The mercenaries glanced over Cain and the children, then smirked.
“Don’t tell me these are the additional guard mages you mentioned earlier?”
“Ha. Those brats who haven’t even dried the blood on their heads are supposed to be guards?”
“At this rate, aren’t we just getting more people we need to protect?”
Hearing those words, Bolio and Anyas, who had been fighting like they wanted to devour each other, simultaneously stopped.
“What?”
“What did you just say…?”
As Anyas’s expression twisted menacingly, the mercenary captain at the front grinned and gestured toward the back.
“Hey guys. Still, they’re disciples of a renowned fire magic family. And they’re supported by the Bederman family at that. You shouldn’t speak so rudely in the open.”
Then he nodded his head slightly toward Cain, who was looking up at him from the front, and apologized.
“I’m sorry, young masters. As you can see, our boys here never learned proper manners anywhere and grew up rough and wild. For mercenary riffraff like us to commit such rudeness, as their captain, I apologize on behalf of these guys.”
Neither his tone nor his expression seemed sincere in the apology, and Anyas could no longer hold back and opened his mouth.
“Do you think just nodding your head like that makes everything…”
“Stop, Anyas.”
It was Cain who restrained Anyas.
“Why are you stopping me? They’re openly mocking us…”
But soon, looking into Cain’s eyes, Anyas unconsciously gasped and swallowed his breath.
‘What, what is this? What kind of look is that?’
This was Cain who had maintained an indifferent expression even when Hayden openly provoked him in the training grounds.
But now, Cain’s eyes were surprisingly cold and frozen. Cold enough that just looking at them made one feel frost settling along their spine.
Gulp.
While Anyas swallowed his saliva, Cain looked straight at the mercenary captain and said:
“I’ll accept the apology. But please be careful with your words and actions in the future.”
Cain’s words were also polite, but both his tone and expression carried a deep warning.
Even the mercenary captain flinched upon seeing Cain’s gaze, then shrugged his shoulders and forced his lips into a smile.
“Haha, thank you for understanding. Well then, guys, let’s do a final weapon check and prepare to depart.”
“Yes sir!”
“Yes, captain!”
As the mercenaries moved toward the escort carriage, Cain also looked toward his disciples.
At Cain’s gaze, which had somehow returned to normal, Anyas, Bolio, Ed, and Fon all exhaled the breath they had been holding.
Bolio clicked his tongue as if slightly disappointed.
“We should have given them a sharp lesson. Why did you just let it pass? This is our family territory, and they were being rude, so if we had escalated it, we would have had the advantage.”
The one who answered was Anyas, who had been the first to calm his emotions after seeing Cain’s eyes.
“No, Cain did the right thing. I got a bit excited just now too… Anyway, we’re about to leave the family territory and won’t be able to return for a while. But if we can’t resolve friction with mercenaries ourselves before we even depart and have to drag in our superiors, what would the lord, family head, or elders think?”
Then Ed, who had been listening, said:
“Hmm, they certainly wouldn’t think we’re reliable.”
“The mercenaries might bow their heads for now, but they’ll look down on us inside.”
“Exactly. They’d definitely think ‘as expected, brats who can’t do anything without their superiors.’ So it’s better to warn them and cut it off here. That’s why you stopped me, right, Cain?”
Anyas looked at Cain with a triumphant face, as if he had perfectly understood his intentions.
“It wasn’t such a grand meaning. Since they apologized, even if formally, there wasn’t much disadvantage we could impose, so I judged it meaningless to drag it out.”
When Cain shook his head, Anyas said with a deflated expression:
“…Still, you must have felt bad about them looking down on us.”
“It doesn’t matter what preconceptions the mercenaries have about our abilities. We can just show them directly.”
“For saying that, your gaze was incredibly murderous earlier.”
“That was…”
For the first time, Cain trailed off.
In fact, Cain’s cold gaze wasn’t meant as a warning.
It was more like a reflexive rejection when the mercenary called the Sears family ‘a fire magic family supported by Bederman.’
