Hearing this, Benjamin looked at her again.
On her body, the faint green light that the magic potion gave her was starting to fade. With an estimate of another ten minutes, the strengthening effects should wear off.
"What kind of person are you? Why would you take Augustine?" after some thought, he decided to bring their conversation back to its original purpose.
"I think; you have no need to know these things." The blond woman walked up to the counter, and hit the surface, with a touch of hostility she said, "after the attention is over, I will return the person you want back to you, and you will remove the curse you placed on Sidney. After that, whether you leave this place or take on the church singlehandedly is up to you, it has nothing to do with me."
Hearing this, Benjamin shook his head.
This reply, did not satisfy him at all.
He also wanted to smoothly rescue Augustine, and what the blond woman is saying may not be desirable. The only thing is, at this moment, he suddenly remembered the rest of the mages in his group.
This morning, each mage had their own assignment, leaving the hotel and headed out into Regina to gather news. But now, they have gone ahead with what the church was doing here, Benjamin couldn’t help but worry, how they were doing now.
Even though they were disguised as normal people, Benjamin also told them to keep away from the celebration, the Mages Guild, the palace and the like, but...
Benjamin worried that they would be in danger.
Moreover, the church has been here and made a scene, maybe he won’t have a good relationship with the Mages Guild, could it be...he really had to quietly hide here, and act like he didn’t see anything, and always just observe from the sidelines?
It’s not that he wanted to help the Mages Guild or the queen. Only, the church was like this now, after they managed to seize the gateway, but that only helped the church instead. And so, Benjamin wasn’t feeling too happy about things.
He has to do something about this.
"The effects of the potion are about to wear off, and after it wears off, do you think you will have the right to discuss terms and conditions like you are doing now?" when he thought about this, he looked at the blond woman and quickly asked.
"Sure, you can kill me, then you can kill Sidney, we won’t have any complaints about it, but don’t you even dream of finding your missing person." The blond woman laughed, spread out her hands and said with a look of indifference in her eyes.
Seeing it, Benjamin just shook his head.
"I don’t plan to let you do anything." He said, "as long as you tell me where is the Anti-Magic Prison, and I won’t ask you any more questions."
The blond woman looked surprised when she heard this. Maybe it was because she was aware of Benjamin’s intentions. She saw the look of a crazed person in Benjamin’s eyes, but very quickly, she nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and told Benjamin the prison’s address.
The location of the Anti-Magic Prison was very close to the palace.
When he heard this, Benjamin couldn’t help but frown. But, he didn’t change his mind.
After noting down the address, he nodded his head; he didn’t care for unnecessary words, turned and walked out the door.
In the hallway, he used some of the tools he brought, and once again disguised himself – experience and some skills he learned from Michelle, he was getting more skilled at it.
Very quickly, he managed to turn himself into a beggar.
After making sure the outfit looked authentic, dressed in Icor’s style, and also prepared himself to think like a beggar, he went to the door and used the water particle sensing method to make sure there was no one outside. Then, he opened the door and left the "massage" parlor, and went back to the remote street.
He used the feedback from the water particles to avoid the patrol guards on the street; and with a beggar’s face, he slowly headed towards the Anti-Magic Prison.
"Do you really plan to go in there and break them out?" on the way, the System suddenly decided to show up, and asked, sounding worried.
"Who said I was going to break them out?" Benjamin shook his head, and responded in his mind, "how can I break them out? Those mages have their family and friends in the hands of the church, even if I was successful, they won’t leave. So there is no need to say, even if I single-handedly manage to break them out of prison, the chances of success is way below zero."
"Then what do you plan to do?" the System asked.
Benjamin took a deep breath and answered: "I have to go scout the place. That woman has too many secrets, I don’t know why she took Augustine, and I don’t know where the unknown teenager who was with her before has gone to, and with her level of fighting skills, and how she mysteriously became the wife of the head pirate... these are mysterious things, the words she said, I need to check it out for myself."
Moreover, if the other mages in the group were taken by this coup, then they will definitely be in the Anti-Magic Prison. He just needed to figure out a way to spy on the Anti-Magic Prison, then he will know whether everyone is saved or not.
This is vital to the decision he has to make next.
And it was because of this, he decided to leave the safe place, and in this chaotic situation, disguise himself as a beggar, and head straight towards a dangerous place.
