Chapter 154: The End of a Rotten Connection

After encountering the snake, I gathered herbs much more cautiously, but I still failed to find my targets and gave up after a week.

My only harvest was the three herbs I had previously been taught to recognize and four kinds of leaves that Appraisal described as “delicious.” I therefore decided to hunt the Shams my sister wanted before returning to Lynas.

I hunted seven Shams and six Golden Goats, placed them in my Magic Bag, and flew home in high spirits, delighted that I wouldn’t need to hunt again for a while.

I turned right at Roxanne, followed the Blange Highway west, and passed Folka before noticing a glimmer ahead. A glimmer on a highway rarely meant anything peaceful, so I descended and found a carriage under attack by a pack of Fang Dogs.

Some guards fought desperately with their backs to the carriage while others held a defensive circle and were steadily losing ground. Seven or eight Fang Dogs lay dead, but several guards had also fallen, and the casualties looked severe.

I first enclosed the men in the defensive circle with [Ring!] and protected the carriage with another [Ring!], then landed beside one of the fallen men. As Fang Dogs leaped at me, I caught them in [Whirlwind!] spells. At the same time, I snatched up the beast beneath the carriage and repeatedly slammed it against a wheel.

Its yelps rang out again and again. I caught what appeared to be the pack leader in another [Whirlwind!], and its screams sent the rest of the Fang Dogs fleeing in every direction.

Once the danger had passed, I released the mana from the rings protecting the carriage and the formation. The survivors merely stood there, dazed by their sudden rescue.

“The pack is gone. Hurry and treat the wounded.”

“Eh… ah… yeah.”

“You saved us. Thanks—and sorry for the trouble.”

“What was that just now?”

“You should worry about treating the injured first.”

I pressed my fingers to the neck of a blood-covered man who wasn’t moving and felt a faint pulse. I took out a potion—probably upper-middle grade—poured some into his mouth, and sprinkled the rest over his wounds.

I had never used one myself, so I was watching to see how well it worked when someone called, “Brother, give me a potion too.”

I turned and saw a man bleeding from his thigh, though he already held a potion bottle.

“What’s that in your hand? Drink that.”

“This is the guild’s foul-tasting garbage. It only stops bleeding. Yours is the good stuff sold by the Apothecaries’ Guild, right?”

I had been distracted by the wounded, but these men gave me a bad feeling, and the guards beside the carriage had unpleasant eyes.

“Brother, our potions won’t save this man. If you have another, will you sell it to us?”

A man beside the fallen victim called to me. He seemed more sincere than the first, so I tossed him another upper-middle-grade potion. As I watched him break the seal and try to administer it, I sensed hostility and turned. My vision flashed red, and an explosive bang hurled me away.

Sharp pain tore across my face. As it faded, a succession of pops, cracks, and explosions sounded around me, followed by screams.

“What are you doing! Kill him quickly!”

At the same moment, metallic clangs rang out around me, along with shouts of “Impossible!” and “Is he a monster?”

I had apparently been struck by Fire Magic and temporarily blinded. When my sight returned, the spirits were floating around me, while the men who had likely attacked me lay fallen, wounded, or groaning around the carriage.

My face and hands no longer hurt, so the Healing Magic spirits must have treated me.

The man who had asked to buy a potion stood frozen in shock.

Unable to distinguish friend from foe, I enclosed the wounded together in [Shelter!] and trapped every standing man in a separate [Shelter!] before rising.

“W-what are you doing? Did you kill them?”

“Unfortunately, they’re alive,” I answered the voice from the carriage, and it fell silent. Judging by the carriage’s construction and the presence inside, its passenger was an amateur.

One fallen man had been burned black, apparently struck by Fire and Lightning Magic. The others groaned from [Stone Bullet!] and [Ice Arrow!] wounds.

“Why did you attack?”

When I questioned one of the standing men, he drew his sword in a sudden attack, but [Shelter!] stopped him.

“What’s this?”

“I’m the one asking. Why did you attack?”

“You monster.”

“I heard you were Leon the Breeze, but you brought monsters with you.”

Oh. I had forgotten that the spirits were still visible around me.

“Why did you attack me, and who’s inside the carriage? Refuse to answer honestly, and you’ll die struggling for breath.”

“Let us out!”

“Are you defying us!”

“Are you stupid? I could strangle you to death without ever releasing you.”

I slowly contracted [Shelter!]. He pushed desperately against it until he could no longer move, sweat running down his face.

