Chapter 5.2
The sun was setting . The mountains were being swallowed by the darkness earlier than the plain field . If they were in a village, they would have seen smoke coming out of chimneys as it was time for the families to cook or warm the house . But the camp was in the stillness, and the silence .
Serinn and Teeno used Haroon’s locked fingers as a footstep to jump over the fence, Haroon and Hall followed them on their own . As Serinn moves to the main gate to open it for the others, Haroon headed toward the building on the left .
‘There is no room for mistakes . I only have three antidotes . ’
Haroon quietly moved to the buildings wall .
According to Teeno and Hall, there must be one or two guards in and outside of the building . It was safe to assume that there were two of them .
He glanced over the building on the opposite side . There were two guards sitting by the bonfire, talking to each other . By their costume, he could tell they were knights . These knights would have earned praise from people in town, but in this camp, they were nothing more than watchmen .
Haroon summoned Brat making as little noise as possible .
“Are we finally doing it? Hoho, what’s my job?”
There was obvious curiosity coming from her voice . Has her personality changed as well? If it wasn’t the UI sound that alerted Haroon that he got poisoned, he would have doubt if she really was Brat .
“Could you make only the guards from the side buildings fall asleep?
“You say it like it’s a big deal . Leave it to me . ”
Brat flew away like the wind and did exactly as Haroon said . As soon as Brat returned, Haroon took an antidote and drank a mana potion, sending a hand signal to Hall and Teeno to follow him .
“Have you dealt with the guards already?”
By their expression Haroon could see that they were having a hard time believing how he could have done it so fast . Though they’d seen Haroon using a spirit before, back then it was too dark to see the actual situation . Haroon lifted his hand and gave them the signal that it was all okay .
“Let’s get moving . ”
As they move to the front of the building, they could see the guards lying on the ground . There were three more sleeping in the building . Indeed, it was amazing that the guards didn’t even scream .
The inside of the building was dark, with only dancing light from the bonfires lit for the guards . The reflection of eyes appeared in the darkness like that of beasts and pointed at Teeno and Hall . Even they knew the situation, it made them shiver with horror .
They each lifted a burning stick from the fire and shed light to see clearly . About a hundred people were tied and shackled to the pillars . The foul smell that filled the room suggested that they’d been bound for a long time, without being given a chance to wash their bodies . By the prisoner’s looks, they could see that not enough foods was given to them . Moreover, they gathered injured people in one corner and left them untreated . Their breathing was shallow and weak .
Hall clenched her teeth . She could have never imagine that they were going through such hardship .
“I am Hall Evans, under the command of her majesty Briella herself . Who is the leader here?”
As she shouted with a bright gem necklace lifted high up in the air, noises arose from here and there . Soon, a man stood up slowly with great difficulty, dragging chains . The hair and beard hid his age, starving for long days and being beaten messed up his face . But his eyes were still sharp and alert .
“Lyman, the knight is here . Are you the lady of sir Viscount Evans, by any chance?”
“It is as you said!”
“M’lady! How did you… all the way to…… . ”
Though he seemed to be deeply moved, he seemed confused about the situation as it was so unexpected . The knights in training all stood up after hearing the conversation .
“I have found the keys . ”
And while they were getting up, Teeno found a chain of keys on the table near the fallen guards
“Is there any safe place nearby?”
Hall asked Lyman while Teeno and Haroon freed the knights .
“There is the second camp . It’s about 15 kilometers from here . But my lord Viscount Evans and many others are still captured in the main building . ”
“We’ll rescue them as well . Have you figured out who the enemies are?”
On her words, a glimpse of relief finally came back to Lyman’s eyes, and his voice got stronger .
“They are the people of Marquis Suleiman . The knights are from Red Eagles, and the magicians were casting magic I have never seen nor heard of . ”
The knights that got free helped Teeno and Haroon to free the other knights . It didn’t take long until they’d freed all the knights .
“Anyone who can walk on their own help the others to get out of here . The Gusts of Wind, the mercenaries will help you . Lyman, can you lead them to the second camp? We are going to rescue the others . ”
“I, Lyman, the knight, will lead them to the second camp safely without any mistake . Please be safe . There are more than ten magicians that cast strange magic . ”
“I will see you there . ”
Hall’s calm, tough words were filled with a sense of relief . She remained quiet usually, but now she was acting in the way she needed to with the charisma she was born with, controlling the situation . In this kind of situation, she needed to act as a powerful figure rather than showing the feminine side of her to restore the morale of knights who’d undergone a long imprisonment .
