The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

            After the incident, the first thing Zaos did was to make some food for the kids. After they regained some of their strength, Zaos guided everyone to the desert wolf's base. However, since the assassin's figures were too eye-catching, he bought some light armor and helmets to change their appearances.

            When inhabitants of that town saw a new group walking toward the abandoned base as if they were the owners of the place, they sighed because it looked like more troublemakers had appeared, and yet, they moved to the headquarters and didn't leave for several days.

            Zaos gave the order to Nakin to be the leader of the place while he was away. There wasn't much for him to do, though. He just has to buy food and some supplies. After that, he returned to the fake ruins to check all the routes that he found in the meeting room. In the end, he confirmed that they led him to several other fake ruins. Even the one where the desert wolves used before being ambushed. So, Zaos didn't have to travel for two days non-stop to return to Aleni and Milliendra. Still, he had no idea how the organization built so many things over the years… based on what Zaos knew, they had only a few hundreds of years of history. Without magic, creating something that big was supposed to be impossible… and none of those five men knew how to use advanced magic.

"Killing them was unavoidable, but I lost again a golden opportunity to obtain some valuable Intel," Zaos said as he was crossing the burned grove.

          Aside from some supplies, Zaos also didn't find anything else in those hideouts, so he decided to return and meet Aleni and Milliendra. While it was a pain to walk back to Kat town since Moody would never go down so many stairs, Zaos welcomed that rare opportunity to stay alone and think about things. Maybe it was his imagination, but he felt like the demons were getting stronger… just like the followers of the demon god magic. At that rate, it wouldn't be long before he can find an opponent that might kill him in a few strikes, or even instantly.

"I guess I grew too complacent since I only found a few adversaries that could cause trouble to me…" Zaos nodded to himself.

        If Zaos finds any demon as powerful as Darkaun and with an actual brain, he will have a hard time fighting them. Some basic tactics might even things a little bit, but that will only work in one on one battles. That wasn't good. The demons could return once they find a suitable body, and who knows how many underlings the demon god had two thousand and a half years ago.

"Daddy!" Milliendra jumped into Zaos' arms when he opened the room that they rented, and he patted her head.

          It seemed that a weight had been lifted from Zaos's heart, but it looked like Aleni noticed that he wasn't his normal self. Zaos also noticed that she was too quiet.

"You can relax, the mission was an absolute success," Zaos said.

"Then why do you look troubled?" Aleni asked.

"Many things happened… I will explain to you later," Zaos said and then noticed that everything was already packed. "Let's get going, I found a special route for us."

          Before leaving, Zaos paid another visit to Kat, and he said that he was starting his mercenary group. Anyone could join, even those who had zero combat experience.

"That is a rather broad way to find new members, it might also cause problems," Kat said.

"I will deal with those just fine," Zaos said. "Well, see you later."

          Aleni frowned when an hour later, Zaos showed her the ruins. She frowned even more when she was already at the base four hours later, and she found sixty former assassins wearing clothes that made them look like mercenaries who wanted to keep their faces hidden. Not to mention, the kids… they looked far less shy than when Zaos found them two days ago.

"You really spared all of them… huh," Aleni said, shocked.

"Rather than that, go talk with them, most of those guys still think that I am planning to use them like tools," Zaos said. "Meanwhile, I will let Milliendra play with the other kids."

          Milliendra was surprised since she had never seen so many kids before, but she relaxed a little bit when she noticed that they were as nervous as her. It took a while, but Zaos asked and noted everyone's names… it would be possible to remember everyone's names, but at least he should try. At first, the kids didn't know what to do, but then Zaos taught them some games he usually plays with Milliendra. The least shy ones took the lead in playing tag, hide, and seek. Eventually, Zaos regretted it a little since the place became too noisy…

              Although there was plenty of room for everyone to eat in their rooms, Zaos decided to camp out in the training grounds while they cooked some grilled meat. Zaos did that for two reasons. The first was because he wanted to make everyone feel comfortable around themselves a d the best way to do that was by doing something fun together. The second was because he wanted to tell them most of his plans.

"Some of you already know, but I want to build a mercenary group," Zaos said. "Before you can jump to any conclusions, I intend to tell you what my goals are. We will probably have to fight. In this country, all of you know that mercenary groups constantly fight each other to enlarge their territories. I am planning to expand my area of influence as well, but I won't do that solely by relying on fighting. We will accept all kinds of work, from escorting missions to help people who need help to tend their fields.. From tomorrow onward, other people will come to join us and I intend to receive even those who don't know how to fight."