"Get up! How is it possible that the guards are not in their positions, and instead they are laying in the pub like pigs!" Mayor himself entered the pub.
"That's my fault, sir." The captain stood before him.
"No, sir, it's my..." Caden rushed beside him.
"I don't care whose fault it is! Put everything in order before this town goes crazy! I have a table full of complaints and the wardens are stepping on my heels."
"I'll fix it right away, sir! Guards, stand up!" the captain exclaimed, and everyone slowly began to rise from the ground and tables.
"Do you see, sir? Everyone is fresh and ready," the captain smiled convulsively.
"Hmf…" the mayor snorted and left.
"Well... that's all for our celebration. The hard work begins now," the captain put a hand on Caden's shoulder and then helped the other guards to get up.
Soon, all the officers were more or less on guard out of the pub.
"That should do. What will we do now, captain?" Caden and Merill approached him.
"First of all, we should register Merill here as an alive person again. That will probably be a little more complicated at the town hall. It will be best if we'll go all three of us."
"How do you think he lives? Are you laughing to us, captain? You mean we made a mistake?" office worker exclaimed in the town hall.
"Oh, by all the Saints, take a look! The man to be dead is standing in front of you!" the captain went angry.
"And what am I to do with it now? Should I put him to the register again?"
"What do I know? I'm not an official! Just revive him somehow!" the captain shouted.
"What's so important about it?" Caden asked.
"Until Merill is "officially alive", he cannot do any job. It's like he doesn't exist," the captain explained.
"Oh, put him on the register!" Caden added.
"What's going on here, captain?" Mayor came into the hallway.
"Sir, this man is officially dead, but they say he lives," office worker explained.
"Don't you see that he's alive?" Caden shoved Merill, who punched him in return.
"Ouch, you can't beat me on the land of the town hall!" Caden called.
"Don't you understand? I can do everything, I do not officially exist. I could kill you and no one could do anything about it!" Merill laughed like crazy.
"Let the man be quiet!" the mayor shouted.
"See! He hears you, so you exist, ha!" Caden laughed.
"Can you do something about it, by all the Saints?!" the mayor said.
"I... Alright!" the office worker handed him the paper in confusion.
"Pche, do they really mean it?" Caden laughed. Merill filled in the form and gave it back to the office worker.
"Emm... so I'm officially one day old now?" Merill asked.
"Ehh..." the office worker didn't know what to say.
"Just let it go, we'll fine-tune it. Just leave this building and get back to work," the mayor brought them out.
"Hah... Dumb officials! They can't see anything they don't have in their papers," Merill laughed.
"Boys, you're my special team. Maybe I won't need you today, so keep yourself alive, and you Merill, enjoy the life of a newborn!" the captain laughed and left.
"Well... what do we do now?" Caden asked.
"I have something else to tell you..." Merill said while leading Caden into the alley.
"You know, Caden, the time we work together... I just feel I can trust you."
"That's great, me too," Caden spoke to him.
"Listen to me... My mother was an elf, but not an ordinary one. She was... a dark elf."
"What? How?" Caden replied in confusion.
"Don't shout that much! It's very complicated. I just... I just wanted to tell you because I trust you," Merill said.
"I appreciate it. I'll tell you something too. I'm probably a magician..." Caden replied.
"Nah, that's not possible. You did go through the warden's test, didn't you?" Merill said.
"Listen... I can stop flying arrows using my mind and... and I can also throw people away," Caden explained.
"If that's true... Oh, I don't want to imagine what the wardens would do to you if they found out. You must never use it in their presence. Get it? They sense magic. And if this is true, they will feel your magic miles away. I've never heard of anything like that. You can't tell anyone, not even Amelia!" Merill was frightened.
"All right, I'm not going to tell anyone. We should go, you definitely want to rest," Caden finished and led Merrill to the pub.
"No way. That's the last thing we needed here," Merill said as he saw a group of wardens with dogs.
"Who is it?" Caden asked.
"Do you see the wings around the wardens' sign? These are hunters. Specialists in finding hidden mages and those on the run. Pray to your Saints, because those dogs are specially trained to sniff out magic." Merill explained to him and walked past them to the guardhouse.
"Good day," Merill smiled at the hunter, who was just staring at him. "Bold assholes," Merill murmured and walked into the guardhouse.
