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Chapter 161 Part 1

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Translator: Jimi Editor: Ryunakama

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A man watched from far away as Zeph and the girls departed.

His magician’s robe was slightly dirtied and he carried a staff in one hand. The man looked fatigued, with sunken cheeks and streaks of white hair.

「What amazing strength those three possess… They even defeated that black-colored Zell so easily… Good grief, there’s also that white knight too. Just what is going on here?」

With a disgruntled look on his face, the man leaned against a rock and placed a hand on his chin as he fell into deep thought.

Those three people called the black-colored Zell by the name of Dark Zell. I wonder how many of those Zells they have encountered before this, and how many they have already defeated.

「At this rate, the Dark Zells which I painstakingly gathered here will all be annihilated… Damn it, I need to rework my strategy.」

The man spat on the ground. Then, he cast Teleport and disappeared into the setting sun.

At a distance away from Nanami Town, there was an abandoned village, which had been converted into the den for a group of bandits.

A burly man stood by the side to watch as his underlings prepared to hold a banquet. He is Zefald, the chief of the bandits.

He gulped down the bottle of alcohol in his hand, then heaved a huge sigh.

「Chief.」

Amid the hustle and bustle, a voice reached the ears of the bandits. Even though the voice was slightly hoarse, the noise of the banquet could not drown out this voice.

Wide Voice – a Sky-type magic spell that allowed one’s voice to reach someone, despite being some distance away.

That voice instantly silenced the henchmen, as they turned to face the entrance of the room.

There stood a magician in a slightly dirtied robe. His name was Ilga.

The only reason why the bandits submitted themselves to him was that the man was a magician also known as the ‘Destroyer’.

When the chief, Zefald, recognized him, he emptied the bottle of alcohol in his hand and beckoned him over with a look.

「What’s wrong, Ilga? Did something happen?」

「Yes, a problem arose regarding that matter… Talking about it here is a little… Can we step outside for a moment?」

「…Got it.」

With a silent and deep nod, Zefald stood up from his seat as Ilga requested.

The two men headed outside and distanced themselves from the rowdy voices of the bandits coming from the village chief’s house.

Ilga made sure that there was no one around, then began speaking to Zefald.

「It’s about that… plan to gather the black-colored Zell to attack Nanami Town. We’ve got a problem…」

「Did something happen?」

「 Some people are going around to defeat the Zells we gathered… and they are quite strong. At this rate, the herd of black-colored Zells, or rather, the Dark Zells that we painstakingly gathered would get annihilated.」

Ilga was the one who devised the plan of gathering large numbers of the black-colored monster near the targeted town. In this plan, other monsters would serve as bait for the Dark Zell, and induce them to attack the town.

The same method was used to obtain this village, which is now the stronghold of the bandits.

Then, to go after their next target, the herd of Dark Zells was being led into Nanami Town. However, at that time, the white knight appeared, and then the young mages followed after.

「Hmm… that’s a real headache. It took us quite a bit of effort to gather those black-colored Zell. If we wanted to put a stop to our plans after coming this far… I’m sure the henchmen wouldn’t be able to accept it.」

「Yeah. However, if we make our move right now, we could still make it in time. There should be more than a hundred Dark Zells stationed near Nanami Town. If we use all of them to attack the town at once…」

Ilga abruptly stopped talking. He felt a presence nearby.

「Who’s there!」

As Ilga spoke, he turned in the direction of the presence and fired a spell on the wall of a nearby village house.

The walls of the house crumbled with the explosive flames while a girl’s scream was heard.

「Kyaa!?」

From within the billowing dust cloud, a silver-haired girl appeared, dressed in a red hat and a white coat. It was Elise.

She had spotted the suspicious man, Ilga, and had followed him to this place.

Elise had thought that for the sake of her father, there must also be something she could do, hence she became a dispatched mage.

However, after meeting Zeph and the rest, her self-esteem was smashed to smithereens.

Despite that, Elise knew that she could not afford to return empty-handed.

She was impatient to produce results, so she subconsciously began to tail the men without preparation, and ended up being discovered by Ilga.

Faced with the cold stares of Ilga and Zefald, she froze up.

(… I am Elise Cabel, whose father is the Flame of Flame. There’s no way I would lose to this bunch of people!)

Elise tried to encourage herself as she hid away her fears and glared at the two men.

Then, at the moment when Elise was about to fire her spell, Zefald’s huge body wavered.

Regardless, Elise let loose her magic spell.

(…Red…)

Elise was about to finish the chant when Zefald thrust his fist into her abdomen.

Anguish filled Elise’s face as her body was bent at ninety degrees and she flew high into the sky.

「Kah… Hah!?」

After a few seconds in the air, Elise fell back to the ground. Before she could stand back up, Elise vomited her gastric juices all over the ground.

She summoned all the strength in her whole body in an attempt to stand up, but she could not budge an inch.

