The team leader and her grandmother discussed the rest of the mission for a few minutes while the team settled in for their days off, and the volunteers gave their families the good news. They were no longer defective witches, they could use mana as well as anyone else, and they even had amazing familiars.
Most of their families were not impressed that they had agreed to become test subjects for some mad scientist of a Demon, but the results were outstanding. The only problem was that they were now completely untrained witches, and they were already under contract with the army, so they couldn't just go to the Academy right away.
Unlike the Morgana Coven, where the classes were scheduled into semesters like a regular school class, the Myrrh Coven preferred a self-directed approach, so students enrolled when their powers awakened and graduated when they either completed the courseload or couldn't pass the exams anymore and called it quits.
That was the most common outcome. Not many could pass anything beyond the first year's exams, so they would make it that far and then return home to whatever job they had lined up or to an apprenticeship for a trade skill.
When Wolfe stepped out of the government building with his partner for the day, he could feel the eyes on him even without extending his senses. It felt like the entire town, all two thousand and some of them, was watching him as he passed through the narrow streets in the direction of the ruins where there was supposed to be a relic of the Magi.
"Are they always like this with outsiders?" Wolfe whispered to the Witch behind him, who just smirked and shook her head.
"No, I suspect that the word has gotten around that you are the Snow Demon who has been terrorizing the Mundane Armies all winter, so they all want a peek, but none of them are brave enough to come out and bother you." She explained.
"I didn't know that I was so popular." Wolfe joked as they walked toward the border wall that ringed the village to protect it from monster attacks.
"Everyone has a military radio in the house to listen for danger, so they've been sitting inside waiting for spring and listening to your exploits over the airwaves for months. The kids were even pretending to be you and fighting off soldiers when they played in the streets until the Elders yelled at them for admiring a Demon.
Most of the kids are still convinced that it's a nickname and you're not really a Demon, but they're smart enough not to antagonize the Elders."
ƥandasnovel·ƈom Wolfe smiled in understanding. Kids back home used to play similar games, where one side would be the hero and the other would be the bad guy. Depending on what floor you were on, the Coven Security forces could be on either side of the game, but the one steadfast rule was that the bad guys always lost.
"Captain, it's good to see you again. Headed out of the walls for something?" The guard at the side gate asked politely as they approached.
"We're headed up to the Ruins. I promised him that we would go up there today." She offered as an explanation.
"I will keep an eye out for your return then. Be safe. There have been monsters in the area." The guard agreed, then opened the gate for them to pass through.
There was actually a fairly well-worn path headed toward the Ruins, and when they crested a small hill, Wolfe saw why. The Ruined remains of a household compound lay on the shore of a shimmering blue mountain lake. The waters would surely be frigid even when they weren't frozen over, but it was a beautiful spot and was sure to be a local attraction for a day out of the house, perhaps an afternoon picnic.
"There is a hot spot under the lake. It's barely safe to walk on in the middle of winter, and it's not as cold as it looks in the summer." The Captain laughed, guessing what Wolfe was thinking.
"At least the ruins are easy to find. No wonder everyone knew about them. Now, where is this relic supposed to be?" He asked.
"See that one building with half a roof left on it? The one with copper roof tiles? Inside that, at some sort of altar, there is a relic that gives off a huge amount of magic. We've tried to get to it many times in the hope that it was what was powering the remaining wards that were making the ruins so dangerous, but none of us can get that far without being tossed out or injured."
That sounded a lot like the Lumix house for certain, so Wolfe altered course to make the most direct approach to the ruins that he could with the hills in between them.
The Captain stopped at the edge of the ruins, marked by the destroyed walls of a small house, and gave Wolfe a salute. "This is as far as I go unless you really need me with you. If I go any further, I will set off the first of the protective spells."
"That's fine. I should be able to get in and get what I am after if this is what I think it is." Wolfe agreed as he adjusted his backpack.
"What do you think this place was? It looks like a small fishing village to me." She asked nervously.
"I think it's a Magi Clan lake house. If you travel all day at a moderate pace from the nearest Magi Clan main house ruin, you will be here, so I think that this was a vacation house for the Lumix Family. If I'm right, it won't attack me, except for the damaged spells." Wolfe explained, then put some extra mana into his armour spell and made sure it covered the pack with Stephanie sleeping in the top pouch.
It might not have been designed to attack him, but that didn't mean that it was safe after all these years and after having been crushed in the war.
His first few steps confirmed his suspicion that the house wasn't deliberately attacking him, as he felt the barrier give way as soon as he passed through. What he sensed in the ruins wasn't the same as the Lumix house though.
That house had been ruined and abandoned but left mostly intact. Here, he could still sense huge amounts of Null Stone scattered through the broken stones of the buildings. They felt like blank spaces in the natural mana flow of the area and gave him an uncomfortable feeling even from a distance.
He would have to warn the witches about that. Even if he lifted the spells on the Ruins, this place was still incredibly dangerous, and even standing near it wasn't something that he would recommend, with the level of radiation that the Null Stones gave off.
This was high-quality stuff, too. It was not like the mass-produced version that the armies had been throwing out against the witches over the course of the winter. Wolfe could feel the lingering effects on his body just by walking through the area. Maybe he should get a shovel and collect it into one spot to reduce the damage that it was doing to the region, and then the locals could dispose of it properly.
It really was everywhere, though. After a few seconds of mental exploration of the area, Wolfe began to wonder if the residents of this house had fought back or if the army had just annihilated anything that moved with anti-Magi weapons.
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