13 Den wanted

Aunt Sara burst out laughing. "Queen of what, exactly? This boy is crazy."

"Aunt Sara!" Mandy protested.

"Oh, fine, fine. If the most powerful mage in town wants to teach you magic, I won't get in your way." Aunt Sara waved it away with a sniff. "Even if he is something of a dreamer. Queen, now? Wouldn't that make him a king? A king dowager?"

"I think it's the other way around." Mandy whispered.

"And how do you intend to reign over this place unless you can make the warlords kneel?" Aunt Sara snorted. "You don't have that kind of power."

"The… warlords…?" Remian frowned.

"The gang bosses." Mandy translated for him.

Right. "I will just have to become that powerful."

Aunt Sara barked a laugh. "Good luck with that. Jon, get these kids some breakfast. Good day, Mandy, Remian."

With that as farewell, Aunt Sara left with her escorts. Jon the innkeeper went about to get some food for his guests.

Mandy glanced at Remian, her face red. "You know, you don't have to talk big for my sake."

"Sorry. I guess I was a bit provoked." Remian admitted. "Either that, or I'm just being grouchy due to hunger."

"We have to fix that." Mandy laughed as Jon came out with oatmeal porridge. "Let's eat."

Eating with Mandy, just the two of them, was new to Remian. Certainly it was new to her. In the past, they had eaten together with a large group of other Circling Ravens, but having breakfast together in the inn the morning after… well…

It all felt very new indeed. Despite his best efforts, Remian couldn't help feeling a bit shy.

"Some king!" Death remarked, flickering into sight at the next table. "Can't even eat breakfast without blushing!"

"Remian!" a familiar voice yelled from outside. "REMIAN! Your wolfcat's looking for you!"

Wolfcat. Right. Vigil had gone off with his mom somewhere yesterday and Remian hadn't seen him since.

Max was there, Vigil on his shoulder. Both of them were scowling at Remian when he showed up. "Where did you go? What happened to you?"

That took some explaining.

"So what are you going to do now?" Max asked directly.

"What I've always been doing. Take the children to school, teach them magic, then go hunting." Remian said. "Same as always."

"You do realize that what you teach them isn't actually magic? It's just practice in how to use magic scrolls. They simply learn how to use items. That's all."

"Isn't that the same as your Legion trainees learning how to use swords and spears and shields? They merely learn how to use items."

"They also train their muscles and learn tactics and join together in formations. They can fight without weapons if necessary. Without scrolls, your students couldn't cast even the simplest spells."

That much was true. "Perhaps I can fix that, one day. But right now, I just want them to be able to use scrolls properly. Half the time they can't even get them to work."

That was an exaggeration. The actual success rate was more like 70%. Taking three of them to hunt, when they casted the Light Orb spells to blind their prey, most of the time two of them would succeed.

So far, that method worked well enough on Tier 1 and 2 Wilds. One Light Orb casted high above was good for brief night-time lighting, but two or three casted directly into one's face would blind just about anything that relied on sight, at least for a while. Generally speaking, one or two seconds of blinding and distraction was enough for Max to sneak up and stab them in the back. That simple tactic worked even with that Tier 3 Finned Frost Frog.

According to Remian's plans, nothing would change. They'd simply add Mandy to the group.

But first… "Help me put the board up at the town center?"

"Can we actually do that?" Max queried, hesitating.

"I'll talk to the priest. I think he'd let us set it up in front of the church."

Of course he would. Doing so would draw more attention to the church, which Kairos surely appreciated.

Remian looked around the town center. With the board and the inn and the church here, it could become a convenient base for him. It limited his options, but given his current operations, it suited his needs.

The only problem was they couldn't bring Vigil's mom into town. That, added to the lack of friendly Iron Legionnaires nearby meant that this place wasn't safe. Any gang could come storming in and causing all sorts of havoc and Remian didn't have anything other than empty threats about magic to stop them.

No. They couldn't stay here. One night was one thing, but for a long-term base, this place simply wasn't secure. His greatest protection right now was Vigil's mom, and that meant he would need to set up a place outside of town.

Setting up camp across the road from the Iron Legion was the first idea that came to mind, but that would be awkward, plus there would be more and more legionnaires arriving in days to come, some of whom may not be as friendly as Max and Markus. Eventually, somebody somewhere was likely to cause trouble with either the wolfcats, the children, or Mandy herself. That would destroy any chance of cooperating with them in the future. They might have fired him, but Remian still maintained some hope of getting along with them for mutual benefit in the long term.

The second idea was to set up a base north of town, on the edge of the desert, where the airship landed. Access to the airship and being near the Circling Ravens were both attractive notions, but that area would be visited by every single gang every time the airship landed. Going there to trade was a nervous affair. Staying there long-term where everybody frequented was going to be a very tense affair. Plus, Remian didn't want to be anywhere nearer to Cruel Rose than he had to be. That went double for Mandy.

Setting up on the east side was impossible. The chasm and the river were much too dangerous.

That left only the west side. They had to set up on the other side of the sheer hill and the old quarry. Maybe they could use one of the old elevator platforms. Those platforms could become a direct route to the Burning Steel forges, which was where they sold the prey they hunted. Despite their fierce reputation, the Burning Steel gang had treated Remian fairly enough so far. The Blood Claw gang hadn't troubled him before either.

But would Mandy be okay with that? It would take time to construct a shelter of some sort, even if Max were willing to help him out. Until then, they'd be living in tents or a cave if they were lucky. She was fine staying at the inn, but camping out with the Wilds…?

