Zich left Sunewick. It had been a while since he came out of the city. However, he didn’t go that far and stopped in front of the castle’s entrance. The reason for his visit outside was to send Hans and Snoc off.
“Did you finish your preparations?”
“Yes, sir!”
“We prepared thoroughly!”
Their voices weren’t loud, but they answered with clear confidence.
“I mean, there wasn’t even much to prepare for.”
After all, the basic necessities were in the magic box, and there wasn’t anything else Hans and Snoc had to prepare besides some ingredients. Of course, by preparations, Zich wasn’t only talking about material goods.
“Do you remember what I told you both?”
The two answered right away. There was no way they forgot what Zich had told them. Even if they wanted to forget, the arduous training they went through made it so that they instinctively engraved Zich’s words as soon as they heard them. Zich nodded in satisfaction and grabbed both their shoulders. Then, he pushed his face between Hans and Snoc.
“We have someone following us. Don’t turn your heads though.”
Hans and Snoc unconsciously tried to look around their surroundings, but they quickly strengthened their necks tightly and stopped their faces from moving.
“Just go according to plan. Then, it will be alright. Understand?”
Both Hans and Snoc nodded.
“Good. Then, go now.”
Zich turned their bodies around and hit their backs. Hans and Snoc turned back from the massive castle wall and walked forward. Zich stared at their backs for a bit, then he also turned around and began walking towards the castle wall.
‘Quite an amazing person has come out.’ Zich shifted his gaze and glanced up at the castle wall. He noticed a weak presence over there, but that was all. He couldn’t determine their exact location.
‘Their hiding skills are impressive.’ Although had considerable talent in detecting presences, even he couldn’t properly locate the person when he was on full alert.
‘Is it magic?’ Considering the situation and the fact they were in a city famous for magic, it seemed likely that a high-level magician actually came out to follow Zich and his servants.
‘I showed them that I could use an invisibility artifact after all.’
However, the level of his opponent was still higher than what Zich had expected.
‘Wait, maybe the master of the magical tower came out himself.’ It sounded possible now that he thought about it. ‘If that’s the case, then that will be a bit dangerous.’ At that moment, Zich felt the presence he had been tracking shake a bit.
‘He is moving.’ It was obvious that the person wanted to find out where Hans and Snoc were by tailing them. Even as the person moved, their presence was still incredibly faint. The possibility that Walwiss Dwayne was the one following them became more likely. Zich stared at Hans and Snoc who were already far away from him. Although they were probably nervous, their bodies were stiff. They both maintained a good level of nervousness. Zich smirked.
‘They will do well.’ Zich thought they wouldn’t have to fight their opponent head-on, and there was a low chance that Walwiss would break in. ‘And those guys’ skills aren’t something to laugh about either.’
Zich turned his body and headed towards the city.
* * *
‘They are going inside.’
In the air, Walwiss quietly watched Zich go back inside the castle. There was nothing that seemed suspicious, so Walwiss took his eyes off Zich.
‘The watchmen from the Jaewick family will follow him.’
The important target wasn’t Zich. Walwiss moved. The secretive but intense mana flowing around him whirled and pulled his body along. Hans and Snoc followed the boulevard that stretched out from the castle’s doors and at some point, they began to walk sideways. The two stepped into a meadow of thick weeds where there was no road or even a small path in sight.
Walwiss focused his attention. Since they went off the road, they could disappear from his sight any moment now. In mid-air, he opened his eyes widely and slowly followed behind them from a distance. The two passed the meadow and entered a small forest heavily covered by trees.
‘They are blocking my view.’
Walwiss squinted his eyes. He wondered if he should go lower but went higher up instead. The size of the forest wasn’t very big. If he looked at it from a high place, he could see the entire forest at once. He could easily see which direction they would come out of. Of course, Walwiss also didn’t forget to track them with a keen sense of magic since they could use invisibility artifacts. Soon, Walwiss’ suspicions were proven true.
Wiing! A faint transformation that normal people couldn’t feel caught his senses.
‘They used it!’
Walwiss closed his eyes. Then, he tried to feel a magical presence. The magical presence began to move. It was an extremely faint energy, so light that most mages would probably fail to sense it even if it was right in front of them.
‘It’s a similar feeling to the one I felt at the Jaewicks’ place.’
Walwiss thought he might really be able to meet his granddaughter if he followed them. The magical presence came out of the forest. Walwiss couldn’t see anything with his eyes, but he could feel that there was definitely something there. He continued to feel magical energy, and when he looked at the area intently, he could see something awkward about it. The magical presence continued to move. They had already traveled a considerable distance now.
‘How far are they going?’
Walwiss still had plenty of mana left. It wasn’t as if he achieved his title as master of the magical tower by luck. However, it was true that he also had a limit.
‘I don’t think they will move for that long though.’
There was still a chance he could be wrong. Moreover, Snoc and Hans’ speed was beyond his imagination. They continuously moved at the speed of an ordinary person’s maximum sprint.
Fortunately, Walwiss didn’t need to be concerned about moving too far. Walwiss felt a tremor of magical energy, and then Hans and Snoc revealed themselves. It seemed as if their artifacts’ duration times were over. They soon began climbing a nearby mountain. When they were about halfway up the mountain, an old house came into view. It looked like an abandoned shelter for hunters since it looked extremely old and worn out.
However, it seemed to have undergone recent renovations so that people could use it as a residence. When Walwiss saw the house, he tilted his head. ‘Elena is trapped in a place like that?’
It looked like an extremely easy place to escape from. The house looked very unsuitable for imprisoning someone.
