The two black-clothed figures ran through the dense woods, their faces covered by masks but their expressions completely frantic under the fabric.
Their uniforms were now a total mess, covered from top to bottom in thick mud and riddled with tiny holes that looked as though they had been scorched by an open fire.
For the past hour, they had been reduced to looking like poor beggars as they carefully stared down at the ground for any hidden traps, having already been hit by a sudden small flood that soaked their clothes before being chased through the trees by two crackling fireballs.
They had become so incredibly cautious that they finally stopped dead in their tracks, and Prim, the injured subordinate, plopped straight down onto the grass while clutching his twisted arm.
"Haah... haah... B-boss, I think you really need to leave me behind this time, because I simply cannot walk another step."
"No, Prim... we have to escape this place together, and we just need to abandon this entire mission... haah..."
The leader panted heavily, looking around the dark canopy with a rising sense of dread.
'This place is completely strange. For the past hour that we have been walking, we haven't seen a single road or any nearby villages... are we actually trapped inside a completely separate world?'
Before he could even finish the terrifying thought, Prim, who had just been sitting on the ground, suddenly fell flat onto his back.
"Prim!"
The subordinate had completely passed out on the dirt, his body heating up with a sudden fever while his face turned deathly pale.
The leader leaned over his comrade, his eyes widening as he noticed a faint violet light glowing on the exact patch of moss Prim had been touching.
"...Is this a poison trap or something?"
He couldn't bear the thought of losing another one of his close comrades.
In that moment of absolute despair, memories of their childhood flashed clearly through his mind.
He remembered when they were just young kids growing up in the same small village, running around and playing together, and how they had grown up to become an adventurer party before finally turning to this low-paying, dangerous criminal work because they were heavily riddled with debt from local gangs.
He fell to his knees on the damp soil, completely breaking down as he screamed out into the empty forest.
"WE GIVE UP! PLEASE JUST STOP... we give up completely... please just don't make me lose another one of my friends!"
He placed his hands flat on the ground and bowed his face entirely against the grass, trembling as he waited for a response from whatever powerful being had trapped them in this domain.
Suddenly, he sensed a bright flash of light materializing right in front of him, and he lifted his head to see a glowing blue rectangle floating in the air.
[ Do you want to save them? ]
The neat, glowing letters floated perfectly before his eyes.
A violent shiver ran down his spine, and he immediately bowed his head back down to the dirt, shouting desperately.
"YES, PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU, LORD, PLEASE LET US GO! WE PROMISE WE WILL NEVER GO AND TRY TO KIDNAP A CHILD EVER AGAIN...!"
The blue letters shifted instantly, forming a new sentence.
[ Then... tell me the absolute truth. Who ordered you to kidnap an innocent child? ]
"W-we were ordered by one of the gang members called the Black Fangs down in the alleyway of the central plaza, my lord!"
the leader explained rapidly, his voice shaking.
"We actually do not know the exact identity of the high noble who ordered them to kidnap the child, but the gang leaders explicitly mentioned that a man from the Gellis family ordered them to get the boy... we swear that was exactly what we heard in the tavern!"
'Gellis... don't tell me it's that family...'
Fainyx's thoughts sharpened as he processed the name from his hiding place, his violet eyes narrowing behind the leaves.
[ Thank you for telling the truth... now take this. ]
The moment the text changed, a heavy canvas sack and a small glass vial fell from the air, landing with a soft thud right in front of the leader's hands.
"This is..."
[ This is a high-grade healing potion for that guy over there, and this sack contains three hundred gold coins. Take all your family members and leave this city immediately. This is my absolute mercy to you. ]
"T-thank you, my lord! We promise you! We will live a perfectly peaceful life and never even think about stealing or kidnapping ever again!"
[ Now begone from this place. ]
A sudden, blinding flash of pure white light instantly covered the entire forest, and the leader's eyes grew heavy before he completely passed out on the ground.
"Sigh... to think that someone from the Gellis family was actively after my life... but why would they target me though?"
Fainyx walked out from behind the thick tree trunk, his small form fully revealed as he looked down at the two black-clothed figures sleeping peacefully on the grass.
He had cast a quick sleeping spell on them right as the light flashed to ensure they wouldn't wake up prematurely.
"Heh, to think this specific light spell is so useful in a situation like this."
He turned his head to look at the floating blue box hanging in the air.
The light hologram was still present, and when he reached out his small hand to touch it, his fingers passed straight through the light particles without any resistance.
'As expected from the light magic formulas Master Ruth taught me. This trick is incredibly useful for things like this, and at least I don't have to go through the massive hassle of disguising my body as some old hermit using an illusion spell.'
He walked down the path, locating the third subordinate who was still tied up securely to the tree trunk deeper in the woods.
Activating a chantless telekinesis spell, Fainyx gently lifted all three unconscious men into the air, making their bodies float smoothly behind him while he picked up the heavy sack of gold and the healing potion his master had gifted him before leaving the estate.
He opened a spatial portal leading straight back into his bedroom, casting an invisibility spell over the three bodies so they wouldn't trigger any alarms in the east wing.
