The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

Chapter 355 - Guards

          When Serks woke up the next day, he groaned in pain thanks to the swollen wound on his back. He was thirsty and hungry and also a bit chilly. So, when he woke up, he doubted his eyes when he saw that he was naked and tied up on a bed. A sharp knife was dangerously close to what made him a man.

            Eventually, he freed himself and found his clothes on the side of the bed with a letter and a bag of coins.

"This is the payment for your troubles. If you talk with anyone about this, the knife will be put much closer to you the next time. If anyone asks, tell them that you sold everything to a dumb merchant… I will be watching you for the next month."

          Serks was already sweating Bullets since he had no idea what happened or who attacked him, but he relaxed a little when he saw the gold coins on the bag.

"Maybe I should stop scamming other people…" Serks muttered. "This has finally come to bite me in the ass."

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            One week had passed since that day were they captured the merchant and sneaked him at night in the inn of the next town. While Zaos wasn't confident in his plan, it seemed that things worked out in the end. He didn't hear any weird rumor, after all.

"I got lucky this time, but it is obvious that my battle experience isn't useful in these types of situations," Zaos thought. "In any case, we just need one more week to reach the port town."

            Zaos and Aleni also got lucky by the fact that the merchant was selling many types of things, from clothes to cooking utensils. Thanks to that, Zaos and Aleni found other kinds of clothes to wear. Even though they avoided cities and towns, they still needed to avoid the eyes of other travelers.

            In any case, Zaos frowned when he saw Aleni taking out her dark cloak. She had dark long, straight hair that passed her waist. She was also surprisingly tall and slender. He had noticed that she had a thin appetite, but it was impressive how much she had to eat to feel satisfied. Her appearance was quite different than anything Zaos had seen, she was astonishingly beautiful, and the fact that she probably was from another country helped with that… However, there was something more… Aleni was blind. She wasn't born blind, and Zaos understood that when he saw the burn marks around her eyes.

"They do that to all apprentices," Aleni explained. "Thanks to that, all other Senses are enhanced, and also, thanks to that, I can look after Milliendra as well."

          Zaos wondered why Aleni didn't feel anything in Milliendra's presence… it was because one had to see her to be affected by the demon god power.

          While she had that uncommon appearance, Aleni could enter towns and villages without raising any suspicions. She also had that kind of training for infiltration missions, and she used that to buy milk for Milliendra. In any case, thanks to healing magic, Zaos could calm down Milliendra whenever she felt colic or when she got upset after pooping and everything else. Still, things were being too messy since Zaos and Aleni weren't exactly trained to look after someone so small. So, a big problem was bound to appear…

          The problem finally appeared, but it was slightly different than Zaos had imagined. Now and then, they were forced to cross a town or a village due to the terrain around it, but they didn't find any problem when they did that in the past week. However, in the next village, he could see in the distance, close to twenty guards at the entrance…

"Are they going to be a problem?" Aleni, who was looking after the sleeping Milliendra, asked.

"I guess so… they probably are guards who aren't from this region," Zaos replied. "If they had been in the capital or participated in the last wars, they would recognize me."

        Zaos was wearing a lot of clothes to hide his physical shape. Still, his face was pretty similar to his father's. The only difference was the eye color, and that only made him stand out even more. He was certain that the merchant wouldn't be able to warn the kingdom so fast, so the king set those checkpoints in all parts of the kingdom.

"What are we going to do? Fight our way out?" Aleni asked.

"... I can't sense the presence of magicians nearby," Zaos said. "So, if I make one of them collapse right now…"

        Zaos cast a concentrated version of Sleep that made the sound being heard only by the target. When one of the guards suddenly fell on the ground, it made a lot of noise, and his allies were caught off guard while imagining an enemy attack. However, they soon relaxed when they heard their ally snoring. They sighed in relief, and while they were trying to wake up their ally, many travelers crossed the town's gate without being checked.

"Shit… I need to learn a few other tricks fast," Zaos thought. "This kind of incident is bound to attract attention."

        There were many things Zaos could learn using the thick magic book, but most of them required weeks of training. Time wasn't something Zaos had now due to the travels and the fact that he was the only one who could hold Milliendra for a while. Aleni didn't have much mana, so she might become weak if she lost too much of her mana.

              Speaking of new spells, Zaos was interested in one called Evil Eyes. By using that, he actually could paralyze his enemies with fear. It seemed like a really different spell… it couldn't even be classified in the usual categories. If the followers of the demon god could use that… Unfortunately, even Zaos would need more than a few weeks to learn and master that one.

".... Shit," Zaos said when they reached the other side of the town and noticed that there were many guards checking the travelers who were leaving the town as well.