“This place was once my home… I think.”
Gust tried to remember his old home, but could only remember some fleeting moments. Had the house looked like? Where had his room been?
He couldn’t remember.
He’d been avoiding the matter for a while, but now, in front of his old home, not only couldn’t he remember what his old house looked like, he couldn’t even remember his parents’ faces.
Or even his big sister’s.
It’d simply been too long, and he’d experienced too many things along the way. After thinking about it for a while, Gust threw his trusty bag, and pulled out a box of matches.
With a flick, he lit a match, then threw it into the broken down house. Instantly, the dry, broken pieces of wood caught on fire, which quickly spread.
Wesley could feel the heat of the flames on his face, and could even see the brightness of the flames. Confused as to why Gust had set his old home on fire, he looked toward Gust.
Knowing why Wesley was confused, Gust said, “Can’t give them a burial, and I don’t even know where in the village they died. So, this is the best I can do. Can you do me a favor, buddy, and make sure the fire doesn’t spread too much?”
“Of course.” Wesley quickly drew and cast a seal that erected three stone walls around the burning house, leaving the side closest to them open, so that they could continue to watch.
Staring into the flames, Gust tried to sort his emotions out, to return to his usual self. Had he been running away?
He muttered under his breath. “Well, it was probably a shitty home anyway.”
Of course, the duo’s actions had attracted the attention of quite a few others.
Marcus, Kay, as well as the handsome and beautiful siblings, had all noticed different aspects of the duo’s actions.
Clark, however, had noticed something else. “Oh? Was he a survivor?”
…
After the fire died down, Gust and Wesley left, and continued to explore the dilapidated remains of Unity Town. Finally, when they’d walked through the majority of the town, they stopped at the eastern edge, and looked up at the forested mountains that towered overhead.
Meanwhile, the noblesque brother and sister duo had set up shop inside a tent their guards had set up for them.
The brother and sister duo had a multitude of reasons for the trip. To start, they had both graduated from the Larwin Elementary Institute of Magic. However, because they’d been so many grades above Marcus, they’d never really interacted with him, and thus hadn’t recognized him.
Instead of continuing their studies in the Larwin Kingdom, their father had decided that it’d be best for them to aim for the skies by attending the Lumient Intermediate Academy of Magic, widely accepted as the best intermediate-level school on the continent.
However, despite being the main purpose for this trip, they had been given an additional objective.
For the last few years, very few Larwin Kingdom spies, diplomats, and others who the royal family had sent to the Reiniad Kingdom had come back, or had even communicated back to the royal family. However, none of those who’d made it to the Reiniad Kingdom had reported anything suspicious.
Yet, numbers don’t lie.
So, the mission that had been given to the brother and sister duo was to investigate why so many people were disappearing, and yesterday, they’d noticed a potential first clue.
Chapter 26
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.”
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?”
Charlott
e 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.
Chapter 27
The next morning, Clark woke everyone at the crack of dawn.
“Come on fellas, I hope yesterday’s rest was enough for you all! We’re going to be doing some real hiking today, so I hope everyone’s ready!”
…
For the next three days, they hiked through the mountains at high speeds in order to reach certain checkpoints to camp at during the night. All the while, the group had been heading closer to the Silver Hawk tribe’s village. Actually, the village was barely a day’s hike from their camping location this night.
Gust and Wesley had prepared themselves - they would leave for the Silver Hawk tribe’s village come morning. However, what they, and the rest of the group hadn’t realized quite yet, was that “friends” were heading in their direction.
In another tent, Charlotte’s eyes were closed shut. Charles, Mack, and a few of the other guards sat in the tent, staring at her.
After sitting in the tent like this for nearly half an hour, Charlotte’s eyes finally fluttered open.
“They’re coming.”
Mack stood up in a flash, spear and shield in hand. “How far are they?”
“They’re about five minutes away; It’s time to warn the others. Remember, don’t be loud. We don’t want to scare off the barbarians”
“Yes, young miss.”
“Mack, have one of your men keep watch on what Clark and his sons do. We don’t want them to give the Silver Hawk tribe a chance to run away.”
“Yes, young master.”
With that, Mack and the rest of the guards left the tent, and began notifying the others in the group.
