Chapter 6 (Part 1)

She made eye contact with about a dozen men inside the building.

Aethon, who had been grabbed by the wrist and dragged, was thrown to the floor.

The sound of him hitting the floor hard enough to make a thud made Meia frown.

“Run away! Leave me and just go! Don’t worry about me…”

The rough-looking men stared at Meia with lecherous smiles.

“Roman said he prepared her for us?”

“She’s really pretty. I’d hate to sell her; I want to make her my wife, haha.”

Listening to their conversation, it became clear. Roman and the men in front of her were in cahoots.

Had Roman sent people who said the silk fabric was fake to thugs like this? That must have been the case.

Yes, Roman couldn’t let it be known that they weren’t selling real silk. He must have committed crimes against customers using the store in this classic way to avoid refunds or exchanges and save money.

“I thought it was a girl’s wrist, but it’s a guy’s wrist, damn it!”

Aethon quickly rolled on the floor and stood in front of Meia. He drew the sword from his waist. Tension filled the air.

The men smirked and said,

“Don’t move rashly. You’ll get stabbed.”

Hearing the insulting words, Meia glared at them with eyes full of anger.

“The girl seems to have a temper.”

“Shall we kill the guy first?”

“Kill him? No, we should sell him as a slave.”

Aethon, sensing something bad, decided to ensure Meia’s escape no matter what.

In fact, Meia was thinking of using fly magic to escape. But she couldn’t fly away with Aethon. In that case, it would be simpler to deal with all these men here.

However, Juan, who usually protected her, was currently in the Carpen Empire. She needed to quickly chant the spell and gather mana. Meia whispered to Aethon.

“Please hold on a little longer, Aethon. I’ll use magic.”

Aethon nodded with a determined face and gripped his sword tightly.

“Guys! Don’t kill them, capture them.”

Aethon turned and lunged to the left, cleanly stabbing one man with his sword. Then he turned to the right and delivered a powerful blow with his weight behind it.

At that moment, a burly man, who seemed to be over 2 meters tall, emerged from among the men.

“You seem to have learned some swordsmanship, but it won’t work on me, kid.”

While Aethon was holding his ground with his sword, Meia opened a magical subspace and took out her artifacts. She put on bracelets for magic power replenishment on both wrists and wore a necklace that increased the casting speed of spells.

“You’re all dead. Mixed in the wind…”

“That girl is a mage!”

“What!”

“She’s chanting a magic spell! Stop her quickly!”

Realizing that Meia was a mage, the men panicked.

A man with sunken eyes raised a dagger and threw it at Meia.

In that brief moment, Aethon threw himself in front of her and took the knife instead, collapsing to the ground.

“No!”

As the knife struck him, Aethon’s body felt a sharp pain he had never experienced before, and he fell helplessly.

“Cough, L-Lady.”

“Aethon, don’t speak anymore. If you lose more blood, you might die.”

She didn’t have the presence of mind to use honorifics for him at that moment.

“At the end of my life, I saw a beautiful lady… and leave.”

Blood continued to pour from Aethon’s abdomen. Meia tried to press down on his wound to stop the bleeding, but it was useless. Aethon’s face was growing paler by the moment.

“I’ll sprinkle holy water.”

“If His Grace asks… tell him… I died protecting the lady… tell him I died splendidly… please… cough!”

Blood gushed from his mouth.

“Ha… Lady… please take care of His Grace…”

With those words, Aethon let his head droop like a delicate petal falling.

“Aethon?”

Meia brought her fingers to the tip of Aethon’s nose. Fortunately, she could feel faint breathing. It seemed he had passed out from extreme pain. It was a relief that he wasn’t dead.

Meia pressed her throbbing forehead and opened the magical subspace to take out a bottle of holy water, which she poured entirely over Aethon’s abdomen. She confirmed that the bleeding stopped as the holy water was applied to the wound.

Even though the bleeding had stopped, Aethon was still in a dangerous situation due to the amount of blood he had lost.

She looked at the men one by one. They laughed as they saw Aethon hit by the knife and fall.

