Lando arrived at the Blackwell mansion and was shocked as soon as it came into view. There was no sign of an ongoing fight. The only thing left was a pile of rubble and scorched ground.

Even the terrain was completely different, with fires still burning on the scattered bits of timber all over the property. In between the rubble, limbs and blood were visible here and there, indicating that the destroyed mansion had become the grave for many people.

With no ongoing battle in sight, Lando worried about his companions. "Did they succeed? The fact that nobody is here anymore is a good sign, right? But I can't imagine a scenario where they all left this place unscathed. I should grab Ina and head back to the Inn. Maybe she can help if someone is badly hurt," he thought, quickly deciding on his next course of action. "I hope the Inn is still standing, though."

Many battles in the city had already come to an end, but new ones seemed to replace them by the second. The noble district, being slightly elevated from the rest of the city, offered Lando a good view of the ongoing battles. Throughout the city, battles raged, devastating everything in their path.

Lando even wondered if the city would still exist after this coup. If the fights were to last for a day or two longer, he wasn't so sure about its survival.

He imagined, that many people would take advantage of the chaos and advance their own agenda. Assassinations, robberies and many more things would for sure be carried out right at this moment.

Lando and his group seemed to be not the only ones with some "business" in the noble district. Aside from a few large battlefields where the two armies clashed, most of the fights were happening in the noble district.

Just two streets down the road to the east, Lando observed a clash between a handful of people. Not much further in the southern direction, he saw a fight between at least twenty magicians.

Without wasting any more time, he headed back to where he had left his new employee. He searched for a few seconds upon his arrival until he spotted the blonde woman emerging from a nearby bush. She seemed both relieved and slightly terrified.

The location they were currently in was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous, so her demeanor was understandable. "Finally, you're back! Let's leave this warzone for good," she nearly shouted, eager to move on.

Not even being away for five minutes, Lando understood the girl's behavior and agreed instantly.

On their way back to the inn, Lando quickly filled Ina in on the current situation about the revolution and their raid as they had to proceed slowly and cautiously, avoiding fights on every corner.

Due to their many detours, the journey back took a while, but they eventually arrived at the inn. Lando, relieved that it was still standing, quickly made his way inside.

At the entrance, they were greeted with a crossbow pointed in their direction by the receptionist. "Oh, sorry for the inconvenience, sir, but there are some raiders on the streets today," the man behind the desk said, lowering his weapon as he recognized the young magician from his check-in a few days ago.

Not feeling too offended, as the irony of the situation was not lost on him, Lando dismissively replied, "Don't worry. The city is in utter chaos. The fact that the inn is still standing is thanks to your effort, I guess?"

The receptionist looked at Lando with a serious expression and said, "I had to use my crossbow once or twice already, that's right. Luckily, there's not much for magicians to gain here, at least." He quickly shifted back to his polite demeanor as he noticed Ina behind Lando. "Oh, you even brought a new guest, I assume? Is the lady accompanying you in your room, or does she need an extra one?"

"An extra one, near mine would be nice if available," Lando replied promptly.

The man behind the counter handed Ina the key for the room opposite Lando's, and Lando paid the advance payment for a month, as Ina had no money of her own at the moment.

As they made their way upstairs, Lando said to Ina, "Let's check on the mercenaries first." He had already explained the situation to her, so she nodded in agreement, and they headed towards the room where he would meet the whole team for the first time.

After knocking and receiving no response, Lando announced his name, and soon after, Anthony opened the door. "Cipher! Where have you been? We thought you were killed by that earth mage. Good, good, that's certainly some good news. And who is your beautiful companion here?" the lightning mage said still with some adrenalin in his blood with obvious suspicion regarding Ina's presence.

"Got nearly killed there. This monster almost finished me off in one attack. I assume if you're here, you've got some payback for my case. Oh, and this is Ina. She works for me, so no problem there," Lando explained to Anthony.

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With most of the suspicions lost, Anthony welcomed both of them into the room. There, he saw the whole mercenary party. Most of them had cuts, burns, and bruises, but looked fine for the most part. However, Lola was lying in bed unconscious, with a pale face and coughing up blood from time to time.

Nathan was sitting on a chair, doing his best with the healing part of his water element. It didn't seem to have much effect though, as Nathan was sweating profusely and a hint of frustration was evident on his face.

Lando knew from his mother that the water element had its limitations when it came to healing wounds. It mainly controlled the flow of blood and accelerated healing by closing wounds, stopping bleeding, and transporting nutrients to the necessary areas.

If something was more severe, like misplaced bones or similar injuries, it would be impossible to heal with the water element alone, according to his mother. If a water mage was able to utilize the healing aspect of the element, they were considered to have expert mastery over their element and had a proficient and delicate control over it. Unfortunately for Lola, it seemed that this level of mastery alone was not enough in her situation.