Hall looked around . Haroon and Teeno were not in the building she was in . It seemed that they’d already moved to the building on the opposite side . Letting out a short sigh, she hustled off to follow them . She felt attachment to them seeing how they acted as if it was their responsibility .
It didn’t take long to free the knights in the other building . It seemed they’d only captured them and did no more torturing, as they were planning to use them in the Golden Battle .
As the Quad Wankers helped the knights in training escape the camp, the three headed to the main building . There were campfires that lit up the camp, but it was not enough to reveal the three’s stealthy movements .
Though there were no men guarding the watchtowers nor the wooden fence, there were guards patrolling the way to the main building . Their costumes suggested that most of them were users .
One of them fell down to the ground as Haroon’s throwing knife hit their neck . Another guard was choked to death by a piece of silver-shining wire that Hall took out in no time . Haroon would have hesitated killing them if they were NPCs, but he could kill them as they were users who could revive . As the knives left Haroon’s hand, the guards collapsed letting out a short, low scream .
The main building was vast, consisting of three stories . Compared to the buildings on the sides that didn’t even have much furnishings, the main building was built well with stone and wood . As they’d decided while preplanning, Haroon entered the building first and the other two awaited his signal .
Haroon decided to use the route he’d used to sneak into the building before . After climbing the wall, he entered the building through the chimney and descended down slowly and carefully . When he reached the first floor, he could hear noises . The strong smell of food suggested that they were having their meal .
“Make it quick . ”
“Magicians, you are under orders from the lord to go to the basement as soon as you finish your meal . ”
“There was an order to guard the main building while the great magic proceeds, so prepare to move with your equipment ready . The units shall follow detailed instructions from their leaders . ”
He couldn’t hear anything but the people giving orders, and it meant these knights must have undergone great discipline .
It was time to summon Brat .
‘Now only two antidotes are left . Now I really need to get more of these or something . ’
Feeling upset about imagining the future not being able to summon Brat’s overpowered abilities anymore, he quietly summoned Brat .
“What do you want me to do this time, Mas?”
“Spray sleep-inducing materia all around the inside of this building . ”
“Okay! This is going to be fun!”
“Calm down, and don’t just poke your fingers everywhere . There are magicians too, so you have to be careful . ”
“Hoho . I get it . You are underestimating me though . They might sense me, but they won’t be able to avoid my poison . I can kill all of them if you want . How does that sound?”
Haroon found it sadly humorous how she smiled and spoke about murdering people . He shook his head without saying anything . There was no need to kill them . They were Hall’s enemy, not his . Brat wordlessly flew out of the chimney, soon Haroon could hear the dishes and bodies falling to the floor . Then he heard a UI sound .
[Your HP is below 30%]
With his status window open, Haroon waited until his H . P . dropped to 10% . It was because he thought If she was going to traverse all four stories including the basement, she would need quite a bit of time . When the H . P . reached 11%, he unsummoned Brat and took out an antidote, an H . P . potion and a mana potion from his inventory and consumed them . He did it with great difficulty as he was losing control of his body due to loss of H . P . and M . P . by poison .
“Whew, that could have gone a lot worse . ”
As the body state returned to normal, Haroon wiped his sweat with his sleeve and finally entered the room .
The scene that came into view was literally a total mess . People, dishes and chairs were lying everywhere, leaving no space on the floor to set a foot down . Most of them were knights equipped with their uniforms and equipment .
“Hah, this is a total mess . How useful Brat is . ”
Haroon quickly found a way to descend to the basement . There were four knights fallen in the stairway, and two guards had fallen asleep by the closed door . He was urged to rush in as they might have started the brainwashing magic already, but carefully proceeded to the basement room with throwing knives ready between his fingers . Then some noise came to his ears .
“Who……is……it?”
As he faced the way the sound came from, he could see a magician with a purple hat, barely opening his eyes and looking angrily at Haroon . The skeleton-like face was so old that Haroon could never deduce the age . The old magician kept opening and closing his eyes, trying to resist the sleeping poison . There were two more magicians asleep by him .
“How…… dare you poison me… . Just who are…”
According to Hall, the brainwashing magic was a kind of black magic, so this old man must be a decent black magician . If the magician was able to chant any magic properly, Haroon could have been in danger . The magician slowly lifted his hands as if he was trying to cast magic . He had a bracelet made with small stones that had skull shapes . On the other hand he was holding a wand presumably made out of bones . As it wasn’t like the magician was an enemy of his, he didn’t think of killing the magician . But he was relieved that his face was covered in soot from the chimney, as it would have been trouble if the magician was able to see his face .
