Re: Love & Magic

“Yes! Now return and solve the mess before your time in the magic labyrinth is up.”

*swoosh…*

Zevien turned around and flew in the town’s direction at full speed.

…

“Henry, right? Do you know this young man?” a middle-aged man with short brown hair and small round glasses asked.

“Don’t hide any information and speak everything you know unless you want to suffer a fate worse than death,” another middle-aged man donned in a high-class outfit spoke coldly.

That middle-aged man was Leon, the current leader of the Ufar merchant house. He got Zevien’s and Mirena’s sketch after telling the staff at the adventure guild to describe the people who took their escort mission.

After showing the sketches around, some people who had noticed Zevien roaming the town and talking with Henry for a relatively long time told them. Thus, Leon and his people arrived at Henry’s flower stall to interrogate him.

Henry recognized Zevien but frowned, ‘why are they looking for Zevien?’

“May I ask what business you have with him? I have met him, but as far as I know, he is a good young man,” Henry said sincerely.

“Good? Heh,” Leon sneered, “he took the escort task of our merchant house but instead of escorting it, he and this woman killed others along with my brother, who was a normal person without any magical affinity like you. After killing them, they stole the content of the storage with someone’s help.”

Henry was startled, “it can’t be.” He couldn’t believe Zevien would do something like that. Henry shook his head and continued, “but even so, I don’t know where he is. I have only met him one time in this town.”

Leon took a few steps toward Henry before coldly whispering into Henry’s ears, “you better tell me where he is, or I will kill you, and if you have any family, I will also not spare them.”

“I-I don’t know,” Henry answered with a scared expression and shook his head vehemently, “I truly don’t know anything about him. I am just a normal man selling flowers. I…I am also alone with no family or anything.”

Henry lied as he didn’t want to implicate his family in case these men did something to him.

“Master Leon, it seems like this guy really doesn’t know anything about him,” the middle-aged man with short brown hair spoke.

“Dammit!” Leon cursed as he turned around, “take him to our mansion.”

“N-no. I don’t know anything. I swear!” Henry shouted, and his shout attracted the people’s attention but when they didn’t do anything after seeing that the carriage had a symbol of Ufar Merchant House and Leon was personally present there.

An old man stepped up and said, “mister Leon. Henry is an honest man. If he says he doesn’t know where this young man in the sketch is, then he is telling the truth.”

“I don’t give a fuck! He is coming with me, and you will not tell me what I have to do,” Leon said as he glared at the old man before entering the carriage.

The middle-aged man bound Henry with a magic rope and dragged him towards the carriage.

*Swooosh!*

“Nope. You will not do that,” Zevien came flying and landed between Henry and the carriage. He looked at Leon and coldly said, “as for the items in your storage, you will also not get them. If you insist on making me your enemy, then my master will destroy your stupid Rufar Merchant House.”

Leon’s expression became somber as he came out of the carriage and uttered coldly, “why did you antagonize our Ufar Merchant House?”

“Because Yenil and Zon raped a woman in a village and killed her husband. She was pregnant and took her life after telling us what happened to her,” Zevien spoke loudly to let everyone hear it.

“I think your Ufar Merchant House did many horrible things aside from that. How about I report this to the town chief or even to the ruler of Amorph Kingdom? For your information, my master has a connection with people in the kingdom as a 1st class magician so….”

Leon’s face changed as he was merely a 3rd class magician. If this young man’s master was indeed a 1st class magician, then he and his business would be in trouble. But he didn’t want to believe this young man easily and asked, “what proof do you have?”

“Proof? Humph, you can ask the people of that village,” Zevien snorted.

He knew that the proof Leon wanted was not about this but about whether he had a backing of a 1st class magician or not.

“I am not talking about that proof. What I mean is how can I believe whether your master is 1st class magician or not?” Leon sneered.

“That? Hahaha,” Zevien started laughing loudly as he shook his head, “how stupid are you? Do you think I would have the guts to stand here if I didn’t have a backing? My master also broke those multiple defensive spells on the storage.” Zevien looked at Leona as if he was stupid.

“As for this man selling flowers, I talked to him because I was curious about some flowers and wanted to know more about them,” Zevien scoffed before he looked at Leon with narrowed eyes and spoke icily, “I don’t care what you do to him or anyone in this town. But, if your Ufar crap house did something to anyone and I found out, then I will ensure that you cease to exist.”

After saying that, Zevien flew up without waiting for Leon’s response.

Leon just speechlessly stood there dumbfounded as sweat trickled down his forehead.

…

“Meow~ Do you think this plan of yours will work?” Tarto asked nonchalantly.

‘Fuck, let’s hope this plan works,’ Zevien thought while sweating as he flew away from the town, ‘I am also starting to feel exhausted as it’s nearing the time to leave the labyrinth, so this was the best and fastest solution. Fake it until you make it. Sigh, let’s hope that I successfully scared that bastard.’

Tarto turned around to observe the town from afar despite already getting far away from it. After watching for a few seconds, Tarto spoke, ‘Don’t worry, it worked.’

“Really?” Zevien spoke with colossal relief washing over him, “if something happened to Henry and his family because of me, I…I don’t know how I would’ve dealt with that.”

“Good job, there,” Tarto patted Zevien’s shoulder with a grin.

Zevien smiled with relief still on his face. He was truly glad that nothing happened.

…

“Get him inside!” Leon coldly said as he looked at Henry before looking at the sky, in the direction where Zevien flew away, ‘bastard, I will have a nice surprise for you when you come back here next time.’

On the other hand, Zevien had found a nice spot and entered meditation to try and stay longer.

After some time, he couldn’t bear it and got kicked out of the labyrinth.

“Actually, your plan failed.”

Tarto appeared on Zevien’s shoulder and said plainly, “they captured Henry and took him with them.”

“What?!” Zevien turned furious as he looked at Tarto, “y-you…Why didn’t you tell me when I was there?!”

“Because you would have died if you fought him. This also answers your question regarding your status in the magic labyrinth, YES. If you do die in there, you die.”