Night Raid 1

Using earth magic to soften the ground under his feet, Saivas moved silently through the night.

This first outing had two goals: Scouting, and finding a decent spot to practice more types of magic.

He had finally decided that the cover of darkness would be his escape to expand his arsenal of magic.

As for the threat of his parents waking up and noticing him gone. He had that covered.

'Making a detailed replica of my face with earth magic wasn't easy' He recalled

'Still, it should at least be convincing enough to not raise any suspicion. Well unless they randomly decide to pick "Me" up'

'That's probably unlikely' Jason reasoned

'After all, what parent wants to wake up a sleeping child?'

The answer was obvious: No parent. That's why they were reasonably sure their cover wouldn't be blown.

Searching around the village, Saivas realized two things.

1. Every building was very far away from each other

2. They were surrounded almost completely by forest in every direction you looked

'It's a shame we're near the center of the village' Saivas lamented

'If we were right next to the forest, I could have hunted and cooked food for myself easily. I could have played off my lack of appetite as a toddler being picky'

Actually that was technically an option now.

However the time it would take for him to travel to the forest, track prey, hunt prety, kill it, dress it, cook it, eat it, then return home was not small.

The travel time alone was about 1 hour on foot.

'It's theoretically possible, but it's far too likely I wouldn't return by morning.'

'If only we knew the secret to our father's speed' Jason agreed

Saivas was only 3, and though he had been accumulating non-stop, his speed was not that much better than a normal adult's.

This was impressive for a toddler, but far from enough.

To make things worse, sprinting would only deplete a large portion of his mana reserves.

That meant that whether it in be magical practice or hunting, he would be handicapping himself.

He would be heavily limiting his progress in the prior, and putting himself in a lot more danger during the latter.

'So I guess the original plan remains' He grumbled as he worked his way towards what he could only assume was a watchtower.

His rationale was simple: These men must have been present every time his father went hunting.

After all it wouldn't be a deterrent if he ever had peace. With that information, Saivas could reasonable suspect the perpetrators had a high vantage point.

'Well that, and anyone working for the king probably wouldn't want to be on the same level as peasants' He scoffed

Whether it be in this life or the last, Saivas was never big on social hierarchy. Even still, he knew that some people lived their lives based soley on their status.

'We still don't know they work for the king' Jason reminded him 'They could just be misguided patriots'

'Yeah, as if we'd be so lucky.' Saivas thought back to the asshole god, and figured he wouldn't make it so easy on them

'Still, I really hope you're right. Either way, the high vantage point necessity stands. I'm sure we'll find our perpetrators here'

He thought as they arrived at the base of the tower.

The watchtower itself was about 50 ft tall, towering over most of the village houses.

The construction was mostly stone bricks, held together by what looked to be a much more sturdy kind of clay.

It was clearly separated into 5 stories, indicated by windows at each respective floor.

It's footprint was fairly large, seeming to be about 1400 or so sqft. Each floor you went up, the tower became slightly more narrow.

As far as they could tell, there was only one entrance.

'Well I guess there's no time like the present...'

Fashioning himself a stone mask out of earth magic, Saivas quickly put it on.

Well it more closely resembled a helmet, as it covered his head as well as his face.

He had taken inspiration from one of his favorite superheroes back on earth, ArachnicLad.

Sure his stature was still that of a 3 year old, but as long as he couldn't be identified directly by anyone who saw him, it was good enough.

Using air magic to amplify any vibrations coming his direction, Saivas artificially enhanced his hearing.

'That should at least give me a bit of warning should anyone be getting too close' He hoped

Covering his hand and feet with earth magic, he began climbing.

As his fingers and shoes bit into the tough stone, it became as soft as wet clay allowing him to create a temporary foothold before hardening.

Upon stepping away from a foothold, it would form back into untouched wall seamlessly.

Using this method, the climb was fairly easy, and in no time he made it near a second story window.

Satisfied with complete silence, he quietly crawled inside.

Looking around, he appeared to be in some kind of records room.

Bookshelves lined the walls, all neatly labeled for his convenience. At the center of the room stood a large wooden desk. Clearly meant for administration.

'Jackpot!' He inwardly cried

He couldn't have hoped for a better starting point! Not only could this answer a large number of his questions, but more than likely, a records room would stay locked!

This meant, even if somebody were to be doing nightly rounds, he'd hear the door unlocking before they could come in.

This would give him time to "Help" the lock become ridiculously sticky for a while with earth magic. Buying him time to cover his trail and escape.

Starting at the admin desk, Saivas did a quick scan of the documents scattered across it.

Of course, as a man who did nothing but study in his past life, his ability to read quickly was almost superhuman.

'Not to mention I have a helper' Saivas chuckled inwardly

'So, you take the left side, I take the right?' He asked

'Fine, but I get the right side next time' Jason replied

On that note, they spent about five minutes checking through everything on and within the desk.

There was mostly nothing of interest. The documents generally tracked expenses of the watchtower, notated disciplinary action, tracked performance reviews, and weighed them against funding provided by the government.

However within the disciplinary action files, Jason had noticed a small group of troublemakers that seemed to be repeat offenders.

'Do I dare to hope these are my culprits?'

The chances were low of course. The group only consisted of about 12 men. Given that his father had been ambushed in the past, he expected if they were his targets, that number would have diminished over time.

Still, hope was a powerful drug.

'I mean, our father was very reluctant to kill anyone. Maybe he flat out refused to, instead opting to take the abuse until he could find an escape' Saivas reasoned

Even Jason, who wasn't immune to hoping, chimed in

'Either that, or he decided that if he harmed or killed village guards, he would become an enemy of the state. At that point he wouldn't even be safe in his own home'

In fact, the more they thought about it, they more it made sense.

Why would men under employ of the king need to wait until Stuart went into the forest? If they weren't concerned about law enforcement noticing, then the perpetrators wouldn't need to hide their actions.

After all, even if they were caught, the worst they'd get is a slap on the wrist, if even that! Why would the kings own law enforcement punish his men for completing a mission assigned by him?

The short answer was: They wouldn't.

However, abandoning your post to settle a personal grudge? Well that was a different story.

'Whether or not their superiors agree with what they are doing, they certainly couldn't overlook it.' Saivas's eyes lit up for a moment

'After all, abandoning your duty for any reason is why our father is in the situation he's in now!' Jason agreed

They still didn't have all the information, but it looked like they weren't going to have to become enemies of the state. At least not yet.

Deciding it was time to get more answers, they looked up where these troublemakers stayed within the tower.

Since it had only been about an hour and a half total since they left home, they had time for another stop here at the base.

Opting to go with the guard who had the most demerits, they put everything back where it belonged and made their way out the window and up the tower.

They had already decided on their next step.

'Time to pay our new friend a visit'