The group was once again in the prison section of the hideout, this time standing in front of the gagged adventurer's cell. The usually uncooperative Sia wore a mischievous smile as her tail swayed back and forth. The plan she'd suggested wasn't much different than Jellal's, in fact the only difference between them was how they're to be carried out.
Jellal had thought of piling the bodies together and doing a mass cremation and the difference between his plan and Sia's came down to knowledge. Jellal's thinking was simple; build a big fire and hope it's hot enough. Sia on the other hand knew why one particular prison in the normal cells was gagged; if they weren't gagged they could chant incantations. That right, this particular adventurer just so happens to be decently versed in magic.
Unlocking the cell, Jellal walked up to the mage and casually removed the gag that had been preventing her from speaking. After that he removed the chains that had been restraining her, allowing he to move about freely for the first time since she'd been captured.
[I hear you know a bit of magic. Since that's the case I'll give you the honor of assisting a superior being such as myself in completing a task.]
Ignoring what was said to her she began chanting in a low voice. No matter how discreet she tried to be it would never slip past the overly cautious Jellal. Instead of trying to stop her he simply turned to look at her with a toothy grin. In an instant his eyes sharpened as he methodically pulled a saw out of his belt pouch. His killing intent burst forth as the air around him seemed to distort. Picking up on the change, the mage panicked, unconsciously taking a step back and fumbling her chant.
Jellal began advancing slowly in a menacing fashion, those around him finding it increasingly difficult to breathe with each step he took. Unable to endure, the mage fell on her backside while looking at him in fear. He leisurely moved his saw to the side lifting it slowly as he prepared to strike without mercy. It was at this moment that a small figure moved between the pair.
[Fighting's not good!]
Meredith's little clenched fists trembled as she bravely stood between Jellal and the mage. Her big brown eyes seemed to be on the verge of tears as she appealed to Jellal. His steps halted momentarily as he shifted his gaze to Meredith. Looking at her with deep observing eyes he continued forward. Arriving in front of Meredith he slowly extended his empty hand towards her forehead. The spectators in the surroundings wanted to drag Meredith a safe distance away from Jellal but found themselves paralyzed in fear. His hand finally reached her forehead and he began palming the little girl's head.
After a short pause his eyes softened as he ruffled her wavy brown hair, leaving it a mess. The heavy killer intent that seemed to distort space disappeared as if it had been an illusion allowing all involved to heave a collective sigh of relief.
[This is the only time. If something like this happens again everyone should know what'll happen. Next time there will be no mercy, even if you beg me to top with tears in your eyes it won't change anything.]
Putting away his saw he gave the captives a stern word of warning; with the last part being directed at Meredith specifically. Having gotten his point across he walked out of the cell intending to return to his room.
Sia and the others could only watch Jellal's back in silence as he disappeared from the room. It was only after he left that they could finally breathe easy without worrying about stepping on the sleeping lion's tail. Despite the mage no longer being bound or gagged she didn't try to escape or help the other captives break out of their cells, instead she followed behind Sia as they left her cell. They even closed the cell fearing Jellal would use the open cell as an excuse to get rid of them.
When the group passed by Jellal's room they did their best to make as little noise as possible so they wouldn't distract him from what he's doing. After passing through the dining hall they brought the mage, Kira, to the grunt living quarters where they had previously piled up the corpses.
As soon as she set eyes on the remains of the bandits, each with their head cut off, she finally realized how nonexistent her chances of survival would have been if Meredith hadn't saved her.
Readjusting her mindset she began chanting a fire magic to incinerate the bodies. Originally she had wanted to burn them outside so she wouldn't have to worry about inhaling the ashes but when Beth told her about how Jellal didn't want to have a beacon of smoke giving away the location of his newly acquired hideout she vehemently insisted on burning them where they are.
When she was finishing her chanting she lifter her right palm and pointed it at the corpses. As the final part of the chant left her lips a small fire spontaneously erupted in front of her palm. The flames formed into a ball as they grew larger and fiercer. After the ball reached the size of a human head she pushed her hand forward and sent the fireball gliding to the center of the pile of bodies. The instant the fireball hit the ground it expanded nearly fifty times in size while spinning in a circular motion to maintain its shape.
