BOOM—!
An arc of lightning erupted from his hand, streaking across the air and bathing the street in blue-white light. As soon as it touched the first knight’s breastplate, several branches of lightning split at once.
The sparks ricocheted toward the knights at the back, causing their entire bodies to electrify. Add to that the fact that they were all wearing conductive metal armor, well, it didn’t take a genius to know what happened next.
They collapsed onto the street like bowling pins, trembling furiously as lightning coursed through their skin and caused their muscles to spasm.
Rian was proud of the spell he cast, if not for the price that arrived just a few seconds later on the blue panel to his left.
[Estimated Lifespan: 25 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes.]
’3 days for a single spell?!’
Instantly, blood started running from his nose and his knees felt weak. It wasn’t enough to cause Rian to collapse to the ground, but was enough to make him to stagger.
He raised a hand, lifted his mask slightly, and wiped it away before looking back toward Alicia. "Got anything to get out of this situation? I’d rather not fight the entire city’s garrison."
Rian noticed that the guards were already beginning to stir and get their bearings. The spell was effective, but using an intermediate spell with only one Magic Circle had weakened it considerably.
Normally, someone at such a beginner level wouldn’t be able to use an intermediate spell at all. But due to Rian’s mana-sensitivity, he was able to jam the entire spell sequence through his lone circle and cast it quite inefficiently—thus producing a ’Rian-style’ Chain Lightning.
Alicia simply sighed and reached downward at the shadow that was cast by a nearby umbrella. Reaching into the darkness, she pulled out a curtain-like veil around both of them.
〈Alter Shade — Gardine〉
[Curtain of Darkness]
"Young Master, my magic is only enough to cover the two of us. We’ll have to leave the hostage."
Rian paused, thinking about it before sighing softly. "Fine, leave him. We need to get to the port as soon as possible."
Alicia released the unconscious man, allowing him to collapse among the ruined merchandise. Rian expected everything to go black, but the surrounding market remained perfectly visible from within the veil.
It was their bodies that seemed to disappear, their silhouettes dissolving into the shadows cast between the abandoned stalls.
Several knights charged directly toward them, only to run past without noticing anything. The two patrols converged on either side of them.
"Where did they go?!"
"Search the place! They couldn’t have gone far!"
One knight stopped close enough that Rian could smell his horrible breath. His sword swept through the air just inches from Rian’s chest before he hurried toward the adjoining street.
’Despite having only one Magic Circle, the spells Alicia used are quite effective...Maybe it’s better to practice a single spell a thousand times rather than knowing a thousand spells.’
’Well, we also got lucky.’
Had Eisenbran’s actual Knight Captain responded to the flare, things would’ve become far more complicated. If Rian remembered correctly, he was a 5-Star Knight. Someone at that level would’ve probably sensed them presence despite the curtain.
Alicia could probably still defeat him, but a battle between two high-ranking knights would definitely make a mess of the city and draw the attention of even bigger fish.
’Well, no use worrying about what hadn’t happened.’
Once the patrols had moved away, Alicia pulled Rian between two stalls and toward the road descending toward the river and into Eisenbran’s port.
The further they traveled from the market, the fewer knights roamed the surrounding streets. After turning through another alley, Alicia finally released the spell.
As soon as she did, Rian staggered again, blood continuing to run from his nose. Alicia managed to catch him before he could fall.
"Young Master, can you continue?"
Rian wiped the thin stream of blood from his nose before looking down at the port below. Lanterns illuminated the place, revealing countless crates and ships that filled the place.
"I can continue. Let’s find them before they get away."
Rushing down toward the alley, they encountered an old man sitting on a wooden chair, casually smoking a cigar.
’That’s probably the Port Master...’
Rian approached the old man, throwing a coin his way to convince him to open his mouth. "Did a black carriage come through here within the last ten minutes?"
"Black carriage?" The old man caught the coin. "Might’ve."
Rian tossed him another. "Where did it go?"
The old man caught the second coin against his chest before examining it closely. After confirming that the coin was genuine, the man simply shook his head.
"No."
"No black carriage?" Rian asked. "Nothing matching that description came through within the last ten minutes?"
"I heard you the first time." The old man pocketed the coin. "Last carriage I saw was carrying barrels of salted fish. Haven’t seen any ships cast off recently, either."
Rian turned toward Alicia. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the old man since they approached. It seemed like she was scanning the guy, the way his hand was holding the cigar, the way he moved his body.
"He’s telling the truth."
The old man raised an eyebrow. "Course I am."
All he could do now was trust her judgement. If anyone could determine truth or lie from a statement, it would probably be her. That was Alicia’s field of expertise after all.
But that only created another problem.
"Go back to Rosalia."
"What?"
"Quickly," Rian hurried her. "Tell her to close off all the exits to the city. Even if it causes backlash, we can’t afford to let them leave the city."
"What about you?"
"You’re faster. You need to tell her now. I’ll be with you in a bit."
"...Alright."
With those last words, Alicia quickly disappeared into the darkness, leaving Rian behind to stare at the countless ships that rested upon Eisenbran’s dark waters.
Beyond them lay the mouth of the river and the open sea—the only other route in and out of Eisenbran. His eyes lingered on the vessels, one after the other, trying to determine if there really were captives inside them.
After a while, Rian simply sighed and turned away.
A carriage couldn’t simply vanish.
But that begged the biggest question of them all—
"Then where the hell did it go...?"
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