The entrance to Mogrian mountain was connected to the rear side of the landlordâs castle.
That place, which was usually quiet, was crowded today.
All the soldiers and knights, who hadnât departed for hunting, people in the household, wife of the landlord and the youngest daughter were there praying for the safe return of the landlord and his retainers.
âIan?â
A ladyâs voice called for Ian.
It was his mother. She also came along with the people.
âI heard the story, so the landlord is still in the forest somewhereâŠâ
âYes, so I decided to help them find him.â
âAre, Are youâŠ.?â
Vanessaâs face turned pale.
âItâs too dangerous! Youâre still young, andâŠâ
âIâm okay, mom. Have you forgotten already? I am a mage now.â
âButâŠâ
It was natural for her to worry. Although her son is a mage with great talent, he was still her son, before he was a mage.
âDonât worry. Iâm not like the others. I will come back, alright?â
After promising his mother of his safe return, Ian walked with the soldiers.
The first scout squad who had already searched the mountains looked very tired.
Scouts who still seemed to be energetic were the second scout squad.
âTo start, lead me to the place where the trail stopped.â
By Ianâs request, a senior knight came out and said.
âAccording to the first scouts report, the trail ended completely. We only found a clue that there was an assault by many goblinsâŠ..â
âI have a solution, so please lead the way.â
The knightâs face became uneasy, when he was commanded by young boy.
ââŠ.Yes Mr. Mageâ
He calmed himself and answered.
The commander was the mage.
The mage who would take the journey with the crown prince.
The age wasnât important here.
If nobles had rank, mages had rank and power.
The power that might be able to rule the whole world, if there were enough of them.
âHumph, letâs see, how great of a mage he isâ
The senior knights didnât trust Ian.
Of course he might have had some talent, since the crown prince was coming.
However, the rumors of his magics in the gymnasium, the rumors that servants and butlers had spread, he didnât believe those rumors.
âListen! The second scout squad.â
But, the knight had to follow Ianâs command.
He was a mage, and soldiers couldnât do anything about it.
The first squad hadnât found any critical clues.
It was unlikely the second squad would find something important either.
However, the landlord was missing.
The knight had to rely on anything he could.
âAs Mr. Mage commanded, climb the mountain.â
Knights and soldiers of the second scout squad rearranged their line.
Suddenly, just before they started their march,
âTh, there!â
Someone pulled Ianâs sleeve.
A girl with ginger hair, Only daughter of landlord, âMargaret Mogrianâ.
By the appearance, she looked about 4 years older than Ian.
âMy father⊠brother⊠save them, PLEASE!â
Her face was covered by her tears and snot.
âIf you save them, anything, Iâll do anything for you! I, I can ask my daddy to give you money, lands and servants! So, pleaseâŠ.â
Her attitude had changed completely compared to the morning.
âI heard that she spoke to my mother badly.â
It sounded Margaret often acted badly to her.
Actually, more like she just revealed her jealousy to the beautiful kitchen maid.
âHmm?â
Ian found something on Margaretâs finger.
Precisely, the ring on her right index finger.
It had some special aura.
âMogrian ring?â
It must be the low level artifact, Mogrian ring.
It seemed the landlord succeeeded it to the daughter, not his reclaimer.
âIâll find him for you.â
âRe, really?â
The confirmation from Ian turned Magaretâs face to bright.
âBut, keep your promise.â
âIâm serious! Everything you wantâŠ.!â
âHave a think about it while I am scouting.â
âTh, think about it?â
What is he talking about?
Margaret couldnât understand. Ian added words to help her understand.
âI donât want the things you have promised.â
âTh, then what doâŠ.?â
âThatâs the thing you need to think about.â
Then Ian looked another side, and Margaret followed his eye sight.
There was Vanessa, whose face was filled with worry.
ââŠâŠ!â
She quickly turned away her eye from Vanessa, as she understood.
Her face revealed her complicated mind.
