As Mike was waiting for Synthia to show up at the docks in another location a fair distance away from the city was Daniel. Now Daniel was chained with his hands behind his back and feet chained together with a special type of cuffs that were specifically made and regulated by dwarven smiths far in the northern mountains which had the properties of draining a magic-user of their mana before dispersing it into their surroundings at a rapid rate, as to prevent mana overload which causes an explosion. The cuffs were only given to those who either had enough money or the right connections amongst the dwarves as they tended to keep an eye on their products, especially those that have magical properties.
Daniel was fine more or less as he was just feeling a bit sore since his captors decided to ruff him up a bit when he woke up. From what Daniel had gathered so far was that he was somewhere in a forest and he could no longer see due to his captors blindfolding him as well as just lying him down on the ground so as a result of not being able to see or do much he was unable to learn anything extremely useful about those who took him here. The only good thing is that Daniel knew that the only forest near the city of Irondale was the 1000 mile forest that Mike tends to hunt in.
Thinking about Mike, Daniel can only hope that his apprentice has some common sense and heads to the capital to find some help within the wizard association in the capital so that they can send a searching party for him. For now, though all he could do is look for a way to escape or to find something to get help quickly from the capital, the cuffs and his lack of information was not helping him though. So for now Daniel could only use the only sense available to him currently, his hearing. Trying to pick up anything was not difficult as it seemed to be as no one around him cared to hide anything since he was cuffed and had no magic then he was not a threat so no one cared to hide anything stupid in Daniels opinion since you should never look down on someone, especially an enemy.
"Damned monsters... they don't give us a break do they..." Someone complains as a pair of people walk by Daniels area
"Well, what did you expect?" A man responds
"Anything but this," The first man says complaining further
"You are stupid then if you had no idea that we were coming in this close to the center of the forest then," The second man says as the duo continues onward away from earshot
Daniel quiets down as best as possible as he listens to anyone else who happens to pass by him talking about anything that may hold some information for him that he could use. Seeing as that is all he can do Daniel just patiently gets comfortable as he lies on the ground listening as best he can.
...
Mike was now on the boat that was taking himself and Synthia to the capital along the river. Synthia right now was not wearing her usual armor and items since she claimed that if the boat went down then she would be able to swim away, even though she had all her usual equipment in a big backpack that she was carrying which made no sense to Mike but what was he gonna do about that. So instead Synthia was just wearing a white outer garment with brown trousers instead of her usual items with her ears being hidden by her hair which covered them thankfully. Still, though looking at her without the armor Mike was intrigued by her looks...
Now then he had never seen her wear anything else besides her armor and as a result, was surprised to see that she was well endowed with a nice body overall with having nice symmetry and curves complimented by her half-elf charm. Still, he knew that someone like her would not be interested in someone like him, plus he knew that his feelings were due to mostly teenage hormones which generally leads a lot of the youth back on Earth to make dumb decisions most of the time so Mike was not gonna act on them.
Synthia noticed Mike's gaze at first as he was not trying to hide it which made her feel quite uncomfortable with him looking at her with an almost predatory gaze, but he eventually stopped and never looked at her again. She was relieved but for some reason, there was a slight feeling of regret in her that was upset that he was no longer looking at her that refused to go away no matter how much she tried to get rid of it. Still though with her looks and assets she drew a lot of attention to herself from the other passengers and crew members which made her uncomfortable so Mike being the oportun- gentlemen he was he stepped in and made sure that they would not bother the both of them.
He did that by placing his hand on Synthia's waist and pulling her in closer to him to make it seem like they were some sort of adventuring couple in his mind. Synthia was extremely flustered at being so close to him like this that she was having a hard time thinking coherently.
"So, no time for love then?" Abbey asks as she appears within Mikes vision with a smug look plastered on her face
Mike just smiles at her while voicing his thoughts
'I guess you seem to misunderstand what I am doing right now, so let me make this clear then, I said no love well this is not love, but me helping out a friend okay?' Mike thinks while a dangerous glint flashes in his eyes as he looks at Abbey
"Sure..." Was her only response as she disappears
Mike having made it so that Synthia would no longer be harassed on the trip to the capital removes his hand from where it was and goes back to looking out at the scenery along the river with Synthia trying to process what in the world was happening now.
As a paladin, she took an oath of abstinence which meant that she could not have any type of loving relationship with a person of the opposite gender unless she married them, so being almost abused by Mike was causing her pure world and thoughts to crumble as she was doing things that were happening because of Mike tainting the already fallen paladin unknowingly. She was in mental turmoil as to what he had been doing thus far as she believed that his actions were going against her goddess's wishes.
Mike was not blind nor oblivious as to how Synthia was acting out or making strange facial expressions so he knew he had to clear up her doubts and fears as best he could.
