The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 316 – And Now...the Wait

Cruz then smiled and petted the two beasts, saying,

「So what do we do until the afternoon? We have some time, and I don’t want to just sit in the waiting room.」

「Would you like to stop at your palace?」

「That might be better.」

Toril shook his head.

「You can stay here as long as you’d like.」

「No no no, you’re going to use it for other things, right?」

「I have plenty of rooms...in fact, I can prepare another one for you if you’d like.」

Toril wanted his son to be here so he could watch him, after all.

I kind of understood how he felt.

「Well, then, we’ll stay.」

After hearing what Toril said, we moved from the waiting room to a smaller one.

Of course, the two Tolfs came with us.

「Ah, I forgot something important.」

As I entered the room, I searched the kid magically.

「Wha...what are you doing?」

He looked quite confused and taken aback.

He didn’t know the magic I was using, nor did I expect him to, but I was surprised that he could sense it.

「A magical search. I need to know if someone cast something on you.」

「Magical...」

The elder Tolf looked a bit unsettled, and looked at me.

「There’s a high possibility that this person is able to use psychological magic. I need to make sure.」

「Okay, then please proceed.」

He relaxed a but, but the kid looked quite nervous.

I ignored it and proceeded.

It was the same magic as when Femm and Cruz had eaten the zombified meat.

It found any bugs inside of you, or any magical tools attached to you.

It was sure to work.

Even so, I couldn’t tell if it could find hypnosis or other light magic.

While this was going on, I could see that Moofy was sniffing Tokul.

I knew that Moofy could sense bad things as well.

「I just gave him a quick check, but as of yet it seems that there’s no magic on him.」

Both Tolfs looked relieved.

「Thank you very much. You need to thank the viscount too!」

「Thank you very much.」

The son bowed, then Toril said, 「I’m relieved...I was wondering.」

「Really? You look a bit disappointed.」

Cruz said, with a bit of a sharp look at Toril.

「No, I’m very happy there’s no magic on him.」

「Oh, I see.」

「However, that means that my son didn’t have any magic forcing him to act like an idiot.」

「That’s true.」

「Mooo moo」

Cruz seemed to understand and nodded.

Moofy was beside her, nodding too.

I guess there was a negative to him not having any magic cast on him.

There’s hardly any way for a novice to resist a casting by a very experienced magician.

However, if there was nothing influencing him to do this, the son might lose trust as the future inheritor.

The Tolf brand was growing by leaps and bounds.

And the deal with the stones showed he was a rank amateur.

The son looked down at his shoes, crestfallen.

I thought it might be good to say something in his defense.

「Even so, this only applied to magic existing on him currently.」

「W...which means?」

「There might have been a spell on him forcing the kid to trust whoever it was a half a year ago. It probably would have disappeared by now.」

「...I see. Magic really is scary.」

「It depends on the person. But there are hardly any magicians using psychological magic these days.」

「Still...it’s worrisome.」

「If that’s the case, I can make a psycho-magic resistance amulet.」

「Can you?」

「Of course.」

Everyone knew about the effects of amulets. It could stop a light hypnosis spell.

I took the material from my bag and created the amulet.

You basically took anything you could carry and bound a magical circle to it.

While making it, I said to the Tolfs, 「Tokul’s just starting out as a worker, right? You still have time to learn.」

「Moo moooo」

「Everyone makes mistakes, especially young people that are so eager to get things done.」

「Mooo moo」

As I spoke to both of them, Moofy followed up with her opinion.

Femm just sat there, uninterested.

Femm had her snout on Cruz’s knee, looking on.

I handed an amulet to both the elder and the younger Tolf.

The first one was free for both of them.

If they needed any more, I could have Vi-Vi make them for a charge.

Vi-Vi was better at magic circles, after all.

So we spent our time at Tolf Trading until the afternoon.

We had an early lunch as we all talked about our strategy.

It was a simple one.

The son would go to negotiate with the fellow.

We would be lookout behind him. When the guy came out, we would grab him.

「It doesn’t seem dangerous, but we can’t totally be your bodyguards.」

「I understand. The boy will reap what he sowed. However...」

「Of course, we’ll do all we can.」

「Thank you very much.」

I knew that the man was really worried about the kid.

He had raised him and was quite fond of him.

It might be better if he sent him to work in a place like Linmia’s.

However, it wasn’t my place to say what he should do.

And then, it was the afternoon.

「Well, let’s go.」

「Sure.」

He stood up, resigned to his fate.

Then I told the father, 「Toril, we’ll take care of him.」

「...um.」

「We know. We’ll bring him home safely.」

「Thank you.」

Then, Cruz and I put on our disguises.

It wasn’t a wolf and lion mask this time.

I borrowed a fake beard and a coat with a hood from Toril.

「I need to use magic as well.」

I cast a spell canceling others ability to sense Cruz and her party.

As long as we made no sudden moves, we wouldn’t stand out.

And with that, I told the son to be careful about one point.

「Just act normal. And make sure you have that amulet on you.」

「Okay.」

「Don’t fidget or look around. Even though you don’t see us, we’re near.」

「I understand.」

He was nervous, but he nodded.