"Hm... I'll need to disguise myself completely before I head out to the city. I need to visit the Adventurers' Guild after I drop these guys off."
Fainyx focused his internal energy, utilizing a advanced body-alteration magic to temporarily make his physical frame grow much taller, altering his skeletal structure until his features looked like a mature adult.
He pulled a dark mask from his wardrobe, securing it over his face before tossing a large black cloak over his shoulders to completely hide his silver hair and pale skin.
He looked exactly like the adventurer persona he had used in the past.
He cast another layer of invisibility over his own disguised frame, opened his bedroom window without a sound, and flew out into the night sky using his wind magic, with the three floating, invisible criminals traveling right behind him.
***
After a few minutes of continuous flying over the capital rooftops, he located a perfectly dark and quiet alleyway near the edge of the lower district.
He descended smoothly to the ground, placing the three unconscious men down against a stack of crates.
He carefully tucked the heavy sack of gold and the glass healing potion inside the leader's cloak where no random strangers would notice them, before disabling the invisibility spell on their bodies.
*Slap! Slap!
Using his gloved hands, Fainyx gave the leader and Hugh a few sharp slaps across their faces.
He didn't strictly need to do that to wake them up, but he figured they deserved a little bit of physical payback for violently bothering his sleep tonight.
"Ugh... where in the world are we?..."
"Ugh... I feel like someone just aggressively slapped me across the face..."
"Hugh?! You are actually alive?!" the leader gasped, jolting awake and rubbing his cheek as he saw his friend sitting right next to him.
"Yeah... I passed out in the sand, and when I woke up, I was stuck to some tree trunk, but then I passed out again..."
Both Hugh and the leader slowly shook off their grogginess, sitting up in the dark alleyway.
The leader suddenly remembered the event, and he frantically checked his pockets until his hands landed on the heavy sack of gold and the glass vial.
He wasted absolutely no time, uncorking the potion and pouring the liquid down Prim's throat.
"Prim, wake up and drink this potion right now!"
Hugh blinked his eyes in total surprise, staring at the glowing fluid.
"Where in the world did you find a high-grade health potion, Boss? We can't afford something like that."
"The powerful being who trapped us in that strange forest took pity on us," the leader explained in a quiet, solemn voice.
"He granted us his mercy, gave us our freedom, and provided this money and potion. For now, we need to gather our families and leave this city immediately."
"...Alright, Boss, but don't we need to go report to the gang members that we are giving up on the kidnapping mission?"
"They will gladly kill us and our families if we show our faces to them now," the leader said firmly, standing up.
"Before the sun rises above the horizon, we need to escape this territory completely. Let us go back to our old village where they can never find us. We have three hundred gold coins, which means we each get a hundred coins to live in absolute peace. There is no need to ever take this rundown criminal work again."
Hugh's jaw dropped completely. "...Wait, a hundred gold coins?! And for each of us?! I guess my old dream of opening a bakery will finally come true..."
"Sure it will, Hugh, ahaha..." the leader laughed softly, a wave of relief washing over his tired face.
"I guess this entire terrifying ordeal was a massive blessing in disguise... Anyways, let's move out."
Prim's color had completely returned to normal as the potion healed his twisted bones, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Ugh... Boss? Have we successfully escaped that place?"
"Yeah, we are safe now. Let's go find Hugh's family and your younger sister, Prim. We need to leave the central plaza before sunrise."
"What about our old debts to the Black Fangs?" Prim asked worriedly.
"I will leave a formal letter for them tomorrow with the exact amount of money, completely clearing our debt to them, but for now, we need to focus entirely on packing our things."
"But... how about the mon—"
Hugh immediately lunged forward and hugged Prim tightly before his friend could finish the sentence.
"Haha! Don't worry about the details anymore, dude! We are incredibly rich now, and we can finally live a peaceful life thanks to the grace and mercy of that mysterious mage!"
"I... I see..." Prim smiled faintly, letting his brother support him.
The three men quickly turned and ran out of the alleyway, completely unaware that Fainyx was standing just a few feet away from them under his invisibility spell.
"Sigh... giving them mercy was actually the right choice," Fainyx murmured to himself, watching their retreating backs.
"If they had even thought about going back to those gangs to commit more atrocious crimes, I would have ended their lives right here, but I guess I didn't have to resort to that."
He stretched his arms, and a small white shape suddenly poked its head out from the collar of his black cloak.
"Kyuu~!"
"I told you before, Lumi, you cannot move around freely on my shoulder while I am walking. You need to stay perfectly still inside the hood."
Lumi gave a small nod as if in understanding, quickly ducking back into the safety of the black fabric.
With his face completely hidden behind the dark mask, his silver hair tucked under the heavy hood, and his pale skin covered by long sleeves and thick leather gloves, Fainyx looked exactly like his secret adventurer persona, Fain.
He let out a quiet hum of excitement.
'I am finally going to get my proper reward from the desk inside the guild today, heh~.'
He deactivated his invisibility magic, stepping out of the shadows of the alleyway, and headed straight down the main street toward the Adventurers' Guild.