The number of bandits outside was definitely nothing to scoff at. Even so, Aria wasn’t phased in the slightest bit, rather she had an angry expression on her face. She shouted,” What did you just say?” as she went to grab the door handle. Seito grabbed her hand stopping her as he retorted, “Mistress, what are you doing?”
She pulled her hand back removing Seito’s hand in the process. She replied, “Oh I just thought that we need to teach these ill-mannered people some manners.” and Seito sarcastically replied,” Mistress, as much as I can smell the Hypocrisy in that statement I think you shouldn’t.”
She shouted, ”Shut up Seito, Be a coward and sit tight. As a high ranking noble, I have a duty to perform.” Seito shouted,” Mistress, it’s not-“
Suddenly she rushed at the door with her leg, slammed it open with her palm facing the thugs and the other hand holding her wrist. She had a serious look on her face. Her hands were covered with a faint glow, and suddenly a sort of glow seemed to rush towards her dancing in circles around her elbow with all of it concentrating at the end of her palm.
The girl shouted, “
I couldn’t believe what was happening in front of my eyes. Even though I had lost a part of my memories, I knew that magic didn’t exist. But here it was in front of me. The concentrated gust of wind directed towards the group was shot at a tremendous speed that the distortion in the air could be seen with the naked eyes. It pushed forward like a sharp drill but it was all for naught as suddenly a large man stopped the attack with one hand completely negating the attack.
He shouted, “Oi Oi the missus ‘as quite the temper eh, Not to mention normal folks normally don’t even ‘ave that level of magic. Perhaps you lot belong to the nobility or sumthin?”
The other thug replied, “Now what do we do. I don wanna beat up some kids. Wanna ask the boss?”
“Damn it, I thought they were normal thugs,” Aria mumbled. Seito was behind Aria began fiddling with his bag. He whispered, “Mistress, don’t move... I am gonna use this pointer crystal to tell the Masters that we are in trouble.” She replied, ”What? No don’t call brother Elijah, I don’t want to trouble him.”
Looking at our direction the thug shouted,” what are ya two younguns whispering about.”
Seito took out a red crystal which began glowing and whispered, ”With a situation like this I also hope master Elijah comes, if master Yukiyo ever heard about this, I’m gonna get in trouble for letting you unseal the protection he placed on the carriage.”
Aria replied, “You mean this is my fault!?!”
Seito whispered, “Mistress now is not the time”
I felt sad for the guy to take care of such an arrogant prick. Personally, I wanted the girl to get a shock or something to make her come to her senses about her situation but still, it’s not like I could do anything about this scenario.
Then a man dressed in a similar fashion to the other thugs came out into the open from the shadows of the dark woods. He was wearing a red scarf to distinguish himself from others. He shouted, “All right, let's get the little shit nuggets outta the carriage! Bob! Hudson! Drag em out!” He had an air of authority around him, suffice to say he was the leader of the group.
2 of the thugs started walking towards us, and with each step, Aria’s haughty composure was beginning to crumble. The situation was getting a little too dark for my taste.
As the thugs crept closer Seito suddenly shouted, “Hey! Stay back we’ll come out.” To which the thugs casually replied, “okay .. less work for us.” Aria had a concerned look on her face.”Seito why?” she questioned.
Seito dropped out of the carriage and answered, “Mistress I’ve finished calling Master and with the situation as is now it’s better to not show resistance, for now, Help should be coming soon.”
While explaining he gave his hand to her helping her to get out, he continued, “In this situation, we can't afford to get them near us and have you separated from me. We have to stall for time, even a few seconds can be precious and in case things go south I can try and escape with you, or let you escape if we get a chance. If you understand then nod.” Aria gave a small nod. The situation seemed a little too much for her and now she was much timider than I had anticipated.
The girl was still holding the box with me in her hands. I think that was a bad move on her part, considering I was an important object for them and also a rare object.
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The boss noticed the box and pointed at us asking, “Hey... what’s in dat box?!?” Surprised by the sudden inquiry she started stammering, “H-H-Huh? W-What?” The Boss gazed at the box and suddenly appeared right in front of the Aria seizing the box, the same moment Seito grabbed her jumping a few meters back.
It happened too fast for me to process what happened. It seemed to be the same for Aria who was looking at her hands. And when she looked at my direction she wailed, “NOOOO!!!! THATS FOR ONII-CHAAAN!!”
“Onii?? Chan? Wait... What?” Confused thoughts rambled in my mind.
The boss lifted me out of the box, “Oh? a snow dragon cactus... interesting... sells for quite a lot of coin on the black market. But, I swear I’ve seen one of these growing somewhere” he said.
