Chapter 20 | Chaos and Mage

More than 20 years of active deployment and about a year in this bizarre world, will I fail a mission for the first time? Satou couldn’t help but wonder with a bitter frown.

He was revered as The Family’s greatest asset. Infiltration, assassination, framing, bodyguard missions… Name it, and he would have a couple under his belt.

The most bizarre detail was, one even he himself couldn’t believe, that he had never failed. He had a hundred percent completion rate. Whatever he was ordered, he had accomplished it one way or another. There were times he had performed subpar, not to be misunderstood. There were times he had failed to provide perfect satisfaction. But he always succeeded in completing his missions.

But this is not that. I promised these two young men that I would get them out of the tower safely. However, if things keep going like this… he thought, his gaze stuck on the mandibles of a nearby centipede. …Like this, we will all die.

Sitting and waiting for his death like a duck had never been Satou’s thing. His perfect record was thanks to his ‘fail by action, not inaction’ mentality.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait for too long.

As Theo left and disappeared amidst the buildings, the Captain turned to another one of his soldiers.

“Go and see if there are any other mages that might be helpful. Tell them the situation and accompany them to meet Sir Alex at the nexus of the barrier formation,” he said.

It seems he has also noticed Theo’s lack of magical abilities.

It wasn’t that hard to figure out, if he had to be honest. No offense to the young mage, he was doing perfectly well for a lost young man, but the way he carried himself made it apparent that he was a complete newbie. Mages were always eccentrics, but not in the way Theo was.

He acted more like… a sheltered young master of a big clan. Somewhat similar to how Long Tian acted. Not like an obsessed, mad scholar of sorts.

As he was busy thinking, a centipede had climbed its way up the barrier and was slamming against it with its mandibles. Satou took a step back and created some distance. He didn’t want to see the details of this accursed mutant’s maw.

As his hands rested on the hilts of his daggers, Satou saw another soldier approach The Captain.

“Captain, the Lieutenant has sent word from the eastern wall,” he said. “According to what he has said, the barrier won’t hold for ten more minutes. He said he would lead an incursion out into the forest to pull away the centipedes. But he won’t be able to attract all of them on his own.”

“…And?” The Captain urged the soldier to continue.

“He wants another distraction team from this side. He said to ask the…” His eyes wandered over to Satou.

“Understood. You can leave.” The Captain dismissed him before heading Satou’s way. He smiled bitterly. He knew the assassin had heard the conversation, so there was no need to speak unnecessary words. “My men and I will accompany you to death, Sir Jake.”

Satou could only nod at the bravery. These people were weak, very much so. All the kingdoms under the Empire had a uniform military hierarchy deeply dependent on individual strength. Of course, leadership was taken into account, but one couldn’t become a captain unless they were a second-rate warrior.

He himself was an upper first-rate, edging closer to the level of a Master Warrior. Lieutenants were only chosen from first-rates, so that man would technically be at the same level as Satou.

Though, Satou was confident in dealing with any warrior of the same level as long as they weren’t an abnormal too.

With this much manpower, I’m not even sure we can actually get their attention, he thought. His hand grabbed his chin for a moment before he made up his mind.

“A couple of third- and second-rates will only be a nuisance,” he said curtly. The Captain frowned, but couldn’t say anything. “I will do it myself.”

“But Sir Jake, you won’t be able to attract them on your own!” the Captain said. That, Satou knew too. But he had a plan. A dangerous one.

“You see…”

After storing her goods under her stall, she had decided to sleep on her chair for the night. The inn cost money, after all. Money she couldn’t waste on accommodations.

But her good night’s sleep was disturbed.

Nicole was woken up with tremors running through her body. It took her a couple seconds before she realized it was, in fact, a soldier, shaking her.

“Ma’am. Ma’am, please wake up! Are you a mage?” the soldier asked with a deep frown etched on his face.

“Huh…?” Nicole exclaimed groggily.

Tch. Great… she thought. Another one of these bastards, after my body.

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Not only did she have to come to this damned place to sell this stolen ring, she was being harassed by a soldier. These sorts of idiots popped up every now and then, thinking they became hot shit after wearing those chainmails and plates, with a sword hanging from their belts.

But it couldn’t be further from the truth. A first robe like her could incinerate the guy with a fireball before he even unsheathed his sword. It was true that mages became less and less combat-effective at higher levels, but she was different. She was one of the fastest first-robe casters in the red tower.

“Get the hell away from me,” she said, poison dripping from her voice.

“Miss Mage, I’m really sorry, but this is a moment of utmost emergency. It’s a tide!” the soldier explained himself. Nicole assumed he was trying to deceive her somehow, but realized that wasn’t the case from how serious the guy was. She furrowed her brows and straightened on her chair.

“What am I supposed to do? Just kill the entities and wait,” she said dismissively. But somehow, she knew. It wasn’t that simple.

“The tide this time is made up of centipede mutants, ma’am. And the worst part is, the arcane barrier is failing!”

Nicole’s eyes widened. She had expected to hear many things when she was woken up, but none of them were about her inevitable doom.

Although she hadn’t felt this so-called arcane barrier before, she knew these outposts had some sort of defense mechanism against the tides. And if it was failing…