The Mysterious Black Magician

"Experts from the academy?" Shocked, Tiafel exclaimed.

"Did you say… Jura of Gorthalion family? And Nicholas Senrod?" Taflas chided.

"Aren't they members of the student council?" Tiafel asked.

"They were supposed to have come from respectable families. I never thought they could do such things. How low." Aegor chimed.

"Yeah…" Ember replied with knitted brows.

"......"

However, one person remained silent. Cinder shot him a strong look.

"Crimson what are we going to do?" Aren't we going to follow after them?" She asked with an anxious face. She didn't know much about them. Well, a shut-in. What would you expect?

Everyone expressed their discontent and disagreement with those people's actions. Crimson glanced at her. He could feel her irritation. 

"!!"

Unexpectedly, his scouting Bird [Fire Doll] picked some shadows below. Several people rushed towards the western part, they would arrive any minute from now to where they currently are. Yman narrowed his eyes.

If he wasn't wrong, they were participants from the southern part. Looks like they decided to come to the western part to find some allies.

He glanced at the people around him. Each of them was having anxious faces.

(Sigh.)

He let out a sigh, and thought, 'looks like everyone misunderstood everything about their mission.'

"No. I stay a little longer," he replied calmly, no tinge of irritation or discontent.

"Eeeeh?!"

"Why?!"

They asked. There was a tinge of disagreement from their voices, especially from the leftover participants.

"Our quest is not to cross the barrier in first-place. Our quest is to cross it before the time limit. What's the need for a hurry?"

Everyone fell silent and thought he was right.

"But Crimson…" Cinder tried to say something. What those people did irritates her. But she stopped when she noticed that he was firm with his words. Although he was silent, his face was saying, 'if you want to go, then you can go, but I stay.'

'This guy!'

She pursed her mouth. Even in this irritating situation, he's still able to think calmly like he didn't care about it.

Everyone was waiting for the continuation of her words. "...okay." Cinder resigned and agreed to him while dropping her shoulders.

"....."

"If that's what Crimson wants, then there's nothing we can do. Of course, I stay too, we can't even cross that broken bridge without him," added by Aegor.

Ember, Tiafel, and Taflas also agreed to Aegor. Only this mysterious guy could summon those flying dolls of him. Without those, they have only one choice, to go to the other part of the wall and try to join forces with the others.

Just thinking of joining hands with the other Experts urged Ember to vomit. He would rather go with this mysterious person than those great noble experts. And his sister was weirdly sticking on this guy.

'Did these two in a kind of relationship?' Ember doubted.

Nonetheless, he was right. Their quest was just simple. To collect points and to cross the last border. No need to sweat about it.

Seeing that everyone agreed to him, he walked towards the wall which Cinder, Ember, and the others followed after him. 

However, before they could walk a couple of steps, "wait, Mr. Crimson, sir…" someone among the leftover participants suddenly called out.

He glanced at the person with a sudden glint in his eyes, "yes?" He replied.

"Uh… er, I think we should follow after those guys," said the person wearing a tawny robe and an elfen hat of the same color. He was an Encan with long tortilla hair. That was tied at the back. The guy had narrowed eyes and exuded a demeanor of a friendly person buddy.

However, Yman's stare towards the guy wasn't that friendly one.

"Why do you think so?" He asked again.

"You see, I heard that the empress will give additional rewards to those who achieve first place!" He said while raising his hands at both sides.

It piqued the other's interest and created some whispers from his surroundings.

"Wow, is that true, Mr. Mus?"

"Yes, yes!"

Said the person named Mus.

"In that case, isn't that great!" Someone shouted.

"Of course it is, just think if the empress rewards us with some treasures from the palace treasury. For certain many high-ranking Artefacts were stored in that place. Or some high ranking Magical Herbs that can faster our breakthrough. Not just that, some legendary equipment might be stored there too. Or perhaps we will receive some gold."

This made a certain someone to drool.

Cinder was having a bright smile while drooling. After all, the main reason she joined this competition was to buy the new version of Newtendo! If only her family did not freeze her allowance, it's easy for her to acquire one. But because of being the young miss of the renowned family, she could not slack off with her training. Also, she was the successor to her mother's technique. So they punished her for mulling inside her room all day while playing games. And not serious with her study at the academy.

