A Small Awakening (Part 2)

Fafier froze, then punched Romon with ill grace. "What are you talking about?! We're good friends! If it hadn't been for you just now, they would have killed us already!"

Even after so much time had passed, Fafier still felt lingering fear when he recalled what had just happened. His voice gradually lowered. "In those people's eyes, people like us are just ants they can crush whenever they want. If it hadn't been for you, we would've been finished just now. They... they never intended to let us go at all!"

"Yes. In their eyes, we're ants they can crush." The faint glimmer in Romon's eyes gradually faded as he sighed.

He had always believed that he had calmly faced reality, but he could not deny that more than twenty years of being a shut-in in another world still prevented him from truly accepting his current identity in such a short time.

He had always thought that even if he offended someone, at worst he would be ostracized. What had happened today jolted him awake. This was a world of rigid hierarchies, where people could fight to the death over the slightest matter. His current status was nowhere near enough to protect himself. Under these circumstances, any accident could prove fatal. He had to make himself stronger as quickly as possible. His former attitude of simply letting things take their course would no longer do.

Killing someone and seeing blood had fallen over him like ice and snow, instantly clearing much of the clutter from his mind. It was like a sudden enlightenment, making him feel as though he had grown considerably.

Thinking of this, he said to Fafier, "Fafier, we both need to keep what happened today tightly sealed. If either of us lets anything slip, we'll both die. Do you understand?"

No matter how slow Fafier was, he understood that much. He hurriedly nodded. "Don't worry about that! I definitely won't say anything about something this serious. But... what do we do now?"

Romon patted his shoulder. "Help me find that contract first."

Fafier hesitated. He wanted to ask what they should do with the corpses, but seeing that Romon did not seem concerned, he could only sigh and follow him as they began searching the thieves' hideout for the contract.

What greatly frustrated them was that they found a vast number of documents and contracts in the thieves' various rooms, all sealed in leather bags. If they searched through them one by one, they would be at it until the next day. Romon simply stopped being polite. He tossed all the documents, along with the coins, valuables, and weapons they found in every room, into his space. His explanation to Fafier was that this was one of a Druid's divine arts, capable of temporarily moving things elsewhere.

Fafier knew little about Druid spells. Though he found such a divine art almost unbelievably miraculous, he did not ask any further questions.

Once he had thrown everything worth gathering into his space, Romon began considering how to deal with the four corpses.

Seeing him stare blankly at the bodies, Fafier knew what he was thinking about. At a time like this, he did not dare disturb him. He only hoped his friend would quickly come up with a plan before someone discovered them.

In Fafier's view, what was there to think about? Either quickly bury the bodies or burn them all in one blaze. That way, no one would find the corpses. Wouldn't that be clean and efficient?

But Romon did not see it that way.

As he looked at the corpses, what he considered was whether to destroy the bodies and the hideout, erasing all evidence, or arrange things and create a false scene to mislead others.

Although destroying the bodies seemed like the best method, if Bakasi truly wanted him dead, then even vague and ambiguous evidence would be enough to drive his life into a dead end.

Right now, the best approach was to draw all attention elsewhere. That way, even if Bakasi wanted to make a mountain out of it, he would be powerless to turn the situation around.

With that thought, he took out a spray engraving machine from his space. He had bought it long ago and casually tossed it into a corner of his space. In that other world, he had participated in several activities where, to prevent tourists from encountering danger while climbing mountains, they used this machine to spray warnings onto especially dangerous, loose cliff faces. There were many wild beasts in the mountains, and some people had itchy hands. If they erected wooden signs, they could easily be pulled out. But words spray-engraved with this machine were deeply carved, and even weathering could not erase their traces in a short time.

Holding the electric sprayer, Romon ignored Fafier's curious gaze and directly sprayed onto the ground beside the corpses the hidden matters he had learned from several contracts. Then, in the identity of a mage, he delivered a denunciation. Finally, he declared that he was a passing mage who had killed these thieves because he could not tolerate their evil deeds. He even left behind his name from the other world: "Pinji."

The words looked as though they had been traced by fingers through soft sand, but the ground was hard stone slabs. Seeing these seemingly hand-drawn words, anyone would feel a chill crawl down their spine, sensing the power of magic.

Having calmed down, Romon understood that this was awkward and crude, but a scheme did not need to be ingenious so long as it worked. As long as it was not just one person who discovered it, but several, no one would connect it to two boys.

After some thought, he took out an electric baton and gave the corpses powerful shocks, leaving marks behind. Now it looked as though a mage had first killed them with lightning magic, then added an arrow to the bodies afterward.

