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Chapter 323 104 - Flags, flags everywhere (part 2)

"Lord Vanterl! Good evening to you too."

The bandit\'s leader raised his hand and cheered out with a confident smile full of self-satisfaction.

"Victureos are in complete disarray, honestly even if you didn\'t manage to sneak the artifact into the Espine\'s mansion, the sight of that lightning attribute child losing his cool when assuring the king and the royal magician about the progress of the mass-produced prototype is worth the money I promised you! After the truth about Victureo losing the artifact will be brought to light, they will have to do something about that humiliation and will have to bend under the pressure and marry off their natural-born sage!"

"Oh-ho...?"

The crimson-haired noble seemed in such a good mood that he was unable to hold back from smiling triumphantly, making the bandit\'s leader eyes go round as he focused on the money part and wasn\'t interested in the very concerning sage part that caused Zoemi back in the Banemor mansion to shake his head in disbelief.

"Then, if I will tell you that Espine\'s castle has been infiltrated and the object was hidden in a storage compartment right in the office of lord Epsine himself, would you be willing to consider giving us a bonus?"

The man flashed his teeth and a toothy grin and rubbed his index finger and thumb together.

"Depends... what storage compartment? I clearly instructed you to leave it in a place where it would not get discovered by Espines but could be picked up by the investigators..."

Lord Vanterl\'s smile dimmed a little bit and he squinted his eyes at the bandit, most likely wondering whether his joy was premature or not.

"Ah, my lord – let me tell you why we definitely deserve something extra – you see, our dear friend, Gorion, had really outdone himself. You see, lord Espine is known for his love of sweets to the point that he has an entire shelf dedicated to things he can snack on during work."

"...and...? If your man had placed the artifact there it would make it that much easier to discover..."

The bandit\'s leader boasted but was interrupted with an annoyed scoff by the suddenly angered crimson-haired noble whose body began glowing with intense fire enchantments that were incomparably more powerful than normal fire enchantments had any right to be.

"Do not jump to such a hasty conclusion, my lord – you see lord Espine had been recently gaining weight and his wife decided to do something about it – she ended up locking the shelf and hiding the key. She even shows up in the office from time to time to make sure that the shelf is locked properly and her husband didn\'t just break it to get to the snacks."

"..."

The bandit leader raised his hands defensively, protecting his face from the heat coming from the furious fire magician, and explained – which in turn caused the light of the enchantments to slowly ade form the nobleman\'s body.

"Indeed – Gorion is well versed in the subtle art of lockpicking – he placed the artifact in the back of the shelf behind the snacks and locked it back without damaging the lock itself."

The bandit lowered his hands and smiled, nodding his head at the crimson-haired man.

"That does make things a little better – although it gives us a time limit – how long until that boy would break or his wife\'s heart will soften enough to let him off the sweets probation?"

The crimson-haired noble tilted his head and sighed, not angry anymore, but rather concerned.

"My lord, I also have an answer to that – this ban on snacks isn\'t happening for the first time – according to the accounts of the servants that our friend asked while searching for the right place to hide the artifact, he learned that the least amount of time lord Espine held back was a week, while his current record is set to two weeks... As long as you will be able to organize the investigators to search the Espine\'s castle within a week, there is almost a hundred percent guarantee that no one else will discover the artifact before them."

The bandit leader puffed out his chest and declared triumphantly.

"I don\'t know which is more surprising... The fact that you lot had properly planned out and performed a plan like that, or that someone like you knows what percents are."

The crimson-haired noble scoffed but the joyful smile that he had when he showed up returned to his face.

"Oh, you see – before I was introduced to the world of forcibly relocating the goods and founds from others to myself, I was a humble son of a traveling merchant. My father had taught me well – if our entire livelihood didn\'t end up burning up because of the incorrectly packed oil barrels you would be talking to someone else."

"...!"

The bandit leader revealed lightheartedly while shrugging his shoulders making the nobleman raise his brows in surprise.

"Is that so... here."

Lord Vanterl breathed out and pulled out a considerably stacked bag of gold from behind his back and threw it in the loving arms of the talkative bandit leader.

"That\'s the amount we have agreed upon... and this..."

The crimson-haired man declared before reaching to the inner pocket of his shirt and taking out a small box with runes carved into it.

"Is a little bonus – those aren\'t order made so it cannot be tracked back to me, and you can do whatever you want with it. I will contact you again if I need your service."

"!!!"

He said throwing the box onto the bandit\'s leader\'s lap and leaving without properly saying his farewell or sparing a glance to any other bandit besides the one he talked to.

----

[Can I kill them yet?]

Ludier\'s shadow got lively in Zoemi\'s head and asked, all rearing to fulfill this part of his revenge.

"Wait – the crimson-haired guy is still around."

Zoemi shook his head still thinking about the words that the noble let slip at the beginning of his conversation with the bandits.

Victureo will have to bend to the pressure and marry off the natural-born sage...?

|...is there anyone else besides Ehmi who fits the requirements for that...?|

The black-haired boy thought to himself in concern thinking about the young-looking platinum-haired girl whose unique shadow was a humongous face of a ticking clock.

[I know that he is still there – I want to kill him too! He surely has something to do with the deaths of my family!]

"..."

Ludier\'s shadow certainly wasn\'t paying attention to Zoemi\'s worries as he was locked into the avenger mode already ready to send himself through the connection between the black-haired boy and the puppets and emerge on the shore of the crystal lake to wreak havoc.

"Are you sure you can deal with him? Isn\'t he a sage?"

Zoemi scoffed and complained in annoyance, before he was too concerned with not getting caught to pay attention to the crimson-haired man\'s unique shadow, but now he was sure – the level of details and size of the unique shadow in the shape of a scorpion with two sting-ended tails clearly suggested that his mana reservoir was leagues above the average light magician\'s.

[...it is worth trying... you were far weaker than you are now when you killed that winged woman...]

Zoemi\'s words worked like a bucket of cold water and managed to stop the shockingly hot-headed shadow of the ice-magician.

"Not yet. First, we must make sure to learn who he really is... ah... he\'s gone now anyway. Go wild on the three bandits left alive."

The black-haired boy shook his head and refused – just to flinch when the crimson-haired man\'s unique shadow disappeared just as suddenly as he showed up.

[FINALLY!]

Ludier\'s shadow roared and indeed went wild following the connection and emerging from the extending shadow of one of the puppets sitting patiently by around the campfire...

*stab* *stab* *stab*

Ludier\'s shadow showed a lot more constraint than compared to the twelve others, killing all three by piercing them with ice spears through the neck, severing their spines with precise simultaneous stabs without even turning them into the ice statues of pincushions.

*ching*

The bag of gold coins dropped by the deceased bandit leader hit the ground with a clean sound.

|Are you feeling better?|

Zoemi asked, sending his thoughts straight to the Ludier\'s shadow.

[I will not feel better until Derizno\'s head rolls or he chokes on the money he earned from the mines he ordered killing my family for.]

The shadow puppet answered looking at the corpses.

[Come on, kid, make them into puppets too.]

He added while sinking back into the extended shadow.