“Thank you for waiting, sir!” the receptionist said as she handed me my Merchant Guild card. “As per Guild regulations, the only product you are allowed to sell is the one stated in your business permit, which in your case, is clothing, fabrics, and textiles. Since you are registered as a traveling merchant, you will be allowed to conduct your business in any location not prohibited by the kingdom, but you will not be able to avail the extra incentives and benefits given to merchants who establish their businesses in a permanent location. Also, since your business is not tied to a single location, instead of a monthly taxation calculated from your net income, you will be required to pay a poll tax to the Merchant's Guild every time you enter any city.”
I nodded my head from time to time to indicate I was listening, but after mentioning the poll tax, my mind started to wander somewhere else in boredom. Lady, I know there are a lot of rules and regulations and shit, but I bet nobody really follows that.
After what seemed like forever, the woman babbling in front of me finally finished dictating the Merchant Guild's rules and gave me a coin pouch with the Guild's insignia stitched on it. Turns out they gave freebies to newly registered merchants.
“Thank you very much for that very informative lecture, Miss Judith. I promise that I will strive to uphold the Guild's rules and regulations throughout my journey as a traveling merchant!” I exclaimed. I saw Judith the receptionist's smile become strained for a moment. She was probably thinking that I won't make it big as a businessman if I kept on following the rules, not like was going to do it in the first place.
Waving Judith goodbye, I left the Merchant's Guild and got back to my now fully repaired wagon. Clip and Clop had satisfied looks with their brand new harnesses secured around their bodies, snorting at me as I approached them. Clip, the brown horse on the left, snorted at me as I got on the driver's seat while Clop, the reddish-brown horse on the right, ignored me and simply chewed on something. Is that… a hat?
I shrugged my shoulders as I mentally apologized to the unfortunate person who got their hat snatched as they passed by my cart. Clicking my tongue, I directed Clip and Clop towards the city's central plaza where I would be selling my products and hopefully gather enough money to buy myself food and important supplies for my journey.
I didn't intend to stay long in the city since I still had my mission of finding the perfect place to bury Mom in. I was hoping to bury her in a rural and quiet place where nothing would disturb her, and I found just the right place as I was persuing the Merchant Guild's map for trading routes earlier. I made a small tapestry with the map on it so I knew where I had to go after leaving this city.
It was currently morning, and the absent crowd I was looking for yesterday was now filling the streets I was traveling in. It turns out Zanna was right that the people around here went back to their homes just before the day turned dark.
As Clip and Clop slowly made their way towards the central plaza, my mind wandered to the conversation I had last night with Zanna.
After Zanna finished talking with the Guild Master yesterday, she immediately confronted me regarding my status as a rogue mage, which surprised me because of its abruptness. Zanna told me that she and her party knew I was a mage long before I even talked to them at the city gates and deduced that I was a rogue when I had no proof of identification to show to the guards. It turns out mages were required to always declare they were capable of magic and carry proof that they weren't rogues.
Zanna said she decided to see if I had a criminal record by waiting for me to get my clearance certificate from the Guard Station, which I already deduced, before luring me to the Adventurer's Guild.
Throughout the conversation, I was preparing myself to fight for my escape in case Zanna and her party decided to apprehend me, but what happened next was the complete opposite of my expectations. Zanna revealed that now that I was an official member of the Adventurer's Guild, I was no longer a rogue.
According to her, mages weren't necessarily required to register with the Mage's Guild to avoid a rogue status. A mage could register with any of the Guilds, be it the Adventurer's Guild, the Merchant's Guild, the Crafter's Guild, even the Augmenter's Association, and they could avoid being labeled a rogue. What was important was that they were affiliated with any organization capable of supervising them.
The news was a very welcome one since being a mage was one of my major secrets that were extremely hard to hide. With it out of the way, some of the tension on my shoulders disappeared which I never even realized was there.
But despite the good news, Zanna and I ended up having a bit of an argument. She said that even if I wasn't a rogue anymore, I still needed a magic permit from the Adventurer's Guild before I could use magic in any way or form. And to get one, I needed to do a magic aptitude test, like the one Mother Betha did to me. Of course, I refused. There was no way in hell that I was going to let them take a record of my magical capabilities, especially with my unusual affinity with Wild mana.
My refusal ended up disappointing Zanna, although she still apologized for fooling me into coming into the Adventurer's Guild. She even paid for the repairs on my wagon, which was a good thing since it turned out I did not have enough money to pay for it.
But after all that, I decided to cut ties with the Strikers and avoid them in the future. I told myself that I did it because it would be too risky to stay in touch with a group of powerful people whose mission was to hunt me, but truthfully, I felt like they betrayed my trust. I knew it was a senseless thought since we just met for less than a day, which was not even enough time to foster a relationship between us. But still, I already viewed them as friends and treated them as such, which was probably the reason why I didn't notice their subtle manipulations.
“Get your shit together, Brogen,” I muttered to myself as I arrived at the central plaza. “Friends are pretty hard to come by, and I already left mine back in Erfeld.”
With a sulky mood, I searched the plaza for a decent space where I could park my wagon, prepared the products that I would be selling, and opened my mobile clothing shop. No time for sulking, I still have an entire wagon's worth of clothes to sell.
Inhaling deeply, I took on Mr. Marion's persona once again and joined the dozens of merchants in the plaza hawking their wares.
