Magus Guard
“Zone 13? You’re really lucky!”
Leylin was brought to an office-like room in a castle. After Dolorin assigned locations to the few Magi who were queued up in front of Leylin, he opened Leylin’s transfer order.
Suddenly, Dolorin let off a surprised squeal. At the same time, he looked at Leylin as if he was cherishing a dear animal.
“Although you are a Potions Master, you were assigned to that place! Kiddo, did you offend someone?”
Leylin could only smile wryly in reply.
“Alright! Alright! As long as the order is correct, I won’t ask anymore. Take this, it’s a map!”
Dolorin slipped a piece of parchment paper to Leylin.
“Zone 13 is at the border between us and the dark Magi powers. Your mission is to protect the Black Mandara Flowers there, and if the dark Magi attack, you are to give a distress call through the signal tower. That’s all!”
Leylin was then sent out of Dolorin’s office like he was the plague.
Leylin could do nothing but roll his eyes at this situation.
……
With Leylin’s speed, even taking into account the burdens that were Number 2 and Number 3, they hurried and reached zone 13 before dusk.
This area was a small highland and a fort that had been temporarily constructed using an earth elemental spell surrounded the Black Mandara Flowers.
After Leylin provided proof of his identity, he met with the person who had previously been in charge of the area. It was a tall and slender male Magus!
“The signal tower is in the middle of the fort, and your room is beside it. I’m leaving all these items with you. Also, there were some acolytes who had been dispatched here recently; I’ll leave them in your care as well!”
The tall and skinny Magus hurriedly handed over the information, and after obtaining Leylin’s signature, he rapidly left the room as if he was escaping.
This speed left Leylin rather agape.
“Alright, I seem to have gotten myself into some serious trouble now…” Leylin flipped open the map.
On the map that Dolorin handed him, the highlands of zone 13 that he had been assigned to were like an eyesore, smack dab in the middle of the dark Magi domain.
Since he was surrounded on all sides by the dark Magi powers, there was a high chance of him perishing in that place.
As for the forces that Leylin had, it was merely a few acolytes. Perhaps he would even have to include himself, an official Magus, as a fighting force!
In front of enemies, this trivial bit of power would only be able to warn and call for help.
“…No matter what, I still have to take a look at my subordinates!”
Leylin came to the middle of the hall in the castle and gave a command for everyone to gather. “I am the new Magus guard! All acolytes who hear my voice are to assemble at the hall immediately!”
Leylin’s voice wasn’t loud, but it somehow travelled to every corner of the castle.
A moment later, hurried footsteps were heard and about ten acolytes jogged into the hall.
These acolytes’ attires were messy. Though they all donned the grey robes that signified that they were acolytes, the symbol of their academy and decorative motifs were all different, indicating they were the inferior acolytes that had been left behind by various academies.
The acolytes gave off energy waves that showed they were around level 2 or 3. Upon seeing Leylin, they all bowed in greeting, though they looked quite bewildered.
Leylin patted his head. That Magus from before had left too eagerly and hadn’t even bothered handing over his role to Leylin in front of everyone in the fort.
However, it was a fact that the slender Magus had transferred his symbol of authority to him.
Leylin withdrew a black scepter from his sleeves. Following which, various coloured defensive runes formed a spell formation within the large hall.
The scepter that he was holding on to was the device to control the defensive spell formations within the castle and was showed that he was the Magus leader.
After seeing the black scepter, the acolytes present understood the reason for his presence.
“We greet the Lord Magus Guard!”
“En! I’m Leylin. You! Tell me now, is everyone present?”
Leylin pointed at an old geezer acolyte.
“Rep… Reporting to my Lord! Apart for a few acolytes who have been delayed, the acolytes in this castle are all here…”
The old geezer cowered as he reported to Leylin.
Just at this moment, several acolytes appeared at the entrance of the large hall with fear evident on their faces.
What followed was a rather youthful and apprehensive voice, “Lord, we are the new acolytes that were dispatched here! Our sincerest apologies that due to a previous patrolling mission, we had been delayed. May we seek your permission to enter?”
Even here, with Leylin’s position as a Magus, he had much power over these acolytes.
Not only could he issue missions as he pleased, he could even sentence these acolytes to death if he wanted to just by saying they had disobeyed orders!
After all, this was a time of war, and they were at the frontlines. Leylin had these acolytes’ lives in his hands, and this caused the few new acolytes to be extremely fearful.
After hearing this voice, Leylin’s face revealed an expression of astonishment.
