“Why I hired that blind man just now? You must be new to this, aren’t you? Every recruiter worth their salt knew that any mage who was born with disabled senses would *always* use their magic to compensate for their disability in manners often unheard of. They’re always a good investment.” - Ves’Karl Rebindrenga, recruitment officer for the Sim’s Slayers mercenary company, circa 102 FP.

“How is it? You got a good hold back there?” asked Reinhardt with some concern in his voice as he addressed Elfried, who was on his back.

Since Elfriede had yet to regain full control over her body, they resorted to tying her to Reinhardt’s back and securing her in place with several broad belts, Reinhardt holding her legs by the thighs under his arms, with Elfriede’s arms draped around his neck. Such a position naturally meant that neither of them would be able to defend themselves effectively, so they were naturally accompanied by others.

Reinhardt and Erycea had returned on their own to visit Elfriede, so they simply called for some of the Company’s people stationed nearby for some manpower. The nearby group at the time happened to be Alvaro’s, and he personally led twenty of his people including Njeri to accompany them, leaving the rest of the group to their patrols under the lead of the two older blademasters.

The former slave-soldiers had adapted so rapidly and enthusiastically to mercenary life that Reinhardt even considered trying to poach some of the others the next time he was in Algenverr.

“It’ll do,” replied Elfriede from Reinhardt’s back. She could not move much, but with Reinhardt carrying her, she did not need to either. She was heading out to join the hunt to make use of her finely-honed wind-sense, not to walk around and pry things open. Elfriede was not a boastful person, but she doubted there was any wind mage in the city if not the entire region that had honed their wind-sense to the heights she had done.

It was primarily a question of practicality. The vast majority of wind affinity mages, even those who specialized in scouting, rarely made great use of wind-sense as their method of choice. In general wind affinity mages train their talents towards a direction that would allow flight, or the carrying of voices over great distances, if they had not gone for more offensive directions, that was.

While the wind-sense was a useful scouting tool, its limited range and tendency to cause the mage using it to suffer from a painful and at times crippling sensory feedback overload meant that most would only use it rarely, at times when they had no other choice. As a result, most wind affinity mages did not even develop their skills in that direction, and the few who did mostly only touched the surface of the technique.

What they received from such a use of the wind-sense was at most the general layout and positions of large objects or people in the area involved. Most generally refused to extend their range too much or go for a more detailed inspection in fear of too much sensory feedback for them to handle, and thus never truly honed their skills in that field.

Elfriede was not like them.

She had used wind-sense as a replacement for her lack of sight for three decades and counting. The technique itself had ingrained so deeply that it was second nature for her, to the point that she never turned it off, subconsciously fueling the technique with her mana even while she slept. Naturally, the depth she had reached with it could not be compared to anyone who simply used and learned it in a perfunctory manner.

Compared to their crude and limited sensing, Elfriede was capable of discerning even the finest details of anything and everything within the radius of her wind-sense, which encompassed an area roughly ten meters around her in every direction, unless there was an airtight barrier in the way. The way her senses were also constantly in use allowed her to discern things that wouldn’t be noticeable at all in a cursory, brief sweep.

Reinhardt carried Elfriede on his back as they marched towards the region of the city where the runaway assassin was last spotted. There they ran across Gorev, one of the Crown Prince’s guards who was an earth mage, who apparently was also trying to find the runaway assassin despite their failure for the past two days.

“Sir Gorev, on another search?” greeted Reinhardt with a nod to the dwarf who always affected a serious look on his face.

“Captain Edelstein, Madam Edelstein, good to see that you have recovered,” replied the dwarf politely. While Gorev used to be slightly dismissive of the mercenaries before – he was not with the Crown Prince during the Theodinaz campaign – his attitude turned to a respectful one after Elfriede had taken a bolt meant for the Crown Prince and Erycea caught the leader of the assassins.

It was only the day after the incident that Reinhardt learned how the Crown Prince would have probably been fine even if the bolt struck him. Mæster Goerenbrandt was on standby, and unless the bolt struck somewhere which would result in an instantly fatal injury, the healer would have been able to handle it, most likely. Not counting the enchanted protective wear the Crown Prince wore beneath his clothes.

Either way, though, their willingness to take a shot for their employer naturally caused an improvement in how the Crown Prince’s people viewed the mercenaries. Where they used to be cold and professional, they now regularly invited the mercenaries for a drink together, a sign of high respect amongst dwarves, who only shared their drinks with those they acknowledged.

Gorev himself had been scouring the area together with many other earth mages in the past couple of days with nothing to show. Given how the whole city had been tightly locked down with guards posted in every exit, the chances of the assassin having escaped was something they refused to contemplate, which was why the search had been intensified.

Elfriede had not taken long before she found something, once she reached the right spot.