“The best clothes in the kingdom have finally arrived in Vont! I guarantee you that everything I sell is the best there is! You, madam! How about trying on some of my exquisite dresses? I assure you that it's of good quality and affordable!”
●●●
“Woah, it's so big,” Maly whispered in awe as the wagon slowly approached the towering walls of Vont. Compared to the two-meter wall that surrounded the town of Erfeld, Vont's walls were massive.
“Finally, we're here,” Terric muttered as he got up from his makeshift bed which consisted of a thin mattress. “I'm starting to miss the soft bed I had back at home.”
“Stop being so whiny. We're just hitching a ride with Maly's family,” Liz chided as she closed her notebook. It contained all her notes about magic that she learned from Mother Betha and the scientific knowledge she gathered from her late friend.
Several days had already passed since they departed Erfeld and the monotony of the journey bored Terric. As a first-augmenter at the late-stage with a lot of potential for improvement, Terric was impatient to continue his training in the art of combat, but being stuck in a wagon for most of the day didn't allow him to practice his skills.
Liz, on the other hand, was able to train her magic skills even while they were huddled inside the wagon for most of the day. With her constant training, she was now able to cast third-circle magic consistently, although her mana pool limited her. Unlike Brogen, she wasn't a mana factory.
Maly and her mother, Emmie, weren't bored throughout the journey since Liz's magic training always left them mesmerized. They had known Liz was capable of magic for a long time already, but it was only recently that they got to witness Liz extracting water from the air and into their canteens. It even tasted better than the musty water they stored in barrels.
But despite their excitement in finally arriving in Vont, everybody had somber expressions. This was the place where Terric and Liz would finally split up with the Matsons and go on their own journeys, leaving Maly with no friends to keep her company aside from her parents.
After passing through the strict inspection at the gates and staring wide-eyed at the strange new sights of the city, the Matson's wagon headed for a decent inn near the center of the city. With his success as a toy merchant over the years, Hayes had enough money to spend on a decent place to stay the night and he even paid for Terric's and Liz's rooms.
After they settled in their rooms, Maly invited Terric and Liz to roam around the city and check out the sights, much to the two's excitement, although they also felt a hint of sadness. Exploring the very first city that they had visited in their entire lives was cause for excitement, but Liz and Terric knew it was also the last chance they'd have in spending time with Maly.
The trio asked permission from Maly's parents to roam the city, to which Hayes and Emmie agreed, and they left the inn they were staying at and walked along the busy streets of Vont.
“Where should we go to first?” Terric asked as he stared at every single thing he saw for the first time. His awed expression easily gave away that he was a country bumpkin.
“I suggest we learn the layout of the city first before roaming around,” Liz said. “With how large this place is, it's easy to get lost.”
“Then why don't we just follow this main road to wherever it leads to?” Maly suggested. “Even if we don't know where we are, we could easily trace our way back home by tracing it back.”
Terric and Liz both thought it was a good idea and agreed. After a few minutes of following the main road they were on, the trio arrived at the city plaza where dozens of merchants hawked their wares to passersby.
●●●
I've been calling out to passersby for the past hour and so far, only three people purchased from me. I was able to sell a winter coat made of decent wool, a pair of mittens, and the cheapest trouser I had on sale. I guess three customers were pretty decent for normal standards, but I didn't have the time to spend several days staying in this city.
“Interested in some woolen mittens to keep your hands warm?” I called out to a shivering man passing by who was rubbing his hands together, but he ignored me. No luck again this time.
I couldn't really blame the people for not wanting to buy my goods. I heard from a passing lady earlier that the looming war was causing prices to increase. Coupled with the fact that the King seized almost all suppliers of food, the prices for essential goods were skyrocketing. No wonder nobody wanted to buy any of my goods.
For another hour, I called out to passing people and even landed another two sales, but I decided to take a break and rest my throat. Constantly shouting while breathing in the cold winter air made my throat dry and sore, so I sat down behind the counter and drank water from my canteen.
If business was this slow, even on a busy day, I might have to leave the city with minimal supplies. I intended to spend all my money here to buy food and fabrics to prepare for my long journey to find Mom's resting place, but with so few customers, I'll have to buy the bare essentials and hunt for my own food while traveling. The memory of eating dried husks of rabbit meat made me shudder.
My constantly active fabric sense caught something familiar that just entered the city plaza, and when realization set in, I spit my water from shock, drawing a few glares from passersby who almost got sprayed, but I didn't pay them any mind.
My fabric sense just detected three sets of familiar clothing. Three sets of clothing that I made. Despite the large radius of my fabric sense, I only realized it just now because I was only paying attention to the clothes within a fifty-meter radius around me. With the amount of information my fabric sense was giving me, I could only process a small part of it.
Out of the hundreds of clothes I sold back in Erfeld, there was a high chance that the familiar clothing I detected belonged to three of my old customers, but further analysis proved the situation to be far more than that.
With my power, I could differentiate two similar types of clothes based on the unique weave of their threads. No two clothes had the same pattern of weave, even if they had the same design, and right now, my Authority was telling me that the three sets of clothing roaming around the plaza were the ones I once sold to Terric, Liz, and Maly. And they were nearing my location.
I quickly stood up as if a fire had suddenly lit up under my ass and went to the driver's seat. I picked up the reins and signaled Clip and Clop to start walking, but to my horror, I forgot that I removed the harness from my horses before I set up shop. Leaving them harnessed for two hours would have been cruel, and now I had to attach them to the wagon again.
