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“We must accept several excellent recruits to our free company to be treated as well as we used to be treated, for which we need the mage’s money. Once we’ve taken his gold coin pouch, we have to kill him to avoid future troubles. We can’t leave any possible traces behind that could lead back to us.”

Volodya glanced at Irina, a female mercenary, as she wandered off of the main road into the woods. Although she was a second-grade mercenary like him, her skills were far superior to his. Volodya was always cautious when dealing with her. Irina, who was also Dima’s lover, had never been opposed to his decisions, never questioning his commands. After a while, Irina came back out of the woods and suggested to Dima.

“I think this is a good place to set up an ambush. If we ambush him on the little hill in the forest, it would be easy to hide in the thick branches and to secure visibility in both directions due to the high terrain.”

“All right, then let’s first grab a bite to eat and set up the ambush on the hill Irina mentioned.”

The six-circle-master mage, Benjamin, was born in a mountain village on the border between the Icarus Empire and the Scandia Kingdom. When Benjamin was a child, his talent for magic was discovered by a mage from the Icarus Wizard Tower, who visited Benjamin’s hometown. Since then Benjamin lived his whole life in the Wizard Tower with the goal of becoming a seven-circle Wizard for more than fifty years. When they become a four-circle-expert mage, most mages leave the Tower to help feudal lords participate in various wars and raise funds for their magic research. However, Benjamin had never left the Icarus Wizard Tower in his life ever since he had joined at the age of ten. Except when he earned research funds by creating magic artifacts or charging magic stones, he was confined to his lab, focusing on increasing the number of circles carved on his heart. Benjamin had become a six-circle-master mage before reaching the age of fifty, increasing the number of circles at a relatively fast pace. Still, he could not overcome the wall of the seventh-circle even after becoming sixty years old, even though he had trained harder than ever before during the last decade.

Benjamin’s father was a hunter. A few years after his son had left for the Icarus Wizard Tower, he moved to Nordburg with his entire family. Although the Forest of Evil Spirits was dangerous, it was an ideal hunting ground for a competent hunter. Benjamin’s father retired after more than twenty years of work, taking good care of his family. His eldest son, Benjamin's older brother, who had followed him around and learned to hunt, became a good hunter and took care of the family after his father had retired. Benjamin’s father, over the age of eighty, died of old age, and Benjamin, who received the news of his passing, went to Nordburg to visit his family. The poor mage, who left the Wizard Tower for the first time fifty years, suffered an absurd incident in Chernobugor on his way back to the Icarus Wizard Tower. When Benjamin had arrived in Nordburg, he had had no problems as he had been accompanied by acquaintances who were advanced Knights. Having parted with his acquaintances in Nordburg, Benjamin had to hire mercenaries for safety on his way back through the Pleo Grand Canyon.

After much consideration of various things, Benjamin decided to return to Nordburg and ask for help from the Nordburg Wizard Tower. It was apparently too dangerous to go through the Grand Canyon alone. Although on the way to Nordburg, he had met an ogre and three trolls, the Knights had dealt with them without a fuss at that time. So Benjamin did not think much about the danger of traveling through the Grand Canyon before. However, misfortune seemed inevitable if he decided to traverse the canyon on his own. There would be no chance that the monsters would wait for him to be ready and cast spells before attacking him. Having walked north from Chernobugor for half a day on the forest path, Benjamin prepared to sleep in the open, watching the sun setting on the mountains. The sun set early in the region because the high Pleo Mountains blocked the west.

Baking beef jerky on the bonfire, Benjamin noticed someone else’s presence. He looked around and found four people were approaching him as if to surround him. When Benjamin pulled out his magic wand, the man, coming to him from the front, said.

“Don’t think about using magic. I can assure you that your head will fly before your casting is even halfway done.”

As the man approached close enough, Benjamin could see his face, which became distinct in the bonfire.

“Dima, are you trying to rob someone you were escorting?”

“You should blame yourself for carrying too many gold coins. I was forced to escort a mage in needy circumstances, otherwise I would never do this out of my own volition. Last month, I lost nine colleagues I’ve been with for years owing to you bastard sorcerers. Several sorcerers bombarded us with Fireballs, we weren’t even able to recover our colleagues' dead bodies afterwards. I ran around trying to defend against the magic attack, but no matter how hard I tried, I only managed to save three of my colleagues. Let’s just say this is revenge for my dead comrades.”

