After a few minutes, knights rushed into the guild followed by the city lord. It was indeed a rare occasion to see him armored up, but this was no small matter. All the papers received from Liam were nothing to laugh at.
Ricardo rushed ahead of all the knights and opened the private room door, "Liam! We've arrived!" He shouted and Selena jolted up. "The guards?"
"You and me, let's see who's worse." Liam growled with a stern face, his eyes almost glowing red as he turned toward the city lord. "How was it? I don't know what was in those papers, but I know wizards well, especially sneaky ones who listen to people in a private room. Your kind are the worst among mages."
"Let me go, you bastard."
"We've found records of the seventh tier spell, [Wizard's eye] being listed there, alongside information, crystal orb records, and several other classified information. All gathered by using the spell," The lord pulled his sword and pointed it at the guild master. "It would've been fine if you were a pervert who only peeped on people. But you've been snooping around the guards, city vault, and various important structures."
Ricardo pulled his sword as well, "There is no good coming from a wizard secretly trying to find where the city's money is kept, where the guard's weapons are stored, and where are the secret and hidden entrances of the city. We'll have to get to the bottom of this, and eventually make sure the information isn't shared with anyone."
"Wait! Wait! How could this be sure it was me? I didn't do it. Why would I go around spying on everyone, I'm not an idiot, I'm a wizard." The guild master cried.
"I've taken a gamble." Liam stared at him, "If you were a good wizard, I would've been the one shamed here. But, I guess I still know my wizards. You're a shitty one." He dragged him toward Ricardo, "Do you have magic sealing cuffs?"
"How is he not flinging spell?" Ricardo stared at Liam and the guild master in his hand, "I'm better at controlling mana than him."
Ricardo tried to cuff the guild master, but he kept flailing his arms around, occasionally hitting Liam or Ricardo in the face. After a while, his struggle annoyed Liam, but Ricardo was the first one to move and smacked the guild master in the head so hard he knocked him out.
The cuffed and chained guild master was taken out by the guards while the city lord and Ricardo sat with Liam and the rest inside the private room.
"So…you seem to have solved us another problem." The city lord stared at Liam.
"Before you say that." He pointed at Melany, "Do you know her story?"
"Not yet, but I have a guess based on the collar I see on her neck. You're trying to keep an illegal slave, you and the guild master butted heads over it, and so you gambled this by sending me his documents as I've heard you say earlier it was a gamble." He combed his beard with a smile.
"As expected of a city lord, you're smart." Liam giggled then shifted his eyes toward Melany, "But I'm not trying to keep a slave. I just don't want anyone to know where she came from. I also intended on freeing her the first time I managed to get the resources."
Melany and Alice stared at each other, they couldn't really explain how Melany came to because that might cause the lord to panic…but the guild master already heard of it so he might tell them when he gets interrogated later.
"Is there a reason why you don't want to tell us?" Ricardo stared at Liam, then shifted his eyes to Alice. "Care to speak?"
"You'll know eventually when you interrogate the guild master. Won't you?" She sighed, "Can't you just tell them?" She turned to Liam.
"I guess it can't be helped now that things turned like this. But it's best for Melany to tell them, explain it as best as you can, you're free after all." He smiled.
The lord's face quickly shifted after he heard Melany's story, and so did Ricardo, his face burned with rage, growing bright red as he looked like an erupting volcano.
"Demon lord Oni… To think he'll send assassins all the way to here." Ricardo growled, grinding his teeth as sweat formed on his forehead. He has been one of the cavalry in a war against demon lord Oni about two decades ago. He still remembers his comrades crying as they died to the hordes of demons, eaten alive, limb by limb.
"Even so." The lord stared at Melany, "Your sister…she's captive at the demon lord's castle, are you sure she's still alive, even if alive, you sure she isn't…"
"Big sister used a massive spell to seal herself in a coffin of eternal ice. They won't even touch her, but she is also in a death-like state, waiting for the time someone frees her." Melany looked at Liam, "The demon lord can't break the ice. It's up to me to reach sister and get her out."
"That won't be easy." The city lord stared at her, and then at Liam. "You aren't planning on going to the demon lord's domain, you'll die."
Ricardo nodded, "I too hate that bastard, but we can't kill him with normal means. He's too powerful for us mere mortals."
"Ricardo is right." Alice looked at Liam with a worried face. "I doubt we could even stand up to his minions."
Liam smiled, "We don't need to rush in, that was never the plan and never will be. It'll be a great journey, from here to the capital, and then we can leave this continent and head out to Oni's domain. It might be a year or even more in the future. We can do it if we put our minds to it." He looked at Ricardo, "We aren't soldiers after all. You know it as well, don't you?"
Ricardo's face grew redder with rage, "Liam! I'll punch you in the face." He growled.
"You're angry because you realized it as well. Don't you," He grabbed Ricardo by the chest plate, "You'll never match up to a demon lord with such a mindset."
Ricardo sighed, "Fine. It was stupid, I know. Charging in with a large army was only us asking to be eaten or burned by large-scale magic." He stared at Liam with burning eyes, "You're one impressive bastard. How did you know that? That everyone in that war died in vain, not a single one progress was made."
"I didn't know." The moment I saw your angry face earlier, I knew it must've ended in the worst possible way. Every soldier expects war to be bad, and for them to still hold rage for decades, that means it was a crushing defeat."
Ricardo sighed, "We had people who said the same thing, that the whole war was stupid before it even started. But the commanders at the time never listened to the advice of the young ones. They say that there is no castle that can't be taken when rushed with over two million soldiers." He looked at the city lord, "The United Kingdoms' armies got crushed, nine-tenths of the army perished as food for the demons, and we were sent back in shame."
"Seeing the lord's pale face, I guess the loss was blamed on the soldiers not performing well?" Liam wanted to laugh, "How stupid."
"You even guessed that? Just what are you?"
"If I know one thing about us mortal races, how we think and how we live, we're worse than demons. Even devils feel shame seeing how scummy and evil we can get. They've washed their hands off our filth." Liam shifted his stare to Ricardo, "We only know to shift the blame on others, never take it to heart. The soldiers who died lost their lives because they didn't spend enough time training, and because they signed themselves to a stupid leader who can't think outside the human's norms."
"The stupid generals were also a reason; they've sent us straight into one trap after another. It felt like we're lead through an entertainment park of death and blood."
"Two million…that's stupidly large, an elite force of around ten thousand would've fared better." Alice looked at Ricardo, "I'm sorry to hear that, It's must've been a painful thing to go through."
Ricardo smiled, "No need to worry about it. Just the worries of a retired, old soldier."
"So Liam, you said you want to head to the capital?" The city lord smiled, "I have something you can help me with if that's the case."
"What is it?"
"I'm sending my daughters to the capital next month. They've been studying for years at home and need to take the academy's test to get their certificates. I intended to send Ricardo and Samara as the guards, but since you're going there anyway. Care to take them with you?"
"Wait! You're asking him to guard them?" Ricardo gasped.
"You want us to guard them? We don't even have a date to set off." Alice stood.
"Liam, what do you say?" The city lord looked at him with a gentle smile.
"I'm not babysitting any adults. They better know how to fight, or at least cook and wash our clothes on the way."