, a mistake he vowed never to repeat again. Now he stuck with experiments on people he was unlikely to meet again so they would not be likely to build resistance to his amazing magic.

It was obvious that his tugging at their mana caused the guards to manifest a delusion that he was some sort of a plant in a pot. This was unfortunate, but not all was lost, they didn't actually catch him, although it was a little hard to believe that while he was literally carried God knows where.

"Well, Suro, where are we going now?" Jasper asked as the two guards walked side by side.

Suro replied, "Let's put the tree in our room."

The three of them: Suro, Jasper and Joredan soon reached what the latter assumed was an outpost of the Guards. It was located inside the nearest section of the thick innermost city wall.

Joredan had to use most of his focus on doing the same trick with anyone else they passed.

Jasper and Suro supposedly moved towards wherever it was they lived.

Currently they walked in the hall made of stone walls along with various other guards.

Finally, Joredan's trick grew old and he was actually spotted by someone.

One of the guards' walking parallel to Suro and Jasper in the opposite direction suddenly stopped. She stared at the duo, or a trio, really, dumbstruck, especially at Joredan. Everyone else stopped also, not sure what's going on but merely copying the blond guard's puzzled expression.

"What?", the blond guard said, glaring at Joredan with now narrowed eyes. Joredan turned to look at her with a small smile and put an index finger to his lips, hoping she would take the hint and drop it. He shook his head for extra effext.

But she fumed instead.

"What's going on," another dark-haired guard came up and looked at the situation in question.

Joredan was caught, it was clear there was little he could do about this.

For now, only the blond guard saw him as his actual human form, but he was sure all of them would soon become aware of what's going on.

So, Joredan did what any law-abiding citizen would prefer to do: he whipped out a throwing dart out of his robe and ...! He was about to throw it at the blond guard and hopefully murder her in a completely legal, self defense kind of way but she was much faster, her sword appeared in her hand in a flash almost as if it teleported there, and then Joredan's right hand flew off away from his body and some red juice appeares out of nowhere, spraying the floor nearby along with one other guard. Every other guard dodged the spraying.

That single guard somehow managed to moved in such a manner that all the red spray landed inside his mouth. He closes his mouth and swallowed with a satisfied smile. "Mmmm, tomato juice... My favorite...", he said happily.

Any mana manipulation flew out of the window and Joredan begun cackling from the immense pain while he clutched his poor right hand with his left one.

Everyone else was freed from his mild mind control and all except the guard who was enjoyed the impromptu tomaro juie drinking session looked at Joredan with alarmed confusion.

"What's going on," the dark haired guard from before asked.

Suro let Joredan go and before the cackling young man reached the grey stony ground, kicked him as if he was a ball. He was launched forward at a high speed. The guards who happened to stand in the way cried out and dodged.

Joredan landed inside a room far away at the end of the corridor. Suro nonchalantly wiped her hands off with a smirk. Her colleagues applauded her skills appreciatively.

"I found a spy with information on the rebels," she said with satisfaction. Jasper gave no reaction but everyone else gasped. Again everyone, Jasper joining th this time though he looked bored, clapped in appreciation.

"Well, done, Suro!", said one voice.

"Yeah, good job, the promotion is just waiting for you!", another seconded.

A sleepy looking man walked up to them and scratched his head, pointing at the room at the end of the corridor. Before he could say a word, the blond guard lifted her up and informed him of what occurred.

"Go interrogate the rebel, Snark," she commanded. Snark nodded tiredly.

"Fine, as you command, captain."

He turned back and walked slowly towards the room. Everyone observed him in silence and the moment he was far away down the corridor, entered the room and closed the metal door, the celebration begun anew, with more and more guards congratulating Suro on her service to the motherland.

Suro was very proud of herself and nodded over and over with a smile and a hand placed on top of her chest where the heart was, symbolizing her humble, honest nature. Jasper looked at this whole scene with a calculating glint in his eyes.