I scrambled to secure the harness to my horses, fumbling with the straps and clips while trying to finish it as fast as possible. Clip nipped at my fake hair while I was doing so, but I ignored him. I couldn't use my Authority in public, so I had to personally attach the harness, which took longer than I thought. Why are there so many straps?!
With the harness secured, I went back to the driver's seat, ready to go. Even if I could detect them through my fabric sense, I looked behind me to take a glimpse of my old friends.
Taking the lead was Maly, her vibrant red hair freely flowing down her back, no longer tied in her usual twin tails. Her face was graced with a cheerful smile, but I could see a hint of maturity in her eyes, as if she had finally witnessed the cruelties of life. She held both Terric's and Liz's hands in her own as she pulled them along, staring at unfamiliar sights while babbling excitedly.
Terric still looked like the same handsome young man who was eager to train in the martial arts, but his carefree appearance was now gone, replaced with a serious air as he looked at whatever Maly was chattering about.
Liz, unlike the other two, didn't look like she changed at all. She still had the same icy expression on her face while staying aware of her surroundings. She shot glances toward Maly constantly, and every time, her icy expression turned warm.
Seeing my friends once again after months of stumbling around by myself, lost and alone, made me pause. I felt my eyes fill with tears as my heart screamed at me to reunite with them. I didn't have the chance to say my goodbyes to them before I was forced to flee Erfeld, and I wanted to speak to them so badly.
I steeled my resolve and rejected the idea of talking to them. Even if I wasn't being openly hunted as an Ascendant anymore but as a mysterious spider monster, associating myself with my friends would still put them into unnecessary danger, especially once I am revealed as an Ascendant. Getting found out that I'm an Ascendant wasn't even a question of if, but when. I wasn't so naive that I'd believe I could hide forever.
I felt an extreme loneliness when I realized that this was probably the last time that I'll see my friends, but before I could turn my head to the front and signal Clip and Clop to start moving, I noticed in my periphery that I forgot to close the windows of my wagon in my rush to leave, the counters still propped down with my products on full display. Damn it, what kind of merchant forgets to close his shop when it's closing time?!
I got up and rushed back inside the wagon to lift the counters that served as the shutters of the wagon's windows. I was pulling the counter up to close the window when a voice called out.
“Excuse me! Can we buy something before you close up?” Maly asked behind the half-closed window.
For a few moments, I contemplated whether I should ignore her and continue closing the window. Earlier, I wanted to speak with my friends one last time, but now that I was faced with a chance to do it, I was nervous. Should I act like the usual Mr. Marion? What if they find out it's me? Talking to them is probably a bad idea, I should go already—
“Hellooo? I know you're there, Mr. Merchant!” Maly shouted behind the window.
“They've probably closed already, Maly, let's just find another merchant that sells scarves,” Liz said. I could almost imagine her behind the window tugging Maly's hand to pull her along.
“Don't you have enough scarves already?” Terric asked. “It's probably best to save your money this early on in your travels, Maly. Based on what I witnessed so far, everything in this city is several times more expensive than the stuff sold back in Erfeld.”
“I'm not buying it for myself, I wanted to buy it as my last gift to both of you before we split up and go on our own journeys,” Maly muttered.
There was silence outside the window after Maly's words. I had no idea of what happened after I departed from Erfeld, but based on Maly's words, it seemed that Terric and Liz were finally going to the capital to pursue their dreams. They were always talking about it back when everything was still normal, and I felt my heart twinge knowing that I wouldn't be able to wish them luck and bid them a safe journey anymore.
I could feel Liz slowly start walking again, and if I didn't do anything, I knew I would miss the last chance I would have to interact with my friends. After a second of gathering my resolve, I lowered the counter, fully opening the window and exposing myself to my three friends.
They all stopped midstep and looked in my direction. For a long awkward moment, my friends stared at the weirdly dressed merchant in front of them. Maly, who tried to get my attention in the first place, seemed to regret ever calling out earlier.
I was about to greet them with my usual Mr. Marion persona, but I realized that they would easily recognize my voice the moment I spoke. So instead, I simply waved my gloved hand at them as if I was greeting them casually, then gestured to the clothes hanging behind me.
After what felt like forever, Maly cleared her throat and gave me a forced smile. “H-Hello there, I was wondering if you were still open, but if you're closed, it's alright.”
I waved my hand frantically to tell them it was alright and reached below the counter, acting as if I was searching for something. I was actually opening a small trap door on the floor that opened to a small storage compartment under my wagon where I stored my supply of fabrics. In seconds, I made three beautiful scarves made entirely from dire wolf fur and used my power to change their dull gray color. It used up my entire supply of dire wolf fur, but I didn't hesitate to use all of it for my friends.
When I was done, I handed my friends a scarf each. For Maly, her scarf was as red as her hair and had cute teddy bear designs. For Terric, I gave him a checkered scarf of black and white. Lastly, for Liz, I handed her an infinity scarf which, unlike the normal ones I gave Maly and Terric, had its ends connected to form a loop. The infinity scarf came with a hood because I thought mages looked way cooler and more mysterious if their heads were shrouded, and the color was a deep blue starting from the top to signify Liz's water affinity, and slowly lightened to grayish-white at the lower part to symbolize her air affinity.
“Wow, this is so beautiful!” Maly exclaimed as she received hers. “And it's so soft!”