Sia and the others had been excitedly watching from the side when Kira was doing her chant but do to the intense heat they were forced to take a few steps back. They watched the blaze as calmly as possible while secretly being shocked at how powerful the spell was. Every one of them had heard about how powerful a mage's spells could be but the scene in front of their eyes showed them how much they had been underestimating mages up to this point.
The inferno only lasted a few seconds before quickly fading back into nothingness, leaving behind a pile of smoldering ashes in its stead. The spells caster, on the other hand, swayed back and forth while using the wall as support to keep from collapsing. Pride could be seen in her eyes as she stared lovingly at the aftermath of her spell.
Beth was the first to turn around to report the completion of their task. She let out an inadvertent shriek the moment she looked behind her causing the others to promptly do an about face fearing an intruder had managed to sneak up on them while they were distracted.
Although someone had noiselessly appeared behind them at some unknown point in time it wasn't an intruder. The sneaky fellow was naturally a certain violet eyed goblin that would never miss such a perfect opportunity to observe and study magic up close and personal.
[I see! Magic truly is convenient. It's a shame she's only scratched the surface of the mystery known as magic. It would've been nice is she'd at least been competent enough to not use pointless things like chants to cast magic.]
Hearing Jellal's blatant dismissal of her ability, the prideful Kira couldn't help but lash out.
[What do you know? Is someone like you even able to learn magic?]
[Kekeke, what do I know? The energy used for magic, mana, is inside everything. If you focus enough it's possible to sense that energy and use it for yourself. Not only that, the mana in our bodies can resonate with mana in the surroundings which makes it easier for us to control that type of mana, it's what you'd call a natural affinity. With a strong enough affinity it's even possible to control magic by instinct, though that's most common in monsters. What does that tell us? It tells us that it's possible for anyone to control any type of magic if they can sense it and learn how to manipulate it. When it comes to manipulating magic most humans use tools like chanting to control the magic for them, thus such people have only scratched the surface of magic.]
Jellal's response to Kira's outburst wasn't the violent flare-up that everyone had expected but a calm and almost scholarly rebuttal. In fact, normally he would have been beyond annoyed at her talking back to him after what had happened a short time ago but since he's currently over the moon he couldn't be bothered with it.
He had constantly been practicing, sensing, and investigating magic since he was born. That combined with the general information he got from he who is unworthy of having a name (god) which included some tidbits about magic had pushed him to a threshold he was unable to cross without properly witnessing real magic. And today he finally got the long awaited pieces to finish putting the puzzle together in the form of personally witnessing how Kira manipulated mana to form and control her spell.
Upon hearing Jellal's response Kira couldn't help but feel that he was looking down on her and treating her like a child who's done something wrong yet doesn't know any better. Her injured pride wouldn't allow her to stay silent while being talked down to so she could only try to find herself a logical excuse.
[Humph, acting like it's just so easy to use magic without chanting. Only top class mages are able to reliably use chantless magic and even they have difficulties doing it.]
[Kekeke, sure it may be difficult for you, but a superior being such as myself should have no problem with it. Using chants for magic is like using a bow to hunt a wolf; although a bow and arrow are useful they aren't necessary and the advantages they give can mostly be made up with practice.]
Having finally made a large breakthrough in magic theory Jellal was eager to practice and test things out. Unfortunately a cave with a bunch of prying eyes isn't exactly what you would call an ideal place to practice using magic so he decided to use hunting as an excuse to practice outside.
Eager to put his theoretical knowledge to practical use he impatiently leaves Sia and Kira in charge of protecting the hideout while he's away. With that taken care of he moves the tables that were blockading the cave entrance and disappears into the dense brush that hides the cave.
Sia and the others are at a loss of what to do now that Jellal has surprisingly left them on their own. Out of the entire group Meredith is the only one to immediately head back to the dining hall. Her hurried steps quickly carry her out of sight as if she were in a rush to do something while Jellal's gone.
After a bit of pondering, Vincent is the first adult to start walking down the hall to the dining hall while the rest are still just standing there with the gears in their heads spinning. The thought of escaping obviously crossed his mind but after remembering what happened with Kira and his roommate he immediately binned the idea in favor of relaxing in the base which comes with a much lower probability of being killed.
Kira, who had already experienced what it's like to be on Jellal's bad side, also came to a quick decision on the matter. She went to the dining hall without so much as a second glance at the hallway that leads to the cave's entrance and their only way to escape.
