Chapter 514 - 512: Trap?

"There are more Mages in this camp."

Hilia watched from the shadows, carefully sizing things up.

Then she confirmed her judgment.

"All Tier Three and below, no big deal."

Back then, even Hilia herself hadn’t noticed the Essence of the Dark Dream—she just blacked out on the spot.

Even if you’re on guard, so what?

Unless you stop breathing and stop absorbing Magic Power, there’s no way to avoid it.

Unless you drink an immunity potion in advance.

Obviously, none of them had that.

So—

The third camp, the fourth, the fifth.

Around Fanar City, in every guard camp, everyone who’d been captured was freed by Hilia.

She used a different disguise every time, with only one thing in common: they were all female disguises.

Rumor has it that in the Tower of Descent, female Believers make up a huge proportion—especially Witches, who are exclusively women.

What she was doing now was deliberately making others think she was a Witch from the Tower of Descent.

Pinning the blame on the Tower of Descent, so the Blue Dragon Empire’s officials wouldn’t go after those Mercenaries, was the best possible outcome.

The Tower of Descent definitely wouldn’t mind being framed.

Hilia chuckled under her breath, admiring her handiwork.

From the last two camps, she’d already figured out where those extra Mages had come from.

So after wrapping up the rescue operation, she went to Fanar City and, with Rose’s help, shared what Rose had seen outside the City Lord’s Castle.

Just as she’d expected, the City Lord of Fanar City was already blowing his top, officially declaring this to be the work of the Tower of Descent.

Only Witches from the Tower of Descent like doing this sort of thing.

Just like that death threat from a while back.

From the City Lord’s discussion with his people, Hilia picked up a piece of information.

"So for that earlier death threat, they had help from a mysterious Pharmacist?"

Hilia sank into thought, a figure of Encore surfacing in her mind.

"Could it be Encore?"

Hilia shook her head.

Whether it was or not didn’t matter. After learning that the mysterious Pharmacist had already left, and that no one in the city knew it had been the Essence of the Dark Dream, Hilia left, quite satisfied.

She’d only gone into Fanar City to watch the City Lord and nobles fly into a rage while being utterly helpless—she had no other agenda.

After seeing it with her own eyes (to be precise, sharing Rose’s senses), she left content and headed back to Blazing Town.

It was now the second day of the rescue operation, toward evening.

Because of the earlier clashes and the "Tower of Descent rescue" incident, Mercenaries and guards were at each other’s throats; every time they crossed paths, a fight almost broke out.

But after what happened the night before last, the guards no longer dared to start anything lightly.

Unless they had the numbers.

But if they deliberately summoned a big crowd just to beat up Mercenaries, the fallout wouldn’t be something they could stomach. No Guard Captain was willing to shoulder that responsibility.

The Mercenaries didn’t know who’d saved them; they only knew someone was backing them from the shadows, and that gave them confidence. They swaggered right past the guard squads.

What’s that?

You think I’m suspicious and want to search me?

Not a chance!

Either we throw down, or you pretend you don’t see me!

And when it comes to fighting, Mercenaries are the last ones to be afraid.

There are no large Mercenary Corps here; most are lone wolves or small teams of five.

But they drink and brag together at the Mercenary tavern all the time, so they’re pretty united. If someone gets into a fight, anyone passing by will jump in.

Even if they get thrown into a cell, they aren’t afraid—someone can get them out.

And not just that: they’d even been tacitly allowed to "break out" and, on the way, "help themselves" to the camp’s supplies.

With things like this, facing Mercenaries who feared neither heaven nor earth, the guards were the ones who didn’t dare do much.

"Inside town it’s okay; what matters is whether things have improved at the border line."

Hilia slipped over to the road along the border line, observing in secret.

Before long, a team of Mercenaries crossed over and was stopped by the guards.

By coincidence, this particular Mercenary team was one of those who’d been locked up earlier after a clash, and when they were let out, they’d helped themselves to a bunch of camp supplies, making a tidy profit.

So when the guards blocked their way, they gave them a big grin.

The team’s leader spread his hands wide. "Search all you like, but if you think you’re taking my stuff, no way!"

The Guard Captain frowned at that and said coldly, "You think this is inside the city? Searches in the city are municipal business. We’re acting under imperial orders."

The leader gave a mocking laugh. "And I’m not resisting at all, hahahaha. Come on, come on, see this? This low-efficiency healing potion, I brought it out of Dragon Island Volcano. The lava at Dragon Island Volcano not only forms healing potions, it even naturally condenses Alchemy Bottles to hold the potion."

The team burst out laughing, one of them pulling out a Healing Skill Scroll. "Yeah, yeah, and this scroll here? I picked it up at Dragon Island Volcano too. Amazing, right? The eruption just happened to form a scroll shape, and the Healing Skill rune was even carved right into it."

"This sword too, it was naturally forged inside Dragon Island Volcano into a Divine Artifact, hahaha. You guys want to confiscate it?"

This Mercenary Corps was obviously here to stir up trouble. Hearing them, the border Guard Captain’s eyes went cold. "Is that so? You said it yourselves. We’ll take it all."

"And if we say no?"

"Then you’re under arrest!"

"Hahahaha, arrest away!"

"..."

Hidden in the dark, Hilia’s expression turned strange.

She paused for a moment, then decided to grant this Mercenary Corps their wish.

Even though this lot clearly acted without using their brains at all, not thinking through the fact that if they got locked up and no one came to rescue them, they’d take a serious loss.

Maybe they figured the "mysterious person" would save them again, and they’d get to plunder camp supplies once more, so they were provoking things on purpose.

But calling them brainless isn’t quite right; they did have a bit of a brain.

It was all just trash talk—they never actually threw a punch. They let the border guards take all the items they’d "shown off," then obediently allowed themselves to be arrested.

As they were being hauled away, they kept joking around, nothing like people being arrested.

Their attitude made the Captain very unhappy. He gave a cold snort. "Heh, you really think we can’t do anything to you?"

He waved his hand.

"Beat them up first, then drag them back."

The scene that followed wasn’t pretty.

Every Mercenary ended up with a bruised, swollen face, like a bunch of pig heads.

Hilia rubbed her temples.

"How can anyone be this pure and this stupid at the same time."

Still, Hilia decided to go save them.

Of course, just this once.

If they kept pulling this "staged accident" routine afterward, then they could sit in jail for real.

Judging by their faces after the beating, though, they probably wouldn’t try that again.

Aside from this weird bunch, Hilia saw several other Mercenary teams clash with the border guards—but this time there was no provocation; the guards simply had their eyes on the Mercenaries’ gear.

Everyone involved was escorted to the same camp.

Night fell.

Hilia finished her disguise and quietly approached the camp from outside, then suddenly frowned.

"Something’s off. This Array..."

She probed it with her senses and found that this Array was a hundred times more sophisticated than the previous ones.

On top of that, she could faintly pick up a different aura inside the camp.

The girl narrowed her eyes.

"A Tier Four Mage? Looks like they came prepared."