Chapter 55

Julien slung the bag over his shoulder and ran toward the village outskirts.

The load pressing down on his back rattled and clanged with every stride, like startled things jostled awake.

"Hk, haah…."

Julien's breath came scorching and sour. He swallowed the dry spit clinging to the roof of his mouth, forcing it down along with the turmoil churning inside him.

Everything Edwin had said back at the tavern—the words, the attitude—had been suspicious through and through.

…But he had no room to press for answers right now.

First and foremost, he needed to drain the mana threatening to surge at any moment.

I have to get to that hill on the outskirts I spotted earlier. Out there, I can bleed off mana without anyone seeing….

That was when it happened. Julien's eyes flew wide and he skidded to a halt mid-stride.

Near the wooden palisade in the distance, several guards were milling about, drifting back and forth across the area.

He was certain they hadn't been there when the carriage had passed through earlier.

A new deployment must have gone up in the meantime.

"Tch…."

Julien clicked his tongue in frustration and veered into a side alley.

What surfaced with each step was a scene from right after they'd entered the village.

Guards accosting travelers over the string of thefts—checking belongings, demanding explanations of where things came from.

If he ran into the guards now, the odds were high he'd get the exact same treatment.

…No, it might be even worse. I've got over a dozen relics in this bag alone.

Julien bit down on his lip and kept running.

The palisade ringing the village outskirts was fairly tall, but not so high that he couldn't scale it with a good push off the ground.

His plan was to vault over at a spot the guards' eyes and ears couldn't reach—somewhere open enough to have been left off the patrol route—

Clank.

That was when it happened. The clash of metal on metal rang out from an alley one block over.

Two guards burst into view at the same time.

"…!"

Julien froze in his tracks. The guards spotted him just as fast and stopped dead, startled.

Their stares collided in the open air.

"Ho…."

The guards looked him up and down, suspicion blooming openly across their faces.

"Hey, stop right there. We need to check your belongings. Put down that bag you're carrying."

Julien shuffled backward, swallowing hard. His blood ran cold. He'd come all this way specifically to avoid a situation like this. What miserable luck—

Thump.

The unexpected encounter drove tension straight through him. His heart clenched tight, then heaved a violent pulse of fluid through his chest.

Julien's eyes went wide and a ragged breath tore free. He clutched at his chest and staggered.

The mana dwelling inside his body… was reacting to his fear.

"What are you doing? Can't you hear me? Put your things down. Now!"

The first guard's voice sharpened another degree, but Julien was in no state to deal with that.

He curled into himself and squeezed his eyes shut. Inside the feverish haze of his mind, the same words looped over and over.

It's fine. Nothing's going to happen. I can get through this. Just hold on a little longer….

"Well, well. Guilty conscience, huh? The second I see a face I've never laid eyes on lurking around a place like this, I figured as much. You! Come with us right—"

"—Please!"

Julien's voice cracked wide open. He wrestled his swimming vision under control and threaded words between each heaving breath.

"Please… just let me go. It's not… what you think… if you need to question me… I'll come back, I swear… please."

"…Is this kid out of his mind."

The guard's voice stabbed into his ear like a shard of glass, and the footsteps closed in fast.

Julien gripped his own arms and drew his body tight. The crushing pressure made his heartbeat pound harder.

No. At this rate… it's going to happen.

Instinct drove the verdict home like a bolt of lightning.

Julien shook his head hard and dug his fingertips into his arms as if they could bore through. He chanted his desperate wish like a prayer.

…Please. I'm begging you. Back off. Listen to what I'm saying.

If this keeps up, everything will—.

"Well, well. Going to dig your heels in to the bitter end, are you? Fine then, we'll do this the hard way. Hey, get ready to drag this one in—!"

CRASH-BANG!

The threatening voice had been tightening around his throat when it happened. A deafening blast tore across the open air, tangled up with a massive shout.

"Wh—what! What's going on!"

The commotion came out of nowhere. Julien blinked in a daze, then snapped his head up.

The guards standing right in front of him were looking around in frantic confusion, panic plain on their faces.

The sudden disaster had knocked them completely off balance.

"—Thief! The thief broke through the palisade and ran! Everyone after him!"

A voice rang out from somewhere closer, relaying the situation in a piercing shout.