'If I let my mana recover I could easily help everyone else break out, but if that freak noticed any tampering with the cells I'm definitely going to be the first suspect. My life is very important to me so I can only apologize and hope they're used to the living conditions by now. Sorry.'
Sia watched as Beth followed after Kira leaving her by herself. Although none of the others had noticed it, her tail had been swaying slightly ever since Jellal had asked her to guard the cave while he was gone. Just like Meredith she didn't need to think twice to know what she was going to do after Jellal left.
Unlike the rest of the group she made her way to the entrance of the cave before being the first captive to take a step outside. She carefully observed the surroundings while breathing in the fresh forest air. After a few deep breaths she was struck by a moment of inspiration and promptly turned around and walked back into the cave.
Seeing Sia pass through the dining hall where she was relaxing with Beth and Vincent, Kira became curious about what Sia was doing so she followed her till they reached the treasure room. She waited outside while Sia roamed about the treasure room. Eventually Sia proudly walked out of the treasure room with a sword on her hip.
'Maybe I should see if I can find a mana potion in there. No no no, if I get caught taking something from the there, just thinking about it makes me shiver.'
While Sia was looking for a sword, Meredith was alone in Jellal's room. Her little hands were holding one of the suspiciously plain bags that she had seen Jellal messing with when they passed by his room earlier. Young as she may be, she grew up around merchants which allowed her to develop an eye for assessing different types of products. Yet no matter how she tried she couldn't find anything special about the bag. That's when it hit her; it's an item bag. From what she'd heard item bags don't look any different from normal bags but are able to hold far more capacity than the size of the bag. A bright smile bloomed on her face as she attempted to recall what her father had taught her about how to use item bags.
Outside the cave, hiding amongst the trees and brush a certain violet eyed goblin watched the entrance with great interest. When Sia initially walked out of the entrance he was somewhat surprised since he didn't think any of them actually had the guts to try to escape. Just when he was about to put her down to protect the secrecy of his new base she surprised him yet again when she didn't try to escape but instead went back inside.
A few minutes of patiently waiting was all the time it took for his stake out to see more action. The culprit was once again Sia who had returned to the cave entrance with a sword on her hip. His face began to twitch when he looked at the sword which had obviously been taken from his treasure room. It took all he had to keep his emotions in check as he watched her do practice swings with his sword.
Rather than rashly making a move on Sia he endured and observed her actions, ready to make a move the moment she makes her move to escape. That moment he had waited patiently for didn't come even after fifteen minutes. He was left flabbergasted as he watched Sia practicing while also keenly keeping an eye on her surroundings.
'She's actually guarding the cave? Kekeke, to think she actually took my request seriously. Since you've managed to impress me I'll let you off the hook for taking that sword without permission.'
He continued his observations for a short while before finally setting out with confidence that his base was left in good hands. Since he was going to be staying in this base for now he decided to use this hunting trip to not only practice his magic but also use the opportunity to scout out the surroundings so he wouldn't be completely green in navigating his own backyard.
He zigzagged his way through the area surrounding the cave, occasionally stopping to soak in the features of the environment. After circling around his base a few times he felt comfortable with his knowledge of the environment and at last he moved away to fulfill his original objective.
Since he was moving away from the base to hunt he moved in a straight line so he would be able to easily back track his way home. On his way he spotted a bush which had a bunch of berries on it. He picked a handful of berries and kept them in a pouch on his belt. Now that he had access to so many people, he assumed that at least one of them would be able to tell him if they were edible or if they had some other uses.
Whenever he found a conspicuous herb, mushroom, or fruit he would grab a handful of them and shove them into a pouch on his trusty belt. It didn't take long for his extra pouches to fill up causing him to reluctantly stop picking up every random thing that caught his eye.
One foot after the other he marched through the forest looking for prey. The sound of shrieking goblins caught his attention as he wandered the forest. Locking on to the sound he adjusted his course to intersect with it. Arriving in the area he casually approached while keenly watching his surroundings.
Leaning on a tree in a laid back manner he coolly kept an eye on the goings-on in front of him as if he was at a movie theater. When the play was over he uncrossed his arms and was about to go back to hunting when some of the actors spotted him from a distance. They began to close in on him despite him being completely uninterested in them.
'Kekeke, I wonder what these idiots are thinking, casually approaching a superior being such as myself. Perhaps they have a death wish. … Why don't I just try asking them? It should at least be somewhat interesting to see how they respond.'