Zoemi ended up deciding and nodding to himself, preparing to use the modified teleportation once again, when a new person appeared near the lake – someone who didn’t get turned around like the rest.

”Ah, lord Vanterl. Greetings. It’s a pleasure to finally have you bless us with your company.”

The man who had to be the leader of the bandits stood up from his place near the fire and greeted a prideful-looking crimson-red-haired man with foxy eyes.

|Did… did he just say Vanterl…? Isn’t that the maiden’s name of the current queen?! What is someone like that thinking, meeting with individuals such as those?!|

Thanks to hesitating to use his spell, Zoemi ended up flabbergasted, watching the nobleman frown horribly, glaring at the bandit as if he was the most disgusting thing that the red-haired man saw in his entire life.

”Idiot! Why don’t you shout louder?! What if someone would eavesdrop on us?! Did you at least make sure that there’s no one here?!”

The crimson-red-haired man scoffed viciously and asked as his body shone with a red light that ignited a moment later encasing him in a fire armor that looked even grander than the one that duke Espine could conjure.

The flame helmet was completely hiding the man’s face now, but Zoemi couldn’t help but find the man reckless.

If he wanted to hide his identity, showing off a skill that only a handful of magicians could use was equally reckless as revealing his full name.

”Now, now – of course, it is safe – we are professionals, and you know that, my lord. We’ve worked together long enough to establish it.”

The bandit’s leader flinched and stepped back, but his voice didn’t show nearly as much worry as Zoemi expected it to – all while blatantly lying about securing the surroundings.

After all, if even a single person from their group would bother to have a walk around the lake, Zoemi would have been found hours ago.

”Tsk. Yes, we have. That’s why I know about your recklessness. You, commoners, don’t care about evidence, as anyone with half of a working brain would not treat you as suspects in the first place. That’s why that ice cretin was able to figure out that Deriznos wanted those damn mines. I better check myself. Swallow.”

”…?!”

The man in flaming armor clicked his tongue and shook his head – revealing something incredibly shocking, as well as reaching his hand to the side and unleashing a seemingly simple – fireball

in his hand turned into a bird and took flight.

The little flame creature began circling the area, giving Zoemi quite the scare.

Unsure about its purpose, the black-haired boy reached his shadow towards it and was shocked to learn that it had heat vision and was scanning the area while sending back the information to the fire magician, using a very similar method on which a wind magicians message spell worked.

Zoemi had three choices – the most risky one being sucking the mana out of the spell, facing the possibility of getting exposed because of that. Doing what he originally wanted to do and teleport away, escaping the area. Or using magic to mask his presence to the best of his ability.

At first, the black-haired boy wanted to teleport away but the moment that Derizno’s family was mentioned in the same sentence as mines, the dormant shadow of Ludier Galamroze started giving the boy some trouble.

With the fire swallow about to fly over him on its next circle, Zoemi focused and activated his shadow enchantment, changing his mana to water one and adjusting the temperature with both fire and ice mana, to almost perfectly blend into the surroundings.

”…hmph… at least you seem to take your job seriously.”

The fire-magician scoffed after the swallow returned to him and perched itself on his shoulder just to sink into the flaming armor as if it always was a part of it.

”But of course.”

”…”

Hearing the perfectly composed voice of the bandits’ leader, Zoemi had to give it to him – he sure could handle the pressure of a potentially dangerous situation far better than most aristocrats that the black-haired boy knew.

”Still, why did you choose this place to meet us – it is literally a tourist attraction. Why not a tavern, or any of the random inns – you clearly don’t care about being seen, so why go out of your way if you still end up suspicious?”

Then, the bandit leader impressed Zoemi by asking a good question that also started to bother the boy.

The fire magician was from the Vantrel family – the family in which Horeo’s mother was born – no matter what, him talking with a bunch of ruffians would raise some questions.

”That’s why I hate working with commoners… I am meeting you at a tourist attraction because everyone knows that I went on a trip to see the said attraction. Some lousy bunch of nobodies called out to me, and I activated my flame armor to keep them at bay. Or do you think that it’s less suspicious to suddenly have me share a drink with the likes of you? Or have someone notice me sneak around to have a meeting in some supposedly secretive spot? Don’t make me laugh.”

”!!!!”

But the answer that the fire magician had for the bandit was what truly opened the black-haired boy’s eyes.

The man was correct…!

If Zoemi was unable to hear their conversation, everything that happened between the fire magician and the bandits would have looked like an accidental and unwanted meeting on the nobleman’s part – especially because of his immediate activation of the fire armor…!

The aristocrat wasn’t reckless – he was actually extremely cunning – especially since he used the heat-vision swallow to make sure that no one was within the earshot!

”…”

A similar revelation seemed to come to most of the bandits too, at least judging from their expressions – including their leader, although he seemed to be just annoyed that the nobleman actually thought things through and wasn’t an overconfident idiot.

”What job do you have for us today, my lord.”

The bandit leader didn’t keep on sulking for too long though, and only a few seconds later he asked while crossing his arms.

”In two weeks an experimental portable device that can measure how much mana the magicians have without coming in contact with them would be passed from the royal magician to the hands of the Victureo family. The Victureo family would be tasked to mass-produce and distribute it amongst the army’s officers, as the device like that was deemed to be useful for the army. For maximum secrecy, the device would be transported from the royal castle to Victureos’ mansion by a group of commoners posing as merchants. I want you to steal the device while it is in transit.”

The fire magician declared with a shrug.