When A Mage Revolts

Hawk opened the door and welcomed Benjamin and the others into the room.

He was a little surprised and said, "Sir Benjamin, have you change your mind? Our Guild Master is not what you had imagined. He is a very kind man. I doubt he will cause you any trouble..."

Benjamin put up his hand to stop him. "Thank you for your kindness, but our schedule has been decided. We will depart by tomorrow and head towards Carretas. We really do not have time to pass by Capital City." Upon hearing this, Hawk’s expression showed that he realized there was nothing more that he could do.

"Sir Benjamin, you just told me that you are about to exit the country illegally. Aren’t you afraid that I will report back to the Guild and have all of you arrested?" he smirked.

Benjamin shrugged answered, "I’m just discussing it. I didn’t actually do anything. Is discussing something a crime?"

"..."

The mages behind Benjamin covered their mouths and snickered. Hawk went silent.

As a lobbyist of the Mage Guild, he had a duty. Thus, he took a deep breath and resumed to his calm and friendly manner. He faced Benjamin and spoke again, "If that is the case, Sir Benjamin, for what business did you search me out?"

Benjamin shook his head, "It’s not a serious matter. It’s just that... Didn’t Sir Richard faint during the duel yesterday? Since I was the one who knocked him out, I am rather worried - I came to visit him today."

As he spoke, he pointed to the few mages standing behind him, "These are my friends. They were doctors before this. After they became mages, they become interested in Healing Magic. So, I brought them here to see if they can offer any kind of assistance."

After hearing this, Hawk gazed at the few sturdy mages that stood behind Benjamin, seemingly slightly doubtful of his words. However, he probably thought nothing of it. So, he turned around and pulled the partition open, showing the beds to them.

"Richard has not regained consciousness since yesterday. It seems like the Water of Life has no effect on him as well." Hawk was slightly worried. "He just lays there. I have no idea why."

Upon hearing this, Benjamin was rather surprised.

Impossible. Was the effect of his gigantic Waterball that scary? It knocked out somebody for one day and one night, with no way of knowing when the person will wake up?

He could not help but to question whether there was something inherently wrong with Richard’s body.

But this was a good chance for them. It was like the Heavens were helping them.

For the two mages from the Mage Guild, one had already lost consciousness and just lay on his bed, knocked out. Because of this, it would be easier for them to deal with the other mage.

Just as Hawk turned to look at Richard, Benjamin signaled the people behind him. The mages behind him nodded subtlety in return. Benjamin then moved forward and patted Hawk on his shoulder.

"I’m sorry. How about this? Let them have a look at Sir Richard to see whether he is sick. Maybe they will know what to do." He reassured Hawk in a seemingly nice way.

As Benjamin grabbed the attention of Hawk, the sturdiest mage of them all, the Old Blacksmith walked towards them. He acted as if he wanted to treat Richard. And when Hawk was not looking, the Old Blacksmith grabbed his head and slammed it into the wall beside him.

Bang!

Benjamin could not help but frown.

The formerly white wall now stained in blood. Hawk was caught totally off-guard. His limbs twitched like a frog that had been stomped on. He could not even let out a squeak.

"He won’t die from this right?" Benjamin asked.

The Old Blacksmith wiped away Hawk’s blood from his hands. He put his hands under Hawk’s nose and checked for his breath. He shook his head and said, "Don’t worry. He didn’t die. He is still breathing."

Benjamin walked towards Hawk and checked that he was truly not going to die. Thank God, he was simply knocked unconscious. At most, he would have concussion but he definitely would not die. His conscious could rest well.

The whole process of knocking Hawk unconscious went rather well. Since Benjamin and the rest were mages, Hawk would not have thought to look out for such simple, brutal attack no matter how cautious he was being.

Moreover, Benjamin’s well-mannered talk and diversion was very convincing.

"Okay. Tie him up." Benjamin came back to his senses and said.

Upon hearing this, the other mages moved forward and used the rope and clothes they prepared beforehand to tie Hawk up tightly. Even his mouth was covered. This was so that he would not have the chance to chant spells after he regained consciousness. Absolutely detailed. This was how Benjamin deal with things.

He planned to knock the two out, tie them up and lock them in this room. By the time the boss of the hotel realizes something is wrong and comes to check things out before eventually releasing them, Benjamin and gang would have been long gone. It would be very difficult for these two to track them down anymore. With that, the officials of Icor could not possibly know which part of the border they would be flying over. They would have no way to track the group.

"What, what are you doing?"

However, when the mages were busy tying up Hawk, Richard who was lying unconscious on the bed just now suddenly sprung up. He looked at them in fear.

Benjamin was horrified.

"Weren’t you unconscious this whole time?" He asked uncertainly. But very quickly, as if he just thought of something, he said, "No, that’s not right. I knew it. So, you were pretending that you had fainted all this time?"

Upon hearing this, Richard’s expression turned into distress.

"Who, who is it that pretended to faint? Why would I pretend to faint? I, I..." He could not speak properly as he appeared to try to explain why he had woken up suddenly. But at that moment, it was as if he turned into a person with a nasty stammer. He spent a whole lot of energy, but could not explain anything.

Benjamin sighed and signaled the Old Blacksmith again.

The Old Blacksmith understood the signal and walked towards Richard. With the same method, he slammed Richard’s head into the wall. Richard was probably still trying to explain why he had pretended to faint, so he did not resist at all and let the Old Blacksmith do his job.

And so, with a muffled bang, the whole room went silent. The stammering yet talkative Richard’s explanation was suddenly cut short.

"These mages from the Mage Guild are strange people, indeed." One of the mages exclaimed.

Benjamin could not help but agree. What is this ‘pretending to faint’ thing? It was not like he was young. Did he have to go to that extent just because he lost a match? He was like those elementary school students who lay in their beds and pretended to be sick just so they did not have to attend school.

To think, he actually made Benjamin happy for a short moment back there. He thought his Water Ball Spell had developed some extraordinary effects.

And just like that, they used an extremely violent yet simple way to deal with the two mages from the Mage Guild. The whole matter went extremely well thanks to the fact that their opponents were unprepared, plus, ordering the sturdy mages to tie people up made Benjamin feel like the don of a mafia.

Unfortunately, there were no sunglasses in this world. If not, he would definitely have gotten a pair for himself.

Out of mercy, Benjamin did not take all the things after he searched the mages’ bodies. In fact, he only took a small, crumpled note that had a sentence written on it from Hawk.

After that, they left the room.

When the night fell, the Mage Group was fully prepared. They brought their luggage and left money for the rent on the bed. Sneaking off into the dark, they silently left their hotel as well as the Town of Hank.

Once again, they were travelling at night – heading East. They planned to bypass Regina and think of a way to reach the border between Icor and Ferelden which they would silently fly over the border.

They walked for more than four hours.

At this point, they had already left Town of Hank and were now at the foot of a mountain that was almost unscalable. Because of the difficult journey and the fact that the area ahead was a rather infamous active area of Magic Beast, they decided to camp here for the night. They would rest here and continue their journey the next morning.

In the narrow and dark tent, Benjamin lowered his head and took out the note from earlier.

It was the note in which Benjamin took from Hawk’s pocket before leaving Town of Hank. Benjamin had held it in his hand for a long time, tossing and turning it to read it again and again.

The crumpled note wrote a very clear message:

"Scare the Waterball devil away. Don’t let him go near the Capital City."