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Ryu's POV
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Bursting from behind the boxes, we dash out towards the guards, who draw their swords just in time to block our attacks.

Jumping back, I face one guard and dash towards him, lifting my sword above my head and bringing it down on top of him, clashing against his sword as he blocks my attack.

Taking a step back, I plant my left foot on the ground and kick the guards chest, sending him flying back, several of his ribs cracking under my foot.

I look towards the Captain and Vice-Captain to see them finishing their fights.

My attention is turned towards the final guard.

"Sir, please! Run away now!" (Guard)

Complying with his guard's orders, the man in a suit turns and runs the way he came, not looking back once.

"Ryu!" (Captain)

Not replying to his shout, I turn in the direction of the fleeing man and sprint towards him, catching up in several seconds, taking him to the ground.

Sheathing my sword, I punch the man in the back of the head, knocking him out and start dragging him back towards the defeated guards by his collar.

I see the final guard slumped against a nearby building, having been blown back by an attack.

"Where did the other trader go?" (Ryu)

"Ran as soon as we appeared, we didn't have time to run for him with these guards." (Etsu)

Cursing in my head, I focus my attention on the man I'm dragging.

"And what about him?" (Ryu)

"We question him." (Captain)

With that, he turns and walks towards an opening between two buildings, his back beckoning us to follow.

---------------------
Airi's POV
---------------------

It was late in the morning when I woke up, the sun blaring through the curtains of the room, filling it with light.

The first thing I noticed when leaving my room was the fact that Etsu, Ryu and the Captain had already started their mission, judging from the open door to the Captain's room.

I went downstairs to the bar that doubled as a dining room, passing the reception counter that had an employee with a blank expression.

It was the same throughout the entire town, people walking around with expressionless eyes, as if they were blind.

As I wait for Astrid and Kana to wake up, I run the mission through my head again.

Right now, the people of Alzibria are under a mind control spell, however, we currently don't know how severe it can be. And so, we were tasked with finding a person afflicted with the mind control spell, who is susceptible to Astrid's magic, so that we can understand it.

Honestly, I'm not too sure how Astrid is going to find someone suitable, but I'll have to hope that she tells us.

While thinking about the mission, several minutes go by and I hear Kana and Astrid walking down the stairs, making them creak on every step.

"Morning." (Airi)

"Yeah, still tired." (Astrid)

"Probably because you didn't get enough sleep last night, you were up playing cards for a few hours." (Kana)

"Well, all that energy from yesterday had to go somewhere~" (Astrid)

"Yeah yeah, now, tell us, how are we going to do the mission?" (Kana)

"Oh right, well. Since the spell has covered the entire town and no one was spared from it, its safe to say that it was powerful. All we need to do is find someone that is either weak-minded, or has not been affected as much by the spell." (Astrid)

"How do we do that?" (Airi)

"For the spell effectiveness, I have no idea. We guess, maybe? But for finding the weak-minded, we search for low mana levels. You both should have some form of {Magic Awareness}, right?" (Astrid)

"Sure do." (Airi)

"Since mana is connected to the mind, your will can directly effect your mana, and so, weak-willed people often have much lower mana than average." (Astrid)

"I see." (Kana)

"Well, that's all you need to know, so let's get going~!" (Astrid)

Turning around, Astrid hops out of the Inn, clearly in a good mood.

Making sure we aren't too far behind, we jog to catch up to her.

"Now, activate your {Magic Awareness} and search for low mana levels. Oh, and be carefu--" (Astrid)

Before she could finish her sentence, I had activated my {Magic Awareness} and was overwhelmed with the amount of information that came pouring in, falling over because of it.

"--l about the sensitivity of it..." (Astrid)

Deactivating the spell, I take a moment to regain my bearings before activating it again, this time being careful about the mana it picks up.

An unfamiliar sensation washes through my head as I activate the spell, allowing me to know the mana level of a person by merely looking at them.

"You have this on all the time?" (Airi)

"Hmm? Yeah, but I rarely notice it, my sensitivity is too high to be detecting normal levels." (Astrid)

Leaving it at that, I focus on the task, looking down the street at every passerby's mana level in my view.

Having rarely used {Magic Awareness}, it took a lot of focus for me to accurately read mana levels, causing me to lose track of time.

3 hours pass as I watch people walking down the street.

"Oh? I think I found one." (Kana)

"Where?" (Astrid)

"There, the man in the adventurer armour, with the large battle axe. The one that looks like a minotaur, with those huge muscles." (Kana)

"I see him, but now we need to find a way to get him." (Astrid)

"Couldn't we just offer him a cup of beer or something similar, adventurers seem to live off stuff like that." (Airi)

Turning to look at me, Astrid's face holds a look of amazement as I suggest something she hadn't thought of.

"Ooh, let's do that, it has to work~!" (Astrid)

Walking over to the adventurer, Astrid enters small talk with him, before pointing to the Inn that we were staying in, presumably asking if he wanted a free drink.

Several seconds pass before Astrid walks back to us, the adventurer in tow.

"How 'ou doin'? Name's Takeo." (Takeo)

—————–———————————————
Author Notes
—————–———————————————

Another chapter, more disappointment in my lack of writing skill!

Honestly, this was difficult to write because I had no idea where I wanted to go with it, and ended up winging it.

By the way, I'm not sure if this is obvious but the ~ after some of Astrid's sentences is a way of showing her volume raising or pitch raising, mostly to show she's being energetic or playful.

I also noticed while writing it, that I made a slight contradiction that isn't really a contradiction.

Going back to the second chapter, Airi mentions that she could sense Ryu sneaking around her camp from his mana leaking, but in this chapter, she calls {Magic Awareness} an unfamiliar sensation.

This is because mana is something that can be 'felt' while {Magic Awareness} allows you to 'see' mana. So in the second chapter, Airi could feel the mana leaking from Ryu.

This is also similar to what is said a few chapters back about the villagers not reacting to the mana of the crystal. This is because if they weren't being controlled, they would have felt constantly on edge, or have shivers.