They glanced at the person beside them. 

"....."

 As expected, he was wearing a not-interested face.

"Fufu," for some reason, he suddenly chuckled. Which caught everyone's attention. They glanced at him.

"Don't get me wrong, I did not disallow everyone. You are free to go. But I'm just not interested in it. I only came here to enjoy myself. Aaaahhh!"

He said while stretching his hands higher while yawning. His expression was very honest. Everyone was surprised by his words though.

Then he continued walking towards the wall.

"Eh! That's it?!"

They were shocked, how come there's a person uninterested with treasures or high ranking materials! Is this person a joke?!

Even Ember, Tiafel, Taflas, and Aegor were surprised at him.

Although they were doubtful with this person named Mus, what he said was right. They also heard about it.

Mus grinned under his hat.

'Fufufu, although this Crimson guy had high stamina, he isn't that great. It was thanks to his summon and the people around him that the enemies were wiped out in that battle. In that battle, he was only facing the low ranking skeleton and monster. If he faced a demon, I bet he's a dead man at this moment. Look how weak he looks. He was even breathing heavily. On top of that, his magical energy is very weak! Pwe! If I can get the favor of everyone around him, we can force this guy to surrender those summons of him.

And what the heck he was saying, he didn't care about treasures? Pwe! I bet he said it only so that everyone will think that he can be trusted!' 

"Everyone, I don't think we can force Mr. Crimson if he doesn't want to go. And also, we can't blame him. Although he summons some strong unique creatures, I don't think he will last longer. Look, he looks exhausted already.

He doesn't even have strong magical power with him. I bet his level is below a False Path Expert."

"Hmm… right."

"He looks exhausted.

"Yeah, maybe it's also the reason why he doesn't want to follow up with those people earlier."

"Well, we can't blame him if he's that weak."

"Yeah, it was thanks to the Experts of the Lupine family that everyone was saved in that battle," added Mus.

Until all of the leftovers said their discontent towards him. Some even were saying more aggressive remarks, ranting that he was acting important even though he was just leeching with the others.

They even said that he was too shameless for feeling important.

Aegor, Taflas, and Tiafel shook their heads. Looks like these people misunderstood everything.

Ember and Cinder knitted their brows. Although Cinder wanted that extra reward from the empress, she could not stomach discrediting the person who saved their sorry ass. 'This how they returned the favor! How ungrateful!' Cinder roared inside her. Not only her but the others also didn't like what happened at the moment.

She was about to bark, (thump!) but a tag on her shoulder stopped her.

She glanced and saw the hand of Crimson on her shoulder. However, a tiny black insect came crawling from his hand towards her neck.

She froze.

'What the hell is this guy doing?!' She shouted inwardly while trembling. Then she rid his hand by slapping it.

Yman noticed her weird reaction but did not mind it.

Seeing Cinder slapping his hand, Mus and the other leftover participants grinned.

Tiafel and the others could not believe it. They wondered if there's a quarrel between these two.

She was afraid of insects especially when they were on her skin, despite that, this person sent one to her.

Yman also tapped the others while he was passing.

"Those who want to leave can leave, I'm not forcing you to stay," he just said it. Tired of the discussion. He already saw many types of people, but these types of people were the lowest among them.

"Fufu, yeah, we will leave without you, but, give us those black birds of yours!" Said Mus while pointing a sword at him.

"Right!"

"Give them to us!"

"Young-Miss Cinder and Young-Master Ember, please join forces with us and let's make him surrender those summons of him," said Mus.

"Right! Young Master Ember, everyone, there's no point in going with this guy, he doesn't have the intention of winning the rewards," the others followed.

The others started to point their weapons at him.

"....."

Cinder and the others didn't know whether to laugh at these people. Looks like they misunderstood him.

They were right though, that Crimson was having low magical energy, however, are they trying to become his enemy?

"Gyahahahaha..." Ember broke in a guffaw. He could not bear it anymore. These people were just too funny.

Aegor felt sorry for these people, they were steeping on the landmine. A very destructive landmine.

Right at this moment, everyone heard stomping noises coming towards them.

Mus grinned.