A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 9 Night Raid on the Town Inn

Gate taxation is the primary method of tax collection in all cities on the continent, with the exception of the maritime nation of Ishtar and the peninsula states at the southernmost tip of the continent. To avoid this expense, hiring guards and resupplying and resting in towns along the way are more cost-effective options.

The lords of the empire understood this situation, and thus, tacitly and implicitly, the inns in towns and villages could only be the property of nobles, and the vast majority of them belonged to lords. The high accommodation fees for outsiders became a disguised form of "gate fee".

Before dark, the caravan arrived at a small town, where horses and four large wagons filled the inn's stables and backyard.

The restaurant owner served fruit wine for dinner, and Singhlev and the coachmen each drank a whole glass, still wanting more. "You drank too fast, Singhlev, here you go," Rorschach said, not entirely comfortable with the homemade fruit wine, and offered it to the dwarf uncle. Hill and Mr. Aller also shared their glasses with the coachmen.

"The towns are fairly densely packed since we're not far from the capital, but if we continue, we'll have to be prepared to sleep outdoors," Mr. Aller reminded us after the meal. He had booked three rooms—one each for Hill and Rorschach, and one for himself and Singhlev. "Although the inn's beds aren't bad, we can't all be sound asleep; we need to take turns keeping watch over the goods."

"I'll take the first half of the night." Luo Xia's offer surprised everyone. Before, no one had ever thought of this fair-skinned young mage as a pampered young master. They never expected him to volunteer to take the night watch.

However, Rorschach's idea was simple. He didn't think that being a spellcaster gave him any special privileges in the team. Since everyone had to participate in the night watch, he might as well do it in the first half of the night. He often stayed up all night in college, and Rorschach often studied like crazy at the magic academy. He had no burden from evening to the night before.

And so, Rorschach would sit by a large cart in the backyard at night, reading by the light of the hotel window. The cart driver, who was on night duty with him, would smoke a small, white copper pot, emitting a pungent, stimulating aroma of flammable plant-based smoke.

"The Three Royal Spellcasters" tells the story of three witty young men from the Holy Kingdom's Royal Spellcaster Corps who outwit and outmaneuver a cardinal from the Order Church, along with a foolish and comical king and a charming queen... After reading two chapters, Rorschach realized that this bestselling novel in the Empire was very likely a banned book in the Holy Kingdom, and he needed to hurry up and finish reading it before entering the country.

As night deepened, the lights on the first floor of the hotel were turned off, and the driver unceremoniously lay down in the carriage to sleep.

Luo Xia mentally summoned the panel and lowered its hovering position. In Luo Xia's eyes, the panel emitted a faint white glow, successfully "illuminating" the pages of the book. If the lamp were turned on, the only light source in the backyard would attract many flying insects and flies. Now, using the panel, he could read the book while remaining visible only to Luo Xia.

"Am I a genius?"

Rorschach was very satisfied with the panel's one-way lighting application. If other people came to the backyard, they could only vaguely see a person sitting in the darkness with their head down by the moonlight, which was quite eerie.

There were indeed other people in the backyard.

A thin man is now in the hotel's backyard, patiently waiting until all the lights are turned off.

What a fat fish! Why isn't anyone on watch? They're sound asleep in bed...

Normally, someone on night watch would at least carry a lantern! But now the backyard is pitch black, and the hotel owner only checks the locks twice a day, before bed and around dawn... The man, who was familiar with the hotel, concluded that no one was there.

"Why is it leather..." The man was somewhat disappointed. Leather didn't fetch a good price around here. He continued to grope around and finally touched something cold and metallic on the second car he visited. Finally, something good... With the joy of his haul, the man carefully pulled out the metal; it seemed to be a handguard made of iron.

In Rorschach's past life, a certain phenomenon occurred in his classroom: the noisy classroom would inexplicably fall silent simultaneously, even when no teacher was present. Somehow, the birdsong and insect chirping in the backyard would abruptly cease. Coincidence? Synchronicity?

The man was a little nervous. At this moment, all was quiet, and even the slightest sound of metal clashing would be jarring.

"Tear—"

The silence was broken by the loud turning of pages in the darkness; the cheap, thin paper always made a loud clatter. The sound startled the man, causing him to drop his book.

"Clang"

Hearing the noise, Rorschach remained silent, quietly picking up a stone and casting [Magic Drive] on it, forcibly injecting magic into it. Instantly, the ordinary stone emitted a faint blue light and became slightly warm. This was one of Rorschach's "playful techniques."

Similar to electricity, magic, as a higher-level form of energy, can be easily converted into light and heat.

In addition to light and heat, it can also be kinetic energy.

Next, under the effect of the Flying Arrow Technique, the blue light stone shot straight towards the source of the sound, illuminating a terrified face. It missed; after all, the stone glowed in the darkness, and the opponent reacted quickly enough to dodge.

In Luo Xia's eyes, the other party first showed fear, then immediately turned ferocious. A flash of blue light, and then darkness returned.

As the other party approached, Rorschach quickly pulled out three nails.

The four-sided ship nails were purchased in large quantities by Rorschach before his departure. They were crude industrial products with similar weight and shape. After getting used to them, Rorschach was very accurate when using his arrow-throwing technique with them.

The first shot was fired in the same direction as before.

No feedback, did it miss?

Under the moonlight, he could already see the other's figure. He charged forward, gripping a small knife, its blade gleaming coldly. Rorschach fired another shot.

There was still no sound, no screams, which meant the shot hadn't hit.

Facing the first enemy who had crossed over, Rorschach tensed up. He saw the thief's figure stop, but remain silent. He should still be able to move, still maintaining the "professionalism" of a thief. There were wagons, goods, and haystacks piled up in the backyard. Rorschach didn't want to use fireballs, so he aimed the third nail at the head.

"If you shoot again, he'll die." A woman's voice came from behind the man.

"Hill?" A hooded figure emerged from the silhouette of the thin man, and when he took off his hood, he was indeed the ranger Hill.

As Luo Xia approached, he saw by the moonlight that the thin man's mouth had been stuffed shut in such a short time, and his jaw had been dislocated.

He was covered in sweat and tears, making soft gurgling sounds through the rag in his mouth. Without Hill restraining his arm, he would have collapsed to the ground. It turned out that a nail had hit his thigh, the wound gaping open. Rorschach estimated that the nail had probably rolled inside the flesh.

"The mage can also throw darts?"

"What a mage knows is magic, of course."

Hill nodded. "Alright. Tell Mr. Aller and Singhlev to bring their personal protective equipment down. Something's not right."

Rorschach turned away, and Hill added, "Don't turn on the lights now, and don't disturb the hotel staff."

"clear."

After hearing Rorschach's brief description, Aller and Singh quickly went to the backyard. Aller was a little annoyed and woke up the driver Hag, who was still snoring slightly.

"Miss Hill, Hag, bring the horses to the backyard and harness them so they're ready to go. Singrev, you and Lord Rorschach move this thief to carriage number 2. I'll now gather the other drivers and check the cargo." Mr. Aller calmly assigned the tasks.

(End of this chapter)