Book 4-4.7
The moon disappeared and the sun started to rise over the sands that had turned cold through the night.
This was usually the time everybody energetically prepared to start their day, however, everyone seemed to have heavy expressions today.
If you took a closer look, you would be able to see the fear that was hidden in the faces of the workers. There was also a sense of relief that they were able to see the morning sun.
Some of the people were even packing their stuff and preparing to return to the continent. They liked making the money, but they did not want to die in the middle of the night without even the mice or the birds knowing [1].
The on-site managers of the Serubil Merchant Guild promised their safety and told them they would increase their wages due to the danger, however, nobody could stop the workers from running away.
Pareia’s warriors even told them they will have 2,000 guard at night, however, even that had no effect.
The number of people dying fell significantly since the first day with only two or three people dying every night now, however, there was no guarantee that they would not be one of those two or three people killed.
WIth many leaving and even the remaining workers losing their efficiency, the castle building plans were significant dented.
“Mm, the situation is worse than I thought.”
As Runa let out a groan and started to mumble, Pere was embarrassed. At first, he was confident that taking care of weaklings who did not even fight fairly would be easy. However, even if they remained fully alert all night, a couple of workers still ended up dying every night. It was frustrating.
Pere responded in a weak voice.
“I’m sorry. I just can’t figure out how they are coming in.”
“Do not worry about it. It is my fault for not being able to come up with a proper response. Assassins from the continent were not a part of my plans.”
Runa started to frown as if it was his fault.
Runa was a genius who enjoyed creating a perfect plan and then seeing everything run the way he expected it to go. He didn’t have the power to control the minds of others, however, he was pretty good at leading people to the direction he wanted them to go or in a way that he could anticipate their future actions.
Just like many other genii react to a crack in their plan, Runa also became nervous and short-tempered when things forced him to change his plans.
This castle construction was started even though things were not exactly how Runa had wanted it to be, however, assassins were not part of any scenarios Runa foresaw getting in their way. The closest thing to it would be moles from the continent.
Runa started to think about all sorts of different scenarios since the day after the first assassinations, however, even after spending the majority of his time trying to come up with a response, he could not find a good solution.
The assassins who showed up at night were less than ten total. They all approached from different directions and attacked at the same time. Even if some of them were caught, at least one was able to assassinate some of the workers to instill the fear. They were only able to figure that out by managing to catch some of the assassins trying to stealthily enter from different directions.
Apparently there were about 500 assassins, so even if they caught 10 a day, it would go on for 50 days. But if assassinations like this continued to happen every night, all of the workers would leave before the month was up.
“What if we brought some warriors from each of the oasis to strengthen the protection of this location a little more?”
Pere thought hard for a while before asking but Runa shook his head.
“It would be a big hit on Pareia’s fame if it gets out that we sought reinforcements because we could not take care of 500 enemies. We are a tribe that will eventually unify the desert. We cannot have anything affect our fame.”
“Life is more important than fame. Furthermore, the construction will have to be halted if it continues like this.”
Pere was in charge of the warriors, however, Runa was in charge of the construction. Pere needed Runa’s permission to increase the amount of warriors or really do anything. That was why Pere was consistently asking Runa to increase the number of warriors.
“Let me think about it for a few more days before making a decision. It is not yet time.”
As Runa rejected his request once again, Pere let out a sigh internally and nodded his head. If his brother was here, he would definitely have put the lives of the people first, however, Runa cared more about the greater gain.
‘I’m sure he’s doing well.’
Pere suddenly thought about Yulian.
There was a person mumbling nonstop inside the paoe. The words that he seemed to be familiar with were being spoken in rhythm while his hand was moving around as if he was drawing something in the air.
A moment later, a shiny powder started to fall from his hand.
“I call upon...thee...the falling flower...petal……”
The young man suddenly started to stumble across his words.
“Like a flower petal...the stars...in the night sky……”
The young man continued to stumble over his words before the shiny powder disappeared from his hands.
“This is always where I run into issues.”
The young man was stuck at the same spot for the last few days. He slammed the book onto the table with anger before glaring into it again.
There were a lot of books in the young man’s paoe. There were a lot of books from the continent because his father and his older brothers all were avid readers. There were even scrolls from the tribe’s ancestors who wrote down their personal experiences before their death.
He even had some ancient books that he did not even know where they originated from. It was one of these ancient books that caught the young man’s attention. It was a book left by a man named Cecil.
This book, which seemed to be an autobiography, explained the magic that was used in the desert. He only attempted it out of curiosity in the beginning, however, seeing that it had a different type of effect than the incantations he had been learning, he decided to focus on these magic spells.
“Isn’t this a completely impossible spell? There is no way you can borrow the great strength of nature to make it rain large boulders.”
The young man was grumbling, but he couldn’t help but feel an odd type of charm from these spells. All of the other spells he had attempted so far had worked, so there was no way just this one was a fake.
“Tsk.”
The young man clicked his tongue before picking the book back up.
“Let’s see if you win or I win. I have quite a bit of time right now. If I can learn how to use you properly, I will instantly become famous.”
The young man opened the book again and started to research the area that he kept getting tongue-tied by repeating that section over and over again.
End of Chapter.
Next up:
The Will of the Savior
- If you speak, you’ll die
_________________________________________________________
[1] It is based on the Korean saying that says to be careful about what you say because the birds hear the things you say during the day and the mice hear the things you say during the night. So in this case, it is talking about dying so secretly that even the birds and mice won’t know