Chapter 38 Fate
The sapling was quiet and did not bother me as long as it was fed a suitable amount of magic.
I was eager to test it out, but there wasn’t an appropriate place nearby to wield a sword.
For now, my plan was simply to return to the magic society where Silveryn was.
With so much money left over, for a brief moment, different desires crossed my mind.
I considered making it look as though I’d spent the money, but I quickly put that notion aside. That would be almost equivalent to theft, and if caught, it would spoil the trust between Silveryn and me.
Although I had more money remaining than expected, it was not mine in the first place.
It is best to be clear about money matters. Deceiving a benefactor who entrusted me with such a large sum so casually would be grossly overstepping.
“But where am I supposed to go?”
I had no idea where the magic society that Silveryn mentioned was located.
In essence, I was like a lost child thrown into an unfamiliar city.
They probably wouldn’t mind if I used some of the leftover money to buy a meal.
First, I headed in the direction Silveryn’s carriage had gone.
Silveryn had said she frequently visits this city during the semester, so I thought it best to get a head start and familiarize myself with it.
I could afford a leisurely stroll around the city, and if I was unsure of the way, I could simply ask the pedestrians.
Adorned with a mask and carrying a pot in one hand might have seemed bizarre, but people paid no attention to me.
There were many like me with their faces covered along the streets of Rigved, a city bustling with potion-making activities, with many others also carrying bunches of herbs.
Fortuitously, my current appearance didn’t stand out too much in Rigved.
The streets of Rigved were filled with an impressively diverse array of people.
Fully armored knights, nobles, mages in pointed hats, merchants, beggars, students, and more – a range of social classes were all intermingled in one place, like a melting pot of social strata.
It felt like another world to me.
Could there be someone among those passing by who would become my classmate at Eternia?
Thanks to my mask, when people my own age walked by, I could freely observe their faces.
As I continued to watch the people go by, there was a sudden commotion a few hundred steps ahead, causing the movement of pedestrians to become chaotic.
What was happening?
From ahead, the crowd seemed to part way left and right to make space for something.
“Uaaah!”
“Catch him, catch him!”
There was the sound of thuds and objects breaking, mingled with intermittent screams. Something was swiftly advancing in this direction, pushing people aside.
And then someone’s voice echoed from afar.
“Thief!”
***
The guard knights hurried in their pursuit, but it proved to be insufficient.
These were no ordinary petty thieves. They had planned their approach and managed to penetrate a defense that consisted of about twenty people, making off with an item.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Three elite knights took a fall, seriously wounded instantaneously. They had not been able to respond properly since it was a surprise attack, but it was clear they were dealing with individuals skilled in swordsmanship and arcana.
What was stolen was a rare artifact, the ‘Centennial Wand’. It had been ambushed during transportation, an artifact coming from the empire aided by the family’s power.
Clearly, they had been targeting Lilith, who was staying in Rigved for the entrance exam, for a long time.
The Centennial Wand was a critical item that was supposed to play a significant role in ensuring Lilith would pass the Eternia entrance exam.
Lilith had sought to give chase by lifting her triple-layered dress skirt, but it was to no avail.
Coming from a precious upbringing, Lilith had practically never run so much before in her life. Even making her way through the crowd had proven to be a tremendous ordeal for her.
Since her acceptance into Eternia hinged on it, she couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
“Panting heavily.”
Even though she ran until her vision started to blur, the gap between her and the thief did not close.
Behind her, a group of guard knights came rushing.
Two knights turned up to support her. It was the first time they had seen Lilith in such a desperately hurried state.
“Miss, are you alright?”
“Panting, I’m fine, just quickly, catch those men.”
The captain of the guards directed the remaining members.
“Setup the barricade!”
The knights who had come late quickly dispersed down the side streets in the alleys.
“Seal every exit from the city if necessary. Capture them by any means.”
For Lilith, catching them was of utmost importance.
It was at that moment she lifted herself up again.
Clang!
The sound of clashing swords echoed through the streets and the guard knights turned their heads in the direction of the noise, startled.
Surely, it was the direction the thieves had fled.
“…!”
It was not far off.
Sensing that a fight had broken out, Lilith didn’t even take the time to catch her breath fully before she started running.
“Miss, it’s dangerous!”
The guard knights hastened to follow her.
Up ahead, a crowd had formed a circle at one particular spot on the street.
Something was happening inside.