‘Really, I’m still not used to it.’
He thought he had adapted to some degree.
The castle of his previous family, which was so vast that they had to take carriages to reach the farthest entrance from the family head’s quarters.
The numerous entry-level disciples who expanded the communal training grounds to accommodate more people, and when that wasn’t enough, practiced in open fields.
The research hall where precious materials and magical tools were purchased in bulk and stored to enable deeper exploration of ice magic and various experimental studies.
All of that had disappeared, and he thought he had adapted to and completely accepted the fact that everything had to be rebuilt from scratch under the desolate snowy mountains and cold winds.
‘Harman used to say something like that. That sometimes you accept it with your head, but can’t accept it with your heart.’
Cain hadn’t understood those words then.
‘But now I think I understand a little.’
Not only was there no ice magic, but even the fire magic books they were currently learning were hardly proper ones.
Entry-level disciples came in as rarely as beans in a drought.
In the current situation where precious research materials had to be quickly sold for money instead of being used for research.
What the mercenary said reminded Cain once again of the family’s current state.
However, it would be impossible to honestly express and make these fresh-faced disciples here understand such feelings.
‘And I shouldn’t.’
If the family could be revived, it wouldn’t matter if he felt such emotions dozens more times alone.
What the disciples needed to feel now wasn’t a sense of loss, but ambition for magic and healthy competitive spirit.
So Cain opened his mouth.
He was about to deflect and brush off the question about his earlier gaze when:
“That was probably just to warn the mercenaries and set the mood a bit. I saw that mercenary captain flinch when he saw Cain’s eyes.”
Ed chimed in at just the right moment.
Then Fon, who had been hiding behind Ed, quickly nodded.
“R-right. The other mercenaries hesitated too.”
“Honestly, it was really satisfying. A guy that big cowering from a sixteen-year-old’s gaze. Pfft.”
Bolio looked toward where the mercenaries were with a pleased expression.
Then Anyas also burst into laughter.
“That’s true. Whatever the intention, it’s fine if the effect was good.”
Thanks to Ed, the somewhat stiff atmosphere quickly melted away.
Cain also nodded with a relaxed expression.
“Don’t worry. If they ignore the warning, then it won’t end with just words.”
“…Wait. That’s actually concerning.”
After all preparations were complete, the carriage received a final inspection from the financial administrator.
“No problems. Then, before departure, let me explain once more…”
Since this was the core of this trade mission, Todd once again explained in detail to both the existing escort mercenaries and the disciples serving as additional guards about the route through the marshlands.
“Understood.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The mercenaries nodded.
Initially, the mercenaries had also voiced complaints about changing the route to the dangerous marshland area.
However, they immediately changed their stance after hearing about the Bederman family’s toll increase.
This was because the tolls were paid individually by each person, not by the client.
Since they were all doing this work to earn money, there was no way they would welcome increased expenses from their own pockets.
Moreover, if they managed to hunt magical beasts in the marshlands, the byproducts would belong to whoever caught them, so they calculated they might even earn additional income if things went well.
“Take care, Cain.”
“Yes, family head.”
“Ed, Fon. Don’t get hurt and come back safely, alright?”
“Don’t worry, father.”
“N-nothing will happen.”
Family head Blake Sears and elder Wayne Sears also came out just before departure to see off their children.
However, Anyas’s father, Cristian, did not come out.
“……”
Anyas and Bolio stood silently, then made eye contact.
“What are you looking at?”
“You looked first.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Just get in first.”
“You get in first.”
They bickered with each other as they climbed into the carriage.
“We’re departing now!”
Thus, the merchant carriage loaded with goods and people left the family territory.
Clatter, clatter-clang.
“……”
“……”
In the awkward silence, Bolio spoke up.
“Cain. Do we really have to do this right now?”
Bolio, Ed, and Fon were maintaining small fireball spells inside the shaking carriage as Cain had instructed.
“Is there a problem?”
When Cain tilted his head, Bolio lowered his voice.
