24 The Occular Magic

Leiya was sitting in front of her aunt. What she just heard confused her.

'Does my aunt actually want to match me with one of those arrogant weaklings?' She thought.

"You are not a child anymore, Leiya. It is not not good for your image if you are easily provoked into fighting. Remember that our mission here doesn't include you getting into any trouble." Her aunt said.

Leiya nodded in silence.

"That young master from the Dal Agamin house. He is here right? You met him earlier?" Her aunt asked.

Leiya nodded again.

Her aunt does't really interfere with her suitors, specially when she came of age on the last spring. Her aunt just want her to act like how a noble lady should act to her suitors.

"I want you to choose your own path Leiya. If your goal it strength, that's good. But don't forget that you are the only heir to our family's heritage. I guess you already know what i mean by that." Her aunt said slow and held her hands.

Leiya obviously know where this conversation is heading. Their family heritage would vanish in history if she comtinue to pursue strength. Her aunt thinks that she might end up like her. Growing strong, but always alone.

'If i am ever to get married, I would make sure that whoever the man is, he should be stronger than me.' She thought.

Leiya only answered her aunt in respectful nods. Her aunt was still injured and she don't want her to worry over unnecessary things.

"It's good that you understand." Her aunt said.

"Yes, Lady mistress, i understand. Sorry for worrying you." She answered.

'I will become stronger. I will just have to look for some orphan to train and be the successor of our heritage when i get older if i can't find any man for myself.' She thought and gripped her fist tightly.

-----

Back in the village hall, Kuban Pasimo had just finished receiving updates from the Timawa warrior guards.

He would receive regular report three times each day. The first report would be on sunrise. The second report would be on sunset. The third report would be on midnight.

The news about the burning of their neighbor village and the Lady enchantress having clashed with the demons, made Kuban Pasimo restless. It's like any moment he would receive a report about the demons on their village entrance any time soon.

All he was praying now was that the Pintados army would finally reached their village.

He let out a huge sigh of relief when

he finished reviewing all the reports.

'The demons are not here yet.' Kuban Pasimo thought.

"Reporting to commander Pasimo, commander, our patrolling Pintados on the outskirts of the village had discovered a base by the forest." A warrior guard suddenly broke Kuban Pasimo's thoughts.

"A base? Is it a demon's base?" Kuban Pasimo stood up from his seat.

"No commander, It was a bandit's base. Infact it was the base of the infamous bandits, Bar-nu and Rankala. Our Pintados warriors found them gravely wounded and their base was utterly destroyed." The warrior guard said.

"Send here the leader of the Pintados group right now. I want to learn about the whole matter from him." Kuban Pasimo said, dismissing the warrior guard.

' The Bane of the Wilderness, the brothers Bar-nu and Rankala.' Kuban Pasimo repeated their names in his head.

He knew this bandits for the longesr time. There had been a time when he was still at his prime when the Royal City ordered him and some other 20 or so Pintados and try to hunt these bandits down. They found their base at that time, But the fighting combination of the bandit brothers were so fearsome.

More than half of the Pintados men who were sent after the Bane of the Wilderness had lost their lives on that encounter. Kuban Pasimo then was so injured that it took him a full month before he could normally walk again.

Bar-nu and Rankala were already strong on utilizing their magic veins by their own. Yet when the two brothers fight together side by side, Kuban Pasimo think they would even be able to stand their ground against the Head Chief of the Enchanter's Guild in their City.

" They were found gravely injured and their hidden base was destroyed? Did they encounter demons?" Kuban Pasimo wondered.

It did not take long until the leader of the Pintados group appeared before kuban Pasimo.

"Reporting to commander's summons." The Pintados warrior said.

He was the Pintados leader of ten, Rengha.

"Tell me all the details regarding the bandits you found earlier." Kuban said, addressing the warrior Rengha.

"Yes commander. Just after sun down, when i was patrolling on the road with my group, we noticed a small pathway that lead us to the bandit's base." Rangha kneeled on one knee and started his report.

Kuban Pasimo kept silent, intending to hear everything and not miss a single detail.

"We immediately noticed that their base was was mostly burned, and it obvious that an extreme battle happened on the area. We counted 11 bandits dead, and 7 were wounded. Both the Bane of the Wilderness are also wounded, the younger one, Rankala was still unconscious when we recovered them." Rengha said.

'11 dead, 7 wounded, and both the bandit leaders were severely injured.' Kuban Pasimo thought. "Were are the bandit leaders? i assume you have them locked up on the underground cells." He said again.

"Yes commander, After we stabilized their conditions and made sure that their life were no longer in danger, we locked them in the underground cell. I think they could be interrogated anytime, commander." Rengha confirmed, and nodded respectfully.

"Okey, bring me there right now, let's pay them a visit."

Kuban Pasimo together with the Pintados leader of ten, Rengha were led by some warrior guards to a dark passage, after a few minutes of walk, they arrived to a rather wide cell. The entire cell was made from a carved, solid block of granite. The only light source they have on the underground cell were a few torches fixed on the wall, far from the prisoners.

"Look what we have here, Kuban Pasimo, The commander of a hundred." A voice broke the silence.

A man was sitting on the floor spoke. It was Bar-nu. His brother, Rankala was in the other cell far from them.