“Stick! Petrify!”
“Hugf!”
He was careless . It was a mistake to hesitate finishing off the magician . Though the magician was resisting the sleep-inducing poison, Haroon hesitated to do anything to the magician as he seemed way too old .
Haroon was naive to think that the magician wouldn’t be able to chant a word as he would fall asleep soon . As the magician cast the magic, Haroon’s feet stuck to the floor and his body stiffened as if it changed into stone .
The old magician’s face turned into a grim smile, as he saw Haroon’s stiffened surprised face
“You must have overlooked the fact that magicians naturally gain resistance to poison as they ascend to 6-circles . It did cost quite a bit of mana to detoxify it though . Who are you anyways? How were you able to spread such poison in such a short time without revealing yourself? Are you an assassin? Are you a magician?”
The old magician slowly stood up, staring at Haroon furiously . It seemed he was still detoxifying the sleeping poison .
‘The others are in danger!’
Haroon tried his best to move his body . But his body only twitched a bit, and didn’t move . Seeing that, the old magician laughed menacingly .
“Kel-kel-kel, My magic is simply stronger than those who use white-magic . I’ll make you and the others who entered this camp my magic experiment subject and let you experience what hell is before you die . Look forward to it . ”
The curse that drew horror came from the toothless mouth of an old magician who had a horrifying look like a lich . Then Haroon could finally see the true nature of the old magician . The old magician drew closer step by step .
‘No!’
He put strength in his muscles so much that his teeth started chattering and he felt like his eyeballs were going to burst . All he could move was his lips . But the old magician was not even five steps away now .
“Welcome to hell . ”
The old magician pointed the wand at Haroon and started moving his lips to cast magic, and at the same time Haroon urgently shouted .
“Lifey! Bury him!”
He shouted not knowing if it was possible . But like a miracle, a deep hole formed in the hard ground below the feet of the old magician, and he fell into a pit . At the same time, the hole was sealed from above .
“Hugh! Kugh!”
The hole filled with dirt even silencing the screams .
“Lifey! Harden the soil!”
As soon as Haroon shouted, the dirt gathered as if it was a living thing . And after that, Lifey appeared before his eyes .
“That was close . Be careful next time!”
“Thanks, Lifey . You really came!”
Haroon could barely move his lips to thank Lifey . Though he summoned him as the situation was so urgent, he never thought it would actually work . Also, he’d dealt with the magician but his body was not moving yet . His feet stuck to the ground as if someone glued them, and he couldn’t feel his body anymore .
“Lifey, any ideas to get out of this?”
Lifey shook his head and went back to the spiritual world . That made Haroon feel even more unsettled .
‘Don’t tell me I have to spend my whole life like this . ’
It was horrifying . The magic lasted even after the caster was killed . Since the magician said he was a 6-circle magician, he needed another 6-circle magician to decast the magic . It made him feel miserable . He finally learned how dangerous and powerful magicians could be, as they could wield magical powers just by moving their lips .
But he couldn’t stay like this forever . Though Hall and Teeno would eventually barge in when they figure out something didn’t go as planned, that would still take some time .
‘I have to do something . ’
But all he could do was summoning elemental spirits . And it wasn’t like he could summon Brat . If he did so and brat can’t do anything about it, there was no way to deal with the poison . Among the four elemental spirits, Lifey was the kind he could communicate with . And it seemed like Lifey couldn’t do anything useful . Haroon became fearful of a situation where Lifey tried something and failed, ending up with Haroon toppling to the ground, shattering his body .
‘Wait, shatters? Well, here goes nothing . ’
With the sudden feeling that the newly came up with idea would work, Haroon summoned an undine . He may lack aquatic mana, but maybe he could get a connection with an undine like he did with Lifey . It appeared and just stood before his eyes with a still face .
“I name you Naia . I want you to be with me as a friend forever, so would you accept that name?”
But the undine didn’t react .
‘Yeah, I knew it would turn out this way . ’
It was when he was starting to feel disappointed .
“Na… . ia… . I… . like it…… . ”
It was so quiet Haroon could barely hear it . Soon, her face became more lively as it turned pale pink . Her eyes were becoming lively like wave as well .
“Naia, do you like the name?”
“Yes, I do, quite a lot . I’m Naia now, and I will live as Naia subordinated to your destiny until your life ends . ”
She gladly flew near his face . Her cuteness and waving dress was simply adorable . Seeing Naia, Haroon thanked Brat once again .
“Naia, what force can you wield?”
“I’m a water spirit so I can wield any physical power of water, and I have very little power of life . ”
“Do you happen to be able to decast the petrify magic on me?”
