His words went unfinished.
Refined killing intent instantly surrounded the mercenaries.
If it had been emitted by bandits or monsters, they would have known to immediately assume battle positions, but the mercenaries’ bodies wouldn’t budge an inch.
Until just before Cain’s voice was heard, the mercenaries hadn’t even realized they had stopped breathing.
“I’m sure I warned you. To be careful with your words and actions.”
Only then did the mercenaries’ gazes move toward where the voice came from.
Crunch.
With the very small sound of stepping on dry sand, Cain revealed himself.
The mercenary captain, realizing that Cain was the source of the killing intent, barely managed to open his mouth.
“What the…”
But his words were cut short once again.
He noticed that a bone-chilling cold had somehow settled around his body.
‘Cold…?’
The inside of his mouth, which he had opened to say something, felt sticky. It was as if frost had formed in his throat.
‘Does this make sense?’
He was a mercenary who had reached the level of 3-star proficiency.
Thanks to the dense mana settled in his dantian, he could easily ignore even the cold of snowy mountain regions.
But the cold he felt now seemed to pierce through his skin mercilessly as if he were naked, creating the illusion that it was seeping into his very bones.
“If there’s anyone who babbles even one more word, I’ll permanently damage their ability to speak.”
Along with Cain’s words, all the mercenaries felt something sharp and pointed touching the back of their necks, precisely behind their vocal cords.
‘Insane.’
The mercenary captain was horrified.
‘I didn’t even sense any indication.’
Though he had grown up in the slums, having talent for ‘fighting’ itself, he had lived as a mercenary from quite a young age, experiencing battles both large and small.
Because of this, he could confidently say that his combat senses were not inferior to those of most 4-star knights.
Yet such a person hadn’t even noticed the signs of magic being cast, and now his neck was caught.
‘There wasn’t even an incantation.’
If this had been an actual combat situation, he would have somehow tried to find a gap and escape.
‘If I move carelessly, it’s over.’
His instincts, honed through mercenary life and having crossed the threshold of life and death several times, were telling him.
If he moved now, it would be the end.
And Cain had clearly just said he would damage their language abilities, not that he would kill them.
‘Stay calm. For now, I have to do whatever the opponent wants…’
The mercenary captain looked into Cain’s eyes.
‘…I can’t read them.’
As he had felt before departure, he couldn’t read any emotion from Cain’s eyes.
He racked his brain as hard as he could.
‘An apology. Right, not a half-hearted apology like before, but a sincere one, even kneeling down if necessary… No, wait, didn’t he tell us not to speak?’
Somehow he felt that if he started to say he was sorry, Cain would pierce his throat, saying didn’t he tell them not to say a single word.
‘But I can’t just stay still…’
The cold surrounding him continued to gnaw at him.
At this rate, he thought even his lungs would freeze and he wouldn’t be able to breathe.
‘…Wait. Freeze?’
The mercenary captain finally realized something was strange.
‘The Sears family is a flame-type family.’
What the other kids had been practicing earlier was definitely flame-type magic too.
But what he was feeling now, if his senses weren’t wrong, was definitely cold energy.
‘How is this possible?’
Earlier, he had been too flustered to think it strange. When his throat was about to be pierced in the blink of an eye, where would he have had the leisure to think calmly?
He felt the urge to turn his head and see with his own eyes what kind of magic was targeting his neck.
But he soon realized there was no need for that.
Flicker.
Because right now, fire mana was rippling above Cain’s hand.
Though it wasn’t completed magic, the high-purity fire mana was clear enough to see and could transform into any magic with a single incantation to strike the mercenaries.
The fact that flame-type and ice-type magic could absolutely never be learned together was something everyone knew.
‘I have to think my head has just gone crazy.’
Even while having these thoughts, the cold continued to penetrate relentlessly.
‘Damn it, I can’t take any more…’
Whether it killed him or saved him, he decided to bow his head and apologize immediately, trying to speak.
But from his already parched throat, even his voice wouldn’t come out properly.
“…Grrk.”
Only a bizarrely cracked sound leaked out.
Just when he felt he had reached his limit.
Cain slowly opened his mouth.
“I don’t need apologies. They’d just be life-begging apologies without any sincerity anyway.”
Whoosh.
The fire mana above Cain’s hand scattered.
At the same time, the cold that had been constricting the mercenaries disappeared.
“Huff, gasp, gasp…”
“Kek. Cough.”
The mercenaries finally breathed freely while clutching their chests, and several collapsed right where they stood.
The mercenary captain barely remained standing while catching his breath, looking at Cain.
Cain opened his mouth.
“An old friend once told me something. He said that when you exceed your own standards, you become too merciless, so if they’re not enemies, it might be good to give them up to two chances.”
Cain said while turning around.
“This makes it twice. There won’t be a next time, so keep that in mind.”
Crunch. Crunch.
Cain disappeared back the way he had come.
“…”
When Cain completely vanished from sight, the mercenary captain sat down heavily on the ground as if all tension had drained from him.
And he muttered in a daze.
“An old friend… Wasn’t he only in his teens…?”
Just then, Cain poked his face between the trees again.
When the mercenary captain was startled and closed his mouth, Cain added with an expressionless face.
“And make sure to search properly. Keep what you’re supposed to keep.”
Then he hid his face again and left.
The disciples who returned to the carriage together after finishing the search felt that the atmosphere had completely changed.
“Lord Cain, thorough search completed. No problems found.”
“The merchants say they’ve finished their brief inspection.”
