Night Raid at a Small-Town Inn

Gate Tax was the main way cities across the continent collected taxes, with only the maritime nation of Istar and the Peninsula Confederated States at the continent's southernmost tip as exceptions. To avoid this expense, hiring guards and resupplying and resting in towns along the way was the more cost-effective choice.

The Empire's lords understood this as well. By mutual, unspoken agreement, inns in towns could only be noble-owned, and most belonged to the local lord. The higher lodging fees charged to outsiders became a disguised form of "Gate Tax."

The convoy reached a small town before nightfall. The horses and four wagons filled the inn's stable and rear courtyard.

At dinner, the owner served fruit wine. Singlev and the drivers each drank a full cup and still wanted more. "You drank too fast, Sing. Have mine." Rorschach did not quite trust the privately brewed fruit wine, so he gave his cup to the dwarven uncle. Hill and Mister Arle also shared their cups with the drivers.

"The towns are still fairly dense this close to the Imperial Capital. Further on, we'll need to be prepared to sleep rough." Mister Arle reminded them after dinner. He booked three rooms—one each for Hill and Rorschach, while he shared one with Singlev. "The beds here aren't bad, but we can't all sleep like the dead. We need to take turns keeping watch over the goods."

"I'll take the first watch." Rorschach's offer surprised the others. Until then, no one had thought of the red-lipped, white-toothed young mage as anything but a delicate young master. They had not expected him to volunteer for night watch.

Rorschach's reasoning was simple, however. He did not think being a Spellcaster gave him any special privileges in the group. Since everyone had to stand watch, he might as well take the first half of the night. He had often stayed up late in university, and Rorschach had frequently pulled all-nighters studying at the Magic Academy as well. Staying awake from evening until one in the morning was no burden at all.

And so, Rorschach sat beside one of the wagons in the rear courtyard that night, reading by the light spilling from the inn's windows. The driver on watch with him smoked a flammable, mind-stimulating plant product from a White Copper Pipe, exhaling smoke scented with a scorched bitterness.

Three Royal Mages told the story of three fine young men from the Holy Kingdom's royal mage corps battling wits and courage against a cardinal of the Order Church, along with a foolish, comical king and a wildly charming Queen... After reading two chapters, Rorschach realized that this bestselling Imperial novel was very likely banned in the Holy Kingdom. He needed to finish it before crossing the border.

Late at night, the lights on the inn's first floor went out as well. The driver uncle unceremoniously lay down in the wagon and went to sleep.

Rorschach summoned the panel in his mind and lowered its floating position. In his eyes, it emitted a faint white glow, successfully "illuminating" the pages of his book. If he lit a lamp, the only light source in the rear courtyard would attract countless flying insects and mosquitoes. Using the panel let him read while ensuring that only he could see the light.

Could I be a genius?

Rorschach was quite pleased with himself for developing the panel's one-way illumination function. If anyone else came into the rear courtyard, they would only be able to make out a person sitting in the darkness with his head lowered beneath the moonlight. It was rather eerie.

There really was someone else in the rear courtyard.

A thin man was currently in the inn's rear courtyard. He was patient, quietly waiting until every light had gone out.

A fat fish! They didn't even arrange for a night watch and were snoring away in bed...

Anyone properly keeping watch would at least carry a lamp, right? The rear courtyard was pitch-black now, and the innkeeper would only check the locks twice—once before bed and once around dawn... Familiar with this inn, the man concluded that no one was here.

"Why is it just hides..." The man was somewhat disappointed. Hides would not fetch much around here. He continued feeling around, and finally found something cold and metallic in the second wagon he visited. Finally, something good... Delighted by his haul, he carefully pulled out the metal object. It seemed to be an iron bracer.

In Rorschach's classroom in his previous life, there had sometimes been a strange occurrence: a noisy classroom would inexplicably fall silent all at once, even with no teacher present. For some reason, the birds and insects in the rear courtyard suddenly fell silent as well. Coincidence? Synchronicity?

The man grew nervous. With the world utterly silent, even the faintest sound of metal striking metal would stand out sharply.

"Riiip—"

What broke the silence was the sound of pages turning in the night. Cheap, thin paper always rustled so loudly when flipped. The sound startled the man into dropping what he held—

Clang

Hearing the noise, Rorschach did not make another sound. He quietly picked up a stone and cast Mana Drive on it, gathering mana and forcibly infusing it into the stone. In an instant, the ordinary pebble emitted a dim blue glow and grew slightly hot. This was one of the "tricks" Rorschach had figured out through experimentation.

Like electricity, mana, as a higher form of energy, could easily be converted into light and heat.

And beyond light and heat, it could also become kinetic energy.

Then, under the effect of Arrow Shot, the blue-glowing pebble shot straight toward the source of the sound, illuminating a terrified face. It did not hit. After all, the flying stone glowed in the darkness, and the other man reacted quickly enough to dodge it.

In Rorschach's eyes, the man's terror immediately turned to a savage grimace. The blue light streaked past, and darkness returned.

The man was approaching him. Rorschach swiftly pulled out three Boat Nails.

The four-sided Boat Nails were something Rorschach had purchased in bulk before setting out. They were crude industrial products, similar in weight and shape. Once he became accustomed to them, Rorschach's accuracy when casting Arrow Shot on them was remarkably good.

The first shot flew along the previous trajectory.

No response. Did it miss?

The moonlight now revealed the man's shape. He charged with a small knife in hand, its blade glinting coldly. Rorschach fired another shot.

Still no sound, no scream. That meant it had missed.

Facing his first enemy since coming to this world, Rorschach tensed every nerve. He saw the thief stop, yet he remained silent. He should still be able to act, maintaining a thief's "professional standards." There were wagons and goods here, and hay was piled in the rear courtyard. Rorschach did not want to use Fireball. For his third shot, he aimed the nail's point at the man's head.

"If you fire again, he'll die." A woman's voice came from behind the man.

"Hill?" A hooded figure stepped out from behind the thin man's silhouette. Removing her hood, she proved to be none other than the ranger Hill.

Rorschach walked closer and saw by the moonlight that, in such a short time, the thin man's mouth had somehow been stuffed shut, and his jaw had been dislocated.

Sweat covered his face, and tears welled in his eyes. He made soft, hoarse noises through the rag in his mouth. Without Hill restraining his arm, he would likely have collapsed to the ground. One of the nails had struck his thigh, leaving an everted wound. From Rorschach's estimate, the Boat Nail had probably tumbled through the flesh.

"Mages can throw darts too?"

"What mages use is magic, of course."

Hill nodded. "All right. Tell Mister Arle and Singlev to bring their personal weapons downstairs. Something isn't right."

As Rorschach turned away, Hill added, "Don't light any lamps yet. Don't alert the people in the inn."

"Understood."

After hearing Rorschach's brief account, Arle and Sing quickly came to the rear courtyard as well. Arle looked somewhat angry as he shook awake Hag, the driver who was still lightly snoring.

"Miss Hill, Hag, bring the horses into the rear courtyard and harness them. Be ready to leave at any time. Singlev, you and Lord Rorschach move this thief into wagon number two. I'll gather the other drivers and check the goods." Mister Arle calmly assigned their tasks.