On Haroon’s words, Naia tilted her head from side to side, making a cute, but serious face . Naia uncertainly whispered to Haroon whom looked dejected about Naia not being able to do something .
“I guess from that name your body is solidified, so maybe I could use Wave . ”
“Wave?”
Though he didn’t know much about elemental magics, he did heard some of it but he never heard of the magic ‘Wave’
“If I vibrate inside you, maybe the vibration wave would free the muscle and mana from restriction . ”
Whatever that meant, Haroon asked Naia to do so .
Naia dissipated into thin air like fog and entered his mouth . Haroon could feel small change inside his body . In fear of being petrified forever and the urgency to the find the source of the petrification magic, Haroon turned all his attention to inside himself .
‘She permeated into blood . ’
Since Naia’s origin is water, maybe it was normal for her to move by blood . Unlike how the outside of his body got hardened like stone, his heart was still beating, and naturally his hot blood was flowing around his body, slowly but not stopping .
The vibrations were getting bigger and bigger . Like how the waves come and go, the oscillating wave spread from bones to organs, muscle and the skin . The wave was unexpectedly great enough to wake the muscle tissues, and it started breaking the foreign mana flow .
‘It, it’s working!’
The foreign mana flow started breaking from the end of the limbs . In other words, toes and fingers were the first to get out of the control of petrifying magic . As he violently moved the freed body parts, the mana flow started to break and it didn’t take more than a few minute for him to be freed .
“Naia, it worked! It worked! Thank you!”
As if she heard it, she got out of his body and appeared once again . Haroon noticed Naia’s hair became wet for some reason . Maybe because he was able to see her up close, or it gets wet as she uses power .
“Thank you . ”
Haroon gave a small, thanking kiss on Naia’s small lips . Haroon didn’t see Naia’s eyes widening for a bit, then slowly closing . Naia’s cheeks blushed like a human girl .
“See you . I’ll summon you again soon . ”
Haroon sent Naia back to the spirit world again, and recalled the smile she showed at the last moment before she went back . It seemed like she had something to say, so Haroon was sorry that he’d sent Naia back so soon .
“Well, first things first . ”
Haroon just wasted about 20 minutes getting captured by the magician . Though the enemies wouldn’t easily wake up, he could never be so sure about how much more time he had . The old magician, for example, was already out of his calculations .
As soon as Haroon continued to search the basement, the ground that the magician was buried in twitched a few times . The old magician was not dead yet . But it didn’t last long, and soon the ground was motionless once again . And at that moment, a UI sound was heard inside Haroon’s head .
[You have defeated a 6-circle magician from Deep-purple magic tower]
[You have gained 3 levels]
[You have acquired a random item from the enemy]
[E . S . P . is increased by 2 points]
[Focus is increased by a point]
[You have gained 200 E . F . P . ]
The glad moment of gaining the reward didn’t last long, because he saw more people fallen on the floor . As the enemies were preparing the brainwashing magic, the 10 leaders of the training camp were lying in the middle of a magic circle . And beside the magic circle, there were knights, magicians and users that had fallen asleep .
“Damn it! And this is the last antidote I have . Shi-!”
He couldn’t help but to summon Brat .
“Well, that was sooner than I expected . What summoned me so soon?”
She knew and she was pretending she didn’t know . That bratty smile on her face proved it . But there was no time for him to be picky about it .
“Could you wake up the people inside the circle?”
“That’s simple . I just need to absorb the sleeping poison . ”
“Thanks, Brat . It feels like I owe you a lot . ”
“Hehehe, finally learning something, eh?”
Brat absorbed the sleeping poison from the leaders in the blink of an eye, but lingered beside him for a bit as if she hated going back to her subspace .
“What’s the matter? I thought you were going back to your subspace . ”
“Well, I love that space but it’s a bit boring . I hoped I could stay out like this and go places with you . ”
He could understand her . The thing Haroon used to fear was being alone, feeling lonely . Brat too, was quite an intelligent creature, so she wouldn’t like being alone in her subspace where time does not flow .
“I’ll make that happen . I may lack the ability to do it for now, but one day, I’ll make it happen so you can experience the world . ”
“I hope that day comes soon . Yikes! You’re low on health . I’m going back . ”
“Yeah, see you . ”
Sending Brat back to her subspace, Haroon took the last antidote and a health potion . Haroon felt empty as he thought about the fact he wouldn’t be able to summon Brat until he crafted more antidotes .
But for now, there was no room for him to think about it anymore .