“Come in!” He murmured lowly.
Immediately after, three male and two female acolytes entered the hall, still cowering in fear.
The acolyte standing at the front had a head of brilliant blonde hair, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, and behind him was a female acolyte with a large bow on her back. They looked to be a couple.
He trembled a little, but he clenched his jaw and knelt. “My lord! We had no intentions of being late, but they purposely gave us difficult missions to complete…”
“Utter rubbish!” At this moment, the old geezer, who seemed like a cat that had its tail stepped on, jumped forward. “The missions were all chosen by the Bottle of Famedor; how could there be a problem with it? It’s obviously you guys who do not respect our new Lord…”
Looking at this scene, Leylin immediately understood the issue.
It seemed that no matter where it was, it was a tradition for the older guys to bully the newcomers.
“That’s enough.” He spoke softly, with a gruff tone.
The acolytes present all cowered in fear. The wrath of an official Magus was never a good thing to being about.
“This voice?”
While most of the acolytes were ducking their heads in fear, there were a few contrasting voices ringing out.
They came from the acolytes who had just entered while keeping their heads bowed.
“Ley- Leylin!” George opened his eyes wide and looked at Leylin, who was up on the platform. He was gaping, his mouth opened so wide that he was like a huge toad.
The others, who were making sounds of alarm, also included Sheira and Bessita.
Leylin scratched his nose. Though he knew that these three acolytes had been allocated to the secret plane to stand guard, he never expected that there would be such a coincidence that they would be under him.
“My apologies, my Lord! Although you told us to wait for you, after waiting for 2 days and 1 night, there were no signs of you, my Lord. Also, as the time limit for the mission was approaching, we had no choice but to leave…”
Sheira kowtowed, her forehead pressed against the icy cold floor as she did her best to explain.
Leylin nodded his head, he remembered that he had mentioned it before. However, after the battle with Jenna, he had been severely injured and immediately needed a place to recuperate. Where could he have found the time to bother with them?
After that, he had already forgotten about George and his party.
“I don’t blame you for this! Previously I had an urgent matter to attend to, which took up much of my time…” Leylin explained.
*Peng!* *Peng!* *Peng!*
At this moment, the old geezer acolyte who had jumped forward realised that George and his party were not nobodies who could be picked on. On the contrary, they were backed by an official Magus. He felt as if his soul was wrenched out of his body.
Quickly kneeling on the floor, he kowtowed until fresh blood appeared on his forehead.
“Lo… Lord! Please forgive me!”
The old geezer felt exceptional fear. As an official Magus, Leylin had many methods to make him die a horrible death. Furthermore, conflicts such as these were like child’s play in front of an official Magus; he couldn’t hope to conceal this conflict.
With Sheira’s constant tugging at him, George finally got himself together. As he looked up at his good friend, who seemed to be so far away from him, his expression was complicated.
They were once good friends, but Leylin had surpassed George by such a huge margin that the old man, who was usually hard to deal with, was kowtowing and begging his pardon.
This was a complex feeling that was difficult to make sense of in a short period of time.
George’s head was spinning. Although Sheira had told him about Leylin after he woke up, seeing the truth of Leylin’s real identity for himself was much different from just hearing about it from others.
However, George was well aware that he could not maintain the relationship he had with Leylin in the past.
It would only be possible if he advanced and became an official Magus, and Leylin did not increase his power and stayed at his current position.
But how was that possible?
George looked at the dashing young man with jet-black hair. “Leylin is only twenty now, right? To actually advance successfully at this age indicates that he has a talent that I can never catch up to…”
In comparison to George and Sheira, Bessita, who was at the side, was stunned, and her expression was even more complicated.
Emotions such as shock, regret, and fear, along with some other emotions she could not make sense of cycled through her face.
“That’s enough!”
Leylin waved his hand with an indifferent direction, motioning for the old geezer to stop his kowtowing.
“I don’t care for your matters. However, from today onwards, such petty conflicts must end. If anyone continues with it, causing our forces to dwindle and letting the enemy gain an advantage, I will draw the culprit’s spirit from his or her body, and torture it for a hundred years. Are we all clear on this?”
Leylin knew deep down that such bullying traditions could not be avoided. Under normal circumstances, if it was not for the fact that he knew George and his group, he would not have given a hoot about the issue.
However, with Leylin here now, not only would these acolytes stop bullying George and his party, they would even do their best to curry favour with them. As a result, he did not have much to say.