Because of the water particles sensing method’s help, in the beginning, Benjamin could avoid everyone on the road, as he slowly approached the city center. But on this road, he noticed that the previously noisy and chaotic street had now become abnormally desolate, aside from the patrolling guards, a large number of them were normal citizens, who were now hiding in their homes, trembling, not knowing what was going on.
A long street, from a brief view, not one door was open. Colorful but lonely flags waved in the wind; the floor was covered with crushed paper flowers.
There was a strange apocalyptic feel to the place. Benjamin could only confirm that it didn’t matter if it was the church who led the coup, but now Regina was a mess.
Hopefully, no one was in any danger.
As he went closer to the Anti-Magic Prison, the patrolling guards were also increasing. And so, Benjamin had to slow down, and used the water particle sensing method to avoid their line of sight, carefully moving forward.
Unfortunately, even if he was already so careful, but he still met with a few patrol guards.
"Hey, what are you doing sneaking around!"
The patrol guards surrounded him, a few of them glared at him, their eyes fierce.
"Guard, I... what is going on?" Benjamin knelt on the ground, an expression of fear on his face, "why is there no one else on the street? I... I want to go back?"
Hearing this, the guards looked at each other, and one of the guards stepped forward and gave Benjamin a kick and said: "the Mages Guild had plans to rebel and was discovered by the queen, her Majesty has now sealed the city, preparing to get rid of the traitors. You walk out here on your own, could it be that you are a traitorous mage?"
Screw you...
Benjamin couldn’t help but scold in his mind.
But in reality, he did not let that emotion show on his face but continued acting, holding on to the arm that the guard kicked, shaking his head in panic: "No... I am not a mage, I don’t know anything. Sir, please don’t kill me!"
Seeing this, the guards who were surrounding him began laughing out loud.
Being surrounded by the laughter, Benjamin managed to look even more frightened than before.
"It is impossible for you to be a mage." After laughing, the guard that kicked him shook his head and said, "leave, the square on the west side of the city is specifically to house the beggars, you should just go there, don’t run around. After her Majesty the queen gives the order, then you can leave."
Benjamin immediately nodded his head: "Yes! Yes! Thank you sir!"
Just like that, the guards divided themselves into two groups, one escorting Benjamin towards the square.
They were on the west side of the city, and the square was on the east side, so, the road that they were taking would definitely pass by the center of Regina. But, they probably didn’t want to offend the palace, the two guards took a longer route, on the road, there was a part where they passed really close to the Anti-Magic Palace.
"Hey, you there, how much money did you get today?" one of the guards asked. He wasn’t even sure if it was the guard that liked to kick people, on the way he wanted to get his fix, and kicked Benjamin again.
"N-not, not much." Benjamin stuttered as he answered.
"How can it be not much?" the guard snorted and said, "there were so many people here for the celebration, I heard that beggars get a lot of money."
"Really...there really isn’t much."
"Enough, stop talking nonsense, take it out then and let us see, don’t make us throw you into jail!" Maybe because there weren’t any other guards around, the two guards escorting Benjamin became increasingly unscrupulous. So, they nastily threatened him.
Benjamin could only cry and turned around.
"Alright... don’t kill me sir, just as long as you don’t lock me up, I’ll give you everything."
As he said this, he acted as though he was reaching into the torn and worn out pocket to take out something, and held it in his hand in a fist, and put out both his hands to the two guards.
"Why are you closing your hands, open them!" Just then, the guards smiled an ominous smile, stretched their hands, and took hold of Benjamin’s fists, as though they wanted to break them apart.
Then, it was at that moment.
The fear on Benjamin’s face suddenly disappeared, instead, a cruel smile took its place. He opened his fist, and grabbed the two guards’ arms, and opened his mouth to speak in a calm tone.
"Since you wanted to see, then see properly, watch carefully."
And at the time, the two guards he was holding on to lost the strength to reply.
Held between Benjamin’s two fingers was an ice needle. The two guards were unprepared as the needle pierced their skin. At that moment, a fearsome ice wave unfurled in their bodies. Not even a second passed before frost spread over their faces, their veins turned green and they could not move anymore.
Their faces were frozen in a ridiculously funny and greedy expressions, there was still glee in their eyes, their focus was on Benjamin’s hands, and they didn’t even have time to look surprised.
Benjamin looked at them and shook his head.
The System chose that moment to suddenly speak, and looked at the two guards now made of ice and cursed at them: "Dumbass."