Black particles converged around Kyran, instantly trapping him into a ball of black steel.
Seeing this made Anette flared up at once. She turned her attention back at Nolan and shouted, “Nolan!”
“He’s just a lowly Regis I met during one of my-.”
“What did you say? A lowly Regis? Since when was there a Regis with brown eyes?”
“Huh? Brown eyes?”
Nolan was stumped. As far as he remembered, Nar’s face only changed Kyran’s facial features and not his hair and eye color.
Wait. That was not the point here! How the hell was Kyran able to reproduce Nar’s face?
“Release him right now!” Anette said, her magic pressure rising once more.
Gage looked at the two of them and sighed.
This scene was no longer new to him. These two loved to bicker. When he casually commented how he missed his wife after seeing their bickering, he almost ended up permanently unconscious because of Anette’s monstrous strength.
It reminded Gage of the time when he woke up almost a week ago. He initially wanted to fight and escape. However, Anette easily suppressed him with her magic pressure alone.
After that, Gage met Nolan. He immediately recognized Nolan as the cloaked bastard, but Nolan immediately brought him into his domain before he could get even with him.
It made Gage realize that he was no match to this guy. Because only a Magus had domains, no wonder he was unable to sense Nolan sneaking up on him and Silas when they first met.
When they were inside Nolan’s domain, he explained to Gage that someone high-up sent him to escort him back to Starhorn. Unfortunately, they also met someone high-up from the army and forced them to escape—err…strategically retreat— to the west.
Nolan warned Gage not to say anything in front of Anette because she was an outsider. And what they were dealing with was confidential.
Gage did not need telling twice. At times, he might act like a blockhead, but he was still a mercenary and knew what he had to do.
Anette did not ask Gage anything, though. She was only interested in healing them completely.
A few days ago, when they finally decided to return to Starhorn City, something happened that turned their uneventful journey into a flurry of potentially fatal encounters—Nolan got lost in the forest.
Gage was stumped to find out how terrible Nolan’s sense of direction was.
It was a mistake to actually let Nolan lead them.
Unfortunately, Gage was not familiar with the surrounding forests in Noser and could only follow Nolan.
Even Anette was useless. Because she had lived in the forest for almost 20 years, the map she had with her was outdated. It was funny when she insisted that her map was only six years old and should not have a big difference.
How did she count the days and only come up with six years when she had been out of the loop for almost 20 years?
It dawned on Gage that this woman had a weird quirk like Nolan. If Nolan had a lousy sense of direction, Anette actually had a bad sense of time. She was unaware of how long she had been living alone in the deepest part of the forest!
When they were lost in the forest, they came across a lot of things. They also found a Ruins. But after finally getting out of the ruins, they ended up being chased by a lot of people.
Nolan’s suggestion was to let Gage move around alone while he and Anette hide using their stealth techniques. This way, they could eliminate those following them by letting them think Gage was alone and vulnerable.
Everything was going smoothly, and they were able to eliminate several of those following them.
Finally, they met this man that Nolan appeared to be familiar with.
Gage was also curious. Especially after seeing the man’s magic.
Because when the man used his magic to defend, Gage’s flames did not merely get countered but ‘disappear’. Not to mention, the man did not use any magic arrays when he summoned his magic.
Gage looked at the black steel ball where Nolan imprisoned the man. He felt a little bad for the guy who had been suffering from Nolan’s unreasonable actions.
“Wouldn’t it be bad for him to be locked inside that ball? Is there even enough oxygen in there?” Gage asked.
“I said to release—!”
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Before Anette could finish her sentence, loud, dull sounds appeared within the black steel ball.
All three of them looked at the steel ball as cracks slowly appeared at one spot.
Nolan’s eyes narrowed.
‘This kid just won’t stay still!’ He thought and immediately added another layer on the black steel ball.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
However, the dull sounds inside grew intensely, sending shockwaves even outside the ball.
“Argh! This kid seriously!”
Nolan spread his arms and was about to rouse more of his magic when a huge spoon appeared on Anette’s hand.
“Release him now!” She shouted and instantaneously threw the spoon at Nolan.
“Oi!” Nolan complained and was about to dodge. However, the spoon turned gigantic, making his eyes almost bulge out.
At the same time, when the spoon fell on Nolan, the black steel ball exploded, filling the surrounding with black smoke.
“Nolan you bastard!” Kyran shouted from the center of the black smoke.
He coughed and panted as he fell on his knees. The wound on his thighs throbbed painfully, and he gritted his teeth, enduring the pain. With his healing abilities, the wounds had already stopped bleeding. But Nolan’s magic could penetrate even his bones, making it harder to recover in a short time.
Anette and Gage coughed while brushing away the black smoke that blocked their vision.
[Oi, kid. Are you f*cking crazy? You don’t even know these two, and you’re willing to reveal who you are?]
