”Whoa…!”

In a small, cramped room that could have been an emergency food storage at some point, a boy and a girl were thrown out of a murky-black circle on the floor.

The girl, who wore a rather silly-looking helmet almost lost her balance and let out a surprised voice, but the black-haired boy caught her just in time and pulled her close to himself.

”Yeah. Since we didn’t travel like that a lot, I was going to remind you that the momentum is carried over when passing through the shadow gate.”

Zoemi smiled at the slightly embarrassed girl before pulling away just a bit and looking around.

”Ah… I see – don’t jump in unless you are prepared.”

”Don’t jump in unless you are prepared.”

Miriette asked and Zoemi nodded while repeating after her.

”(…was it okay to bring both of you here? I didn’t ask whether you are okay with it, master, but that girl was so confident and I just went with the flow and… I apologize!)”

The apologetic sentinel cried out in a distressed and overly conscious voice becoming more and more timid with each word it conveyed via the message spell.

|You did a great job, little one. Hang around if you want or continue roaming like before. Thank you for the help~!|

Zoemi smiled stealthily at the shadow on the ground and thought toward the apologetic sentinel.

”(M-master, you are too kind for someone like me…! I-I will leave if that is okay…?)”

The sentinel gasped and changed back from the gate into the murky-black sphere that trembled slightly as it hovered towards the barred window.

|Have fun out there – and be careful, you seem a bit too kind, don’t follow strangers just because they shout at you.|

”(I…! I’m sorry, master! I will be careful from now on! I apolo… no, that’s not it…! Bye-bye, master!)”

The anxious sentinel gasped and zoomed out of the room, turning into murky-black mist and phasing through the window.

”Cute.”

”Aren’t they?”

Zoemi heard Miriette mutter and turned to her with a beaming smile.

Both the helmet-wearing girl and the black-haired boy nodded at each other and faced the only door.

”You don’t mind me taking care of the barbarians, do you?”

Miriette asked in a prideful and demanding voice, but it was rather clear that she was doing that on purpose.

In the end, she was worried about Zoemi using magic.

”I wouldn’t dare to try and stop you~”

The boy’s smile became a lot softer and he properly bowed towards his former master, benevolently waving his hand towards the door as he declared playfully.

”But, just in case – my sentinel said that most, if not all forces invading this outpost are brainwashed.”

He added, looking up at the helmet-wearing girl, awaiting her reaction.

”Fine. I will adjust the strength of my spells accordingly.”

Miriette nodded while already lifting her hand and pointing her index finger at the door.

”There is someone outside.”

Zoemi warned her, as his sentinels cast the ice armor, cladding his body with a strong defensive spell that doubled as a physical enchantment.

”I know.”

The helmet-wearing girl nodded and…

”BOOOM*

*CRUSH*

*WHAM*

…flicked her finger, smashing the door apart and sending whatever was left of it right into the barbarians who were about to storm the storage anyway.

The thing was, the spell that she used didn’t just stop on the door itself – the barbarians were all showered with splinters and chunks of wood while they were being thrown and held against the wall by the enormous wind pressure.

*thump*

”…”

Zoemi leaned to the side and looked at the half a dozen men sliding down the wall, unconscious.

”They are still breathing.”

Miriette glanced at him and pointed out in reassurance, only slightly hinting that she went a bit too far with the first strike.

Zoemi rolled his eyes and walked toward the passage, looking to the sides to confirm more hostiles.

Interestingly enough, although originally there were eight people barricaded inside the room that Zoemi and Miriette appeared in, the six bandits that got knocked out by the girl’s opening spell were all who were in the entire hallway…

”Peculiar… is one of them a hex user, then…?”

The black-haired boy furrowed his brows checking up on the knocked-out barbarians…

”Say…How is an average barbarian supposed to look?”

He asked while crouching by the most wounded one and freezing the open lesion with the outer layer of his ice armor.

”Eh…? Well, depends. Since it was quite common for the commoners from our side to be rather friendly with them… I guess the most notable difference would be the love for intricate tattoos and face paint which our culture isn’t particularly fond of.”

The helmet-wearing girl answered after a moment of hesitation, before approaching the black-haired boy.

”What about it?”

She asked standing by his side and glancing down at the bodies he was inspecting.

”None of them have their faces painted or tattooed or anything. Not even makeup or anything.”

Zoemi pointed out each and every person.

”…wouldn’t you say that their gear shows who they are much better than their faces, though?”

The girl sighed and pointed at the body armor made from pelts and just normal wood, with glowing markings carved into it.

The marking was similar, but not quite the same as the runes the Atreterve magic engineers would use to guide the mana out of the mana crystals.

The most obvious difference from that was that the marking of Barbarians had, didn’t took power from mana stones, as there was not a single mana stone on any of the barbarians.

”Don’t judge a book by its cover. Remember when I said that my sentinel reported the barbarians to be brainwashed?”

Zoemi waved his hand dismissively and asked, slightly taking off the arm protector of the nearest bandit.

”You can take souvenirs later, someone must have heard the noise I made.”

”Let’s say this one is on the house.”

Miriette pointed out and turned her back to the dead-end of the hallway and her eyes narrowed in anticipation – but in contrast to her readiness, Zoemi merely shrugged his shoulders and…

…dropped the arm protector to the floor – but instead of bouncing off of it making some noise, the piece of armor sunk into the murky-black shadow as if it was a puddle of ink.

|Little ones, how good are you with figuring out different types of magic?|

Zoemi asked while standing up and moving behind Miriette’s back to show her that he was going to follow her, without any unnecessary talking that could potentially alarm the approaching enemy about their presence.

”If you don’t mind I’m going to actually do what I lied about with Devios before.”

”Go ahead~”

The helmet-wearing girl warned the black-haired boy and received an immediate encouraging answer.

With that, she smirked and raised her head with a mocking expression.

Then, Miriette spread her fingers apart and…

*WHOOOOOOSH*

Zoemi felt that the pressure around him increased as if he was locked inside an invisible bubble – while on the outside of the said bubble, the air quake spread around in all directions.

”You can differentiate friend from foe with that, right?”

Zoemi added, but to that Miriette only shrugged.

”It’s not a spell that kills, it’s the spell that knocks everyone out. Lack of oxygen will not be a serious problem for a moment few seconds, but it will incapacitate them nice and peacefully.”

She revealed and waited for the effect.