Welcome to the city of filth (1)

We finally reached the city walls of the Vane after that hectic encounter with that mage. Needless to say, the officials that were supposed to meet us at the gates were more shocked than anything, but before they could blabber me on with questions I asked the injured knights to be tended first

After everyone was all set then I then asked everyone to continue our conversation at the Viceroy residence, which was located at the very heart of the city. Me and my convoy proceeded to walk through the dirty and run-down streets of the city, with most of the citizens giving us the stink eye. The foul odor of the city reached my nose as our horses galloped through the near-broken roads

From that few minutes of traveling, I could tell most of the problems of this place. Along with the bad management of waste, there were other problems such as outdated infrastructures, lack of guards to enforce order, and just as expected...a lack of merchant and trading as well

I made a mental note of the rest of the problems as we walked inside the residence. It was very small compared to the capital, but I honestly didn't care. From the looks of it, the place was recently built, It was looking good compared to the rest of the structures out here...Hell, I'd go so far as to say it looks very out of place...

I could only wonder why they spent the money building this thing instead of renovating the rest of the land that we destroyed, but that's a question for a later time. I got myself dressed in a new set of clothes and proceeded to one of the many meeting rooms of the resident

Upon opening the door, my gaze fell upon the few advisors that I have that were sitting down, most of them were old men who seemed to have a natural look of being very grumpy. And as soon as I sat down I started the meeting to which a question was immediately thrown at me

"You're highness, what happened? Was it a bandit attack?" One of the elderly men dressed in robes stepped forward and asked me, I showed a reassuring smile as I greatly suppressed the urge to ask "Did that look like a bandit attack to you?"

"No, It was something far worse I'm afraid. We were attacked by a mage"

"Hoh? I assume it was the frost mage then?"

A feminine voice came from amongst the crowd, and as I tried to search where on earth it came from, I felt a tug from my cape. I turned around and saw a blonde lady in pigtails who seemed...quite close to my age, well looking it as her size that is. Something in my gut told me that I was wrong though, considering that she was mostly wearing the same uniform as the advisors of the Emperor wear...

"Oh, and you are?"

"Ah, apologies for coming in late milord. The name is Maurine of house Oswald, I may not look like it but I'm one of the former royal advisors under the Emperor's wing, It's a pleasure to meet finally meet you"

Seems that she read my mind about her age thingy...But more than that, an advisor that worked under the Emperor?...I'm honestly not sure whether to be happy that I'm provided with an experienced subordinate or cautious that I'm sent a possible spy amongst my ranks...

I'm not certain if I could trust her but she'll certainly be useful, so I'll just keep an eye out for now...

"It's an honor, Lady Maurine. I'm still very inexperienced in regard to these kinds of affairs so I'll hope you take care of me"

"Fufu, rest assured that I will. And calling me 'Lady Maurine' sounds too stiff for me milord, you could just call me Maurine if you'd like. I was never really too much of a fan of honorifics"

"Then Maurine it is then. But back to the topic at hand earlier, you've mentioned something about the 'Frost mage' I assume you know something about the assailant that attacked us?"

Maurine nodded as she sat down on one of the chairs

"That I do milord, the moment I saw your knights experiencing frostbites in the clinic I immediately knew who was the culprit. It started about a month ago, people began to spread rumors of a mage that set up camp on the memorial of the veteran soldiers of the Vane, oddly enough after those rumors began to circulate, so did the attacks of the mage on any of the passerby that might stumble upon her territory"

Hmmm...So the mage is famous among these parts huh?...Wait a minute...

"Her?"

"You heard that right milord, among the rumors I've heard people said that the Frost mage was a woman"

"I'm quite certain that the stories I've heard say that the mage is a bulky man, and was a former veteran of the Vane"

"The stories that I heard say that it was an elderly woman, someone like a witch"

The rest of the advisors then began to share how they heard the story from their side. There seem to be a couple of discrepancies, but all of them basically had the few pieces of info that linked them together

First, the assailant was a mage that generally used magic spells that manipulated the temperature or summoned ice. Second, the mage would mostly just attack merchant cargos that are passing by the memorial. And third, which was honestly quite surprising...There had been no fatalities or death in those attacks...

"I wonder why that's the case..." I couldn't help but muse to myself as I lay back on my chair

I'm glad that no one died, but the fact that this was the case means that the mage herself was very cautious about this to be the case...Which would suggest a couple of things, but the number one thought on my mind was

"...So she attacks for survival, huh?"