“Sir, we don’t want any trouble can you please just let us go? You can have all the valuables we have, they are inside the carriage.” Seito asked. Aria, still fidgeting against Seito who was holding her back, shouted, “No!! He has the item!!”
The boss’ face was masked so it wasn’t easy to see his expression but the tone of his voice seemed a bit happy, “You see, I am not a very generous man... but I feel rather generous today... how about I keep this cactus and keep the girl ... you can go and get the ransom for the girl, say about 1000 gold... we come out rich with this bargain and you two keep your lives”
The seemingly jolly voice spitting out such vile words terrified Aria, she said, “S-seito, no p-please don’t leave me.” Tears started rolling down from her eyes as she hid behind Seito.
Seito continuing to face towards the thugs, replied, “Don’t worry I’m not going to leave you alone.”
The Boss laughed as he said, “Oh boo hoo. The widdle girly is scared. Ok so looks like we got to Knock you both out and sell you... the girl may sell for 10 gold since she is wind attribute... and for the right customer maybe 20 gold. The boy.. around 5 gold or more depending on the affinity of magic I guess. Men now!!”
While the boss was giving his command, Seito was muttering something. He spread out his arms while shouting
The ground rose and covered both the girl and boy in a round shell and the same time a large number of fireballs and arrows came hitting the shell with full force but it stood hard with no scratches. I didn’t expect that guy to be such a dark horse.
The boss smiled as he said, “Oh ho? I already knew something about the boy was off and look at that, he might even sell for 30 gold. Earth affinity, and 3rd stage at that.”
I didn’t really understand the terms which the boss said but he seemed impressed.
The boss then pointed his hand towards the direction of the sphere. “Well, time to Fire it up. Spirit of flames, with this right hand, burn down those who oppose me and turn them to ashes.
A fireball of the same size as the previous ones shot, flew straight towards the sphere but this time it tore down the earth wall like a man hammering an egg, the boy suffered the major part of the attack but was still standing, He was holding his elbows in a cross which were burned while blocking the majority of the damage. The girl was a little singed but was okay. It was clear that the man was on a whole another level.
The boss smiled while looking at them, “Well, look at that, you two survived, and that's a good thing. Can’t have my precious slaves turned to ashes”
Seito fell down on one knee as tears started rolling from the girl's eyes. “Sorry Mistress, looks like I won't make it, I've used up most of my mana for blocking that attack.” The girl sobbing replied, “N-no se- se-to, it's a-all m-y fault. If only I didn't o-open the door” Seito smiled as he said, “Aria, make sure to run when I give you the signal.” Aria continued to cry as she gave a small nod.
The boss enthralled by them shouted, “THAT BRILLIANT. ENTERTAIN ME MORE. DON'T WORRY I WON'T KILL YOU. AFTER ALL, YOU ARE GONNA EARN ME A LOT OF GOLD!!! DON'T FEEL SAD IT'S JUST BUSINESS.”
“Oi, what kind of sadist are you?” I thought.
As the boss was laughing he was interrupted by a voice, “Well, I'd let you continue but those little shits belong to me. Too bad, you’re not gonna gain a single coin. But how about helping me with my business, plant food gets pretty expensive you know.”
Surprised by the sudden reply, he shouted, “Wait? Who said that? Show yourself!!”
I also looked around trying to find the person. As I looked up I saw a person dressed in a black suit, on top of the carriage. He was wearing white gloves and had crimson coloured long hair. One of his hands was in his pocket while the other pointing towards the bandits. He was on top of the carriage standing and looking down on everyone. He had a calm and composed face but it showed hints of silent anger.
“Oh, Mai Gawd Is he the main character?” thoughts ran across my mind.
The boss shouted, “Could you kindly introduce yourself?”
Suddenly some roots shot up from the ground below and dragged a few people below the earth. Scared the rest started shooting him with fire and ice magic. But he didn’t even bother blocking any of them.
The size of the spells grew larger as it seemed they were using more powerful spells but to no avail. None of them worked.
The boy slowly stood up being supported by the girl on his shoulders. She slowly carried him behind the carriage.
The man said, ”I don’t really do this a lot but since you are dying anyway let’s call it a service.”
The boss had a serious look in his eyes. The man continued “I’m the slayer of a thousand demons, Conqueror of countries, Possessor of the titles Paladin, Grand Red Mage, Druid, Dragon Slayer and the 2nd prince, known and feared throughout the lands as The Crimson Phantom, Yukiyo Valeria. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The level cap seemed to have been raised once more.