(This is a bonus chapter, so you guys better give me powerstones. This week's goal is 500 Powerstones)
Time--?, Place--??, POV--??
I ran up the mountain, thinking that from above, I would have a height advantage and could keep her at bay to get some time to think.
I also called for reinforcements with the magic communication device I had on me.
Oh boy, that decision was pretty wrong as the instigator of the whole incident was waiting for me there, seemingly knowing that I would make that decision.
Sometimes, that makes me think if she had more information about me as an individual, as it wouldn't have been that surprising if somebody in my squad had sold my information away.
The history of our squad had proved it from time to time, which is also the reason that in the annual rankings -- we were only above Black Bulls.
Oh well, that thought was pointless to think, as when I reached the summit of the mountain, I realized how despicable humans could be.
My magic was pretty special.
I had been told that in the past multiple times, and even in the future, it would still happen, as it was a rare magic after all.
Not many could say that they would remain unharmed if they were hit by my magic, and my opponent at that time wasn't any different.
However, I wasn't really given any chance to attack her as she had been controlling some pawns to confront me.
And the worst part of it all was the pawns themselves.
She was using kids ranging from 7-10 years old as her soldiers by giving them knives.
Well, it definitely worked as I didn't attack those kids.
So, I ran down the cliff, only to be intercepted by my female teammate.
Around that time, I had understood my opponent's magic.
So, I had a choice: either kill my teammate and escape from here and wait for the reinforcements to come, or try to confront that demon, kill her, and free all the kids along with my other teammate.
The latter would require me to kill some of the kids in the process, if not all of them, seeing the nature of my opponent.
Though I wasn't really afraid of killing somebody at that time, what the second option implied was unacceptable to my morals, so I chose the first option.
I, with my own hands, killed my teammate.
That brief fight with her led to one of my legs getting severely burned, making it almost useless even to run away.
At that time, I didn't know any transportation spells, so it was a situation where I felt one emotion intensely.
Despair.
That emotion finally engulfed me completely.
That's when she appeared.
She appeared in front of me and sent a wave of water towards the kids.
The water successfully immobilized the kids, preventing them from attacking anybody else, including themselves, in case they tried to commit suicide.
I had always wondered about her timing and later realized that she wouldn't have been able to restrain them in one go if she hadn't prepared that spell beforehand.
So, she had used the part where I had killed my teammate as a distraction.
I really wanted to blame her for that, but I never was able to, as it always reminded me of my own powerlessness.
Later, she apprehended the demonic lady.
When the latter tried to threaten how she would kill the villagers, my saviour just told her that she had already restrained them.
That was my first proper encounter with Miko.
---
"Damn, though this is the city where most of the exports are done to other parts of the city, I didn't expect it to be this beautiful," Erza said, wonder evident in her tone.
Others were not that different compared to her.
They were currently walking in the city, without cloaks, just slight changes in hair, eyes, and clothing.
The entire city had a rock theme, with some shops using transparent shining stone instead of glass.
There was even a big tower, which was breathtaking, to say the least, and was visible from any part of the city.
"Well, you guys know the drill, we will scout through to get some information, but our main goal is to find the duo. Also, don't show any of your powers in the city, as I don't know if one of the Shining Generals is present or not. There are multiple Vice-Captain level individuals at least," Akeru ordered his teammates, and they broke into two similar groups as before.
Ren had created a communication artifact which doesn't use much mana, making it seem like a normal bracelet, which allows them to talk to each other.
This bracelet also allowed them to know if either Miko or Takuma was nearby, as Akeru not only had their information but mana signatures given in the information packet.
After all, nobody in their right mind would send them to find two people in a freaking big country with no leads.
So, accordingly, Akeru and Ren couldn't be in the same team, as if let's say one of the bracelets broke, to fix it, some expertise of Rune arrays would be required, which only both of them had.
Also, this way, the combat prowess was more balanced as Kaiser was the weakest in the group.
"Let's buy some gems and mage stones as souvenirs," Akeru said to Kaiser.
"But won't that cost too much? I don't think we have that much money."
"Hehehe, have you not heard about an art called pickpocketing?" Akeru replied with a grin.
"Uhh, really boss? Do you even know how to do this? It would be pretty troublesome if we get caught," Kaiser asked with a deadpan.
"It would be fine," Akeru said with a nonchalant expression.
Unlike his younger self, he understood the nature of magic more deeply, so he wasn't really worried about somebody trying to use tracking magic to find the items.
Plus, the mana zone could also be used to steal stuff, though he would not make it too big and would keep the concentration of mana only slightly above the mana levels in nature, such that no mage would be able to sense them unless they were focusing here.
'Pickpocketing, huh? Now that I think about it, didn't that spy's existence come to light due to that? Maybe he did that due to similar reasons as to why we are doing it,' Kaiser thought while remembering one of his failed solo missions.
It didn't even take Akeru a minute to steal the amount of money that his younger self would have required a continuous week's worth of effort to gain.
Kaiser was baffled at this.
"Are you sure that you weren't a thief before you became a magic knight?" he asked with amazement evident in his tone.
"Hehe, don't mind the small stuff, let's go to a shop now," Akeru said with a grin.
'Now that I think about it, the boss didn't say his last name specifically, though he seemed to have contact with the captain of Crimson Lions, but if he was a Vermillion, why didn't he use that name?' Kaiser thought about the anomaly but didn't voice it out.
After all, it wasn't really relevant to the mission they were doing.
They reached the shop and Akeru giddily asked about the mage stones which interested him.
'Oh well, maybe I should buy something for Leah,' Kaiser thought while looking at Akeru's expression.
They exited the shop after they were done shopping.
"I wonder how such small stones are responsible for making the knights here strong," Kaiser asked after they were considerably distant from the spot and making sure that nobody heard him.
"Well, I am interested too. I wonder if some scientists of our nation have tried to find its secret," Akeru asked in wonder.
"Well, if it was that easy to find, then the other three nations would have already copied it and made their soldiers strong."
"True, I also have heard that these things are used to brainwash their knights so that they follow their orders," Akeru suddenly said, sharing the piece of information he heard from Mimosa.
The topic had come up when they were discussing all four kingdoms, which came up when discussing the Heart Kingdom, the latter being a pretty common topic among their conversations due to going there once.
"Do you think Miko is being controlled too?" Kaiser asked seriously.
***
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