Magic Life in the Empire

Myra searched for a few seconds and picked up two spears placed nearby, one she tossed towards Cyril, and then she started explaining.

"I did this sort of thing before; these gangs are hoarding all sorts of good items, and there are plenty of them in our city." She was now searching through a box, grabbing some potions.

"I ended up having some money, so I decided to make use of it." Her actions were efficient and quick, like she had done them many times in the past.

"Are you not afraid someone is going to steal all this? It's not exactly a safe area." Cyril asked, now holding a sturdy spear.

"A few people here owe me; they'll look after it. Besides, I have other places in different parts of the city." Myra looked proud as she said that, like she expected some sort of praise for her efforts.

"For how long have you been doing this exactly?" Edmund asked the next question on Cyril's mind.

"A couple of months, enough about that. The important part is that we have proper equipment. Everyone take these bracelets; there is a barrier magic on them. Activate by infusing mana into it. If something else catches your eye, you can take it." Myra herself was fully ready.

Edmund chose a sword. "By the way... are you not afraid of accidentally killing someone?" Looks like he just thought of this problem.

"Members of this gang did terrible things; if an accident does happen, then such is fate; you'll be doing the world a favour. Don't worry, the guards won't investigate their deaths." These were some ominous words from Myra, but no one raised any objections. "I agree with her, Cyril; no need to even spare them; go full strength from the beginning."

Rose ended up choosing a simple dagger in silence.

...

The hideout was not too far; Myra stopped everyone close to one of the warehouses.

"There should be about 10 of them; make protecting yourself a priority; I and Cyril are enough to wipe them out." Her voice was calm, befitting of someone who has done this many times before. "She sure trusts your abilities."

Seeing that everyone was ready, Myra cautiously approached the locked double doors of the warehouse and cast a specific spell.

There was a sound of something moving behind the doors, and soon they opened on their own.

This place appeared to be used for its intended purpose, with half the space being taken up by crates.

The other half experienced some changes. There were a few couches, a carpet on the ground, beds, and even a pool table.

The owners themselves were staring at the intruders with confusion; there were currently in the middle of a game of pool.

Noticing the weapons, one of them immediately screamed in alarm, "We got intruders!"

Sensing their obvious intent to kill, all of the nervousness Cyril felt before started to disappear; in the end, he even got a bit excited.

Inside the warehouse, there were only 7 thugs visible so far.

Myra was the closest to them; one of the thugs swung his hand axe at her, which she easily dodged to the side and retaliated with a light kick—more of a provocation than an attack.

The bandit was barely able to keep his footing. Seeing this, Myra slowly advanced deeper into the warehouse, probably trying to get the attention of more people.

"We'll leave this one to you." Thinking it is a good opportunity for Rose and Edmund, Cyril went after Myra around the thug.

"Shit, alright, here we go." Edmund didn't complain and readied his sword.

Looking at the rest of the bandits, they didn't seem that dangerous, wearing simple rags; most carried hand axes or daggers. The strongest one was dressed more properly in leather armour, holding a sword in his hand.

"How the hell did you know we were here? No matter, we'll have plenty of time to figure that out." His voice was filled with annoyance. "Get 'em, lads, and try to not damage the girls too much."

Despite the earlier talk, Cyril was holding the spear with the blunt side in front of him; he didn't wait for the thug's turn and immediately attacked the closest one to him.

The bandit tried to block the attack with his hand axe, but he wasn't fast enough and suffered a direct blow to the chest, sending him into one of the coaches, toppling it. He appeared to lose consciousness.

At this moment, without waiting any time, the other thug already reached him and swung his dagger.

Cyril put force into his still outstretched spear and made a sweeping motion, hitting the bandit on the legs and causing him to fall, followed by an overhead strike to his head. This incapacitated the thug.

He now had the time to check how the others were doing. Myra, at this moment, downed her third thug with minimal effort; there was no blood.

Taking a look back, Edmund and Rose were also done; it turns out there were two bandits lying at their feet. One gave off a bit of smoke.

All that was left was their leader, wearing a grim expression on his face.

"What the fuck, why is this happening... who are you people!?" It appeared that he was in a state of shock.

His eyes danced around the room, trying to find a way out of this place, but the only exit was blocked.

This was the only guy with proper training among them; Cyril didn't want to waste this chance, so he approached him and thrust his spear.

"You maniacs!" The leader managed to deflect the spear's path with his sword, then he retreated a few steps and took a vigilant look at the rest of the students.

Seeing how no one else interfered with the fight, the thought that they were toying with him crept into his head; it made him furious.

He began attacking Cyril with full force, striking him again and again.

The leader clearly had some training before; each of his sword swings was precise, fast, and strong, but he was still slower than Myra.

Cyril, with some effort, dodged or blocked all of his strikes. Just when he wanted to retaliate, the leader suddenly activated a small magic stone in his free hand, which sent out a bright flash of light.

With everyone blinded, the bandit attempted to take a hostage.

Standing behind Cyril, he tried to make him drop his spear, only he underestimated this student's strength.

In a panic, Cyril pulled his spear backward with all his might in an attempt to hit the bandit; he succeeded.

A strange but somehow familiar feeling ran through his hands; he could hear a pained cry coming from behind, and soon some warm liquid touched his fingers.

Letting go of his weapon, he turned around and saw the face of the bandit leader lose all colour as he slowly fell to the ground, the spear sticking out of his back. Everyone watched in silence as the bandit soon stopped breathing.

"Hey, Cyril, Are you alright?" Edmund came over and asked in concern.

"I am fine." His voice was calm and steady; he came over to the body and pulled the spear out.

Cyril heard stories told by the soldiers in the past of how they took their first life, how they couldn't sleep afterward, and how guilty they felt.

But he didn't feel a thing at the moment. "You shouldn't feel guilty about killing someone like that."

"Oh, that's... good then." Edmund himself tried not to look at the body, his face pale. He was a bit disturbed by how nonchalant his friend was.

The thought his friend was unnerved by him irked Cyril more than the actual murder.

"Everyone, calm down, this is something everyone has to go through; it's uncomfortable, yes, but we must be strong." Myra was the same as usual and didn't think much of the incident. "I wonder what happened to the thugs in all the previous hideouts she cleared."

"Guys, come here; there is something important in this box." Myra came over to a small crate the thugs were using as a makeshift table and opened it.

Inside were about a dozen silver necklaces adorned with a blue jewel; one could feel they were filled with magic.

"This is basically enhanced bracelets everyone is wearing; not only is the barrier much stronger, but they also activate automatically." She took four at the same time and showed them.

"Why didn't they use them?" Rose was also slightly pale, but better than Edmund.

"Because they are locked. There is a sort of password required to activate them," saying that she cast a spell with a complicated pattern, "but we don't need it; I memorised a lot of useful spells." Soon the necklaces shook for a bit and calmed down.

She gave one to everyone present. "With this, it's like you have a bonus life." Myra was in a good mood.

"These bandits are not that strong; how did they get something like this?" A magic item like this was terribly expensive; Cyril felt this situation was a bit fishy.

"The Arken family was planning to use this gang to do some unsavoury work. In a few days a representative is supposed to come here to agree on a deal, and this was their show of generosity, but that's not happening now." Rose and Edmund didn't even have the energy to question her about how she knew this.

"Arken?" That was a familiar family name. "This is getting more interesting with every moment."