The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

              Once the group returned with some new items of the mansion and with the good news that they accomplished their goal, everyone celebrated. Now, even if they have to stay hidden for a few weeks, they don't have to worry about wondering if they will receive help or not at some point. Not everyone will try to face Ferdinand and his allies, but at least his reputation will suffer a large blow, and he won't be able to control the business of the families that he wanted to destroy that easily.

                  As for the group that headed toward the port, they fell asleep as soon as they relaxed. Zaos himself only woke up the next day, and the first thing he did was fill his belly and then meditate to recover his mana.

                Once the others woke up, they also started to resume their own work. Some of them went to hunt while others increased the vigilance perimeter. The guards were doing their best to make the whole group endure for as long as possible. Although he didn't do that until now, Drannor began to train by himself. All those fights made his blood boil, his skills also improved quite a lot, but he didn't think that it was enough for some reason.

"How weird to see you training," Ameria said.

"Yeah, well… These last few days made me feel a bit troubled with my skills," Drannor said. "I wonder why…"

              From Ameria's perspective, the reason was quite simple. It was due to Zaos's skills. Thanks to his abilities, the group survived some seemingly impossible battles… regardless, Ameria couldn't help but wonder if she should tell him what was bothering him. Ameria changed her mind when she saw Noemi fiddling with the rapid-fire crossbows. Once she approached her, Ameria noticed that they had some very complex mechanisms.

"What are you doing, Noemi?" Ameria asked.

"I am just trying to see how this works," Noemi said. "That night, I wasn't able to hell all that much and thanks to it, something inside was bothering me."

"Hmm… you are pretty good at handling with that type of thing," Ameria said once she realized that the entire crossbow had been divided into many parts. "Still, do you really need to check every single part? From my perspective, if we learn how to craft the bolts and load them in that box above it, we won't have to throw them away every time they run out of ammo."

"... You are right," Noemi forced a smile. "I guess I was trying to do anything without thinking things through."

            After checking some of the ammo boxes that were empty, they noticed that there were some sort of locks inside it that moved whenever it was connected to the crossbow, and the trigger was pulled. Those locks moved the bolts nearly instantly, so they couldn't help but admire the technology. After doing some tests, they realized that loading the ammo boxes was pretty easy, and connecting with the crossbow also was. Still, they didn't have many boxes of bolts laying around, so they couldn't exactly hope that those discoveries would help anyone.

"It will be a bit difficult, but we can craft those bolts," Ameria said. "Do you want to help me? I think it will help us kill time."

"Sure," Noemi smiled.

                    They started to work together, but soon enough, Ameria noticed that something was off with Noemi. The silence was awkward enough since she was usually cheerful, but what really bothered Ameria was the fact that she was now and then looking at Zaos, and she seemed scared.

"Don't worry about him," Ameria said. "He is only scary when he is facing those that stand in the way of his goals."

"It is not like I am particularly scared…" Noemi said. "Ah, you mentioned that he taught you some magic, right?"

"Yes, Zaos made me become interested in magic again," Ameria said. "Back at home, we have a magic school, but things were so boring there that I abandoned the magic school. However, Zaos skills picked my interest and since his lessons had many demonstrations, I leaned in just a few days, more things that I learned in six months at magic school."

"He didn't strike me like a patient teacher," Noemi said. "That means, you must be pretty good at using and learning magic."

"Nah, I don't think so," Ameria said. "You saw what Zaos did in the last few days with his mana and I can't imagine myself doing the same… even if I train for several years. Ah, once we return maybe I should ask him to at least try teach me those techniques, once he heal his mom."

"Is his mother sick?" Noemi asked.

"I think she only has a weak constitution," Ameria replied.

"And that is something that can be healed with magic? It isn't even a sickness, right?" Noemi said.

"Well, I am sure Zaos will succeed eventually," Ameria said. "By the way… you sure are asking a lot of things about him." 

"You think so?" Noemi looked to the side and then asked. "It was just a coincidence."

"A coincidence you say, huh…" Ameria said with a smug smile on her face.

"You are misunderstanding things, Ameria," Noemi said with her cheeks slightly red.

"Is that so? Is that so?" Ameria asked.

                Although Ameria knew that not many girls would find a guy like Zaos attractive with his demeanor, she always knew that it was a matter of time before he gets somewhat popular. While his cold behavior was a problem, the fact that he wasn't a mad warrior despite his power and the fact that he loved his mother above anything else were things that several girls would find endearing. The only problem was Zaos himself, who had no interest whatsoever in girls around his age. He only cared slightly about his mother, the girl whose mother worked for his family, and Ameria herself. Still, she couldn't say that Zaos valued her as much due to her position. One might think that he just interacted with her because he didn't have any other choice.