"You really can't live without your job. Can you?" the captain laughed at the table.
"The hunters are here," Merill told him.
"I know, Merill. You couldn't have chosen a better time for your rebirth. Soon they will begin to dig in our writings. Their presence never bodes anything good," the captain told them with concern.
"Can they really do that, sir?" Caden didn't understand.
"The wardens can do whatever they want, especially these ones," the captain replied.
"They'll probably drive the whole town out on the street, and let the dogs sniff everyone up, any moment," Merill said grudgingly.
Soon two hunters entered the building.
"Is anyone of you Caden Snead?"
"Me," Caden stepped forward.
"Come out with us," said the hunter, and Caden went out of the guardhouse, followed by Merill.
"Don't you have something to do?" one of the hunters turned to Merill.
"I can't work without him, sir," Merill replied.
Merill noticed several guards with rifles standing near the road.
"Shit, this is an execution squad, over there," Merill walked over to Caden and nodded to his left side.
"Please come forward, Mr Snead," one of the hunters said with a lot nicer tone than the one in front of him. "Do you recognize this gentleman?" the hunter asked and beside him came the thugs in the townsman suits. The same thugs Caden fought with at the temple ruins.
"Yes, that's him! That's the mage!" one of the thugs shouted.
"You fucking bastard! This is one of the murderers who settled in the ruins of the temple!" Caden shouted as the two hunters grabbed his hands.
"Thank you, gentlemen. Well, Mr Snead, do you have any witnesses to confirm your statement?" the hunter asked.
"I... There was one warden named Edward."
"Call him here," the hunter ordered.
Meanwhile, they tried some tests on Caden, they gave him a few vials and the dogs sniffed him.
"Aaa... Mr Edward, here standing Caden Snead is saying that you have been with him to fight some, let me quote "murderers" at the ruins of the temple of the Saints on south from here. Is it true or not?"
"I... yes I was there," Edward said nervously.
"Hmm... and at the same time you and one of our hunters caught a mage in a village, and then you took him alone. So, where is the mage now?" the hunter asked.
"Mage... the mage has fled. The hunter was fatally wounded, he probably misunderstood the time," Edward objected.
"Mr Edward, do you question the superior's judgment?" the hunter asked.
"I... no, sir."
"Do you recognize these people?"
"I don't know, probably not, sir," Edward said.
Caden dropped his head helplessly.
"So we have disdain of the authority for you, and for Mr Caden... hmm... what else can you tell us?"
"First of all, I'd like to know, what am I guilty of, sir," Caden replied hostilely.
"Mind your tone. These gentlemen have seen you in battle with thugs, they say you ehmm... I quote "Stopped their arrows and sent them back against them." What can you say about this?" the hunter explained.
"Bolts," Caden said briefly.
"Excuse me?" the hunter replied
"I'm just saying that a projectile to a crossbow is smaller than an arrow, it's called the bolt," Caden added.
"Don't be discursive, Mr Snead."
"That's nonsense! No mage can do this! They throw fire from their hands, but they don't stop things in the air..." Merill shouted.
"And that's why we are here, Mr Merill! Not people like Mr Edward! Now, if you could be kind enough to not get involved in my work, or you'd end up worse than with disdaining the authority!" the hunter shouted.
"Sir, Caden emm... Mr Snead has a lot of merits, he's a talented guard. He wouldn't have trouble defeating some thugs," the captain joined the chat.
"That none of you has your own work here?! I'm starting to feel like there's not just one mage, but the whole city is rebelling, captain! You should do something about it immediately!" the hunter deflected the captain.
"So how did you beat those thugs with the crossbows?!" the hunter shouted at Caden.
Caden shuddered.
"Cade, calm down. It's all good, just stay calm," Merill calmed him.
"Stay away from him, Mr Merill! Or do you want to help him? Your file seems to us... how to say, at least interesting."
"Go away from him!" Gorej came from the distance and the crowd followed him. The city guards flocked from the other side.
"What's going on here?! Ahh... I've got enough! We have the evidence, take him! It's getting out of control!" the hunter called out and Caden was taken out of town. "Get back to work now! Lazybones! And you, captain, I'll deal with you later! Just like with you, Mr Edward!" the hunter shouted.
Caden was thrown into the prisoner carriage and taken away.561Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdA01PMg16