“Ugh, this place is…”
A middle-aged man with a blade-sharp atmosphere was waking up . Starting him, the leaders were waking up one by one .
“Do you happen to know lady Hall Evans or the imperial princess Briella?”
“Who are you?”
His voice was a mixture of wariness and gladness .
“My name is Haroon, the leader of a mercenary group named Gusts of Wind who escorted lady Evans here . ”
The man’s eyes widened hearing Haroon’s words . Replying with a glad voice, he slowly stood up .
“I am Viscount Savaan Evans . I’m her father . ”
“Lady Evans is waiting outside . I have made the enemies fall asleep with sleeping poison, so this is the only chance to escape . ”
Haroon started freeing the leaders . They even had mana-sealing cuffs on but Haroon couldn’t do anything about them . After Viscount Evans was freed, he helped Haroon free the others .
“Thank you . ”
He may look sharp, but his voice was full of thanks . It seemed Viscount Evans suffered considerable torture seeing his battered face and messed up clothes . Though it seemed they couldn’t harm his spirit .
“Are we missing anyone?”
Viscount Evans looked around, looking at each member of the leaders and shook his head . It meant that was everyone .
“Then let’s get out of here . ”
Haroon helped Viscount Evans to move out of the building . The others helped each other and followed Haroon .
Haroon and his members escorted over 200 people to the second camp . They were moving by night, there were injured people, and all of them had undergone significant time starving and being imprisoned, causing their health state to drop to their lowest . It took quite a bit of time to move to the second camp .
The knights at expert-level could use mana so they had some poison resistance . There was no way to tell how long the poison would last . That’s what made Haroon feel worried about time . Some people like the old magician he met even resisted the sleeping poison, so they couldn’t help but force their feet to move to the second camp .
To make matters even worse, some Black leopards attacked the group, hurting three people but with Haroon’s amazing throwing knife skills, at least their lives were saved . Not to mention how he was able to shot the leopards down from the trees, it was amazing how Serinn asked for a break in that kind of situation and actually managed to skin all 5 leopards in a couple of minutes .
By dawn, when they were very near the second camp, a group of wolves attacked the group . The group couldn’t do anything other than watching the Gusts of Wind take care of them . The knights and Viscount Evans were impressed by Haroon’s throwing knives that were shot like arrows . His throwing knives never missed their targets .
The monsters were not the only danger they faced . The route they took was too dangerous and after some almost fell to their death, they were able to arrive at the second camp . That was the side-effect of building the camp in a safe place that was hard to navigate .
In the end the members of the Gusts of Wind had to carry some people on their backs or fronts, but nobody complained about it . The sun had already risen when they all entered the emergency camp built between the huge rocks .
The size of the second camp built in the space naturally formed between the rocks was quite small compared to the main camp, but it was a warm place as the rocks blocked the winds . Also, they’d been replacing the supplies regularly so it was not uncomfortable to stay .
Hall moved here and there, casting healing magic on those who needed it most . Teeno knew some medical treatment so he treated some trainees, having Ritrina and Philip as his assistants . Serinn made food with help of Gitan . It seemed like Gitan’s strength came in handy .
And while they were doing so, Haroon was meeting Viscount Evans alone . It seemed he gained his energy back just by seeing his daughter again . His face was still thin, but at least it became lively with the help of some healing magic .
“I can’t thank you enough . I have heard everything from Hall about how her majesty got help from you . Now that you have saved us, I cannot find the words to thank you . ”
Viscount Evans didn’t treat Haroon as someone beneath him . In fact, he was thanking him bowing low .
“No sir . I did what I was expected to do as a mercenary in contract . ”
Haroon felt uncomfortable as he was not used to getting appreciated .
“You really own exceptional abilities . I am really impressed how you dealt with the knights and magicians to save us . ”
Viscount Evans knew that he was saved right before the magicians cast their brainwashing magic, so he really meant those words he was saying . Living as a puppet of someone was a horrible thing to experience as a knight who serves their lord .
“Don’t mention it . It is all thanks to the gods who appreciated lady Evan’s love for her parents . You must have gotten hurt during the battles and the imprisonment, so it is my humble opinion that you better rest for now . Your trainees would regain their strength as you recover . ”
Viscount Evans was pleased with Haroon’s words .
“I really appreciate your kind words . I will recover as soon as possible and pay back the mercy I received from you . ”
“That would be too much for me . ”
Soon, Haroon managed to escape from the uncomfortable, private conversation with Viscount Evans, and join Teeno treating the injured people . Haroon was pleased that he had the First-aidskill he could use .
Translated by Channy_
Edited by Tom and Kmatt
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