Savona was one of the five spies who had been assigned to participate in the destruction of a city. His lord had ordered them to be extremely careful not to be seen by anyone, and he was absolutely certain that he had carried out his task perfectly.
'Lord Voren is going to give me an excellent reward.'
After storing the bag containing the weapons in a secret compartment inside the inn, Savona turned around and lay down on the bed. The invasion would begin in just a few minutes, so he needed to be prepared. They knew about those hiding places because their lord had convinced the innkeeper to work for them.
"He's going to make a lot of money, and he won't be negatively affected by the invasion. We get what we want, and so does he. There isn't a more perfect deal than this."
Lying on the bed, he imagined himself surrounded by a mountain of gold inside a gigantic mansion. Without a doubt, that was the life he wanted. And if he had to eliminate a few people to achieve it, he would do so without the slightest remorse.
"I'll achieve my wealth as quickly as possible."
"You seem like the talkative type... Good thing you were the first one I found."
Leon appeared upside down beside the bed, staring at him with a gloomy gaze. Savona's eyes widened, and he tried to scream, but Leon covered his mouth before a single sound could escape. A few moments later, already outside the room, Leon calmly walked through the corridors with the unconscious Savona slung over his shoulder. As soon as he noticed someone approaching, he disappeared instantly.
A few seconds later, another man arrived in front of the door, wearing an exhausted expression.
"Savona, we received word that we have to get ready."
"He's already ready. How about becoming the second person I'm going to capture?"
Two arms wrapped around the man's neck from behind and began strangling him. He didn't even have time to understand what was happening. A few seconds later, he lost consciousness.
'From what I heard, the attack is about to begin. So I'll quickly go back and destroy the last two stones I left in that place. I wanted to keep a few as evidence, but it's better not to take that risk. Elara's recordings are already more than enough proof.'
Before heading to the inn, Leon had destroyed nearly all of the teleportation stones. To avoid any unforeseen problems, he had buried only two of them. It was a good plan because if anyone tried to teleport using those stones, they would end up appearing beneath the ground. Even so, he preferred not to take the risk of allowing truly powerful people to appear and endanger his hometown.
Disappearing in an instant, Leon appeared outside the city at the place where he had buried the two teleportation stones, carrying the two unconscious men over his shoulders. Creating ropes of magical fire, he tightly bound the two of them and then covered their mouths with the solidified flames themselves. From what he had sensed, both were Rank Six mages, so they posed no problem whatsoever.
"Fire Spear."
Creating his fire spear, Leon drove it into the ground. The strike opened a square pit large enough to hold both prisoners. He then placed them inside and created a cage of fire around them. Walking over to a huge nearby boulder, he pushed it with only one hand. The rock slid easily and fell over the cage, serving as a lid.
"Charged Burst."
Using his magic to kick, he launched a large amount of earth into the pit, completely covering the rock and hiding every trace of the place. Finally, he pointed a finger toward a specific spot near a tree. A small beam of fire shot from his fingertip, heating the ground. Even though they were buried several meters underground, the two teleportation stones melted quickly.
'That took me a minute and a half... I'll have to hurry.'
[There are only eleven minutes left before time runs out. You'd better hurry, or Elara's heart is going to break... and I don't want to see one of my favorite characters sad, you idiot.]
'Leon's body doesn't want that either.'
Judging by the clothes they were wearing, Leon had captured one spy and one merchant. That was perfect because they were exactly the two types of people he intended to interrogate first. His eyes glowed red as he activated the effect of his title.
'Maybe I'll leave a few alive if they're useful. Since the innkeeper is also a traitor, I'll capture him last.'
Inside the inn, three spies were calmly drinking beer. All three of them were Rank Six mages, while the last person who had come with them was a Rank Ten mage. As for the merchants, most of them were ordinary people with only basic knowledge of magic. The real reason they were there was to secretly transport three Rank Seven mages and numerous magical weapons into the city.
One of the spies watched his companions with deep dark circles under his eyes. They had spent a long time guarding the rooms where the weapons were hidden.
'According to the plan, all the Rank Eight and Rank Nine mages will be teleported simultaneously to different points throughout the city using the stones we placed... Thank goodness this spy assignment ends today.'
In his opinion, being a spy was extremely boring. He had always preferred to face his enemies head-on. To him, operating in the shadows was something cowards did. Even so, since it had been his lord's order, he had no choice but to obey.
'Two months of this boring nonsense... What I really wanted was someone to fight.'
He raised his mug and took a long drink of beer. When he looked back at the table, his two companions were dead. His entire body froze immediately.
"What?"
Instinctively, he looked toward the main hall where the civilians had been gathered, but there was no one there anymore, as though everyone had disappeared.
"You seem to be quite bored... Would you like to have some fun with me?"
The mage broke into a cold sweat. His hand trembled so much that he could barely hold his mug. For the past two months, all he had wanted was to find someone to fight. But at that moment, after sensing Leon's presence, he realized he didn't want to face a monster. Behind him, Leon calmly picked up the mug from the table, took another sip, and only then walked over to the chair across from him. Sitting down with complete composure, he rested one arm on the table.
"Actually, I've never been much of a beer fan. I prefer juice. Would you like one? If they have guava juice, I'll pay... Oh, and if you have any interesting information to tell me, you can start now."
"W-what... what do you want to know?"
Leon briefly glanced at the mug of beer, picked up the bottle from the table, and refilled the spy's cup. A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Important information. Especially where the Rank Ten mage in your group is. You have one minute to tell me everything... so you'd better hurry."