Everything that transpired flashed before Zephyr's eyes. He began to describe the kidnapping fiasco in detail.

-

A few minutes ago, Zephyr and the coachmen were sitting in the carriage. One was inside while the other sat outside the cabin, both sheltered from the rain.

The howls of the trolls came again, this time sending chills down their spine. The howl signalled Aurelia and Elenor making contact with the trolls. Zephyr sighed and closed his eyes.

Two intermediate mages could easily defeat a troll. And from their expression, they looked as if they had experienced battling trolls together.

Zephyr slowly adjusted his posture to gather mana. There was nothing else he could do.

As he was gathering mana, he sensed a sudden change in the coachman's position. The middle-aged man was slowly inching closer and closer to the cabin.

As a paranoid person, Zephyr couldn't sit still after that. He silently sent small tendrils of mana outwards. These tendrils swiftly moved in the direction of the person sitting outside while seeping through the gaps between the closed window and door.

The high-level mana manipulation would have been difficult for anyone else. But because of his Absolute Mana Control trait, he could effortlessly channel mana in any way he desired.

The mana tendrils danced in the air like a catfish's whiskers before grazing the body of the coachman. Immediately, a clear picture of what he was doing came into his mind.

This was a technique Zephyr developed while imitating and improving the telekinesis spell. And it came in handy sooner than he expected

Zephyr kept his eyes closed and sensed the figure inching closer to him. As he came closer to the carriage's outer wall, he took out a cylindrical object from under his raincoat.

Zephyr could feel vague mana waves from the object.

This made him frown.

Was it a magical tool? The thought sent alarm bells ringing inside his mind.

However, from the mana waves he detected, he knew the tool was not really a powerful attack-oriented one.

He relaxed a little.

Before coming on this journey, Zephyr had looked into the background of the coachman and knew he was a simple warrior of 1 star rating. Even if the person tried to attack, he had the confidence to defend. Thus, the fear turned to curiosity.

'What do you want?' He thought while the coachman approached the outer wall of the carriage, inserting the small cylinder object into the wood.

Immediately, Zephyr sensed a wave of mana grinding against the wood, drilling a hole without even making a single sound.

Zephyr quickly cast a defensive spell over him. Mana spread over his skin, instantly hardened.

In the past, Zephyr prioritised attack spells over everything else due to his low mana quantity, because defeating the foes quickly gave him a better chance at survival.

However, when he thought of travelling with two intermediate mages, he changed his mind. The intermediate mages were strong enough to deal damage. Thus, surviving until they can help him became his objective.

Learning a defensive spell like Stone Skin was one of the steps he took to improve his survivability.

Zephyr glanced over to his body. An imperceptible grey glow formed over his skin.

'With it, I would be safe from almost all small projectiles.' He silently thought while concentrating to dampen the mana waves from his spell activation from leaking outwards.

All spells, 1-star-rated or 10-star-rated, would create a mana wave in the surroundings. Zephyr couldn't entirely shield the mana wave, but he could dampen it to a level that no normal warriors could sense.

So, the warrior behind the wall didn't sense the change. He inserted the cylinder deeper inside and waited.

Zephyr opened his eyes and looked at the wall. He couldn't see anything in the position where he sensed the cylinder.

'A poison?'

'If it isn't a projectile, it must be something to debilitate me.'

Zephyr condensed mana around him, blocking the air near his body from moving. This also prevented him from breathing in air.

He couldn't stay like this for long.

Zephyr looked at the wall again.

Suddenly, he saw a wisp of smoke, barely noticeable by eye, slowly rising from a tiny hole in the wall. If he were meditating, he wouldn't have seen it at all.

'Oh! It's poison for sure.'

'There is no question about it, this guy wants to harm me. Should I ask why?'

He stood up.

His paranoia helped him avoid death again.

He shrugged, unpleasantly grabbing the handle of the door, before pushing it outwards. Then, acting like an Oscar-winning actor, he stepped out of the carriage, into the rain, and collapsed on the muddy ground.

Then, with his eyes half closed, he looked at the carriage.

The coachman wore a smug smile and jumped out of the carriage after seeing Zephyr collapse.