‘Is she perhaps tied up?’ Worry sprung up inside Walwiss’ heart. He imagined how his poor granddaughter was all tied up and wouldn’t be able to eat or drink without Zich’s two servants. Fortunately, Walwiss’ imagination was proven wrong.
Knock! Knock!
When Hans knocked, the door opened.
‘Armor?’ Walwiss narrowed his eyes as he saw the person who opened the door for Hans and Snoc. The person wore silver armor that glistened in the sunlight.
‘Do they have an accomplice?’ Then it made sense that they could leave Elena alone. ‘Were they not just travelers?’
If they had an armored comrade, there was a high possibility that a third party was involved. However, the armored person’s movements looked awkward.
‘No, is it actually a golem?’ A golem made out of armor—if something like that guarded Elena, it was understandable that Elena wouldn’t be able to escape this shabby cabin. Walwiss quietly scanned the surroundings. He didn’t go closer yet, just to be safe, and he saw several windows. Unlike the rest of the house, the windows were firmly barred. Walwiss’ suspicion that Elena might be imprisoned inside the cabin deepened.
Walwiss moved his body to peer through the window and see the inside of the cabin. Then, he saw her—his granddaughter was inside the house. Walwiss felt relief, and then anger—two extreme emotions. He felt bitter that he and Elena had been betrayed, and he felt sorry for the pain that Elena had to experience. Walwiss immediately wanted to burn this house to the ground and then fly back to the city and burn Zich and Lyla to cinders. However, he suppressed his emotions. There was never a time when recklessness made any situation better; he needed to be extra careful since his precious granddaughter was currently being held hostage.
Walwiss looked down at the cabin with eyes full of fury. The only people in the house were Hans and Snoc if he excluded Elena. Even though there were more movements, they all seemed to be coming from armored figures that were probably golems. Fortunately, Elena looked fine, and it didn’t seem as if she experienced any torture.
Elena was sitting still on a bed. From a glance, it looked like she had a lot of freedom to move around, but judging by how the armored golems constantly moved around her, she probably had very limited freedom. Walwiss had confirmed everything he needed to confirm. He quietly withdrew back, and his eyes moved towards Elena.
‘Just wait a bit, Elena. I’ll definitely save you!’
Even though it was extremely heartbreaking that he had to leave his granddaughter with his enemies, he had no choice. As the master of the magical tower and for Elena’s sake, he needed to deal with the root cause first.
‘I can’t let a single one of them go!’ Walwiss moved his gaze away from his granddaughter and forced his reluctant feet to move away from the cabin.
* * *
A substantial amount of time passed since Walwiss left the cabin. The sky was already dark, and the moon and stars were working their hardest to fight off the darkness. The candlelight inside the cabin also fought off the darkness by letting out its subtle light.
Sitting still in bed, Elena asked dourly, “Hey, how long do we have to wait?”
Hans and Snoc, who were playing cards to kill time, looked up from the table and turned to look at Elena. Then they looked at each other.
“Senior, do you think it’ll be all right now?”
Hans nodded his head at Snoc’s question. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Really, what are you guys talking about?!” Elena let out her irritation.
Hans and Snoc were quietly whispering amongst themselves so that Elena couldn’t hear them.
“It’s nothing.” Snoc lightly tapped Nowem, who was on his shoulder, a few times.
Nowem jumped off from his shoulder and then climbed up to Elena’s knees. Elena’s expression brightened up a bit. Since Snoc had left the cabin for a few days, Elena hadn’t been able to practice her magic. Moreover, he also didn’t let Elena borrow Nowem’s mana. Since studying magic was her only source of joy while being locked up, Elena was extremely annoyed by this whole situation. However, now that she could study magic again, Elena felt a little less irritated.
She hugged Nowem and stared at Snoc. “Where did you go?”
Unlike Hans who she briefly saw sometimes, Snoc was usually always by her side. However, a few days ago, both of them left the cabin, and they had left armored golems as their replacements.
“We can’t tell you.”
Elena had expected this answer, but it didn’t make his reply any less hurtful.
“Hmph!” Elena snorted to show her displeasure.
When she was about to start practicing magic again, a golem suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. The golems had been placed in this cabin to keep her inside; even though they were annoying, Elena was curious about them as a mage.
“You said that teac…Ms. Lyla made these, right?” Even though Snoc continuously told her that this imprisonment was for her benefit and she also knew that her situation was different from a normal hostage situation, Elena refrained from calling Lyla her teacher anymore since Lyla was also one of those who was responsible for her imprisonment.
“Yeah.”
“It’s not a super high quality golem, but it’s well-made. She must have put quite a lot of effort into them.”
“Really? Ms. Lyla made them really quickly though?” Snoc replied while chewing a root plant from a can.
However, unlike Snoc who was ignorant about matters like this, Elena became speechless.
“…She made them really quickly?” Regardless of whether Lyla was a good or evil person, Elena had to admit that Lyla really was a talented mage.
Hans had been quietly listening to Snoc and Elena’s conversation, and then he looked outside the window. He thought, ‘Sir Zich said that if there’s an ambush, it’ll probably happen soon after we come back into the cabin.’
However, nothing happened today; this meant that Zich’s second prediction had probably happened instead.
‘I’m sure this place has been discovered today, but nothing will probably happen here for the rest of the day.’
Hans didn’t have to send a signal to Zich anymore, because the action would probably start where Zich was. Hans set Estellade to his side, crossed his hands, and leaned back while holding the back of his head. In this position, he watched Snoc and Elena bicker with each other.