“I like the design on mine,” Terric commented with a satisfied smile.
“How do I wear— oh, so it's a hood,” Liz muttered to the side as she tried to figure out how to wear hers.
Seeing their satisfied expressions warmed my heart and made my eyes wet. Thankfully, my eyes weren't visible through the dark eyeholes of my mask.
“How much for all of these?” Maly asked me, her scarf already wound around her neck.
I brought out a silver piece, pointed at it, and raised five fingers.
Terric's eyes bulged out of their sockets. “Five silver coins for three scarves?! What are these made of, silk?! You might as well charge a copper for every breath we take near your wagon!”
I almost laughed out loud at Terric's reaction, but I stopped myself at the last moment. The reason I charged so much wasn't because of the material I used, but because I knew Maly would haggle. She was a merchant, and a cunning one at that, so I knew she'd definitely negotiate with the prices.
True to my prediction, Maly took on the sweetest smile she could manage. Most men would have been fooled by her cute face, but I knew it was the expression she took whenever she dealt with business matters. It was the same face she used back when we negotiated for renting space in their stall.
Maly and I negotiated for a short while, which consisted of her demanding a lower price while pointing out non-existent flaws on the scarves and me communicating my thoughts by inventing my own version of a sign language. After a ‘heated’ negotiation, we agreed on a price of three silvers and fifteen coppers. I practically gave away my precious dire wolf fur for a few pieces of silver, but I never intended to profit off of my friends in the first place.
Maly had a triumphant look on her face as she handed me the payment, although Terric's expression told me that he still thought I ripped them off with the prices.
“You didn't have to spend so much money for our gifts, Maly,” Terric said while glaring at me. “Especially not when they're clearly overpriced.”
Hey, each of those scarves are worth at least ten silvers each!
“I think they're worth their price, though,” Maly said as she fiddled with her new scarf, oblivious to the material they were made of. “It's pretty obvious that these scarves are high quality, and in a big city like this, three silvers and fifteen coppers is a bargain for high-quality stuff.”
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After they finished admiring my works of art, Maly thanked me and they started walking away, which shocked me. With an unconscious thought, I reached over the counter and gripped Maly's arm, stopping her from leaving.
“H-Huh? Did you need something else, mister?” Maly asked suspiciously while trying to pull her arm away from me.
Terric reacted more aggressively and his hand went towards the sword sheathed on his hip, which I didn't even notice was there until now. “Hey, keep your hands to yourself!”
Liz stayed silent, but my active mana sense told me that she was preparing to cast a spell at me.
For a second, my mind went blank, wondering why I reached for Maly. That's when I realized I didn't want to see them go. I told myself again and again that I would distance myself from them so I wouldn't drag my friends into my mess, but now that it was time to see them go, I found myself struggling to leave them behind. Or rather, them leaving me behind.
I saw some of the people passing by stop to watch whatever was happening in our vicinity and with pained resolve, I let go of Maly's arm, who rubbed at the spot where I gripped her. I felt my face heat up in shame as I realized what I just did. I probably looked like a lustful merchant harassing a cute and innocent girl.
I felt my eyes water as I remembered once again that I was alone now with nobody to call my friend. Maly was still waiting in front of the window for whatever reason I held her back with a suspicious expression on her face, and as I rushed to think up an excuse, an idea popped up in my mind and I signaled for her to wait a moment.
I went to the other side of the wagon and opened a small cabinet where I kept all my personal belongings, which simply consisted of Tedd and Cuddles. I retrieved Cuddles and stared at her for a long moment. Aside from Mom, Cuddles had been with me the longest, along with Tedd, and was a precious part of my life. I hugged Cuddles tightly in my arms. I'm going to miss you.
With a heavy heart, I went back to the window where my friends had impatient looks on their faces. Without preamble, I gave Maly the stuffed bear. I had to consciously will my fingers to let go of my stuffed friend, and Maly gave me a confused expression as she received Cuddles.
“Um, I didn't want to buy a stuffed toy, mister, we have plenty of these.”
Maly tried to give it back, but I simply gestured with a ‘shooing’ motion to tell them they could go now, and I pulled the counter up and closed the window. I went back to the driver's seat and grabbed Clip and Clop's reins, signaling them to start walking. Goodbye, Cuddles. Watch over Maly for me, okay? Wherever she and her parents are going, she won't have any friends and I don't want her to end up like me, all alone, so stay with her and keep her happy, alright?
Once again, I thanked my mask for its convenience. Nobody wanted to see a grown man crying.
●●●
Guild Master Falck poured expensive wine into two glasses as Zanna sat down on the chair in front of his desk. He had invited the leader of the Strikers into his office to listen to her report regarding her mission. Mission reports were usually given to the Guild receptionists, who were responsible for keeping track of the requests being handled by adventurers, but for high-ranking ones like the Strikers, Falck was usually the one that handled their reports.
“How goes your mission to hunt down the unknown spider monster, Miss Zanna?” Falck asked before sipping bright red wine. The liquor left behind a burning sensation in his throat along with a sweet aftertaste.
“I decided to make the mission a joint effort by hiring five other adventurer parties: four Silver and one Bronze,” Zanna said while swirling her wine in her hand. She took a sip and her eyes widened at the sweet flavor. “This is good wine.”