"It's as you predicted milord"

Maurine let out a smile as she takes a sip from the cup of tea that was served to her

"The poor girl is most likely attacking the merchants out of survival. The forest may be somewhat maintained, but it's still on the Lands of the Vane, and both of us know that the state of the land in this place isn't really the best so living off the forest is a no-go"

"But even so, that rascal has caused us more trouble than anyone else"

Saying this, one of my advisors snapped their hands, to which a maid handed him a stack of paper. The advisor then passed around a few copies of the paper to everyone, including me. The moment It reached my hands I could tell that It was some sort of report. I thoroughly studied the report and I couldn't help but sigh afterward

"...How dreadful..."

"We could only agree with you there, milord"

My fellow advisors also sighed the moment they finished reading the report. It mostly detailed the economic affairs of our city, primarily the merchant trading...and well...let's just say almost all of the merchants that came in vowed to never return again...

"All of them are paranoid to come back. Well, I suppose that much is normal...Almost all of the routes that lead to the city have some form of danger that is lurking in the shadows"

No matter what, the number one need that a human requires...especially for merchants, is security. This place is already bad enough, but if I'm a merchant and all of the roads leading here are compromised, then I too would just find a better place to trade.

I closed my eyes and thought about Port city, which was under the rule of my brother. That place is deemed one of the best trading spots in the continent not only because of the number of merchants that stop by, but it's also because of security as well...No one would ever have to worry about anything when the place you're trading on is under the protection of one of the strongest army divisions in the entire Empire...

...Speaking of which...

"If it's already gotten this bad, then why hasn't the church dispatched a hunter to take care of her? Actually, I'm surprised that they aren't already here with their pikes and crosses..."

To put it simply, mages in this world are heavily frowned upon and hunted down. it mostly has something to do with the long history that the world had with them...

A few centuries ago a king who was extremely prominent at magecraft rose amongst the ranks of the continent and sought to conquer the entire world. He was a cruel and ruthless king that used whatever methods he deemed necessary for victory, this included opening the gates of hell themselves to summon demons to serve under the ranks of his army...These demons still roam around the world, though they're called 'monsters' now

The mage king was defeated, but the hatred that the people had for mages still lingers even today. Most countries in the continent would immediately deem you an outlaw if you're caught using magic and would put you to death the moment you're captured

And of course, one of the enforcers of this law are the hunters of the church, special assassins that are specially trained to kill mages...They're a crazy bunch that's usually out for blood, there's no way that news about this hasn't reached their ears yet...

"Well, about that milord...We have inquired for the assistance of the church so far, and they had promised to send a hunter to take care of this, but...so far no one has shown up yet"

"...Well, I'm quite surprised to hear this..."

"If I had to take a guess milord, I'd say it's due to multiple war theaters that we have on the north. Especially with the Forgan war still ongoing, a need for experts at killing mages is desperately needed"

I could hear Rudeus who was behind me and was silent up until now, scratch his head...

Hmmm, I understand that, but it's impossible that the church has completely sent all of its manpower up to the north for the war...Which tells me that there's another reason for this, but I can't exactly put my finger on it

"...Hm, and I suppose we also can't subjugate that mage on our own, right?"

Maurine couldn't help but chuckle as she lets out a sigh

"We can try milord, but It would be very risky business. First off, all of the city guards that we have right now are mostly newbies, all of the veterans of the war had either became a bandit or drunk abusive fathers. And to capture or kill a mage without a hunter, well we'd need a lot of manpower...But we can't exactly use too much, right?"

"Mostly because we're lacking manpower already...as well as a possible rebellion, huh?"

Maurine clapped her hands as she continued

"Exactly. Our relationship with the citizens of the Vane is still under very, very thin ice. If they found out about our plan, well...I could name a few people who'd be very eager to bite on the opportunity..."

Hmmm...so I guess that's out of the picture, huh?...But wait, do we really need that much manpower to capture a mage?

I couldn't help but glance back at Rudeus...He was mere inches away from taking her life, and provided with the right opportunity there is a chance that we could get her...But how exactly will we create that opportunity?

A couple of plans came to mind, but all of them seemed far too risky...I need time to prepare for this, we may be in a dire situation right now but acting rashly may cost us far more...patience is key...

"...What a mess, I understand the threat of the frost mage now, and rest assured we'll be talking more about this again in the next few days, but for now I need a quick rundown on the other affairs of the city, so If you would all do the honors?"

"Very well milord, so here's the gist of things..."

...We spent hours talking about the state of affairs in the city, and honestly, a part of me wished that I hadn't asked...It only gave me a headache more than anything

...This really is a fitting welcome...for the City of Filth...