“What I’ve done all my life is research in the Wizard Tower. I’ve never used attack magic against men, let alone kill people.”

“That’s just your case, but I have no qualms about attacking sorcerers. If you don’t give up your gold coin bag, you’ll be in for a rough ride.”

As Benjamin lowered his magic wand, Irina stepped up to him and took it away, then took out the gold coin pouch from his inner pocket.

“It’s quite heavy. We won’t have to worry about money for a good while.”

Irina said, handing the pouch over to Dima. Having received the gold coin pouch, Dima ordered Vanya and Volodya.

“Gag the mage and tie him to the big tree over there.”

Sorcerers could cast spells without a wand. It just took longer to cast without it. Therefore, they put a gag in Benjamin’s mouth to prevent him from using magic. Dima instructed Vanya and Volodya in a low voice when they returned after tying Benjamin to the tree.

“Make sure to remove any evidence that the mage may have left behind. We can’t let anyone find out we ambushed the mage here, if the Icarus Wizard Tower were to find out about it, it would be the end of us. Once we kill the mage we are going to have to bury him in the woods where no one will find him.”

It was unwise to have a grudge with sorcerers. The sorcerers, especially the mages belonging to Wizard Towers, were bound to avenge their colleagues at any cost. After Vanya and Volodya entered the forest, Dima and Irina sat by Benjamin's bonfire. Benjamin struggled, belatedly noticing that the mercenaries were planning on killing him, but there was nothing he could do to save himself since the mercenaries tied him up tightly. Benjamin was deeply remorseful, thinking he was to be killed in this remote forest, having done nothing in his life other than study magic in the Wizard Tower.

When Dima enlarged the bonfire and hung a pot over it, Irina prepared soup. Irina, who was seasoning the soup with grain powder, meat jerky and dried wild vegetables, suddenly stopped cooking and told Dima.

“Somebody is coming. Given that they are moving in the darkness in the forest, they must be bandits.”

“Argh shit, this is going to be annoying. It will be troublesome if there’re witnesses.”

Standing up with his weapon, Dima told Vanya and Volodya, coming back from the forest after digging up the pit.

“Uninvited guests are coming. Get ready.”

The mercenaries listened to the distant footsteps and prepared for a fight. As the mercenaries could not leave witnesses behind, they had no choice but to kill anyone, regardless of who they were. Id and Sasha, looking for a place to sleep at night, came up to the light of the bonfire. Id was wearing only a thin leather armor, which he made of deerskin by himself, having taken off the platemail and put it in his oversized backpack. Approaching the bonfire with distinctive clatters of chainmail, Sasha asked the mercenaries.

“Excuse me, can we share the bonfire?”

Relaxing from seeing their still young faces, Irina replied.

“Who are you, walking through the forest after sunset? The only people moving in the forest at this time are bandits.”

“Bandits? We are apprentices on a journey. It became dark on the way to Chernobugor, so we were looking for a place to camp.”

Sasha replied to Irina with a look of bewilderment at the word bandits. Having carefully examined Sasha and Id, Dima said.

“We don’t want to sleep in the forest with strangers. Find your own campsite elsewhere.”

As Sasha did not want to discuss the matter anymore with the mercenaries, he moved to continue towards Chernoburor, offended by their cold attitude. In the meanwhile Id, who had his attention elsewhere, asked Dima as he observed Benjamin.

“Who is that person tied to the tree over there?”

Irina thought, between the two, Sasha, wearing chainmail and having a longsword, was superior to Id, wearing a thin leather mail and carrying a large backpack. She even guessed the latter must be the former’s servant. However, Dima recognized Id’s unusual abilities from his movements. Dima thought Id might be an advanced swordsman, even though he still looked too young for that. So Dima had intended to let Id go somewhere else without creating a conflict with him by refusing to share the bonfire. When Id asked about Benjamin, Dima replied with a somewhat disappointed look.

“He’s wanted in a fraud case, and we're taking him to Nordburg.”

Frowning, Id argued against Dima’s answer.

“I’ve never heard of a mage cheating for money. Why would a mage involve himself in a fraud case when mages can make as much money as they want with magic when necessary?”