Alonzo grew vigilant; he quickly tried to disperse from the scene, but before he could do anything, he was hit in the back of the head with a heavy object. He slowly lost his vision, dropping unconscious. He woke up to some heavy noises; he saw his colleagues hanging from the walls, unable to move. Alonzo tried to speak, but he realized his mouth was strapped. This sensation was awfully familiar to him, which made him feel uneasy.
The noise came from behind the doors to this room; it sounded like screams of agony. This reminded Alonzo of his previous life as Frank — he needed to get out of this predicament fast. The doors opened and someone entered. To the students' horror, it was a human. Alonzo figured it was a human because on her armor there was the Empire symbol.
The Empire is the opposite of Drakensholt. In Drakensholt, magic is seen as heresy, and those who practice it are put to death. The other races besides humans are seen as heretics and are also put to death. In the Empire, you can practice magic as you please — of course, besides forbidden magic, which is not allowed anywhere. The Empire also accepted other races, but the most dominant race in the Empire was humans.
The female knight wore curved silver armor with a stylish medieval helmet. She stepped slowly in front of one trapped student in particular — it was Ansel — whom the human approached. The human opened her mouth and spoke in fluent Luminari language:
"Luminari children, as arrogant as their grown-ups!"
Alonzo saw that she was conflicted, reluctant. "Maybe she doesn't like the idea of killing children," thought Alonzo.
Next, the knight stopped looking at the Luminari kid and went to the center of the room, seemingly waiting for someone. Abruptly, a giant armored man entered the room and stopped next to the female knight. His armor was completely different — entirely black. His helmet looked more like a wolf's face full of fangs, and behind him there was a giant sword attached to his back. Both of them started talking to each other in a language unknown to the students.
After they finished discussing, the giant knight stepped up and spoke the Luminari language in a very rough manner:
"Listen up, I am a knight from the Talon Empire, not affiliated with the Empire whatsoever. You may even call us traitors. We want a reward for setting you free; however, if your parents don't pay us enough, I'm afraid I'll have to set an example like your other colleague!"
The giant knight made a gesture with his finger, and a corpse flew from behind the door, slamming onto the ground in front of them .It was the corpse of one of them. Panic engulfed the students; they started to struggle. The giant knight sneered and said mockingly:
"Try as much as you want, you won't be able to get free, I promise that. Now be good little puppies and behave, otherwise you'll end up like this fellow!"
The giant knight pointed at the corpse on the ground. Soon both of them left, leaving the students tied up.
Alonzo began to act. He tried to conjure his Shadow Puppeteer spell, but to no avail — his mouth was covered; he couldn't chant. Out of his class, he was the strongest physically, yet he couldn't escape those restraints through brute force. He had to come up with something.
He started thinking. "Wait, why wouldn't I be able to conjure the spell without chanting?" thought Alonzo, confused. So he started trying to conjure the spell without chanting. He concentrated, trying his best to get a clear picture in his mind of him putting the spell into practice without saying anything. It unfortunately didn't succeed, but he managed to move his own shadow a bit, which meant this option was viable. He started trying this method like crazy — he needed to escape and get out of here; he must break this cycle.
For hours he tried to conjure without chanting. He still didn't manage to do what he wanted, but he progressed. He just needed to continue — that's what he told himself repeatedly.
Suddenly the female knight entered the room. She went towards a student and punched him in the face with enough force to make him unconscious. Then she unstrapped him and dragged him by the foot behind the doors. After a few minutes, the screams of the student who was brought were heard, making every student who fell prisoner panic in desperation. But Alonzo stayed focused — he still tried to use his shadow without chanting.
A day passed and two more students were brought behind the doors, and again screams of pain and agony were heard, making the students shriek in fear. Alonzo was close to achieving his desired results, but he needed to wait for the night, when no activity happened. He stayed composed; there was no point in panicking after all. He patiently waited.
"Now," thought Alonzo, as he started moving his shadow to the straps that were preventing him from speaking. He still wouldn't chant because there might be an array in that place that could detect chantings. He also needed to be careful when conjuring without chanting — it consumed more mana than it would if he chanted.
After he finished cutting the ropes that were limiting his ability to speak, he started untying his feet and arms. He needed to act fast, as the more he waited, the more mana it consumed. After untying himself ,he dropped to the ground, waking up his fellow students. The students, seeing him, tried to attract his attention by making sounds. Alonzo signaled them to be quiet.
He started thinking — should he free them? What would be the advantage of doing such an action? He thought and decided: Alonzo couldn't bring all those students with him; it would make him easier to be found by the knights. Still, if he got out, he would alert the authorities about the location of this place.
