Part 1

It was dark outside and the moon was shining very brightly.

“We can’t return with empty hands, we’ll just be killed by the Tyrats if we did.”

A voice saying some weird things echoed throughout the forest.

“Then, what happened to the attack force that we had approach the villages of the region? Did they achieve their objective? If they did achieve their objective to destroy the villages and the newly built town then isn’t a win for us?”

Another voice appeared, which sounded more servile and higher.

“There’s no information on them, I don’t know what happened but they haven’t returned.”

“…What?”

“-But it’s for sure that they failed and didn’t fulfil the objective. Did they desert? Die? No, that was a group of over 50 men, no one could kill that many people in this region besides Radyn and Lukyus.”

The objective of the group of attackers that met Reign, Justice Girl and Aerich was to destroy the villages and the under-construction town.

These two men here didn’t know but, they were slaughtered by Radyn.

“That’s true, then what do we do now?”

The servile voice asked.

“I don’t know, we played all of our cards.”

The man replied.

“We attacked the Osoric Estate as planned, even if we had preparations against Radyn Saghurt, the Lord of the Seat himself is just as monstrous!”

The servile man smashed his fist onto a log of wood.

“Hm? You mean the Lord Lukyus? You idiot, did you even do your research? Lukyus is a Saint-Class Swordsman- no, that’s what he calls himself, he might as well be classified as King-Class.”

There were only two voices.

But despite there only being two voices, there were about ten other figures sitting on rocks and logs, listening into the conversation.

“Then tell me these things beforehand you idiot! Saint-Class Magicians are scary! It takes an entire army to even exhaust their mana, that’s even leaving aside their devastating attacks! But Lukyus, he’s a Saint-Class swordsman! What the hell did you expect our soldiers to do when confronted with that?!”

Saint-Class Magicians are scary, but the same applies to Saint-Class Swordsman. Some people look down on those who do Sword Style because of its irrelevancy concerning magic.

But those who had mastered from High-Class to King-Class were overwhelmingly strong.

Again, the Magic Scale looked like this:

Academy - Beginner - Intermediate - Exquisite - High - Saint - King - God

Of course, if you were to pit a Saint-Class Magician in a close-ranged battle with a Saint-Class Swordsman, the Saint-Class Swordsman would win.

Though if you were to pit them together except distance them away, the Saint-Class Magician would win.

It’s easy battle strategy.

But that wasn’t the problem.

What had happened here was that the Tyrats had hired about fifty Exquisite-Class Swordsman to deal with Radyn Saghurt.

It was to get close to the Saint-Class Magician Radyn Saghurt and take him down.

Fifty Exquisite-Class Swordsman against a Saint-Classed Magician, it looked unfair.

The Saint-Classed Magician would win, the Saint-Class Magician would definitely win, even against one hundred of them.

That was the overwhelming gap.

So what would happen if those Exquisite-Class Swordsmen were also Assassins, what if they got into close-ranged combat?

Then maybe they would have a chance against the Saint-Class Magician.

But they didn’t take into account the strength of Lukyus.

Why didn’t they?

Simply because it wouldn’t work.

Lukyus Osoric Cinage, despite being of the weakest branch family of the Cinage House, himself was tremendously strong.

Despite being classified as Saint-Class, he was more bordering towards King-Class.

King-Class was not a joke.

You can pit a King-Class swordsman against 10,000 and still have enough strength to fight 50,000 more.

If you were a God-Class swordsman, not even ten million men could stop you.

So despite King-Class and God-Class being close to each other in rank, the power was overwhelmingly vast.

He commanded respect and deep friendship with the other branches despite being the weakest branch.

There weren’t many people who could fight on the King-Class level.

As a result, attempts of assassinations earlier had failed.

So they tried to lure him away from the Osoric Estate and launch the attack without his presence.

That was the only condition of victory.

And they did, he was lured away.

And that’s when the attack to take down Radyn Saghurt commenced.

Radyn defended himself properly, and the house servants were also fighters.

The house servants were also Intermediate-Class Magicians or Swordsman in their own right.

After holding off the 50 Exquisite-Class Swordsmen with Radyn, Lukyus had returned almost immediately.

It was unplanned, he wasn’t supposed to return.

