Gate tolls were the primary method of tax collection for all cities on the continent. The only exceptions were the maritime nation of Istar and the peninsula states at the continent's southernmost tip. To avoid this expense, hiring guards and stopping in towns along the way to resupply and rest was the more cost-effective option.
The lords of the Empire understood this situation well. Thus, by a tacit and unspoken agreement, the inns in the towns could only be the property of the nobility, with the vast majority belonging to the local Lord. The exorbitant lodging fees charged to outsiders became a de facto "gate toll."
Before nightfall, the caravan arrived at a small town. The horses and four large carts filled the inn's stable and backyard.
For dinner, the innkeeper served fruit wine. Singrev and the carriage drivers each drank a full cup, still wanting more. "You drank that too fast, Singrev. Here, have mine." Rorschach, wary of the homemade fruit wine, gave his to the Dwarf. Miss Hill and Mr. Ah Le also shared their cups with the drivers.
"We're not far from the Imperial Capital, so the towns are still relatively close together. Any further and we'll have to prepare for sleeping out in the open," Mr. Ah Le reminded them after the meal. He had booked three rooms—one each for Hill and Rorschach, and one for himself and Singrev. "The beds at this inn aren't bad, but we can't all sleep like logs. We need to take turns on watch to guard the cargo."
"I'll take the first half of the night." Rorschach's offer surprised the others. Until now, everyone had seen the fresh-faced Little Mage as a pampered young master; they hadn't expected him to volunteer for watch duty.
Rorschach's reasoning was simple, however. He didn't think being a Caster granted him any special privileges in the group. Since everyone had to stand watch, he might as well take the first half of the night. He had often pulled all-nighters in college, and as a student at the Magic Academy, he'd frequently burned the midnight oil studying. Staying up from evening until the wee hours was no burden at all.
And so, Rorschach spent the night sitting by one of the large carts in the backyard, reading by the light from an inn window. The carriage driver on watch with him was smoking some kind of flammable, psychoactive plant from a small nickel-silver pipe, the flickering tip releasing puffs of acrid, bitter smoke.
The book was *Three Royal Commanders*. It told the story of three fine young men from the Holy King's Royal Mage Order battling wits with a Cardinal of the Order Church, and also featured a foolish, comical King and a bewitching Queen... After two chapters, Rorschach realized this Imperial bestseller was very likely a banned book in the Holy Kingdom. He'd have to hurry up and finish it before they crossed the border.
Later that night, the lights on the inn's ground floor went out. The carriage driver unceremoniously lay down in a wagon to sleep.
Rorschach mentally summoned his panel and lowered its floating position. In his eyes, the panel emitted a faint, white fluorescent glow, successfully "illuminating" the pages of his book. If he were to light a lamp, the sole light source in the backyard would attract swarms of insects and mosquitoes. Using the panel allowed him to read, and only he could see it.
'Am I a genius?'
Rorschach was quite pleased with himself for discovering this one-way illumination function of his panel. If anyone else had come into the backyard, they would have only vaguely seen a figure sitting in the darkness with their head bowed, a rather eerie sight.
There was, in fact, someone else in the backyard.
A skinny man was in the inn's backyard. He was very patient, waiting quietly until all the lights were out.
'A fat fish! And they didn't even post a watch, just went to bed to snore away...'
'A proper watchman would at least carry a lamp! The backyard is pitch-black now, and the innkeeper only checks the locks twice—once before bed and again around dawn...' Familiar with this inn, the man concluded that no one was there.
"Hides...?" the man muttered, disappointed. Hides didn't sell for a good price in this area. He kept fumbling around and, in the second cart he checked, finally touched something cold and metallic. 'Finally, the good stuff...' Swelling with the joy of his find, the man carefully extracted the metal object. It appeared to be an iron gauntlet.
Rorschach remembered something from his past life: a noisy classroom would sometimes fall inexplicably silent all at once, even without a teacher showing up. For some reason, the chirping of birds and insects in the backyard had abruptly fallen silent as well. 'A coincidence? Synchronicity?'
The man grew nervous. It was dead silent now; the slightest clink of metal on metal would be jarringly loud.
RIIIP—
What broke the silence was the sound of a page turning in the night. Cheap, thin paper always made such a loud noise. The sound startled the man, and he dropped what he was holding—
CLANG.
Hearing the noise, Rorschach made no further sound. He quietly picked up a stone and cast *Magic Power Drive* on it, gathering Magic Power and forcing it into the object. Instantly, the common pebble began to emit a faint blue glow and grew slightly warm to the touch. This was one of the "tricks" Rorschach had developed through experimentation.
Similar to electrical energy, Magic Power, being a High Tier form of energy, could easily be converted into light and heat.
Besides light and heat, it could also be converted into kinetic energy.
Next, under the effect of the *Flying Arrow Skill*, the blue-glowing pebble shot straight toward the source of the sound, illuminating a terrified face. It didn't hit; the glowing stone was easy to spot in the dark, and his target was agile enough to dodge it.
In Rorschach's eyes, the man's expression went from terror to ferocity in an instant. The blue light streaked past, and the yard plunged back into darkness.
The man was approaching. Rorschach quickly pulled out three ship nails.
Rorschach had bought a large quantity of these four-sided ship nails before setting out. They were crude industrial products, but they had a consistent weight and shape. After getting used to them, his accuracy with the *Flying Arrow Skill* was quite good.
He fired the first one along the previous trajectory.
'No feedback... A miss?'
The man's figure was now visible under the moonlight. He was charging with a small knife, its blade glinting coldly. Rorschach fired another.
Still no sound, no cry of pain. Another miss.
Facing his first enemy since transmigrating, Rorschach's nerves tensed. He saw the thief's figure freeze but remain silent. The man could still move; he was still maintaining a thief's "professionalism." There were carts, cargo, and piles of dry hay in the backyard... Rorschach didn't want to use the *Fireball Skill*. He aimed the tip of the third nail at the man's head.
"If you shoot again, he'll die." A woman's voice came from behind the man.
"Hill?" From the skinny man's silhouette, a hooded figure emerged. Removing her hood, she revealed herself to be the Ranger, Hill.
Rorschach moved closer and saw by the moonlight that in that short amount of time, the skinny man's mouth had been gagged and his jaw had been dislocated.
The man was drenched in sweat, tears welling in his eyes. He made small, gurgling sounds through the gag. Without Hill holding him up by the arms, he would have collapsed. Rorschach then saw that a nail had hit him in the thigh. The wound was peeled back, and by Rorschach's estimation, the nail must have tumbled inside the flesh.
"A Mage who can throw darts?"
"A Mage, of course, uses Magic."
Hill nodded. "Alright. Go get Mr. Ah Le and Singrev. Tell them to bring their personal weapons down. Something's not right."
As Rorschach turned to go, Hill added, "Don't light any lamps for now. We don't want to alert anyone in the inn."
"Understood."
After hearing Rorschach's brief description, Mr. Ah Le and Singrev hurried down to the backyard. Mr. Ah Le, slightly vexed, shook the lightly snoring carriage driver, Hag, awake.
"Miss Hill, Hag, go bring the horses to the backyard. Harness them up so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice. Singrev, you and Lord Rorschach move this thief into cart number two. I'll gather the other drivers and take inventory of the cargo." Mr. Ah Le calmly assigned their tasks.