“No, but the atmosphere is a bit…”
Perhaps because his attention was elsewhere, Bolio’s fireball suddenly extinguished.
Bolio glanced toward the inner part of the escort carriage.
There sat the mercenaries, silently gathered together.
Although five had joined as additional guards, there was only one escort carriage, so they had to spend time in the same space.
Fortunately, the escort area was spacious enough for them to stay apart, but the air was inevitably heavy due to the earlier friction.
In this situation, Cain calmly made the three practice magic.
-This is the optimal environment for training spell casting with movement in real combat. This is the first stage of that – minimizing mental energy consumption when the environment changes irregularly without directly moving yourself.
“Even if there hadn’t been friction, we wouldn’t be chatting and laughing with them anyway. We have to do what needs to be done.”
“…Right. You’re not the type to care about atmosphere.”
Bolio sighed softly.
And cast fireball again.
This time he lasted quite long, and just as he was about to set a new record:
Clatter!
Due to rough terrain, the wheel caught on a stone and the carriage shook violently.
“Argh! It went out again!”
“…Mine too.”
“J-just when…”
The magic all three were maintaining was helplessly extinguished.
“Cain, can’t we just make it a little bigger and maintain it? I think we could do well then. It’s too small so it goes out immediately with just a little slip.”
“No. Even if you have to invest more mental energy, keep it small and constant. That way it won’t waver when you make it bigger later.”
“Ugh. Got it.”
“Ugh, here we go again!”
Ed, Fon, and Bolio gritted their teeth and summoned magic again, soon reaching close to their best record with slightly more practiced skill.
And then.
“Good, if I can just maintain it a little longer…!”
Clatter!
“……”
Although this wasn’t a section where dangerous magical beasts frequently appeared, the disciples still took sufficient rest between training sessions in case combat broke out.
After going through this process several times, the carriage stopped.
“We’ll have a meal and maintenance here before departing again!”
The disciples who finally got out of the escort area stretched.
“I thought my butt was going to die!”
“If we can just endure until the flat ground, it’ll be much better…right?”
Everyone looked tired despite just sitting in the escort area.
Even Anyas, who hadn’t been training, bit into bread with slightly weary eyes.
After the meal, they conducted a search within a conservative range to check for threats in the area.
‘With this radius, I could detect enemies with ki sense without even moving…’
For Cain, who had already achieved 5th circle in ice magic despite being 3rd circle in fire magic, this movement was unnecessary, but since he couldn’t reveal that, he searched and guarded the surroundings with his disciples for now.
‘It’s also important for the disciples to master proper search procedures.’
After explaining the standard procedures and giving instructions to gather after the search, Cain also walked toward his assigned area.
‘As expected, no particular problems.’
While walking through his area and gradually extending his hearing to check if the disciples were doing well:
“…I’m telling you.”
“…There’s no way.”
Unexpectedly, voices came from the mercenaries’ search area.
‘Two, three… No, they’re moving around in a whole group. What are they doing?’
As he approached a bit more and focused his hearing in that direction, the voices became clear.
“Let’s just kill some time and go back.”
“Hey, we were actually just going to skip the search and rest for a bit. But that Cain young master or whatever idiot insisted we had to search…”
Cain frowned at the comment taking the procedures lightly.
And then he heard the mercenary captain’s voice.
“Sigh… That bastard. When I politely apologized earlier saying he was a family disciple, he glared at me like he was something special.”
“Right. What kind of brat has such murderous eyes?”
Someone quickly chimed in from the side.
“I’m telling you he’s really crazy. His face just looks like that.”
“His face was actually pretty handsome though? Damn lucky.”
“Hey, it’s not about being handsome or ugly when it comes to facial features. There’s that particular sinister look. Anyway, I don’t like those eyes.”
Then the mercenary captain chuckled and said:
“Exactly. Just from his attitude, you’d think he was from some prestigious magic family. In reality, he’s from some insignificant lackey family under Bederman, acting all high and mighty.”