“It's the famous Blood Wine that most nobles seem to treasure so much. It's one of the best wines out there, and also one of the most expensive,” Falck replied proudly. “By the way, not that I'm doubting your decisions, but don't you think sending in Silver and Bronze parties after the spider monster is too risky? The monster is already known for killing dozens of men easily and has even escaped a third-augmenter.”
“I don't have a choice. All the Gold-ranked parties have already been assigned to monster-culling missions and all I'm left with are the Silver and Bronze-ranked parties,” Zanna said with a grimace. “Don't worry, I gave them specific instructions not to engage the monster. Their only mission is to find out signs of the monster's location, and the Bronze party's only responsibility is acting as logistics.”
“Ah, if that's the case, then I'm glad they won't be put at too much risk,” Falck said with relief. “By the way, did your friend already take his magic aptitude test? I don't think Sarra has given me a report of his results yet.”
“Mr. Marion refused to take a magic aptitude test,” Zanna said with a frown. “I tried to persuade him, but he still stubbornly refused.”
“I guess we'll have another rogue mage to apprehend soon,” Falck said with a sigh. From time to time, some mages registered as adventurers but would refuse to take a magic aptitude test to get a magic permit, usually because they preferred to keep their abilities secret. They'd claim that they wouldn't use their magic, but the Adventurer's Guild always knew when they broke their word.
“I wouldn't go so far as to call him a rogue mage,” Zanna replied, a bit of heat creeping into her voice. “Don't worry, I already informed him that without a magic permit, he won't be able to use any of his magic. If he did, then we'll know the next time we examine his Guild card.”
Although the Guild card's primary purpose was for identification, for registered mages, it had a hidden function that would activate when a nearby spell was cast with the same mana signature as that of the owner. Since adventurers had to show their Guild card whenever they take missions or collect their fees, the Guild's receptionists would know if the card's hidden function was activated, thereby exposing any possible rogue mages that didn't have magic permits.
“We'll find out soon enough if your friend is true to his word,” Falck said as he finished his wine in one take. “Do you think he will?”
“I don't have enough insight into Mr. Marion's character, so I can't say much, but I do hope that he does.”
“Honestly, I doubt it,” Falck said bluntly, much to Zanna's surprise and annoyance.
“What made you say that?
“I've had my people assess him the moment he entered the Adventurer's Guild. I don't know how the Guild operates in the capital, but here, we always scrutinize new faces that enter the building.”
Zanna gave the Guild Master a frown. Since the Strikers were new to the city as well, that meant they were part of the ‘new faces’ that Falck was mentioning, and Zanna wasn't comfortable with the fact that they were being assessed without their knowing.
“Were you spying on us?” Zanna asked sharply.
“What? No!” Falck said hurriedly. “We merely make background checks on new people and see if they are likely to cause trouble or not.”
“Do you think we're likely to cause trouble?” Zanna shot back.
“No, no, of course not! But I think your friend Mr. Marion is the one who's likely to cause trouble.”
Zanna's frown was replaced with concern. “What makes you say that?”
“Aside from the fact that he's wearing a highly suspicious mask, a receptionist reported to me that Mr. Marion almost unleashed magic when Edwin, one of our veteran Gold-ranked adventurers, peeked at his registration form. Every mage in the hall yesterday sensed it.”
Zanna started feeling unsure about her decision to let Mr. Marion go without supervision. Known only to the Strikers, Zanna had a unique ability that gave her a sharp instinct when it came to threats, and when she first met Mr. Marion, her instincts told her that the man wasn't a threat. Granted, my instinct only tells me if someone or something is harmful to me, Zanna thought.
“Anyone would become apprehensive if somebody peeked at their registration form, Guild Master. Based on our previous interactions, I have reason to believe that Mr. Marion is not trained in the magical arts and he might not be aware of his abilities and implications.”
“I'm not surprised that you'd defend somebody you just met yesterday,” Falck said with a sigh. It was a well-known fact that the Strikers were one of the few adventuring parties who did their jobs to help others, and Zanna was quite famous for being a kind person.
Zanna cleared her throat in embarrassment and changed the subject. “Despite everything you said, that doesn't make Mr. Marion a rogue mage.”
“Not yet,” Falck said with emphasis. “I value your good intent, Miss Zanna, but as a Guild Master responsible for the actions of my people, I cannot in good conscience let a possible rogue mage roam around the city under the banner of the Adventurer's Guild. I'm going to have to send a party to supervise your friend to make sure he doesn't do anything rash.”
Zanna looked like she still wanted to argue with the Guild Master, but she remained quiet and stood up. “Alright, I understand. If that is all, I shall take my leave, Guild Master. I still have a lot of work to do.”
“Thank you for your understanding, Miss Zanna. By the way, do you have an idea as to the whereabouts of Mr. Marion?”
“Mr. Marion is a clothes merchant, so he's probably going to be selling his goods at the city plaza during the day,” Zanna answered succinctly as she left the Guild Master's office.
●●●
I was not in the city plaza selling my goods during the day. Instead, I was riding my wagon on one of the roads leading away from the city of Vont.
After I saw my friends for the last time yesterday, I immediately bought the things I needed and departed the city early this morning. I didn't have enough money to buy everything I needed, but the longer I stayed in the city, the lonelier I got. Knowing that my friends were so close and yet I couldn't speak to them hurt, so I rushed my preparations to leave as soon as possible.
