The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

            After a few days of gathering Intel, Aleni finally gave Zaos a proper report of the things she learned. Obviously, it was apparent, but the noble family that ruled over that region only controlled the flow and marketing of magic stones. They had an old story in that region, but there were no bad rumors regarding them.

            The thing that Zaos assumed about the bandits was true, they had several friends, and many groups had been causing trouble in that region. They mostly attacked merchants that traveled, buying and selling things related to magic stones. Even though they have been hiring guards, it didn't help solve the problem.

"It isn't weird for low-lives to take advantage of times like this where war is imminent to do their dirty work," Zaos said. "Still, they seem too organized considering that not a single one of them has been caught. Did you hear anything relating to that?"

"No, I barely hear anyone talking about the bandits," Aleni replied. "Everyone is talking about the war."

            It was also obvious that Dalyor had sent some spies to keep an eye on things here, but they should be mostly at the capital of the Ashiris kingdom. Still, if the rumors of war had been spreading that fast, then it was obvious that the spies caught wind of that much earlier than anyone suspected. The Sairus kingdom won't be caught off guard… while Zaos was no longer a part of that country, he couldn't help but worry since it was his homeland and his friends were still there. They probably hate him, but it was due to the circumstances…

"Since the war is about to happen, we can assume that we will have more time to do what we want here," Zaos said. "You should get used to looking after Milliendra now. Any information will spread naturally across the city, so you don't have to stay all night outside. While she might drain your mana, you don't need to hold her all the time."

"I…" Aleni hesitated.

            Zaos felt like sighing. There wasn't only so much someone could doubt themselves… In any case, Zaos couldn't do anything more for Aleni aside from that, at least for the time being.

            Since Zaos felt like he didn't gain much strength in the last few months, he moved across town pretty often to level up his Illusionism. It wasn't a hard job since few people had any resistance to Illusion magic. Not to mention, by using that kind of ability, no one could find Zaos. For two weeks, when he was troubled by his lack of progress in his research, he moved around while letting Milliendra absorb some sunlight, and then he made troublemakers faint. It was quite relaxing… However, after that, he began to hear some rumors.

"Did you hear? Our army finally started the attack!"

"I heard that the soldiers of Sairus kingdom abandoned their southern base after just three days of battle."

"It seems some commanders from all over their kingdom are joining the battle at this point."

            Zaos had a pretty good idea of who those commanders were. Erean, Ruvyn, and Brien… Zaos had no idea who the southern base commander was, but it wouldn't be weird to assume that he might have died since they had already abandoned the southern base.

            It seemed like Ashiris kingdom was putting a lot of resources into that war, and that was why the rumors about bandits were also increasing as of late. Zaos moved around and sold the weapons that he obtained to some specialized shops, so perhaps it was time to make more money out of those idiots…

            In any case, the quality of the magic weapons was really low. Even though Zaos checked most of the best shops, they couldn't be compared to what he could do with his own magic. Was that intentional? Only the soldiers of the kingdom could have top-tier weapons? Zaos didn't know since he didn't see any of those elite soldiers so far.

"I will deal with the thieves. You stay here and look after Milliendra," Aleni said.

"No, you can't decide that on your own," Zaos said. "Besides, you might be good at fighting, but you can't plan that well far ahead. Knowing you, you will cut their throats without thinking. We are on this together, so we will work together."

"… How do you want to proceed with them?" Aleni asked.

"I am starting to think that those bandits have someone backing them," Zaos said. "The things we found in that hideout were that numerous, so it is safe to assume someone in the black market of this kingdom is buying those from them. Instead of running around chasing minions, we go straight for the head. Once we have enough information about who that might be, we will decide our next steps."

"Then, I will…" Aleni said.

"No, no," Zaos shook his head. "We will gather intel together. There is no need to rush. We don't want to draw unnecessary attention to us."

            Aleni didn't like that, which was good since she was developing her own standards. However, she still had a long way to go considering that Zaos only had to use his commanding voice slightly to make her follow his idea. For someone like her, she would need to work with more people to eventually become a normal person and cut ties with her past. At least that was what Zaos thought.

            While that was his main reason, Zaos didn't want to rush and then fall for some trap and become involved in something big so soon. There is always the chance that something might go wrong at some point, after all. Besides, Zaos wanted to have some peace while he did his research. Hunting bandits to gain money was just something they could do to make sure that such a problem wouldn't escalate later.. Besides, he didn't want to keep moving around and make Milliendra grow in a place that she couldn't call home.