Clang!
With every clash of the swords, the crowd buzzed loudly.
Lilith wove her way through the crowd.
Inside, a masked man with crimson hair was fiercely battling two thieves.
Another thief lay on the ground, nearly dead with a broken ankle.
The thieves were swinging their steel swords wildly, but the masked man was skillfully blocking them with a wooden sword.
‘How can he fend them off with that?’
The wooden sword looked as if it would be chopped in half any moment, yet it strangely withstood the steel swords just fine.
The guard knights were breaking through the crowd to join in.
Predicting that they might get overwhelmed, the thieves pressed the masked man even harder.
Each time the steel swords narrowly missed the man, the crowd let out sharp screams of fear.
The man proved to be a formidable fighter. As the desperate attacks failed to make an impact, the faces of the thieves distorted with frustration.
Seizing the opportunity, Lilith cast a spell from behind.
Blue energy gathered at the foot of one thief, and shortly after, one foot froze to the ground.
The man didn’t miss the brief interlude and struck down fiercely with the flat of his wooden sword on the frozen ankle of the thief.
Crack! The sound of breaking bone accompanied the thief’s scream of pain.
“Aaaargh!”
The remaining thief realized quickly that there was no hope, grabbed the loot, and rushed away hastily.
The man, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, turned and threw his wooden sword.
It flew through the air, impaling the thigh of the fleeing thief with precision.
“Huaaargh!”
With a scream, the thief tumbled to the ground.
The following knights made their way through the crowd and looked on bewildered.
The situation had already ended.
The three thieves who had stolen Lilith’s Centennial Wand were perfectly subdued thanks to the mysterious masked man.
The man in the mask slowly walked over and removed the sword embedded in the thief’s thigh.
Lilith also hurried to retrieve the case containing the Centennial Wand.
Thankfully, the contents were intact.
Had it not been for the man, Lilith might have faced a bitter failure in the Eternia entrance exam.
She approached the man under the mask.
“Thank you. This deed will be remembered by our Ezellius family, and we shall ensure re…”
Yet, the man ignored Lilith and walked past her.
“…?”
Only one thought crossed Lilith’s mind at that moment.
Was he deaf?
One of the thieves yelled at the man under the mask with a voice filled with hatred.
“I’ll kill you for this!”
A guard responded to the thief by thrusting his sword at the thief’s neck and bellowed sharply.
“Silence, you common thief!”
The man glanced at the thief for a moment.
From his reaction, it was clear he wasn’t deaf.
He simply had no regard for Lilith.
How rude. Did he even realize whom he was dismissing?
‘What kind of person does that…’
Lilith’s pride was somewhat hurt by the man who simply ignored her and walked off.
However, since he was also a savior, it wasn’t a situation where she could vocally reproach him.
He stood at a corner of the street, surrounded by dumped soil, and watched over a broken pot silently.
While his face was hidden by the mask, he seemed somewhat vexed by the shattered pot.
It appeared as if it had broken in the commotion of the thieves’ escape.
Lilith’s expression twisted slightly.
‘Could that really be the reason?’
To think the reason she was ignored was just because of a pot.
She felt like she had been deemed less important than that pot.
Moreover, there was nothing but soil inside it.
Pots could be replaced, soil refilled.
Yet receiving a noble family’s gratitude face-to-face would be a rare and precious occurrence in his life.
On the hand that squeezed the wooden sword tightly, there was a ring with the crest of Eternia etched into it.
Lilith’s eyes widened momentarily.
‘That’s Eternia’s…’
Suppressing her pride, Lilith approached him once again.
“Hem hem! If there is anything you need, we will provide compensation. Could you please tell me your name…”
The man did not even pretend to listen. To him, she was invisible.
As if he had no further business, he once again dismissed Lilith’s words and vanished through the crowd.
“No…”
Lilith watched the direction in which he disappeared with a perplexed expression on her face.
Following the indignity of being robbed, she was outwardly ignored not just once, but twice by a stranger.
Such a cold response from the man was something she had never experienced before coming to Rigved.
Even princes, of higher status than her, had never treated her in such a manner.
A mix of anger and embarrassment heated Lilith’s face.
She called to the commanding knight who was organizing the scene.
“Did you call me?”
Effortlessly ignoring the burning sensation on her face, she pointed in the direction the man had gone and said.
“That masked man who just walked away. Please track him down by any means and find out his identity.”
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