Chapter 262 - 028 – Spiritist

Ella and Elsie looked at Lirian with dazed expressions, as they struggled with the question that had been posed to them.

One corner of their minds shouted that their parent's lives were the most important priority to them, but, another voice drowned out all their other thoughts.

It was like Lirian's life was their life, if he died then they'd lose a fundamental part of their existences, they couldn't explain it but they found themselves incapable of imagining Lirian's death.

But despite that feeling the girls remained torn on their decision, the more they thought about it the more impossible it seemed.

The girls started to cry a rivulet of tears, that streaked across their faces, "I-I-I-I, please don't hurt our parents," Elsie sobbed loudly, and a second later her elder sister said something along similar lines.

'So there are limitations to my charm,' Lirian thought with starry eyes, 'I only have a most basic control over the skill so far, it is a rather unique power, but its good that I've already found a limiting factor,' Lirian noted the resistance that the girls had.

'I suppose this is the power that comes with having a close family, but I wonder how well my charm will work against nobles,' Lirian wondered with a slight grin.

Nobles were well known for almost always having infighting between siblings, for many it was due to their ambitions to stand over their elder siblings who were the natural heirs, but a lot of the time the siblings would compete in each other over who gains the biggest part of the inheritance and so on.

Those fights were filled with pettiness and low blows of demeaning moral stature, Lirian thought that if he could master his charming ability he'd be able to make an entire nation collapse due to infighting, if he could get all the candidates for the throne to spin their blades at each-others neck.

'Well, I'll have to plan that fun for some other time,' Lirian thought to himself with delight and turned his attention back to the two girls who were currently crying.

"You girls should leave before your parents notice that you've snuck out," Lirian said to the girls with a mischievous smile.

"Also if you don't want to get caught up in the trouble then hide somewhere when the trouble begins," Lirian said offering the girls a small amount of mercy.

"Please don't hurt our parents," Ella pleaded and grabbed onto Lirian's hand.

"I will show no mercy, to those that wrongfully accuse me of a crime," Lirian declared firmly and shooed them away.

The girls reluctantly left, they wanted to say more to convince Lirian to leave the village, but they could tell that it was useless.

Lirian remained in the inn patiently for the rest of the day, the barmaids didn't seem to know about the events that happened, and they dutifully served him his meals for the day, it seemed that innkeeper and his wife were doing their best to make things seem like they were normal.

But by dinner the jig was obviously up, word had spread to most of the villagers and the inn remained empty for dinner, and just as Lirian started to eat what he presumed would be his final meal in Willcolly the system gave him an alert.

[A cultivator approaches.]

Lirian grinned as he read the alert, 'Looks like I won't have to wait till tomorrow after all,' Lirian thought and continued to eat his meal at a leisurely pace.

---

The moats were already lit for the night when Naz heard someone approaching , however the bridge was drawn back it was a strong and sturdy bridge but it was made from wood, so it was a bad idea to keep it dangling over the lit moats.

"Who goes there?" Naz questioned and quickly nocked an arrow and drew his bow, this time the other guards didn't doubt his hearing and readied their weapons.

They heard a light thud suddenly and then they heard a smug voice that all of them recognised, "You're free to use those against me if you'd like but I doubt it will make any difference," Cassy said to them and chuckled as he walked into their line of sight.

"Mr Cassy," Bosh shouted with relief and put down his sword, the others also lowered their weapons and looked at Mr Cassy with reverential gazes.

"Boy are we glad to see you," Bosh said with a look of tiredness in his eyes.

Mr Cassy was a very large and muscular man with a height of (6'5")  and short blond hair, he was wearing his light leather armour, and his long sword was wrapped in a bundle of cloth on his back, the sword was his prized possession, that he took of the body of a cultivator he defeated in a fair battle.

Such was the story that he told everyone in the village, when he wanted to brag about the blade.

"Did something happen in the village while I was away?" Cassy asked with concern after seeing the guard's reaction at seeing him.

Bosh sighed and shook his head, "Unfortunately something bad happened," Bosh said while clenching his fists, "But it's not my place to talk about it, the mayor asked for you to go to his home immediately when you return," Bosh explained.

Cassy nodded his head in understanding and made his way to the mayor's residence, when he entered the first thing he noticed was that the daughters of the mayors were screaming and shouting, while banging on a door.

Their voices were hoarse, evidently they'd been shouting for some time, and Cassy could make out that they were saying something about someone being innocent.

Without waiting any further Cassy knocked on the door pushed it open, he was immediately noticed by over a dozen people that were in the mayors house, they were all extremely excited to see him, he nodded to all of them politely and walked to the mayor.

As soon as he reached the mayor there was a slight degree of awkwardness between them, he was after the mayor's position, and the mayor knew it, but Cassy had a mission of his own, becoming mayor was the mission assigned to him, and he'd do whatever it took to fulfil the mission.

He didn't care about the position as mayor, but the rewards that he'd be given for successfully completing the mission was something that any cultivator would kill to possess.

It was enough to make him happily put on a happy smile everyday and pretend he cared about the people of some backward village, and just to ensure their good faith of the villagers he married one of the girls that everyone in the village knew and admired.

She was an orphan and had no dowry at all, so despite being a beauty none of the men were too eager to make her their wife.

"Bosh told me that there was something you needed my help with," Cassy said loudly ensuring that everyone would hear the mayor asking him for a favour.

Cowen grunted internally at Cassy's attempts; it was never a good thing for the people who look up to you as a leader see you asking someone to do something that you were incapable of doing yourself.

Cowen didn't let his frustration show on his face as he quickly informed Cassy of the events that transpired in village.

Cassy gave the perfect performance as he listened, showing just the right amount of horror and anger at the actions of Lirian, "I will personally see to the death of this scoundrel and I'll hang his head from our village gates before the sun comes up," he declared loudly, his words were like a spark.

Once he spoke the people in the house, rushed out going to the neighbours and informing them of the news, in no time at all the village that should have been going to sleep was booming with life.

Once the house cleared out Cassy looked to the mayor, "How much do you know about him?" he asked in concern.

"If that man is a noble we'll be lucky if no retribution comes our way," he said seriously, only now when no others were in sight did he reveal his true colours.

The mayor frowned but did his best to act like he didn't mind, "He's just some late child, his family didn't have anything for him, so they cast him out and he became a wonderer," the mayor explained.

"Have you ever fought against a spell caster before?" the mayor asked with concern, from his ancestor's journals he knew that spell casters were tricky opponents.

Cassy nodded his head, "I did but only once, the trick to fighting a spell caster is to give them very little time and to close the distance,"

"If I can close the distance than a spell caster is no different from paper, and this man is blind, he might be able to walk like a normal person, but that trick of his will likely only work for him to move amongst ordinary people," he explained and untied the sword from his back.

"Why are your daughters locked up in a room?" Cassy suddenly asked as he pulled his sword free from the cloth and held it firmly with one arm.

"That's another concerning matter about this man, he seems to have some ability to invade the minds of people, amongst those that had contact with him, there were over a hundred people in the village that started cry like the world had come to an end when they heard about his acts,"

"My daughters are so taken by him that after meeting him just once they claim to love him with all their heart," the mayor said shaking his head, he dared not mention that amongst those 100 that cried there were men that had wives and children.

Even the mayor was still struggling to process that event.

At the mention of the mayors words, a shudder passed through Cassy's entire being, the candle light flickered of the polished edge of his blade as he spoke, "That man is no mage, you've invited a spiritist into your home," Cassy said with a look of absolute seriousness.