He walked quietly on his tiptoes. As he reached the doors, he slowly opened them, hoping there was no one on the other side. To his relief, his hopes were right, but he saw a bloodbath — organs and limbs of his dismembered colleagues were thrown around the room, which looked like a kitchen. He didn't lose his caution and walked to the other side of the room, where he found another door. He slowly entered the other room, which looked like a storage depot. Making sure no one was there, Alonzo found a window and another door on his left. Now he had to decide whether to jump out the window or go through the door and test his luck.
He decided the best course of action would be to jump out the window. The distance from the ground to the window wasn't high, so he wouldn't hurt himself in the process. He opened the window and jumped down. As soon as he touched the ground, he started sprinting straight ahead. He ran far, not stopping even to look behind; he needed to make sure he was in a safe place.
After thirty minutes, he stopped running and rested by a giant mushroom. By now his clothes were ragged, and he looked more like a vagabond than a noble mage. He didn't care — looks are simply the exterior after all; what mattered was power. After resting, he got up and started walking, no longer running.
On his way to nowhere, he was lucky enough to encounter a village. "Finally some luck," he thought as he sighed. He didn't make contact with the locals yet; he needed to observe them first, to make sure it wasn't a trap. After an hour of nothing but observation, he decided to go to the village to look for information about where he was and how he could get back to the academy.
He stepped into the village. Locals were eyeing him, since he had torn noble robes. He came across an old Luminari who looked like the chief of those people. The old person introduced himself:
"Welcome, guest. I am the chief of this village; my name is Rollo. Would you mind telling me who you are and what your purpose is for being here?"
The chief, Rollo, had behind him two guards with poor equipment. Alonzo knew the Luminari people were split — some were incredibly powerful and others very weak. The old man in front of him seemed to be part of the latter.
Alonzo started speaking without any politeness:
"My purpose for being here is none of your business. And you can call me Alonzo. I need a map, food, and new clothes!"
Alonzo didn't want to waste any more time than he already had. Any time wasted meant the knights were one step closer to finding him — he needed to hurry.
The old man furrowed his brows ,but he was too experienced to take it to heart. He sighed and said,
"As you wish. Wait here, just please don't cause any trouble!"
Alonzo was impressed that he didn't retaliate after a kid (him) arrogantly demanded a bunch of things from him. As he was waiting, he was interrupted by a person yelling at him from behind:
"You scumbag! How dare you try to extort us? You'd better leave before I smash you!"
Alonzo turned around to see where the voice came from — it was a young girl who looked just slightly older than him. She had freckles on her face and a hawk nose. She wore some brown villager clothes and held a rock in her hand. The other villagers didn't intervene; they seemed to recognize he was a mage. To a normal Luminari person, making enemies with a mage meant courting death.
Alonzo ignored her and waited for Rollo to come. The girl got angry and threw the rock in her hand at Alonzo. He, in return, caught the rock midair and threw it back at the girl's head, dropping her. From her head, blood dripped onto the ground — she seemed to have fallen unconscious .
Alonzo turned back to wait for the chief. He didn't care who stood in his way — he would achieve his goals through any means necessary. But he still didn't want to lash out if no one provoked him.
The elder came with the clothes, the map, food, and water in his hands, but when he saw the girl lying on the ground behind Alonzo, he dropped them and rushed toward her. Rollo tried to wake her up:
"Alisa, wake up, my girl! Grandpa is here! Someone bring me bandages, fast!"
Rollo tried to stop the bleeding with his shirt until the bandages came, but unfortunately, Alisa bled too much, leading to her unfortunate death. Rollo had tears in his eyes — the girl whom he had watched grow beside him all her life had just been killed, while he was helping the murderer. He couldn't let this happen; he needed to avenge her. But he was weak and old and didn't want to implicate the village — after all, this mage was bound to have a backer. So there was only one option left.
The village chief Rollo got up with tears in his eyes. He faced Alonzo and challenged him:
"I challenge you to a duel to the death! You took my granddaughter from me, my only light — I must take away something precious from you as well!"
Alonzo looked at the old man with amusement, but he didn't have time for this. He conjured his shadow and made it charge toward the old man, pushing him into a wall. Alonzo grabbed the map, food, water, and clothes and left, unbothered by any other villagers.
He knew he left footprints in this village, so the knights would find his trace. The only option left now was to take a detour and go on the longer route back to the academy.
"Even though it might take some time, I can learn void magic from the inheritance and the teleportation spell," thought Alonzo.
He scratched his neck and remembered the necklace given to him by teacher Joana. It was utterly useless when the knights sneak-attacked him — or could it be because it wasn't a fatal blow that it didn't activate? Alonzo shook his head and headed on his way toward the academy.