A luxury carriage moved farther away from Tawarr to the northern hills at the foot of Horan Mountains. Normally, people wouldn't be traveling after the sunset, nor they would be allowed to do so. But the gatekeepers couldn't stop it. The guy inside the carriage seemed to have an urgent business and he was the infamous second son of Haffa Kingdom's Duke, Lord Sennan. Even though a second son, he had a title and feared by some other nobles.
"Hey, you! Drive faster!" The man inside the carriage shouted at the coachman.
"Damn it! That insolent commoner kept messing with me. To think that he would leave at this hour."
Half an hour ago, Lord Sennan had been informed that his target had left the city. He hurriedly told his servants to prepare a carriage and left his mansion right away. He didn't expect the guy would make a move at this time of day, which upset him even more. But Lord Sennan just assumed that guy must be afraid to lose his property after he spent a huge amount of money.
He still remembered the humiliation he felt yesterday at The Auction House when an unknown man snatched of what supposed to be his new toy right under his nose. He quickly told his servant to ask the guy's identity from The Auction House. The informant said the man was a wealthy merchant from Ardia Kingdom. Lord Sennan was enraged. How rich he was, didn't matter to him, he was still a mere commoner. How dare a commoner messed with him. He swore to get revenge on this guy.
Lord Sennan instructed his people to follow that guy. And when he received information that guy had left the inn this morning, leaving the girl and his servant to stroll around the street. He couldn't believe how stupid this guy was. What's even luckier, they managed to capture the girl he wanted. A satisfied smile appeared on his sadistic face, he touched the precious ring on his left hand. If it wasn't because he bought this ring the day before, he would have won the bid and wouldn't feel this humiliation.
He couldn't wait to arrive at that tiny village. He had instructed his people not to kill that guy because he would be the one who will slowly inflict the pain of death to him.
From the distance, he could see the silhouette of the village. The moons had risen high in the sky by this time. In just a couple of minutes, the carriage had entered the village.
"Good night, my lord. We're sorry that we couldn't properly greet you at this late hour." The thug leader and his henchmen kneeled in front of Lord Sennan.
"No need for your formality. Where is that guy?"
"Yes, my lord, let me guide you there..."
Lord Sennan was guided to one of the house there. When the door was opened, he saw an unconscious man tied on the chair, his head hung forward weakly, his wavy blonde hair covering his face. A cruel smile appeared on his frog-like face.
He was about to approach that guy when he felt the yellow ring on his left hand gleamed.
"Gah!"
Someone had slashed his back.
"Why you..."
Lord Sennan turned around, behind him, a thug holding a sword looked at him with an expression of surprise. His slash was a perfect hit, but there wasn't any wound on his back.
The thug leader, one who was called boss by his subordinates, moved his hand across his neck, signaling his subordinates to kill Lord Sennan.
"Raaaa!"
Some people charging forward, swung their swords toward Lord Sennan.
The thug slashed his arm this time, the other one slashed his chest.
But no matter how accurate their attack, he didn't get hurt. It seemed he was protected by invisible armor.
"You insects, you tried to kill me!"
From his right hand, a red light appeared.
He thrust his palm forward, directing it to his attackers.
"Fireballs! Burn!"
Three fireballs launched and hit his attackers.
"Aaaargh!!"
Those who got hit screamed.
"Don't be afraid! He can't keep shooting that! Keep attacking him!"
It was a common knowledge that full magicians at a disadvantage when they were put in a close range combat in this world, they couldn't cast spells fast enough to compete with physical attacks.
Lord Sennan unsheathed the sword on his waist.
This time, the thug leader also charged forward. Their swords met in the air, clashing each other.
"You! How dare you betray me!"
Lord Sennan couldn't beat the thug leader in term of physical power, but his purpose was to buy him enough time for his next spell.
One of the thugs charging forward trying to help his boss, but he couldn't slash Lord Sennan.
"Hahahaha idiot! Haven't you learned that your sword can't harm me?!"
A red light appeared from his left palm.
"Fireball!"
It was only a single fireball but it was bigger in size than the previous one.
"Arrgghh!"
The spell hit the thug leader, burning him.
"Hahahaha... Who wants to be burned next?!!"
"Guaahh!"
The thugs scrambled, trying to save themselves. After seeing their leader was burned to dead, they lost motivation to keep attacking.
"You think you can escape, huh? Let me teach you a lesson!"
This time he put both of his hands together, concentrating on casting a high level spell.
"Come fire serpent!" He shouted.
A serpent-like fire coming out from his body, rising toward the sky before turning back to the ground, burning everything in its path.
---
"Huff! Finally it's done!" Rena wiped her sweats.