I peeked into my wagon and saw the meager amount of food I managed to buy with the money I made yesterday. With so little funds, I was only able to buy enough food and water to last me three days, the food being a small sack of hard bread and biscuits. Clip and Clop's food was much cheaper, which simply consisted of some grass and hay. Looks like I'm going to have to hunt my own food again.
I resolved myself to learn how to make a campfire and cook food the normal way, not with freaky Life magic.
I dragged my thoughts away from my predicament and focused on the passing scenery instead. I left the city gates more than an hour ago, so the scene of bare farmland slowly shrunk behind me as a forest lay to my left and a large river to my right. The dark forest looked pretty creepy, so I instead focused on the river to my right and the rolling plains past it.
As I tried to convince myself that the scenery wasn't boring to look at for hours on end, my mind wandered to my destination. Before I left the city, I managed to retrieve information from the Merchant's Guild about the places that were seldom visited by traders and merchants. I found the location I was looking for: Wildpost Village.
According to the receptionist, Wildpost Village was a remote village in the Wild Woods northeast of Vont. The Wild Woods was the largest forest in the kingdom and most parts of it were infested with monsters, which was the reason why there was so little foot traffic in the area. I was trying to find a location that was as far from any city as possible, so learning about a hidden village in the forest was pretty attractive to me. With only a few people around, Mom would never be disturbed if I buried her there, although I'd have to worry about monsters.
“Maybe I could build my company headquarters there,” I murmured to myself.
Just because I was going to live in an isolated location didn't mean I was going to live as a hermit. I still had my goal of becoming the richest merchant in the kingdom, and I intended to do that by establishing my own company. Building the company headquarters in a hidden location just makes it look and sound more awesome.
I felt something move at the edge of my fabric sense and focused on it, which turned out to be a bunch of rabbits about a hundred meters to my left. I brought back my attention away from them.
With my third Awakening expanding my fabric sense to a five hundred-meter radius around me and making it more sensitive, I had to constrict the range to a hundred meters to lessen the burden on my mind. Since my fabric sense allowed me to sense fibers even in plants and animal fur, keeping it activated at max range while walking beside a forest was too ‘noisy.’
Even with my fabric sense constricted to a hundred meters around me, I could feel every fiber in the leaves in the forest and the fur of any animal. The only reason I still kept my fabric sense activated was to help my mind acclimate to my ability as well as to warn me of any monster or predator that wanted to eat me.
I was tempted to try harvesting the fibers in the leaves to make my own fabrics instead of having to buy them somewhere else, but I knew it was pointless. I found out long ago that it was almost impossible to control anything that belonged to a living creature. Even if I used up my large mana to try controlling a dire wolf's fur, the best I could do was to tug at a single piece of hair, and that small tug alone would cost me my entire mana pool, and my mana pool was massive.
If I did want to control an animal's fur, I'd have to kill it first. I still didn't know how my Authority knew if what I was controlling belonged to something alive or not, but I decided to put that thought to the back of my mind and focus instead on the present situation.
Particularly, the group of human clothing hiding in the treeline a hundred meters ahead of me.
“Damn it, I hope they're not bandits,” I muttered to myself, but I already knew that it was wishful thinking.
My mood darkened for what was about to come.
●●●
The last time Alper ate three full meals a day was several weeks ago when fleeing people from the north filled the roads. Hundreds of people in the northern region were desperate to escape their homes once they learned that a war was coming and that the press gangs were beginning to conscript men in the north into the army. Alper and his crew took advantage of this.
As an augmenter and a former mercenary, Alper and his band of outlaws managed to ambush people to their heart's content without having to worry about repercussions. Unless their victim turned out to be a mage or an augmenter, which was extremely unlikely, Alper could easily force their victims to give up their money. Some still fought back in desperation, but Alper killed them easily.
But as the presence of the King's soldiers started increasing, Alper and his band had to lay low, cutting off their main revenue. For several weeks now, he and his group were simply living off of the land, but with the winter season still weeks away from turning into spring, their food was limited to small prey like squirrels and rabbits, or on one desperate occasion, tree bark.
“Boss, why can't we just pillage that small village to the north?” Grum, Alper's right-hand man, asked. He was a big man with a tough face that looked like he ate nails for breakfast, but what he had in strength, he lacked in the brain department. “I'm sure those folks over there have some food stored up for winter!”
Murmurs of agreement rose from the seven other men crouching behind Grum. They were currently hiding in the cover of the forest waiting for a possible target, just like they had done for the past weeks without success, and they were starting to complain to their leader.
Alper shot a glare at the large man that was Grum. “Use yer brain for a fuckin' second, ya' oaf! The damn tinheads are all over the place recruitin' everybody's fathers, brothers, and uncles for the war! What'd ya' think would happen if we reveal ourselves to the King's soldiers to rob their fuckin' people?”
“Even if they try to stop us, we can kill them easily!” Grum shouted with bloodlust, and the other bandits behind him cheered as well.
Alper whacked Grum's head with his fist, immediately silencing them. “Oh yeah? So ya' idiots think ya' can kill a bunch of army tinheads, eh? Of course ya' can! Those damn dogs are just a bunch o' farmers forced to dress up in metal and replace their pitchforks with spears, but what about the next group that replaces them? And the next? Ya' think the nine of us can stand up to the hundreds of soldiers roamin' around the region?”
Grum quieted at his leader's reprimand with a defeated face.
Alper was about to continue his tirade when his sharpened hearing detected the distant sound of a horse-drawn wagon traveling down the dirt road. Behind his hiding place, the bandit leader spotted the approaching wagon in the distance.