Lukyus must have sensed something wrong.

The moment Lukyus returned, it was utter defeat.

Lukyus ordered Radyn to find Aerich and Reign to make sure they hadn’t fallen into the hands of the enemy.

When Radyn left to locate and find them, Lukyus took over in his stead.

And that was when the battle ended.

It didn’t take hours for the battle to end as Reign presumably thought.

It took a few seconds.

This Zeke didn’t have a presence in the battle as Lukyus mentioned to Ariel.

It was all Lukyus.

Lukyus Osoric Cinage was monstrously strong.

Following this, all the attackers were captured.

“-I understand your concern but there’s nothing we do now, go cry to a tree or something.”

“…! You’re the captain here! Think of something! As you said, we’ll be murdered if we return without anything to show for it! What the hell do we do?!”

The captain cupped his chin and began to think.

“Well… It’s certainly our defeat, but we can do something to minimise it.”

“Then, what could that be?”

“Didn’t we get intel that Lukyus’s son is sleeping in a village? We’ll capture him and see what the Tyrats want to do with him. Then maybe we won’t be killed. And there were two other little girls with him… Ehehe…”

The captain had a weird fetish that was pointed towards children, especially girls.

The man who was talking with the captain spine shivered just a little bit after hearing that end remark.

The man who was talking with the captain knew full well how the captain felt about children, but this was work, there would be no point in rebuking him during work.

Of course, he despised the captain from the bottom of his heart because of it.

“I-I see then, we’ll go with that. We’ll capture the son of Lukyus and hope we don’t get killed.”

Part 2

I felt like crying.

She tickled me for hours.

But after torturing me like that, she went back to sleep.

Right now, everyone was sleeping.

Ariel was cuddling in the arms of Aerich and Justice Girl was sleeping alone somewhere on the edge of the bed.

I was the only one awake.

It was the middle of the night and raining.

It rained very heavily, the thunder and lightning also scared me.

A loud sound of a “Boom!” and a “Clank!” pattered outside.

“Aaah!”

I curled myself into a ball.

I’ve always been afraid of lightning and the sounds of thunder.

After a while, I stood up and glared towards Justice Girl.

As I was deep in thought of how to pay back what she did to me, the sounds of thunder boomed again.

…As a result, I curled back into a ball hiding inside the fluff.

“S-Stop doing that!”

I softly shouted towards the ceiling.

Of course, the ceiling wasn’t at fault.

I heavily sighed and stood at the entrance of the room.

“[Earth: Manipulation]”

Casting a Manipulation spell, I created an Earth umbrella.

I had intended to go outside.

Why?

The same reason why a tortured prisoner would want to leave their prison cell after a while. So I walked out of the door, sitting on a nearby bench in the village.

“…Hm, it’s very cold.”

I was shivering. Maybe it was a bad idea to walk outside with no extra layers.

There was a good view of the village houses, Ariel’s house sat next to Justice Girl’s and was made of wood and bricks. Stretching out from that were distant landscapes of wheat and agriculture surrounded by mountains.

Did I forget to mention that the Signe Region was located near very large mountains?

Behind me were other houses, I sat in the centre of the village, my lungs feeling the wintriness as it breathed in the moist and cold air.

It was heavily raining with the occasional thunder, the sounds of the rain hitting against the Earth Umbrella echoed around the village.

The smell of rain was fresh and nice.

The trees behind the houses swayed in the heavy wind.

It was very cold.

Nonetheless, I stayed outside for about twenty minutes more. Breathing in the cold air and relaxing.

“Haah… It’s been a while since I sat outside like this.”

One time three years ago, it was raining heavily during the evening. Because of curiosity, I grabbed an umbrella and journeyed outside.

I visited the entrance of the forest, exploring the wildlife as it was wet.

Justice Girl found me and we played in the puddles.

In the end, I caught a cold and Papa scolded me.

I sighed as I leaned my back on the cold-hard bench.

After a while, my shoes dug into the mud as I silently opened the front door of Justice Girl’s house.

I half expected Justice Girl to pop up and attack me again.

But what I heard was different.

“…Captain, which one is the kid?”

“I don’t know, but he should be younger. So that one over there is out of the question.”

