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nThree months would pass quickly as Vicente’s group developed.

nAfter the previous negotiation, Damian agreed to join Vice’s group with two other merchants from Martell Village.

nThrough this, Vice had created his local merchant society a few days ago, when the deadline for their agreement to take effect had begun.

nAfter days of waiting, the three merchants associated with the Fuller family had finally been called by Vicente this morning. They were now in the Crow Woods with this boy and some of his men.

nIt was the middle of the day in this region, and the blue sky of this warm day illuminated the forest, making this ordinarily dark place much more peaceful.

nThe small animals took advantage of the day to escape their burrows while others rested in hiding.

nAmidst the sparse vegetation of the area, Vicente stood next to Rory and 10 of his trusted men.

nAfter months since Jesse’s death, Vicente and Rory had brought more trusted people to their side, having trained some of the workers from the Fuller family warehouse to become marksmen.

nHence, when the older people arrived there, the three merchants and their trusted men soon looked at Vicente’s group with curiosity, waiting to see what these low-level magicians had for them.

nDamian looked at those two young men and saw how they were getting a little bigger, each day closer to their biological maturity.

nMagicians grew vertiginously between the ages of 12 and 14. In this maturation period, they left their childish features behind and reached adult appearances within a few months.

nVicente and Rory did not stop growing and maturing; today, one of them was 1.76 and the other 1.83 meters tall. Both were between 70 and 75 kilograms, and hair could be seen growing on parts of their faces.

nConsidering how they dressed in formal and well-tailored clothes, they both looked even older.

nSeeing his guests arriving, Vicente smiled and said. “My associates, all of you have already promised not to talk about what we have here, so it is time to introduce you to my armed group.

nThese ten young men here are the security guards you will use in your travels from now on. With them, the safety of your resources will be guaranteed.”

n“Are you serious?”

n“That’s a joke…” One of them muttered as he turned away.

nThis comment did not bother Vicente, and he merely signaled for one of those men to act.

nWhen he saw his leader’s signal, one of the ten young men pulled out the pistol he had in his waistband and pointed it toward that merchant with his back turned.

nThe others in the vicinity were surprised by the shape of the thing but thought it was some kind of weapon.

nAs they quirked their eyebrows, that merchant felt someone pointing something at him and turned around. “What’s that? Are you trying to scare me with a toy, Vicente?”

nVicente’s man changed the direction of his pistol and then fired.

nBang!

nEveryone heard a gunshot and a very fast flesh coming from that gun. Then something shot at great speed from it, passing by the side of that merchant’s left cheek, so he felt something passing close to his head.

nIn the next instant, the bullet hit the trunk of a tree behind such a merchant.

nWhen this happened, the trunk of that tree, almost 60 centimeters in diameter, was suddenly hit.

nA part of that trunk 1.9 meters above the ground was totally destroyed, and the tree swayed, leaning in the direction where the bullet lodged in its trunk had come from.

nSeeing the destruction caused by such a weapon, the merchant paled as he felt an indescribable chill run through his body.

nIf it had hit him, he could have died!

nThe others also realized this and readily understood the power of that small weapon in the hands of one of Vicente’s men.

nVice grinned when he saw this and said. “This is my firearm! A simple Junior Apprentice armed with the simplest of these weapons can even kill a Senior Apprentice with their defenses up.

nIf they act against an unwary and inattentive opponent, seriously injuring an Acolyte is not out of their possibilities!”

n“Is that really possible?”

n“If that’s true, then if Acolytes use those weapons…

nGulp!”

n“For the moment, we can’t do that. We need Acolytes blacksmiths, and we don’t have any of them… So this is not possible. However, we can have such weapons compatible with Acolytes in the future.” Vicente said, encouraging these men.

n“But, Vicente, how does that work? How did you get such magnificent items?” Damian asked, understanding how Vicente planned to lower their costs.

nVicente smiled but did not reveal.

nIn Polaris Realm, there were weapons that increased the power of their users. But there was nothing like Vicente’s firearms.

nHowever, he had not intentionally developed these items and was unsure how they worked. All Vicente wanted when planning his weapons was to have valuable items to be used against low-level people.

nOrdinary weapons on Earth could kill even animals weighing hundreds of kilograms, so he thought they might have a positive effect for the beginning of his journey in Polaris Realm.

nBut the weapons he had assembled there differed from those on Earth and could do much more damage.

nHe then said. “Don’t worry about the how. I will try to develop these weapons so that people of your level can use them in the future. But for now, I believe this will be enough for us to start our strategies.”

nThey agreed, but soon one of them raised a crucial question. “But Vicente, how do we deal with these men? The royal family forbids group formations like the one you have here.”

nAccording to the royal laws of Seidel, ordinary people could have a maximum of 3 magicians or warriors working as guards. Above that, such groups would be considered unauthorized military organizations and would be targeted by the forces of the kingdom.

nNobles could have more men on their side depending on their rank. But for ordinary people, the limit was really high.

nVicente already had ten armed men, which could threaten the lives of some relatives of nobles or low-level royalty.

nVice knew about the difficulties of publicly maintaining a personal guard in this place and said. “These are merely farmers and merchants…

nUntil they draw their weapons, these men are not warriors.

nFinally, our society will naturally be of the secret type. So in public, some of these men will work for you and have no relation to each other.”

n“Oh?”

nRory added. “No one but us needs to know about our arrangements. We are just merchants who meet from time to time to talk business—nothing out of the ordinary.

nNo one needs to know we are associates and work together.”

nAfter those words, the men in Vicente’s group smiled along with those merchants. Everyone there knew that the local rules could limit them in many ways, but there were ways for them to act in the shadows without running big risks.

nVicente then signaled to two of those men. “Here, we have some weapons for you. Please try them out, but don’t use more mana than my men could use at their levels.”

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