“If you have something to say, say it to my face. Don’t use telepathy!” Kyran immediately exposed Nolan.
[You ungrateful son-of-a—.]
Anette gritted her teeth.
“Nolan! Did you not realize that the more you stop him from talking, the more you are acting suspicious? What are you hiding?”
“As I said, we can just directly ask the guy,” Gage interjected. Without waiting for the two to reply, he already asked, “So who the hell are you? What kind of dirt do you have against him that he doesn’t want you to talk?”
The black smoke had already thinned around them, and Anette and Gage kept their attention on the spot where the black steel ball had been.
Finally, they saw the man’s face and the two were shocked.
Gage was shocked because he thought the man was in his mid-twenties. But he was clearly younger. Not to mention, he looked familiar.
Anette, on the other hand, recognized or at least found his face also familiar.
“Cade?”
Gage looked at Anette in confusion, “Cade?”
Kyran’s eyes narrowed as he turned his attention to the woman.
“You know my father?”
“Father?” Anette exclaimed.
“Ah, f*ck.”
Nolan sighed and appeared beside Anette.
“Nolan, you—!”
Before she could turn, he struck her from behind, immediately making her lose consciousness. He caught her from behind before she fell to the ground.
“Who is she?” Kyran asked with a slight frown.
“Talk later, we need to leave here first,” Nolan replied.
Kyran turned his attention to Gage. He recalled Stella’s confession about why Nolan had been missing and reckoned this man was Silas’s friend.
“Are you Gage?” He asked.
Gage scowled at him but did not reply.
“No need to be cautious around him,” Nolan said while creating a black wooden board before laying Anette down on it.
He looked at Gage and added, “He’s actually that one million spirit stones bounty target.”
Gage’s eyes widened while looking at Kyran in disbelief, “You?”
Kyran stood up slowly and glared at Nolan.
“Why the hell did you attack me earlier? You’re not going to tell me that you did not recognize me at first when you admitted on knowing I was using Nar’s face.”
Then Kyran recalled something and added, “You could have dealt with me any other way but you repeatedly attacked my face!”
Nolan looked at Kyran and shrugged.
“Baldie attacked you so I assisted. You’re face looked annoyingly familiar so I aimed for it. Why would I waste time and confirm who you were?”
Blacklines appeared on Kyran’s head. This guy was simply unreliable.
“Wait, what did you mean because I attacked first? You’re putting the blame on me?” Gage asked incredulously at Nolan.
If he were not aware of Nolan’s Magus status, he would have retaliated differently, especially when he insisted on calling him ‘Baldie’. But since he knew, he could only complain. It was an unspoken rule of people facing someone with power.
Of course, if that person in power was a scumbag then Gage would never be respectful. Nolan just happened to be better than the army, though Gage initially thought he was an annoying bastard.
“Besides, you’re supposed to be in Starhorn. Why the f*ck are you here?” Nolan added accusingly.
“I’m on an errand,” Kyran replied honestly. “I’m gathering materials for the Tower’s defensive array.”
Nolan raised both his brows in confusion. He said, “What? Missy’s already baited you to take responsibility?”
Kyran’s expression turned blank as he stared at Nolan without answering. Even though Nolan only said ‘missy’, Kyran already had an idea who he was referring to. However, Nolan’s words had a double meaning that even he who usually ignored meaningless taunts could not easily brush it off.
“Ahahaha! Your face just now.”
“Can you be serious?” Kyran said and made his way to them. He was still limping from the pain on his thighs, but it was tolerable.
Kyran initially wondered how they ended up in Noser and wanted to ask about it but thought against it. As much as he was curious, he still had priorities to deal with and one of them was to meet the Chamber of Commerce’s people. So instead, he asked, “Who are you up against? How come both of you are here?”
Gage, who was still eyeing Kyran warily, could only wait for Nolan to answer.
“Sh*t happened. So we’re here,” Nolan replied with a shrug.
Blacklines appeared on Gage’s head. Nolan had summarized what happened to them in such imaginative and straightforward words.
There was a short pause before Kyran turned to Gage and asked with a straight face, “Who are you up against? How come both of you are here?”
‘Deja vu?’ Gage thought, his brow twitching in the process.
“Oi!” Nolan glared at Kyran. “You’re ignoring me?”
Seeing how this young man chose to ignore Nolan, Gage was even more apprehensive about their relationship. Nolan’s identity as a Magus, even though he did not openly admit it, already made Gage, whose normally hardheaded and unafraid of anything, act respectfully toward him. The young man, however, brazenly attacked Nolan earlier and even acted rudely around him. There was also Anette’s strange reaction when he saw the young man and Nolan’s unrelenting stance of not wanting to tell her the truth.
“We got lost in the forest and ended up entering some ruins. After being lost there for a couple of days and finally getting out, we just noticed we are being chased by people.”
As soon as Kyran heard Gage mention the word ruins, his eyes narrowed.
‘No way….’