"She was hit by the earth mage and has several internal injuries. The most concerning part is that several of her ribs punctured her lungs as they shattered. Anthony and I realized the seriousness of the situation a bit too late. We killed the earth mage in response, but it doesn't change Lola's condition," Nathan informed Lando with regret and anger evident in his voice. Lando assumed Nathan was angry at himself for misjudging the situation, considering the guilty party was already dead.

"May I have a look?" Ina piped up from the back of the room.

Everyone in the room, including Nathan, looked at her with suspicion at the question, until Lando explained, "She's an apprentice with the light element. I can vouch for her abilities as she healed me from similar injuries. If that means anything to you."

Nathan was already at his limits. He had fought an intense battle back at the Blackwell mansion and had been keeping Lola alive ever since, constantly using his healing magic to stabilize her. He didn't need to think for long before allowing Ina to take over.

As Ina worked on healing Lola, Lando had a question of his own trying to inquire more about his employee’s element to get a rough idea of her capabilities. "How does this kind of healing work exactly? What's the difference compared to water healing?"

Ina didn't need to concentrate too hard on her task and had some attention to spare. "I'm not an expert either," she admitted. "I didn't focus much on my magical studies. I spend more time reading business-related books, as I believe I don't have the talent to become a super strong magician anyway. But I definitely have the skills to become one of the best businesswomen on the continent." She spoke with burning passion before answering Lando's question.

"Apparently, a body knows what its normal healthy state should be. With my magic, I simply give it the power to return to that desired state. I don't even need much control over the process, just some general guidance. However, if parts of the body are already dead, there can be complications. And if someone has a birth defect or something similar, even my magic cannot change that."

Nathan, already familiar with how light magic healing worked, couldn't help but feel a bit envious hearing Ina mention that she didn't need much focus for her task. Water healing, on the other hand, required precise guidance for every bit of blood to ensure it reached the right destination. A single mishap could cause the blood to burst veins and arteries, making everything worse.

In Nathan's opinion, the worst part was that water healing was much less effective overall. While it had its advantages, they were overshadowed in general.

Nonetheless, Nathan was grateful for Lola's recovery and showed his appreciation by placing his hands on Ina's shoulder. "Thank you so much! I wouldn't have known how to handle the situation if you hadn't shown up. I'm no surgeon, at least not yet."

"No problem. Let's just say you owe me one and leave it at that," Ina replied with a wink.

With Lola on the road to recovery, Lando decided to inquire about the mission. "By the way, were you able to get into the vault?"

"We used more brute force than finesse, but eventually we got in," Anthony answered. "We'll evaluate the items later, but our first impression is quite promising. Most of it was cash, as it was needed for the ongoing expenses and such. There were a few interesting artifacts, but we believe the more valuable ones are in the marques' personal spatial ring. We'll test them when the chaos dies down a bit and give them a proper evaluation." Anthony ended with a smug smile.

Lando didn't expect too much, as he already had around 40,000 gold coins in wealth, just in hard cash. He even had a bunch of artifacts that he hadn't had the time to evaluate properly. However, he welcomed the influx of more money, especially with Ina as his employee, who could put it to good use.

After a few minutes, Ina finished healing the other team members. They weren't as badly wounded, but Nathan was too exhausted and needed some rest.

Once everyone was healed, they thanked the exhausted light mage. Nathan spoke up, "The uprising will likely end soon, but the city will be lawless for a few days until the rebels establish their own laws. It's best not to leave the inn if you don't want to get into trouble. We'll stay here and evaluate the items at a safer time. I can't give you your whole portion of the loot yet, but how about taking your 30% share of the cash for now?"

Lando had no problem with that, considering they lived under the same roof and he had a little bit of trust in Nathan after their mission together. He replied, "That's fine with me. Just knock on my door when you have the rest."

Victoria went to the nearby desk and soon unloaded a stash of coins. Lando didn't need to imagine the ‘kaching’ in his mind as the coins dropping to the table did that for him, as the pile grew larger it even overflowed on the floor. However, most of the coins were silver and copper, as they were the marques' daily business funds.

After Lando stored them all away, his black ring informed him of the total amount: 3,854 copper coins, 45,698 silver coins, and 431 gold coins, with a total value of 891,834 gold coins.

Converting the coins into gold made them seem less impressive to Lando, but Ina's eyes sparkled with excitement. She could already imagine what she could do with all that money.

As they made their way to Lando's room, he waved his goodbye and said to the enthused woman beside him, "Alright, let's talk about your responsibilities for the future."