Kuban Pasimo stared at the man, He looked far from the strong image he had the last time they crossed each other's path.

"Are you going to execute me now? After so many years of trying, you finally got me." Bar-nu said in a mocking voice.

Kuban Pasimo took a few breath, his hatred for this man before him has been reignited when he he saw his face again. It was this bandit, Bar-nu that gave him the big scar on his face.

"What happened to you at the forest? Were you attacked by demons?" Kuban Pasimo asked in a calm voice.

"Hah! You thought that a demon can do this to me? You are wrong. But i am not telling you" Bar-nu said.

"I was really hoping you would say that. Our torture devices are already getting rusty here for being unused. I'm so glad you are here." Kuban Pasimo replied meaningfully.

Bar-nu, was silent for a while before he burst on laughing. "Ha ha ha, What an overused bluff.....

"Bluff? Of course not. Why would i bluff to you, i know you are immuned to bluffs." Kuban Pasimo cut off his words, then turn to his guards. "Open his cell. We will prove to him that we are not bluffing." he added.

Bar-nu's face turned pale in an instant. "Hey, wait, you are a Pintados and you are bound to your codes." He blurted out as the guards retracted the iron poles that separates him from the warriors in front of him.

"Haven't you heard. I have retired from the Royal city and is now living as a normal family head." Kuban Pasimo said as he walked toward Bar-nu. He pulled a large dagger and play it with his hands.

It was that time that Bar-nu completely broke down. He was alone and injured, there was no way he could fight back against a group of highly trained Pintados warriors in his current state.

"Stop, i will talk." He said, truly afraid this time.

Kuban Pasimo just stood motionless in front of him, holding the big dagger.

"My group raided some rich merchant a few days ago. My loots maybe obvious to you as your men had already shipped it in carts here.

Kuban Pasimo nodded but didn't made a sound. He don't want to hear about loots and treasures right now.

"I think that among the merchants, there was a demon with them. A demon girl. We captured a demon girl." Bar-nu said again, his voice was steady now. 'I will tell you everything, let's see how you are going to deal with it.' Bar-nu thought to himself.

"You captured a demon girl? Did you kill it? Was it the one who destroyed your base and injured you?" Kuban Pasimo asked.

"No, We believe that the demon girl was injured when we raided them. She wasn't able to attack. She was so weak that she couldn't even free herself from a wooden cage." Bar-nu answered.

"An injured demon girl? So some other demons attacked your base then?" Kuban Pasimo asked again.

"Pffftt... We both know that those demons are only as strong as the weapons they carry. Remove their weapons and they are just as strong as any of your Pintados." Bar-nu said in a loud voice. As if he was insulted by the idea that a mere demon would reduce him to his current state now.

"Yes, a common demon will be as strong as our warriors. But we have a report about an emperor class demon roaming around." Kuban Pasimo said.

"I don't know about any emperor class demon. But what attacked us was far stronger than that." Bar-nu's voice turned serious this time.

"Stronger that an emperor class demon? Don't tell me you were attacked by some kind of unique Deathly Beast?" A warrior guard from the side suddenly voiced out.

"Deathly beasts don't exist in our country." Kuban Pasimo quickly rejected the idea. Some rare aquatic and grass dwelling magical beasts may appear from time to time, but deathly beasts would not exist here. There won't be any interesting food that would take its fancy in their small country.

"No, it was not your rumored emperor class demon, nor any deathly beast that destroyed my base. It was a an enchanter."

Kuban Pasimo stood silent. An enchanter did this to the Bane of the Wilderness bandits? The most powerful one in their area right now was the lady enchantress of the Green, and she is injured right now.

"One of the chief enchanter from the Royal City?" Kuban Pasimo guessed.

"As if your Royal City would care about a place as rural as this. It was not an enchanter from here. I am sure. Me and my brother clashed with him for almost the whole night before we were so injured we coudn't lift any finger.

Bar-nu said, then his face lit up once more. Af if he was remembering a glorious battle where he stood victorious. "We were utterly defeated. But he gave us his words that he would fight us again when we get stronger in the future." He said.

"So that enchanter intentionally left you alive?" Kuban Pasimo's eyebrows lifted up.

"I guess he thought that we were too weak that he didn't bother to kill us. Yes, we were too weak. He was using an Occular magic after all." Bar-nu said.

"Occular magic was long gone from the traces of history. Nobody practices it anymore for almost a thousand years now." Kuban Pasimo hurriedly said. He could not believe such nonsense.

"Says who? You can decide to believe me or not, i don't care. I am very much familiar about the old stories about the occular magic cultivators. And i exchanged blows with that man for a whole night. I believe he was using occular magic." Bar-nu said and chuckled to himself. It was not shameful to lose against such circumstances.

Occular magic had indeed vanished into the history. To experience a battle against an occular magic ciltivator this time and to be alive after that, Bar-nu was indeed proud of himself.

-----

On the side of the riverbanks a few kilometers from the village, Saluk just finished catching fish for him and eiram.

It was a little windy and his clother were soaked. They only started a small fire to cook thier food.

"Achoooooo!" Saluk let out a loud sneeze.

Eiram let out a small laugh beside him while she was holding her fish.

'Jeeez, i think it's just a matter of days before i finally get sick' Saluk sighed.