For some reason, perhaps the heavy rain, they didn’t notice me.

And maybe because of how dark it was, I didn’t notice them enter the house either.

Who the heck are these guys? What did they mean by “Which one is the kid?”

Hm…

I pointed my face towards the ground, thinking.

“…Ah.”

I get it now.

They must be kidnappers.

“-Take the girl with the silver hair.”

“B-But, we’re here for the boy!”

“S-Shut up! She’ll make an excellent slave.”

“…Yes, Captain.”

The two men muttered to each other silently.

Hmm? Do they also plan to take Justice Girl?

What was the point of that?

I had made a small theory about why these type of people would be here: After failing to establish their objectives, they had decided to kidnap the son of the estate lord.

But I’m still confused.

What’s the point of kidnapping me?

The goal of the Tyrat House was to gain a higher political stance against the Cinage house, kidnapping me will do nothing.

Maybe these guys are assuming that after they failed that by kidnapping me would suffice?

That’s probably it, or they’re idiots.

Radyn and Papa probably predicted something like this would happen. But they didn’t worry because Aerich was with me.

I couldn’t just sit back anymore. I took my ears off the wall and barged the door open.

“[Earth: Cage]!”

An Intermediate-Class capture spell.

“[Earth: Cage!]”

The man who looked like the captain swiftly replied by casting the same spell.

When two of the same spells are cast, they automatically nullify each other,

Radyn had taught me this.

“There’s the kid! And he can also cast magic too!”

The man beside the captain unsheathed his blade and pointed it towards me.

This told me something.

They planned to capture me even if I got hurt. If that’s the case, they must not care for the quality of capturing me.

So they were really desperate.

What was I going to do with this information?

The man was about 3 meters away from me.

I’m a Magician, so this was disadvantageous.

I tensed myself to run.

“…?”

After unsheathing his blade, he just stood there.

Why isn’t he doing anything?

“Hmprk?! Aaargh!”

Instead of charging towards me, he started to cough out blood.

“Oi, what’s wrong?”

The Captain turned around to see what had happened.

It was Aerich.

Aerich stabbed the man from behind with the knife Radyn had given him.

After lodging the knife into the intruder, he jumped off the fluff bed and stood beside me with his other blade unsheathed, pointing it towards the enemy magician.

By this time, Ariel and Justice Girl had woken up.

“Whaa?”

“How dare you break into my house, you evildoers!”

They stood behind Aerich and myself.

“What are you doing here? What do you want?!”

I shouted at the Captain.

He raised his arms.

“I was expecting some sort of bodyguard amongst you, though I’m surprised it was a kid.”

After saying that, he put his fingers into his mouth, preparing to whistle.

Wait, whistling?

“Aerich!”

I figured out what he was going to do.

“Got it!”

Aerich charged towards the Captain.

He was about to call for his allies. It wouldn’t be a surprise if there were more intruders outside of the house.

But it was too late.

He made a screeching noise.

The surrounding windows were broken, men in full black brandishing wands and knives surrounded us.

“Not this again…”

This was the second time we were surrounded by enemies.

“Alright! You boy, surrender yourself and the silver-haired girl or we’ll kill you all.”

You won’t kill us, at least, not me.

The captain, sensing the tides of power shifting walked up towards us with a haughty grin, spouting out his demands.

Why is he demanding for Justice Girl too? Did she annoy him somehow?

“-I refuse, [Wind Bullet]!”

I cast [Wind Bullet] to the men behind us that stood at the entrance of the room, allowing for an escape route.

Sensing this opportunity, we all ran outside with Aerich acting as the rearguard.

He cut down 4 of the men and got hit with a few Intermediate-Class spells.

But we quickly retreated outside into the rain.

As we retreated out, some of the men ran past him and headed towards me.

“That’s far enough!”

Justice Girl grabbed a very crudely made spear and impaled the attackers with it.

She aimed for their feet.

The attacker tripped over and screamed.

“Where did you get that spear?!”

“It belongs to father, he always kept it somewhere in the house. Father also taught me Spear Style, though I’m barely Academy-Class.”

“-Help! People are attacking us! Help! Help!”

As Justice Girl fended off attackers with the help of Aerich, Ariel was calling for help.