Questioning him was inefficient. It would be faster to speak to whoever had given the order. “Get out of the carriage. If you refuse, I’ll burn it.” I floated [Flame!] beside the window. When no one answered, I created another [Flame!] inside the carriage, drawing a faint shriek but still no reply.

They clearly had no intention of emerging, so I filled the carriage with several more [Flame!] spells and began to burn it.

“You can choose: burn to death in the carriage, or come out and answer my questions.”

When no one replied, I turned to the sweating man trapped inside [Shelter!]. “Who’s in the carriage?”

“Let us out!”

“I know your name. I’ll hunt you down wherever you run.”

“Oh really? Then you die.”

I threw a mana-charged [Flame!] into the [Shelter!] containing the man who had threatened to hunt me down.

“Wha—hot! Stop! Stop or I’ll kill you!”

“If you can, try. Though you’ll burn to death first.”

“Hot! I’m sorry, please forgive me—stop this—please…”

“Your neighbor seems to be having fun. Would you like to burn too?”

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk, please spare me that!”

“So who the hell is in the carriage! Don’t make me repeat myself!”

“Rofman! Lord Rofman Mariens!”

“Rofman Mariens… Is he connected to the Mariens Trading Company?”

“Yes! Lord Velmer Mariens was punished, and Lord Rofman succeeded him!”

“Ah—hot! H-help! I’ll do anything, please help meee!”

“If you don’t want to burn to death, kick down the door and come out.”

After several heavy thuds, the door suddenly burst open and a man rolled out.

“Rofman, what happened to Velmer?”

“Y-you… We didn’t know you possessed royal identification when we made those unreasonable demands…”

“I’m asking what happened.”

“My father, Velmer Mariens, was punished for his crimes against you. His viscount-equivalent treatment was revoked, five thousand gold coins were confiscated, half his shops were taken, and he was sentenced to lifelong confinement.”

So this was revenge… Wait.

Didn’t someone just call me Leon the Breeze?

The men who had attacked me seemed to have been near the carriage, but they were burned black and could no longer be questioned.

Rofman had rolled out of the carriage and now lay groaning. I shook a potion bottle in front of his face and questioned him.

“You were inside the carriage and shouldn’t have known who I was. Why did you order the attack?”

“Y-you… Marco told me you were Leon the Breeze. Because of you, Father was confined to a tiny room. All because of a subordinate’s mistake when we sent him to buy a Sham…”

“Do you even know what one Sham costs? This happened because you became greedy and demanded an auction-worthy bird for a mere twenty gold coins.”

“They say you were part of the dragon subjugation, but you’re only a Wind Magic user. He said you would be easy to kill now…”

The idiot’s dazed muttering revealed that one of his men had identified me. He had said Marco.

“You mentioned Marco. Where was he born?”

“What… who? Our shops were taken, we lost the viscount treatment, everything is ruined…”

Useless. He had already retreated into denial.

It would be faster to question the man holding his breath inside [Shelter!].

“You know Marco, do you not?”

“Marco? I hardly know him.”

“Is that so? Shall I help you remember?”

“Wait! I remember. Marco… He came from somewhere in the west…”

“You’ve seen his identification. If you make this any more troublesome…”

I floated [Flame!] above his head.

“He’s Bronze Rank First Class and registered in Lynas. He’s a Fire Magic user, but his skill never matched his boasting. The previous master hired him as an errand runner while he was wasting away in Zandra, thinking he might be useful in fights against people.”

So Marco had drifted all the way to Zandra.

No wonder he had fired [Fireball!] at me without hesitation.

He could never have imagined that attacking me would provoke the spirits into counterattacking.

I forced a [Water Ball!] into Rofman’s mouth and did the same to the man before me.

As I placed them in my Magic Bag, I sensed someone trembling behind me. The man to whom I had given the potion was staring in terror.

“Wait! I knew nothing about this. We were hired in Randol to escort him to Zandra because wild beasts had made the highway dangerous. It’s true!”

“Gather your companions. Leave the dead men’s companions where they are.”

“There’s one more man who can’t move.”

Judging from his wounds, I tossed him a lower-middle-grade potion. I then placed [Water Ball!] spells in the mouths of Rofman’s remaining subordinates. While dousing the smoldering carriage with [Water!], I noticed people watching from afar—and remembered that we were standing on a highway.

Travelers were observing the attacked carriage from a distance, too afraid to approach. This was bad.

I had asked the spirits to hide, but it was far too late. At minimum, I needed to silence the witnesses.