"That sure was easy, huh? They didn't even put up all that much of a fight, I was expecting at least a little bit more of a challenge," Remarked Rex, as the remaining traffickers laid sprawled on the ground, battered and bloodied. "So, what do we with them? Are we gonna kill them or put them in the custody of the Knight Mages?" I asked Iris. "First things first...we need to find out who else these bastards are associated with. There's no way a group of weaklings like this could've been so organized without someone smarter behind them pulling their strings," She frowned in response, narrowing her eyes at the bandits. Hm? One of their Ether signatures just spiked, looks like she hit the nail on the head. And it looks like he's about to spill the beans on his own, so I don't need to say anything to point it out... "I-if I tell you, w-will you spare our lives?" He stuttered timidly, a desperate look in his eyes. "Huh? What are you talking about?" Responded one of the other bandits.
"Gather around, everyone! I have great news to share with you all! The Guild Mages I hired have successfully dealt with the kidnappers who've been terrorizing our town for the past several days, and most of those who were abducted have been brought back. It's my humble honor to have saved our town, but as the man you all elected to lead you, I was honor bound to do everything in my power to restore safety and ease all of your minds...it certainly wasn't cheap, but for the sake of the safety of my citizens, no cost is too high! And that's precisely why I hired these Mages with my own money. All I want is for this wonderful town to prosper, and...""Wow, he's full of it, isn't he? What an asshole, making this all about himself," I whispered to Lilac.I'm starting to see how he must have gotten elected in the first place...he must have used enticing words and empty promises to win the favor of the majority, and they fell for his act. "Yeah...he's just using this to praise himself. Doesn
Point-of-View: Lilac Lero———————————————————————————"Hey, wake up. Come on, To, you've been asleep for ages, time to get up," I remarked with a sigh, shaking his shoulders impatiently.He let out a grumble before turning around, pulling his blanket over his head and cocooning himself inside it. Ugh, seriously? Why's it always so hard to get him to wake up every morning? Today's the 3rd of June, 505 PA. We'd returned from our Quest yesterday evening, just as the sun began setting. To woke up for a short while after we got back home, and was pretty visibly drowsy. He was nodding off the whole time as we had an early dinner, he almost fell face first into his food a couple of times. And after we finishing eating, he headed right up to his room and went straight back to sleep. He fell asleep pretty much the instant his head hit the pillow. I was pretty tired myself, so I went to sleep shortly after he did. It's now 11 AM the next day, and he's still fast asleep, strongly resisting all
"This can't possibly be a coincidence. There's just no way it is, the chances of that are too low...," Frowned Iris, as she skimmed through a document before handing it to me."Yeah, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that it isn't a coincidence, these incidents are definitely connected. Someone's behind this pulling the strings, causing it deliberately," I nodded in agreement."Why would they do that, though? What's their goal in doing this, what could they possibly be hoping to achieve by doing this?" Chimed in Rex with a grimace, as he read through another document.Today's the 7th of June, 505 PA, and I was currently at the Solaris Guild, along with the rest of my party. We were poring through reports of recently completed Quests from other Guilds across the country, specifically, Quests relating to hunting down groups of criminals like bandits, smugglers and traffickers.In other words, Quests similar to our most recent Quest, which we completed just a few days ago. All these Quest r
"That's it over there, the big red building up ahead," Remarked Iris, pointing at the building she was referring to. "Woah...that's the Praepotentia Guild's building? It's freaking massive! It makes Solaris look like tiny in comparison, it's gotta be at least twice as big," Respond Rex in bemusement.It was currently around 7:45 PM, we'd arrived in the capital city, Rosnoir City, about an hour ago. After we arrived, we first checked in at an inn, dropped off all our stuff and got changed, before then heading out to the Praepotentia Guild to meet the other Mages that we were supposed to work with on this Quest. We're almost there, and Rex wasn't kidding, that's one massive building...like he said, it's got to be at least twice as tall as the Solaris Guild, and it's a lot wider too. Thanks to their reputation, they get a lot better Quests than we do in our Guild, better paying too, so they probably have a lot more funds saved up than Solaris does. Solaris rarely gets Quests that'd ta
"Hey, aren't you excited, To? We're going to visit another new place today, I can't wait to see what it's like," Grinned Lilac, as I let out a drowsy yawn."You're being too loud...seriously, it's way too early in the morning for you to be this amped up, Li," I responded with a weary sigh.It was the next day, a few minutes or so to 7 AM. We were at the stables, renting out several carriages to make the journey to Limvert City, the northmost city in Sapio. We're minutes away from leaving, everyone's arrived and ready to go...but why'd we have to do this so damn early? I'm so tired, I wanna go back to sleep, damn it..."Thanks for being punctual, everyone! Make sure to get some rest on the journey, so that you'll be ready to go as soon as we arrive in Limvert," Called out Lect to everyone, a smile on his face.Tch, how's he so cheerful this early in the morning? Lilac's bad enough on her own, having another overly energetic person around sounds absolutely exhausting. In fact, it feels
"I have to say, I'm glad we managed to get grouped together instead of getting stuck with a bunch of strangers. Besides Lect, the rest are still apprehensive towards us, so this is for the best," Remarked Iris with a relieved look on her face, as we walked through a shopping district.About an hour had passed since we split up into six groups, and it's been seriously slow progress since then. We've spoken to almost every single person we've come across, barring children who haven't yet awakened their Magic Systems.I can sense if a person has unlocked their Magic System or not by their Ether, those who haven't unlocked theirs tend to have stagnant Ether, no different than plants. I've been letting Iris know whenever we come across someone like that, it's helped save a small bit of time, but it still left a massive number of people to question. It's also earned a bit of suspicion from Rex, but at this point, I don't care...as much of an asshole as he is, I suppose I can grudgingly adm
"Bastard, I'll kill you!" Snapped Iris, as she drew out her blade and rapidly extended it towards him as he cast a massive, dark dome around all of us, before she yelled to everyone as he narrowly evaded her blade, "Snap out of it! He's the culprit, the person we've been looking for!""Wow, an Apocryphal Weapon, huh? What a sight, you don't see one of those everyday," Remarked Lect, glancing at his left arm, her blade having cut through his armor and grazed his skin beneath it."Get behind me, Li," I remarked, grabbing her wrist and moving her behind me as I stepped out in front of her, the other Mages starting to surround Lect. Damn it, this isn't good...the dome of Dark Ether he cast, it's slowly but steadily sapping our energy and stamina, I can sense everyone's Ether decreasing bit by bit with every passing second, the flow of their Ether gradually but undoubtedly growing smaller and less stable. "You tricked us, you bastard! Take this, [Lancer Art: Piercing Javelin]!""Yeah, yo