The handsome young man’s name was Charles, his sister’s, Charlotte. As for why they’d been named so similarly, it was quite simple: the two were twins. Since birth, the two had cried together, played together, learned together, and grown up together. And, known only by those who knew them intimately, they’d struggled together.

The twins had been born without a hitch, and they’d seemed just like any other children. However, once the twins’ mana pools and mana channels began to develop, their family had quickly noticed that each of the twins had key deficiencies in each area.

Charles had a very small mana pool, but normal mana channels, whereas Charlotte had a normal mana pool, but her mana channels were very thin.

For Charles, this meant that he’d never be able to cast as many spells as another mage of his level, nor could he cast spells on as large a scale as another mage of his level. For Charlotte, this meant that while she could cast numerous basic level spells, like Charles, she’d never be able to cast any mana-intensive, large scale spells.

However, this hadn’t been the end of the world for them. Charles, had simply become a armor-set based close-combat mage. Other than needing an initial input of mana, such a mage only needed to provide a small amount of mana to keep the armor active. While mana usage would still be very high in combat situations, it would be far lower than normal mages.

For Charlotte, with her thin mana channels, couldn’t cast any large scale spells. Unfortunately, the gap between and her peers in this respect, would only continue to grow as they improved. Hence, she’d quickly focused herself on support spells. As these spells required very little mana to activate, but required a large amount of mana to be continuously used over time, it was perfect for Charlotte.

But, the truth was still, that they had chosen these niches not to capitalize on their strengths, but to run from their weaknesses.

Regardless, the two had become prodigies at the Larwin Elementary Institute of Magic, and both were Rank 10 Elementary Mages.

Which brings us to the current moment. The two siblings, along with Mack, the head of their ten guards, sat in the tent conversing.

“Young master, what is it that you’d like to talk to me about?”

“Thanks to Charlotte’s support spells, I was able to see one of Clark’s sons run in the direction of the mountains when we set up camp last night, and while I was standing guard in the wee hours of the morning, I paid special attention to the side of the camp facing the mountains, as well as Clark’s tent.

“In essence, his son arrived back at camp just a few minutes before we set out today, and Clark didn’t mention his son’s absence at all. Of course, this wouldn’t have been any reason for concern, but just a bit ago, his other son left to the mountains as well.”

Charlotte nodded. “I just sent a bird spirit after him, we’ll be able to see why they’ve been heading into the mountains. However, what other reason can there be? At this point, we’re just verifying that Clark and his sons are working with the mountain tribes.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Mack cracked his knuckles in anger. “Clark? The Kingdom pays him for his guide services, and he works with the mountain tribes instead? This is a slap to the King’s face!”

Charles silenced Mack with a glance. “Whatever the case, Clark seems to have been pretty smart about only killing off some of those who travel through the mountains. It’s likely that his sons are sending them information on who to target, so that they attack in the mountains, isolate their targets, kill and rob them, and leave without fighting the rest.

“That way, enough people make it to the other side so as to not arouse suspicion, but both Charles and the mountain tribes come out richer. My guess is that we only noticed because the people we send probably looked like good targets, especially the diplomats.”

At this point, Mack was seething with anger. “So, what’s the plan, young master?”

Charlotte answered. “Actually, if want to solve the problem, it’s really simple: we kill Charles and his sons. However, we wouldn’t be solving the main issue at hand. Therefore…”

Charles continued. “We’ll wait for the Silver Hawk tribe to attack, and when they close in on us, Charlotte will be able to notice them far in advance. We’ll notify the others travelling in this group, and fight it out. Your Silver Knights should be able to ensure our safety, yes?”

Mack’s face turned dark as he realized the meaning behind twins’ words. “You expect me to sacrifice the lives of these adventurers, potentially hundreds of citizens of the Larwin Kingdom?”

Charlotte was unfazed. “They’re all leaving to the Reiniad Kingdom, so why do you care? We’ll make an example of the Silver Hawk tribe, and show the rest of the mountain tribes that it isn’t that we don’t have the power to deal with them, but simply because we haven’t had reason to.”

“...”

Mack stood up and addressed the twins. “Please excuse me, young master, young miss.” Then, he left the tent.

Charles looked at his sister. “He’ll come around.”

“You say that as if he has a choice.”

“He does, but you’re right. For a man like him, he has no choice.”

Meanwhile, Gust and Wesley were making plans of their own.

“The two of us obviously can’t take on all of them, so we’ll have to keep a step in front of them and just kill as many of them as many as we can with the chaos gems. We should try to sneak in and plant as many chaos gems as we possibly can in their village, then shoot one with one of your ice blasts to set one off. Ideally”

“Mhmm. Here’s the problem, though. You run a lot faster than me, and I’m sure the mountain tribespeople are at least as fast as you, and probably more agile than you in the mountain terrain. So… I’d only be able to help you from a distance, make walls and stuff to block them from reaching you, shoot spells at them to slow them down, stuff like that.”

“...You’re not wrong, but why does it sound like you’re just making me do all the work? Didn’t you say you’d help all grandiose-like back at the inn? What’s with you now, getting cold feet?”

“I said I’d help you, not how. Come on, what I said makes sense. You’ll be exerting yourself physically, your specialty, and I’ll be exerting myself mana-wise, my specialty. I don’t see anything wrong here.”

“Sounds goddamn reasonable when you say it, but I’ve seen you run. You’re really just too lazy to ‘physically exert’ yourself anymore, am I right?”

Wesley coughed a few times in response.