Magus: Rise of the Darkness Empress

On the early morning of the next day, sounds of slight sobbing was heard in the Souran castle. The reason for that was obviously Weiss going away. It was not just Elise who was disappointed about it, the other maids were also sad about this matter.

But even though there were tears at the corner of their eyes, they still sent Weiss away with a dazzling smile on their faces. At the same time, they had also lovingly packed various others things for Weiss to use while she was on the road.

In this situation, the person who was feeling the most awkward was definitely Karl. As he was the main reason why Weiss needed to go away, the looks that the maids gave him were not very pleasant and Karl was stressed out about this.

But as he was sitting on pins and needles, Mary approached him and handed him some preserved food to use on the road with a smile on her face. Seeing this smile, Karl was very moved and felt as if this smile belonged to an angle.

...

After Karl and Weiss were done saying their goodbyes, they finally hit the road. As they were not carrying much luggage this time, their speed of traveling was much faster than before.

As for their destination, it would be a city called Ryco. This city was located very close to the city of Fal where count Falgur lived. Ryco was also the head quarters for the Night Crow organisation.

But not just the Night Crow, this city was home to many other dark organisations.

The current ruler of this city had been ill for a long time and did not have any power to strictly control the city. So the dark organisations had taken advantage of this situation and had became the de facto rulers of this place.

Not just the dark organisations, the several nobles were also using various such organisations as their proxy to control this city from the shadows. So the situation there was quite complex.

The reason why this city was given so much importance was it’s proximity to a mysterious forest and also a mysterious mountain range.

Both of these two places did not have many strong monsters but had various valuable items that were useful for a knight. This fact had made those two places to be perfect for the knights’ to explore.

The forest located near the Souran village was also rich in valuable resources but this place was filled with dangerous monsters and had a very terrible climate, so very few knights would be willing to come here.

But that was not a problem in the city of Ryco as it had pleasant atmosphere most of the times. That made this city very valuable. So much so that even some members of the royal family had shown interest in it.

All of these informations were not big secrets and most of the high ranking members of any of the dark organisations were aware of them. So naturally Karl also knew about it.

But as he was not really very interested in Knowing these kinds of things, he was only aware of the basic information. He had no idea who in the royal family was interested in the Ryco city or the identity of the nobles trying to control this place from the shadows.

Still he was at least aware of the names of a few other dark organisations who were strong enough to match the Night Crow. So Weiss was still satisfied with the amount of information that she currently had.

...

Two days passed on the road without anything major happening. For these two days, Weiss and Karl had not visited any cities to spent the night. But on the third day, they decided to stop by a small town.

This town where they were staying was truly very small, even smaller than the current Souran territory. It was just a better built village.

This place also had an old knight in charge. Weiss and Karl had no intention of picking a fight with that person. So they kept a low profile as they stayed in the town.

Weiss also bought a few things here that they would need on the road. Karl also got his spare sword fixed by the blacksmith living in this town.

After learning about the blacksmithing, Weiss almost got the urge to capture this person and take him to the Souran territory.

Among the new residents, there were a few people who knew a little about how to fix a broken weapon and such but they had no idea about proper blacksmithing. So Weiss’s wish to find a blacksmith for her territory was still unfulfilled.

Fortunately for her, there was at least one person whose neighbour was a blacksmith before he was captured as a slave. So he knew more about this subject than average people.

And with some books that Weiss had about blacksmithing, he was trying to do his best in learning this craft and repay Weiss by helping her out. But Weiss had no idea how long this person would take to make his first weapon.

So while continuing to support him in his studies, Weiss wanted to get at least one experienced blacksmith under her. So one of her secondary objectives for this journey was also to find a blacksmith who would be willing to join her in the remote Souran territory.

...

On the fourth day of their journey, Weiss and Karl encountered their first bandit attack of this trip. The last time when they were attacked, Weiss had managed to gain a lot from looting them, so she was actually looking forward to being attacked from the beginning of the journey.

But unfortunately, after she had managed to defeat all the bandits who had attacked them this time, she was disappointed to find that all of them were extremely poor.

The bandits this time were just some malnourished regular villagers and only one among them was a low level apprentice knight. So they were extremely weak.

As for looting them, that was impossible. These people had almost nothing to their names. Even the weapons that they were using were rusted farm equipments.

They were so pitiful that Weiss did not feel like killing them immediately. Instead she asked them some questions and came to know the reason why they had became bandits.

The lord who was ruling over this area was extremely greedy. He took almost everything from the villagers and left them with nothing. So most of the villagers here were starving all the time.

Going against the lord here would just make them to lose their lives by his soldiers’ hands. So under the leadership of the low level apprentice knight present here, they came up with the idea to sustain themselves by looting the merchants going through this area.

As Weiss and Karl were only two people and looked very unguarded, they were taken as easy targets and was attacked by these desparate starving people.

After learning this story, Weiss thought about a few things. Then she handed the villagers whom she had captured some food and gave a proposal to them.

Her proposal was simple. If they wanted to get away from here and go to a place where they would at least not starve, they could come with her.

So Weiss told the villagers to collect any other people who would be willing leave this place and to wait for her to return through this same road. Then if they were sincere in joining her, Weiss would be willing to take them with her.