Chapter 45: Kidnapping?
After more than three hours of walking, shopping, and participating in various auction events, Clara decided to sit down in a small square at the end of the road while Lucius finished up his last few purchases.
"I thought I bought a lot when I went out with my friends in the capital or when I went shopping for makeup or... But this is crazy. How can he have so much energy?" She looked off in the distance at the store where Lucius was still shopping.
In fact, he was participating in a fairly large auction that surely wouldn’t close at 2. It was just over 20 minutes before 2, and the place was still packed, after all.
You could still hear the shouts of bids for the items... Although, most of the people on the street were men.
There were very few women here, which made perfect sense. Men tend to be more interested in collecting antiques than women do.
Clara couldn’t understand how these men could have so much energy, but she smiled anyway.
She took off a necklace and a pair of earrings to look at them again. In the last half hour she’d been sitting here, she’d looked at them several times.
Because they were gifts Lucius had given her.
"Why did he give me gifts?" she murmured to herself. "And something so pretty."
If Lucius saw her saying that was pretty, he’d surely reply, "You have terrible taste."
Because they were pretty simple and rough. Although they had a stone, it wasn’t properly sanded or polished, so calling it pretty wasn’t really the right way to describe it.
But Clara liked them.
"This is the first time someone has given me a gift without any ulterior motive. How strange." She smiled again.
She clutched the gifts and then put them on once more. Even though they didn’t match her outfit for the day, she didn’t care. It was the only selfless gift she’d ever received, so she would treasure it.
Just then, her field of vision was obscured by several shadows, and she felt danger brush against her neck.
She immediately turned her head to the side and leaped backward, drawing her weapons so they glinted in the light of the full moon.
However, as she jumped, she got caught between someone’s legs and fell to the ground, rolling.
"Grab her and get her off this street!" one of them roared, as he sprayed something strange into the air.
Clara didn’t have time to react. When she stumbled, she lost control of her weapons, and her defensive and offensive magic couldn’t activate because she was suddenly dizzy.
She was suddenly swept up by her attackers and began to see the road rushing by.
It was at that moment that she regained her senses a little.
’Lucius!’
She knew she was in danger—she didn’t know why—but she needed to warn him.
Without thinking, she scanned the distance and managed to spot Lucius just before she turned into an alley.
He wasn’t that far away—less than 50 meters away.
He was within range.
She immediately activated her magic.
[Mana Crystallization]
Then she felt the connection for a moment, but a few meters later, that connection vanished.
.
.
Lucius was trying to buy an item at the auction. It was the last one he was interested in, and although it wasn’t all that important, it would make a difference whether he had it or not.
But there were several people trying to get it, and Lucius didn’t want to drive the price up too high.
It was an item that wasn’t worth the price the market had placed on it, so driving the price that high was out of the question.
But the others didn’t seem to understand any of that. They were simply bidding wildly, which frustrated him.
"If it weren’t for that mana mark, I wouldn’t be putting in so much effort..." He let out a long sigh and prepared to raise the price once more, pushing it into dangerous territory.
However, just then, his body felt an icy connection. His core became more passive, calm. His mana stopped surging through his body for no reason and simply concentrated where it should.
’Clara?’ He quickly turned toward the square where she should have been...
His heart sank. She wasn’t there, and at that very moment, the connection vanished.
’Shit.’ He tossed the wooden paddle he’d been using to bid aside and immediately ran off.
The people around him looked at him in confusion.
"Is he withdrawing from the auction?"
"And here I was thinking I’d fight to the end..."
"Did he get scared? He looked like a brave young man."
"He doesn’t look rich, though. Maybe he just ran out of money. Look at the clothes he’s wearing—it’s a surprise he even had enough money to buy so many things."
As soon as he left, a crowd of people began talking about him.
But Lucius didn’t care.
He had sensed the connection near in one of the alleys. He was a perceptive man. He quickly figured out which alley it was.
Also, by looking at the ground and studying it for a few microseconds, he noticed that about five people had run through there recently.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he turned into the alley that led to another street away from the Main City.
As soon as he arrived, he could already smell Clara’s perfume... mixed with something else.
A peculiar drug.
"Heh, using this drug against me never ends well, you little bastards. I can tell you’re pretty inexperienced to use it this badly." He sneered and quickly followed the trail.
He ran down a few more alleys, then crossed a few sidewalks and jumped over a wall, until he finally reached his destination.
One of the small squares in the Iron Suburbs, located at one of the region’s more habitable edges. Due to the high concentrations of corrupted mana in the surrounding area, few people lived here, making it the perfect place to commit misdeeds.
As soon as Lucius arrived, they threw Clara to the ground, and two of them rushed toward her to strike her.
The blow jolted her awake with pain, and she clutched her stomach to endure it. Her breathing faltered, and for a few seconds she didn’t know where she was.
However, two more blows rained down on her, and a third was aimed at her eyes.
That one was going to hurt.
She tried to do something, but could only watch helplessly as the kick was about to strike her right between the eyes.
"You damn bitch, how dare you mock our young master? You’re scum—you’ll never be on the same level as our young master!" roared the man who was about to kick her.
Clara closed her eyes...
PUNCH!
A loud thud echoed through the room.
But Clara felt no pain.
Strangely, she didn’t feel any impact at all, so she slowly opened her eyes.
Then she saw a figure moving nimbly among the attackers and striking them fiercely in the face, stomach, and sides.
He fought with great martial arts skill, and it was clear that his blows hurt, despite how skinny he was.
’L-Lucius?’ She could do nothing but watch as that figure moved among her attackers, winning a 1-against-5 battle without even using magic.
The moment he arrived, Lucius’s first blow landed on the guy who was about to hit Clara. It was a slap to the cheek that sent his face spinning.
"You dare to kidnap my friend and still have the nerve to hit her? I’ll kill you, you bastard!" Lucius’s eyes flashed with a deadly glint, turning red with the fury of what he had just witnessed.
"It’s Lucius—kill him already!" one of them roared.
His friend drew a dagger at that moment and lunged at Lucius. "Even if you’re a wizard, you’re too close to cast your magic!" the man roared as he tried to stab him in the side.
Lucius simply smiled.
"You know what? I, too, was born and raised on the streets."
He took a step back to maintain his defense and moved his left arm to block the attack. The strike missed its intended target, allowing Lucius to swing his right hand and strike the man’s arm in several places, managing to disarm him in an instant.
With the dagger in hand, Lucius shifted the leg he’d been using to maintain his balance in defense forward and struck the man several times in the sides with his own weapon. He finished him off with a precise blow to the neck and head that made blood flow like a river.
Contrary to what Clara thought, this wasn’t martial arts.
It was simply the fighting style of a young man who had once lived on the streets, starving and enduring bullying, and who had been forced to steal from thugs just to eat.
It was simply the survival instinct of that boy who had survived without a family for most of his youth.
When the man with the dagger fell to the ground, a piece of cloth flung open and sprayed Lucius’s face with a strange and dangerous powder.
All his senses were overwhelmed by that intense and dangerous smell, while even his vision was obscured by the powder...
It was the dangerous drug capable of putting you to sleep in a matter of seconds.