Crouched in Basia City, Hill reluctantly tossed the fools out of his Illusion Maze.
Nearly a hundred gaunt wretches landed in random corners of the city. They had barely survived by searching endless squares for black bread and water each day. Now they propped themselves up on trembling arms, ignored the searing pain in their eyes, and wept as they looked up at the sun they had not seen in so long.
Fortunately, professionals had hardy bodies. Otherwise, half of them might have gone blind in those few moments.
Their commotion soon drew the attention of the city guards and garrison officers, who had lately been watching every movement in Basia City.
As for those who could only operate in the shadows, they had to trust to luck... Before these ragged, disheveled people cleaned themselves up, no one could immediately tell who was who.
But wait even a little too long, and the Ster Family's newly alarmed guards would come swarming in... Lady Ellie's little Wind Elemental seemed to have no trouble keeping up. To guard against the assassins and thieves arriving in Basia City from the desert and the sea, she spent almost every day at the castle gate giving speed buffs to the city guards heading out on patrol.
The city guards were already fairly high-level. These days, they zipped around town like lightning... a reassuring sight for ordinary citizens, but a real headache for people who lived in the shadows.
They might not be traitors, but that did not mean they never did anything bad, did it?
And the city guards were not going to overlook their crimes just because they were not traitors!
Now things were even more troublesome... What had Grand Sage Belfran been thinking? He had caught so many people, yet kept them alive