Her body trembled and her teeth clattered, but it wasn’t purely due to the pain she felt.

Elise realized what fear was.

She realized that she was controlled by the emotion that must be avoided in any battle.

Her hands and feet shook and wouldn’t move as she willed them to.

Having fallen into a light state of panic, Elise no longer had the willpower to continue to fight.

Faced with the cold stares of Zefald and Ilga, Elise let out a small cry.

「Hii…!?」

Elise was shown the difference between their powers, and for the first time, she felt the killing intent from another human being directed at herself. With that, her spirit was completely broken. She could not speak, and could only tremble in fear.

At some point, Elise’s skirt became soaking wet.

「What? What?」

「Just what happened here, Chief?」

On hearing the explosion, the bandits in the house came swarming out.

In the blink of an eye, Elise was surrounded by the bandits. She scanned her surroundings with tears in her eyes, but her situation was so hopeless that it was as if all was turning dark before her eyes.

「Tch… A dispatch mage?」

「It seems like she overheard our conversation earlier…」

At Ilga and Zefald’s words, Elise shook her head vigorously.

Seeing Elise frightened, the henchmen let down their guard at once, and vile smirks began to show on their faces.

Having lived among a group of ruffians, these men have an especially good nose for the ‘scent of strength’. With that nose, it was easy for them to see through Elise’s weakness.

「…Hehe, since you’ve found out about it, we can’t let you live.」

「Hey wait, since we’re going to kill her anyway, why don’t we have some fun before that? Even though she’s still a kid, she has a nice face, I think it’ll be quite enjoyable.」

「For now, let’s strip her.」

「N…No…」

One of the men bound Elise’s arms behind her back, and swiftly removed her white coat.

Dispatch magicians were unable to use high-leveled magic without their coats.

In the first place, with Elise’s current mental state, she could only recite the invocations of basic spells.

「Ohh, this girl has such smooth hair. She has such beautiful skin too. I bet she has been eating good food.」

「~~!」

The man stroked Elise’s smooth, silver hair and her soft cheeks in turn, as big teardrops began to flow from Elise’s eyes which were squeezed shut.

Seeing that, the other men cheered and whistled.

(– – Good grief, how crude.)

Ilga stood from afar as he watched from the sidelines.

To make a living, Ilga had no choice but to cooperate with these bandits, but he couldn’t imagine he would be comrades with people who would even touch a child like this.

Ilga’s master once taught him that to master the essence of magic, one must maintain civility and dignity and live in gratitude for all that the world has to offer. Now, Ilga won’t be able to show his face to him.

(Master, huh… Hmm? That reminds me, I feel like I’ve seen that girl somewhere…)

As casually dwelled on that thought, his eyes met the girl’s. She seemed to be pleading for help with her eyes, while the bandits held her on both sides to carry her away.

Ilga realized that the face of the young lady was undoubtedly that of the daughter of his master – Bertram Cabel.

(Why is Lady Elise here… N-no that’s not important now!)

Without thinking, he rushed over to the bandits and pulled on Elise’s arm, to snatch her away from them.

The bandits turned to look at Ilga, puzzled.

They wondered if Ilga had a change of heart, since he would normally refrain from participating in such things, but would rather look on from the sidelines as if things had nothing to do with him.

「What, Ilga? You’re rarely so desperate…」

「Hahaa… Could it be that you’re a lolicon?」

Ilga was about to deny it straight up, but if he did that, they would probably press him further for a reason.

Ilga grinned as he changed his mind and decided to simply take on the excuse they provided.

「Y-yeah… I like this kind of thing.」

「Woot ♪」

The men cheered and whistled, amused at the situation.

Ilga imagined the expression he had while shyly replying to them earlier, and resisted the urge to throw up.

「I see I see~. Then, we ought to let Ilga have a good time once in a while.」

「Hey, don’t break her from having too much fun~」

「When you’ve had your fill, let us have our turn too.」

While being showered in vulgar jeering, Ilga looked at Elise who he had snatched away from the bandits.

Elise’s face was soaked with tears and was distorted in fear.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to remember him.

(For now, I’ll keep her with me… Then I guess I’ll wait for a suitable timing to let her escape?)

That was the only thing he could do to atone for betraying the master who taught him magic.

「Ilga.」

Ilga carried Elise and was about to return to his resting spot when Zefald’s voice was heard from behind.

He nervously turned around, fearing that his plan had been discovered, as Zefald began to address him.

「To continue where we left off earlier…」

「Ah. Yes, that’s right.」

The plan was to use the Dark Zell to drive people out of town before looting it, like robbers at the scene of a fire.

He recalled the conversation which was interrupted by Elise.

「I am about to lock this girl up in my resting spot. Shall we take our time to talk after that?」

「Mm.」

Afterward, in order to carry out their plan for the assault on Nanami Town using the Dark Zell, the men stayed up till dawn to make preparations.

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