Magic Shop System

After sending Slyff, Kadyn continued his acting, appearing helpless in front of villagers. At noon they brought him some light food while Old Dem also came again to check his condition. They treated him so well — if he didn't have his emotion detection ability they would have made him a complete fool as he detected no flaw in their behaviour just by looking. Almost perfect, and maybe, that was their only flaw. Being too perfect.

In the noon he also showed them that he had recovered quite a bit of his strength and could almost stand on his feet and walked a few steps before falling back on his bed. Old Dem and the village leader Roclus were somewhat shocked at the rate of his recovery, but then an ecstatic expression appeared on their faces. The duo exchanged glances and nodded with each other as if communicating something. Kadyn saw their behaviour but didn't speak. He smiled and closed his eyes. 'Let's see what you have in store for me.' He curled his lips in a mocking smile.

When the night arrived he ate his dinner and fell on his bed, but as soon as the people exited his room, he opened his eyes and hurriedly brought a vial from under the pillow and poured it inside his mouth. "Never thought that they would have Hibernation Cudweed. Though they are weak, they have quite a few resources — if I hadn't prepared the antidote beforehand for such a situation, I could have been in trouble this time. I can't underestimate these people too much, just because there is no Spell Caster in the Clacton Village.

"Anyways, I need to find the main villain behind all this. According to what Slyff said these people are just following someone else's instruction. They kidnap people from the forest from time to time and send them to this mysterious person. However, that guy doesn't like injured people. That's why they healed me before taking me to that mysterious man or whatever it is."

Kadyn closed his eyes and continued his act. After two hours later, around 10 o'clock in the night, the door of his room opened slowly with a creaking sound. Then the four to five people entered inside one by one. The room was dark, not even a candle was present at this moment, so the atmosphere appeared quite eerie.

All of them walked continuously when an old voice said. "Don't worry. I've given him a full dose of Hibernation Cudweed. Even Half Rank 1 mage wouldn't know where he was for at least two hours, much less this boy who was already in such a terrible condition. Though after checking him I realised that he is at least a 7-star elementary mage, but so what? The Hibernation Cudweed is enough to knock down even Half Rank 1 mage for at least half an hour. What could this boy do?"

"Old Dem is speaking the truth," another voice said. "I was the one who gave the food mixed with herbs to the boy and he ate it in front of me. There's no way he's awake. Furthermore, even if he was awake... hehe."

Everyone in the group snickered when they heard him. Indeed, what could he do in front of absolute strength? That's what they thought. 

"Alright, Village Leader," the third voice said. "If what you are saying is true then I'm relieved."

Kadyn's eyes twitched inside the blanket. He knew two of the three voices. They belonged to Old Dem and Roclus, but he had never heard the third voice. Though they seemed to be the people of the same village as they talked like they knew each other pretty well. Their accent was also the same.

"Refu and Hari, both of you bring our guest out," said the unfamiliar voice. The other two shadows that were standing behind the three of them said. "Yes, Elder Tandu," and walked towards Kadyn's bed. Kadyn could hear everything but he could not see anyone or anything as his face was buried under the blanket. Neither did he have the Spiritual Perception like Barret. 

He could only remain patient and wait for the correct time to strike back. He needed to find the one who was pulling strings from behind the scene. 'How dare he/she conspire against me?!' 

As the men carried him out of the wooden room, his face was still covered in a thick blanket. Therefore, he couldn't see anything. Though he could cast a spell of the psychic element to see those people, he was afraid that these people would be able to sense something off and become vigilant and the man who was doing all this might escape from his grip. So he continued to endure. Waiting for the right time to strike.

"Village Leader!" as they exited the wooden house tens of voices sounded in unison. It appeared as if the entire village had gathered outside the wooden house.

"This month we don't need to send anyone from our village," said Roclus. "We were fortunate to capture this injured boy last month. Now we can save a life of our own for an extra month. No matter how evil it sounds, I will do anything that it takes to keep my people safe — I will take all the blame for every evil."

"Father, you aren't doing anything wrong," Waul! Kadyn thought. "Everything you did, it was for the Clacton Village, to protect our people. No one blames you!"

"Humph, you are nothing but a bastard! Who said no one blames him?" a voice of a man grunted for not far away and a middle-aged man who was thin and looked almost malnourished walked out of the crowd, holding a long wooden stick in one hand from which he supported his weak body. 

"You father and son duo," he said, "don't even feel embarrassed while speaking those words in front of everyone. Do you think we don't know anything? It was your previous village head who signed the contract with that Jinn for getting rich. However, we are the ones who are paying the price. How is this fair?! Why don't you send your son and then go yourself to sacrifice?!"

"Old Keo," said Roclus. "I know that you are feeling remorse because you lost your only son last month, but you should know that whatever I did, it was for our village — if I hadn't sent your son to that demon, our village would have been destroyed by him."

"For our village?!" shouted the man called Old Keo. "You think I'm stupid?! If that is the case then why don't you send your own son to the Jinn, because it was your father who made a contract with him and promised to send a person every month to the Bamboo Cove! It should be you, repaying the debt, not us. Neither does anyone else. Nor that innocent boy you are going to sacrifice today!"

"Humph, how could your son who had no talent in magic compared to me," Waul said. His expression turned wretched and a cruel smile was present on his face at the moment, completely different from his innocent appearance that Kadyn saw last time. 

Though Kadyn didn't see his expression, just those words were enough to tell what kind of person he and his father was, and even their predecessor seems to be an asshole. As the saying goes: a whore could not give birth to an emperor. Children often take after their parents. A perfect example was this father-son duo.

"You fucking shit I curse you to die a horrible death at the Bamboo Cove!"

"Puchi!"

Suddenly someone threw a dagger towards Old Keo, before the man could react, his neck was slit open. The man made gurgling sounds and could not speak anything; the blood gushed out of his sliced windpipe and painted his hands and then his entire body. The poor man fell on the ground miserably and twitched for a minute before his body stopped any moment. Dead!

"You piece of shit," Elder Tandu snorted and collected his dagger from the ground before wiping it over Old Keo's body. "Ordinary people like you have no say in this world. I thought you knew about this matter. Who knew that you were eager to die and reunite with your son." 

Then he looked at the Roclus. "Village Leader Roclus, Let's go. I don't want to upset Mr. Jinn for being late."

"Haha, sure sure," Roclus chuckled, "I hope that this boy will be able to satisfy Mr. Jinn." He rubbed his hands in anticipation. "If he is happy with our offering he might give us a new spell or a magic artefact."

"Hehe, we have never offered a mage stronger than 5-star. I'm sure Mr. Jinn would be really pleased when he sees this boy. He is pretty strong mage after all." said Waul. "I wonder what we would get from Mr. Jinn, potion, artefact, precious herb?"

"Whatever it is," Roclus said. "We would be able to know about it very soon. Let's go."