Vol 1 Chapter 66

As Kapros spoke while taking a sip of a potion from his back, Yu-wan nodded. However, since Yu-wan hadn't properly seen Kapros's magic training, he didn't know that Kapros's training was just beginning.

"...Let's stop now."

After several hours had passed, Yu-wan finally raised both hands. Kapros muttered softly with a regretful feeling.

"I wanted to do a bit more..."

"Do you train like this when practicing magic too?"

"No, then I don't take breaks like this."

"..."

Yu-wan looked at Kapros with a strange gaze in deep silence.

"I think if you had chosen to be a swordsman from the start, you might have been more amazing than me by now."

"I don't think so."

Kapros grinned at the not unpleasant compliment. But based on what he felt while directly crossing swords, Yu-wan's concentration was far beyond the ordinary level. As expected, he hadn't gained his current skills for nothing.

Not long after they finished practicing, Kran returned. He tilted his head as he saw them resting.

"What were you doing? The Black Swordsman looks tired."

"Just... How did it go with what you were supposed to find out?"

As if he had been waiting for those words, Kran pointed towards the door.

"I went to the mercenary guild and asked, and they told me about a place where many thief users gather. When I went there, there happened to be someone who said they were from that guild, so I brought them. ...Hey, you can come in now."

As soon as Kran finished speaking, the door opened silently and a woman entered. She had an ordinary-looking smiling face, but for some reason, Kapros felt slightly uneasy. He carefully stepped back.

"Hello. You must be the ones who want to make a request to our Masters of Shadows guild. I'm Kashua."

Kashua looked around at them and narrowed her eyes, smiling at Yu-wan.

"My, what a handsome person. This man is handsome too, so I followed him, but you're not bad yourself. ...But the person over there is covering their face, are they in our line of work?"

The last comment was about Kapros. Her gaze, looking with interest at the hood Kapros was wearing, was too persistent to be from simple curiosity. As Yu-wan quietly placed his hand on his scabbard, ready to draw his sword at any moment, Kashua pretended not to notice and laughed loudly.

"Oh my, what scary people? Alright. I won't try to uncover it, so please tell me about the request you want to make."

Kran, who had thoughtlessly brought such a suspicious person here, opened his mouth in a cheesy tone as if his righteous knight concept had kicked in.

"Ms. Kashua, what we want to request is..."

Feeling goosebumps all over his body in an instant, Kapros cut off Kran's words and quickly spoke.

"Is it true that the Masters of Shadows guild is in the southern field of Tolang?"

Kashua nodded with a smile.

"Yes. It's in the south."

"We've been to the southern field too, but there was nothing but an empty field. Is it really in the southern field?"

"That's right."

"Then can we make the request after visiting the Masters of Shadows guild directly? I'm reluctant because this place doesn't seem to maintain confidentiality properly."

"No, you can't."

Kashua's answer was very firm.

"The location of our guild is our biggest secret. No matter how important the request is, it's a principle that you must tell us the content of the request here."

"I see."

Kapros nodded for now, having expected her to respond like this. Then he immediately spoke again.

"But from our perspective, how can we trust and make a request when we can't even confirm whether you're really a member of the Shadow guild or not?"

Kashua frowned slightly and slumped down on a nearby chair. At that moment, Kashua's reflection appeared in the mirror right next to her, and Kapros widened his eyes for a moment before feigning composure.

"I don't know what kind of amazing request you're trying to make, but that's not a pleasant thing to say. Do you think there could be someone in this city who would dare to impersonate our guild member?"

Kapros placed his hand on Yu-wan's back next to him, careful not to let Kashua notice. He could feel Yu-wan's spine tensing up. Yu-wan, who had slightly turned his eyes following the direction of Kapros's fingers, looked at the mirror just like Kapros had a moment ago and his expression hardened.

Kran behind Kashua had already seen the mirror too, his eyes narrowed sharply. In Kran's eyes that met Kapros's, disbelief and tension flashed simultaneously.

"...Perhaps there could be."

Kapros said quietly.

"What?"

Then, without a moment's hesitation, Kapros instantly surrounded her with about 10 Fireballs and quickly shouted.

"Fireball! Kran, catch her!"

Before he finished speaking, Kran and Yu-wan simultaneously pointed their swords at Kashua's neck. Taking advantage of this moment, Kapros drew a circle with lightning speed and chanted a short 5th circle spell for the first time in actual combat.

"With time's kiss, bind the enemy's feet. Hold Person!"

To firmly grasp the image of Hold Person, a quick binding magic that entangles and stops the opponent's body, Kapros made a gesture of tightly gripping something with his right hand inside the circle. As the formula world instantly manifested, Kashua's body froze in place.

The time it took to get to this point was less than a few seconds.

Looking at Kashua, who seemed surprised to be perfectly surrounded in the blink of an eye, Kapros caught his breath and spoke.

"You can open your mouth. Let's hear what you have to say."

Kashua immediately shouted loudly.

"What is this about?"

"It can't be helped when trying to catch a suspicious person."

"Suspicious? You're the ones who brought me here, and you're calling me suspicious? Release this right now!"

"Ah. Hey, you can stop using that disgusting way of speaking now."

Kran said from behind, poking the back of Kashua's neck with the tip of his sword.

"W-what..."

"You're a man, aren't you? A pitch-black man using such a disgusting..."