"You should have no more problems now with anyone here on the boat since I doubt any sane man would try to cause a scene here unless they were some sort of rich idiot young master wanting to take you away from me," Mike says while looking at her from the corner of his eye
"Huh..." Synthia says not quite understanding Mikes words
"Look Synthia you are... pleasing to the eye to say the least and I understand why you tend to wear your armor not because of your race but because of how some people might harm you for your body. So doing this helped you more than you think and don't think too much into my actions" Mike says bluntly now looking straight into her eyes while slightly gesturing to her
Synthia does not know how to react to Mike's reasoning as it seems... really weird to her understanding of things. Still, this was the best that Mike could put it to where she might be able to understand where he is coming from since Synthia was a paladin she has probably experienced holy wars and purging heretics for the goddess not getting a real look at what was happening around her at what lay deep in the shadows and darkness of society. Still, it would be outright mean to say that she was oblivious as to that she had no clue about it as she had been a fallen paladin for some time that she had to have experienced something related to it. In easier to understand lingo, she was a toddler to the real world while Mike was a teenager in his own experience since coming here, seeing what society was capable of back on Earth, as well as his thoughts and imagination about it leading to the result that he had a good idea about things in a medieval society where entire villages could disappear overnight due to bandits and other things attacking them.
So Mike had to be her shield against the demons that lurked in human skin plotting to destroy the lives of others in society. She would be able to understand right away but she would eventually if she stayed with him long enough since he would be taking quests to get more exp and become stronger. With high risk comes high reward as they say.
Mike just continued to look out at the scenery as the duo continue to go along the river to the capital.
...
[The Royal Capitial]
In one of the spires of the castle, inside the inner walls of the castle itself sat Grand Wizard Grosso who was seated at a desk looking at some parchments and papers that were submitted to him for review by various people and organizations that the wizard organization had dealings with. Still though as he was looking over the report of the increase in ice troll sightings in the north the grand wizard's mind was focused on something else entirely that he had read before this report.
Demons
Creatures from Hell that were incredibly strong compared to regular humans, but while compared to humans demons had a sub-par reproductive ability making them take twice as long to procreate than that of the elves who can only give birth every 100 years to a pureblood elf. Still, though any activity of demons was not good as recently there have been rumors of demons being able to corrupt humans with some new form of magic that turns them into hellspawn as well.
The reports had been unconfirmed as of now but all the investigation units sent out to report the situation have been unable to find any truth to those rumors... until very recently. A human turned demon was captured and brought back with much difficulty for study into how this was happening by the work of this new magic. Transmutation magic would not be able to do something like this as the transformation seemed to be permanent. Naturally, this disturbed the grand wizard deeply that his attention to his work had been wavering slightly as he was the one who had been conducting the tests and trying to understand how the demons were able to do this.
'I believe it would be for the best if I were to talk to his majesty about this' Grosso thinks as he once again tries to move his attention back to the small stack of papers on his desk that required his attention all while ignoring a certain report marked urgent that appeared being placed at the bottom of the paper stack by the grand wizard in his stupor.
...
As Daniel was lying on the ground he heard four pairs of footsteps coming towards him directly this time so he knew that they wanted to take him somewhere or feed him... or beat him black and blue again like before.
"Get him on his feet" A gruff voice sounds as Daniel is lifted by his arms and soon dragged away from where he was originally
What feels like a few minutes goes by and soon Dike hears the sound of cloth being moved away like that of a tent flap, before he moves forward a few feet and is placed in a cushioned chair. His blindfold is removed allowing him to see now that he is sitting at a rectangular table that extends just a few feet with there being another chair at the end of the table which is currently unoccupied. Looking around Daniel sees that he is alone in this tent that holds only the table and the chairs inside with no other furniture in view.
Then a few minutes of waiting pass by as a tent flap in front of Daniel opens up with the same butler from the mayor's manor holds open the flap as the mayor himself enters the little tent.
"Good to see that our guest is quite comfortable," the mayor says as he sits in the empty seat with the butler doing his job by pulling it out as well as pushing it in for the mayor as he sits down
"Thank you for the hospitality," Daniel says as he just looks at the butler who had moved behind the mayor and by his right side
"Oh please now I don't usually treat everyone who breaks into my manor this nicely, but considering your status you deserve such treatment"
"Then care to tell me what you are up to?"
"Normally I would be glad to do that before having my soldiers enjoy a little hunt with my... pets, but I am not going to ruin anything in case you happen to get out of here which mind you is very slim given your circumstances, but still it does not hurt to be careful"
"Then answer me this... who or what the hell is that?" Daniel says while looking dead set at the butler who was the reason for his capture
The only response he gets is a devilish smile from both the mayor and the butler.