They laughed and joked among themselves as if it were a light prank that children might play.

“Now only the mage girl is left?”

Knowing she was a mage, the men didn’t recklessly approach the fallen Aethon and Meia, but Meia boldly turned towards them.

Leaving the fallen Aethon behind, Meia took a step towards them.

Among the rough-looking men, a man with purple hair emerged.

As soon as he saw Meia, he licked the knife he was holding and smiled lecherously.

“A beauty with silver hair… she’ll sell for a high price.”

A man who appeared to be his subordinate spoke cautiously.

“She seems to be a noble lady.”

Meia’s haughty expression and the clothes she wore were not ordinary.

“So what. We’re going to sell her.”

“That’s true. But she’s a mage.”

“Mages sell for a higher price.”

“That’s right!”

“Someone was looking for a woman with silver hair and blue eyes. This is perfect. We can make a big profit by selling her.”

“When dealing with a mage, you have to move in quickly so she can’t chant a spell.”

The man, who seemed to be the leader, told his comrades to move quickly and drew the sword from his waist, taking a stance.

“Cloné, bring the magic restraints! I’m going to have a very cozy time with this girl!”

The man looked at Meia with lecherous eyes and licked his lips.

“Disgusting. If you run away now, I’ll spare your lives.”

The men laughed loudly at Meia’s words as they prepared the magic restraints.

“The man who was protecting you is dead! No one is coming here.”

At the man’s words, Meia smiled brightly.

“Aethon isn’t dead, he’s just unconscious. And it’s fine if no one comes here. In fact, I prefer it that way…”

Misunderstanding Meia’s words, the man laughed louder and spat out more mocking and insulting words.

“It’s fine if no one comes? You prefer it that way? But what will you do? There are many men here who will see you n*ked.”

“Resist a little, girl!”

“Boss, I don’t mind if she doesn’t resist. When else would I get to embrace such a woman, haha.”

Meia’s expression was cold, and deep in her blue eyes was a look of disgust.

“Ice Circle.”

Her cold voice carried a magic spell.

Ice quickly spread out, grabbing the men’s ankles. When Meia snapped her fingers and chanted another spell, all the men’s tongues except for the purple-haired man’s were frozen, and they began to tremble in fear.

Meia walked out leisurely with a smile.

“Why don’t you stay still? I’ve frozen your feet and hands, so even a slight movement might break them. I’m saying this for your sake. If you listen to me well.”

“If we listen well?”

The man swallowed nervously without realizing it.

“I might spare your lives. Of course, you’ll become cripples without hands and feet, but that’s not my fault.”

“What nonsense are you talking about! You crazy woman! Release us immediately! You’re the one who froze us!”

“You should be thanking me for sparing your lives first, but you’re so rude.”

As the cold energy invaded his body, the man’s teeth chattered from the cold. This was the first time he had experienced such terrifying cold. But what felt even colder was Meia in front of him.

“Release us now!”

“Why should I release you? Explain it to me with a valid reason.”

The comrades who had been laughing and chatting with him moments ago were now all covered in ice.

“What are you doing! Save us! Don’t do this! Are you planning to kill people? You’re a mage!”

They said mages don’t kill people recklessly.

“Mages can kill people too.”

He could only stare at his comrades, who were being covered in ice, with disbelief.

And soon, they were all completely covered in ice. They looked like statues carved out of ice.

Meia smiled.

“They froze well. If I break them now, they’ll scatter in the wind, won’t they?”

“Please don’t… Please… spare me…”

He pleaded desperately with Meia, but the words that came from her mouth were not what he wanted to hear.

“Snare.”

When Meia chanted the spell and snapped her fingers, the men who were completely frozen began to shatter into small pieces like glass hit by a stone.

“No!”

As his anguished cry echoed, Meia’s lips uttered another spell.

“Wall of Wind.”

Meia’s wind magic blew away the ice fragments. The events happened so quickly that he stared at Meia in disbelief.

“People turn to dust when they die, but they turned to ice powder.”

He could see that there was no hint of guilt in the chilling woman’s eyes, and his eyes filled with fear at the thought that he might die too.