âAndâ
He continued the conversation. Margaretâs face contained little bit of fear of him.
âThe ring.â
âRi, ring?â
âLend it to me.â
She felt embarrased.
Not only her, but the people of Mogrian.
It seemd they had no idea of the existence of aritifact
âWhy is that?â
âI can feel mana from it.â
âMana?â
âIt will help me to find the people. SoâŠâ
Margaret couldnât decide easily.
It wasnât just an ordinary ring, but the heirloom of her house.
The heirloom that her father gave to Margaret specially.
But Ian said it has some mana in it.
Mostly, he said it will help him to find her father.
âO, okay.â
The ring was handed in to Ian.
His finger was still too small, so he had to put it on his thumb.
*pit-a-pat*
Just after he wore the ring, he could feel his mana heartâs beating.
This feeling, Ian liked it.
âLetâs go.â
He turned away from young noble girl.
He stepped on the dirt of the mountain with the scouts.
Generally, the course wasnât that tough.
In contrast, there was a wide path-like a street.
It was the evidence that they had hunted quite often.
âDo we need to go in deeply?â
Ian broke his silence and asked the knight.
âItâs not that far from here where the trail starts.â
âDoes he normally start the hunt from there?â
âNo, goblins usually come out from a deeper areaâŠ..wait, that is strangeâ
The face of the knight became more serious.
âI heard that he went to hunt periodically.â
âYes, every first day of the month. It wasnât anything special.â
âSo they were all used to it. I mean, the hunting route of the hunters.â
âHuntersâ indicated the landlord and his companies.
In goblinsâ eye, they were just goblin hunters.
âSo that meansâŠ.â
âThey might have ambushed them.â
âAre you saying goblins do ambush?â
The knight didnât agree with it.
âItâs impossible that they can come up with such a planâŠâ
As it was well known that their intelligence was quite low.
As a humanoid monster, they had some kind of intelligence, but it was only estimated to be around the same as a 3 year old boy. These creatures dared to have the courage to strike first, and ambush the hunters by analysing the route?
âImpossible.â
Unless it was the Hobgoblin which lived in the southern great grass field, far away from here, It was nearly impossible for goblins who lived within the province.
When Ianâs thinking reached to this point,
âHere, as you can see, all of this area is âŠâ
The scout team and Ian reached the point.
Humanâs red blood trails and goblinâs green blood trailsâŠ
It was obvious that there was a battle.
However, there were no human corpses.
There were only goblin corpses on the ground.
âHad our sideâs victimsâ corpses been already collected?â
The knight shook his head.
âWe couldnât find anyone when we first found this area.â
It meant goblins took them all.
Whether alive or dead.
âThere are so many strange points.â
Firstly, the scale of the battle was too big.
There are more than ten goblin corpses around here.
When they assaulted, there must have been hundreds of them.
âThey donât make a group like this.â
They usually formed as a small village and hunted animals or collected berries. However, this trail showed that there were hundreds of goblins that assaulted them. Ian was quite curious about this.
âIs there someone who rules them?â
Having high intelligence, power and desire to gather all the goblins around the mountain. The âhigh class creatureâ which had charisma.
âIs there any other monsters living in this mountain?â
âAs I know of, none.â
âHmm.â
Thinking wouldnât solve this problem.
Now he had to take some action.
âConjure.â
With quiet spells, Ian raised up his index finger.
He started to draw the silver magical formula in the air.
âWolf spirit.â
Once he completed the magical formula, he triggered his second spell.
Then the sliver lights became thicker.
The magical door opened slowly,
The silver light came out from the gap between the door.
*how â ow â wol*
Suddenly, the soldiers were confused.
Strange growls came out from the magical formula
It was the howling of a wolf.
âWhat? Where are the sounds coming from?â
âDidnât he say wolf spirit?â
âBut it sounds a bit weirdâŠâ
When the whispers became quiet,
Something small came out from the formula while struggling.