“We’ve all gathered too, so we can rest a bit more and then depart.”
“If you’d like to rest more, I’ll go tell them.”
The mercenaries who had been casting displeased glances from inside the guard perimeter just moments ago were now reporting to Cain with military discipline.
Cain waved his hand dismissively.
“You don’t need to report to me or ask for permission for everything. Just share important information with each other. We just have the same purpose, but you and we are independent groups, so I won’t overstep boundaries.”
“Yes, understood!”
It was absurd that after doing such a thing, he said he wouldn’t exercise authority, but the mercenaries answered without complaint.
—What was that just now…?
—Honestly, I don’t even remember it well. I was just barely breathing.
—I couldn’t move at all. Damn, even when I got beaten up after picking a fight with a former 4-star knight, it wasn’t this bad.
—It felt like my whole body was just freezing solid.
—But is this even possible? He’s a flame-type mage. He looked ready to throw fireballs at us too.
—I don’t know. Maybe we just mistook it for freezing because the killing intent was too strong. Looking back after it ended, there weren’t even traces of magic being used.
—True, we didn’t hear any incantation either. To actually freeze all of us with silent casting would be difficult even for a 5th circle ice-type mage, right?
—Ice-type, damn, haven’t heard that in ages. Do any even remain…?
—Whatever. Let’s just not mess around anymore. He said it was the last chance.
What had happened in the search area remained a mystery.
But considering that ice magic and flame magic were absolutely impossible to learn together, and that for it to be ice magic, it wasn’t at a level a sixteen-year-old could use, they reached the conclusion that it was more rational to think there had been some hallucinogenic components in the mushroom dish they had eaten that morning.
In any case, the mercenaries decided to take Cain’s final warning to heart.
When the mercenaries finished their report and returned, the disciples eagerly asked Cain.
“What’s up, Cain? What happened?”
“S-suddenly the uncles became kind.”
“What did you do this time? While you were away from us?”
Bolio, who had already experienced Cain’s solo actions in the snowy mountains, asked with sharp eyes.
“I met them in the search area and they weren’t searching properly, so I gave them a warning.”
“That’s all?”
“…”
When Cain slightly turned his head away, Bolio sighed.
“You did something again. Looking at how you’re fine, it doesn’t seem like you beat them up too badly…”
“That’s true.”
“T-this much is good.”
Then Anyas made a somewhat incredulous expression.
“What, why is everyone accepting this? Is Cain always like this?”
“Yeah.”
“Yep.”
“…Right. I see.”
At the firm answers, Anyas seemed to give up on understanding.
Just when an awkward silence had fallen.
“Um, young master.”
Alice’s voice was heard from behind.
Alice was holding a basket.
Inside were appetizing butter cookies and chocolate cookies.
“I baked some cookies as snacks and brought them. You must be getting hungry, how about it?”
At those words, Cain’s expression brightened a little.
“Good. I was just…”
Cain, who had almost said he was hungry because he had used some unplanned mana, quietly picked up a cookie.
Crunch.
Cain smiled after eating the chocolate cookie.
“It’s delicious.”
“Really? Hehe, the young master praised me… Oh, Master Ed, Master Fon, please try some too! Miss Anyas and Sir Bolio too! I brought plenty!”
Alice, who had been happy about Cain’s praise, quickly offered cookies to the other disciples as they watched.
“Really? Can I have some too?”
“Th-thank you.”
“I’ll eat well!”
“Miss, won’t you have some? Don’t be shy and try one!”
“…I’ll eat well.”
Anyas reluctantly accepted a cookie.
Crunch.
“Wow. It’s delicious.”
Anyas’s eyes widened. She chewed the cookie while looking toward Alice.
“Young master, please try the butter cookie too!”
“Mm… This one tastes good too. Overall, your cookie-making skills have improved a lot.”
“Wow! The young master praised me twice in a row!”
“…Though the shapes aren’t quite consistent yet.”
“If that were perfect too, Neftie would have nothing to do. Huhu. As an older sister, I should yield.”
Alice puffed out her chest with a proud expression.
‘They get along well.’
Come to think of it, it was a bit curious.
Whether watching from afar or talking directly, the Cain that Anyas saw was always calm to the point of being cold.
‘But while he seems blunt, surprisingly his relationships with the people around him seem quite good.’
The personal maid aside, Ed, Fon, and Bolio also followed Cain very well.
‘…I’m not even close with my personal maid.’
While using the lazy genius strategy and deliberately keeping distance to avoid being caught training alone, basically for Anyas, her personal maid was just a medium for conveying Christan’s instructions.
And for Anyas, who had grown up that way, such a scene was a bit unfamiliar.
‘A little envi… No.’
Anyas, who had swallowed the cookie, quickly shook her head and drove away the idle thoughts.
‘Well, that maid Alice is there because Cain once protected her from Hayden… And Ed, Fon, and Bolio are attached to Cain to learn his training methods.’
Anyas had also come here to find out about those training methods.
So far, he had only made them do training that seemed brutish and didn’t look like it would help.
‘There must be something to it.’
Don’t get distracted by other things and miss it.
Anyas made this resolution and looked at Cain with sharp eyes.
Then Cain also felt the gaze and looked at Anyas.
“…?”
And after a moment, he made an expression as if he understood something, then took out a cookie from the basket and held it out.
“If it’s cookies, there are still plenty left, so you can eat more. Here, a butter cookie.”
“…”
“If you don’t want it, never mind.”
“…I’ll eat it.”
