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-aid skill he could use.
Translated by Channy_
Edited by Tom and Kmatt
Kmatt: Haroon!!! You missed out on so much loot & exp by only putting them to sleep.
Channy: Aw, man. There are tons of things I want to talk about Kmatt's comment, but I also know that some people would hate me for giving hints (since some might even call them as spoilers). I'll just say Haroon is too naive to do that! Though it is important to note that the game would be way too realistic to murder NPCs.