The guards forgot all about their interrogation and stopped in their tracks, trading urgent glances, hesitating.

Another crash boomed through the air in the gap.

"Dammit!"

The guards spat a sharp curse, shoved past Julien, and sprinted toward the main road.

Julien stood at an angle, staring blankly at their retreating backs as they shrank into the distance.

Had God actually answered a prayer? The rescue couldn't have come at a better time, and he was beyond grateful—but at the same time, he couldn't begin to make sense of it.

"What in the world… just happened."

Julien was still muttering in a daze when it came.

A rustling sound drifted down from the upper floor of a building right beside him.

Julien whipped his head back and stared at where the noise had come from.

"…!"

His breath caught and his eyes went wide.

There, beyond a weathered window frame, a familiar figure was peeking out.

Hair and eyes like the night sky shaped into winter sea. Julien whispered the name of the person looking down at him.

"Mikha…il?"

Mikhail didn't say a word.

He simply held the gaze with that unreadable look of his, then dipped his head in a small nod.

And… that was all. That was the last of it.

Tap.

Mikhail spun away and vanished from the window.

He disappeared so fast that Julien lurched toward the window, voice rising with urgency.

There were things he wanted to ask—no, things he needed to ask, piled so high they were spilling over.

"Wait. Mikha—!"

Clatter.

But the call never finished. Julien flinched and stopped where he stood. The relics weighing down his back rang out in a stern reminder of his situation.

"……."

Julien drew out a long, slow exhale and lowered his head.

He pressed his trembling lips together and set his priorities straight.

…Right. Draining the mana comes first. Asking Mikhail what happened can wait until after.

Julien turned his head back toward the inner alley. He took off along the route he'd planned.

By the time he'd scaled the palisade ahead and reached the deserted hill beyond it…

He'd finally be able to let the mana pour out freely.

---

Tap-tap-tap-tap….

Mikhail tucked himself quietly inside the building and listened to Julien's presence fade into the distance.

"……."

The sound of running footsteps vanished far away.

Mikhail straightened the head he'd been tilting and let a soft smile settle on his lips.

The plan to clear a path for Julien had worked.

Han and Ul, hidden near the palisade, had unleashed a gust of wind the moment he gave the signal—snapping a tree clean in two.

The situation with Julien is handled for now… so it's time to move on to resolving the request.

Mikhail slipped out of the building, scanned his surroundings, and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"All right, you two. You can come out now."

Rustle.

At Mikhail's easy call, Han and Ul appeared from the branches of a nearby tree.

The siblings hopped down and landed on Mikhail's shoulders, their bushy tails swaying in lazy sweeps.

Mikhail glanced between the two and smiled.

"Great work. Both of you."

"Kang."

Mikhail draped their triumphant little cries over his shoulders like a cape and stepped out of the alley.

His next destination was a palisade in a somewhat different part of the village.

The person who'd prove invaluable during this request should be there.

I already know his name.

Bant Hemilson.

A man who'd once served as an instructor in a lordship's knight order, now holding the post of security captain at Colton Winery.

He'd spent years building capable forces and managing order—which meant he'd been overseeing the village's security without any real trouble up to this point.

But… this time would be different.

The sudden outbreak of sleeping sickness, compounded by a pickpocket whose movements defied all prediction—the problems had piled on top of each other.

There was no doubt he was racking his brain over challenges he'd never faced before.

Which is exactly why, after I give him the decisive help he needs to catch the pickpocket… the goodwill follows as a matter of course.

Mikhail recalled the optimal progression and rewards that had been mapped out at Colton Winery, and tilted his head in thought.

A spell that could imbue mana with attributes and enable transformation, plus bonus stats as additional rewards.

A sequence of steps that would earn the highest completion score for the request.

Not difficult. As long as things go according to plan.

Mikhail wrapped up the thought and raised his head.

He glanced at the sun curving westward and picked up his pace.

If his read on what came next was right, roughly ten minutes after he arrived at the northeast palisade…

[Tch, the pickpocket hasn't shown so much as a hair this whole time—no chance in hell they'd be loitering around somewhere this wide open.]

Bant Hemilson would come trudging into view, grumbling complaints that sounded more like sighs.