Lord of Charm

Gale located the room where he sensed a mage and stood outside of it. Gale used his darkness magic to prevent the door from creaking or making any noise when opened. Right in front of him sat a meditating woman cross-legged, and droplets of water were moving around her. Evidently, she was trying to connect better to the water mana and improve herself.

Gale had a chance to use his spoils of battle; he drew a knife made of fourth-rank materials he found in Richmond's bag and threw it at the meditating mage. He quickly canceled his darkness magic right after and cast a few wisps of fire to attack her.

The dagger hit her shoulder, waking her up from her meditation and disabling her left arm. She tried to quickly use mana to create a wave of water around her, but two wisps managed to slip in. One made a hole in her right arm and the other hit her thigh.

Gale didn't plan to kill her; she did nothing wrong. She just served under the wrong person, but that didn't give him the liberty of killing without distinction when he could avoid that.

She used water to stop her body from burning, and Gale, who stood only a few meters away, dashed and kicked her chin, sending her into a deep unpleasant sleep.

He fed her with a fourth-rank sleeping potion so she won't wake up before he is gone and left the room. The mages immediately felt the mana disturbance caused by the short fight.

Gale covered himself in darkness again before they could sense his exact location and spied on the mages' paths. He saw them running upward, which told him that Leo was at home somewhere on the top floor. Otherwise, they would run outside to keep the mansion safe from the fight.

Daniel was a mage employed by Lionel, he was eating in the dining room on the first floor when he noticed an attack on the second floor. He wasn't sure if it was an attack, but since it took place inside the mansion and the while rare darkness mages existed, he decided to quickly go up and protect Lionel.

As soon as he stepped onto the second floor he cast his wind spells in case the attacker was waiting, but nothing happened. He walked around carefully and didn't lower his guard just yet.

He scanned his surroundings and kept sensing the mana for the slightest disturbance to give him a hint about the location of a possible darkness mage. Eventually, he gave up and decided to check the room where he felt the magic earlier.

He opened the closed door and found a female mage knocked out, but still alive and well. He noticed a few burns but he had no idea what her sub-element was, so he couldn't confirm whether it was an attack or an accident in practice.

"Who would dare attack Lord Lionel inside Antwerp? It must be an accident. Besides, an attacker would kill her."

He convinced himself and took out a squared stone. He channeled mana into it, forming a connection with another stone on the top floor.

"Lord Lionel, do you know whether it's an attack? I found a female mage on the scene knocked out and slightly wounded, but she will be fine. Do you know of anyone with darkness magic that might dare to attack us?"

Lionel was with the other mage on the other side of the connection, and he tried thinking of someone who had a grudge against him.

"Only Tara has a darkness mage subordinate, and she wouldn't dare send him here. He won't be able to kill three mages, and my father wouldn't let her off even if he could. This is likely an accident. Bring her here and let's wait for her to wake up and tell us what happened just to be safe."

Although he was much calmer now that he knew the female mage was alive and well, he preferred being careful.

The mage affirmed and closed the connection. He left the room and headed to the staircase to go up to Lionel. He was much less careful now that they concluded it was most likely just an accident.

He would soon come to regret that; a knife pierced into his right shoulder out of nowhere, making him unable to use it. Gale used the same spells combination he used against the female mage and got the same results.

He left the two sleeping mages behind and went up to the top floor. He could already feel a mage with 3 expert magicians gathered in one of the rooms, and he figured Leo was one of the magicians.

He opened the door, this time unconcealed, and walked in.

"Hello Leo, how are you doing?"

Lionel was surprised to see the newcomer. He didn't expect that there was an actual intruder in his mansion, and he didn't expect it to be Gale even if there was one.

"Hi Gale, I'm doing great. I was very worried about you when I heard the news regarding the attack on your mansion. It's great seeing you alive."

"I bet it is. I might even kill a few more of Tara's mages for you, right?"

"What do you mean?"

Leo wasn't in politics since birth for nothing; he didn't flinch for a moment when facing those very real accusations.

"Don't play dumb. I thought you might be a good person although I knew you've killed your own brother, but I was just delusional. Moira was your subordinate, wasn't she? The maids in the mansion were subordinates as well! How could you put them in a trap that might lead to their deaths?"

Gale was furious and vented his feelings by shouting. He felt it was unforgivable to betray those who served you and send them to their deaths. It was even worse than the fact Leo machinated a death trap for him, who saved Leo and kept him safe during their travel.