"I'll rest for a while to get back my energy."
She took the bread that girl brought earlier. The taste here didn't matter as long as it gave her the calories she needed. Rena took a big bite and finished it quickly.
After another fifteen minutes, she stood up and said,
"Ok, it's time for action!"
*crash!*
She dropped the stacked wooden boards to make noise.
The next second, Rena screamed so loud,
"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
"What's going on down there?!" One of the thugs who was guarding Rena said.
"She might be pulling up some pranks to escape." Said the other guy.
"I'll go check inside." He stood up.
He opened the basement door, holding a lantern in one hand, and went inside. The wooden boards scattered on the floor and a figure covered with a sheet was laying down on the floor. Squinting his eyes, he directed the lantern in that direction.
"Hey, you'd better not trying stupi-...."
*crack!*
Before he could finish his sentence, the wooden stair he stepped broke and he fell...
"Gaaah!!"
Earlier, Rena spent a few hours scrapping one of the wooden stairs with a chisel she found, her plan was to make the middle part thin enough to break when someone stepped on it. She miscalculated a little here, the guy did fell... but his huge body got stuck between the stairs. Lucky for her, he was trapped there.
"Hey, are you okay?!" The other guy who was waiting outside shouted.
Rena jumped from behind the barrels and running toward the stairs.
She climbed up the stairs, stepped hard on that guy.
"Guh!!"
"You! Btch! You think you can escape, hah?!"
When she was close enough to that guy standing at the door, Rena threw salt on his face.
"Arghh!"
Coming out from the basement, she had advantage of striking at a low angle. Her aim was only one. She charged with all her body force. The guy couldn't even scream as he went unconscious right away, getting hit at THAT spot using a chisel.
She successfully quit from the basement.
(Yes, escape plan success!)
(The real problem is where should I go from here before their friends notice I have escaped.)
She kept running further away from the storehouse, from the village.
Soon enough, she heard an explosion. Instinctively, she turned her head to the direction of that sound. A huge serpent-like fire rise in the sky.
Rena stopped on her track, she knew that wasn't an ordinary fire.
The best choice was running as far as possible, that was her instinct telling her to do. She was about to do that when a thought crossed her mind.
(What if Frei's there?)
"If what they said were true about the magical contract, that guy must have come here..."
"They wanted to kill him right? Then that fire, there's a possibility it was related to him."
"..."
She might regret this decision later but she still turned around, running back to the village. Smoke was rising in the sky as several houses got burned. This was just like the first scene Rena saw when she arrived in this world.
The villagers coming out from their houses, trying to save themselves.
"Help! Help! My daughter is still inside!" An old woman screamed.
"Mama and Papa! Please save Mama and Papa!" A child shouted.
Elderly people and children were panicking, some adults who could be seen had a weird expression on their face.
Rena stopped running.
(Should I help them? What should I do?)
While she was hesitating, someone pulled her clothes. A boy who was around ten years old looked at her with his big blue eyes.
"Please, help... "
"Mirra... I can't find Mirra!"
"Please, help me find her! You have seen her before, she was the girl who brought you here! She isn't a bad person, she did that because she wanted to help us! Please, please... Help me find her!"
She remembered that brown hair girl she met in the basement.
When Rena looked at his eyes, the moment of hesitation she had before vanished.
"I see... She must be an important person to you."
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Blippe..."
"Blippe, I'll help you find her. I'll search that way and you search around here. Please be careful, okay?"
Blippe nodded, "Thank you, purple sis!"
Rena ran in the direction where the source of fire came.
There were more houses burning and people screaming, Rena looked left and right, checking if she could find faces she recognized.
*cough* *cough*
The smoke was getting thicker. It was getting harder to breathe and to see upfront.
Suddenly, a huge serpent-like fire appeared.
The fire serpent came to her direction. She moved to the side, dodging its attack.
"Ahhh!!" Rena screamed, holding her right arm.
Even though she didn't get hit, being closed enough with the fire serpent burned her skin. This was because it had higher temperature than normal fire.
The serpent was uncontrolled, it didn't appear to have any intelligence nor have someone controlling it. It was targeting any living things nearby.
Rena ran away before the fire serpent chased her.
And finally, almost hidden among the smoke, she saw a figure she recognized.
"Frei!" She was horrified, he was surrounded by fire.
Two other people were also there, the girl called Mirra and that sadistic smile old man from the auction house. Looked like that man was wounded, he was saying something but Rena couldn't hear it clearly. However, from this side, she could see the hand behind that man started to glow bright red.
In a spur of the moment, Rena dashed off.
"Watch out!!"
She pushed that girl.
*Bang!*
A fireball hit her.
---