"Hm…this kid fought against an intermediate mage." He scoffed, pulling a rope from under his raincoat.

"Hufff…what kind of a loser was he?" The man crouched down, mocking the necromancer.

"This is the rope I used to tie up your friend… Jack, was it?" The man muttered, his grip tightening on Zephyr's hand. "Not that it matters. Let me send you to where you belong."

Suddenly, he realised the problem and paused.

"Stone Skin."

He widened his eyes.

Zephyr, who was acting like he was asleep, suddenly opened his eyes.

"Oh! You are from the necromancer's side. Well, who else could it be?" Zephyr sat up.

The only person who wanted to harm him was the necromancer's master. The person had warned Zephyr that he would catch him. And from what the coachman said, he was the one who captured Jack, the fisherman from the village. All the available information point to it being a kidnapping attempt.

The coachman released his hand.

"Let's end this quickly." Zephyr stood up and decided to capture the coachman.

The man took a few steps back in panic.

Zephyr pointed at the rope in his hand and ordered.

"Tie yourself up onto the carriage if you want to live."

His voice cut through the noise of the rain, descending on the coachman like an iron hammer.

"How did you…"

The man looked at Zephyr in confusion.

"...the poison?"

Zephyr shrugged his shoulders.

"I am immune to all poison." He replied.

It was a total lie. But he didn't know if the necromancer's master was looking through the coachman. So, he decided lying was the best option.

After all, if his lies could cloud the judgment of his foes, it would be advantageous for him.

'When you think about it, villains who speak about their grand plan and reveal their tricks often die early. I am supposed to be a villain in this world, so I shouldn't reveal my tricks.'

"So, when are you going to tie yourself up?"

They could hear the growls and howls of the trolls from far away. Soon, the princess and her maid would kill the trolls. The coachman didn't have much time to waste.

Gritting his teeth, the man dashed towards Zephyr.

"Bad choice." Zephyr shook his head.

He lifted his hand, clasping his fist.

Immediately, a cloud of white smoke formed around the coachman. Before he could process what was happening, the smoke invaded his nose.

With wide eyes, he looked at Zephyr, realising what that smoke was.

"Yes, it's the same poison you sent into the carriage."

With a wicked smile, Zephyr said.

Then, taking a step forward towards the collapsing coachman, he winked.

"You see, I learned a new spell I thought would be great for cooking called the smoke containment spell."

Zephyr crouched down near the man.

"The charcoal was making way too much smoke. So, I wanted to use it to divert it."

"But I am happy to find out that there existed other uses for it."

All the remaining smoke drilled into the man's lungs. The light in his eyes finally disappeared as he fell to the ground.

"That was anticlimactic."

Zephyr expected more from the coachman. But he was weak and...stupid.

'Why would the necromancer's master send someone like him here? That too, to catch me.'

Zephyr couldn't make sense of it.

He cast a lightning enhancement mana bolt and struck the man to verify if he was truly down.

The coachman's body jerked as the electricity tore through his body. Then he went limp again.

Now, he was sure the man was unconscious.

If he had fallen to the same trick he used, that would have been embarrassing. So, he wiped the mud off his body and crouched near the man's body.

Just as Zephyr was about to touch him, the head of the man glowed. Sensing the mana rapidly coalescing in the head, he jumped back.

Immediately, the head exploded, sending out flesh, spinal fluid, and brain matter across the area.

Because of Stone Skin, Zephyr was unharmed. Except for the disgusting flesh clinging to his face and hair, he was completely fine.

Soon after, something exploded from the carriage, burning the wood from within.

Zephyr sighed, sitting on the ground.

The front end of the carriage was broken into two pieces. The harness holding the horses had come loose, and they were already fleeing for their life.

Zephyr sighed again.

Sitting silently, he waited for Aurelia to return.

He ended his story there and looked up.

"Do you know any spells that can clean and dry my clothes?" He inquired.

"Is that everything?" Aurelia asked, ignoring his question.

Zephyr nodded with a smile.

Honestly, it was not the entire story. Just before the head exploded, he heard a mana-based sound transmission from the man's body.

The necromancer's master had once again spoken to him. But he couldn't reveal the content to the woman standing before him.

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