“Hmph, do you think a few villagers would be able to help you? That’s useless.”

The captain walked out with the rest of his men, preparing his wand.

The men other than the ones with the captain were either injured or out of commission for battle.

Thank you, Aerich, Justice Girl for knocking them out.

That left the Captain and his men by themselves, huddled into one group as they ran out of the house.

“…No, but now that you’re together. [Wind: Giant Slice]!”

I cast one of the stronger Intermediate Spells in my spell list.

I planned to injure them all at once.

“[Wind: Giant Slice].”

The Captain nullified my spell again.

“-You don’t ever learn, do you? Any attack you give out can be nullified as long as I know that spell. But that’s really something, how does a kid like you know how to cast Intermediate-Class spells?”

“Then, what about this? [Wind: Mini Tornado].”

I cast a High-Class spell.

It’ll probably be nullified though.

Just as how I cast the Mini Tornado in my room, the wind began to pick up and slowly form into a spiral.

But something was different.

…Did I accidentally cast [Water: Mini Water Tornado]?

It seems that because of the heavy rain, the spell that was intended for [Wind: Mini Tornado] had turned into a Water styled spell.

I did once read in a book that the weather heavily affects the spell depending on the spell.

“W-Wha? How the hell do you know High-Class spells?!”

The captain and his men took steps back.

But those steps turned into running as the Tornado spell came closer to them.

However, I didn’t intend for them to get away.

“[Earth: Wall]!”

It was an Intermediate Spell that was similar to the Cage spell, but it was an Earth wall.

It surrounded the men, trapping them.

“This isn’t fair! Not fair at all, how is this kid a High-Class Magician while I’m only Exquisite-class?!”

…What is this guy? Pathetic?

“[Wind Slice]”

As the captain was acting like a baby, I cast a spell into the wall.

This resulted in them all being knocked out unconscious as the walls were broken down, hitting them all along with the force of the Wind Slice itself.

“What’s happening?!”

The villagers had finally woken up and ran out of their homes to see what was happening.

It was mostly because of Ariel asking for help too though.

Thanks, Ariel.

—

It was still late into the night and still heavily raining, we had explained to the leader-like figure here at the village what had happened.

Besides the Mini Tornado, there was minimal destruction to the village.

A messenger was sent to where the Osoric Estate was to inform Papa what had happened.

The attackers were captured and tied into ropes, the village magician oversaw their capture and interrogated them.

As the captain was being taken away, he looked at me with a scornful expression and clicked his tongue.

My feelings were hurt.

But from the conversations between us and the attackers and bits of information flying around, this is all I knew:

Objective:

Kidnap me and Justice Girl.

Motive:

1 Not clear

2 It’s probably not personal

3 Probably related to the series of events yesterday.

That’s all I know.

I’m a little bit confused.

With that said, because it was still heavily raining outside, we were all inside Justice Girl’s house, sitting on the huge fluff bed.

“-And then I speared the evil person! After that, Aerich properly cut them down!”

“Woah.” x2

It looked like Justice Girl was recounting what had happened to the twins who were in the house the entire time.

“-And then, Reign comes in and casts this amazing wind spell! Or was it a water spell?”

“It was a Wind Spell, but because of the surrounding rain, it naturally converted into a Water spell.”

Aerich sat next to the twins, listening in but interjects when Justice Girl was confused about something.

There was no sign of Ariel.

That was because she returned to her own home, with her parents.

She wanted to stay here and sleep but she was practically forced to return.

How sad.

We’ll see her tomorrow though.

“Alright, it’s way too late for us to be chatting. Let’s go to sleep.”

I clasped my hands, urging them to sleep.

Papa told me having an irregular sleep pattern was bad for your body, mind and soul.

Don’t sleep late.

Or I’ll give you a stern talking to.

“Wait wait wait! Before that, why didn’t you tell us you could cast High-Class Spells? Doesn’t that make you a High-Class Magician?”

Justice Girl held my hand and interrogated me.

“Uhm, I just… I just couldn’t find the right time to say it.”

I didn’t want to say it at all.

“Are you hiding anything else?”

“No.”

“Are you lying?”

“…No.”

There was a pause in my reply, which aroused Justice Girl’s suspicions.

After that, she interrogated me for a few hours.