Tales of the Legendary Magus

"This… is this really all we had to do?" Villin wondered as he looked at the guard towers' gate open.

His plan to kill a couple wasn't needed at all, he just sat down inside of the main room and healed. He thought of taking different actions multiple times but Golmi, who was sat just beside him healing people, made him rethink it. After all, why wouldn't he just heal and let things blow over, there wasn't really any risk to it.

Even though this conviction was extremely weak within Villin's mind, this, together with Golmi's proximity made it so that he didn't do anything.

During the fight with the golems, they were forced back two floors but nobody else died. The golems never finished anyone off and the healers managed to stabilize everyone after some time, Villin and Golmi in particular seemed to have good healing spells as they were much more effective compared to those of their coworkers.

Alexi had also noticed Villin but always stayed away as he ordered people around, he let the healers do their own thing since Villin joined them and focused on the fights. He rarely went to the front himself as he kept to commanding, the three people that were with him split up and often gave him information helpful to the battleplans.

All in all, he seemed like a capable commander as very few people questioned his decisions overall.

Then, just like that, after a bunch of fighting, the twenty-four hours ended. The tower gates opened and the guards were allowed to leave as the statues stopped moving. Villin made sure to have a good look at them then but couldn't find anything whatsoever, as to how they moved remained a complete mystery for now.

Once all of the guards were outside, General Gaze spoke up"Well then, all of you. You will be split up into two groups. Those that acted like cowards, running away as soon as there was some danger, and those who fought to defend both themselves as well as the others.

What followed was a fairly normal ceremony. One after another names were being called and the guards were supposed to stand in one of the two separate groups. Since they healed and contributed a lot, Villin and Golmi were obviously in the group of non-cowards, together with the majority of guards.

After this, the two groups got split up, the cowards would remain as guards but be placed in less important positions and their pay would also be reduced.

Before they went though, the general had one request, "First, please see to it that you do not take anything with you that comes from within the guard tower. Any objects or books you may have found there belong to the Goodwill family, if you have any on your person, please surrender them now."

This request didn't garner any suspicion as it was beyond reasonable. A couple of guards realized they indeed had taken something from the tower and placed it on the ground. General Gaze glanced at each object here but didn't seem to get what he was looking for as Villin noticed he faintly shook his head when he had seen everything.

After this small interruption, the group was brought to yet another building. This time it was much smaller as it just held some dormitories, since most of the guards hadn't slept yet they were given six hours to do so now, an acceptable amount.

It was after this that the real training began. There were only two days until the auction but they would be an extremely busy two days. First, they were put in separate groups depending on their strength. Villin cast a fireball that he weakened somewhat so he didn't stand out so much. The general seemed slightly disappointed in his results since he was one of the ones that managed to see through the advanced disguising spells but he didn't seem suspicious, unlike Alexi who was certain that he was purposefully holding back when he saw how much better his results were.

They were divided into a total of five groups, with the first group holding the strongest people. Alexi and Golmi were placed in the first group while Villin found him within the third group.

Even though he didn't want to miss the opportunity to learn new magic spells, he didn't want to die either, and knowing what he knew now he wasn't planning to risk anything.

Villin had to say, he was surprised by the number of physical tests that were done, he expected everything to be magical but it wasn't, they were told to do push-ups and sprints quite often, Villin guessed it wasn't to just increase their physical shape but more so their mental fortitude, to push them when they were about to give up.

But of course, quite a bit of magical training was also given, much of it in the form of lectures. One of the magi working for the Goodwill family would come up and give a lesson on certain things. The most valuable ones were on how to see through disguising spells and even Villin learned a thing or two there that he may be able to apply. They also got taught how to behave themselves as guards. All they were supposed to do was stand still and be respectful without doing anything a guest may ask. If a guest continued to ask a guard to do something for them or threatened the guard using their identity, the guards in the area were allowed to arrest said guest and bring him to general Gaze who would then decide what to do with them. Sadly, even after all these years, there were still people in every auction who would cause problems in a stupid way like this. 

The masks they were all given were also meant to hide their identities, it hid your face enough to go unrecognized by anyone except for people that know you decently well.

"So, with this, I conclude my lecture on the web and the creation of new spells."

The final lecturer said before leaving the guards behind. To most of the guards here, the knowledge they gave was quite advanced but in reality, it was only at the level of a third-grade student of The Academy.

Since Villin was most likely even more knowledgeable about the web compared to most teachers within The Academy, this class was particularly useless.

He had to admit he had some minor regrets for not doing a bit better when they tested their magical strength, if he got into the first group, he may actually have learned some properly useful stuff. Then again, if they were looking for the soul book, or sacrifices, that would also be where they would look the most.

And so, the two days had passed and the morning of the auction was upon them. When the group of guards went outside they saw General Gaze, Eveline Targentelli, and Aurus Goodlaw all stand there.

Once everyone was out, Eveline raised a piece of parchment within her hand and began reading it out loud.

"Group one will defend the Marquise family's VIP booth, the guards in this group will be John Doe, Alex Save, Herman Copiut,..."

She continued at a steady pace and soon the guards were all divided into little groups. "Very well then, time to go to your locations, follow the butler and he will show you where to position yourselves, the guests will arrive soon."

After all this, there were still some people left behind though. Villin noticed all those that were left were Golmi, the twins, Alexi, and himself.

First of all, Eveline focused on him and Alexi, "Villin Grey, you may lack strength but you are very perceptive. On the other hand, Alexi Gurnov lacks a sufficient perception while he has shown incredible strength. You two will be placed together within the first VIP booth, the owners of said booth have said they will be coming personally to witness the auction and they are of high status, nothing can go wrong here."

After this, she turned to the twins who were placed in VIP booths two and three which also held the leaders of certain forces. As for Golmi, he would be placed in the hallway where these three VIP booths would be located.

------------------------------

"Is everything prepared?" a shadowed figure asked the woman standing next to him.

"Yes, I contacted the auction and they are ready for our arrival," she responded

The man couldn't sit still as he reminded her "Good, this is the first mission she's given since she returned, we can not fail."

"Believe me, I know the importance of this. We will get the bracelet and give it back to her. If she could somehow repair it, things will shift greatly into our favor." the lady responded with a serious expression.

After looking at her for a while, the man simply nodded "Very well."