Seeing Fafier staring in utter stupefaction, Romon smiled and put the electric sprayer back into his space. Fafier had already witnessed Romon's ability to conjure things from empty hands several times today and was beginning to go numb.

When he barely managed to read the words on the ground with the few letters he knew, Fafier became even more numb. He turned to Romon and suddenly sighed. "Romon, honestly, if I hadn't been here the whole time, I wouldn't dare believe that you created all these miracles. Romon, I suddenly realized how much you've changed lately. I barely recognize you anymore."

Those words made Romon's heart leap. He thought Fafier had discovered something, but Fafier only looked at him with a complicated expression before saying, "Maybe it's because you became a Druid Apprentice. You're not as timid as before. Actually, you're better like this than you were before. My grandfather once told me that a true warrior must charge head-on when facing difficulties, rush forward without mercy when meeting an enemy, treat friends like his left and right hands, and strike enemies dead with a single blow. Only then can he survive trial after trial..."

Romon listened quietly. He knew that Fafier's late grandfather, who had once served as a squad leader in the army, had always been a role model Fafier wished to learn from and surpass.

"...So your decisiveness just now may truly have been the best way to eliminate the threat." Saying this, Fafier touched the wound where the bleeding had stopped thanks to Romon's treatment, and sighed with feeling.

Romon knew that what had happened today had deeply shaken Fafier, who still possessed the temperament of a boy. He patted his shoulder again, then deliberately said in a relaxed tone, "All right, don't overthink it. Let's clean this place up and get going. We need to crawl back through the tunnel overnight."

Fafier nodded and wanted to help, but Romon's next actions left him numb again.

Romon kept taking out and putting back all kinds of extremely strange things from his space. He sprayed here, rubbed there—either blasting a huge hole through a table with something that spewed fire, or freezing certain objects solid with something that radiated biting cold. He even poured a strange liquid over the place where Fafier had bled from his injury, then set it ablaze. Finally, he scattered a foul-smelling substance all over the floor. Looking at the bizarre "scene" before him, Fafier was numb beyond numb. As for the eerie objects in Romon's hands, he was completely speechless.

After wreaking thorough destruction as though possessed by madness, Romon carefully inspected everything once more before pulling Fafier away. On the way, they discussed every possible response, then parted outside Motte's inn.

When Romon returned, dawn had not yet broken. There was no one on the streets or in the inn. He carefully went upstairs and entered his room. Only then did he let out a long breath and take out the documents and contracts stuffed inside his space. Then he began looking through them one by one, searching for his own.

Yet even when only a thin stack of documents remained, he still had not found the contract he had signed. Romon grew increasingly anxious. He tore open another leather bag, and several envelopes fell out. These definitely weren't contracts, Romon thought gloomily. He was about to casually throw them away when something suddenly flashed through his mind, and he hurriedly picked them back up.

Sure enough, every envelope bore the words "Top Secret." Curiosity prompted him to tear open one of them. He had been fine before reading it, but the moment he did, he froze. He then tore open the other letters as well, and they left him equally stunned. At the same time, the smile at the corner of his mouth grew increasingly obvious. Tennis, Tennis, I never thought you'd be this stupid, writing even this kind of thing in letters! Bakasi, Bakasi, you actually joined Tennis in plotting against me. Just watch—I'll ruin both your reputations!

By then, it was already broad daylight. Originally, this was supposed to be the day Bakasi led people to block him outside town. But because Romon had already learned everything in advance, and the people on the other side were all dead, the town remained steeped in tranquility even as noon approached.

That lasted until someone discovered the corpses of the Thieves' Guild members. Then the story of that miraculous genius mage, capable of using so many complex spells at once—though to most townsfolk, everything was the work of a genius—immediately became the topic on everyone's lips.

After all, even after long ages of development in this world, mages remained an exceptionally noble and mysterious profession to ordinary people. Those who possessed magical aptitude and could cultivate it were even rarer. Thus, when a mage appeared here and punished four deeply hidden evildoers, it was easy to understand the excitement of the people in the place where it happened.

And after the thieves' crimes were investigated, they were all proven true. Thus, people immediately became convinced that the thieves had unquestionably died at the hands of this mage.

Meanwhile, Romon, the instigator behind it all, was hiding in his room, cheerfully counting his spoils of war.

Especially the documents. These documents were what they would use, if forced into a corner when the other side became utterly unreasonable, to fight until the fish died and the net broke. After all, this world still had gods; it was not a place where those in power could cover the sky with one hand.