“Looks like the day's finally come, lads,” Alper announced to his men with a grin. “Ready yer fuckin' weapons, we're about to taste real food again.”
Grum and the other bandits bristled in excitement as they waited for the arrival of their target. They didn't have sharpened hearing like their leader, but they trusted Alper's word.
After a short wait, the bandits began hearing the sounds of horse hooves stepping on the snow-covered road and the creaking of a large wagon. All of them hoped it was filled with expensive goods they could sell to their fences in Halros.
The bandits' cover didn't allow them to peek at the road lest they reveal themselves, so they had to rely on their hearing. When the noise of the creaking wagon was close enough, Alper gave the signal and everybody sprang from their hiding place behind the bush with loud cries and quickly formed a semicircle in front of their target, startling the horses.
Alper began shouting at the man in the driver's seat of the wagon to surrender. “If ya' want to live, hand over everythin' ya' have, now!”
The other bandits shouted along, waving their weapons to intimidate their victim.
“My, my, what a surprise!” the masked man riding in the driver's seat exclaimed. “Is this one of those classic bandit raids I always heard about? I must say, all of you look the part!”
Alper and the men surrounding the wagon weren't like most bandits in the kingdom that simply consisted of desperate men who were forced to resort to banditry because of poverty. Alper and his men wore complete leather armor and held real weapons, rare commodities for most bandits, and most of them had large muscles and scars decorating their bodies, a mark of their strength.
“Shut up, weirdo! Hand over everythin' now or else we'll start carvin' ya' up and feed ya' to the wolves!” Alper shouted, getting annoyed by the masked man's lack of fear. Is he that much of an eccentric bastard? Alper thought impatiently.
“I believe not, my good sir, for I still have somewhere else to be!” the masked man replied with the same cheer as before, the smile in his mask emphasizing the glee in his voice. “But I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill all of you now. I can't let trash like you roam around harming innocents, after all.”
Alper and his men looked at each other and guffawed. They used to work as mercenaries who earned their gold through fighting and as much as they could tell, the man in front of them was no mage or augmenter. With his weak mana sense, Alper could sense some sort of mana emanating from the masked man's clothing, but unlike the mana senses of mages, Alper's wasn't precise. He could only tell that it had mana, which probably meant it was enchanted. The idea of looting enchanted equipment lit Alper's eyes with greed.
“For givin' us a good laugh, I'll grant ya' the favor of making yer death swift, weirdo,” Alper said with a grin before advancing on the masked man still seated in the driver's seat.
“I really hope you guys don't have families,” the masked man said somberly, his voice suddenly dropping to a sad tone.
Alper's advance halted when the man's mask started squirming. The bandits watched speechlessly as the smile on the mask slowly turned to a sad expression, an expression fit for the tragedy to come.
All of a sudden, the bandits felt a powerful pressure descend upon them that emanated from the masked man. The bastard's a mage concealing his mana?! Alper thought in panic. In all his years practicing banditry, traveling mages rarely concealed the presence of their mana to discourage bandits from attacking, which was a big boon to the bandits themselves so that they always knew which target to avoid.
“Run, ya' bastards!” Alper shouted as he started sprinting away deeper into the forest. He was a second-augmenter, but with all his former experience as a mercenary, he knew they didn't stand a chance against the masked man. The rest of the bandits followed his lead, their faces contorted in fear.
“I'm afraid I can't let you escape after finding out I'm a mage,” the masked man said with a sad voice. A thin tentacle made of black fabric emerged from the wagon and chased the fleeing men.
Alper looked back and saw the snake-like appendage reach Grum and pierce the man's chest in an explosion of blood. “Shit!” Alper swore as he looked back in front of him and started pumping his legs to their limit.
The tentacle didn't stop and kept on chasing the others, dragging the struggling Grum along as it skewered bandit after bandit. The men cried in fear and begged for mercy as they ran, but it was to no avail. The next time Alper looked back, the tentacle was now chasing him with eight corpses still skewered and being dragged behind it. The bodies are slowing it down, Alper thought joyfully as he realized he was gaining distance.
But his hopes were crushed when he spotted the masked man in the distance standing up. In a terrifying display, eight spider legs grew from the masked man's back and began chasing Alper at a speed faster than a horse's. The masked man was moving so fast, his spider legs using the trees as footholds, that Alper knew despite his speed, he only had about twenty seconds before the black monstrosity reached him.
“Wait, I'm sorry!” Alper cried out in terror. Seeing his other companions die didn't disturb him earlier, but now that his life was on the line, he was terrified. “Please, I'm sorry! I promise I won't bother ya' again! Just let me live!”
Alper tripped on a tree root jutting out from the ground, ripping the root out of the ground with the strength of his legs as he fell. “Please, have mercy!”
The masked man reached Alper and stopped in front of him.
“I already told you,” the masked man said. “I cannot let you go now that you've seen what I could do.”
“I won't tell anyone, I swear!” Alper shouted. “I promise I'll keep it secret! I swear upon my life!”
“Even if you keep your promise, I still can't let you go,” the masked man said with genuine sadness in his voice.
“Why?!”
“Because looking at you infuriates me,” the masked man replied with the same dejected tone. “Knowing that you're a bandit that has killed countless people makes me angry. Trash like you who harm innocent people for your own gain do not deserve to live.”
