The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                        Two weeks after the incident with the assassins, Zaos, Aleni, and Milliendra, who now could stand up without help reaching the city of Erast. Zaos couldn't help but frown since he expected to see another mining city, but that was more normal than he had expected. There was a lot of green, and there weren't many mountains around… that being said, there was a sweet smell in the air, many types of sweet scents..

"This map is really outdated," Zaos said.

            While Zaos was driving the wagon and crossing the city gates, he noticed that the guards weren't even looking at the travelers leaving and entering the city. His call to wait for a while had been the correct one. That being said, they didn't hear anything about the bandits attacking again.

            Unlike the previous city where the people didn't pay attention to foreigners because they were too busy, the people of Erast were calmer by nature. Those smells probably had some calming effects… After a while, Zaos found many shops that were selling perfumes. It was from those the sweet smell was coming from.

"Ugh," Aleni grunted.

            Aleni, who was looking after Milliendra, touched her head as if she was having a headache. For someone who lost sight like her, entering a place like that probably made her feel the smells with a higher potency. Despite that, she still stopped Milliendra, who was trying to get up from her basket… She wanted to try to stand by herself. She was almost at that level, and apparently, she liked that. In any case, the basket was too small for her, and getting another one will probably be a waste of time considering how energetic she was.

              In order to avoid trouble, Zaos decided to keep some magic stones on the wagon instead of selling them. That would give them the reason to stay in the city for a few days without attracting unwanted attention.

              Before anything, they looked for an Inn since the sun was already setting, and once again, Zaos found one run by a middle-aged couple and that there was no tavern.

"Oh, what a handsome and tall young man," the plump lady, who had brown hair and was cooking something on the side of the entrance of the inn, said.

"Good afternoon. Is there a single room with three beds?" Zaos asked. "We would like to stay here for a few weeks."

"... Hmm… are you a merchant?" A rough-looking man who was supposed to attend the travelers asked. "You are awfully young to be a traveler merchant. You also have a weird physique."

"Well, I tried to be a soldier once, but it didn't work," Zaos said. "So… there is a room with three beds?"

"We only have rooms with two beds," the rough-looking man replied. 

"I am sure we can do something about that," the plump lady said.

"Thank you, ma'am," Zaos smiled.

"You shouldn't look too much… unless you don't have more use for your eyes," the rough-looking man said.

"Yes, sir," Zaos nodded.

            That couple was a bit weird, but Zaos liked the atmosphere of the place. It was the kind of warm atmosphere that a kid like Milliendra needed. To make sure that no weird rumor would spread around, Zaos paid the bad-humored man enough coins to pay for the room for two weeks. Once the plump lady made a bed for Milliendra and left, they began to unpack their things.

"What now?" Aleni asked.

"We take our time to become comfortable with the place and walk around the city together and slowly gather information about the target," Zaos said. At the same time, he got close to Milliendra, who was already trying to get up from her bed. "The last time, you disappeared many times, and the owner of the inn wondered why a blind woman left the inn by herself when she didn't know a single thing about the city."

"What is there to learn?" Aleni asked. "We already know that the head of the family is supporting many criminals."

"You are always so… hot-blooded," Zaos said after a long sigh. "Our goal is to deal with the man who caused us problems and also obtain the knowledge that he has regarding magic tools. However, we can't just invade and kill everyone and ask him where he has the information before killing him."

"Why not," Aleni asked.

"Because we aren't going to leave as soon as we kill him, that would be too suspicious," Zaos said. "I am planning to let the assassins know that we are here and use the body of one of them to blame them instead of us."

"That is… wrong," Aleni said.

"I agree. That being said, both parties are causing trouble for us. We might as well put them against each other," Zaos said. "The assassins will be hunted, and we will gain more time since they will have to move more carefully."

        Once Zaos obtained all the knowledge regarding the research of the Melvins family, he was planning to settle down in a place far away from any village or town. A place full of life would be perfect for Milliendra, and Zaos will have plenty of time to do his research.

"Do you have any better ideas, or do you see any fault in my plan?" Zaos asked. 

"... Who will attack the mansion, and who will look after Milliendra?" Aleni asked.

"That is… I didn't think about that," Zaos replied.

            Naturally, they couldn't bring Milliendra to a battlefield. Still, letting one of them invade the enemy base seemed pretty dangerous. Even though they had the skill to pull that off. Aleni still was quite clumsy while looking after Milliendra, and she still refused to hold her in her arms, so it seemed that Zaos would have to stay behind. However… Aleni was too hot-blooded as of late.. She might mess up somewhere and cause some problems… to prevent that, Zaos will have to train her mindset.