She probably wouldn't complain. As far as she could tell, she was still a slave. She had no idea about what Remian did while she was sleeping. Even so…

Remian groaned. He did not want to have to deal with this. He just wanted to research magic and gain enough power and money to totally dominate town and take it over. But now that he'd paid off Cruel Rose for Mandy's sake, he had essentially rewarded her for kidnapping and taking a hostage. Given that such behavior was previously rewarded, others were likely already planning to do more of the same in the future.

Mandy, Mindy, and the other four of his 'students' were very likely already being targeted. Yet how many people could he effectively protect, in the end?

Zero, to be honest. Without the Iron Legion, he couldn't even protect himself. Losing his job was a very severe setback. At this point, his priority was to seek out and obtain security.

"Vigil?" Remian looked at the cub seriously. "I need to talk to your mom."

***

But first, a short stop at the Raven Tavern.

"No way." Mandy spoke to him coldly for the first time. She'd never spoken to him like that since the day they met. "I'm not leaving you."

"I'm going to be out there." Remian tried to explain. "It's going to be dangerous. It should be safer here, with your gang…"

"From the minute I turned eighteen, I…" Mandy broke off, biting her lip. "Anyway. I'm not leaving you."

"We want to come too." Mindy added. "You can't just come by and leave us here saying you're going somewhere dangerous. We can help. We've hunted together, haven't we?"

"Besides, I need to go to work." Tim added. "I still need to cook for the Iron Legion."

"And I have a garden." George said stoutly.

Surrounded on all sides, bereft of allies, Remian could only surrender. "Fine. I'll take you guys to the Iron Legion camp. But that's as far as you go."

It should be safe there as well, maybe even safer. Markus wouldn't let anyone harm them.

At least Jane and Kavitha had more sense. They stayed behind at the tavern.

***

Vigil's mom seemed more interested in Mandy than anything Remian had to say. The Tier 4 wolfcat sniffed her, cautiously circling her, sniffed Vigil, then Remian, then Mandy, then Mindy, and then Remian one more time. At last, she greeted Mandy with a gentle "Whuff!" and her tail waved from side to side.

"She likes you!" Mindy exclaimed happily.

Mandy, on her part, looked rather amazed at the carriage-sized Wild. "Such big teeth…!"

"It's okay. She won't eat us. I think." Remian paused. "At least, so long as we feed her. That way, she won't be hungry."

"Then we better feed her, quick!" Mandy scurried to help Tim out with the barbecue.

Meanwhile, Remian patted Vigil's mom on the left shoulder. "I was hoping I could talk to you. Can you understand me?"

"Whuff." Vigil's mom snorted.

"Heh. You do seem a lot more intelligent than most of the other Wilds around here." Remian granted. "Do you have a name?"

Death clued him in. "Her name is a bunch of concepts related to smell. But generally it's someone nurturing and caring. Call her 'Carrie', if you must."

"Carrie?" Remian stroked her thick, soft fur. "I need a new den. Do you know someplace I can find one? Preferably on the west side?"

Carrie seemed a bit confused, but then Death rolled his eyes, threw up his hands, then tapped Remian on the forehead. He advised. "Try again."

[Need Den. Around west.] The directions fell into place in his mind, the concepts flooded his head, and somehow 'echoed' toward Carrie. There was a stunned silence for a bit as her mind and his shared an instant of connection, of understanding… and then the connection faded into nothing, and his mind was his own again.

[Tree?] Carrie's thoughts suddenly lit up, pulsing like a beacon on an airship landing pad. [Cave? Pond?]

[Cave, to start with. Then I need a place to build a man-shelter.] Remian replied back. [A place near water would be nice.]

[Spring. Cave. Come.] Mixed concepts floated around Carrie's mind, and then merged into a single image. [Hunt Bear.]

Remian winced. "We're going to have to fight a bear for that cave?"

"Whuff!" Carrie laughed.

"Just how strong is that bear?"

Carrie's thoughts answered. The bear was actually stronger than her. It was bigger, tougher, stronger, and with sharper claws… but it was slower.

In other words, it was a strength-type Tier 4 Wild. A speed-type like Carrie usually kept their distance, preferring to run rather than fight such Wilds, but if they worked together, if Remian could blast the bear with a super-powered Light Bolt…

That Light Bolt again! Remian groaned. For some reason, when they thought of Remian, that Light Bolt was all everyone could think about.

"We're not going to be using light so much this time." Remian decided.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"We're going to be using fire."

The thing about Remian was that he was a bookworm. Having a weak body hadn't left him much choice. Years of practice had driven his reading speed and reading comprehension high enough that he easily understood even the advanced books in the provincial library back home.

One had to remember that Remian had had the book of basic fire magic for more than one day already. It was not very thick, nor overly complicated, at least to him. He only needed a few hours to read it from cover to cover.

In other words, by the time he'd given the book to Rose, he had already learned fire magic from it. His memory wasn't perfect, but Remian could probably duplicate most of it in writing if he tried. It would take a lot of time, and it would cost him greatly because magic books, like magic scrolls, contained Inscriptions. A lot of magic was best taught by demonstration, so books like the fire magic book usually had Inscribed Spells to show the reader just how they worked. This was one of the main reasons why magic books were so expensive; the ink alone was more than Remian could afford at the moment.

There were, in fact, mages who went around carrying personalized spell-books filled with their favorite Inscriptions, and habitually casted spells straight out from their books rather than taking the time to draw the Sigils by hand. The ease of casting was a boon both in peaceful and combat situations.

One day, when he could afford it, Remian would love to have his own spell book.

Until then, he would just have to use scrolls.

"I need a few hours to prepare." Remian calculated.

"Why?" Max asked.

"I need to Inscribe some scrolls."