Listening to the masked man's words would have made Alper laugh if his life wasn't in danger. The words would have sounded naive if they came from another person, but when Alper heard it from the masked man himself, he knew that the monster in front of him meant it.
“It's not my fault life is unfair!” Alper shouted back in false anger. He was stalling for time until he found a way out of his predicament. “Ya' think I wanted to be a bandit?! Ya' think people like us turn to banditry because we like it?! We've no choice! We'd have died of starvation and disease if we didn't do it! People like ya' would never understand! If yer' goin' to kill me anyway, you don't need to act all sad for me, you fuckin' weirdo!”
When I get out of here, I'm gonna give myself a fuckin' award for best actin', Alper thought. He never meant any of his words, which were mostly lies. He turned into a bandit because he wanted to, after all. It was easier to take things from others than work for it himself.
“Then you should have starved to death and died of disease instead of dragging other people into your suffering,” the masked man replied.
Hearing the masked man's words sent a shiver down Alper's spine, and the fact that they were said with sincerity terrified him even more. This bastard's more of a fuckin' psychopath than me.
The masked man moved to strike before Alper could reply, two of his spider legs darting forward with extreme speed. Alper was already expecting it and rolled to the right, but despite his speed as a second augmenter, the spider legs still managed to graze his side. This bastard's fast!
With trained movement, Alper stood up and drew his sword at the same time, slashing his weapon in front of him as he did so. The sound of ripping fabric echoed throughout the forest around them as Alper's enchanted sword cut through the third spider leg that chased after him when he dodged.
“Fabric?!” Alper exclaimed in shock. He thought that the masked man was a mage specializing in shapeshifting into a spider, but it turned out he was wrong. If it's made of cloth, then why the fuck is it so hard to cut?!
The masked man continued his assault and used his spider legs as spears. Alper had to dodge three spider legs trying to stab him at once. He ran around the forest in erratic movements to confuse the masked man, using his augmented speed to move quickly, but for some reason, his enemy seemed to always know his location. At this rate, I'm gonna tire first before that bastard runs out of mana.
Alper initially planned to use a martial skill to escape the masked man, but seeing that his enemy didn't show any signs of running out of mana soon, he decided to use it in a surprise attack instead. Alper hadn't used a martial skill since the battle began, so he was sure that it would catch the masked man off guard.
Alper enacted his plan. Every time he dodged a spider limb, he moved in a way that brought him slightly closer to his enemy. With how long the spider legs were, Alper was sure that it would be useless once he closed the gap between him and the masked man.
Alper dodged each spider limb a few milliseconds before they hit him, his experience in battle helping him predict the path of the masked man's weapons. The masked man realized that three spider legs weren't enough and brought a fourth one into the fray, increasing the pressure on Alper.
But despite the higher difficulty, Alper rejoiced in his mind. The masked man was initially using four spider legs stabbed into the nearby trees to keep himself suspended in the air, but with one less spider leg to keep himself stable, Alper had higher chances of succeeding in his plan.
When Alper was only five meters away behind the masked man, he performed a martial skill. With practiced focus, Alper empowered his legs with mana, and with a burst of strength, he kicked off a nearby tree, sending him flying towards the masked man's back with blurring speed. The spider legs tried to chase him, but with their cumbersome length, they were too slow to respond to an enemy that was too close.
Alper brandished his enchanted weapon and swung at his enemy's neck, intending to decapitate the masked man. Gotcha!
When the blade was a few inches away from its destination, the masked man's back suddenly squirmed and before Alper could even register what happened, dozens of small tentacles burst forth and pierced the bandit's body like a pincushion.
Alper looked down and saw himself impaled with dozens of thin black tentacles that kept him suspended in the air, then he coughed up blood. He dropped his sword as his body weakened, his consciousness already waning. Fuck, am I goin' to die here?
Alper's head tilted to the side weakly and he spotted a head on the ground. It was the masked man's head. Hah! If I'm gonna die, I'm goin' to take ya' with me, ya' bastard!
As he cursed his enemy in his mind, Alper slowly realized that the tentacles still impaled in his chest were still squirming, and a brief look around him revealed that the spider legs were still active. What the—
Then he saw the child standing on the ground below him. With black hair and slightly pale skin, the child stared at him with dark eyes, and Alper felt fear. Stitches lined the child's mouth from the corner of his lips up to his ears, like a horrific smile. The child was naked, and Alper saw that the boy's body was lined with dozens of stitches. Alper felt like looking at a doll that had been ripped so many times and was forcibly fixed by stitching it together again and again. Alper realized that the child in front of him wasn't a child, but a monster.
Alper slumped on the tentacles holding him up, his eyes glazed over as death finally claimed him. The tentacles retreated and Alper's corpse dropped to the ground.
For a moment, Brogen watched Alper's corpse bleed in the snow, rubbing his thumb over his dry palm and fingers. He was angry at murderers like them who killed innocent people, angry enough that he wanted to kill all of them. But that didn't mean there was no pressure on his conscience. Brogen wasn't a sociopath that didn't feel empathy.
“My mask wasn't sad for you, bandit. My mask was sad for what I might become when I continue to kill people like you.”
Brogen reformed his Mr. Marion thread suit with the mask back with its usual smile, claimed the bandit's enchanted sword, returned to his wagon and resumed his journey. He didn't bother burying the bandits' corpses littering the forest floor. The animals would clean it up soon enough.