“The mountain tribes are attacking!”
Within a minute, everyone in the group had been notified, weapons drawn, in the center of the mountain valley they’d set up camp in.
Clark and his sons came running to the group - for obvious reasons, Mack and his guards hadn’t bothered to warn them.
“Who the hell said the mountain tribes are attacking?” Roared Clark, as soon as he was in front of everyone.
“We did.” Charles and Charlotte stood forward, flanked by their guards, who were all clad head to toe in shining silver armor.
“Why did you say we’re under attack? There’s nobody here!” Clark brandished a gladius in his hand, spittle flying everywhere as he expressed his dissatisfaction.
“My sister has verified it. They’re hardly a minute away, now. But of course, you should’ve known about this already, yes?”
“W-what do you mean?” Clark and his sons slowly backed up.
“Don’t move, unless you want to die. It’s very simple, Clark. This area here -” Charles gestured toward the area the group was in. “Is very hard to see from the direction the Silver Hawk Tribe is in, especially in the veil of the night. Assuming they’re rushing toward us, which I’m guessing they are, they’ll have left the cover of the forest before they realize we’re already prepared.”
“And if they come… I believe the timing is too ideal to be a coincidence?”
Hearing this, the others understood what was going on, and were incensed. And as if on cue, they could hear people approaching, proving Charles’ and Charlotte’s claims.
Clark had sold them out.
Charles pulled out a black stone layered with magic seals, invisible in the darkness. After activating the stone with magic, a fierce black suit of armor appeared on Charles’ body, and a two handed mace materialized in Charles’ hands.
The HeiMo Set.
With a powerful step, Charles dashed forward toward Clark, who’d already begun running away. However, with the assistance of the HeiMo set, Charles was much faster than the latter.
The mace crashed down on Clark’s head, then his sons’, in succession.
Just then, a mass of people swarmed out from the trees, but in the darkness, they couldn’t see the travellers, who had moved farther back from the forest. However, once they’d made it to the camp, those in the front saw a few hundred peoples with weapons at the ready charging towards them.
And even in the darkness, they looked pissed.
Without a single word, the two sides clashed in the middle of the clearing the travellers had set up camp in, and in the confusion of the darkness,
Gust and Wesley hadn’t charged forward, but instead stayed back exchanging looks. This was simply the best scenario for them!
Instead of running straight into the fray, they ran around the side of the clearing until they were a little behind enemy lines, and prepared themselves. Gust pulled a box of chaos gems out of his bag, and Wesley began drawing seals.
“Ready?”
“Ready!”
The two began assaulting the Silver Hawk Tribe’s warriors’ flanks in their own ways. Wesley shot bolts of ice toward them, whereas Gust used all his strength to throw chaos gems.
In the darkness of the night, the flashes of light from the exploding chaos gems, as well as shouts of pain from those who were pierced by Wesley’s ice bolts, only added to the confusion.
Of course, this drew attention from both sides.
Several tens of Silver Hawk warriors shouted in their strange language to each other, then broke off from the main fight to pursue Gust and Wesley.
“Wesley, they’re running toward us. It’s time to run!”
“Run!”
‘Why am I always the one running?’ thought Wesley.
Regardless, the two ran back toward their “allies”.
Meanwhile, Charlotte had been standing in the middle of fray, surrounded by Charles, Mack and the rest of the Silver Knights. As a support mage, she was capable of boosting the capabilities of several of her allies, but while doing so, she wouldn’t have any fighting capabilities of her own, so she would need to be protected.
However, the trade was well worth it.
Charles and the rest of those surrounding her had had their physical capabilities boosted nearly 5%. While this didn’t sound like much, Charles was already being supported by his HeiMo set, while each Sil
ver Knight was an experienced warrior close to the peak of physical ability.
That 5%, pushed these fighters to the superhuman level.
Because this support didn’t require much concentration and only needed a constant stream of mana usage from Charlotte, this gave her time to observe the battle. So, when Gust and Wesley had begun their barrage, she had easily seen it, and when the Silver Hawk tribe started to chase after the two, she had seen that as well.
“Brother, there’s some interesting people being chased by the Silver Hawk tribe. Shall we help them?”
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 16