Endless Harassing

It was already bright and early by the time Zavier opened his eyes. He didn't remember how he had slept after the incident in the night. But he felt overly fresh and ready for the new day.

Valerie called for a team meeting after breakfast. Until then she told Zavier to hold off on the information that they had yet to disseminate to the other girls.

Zavier also agreed to her suggestion thinking that it wouldn't have done any good to either of them even if they found out about the incident before they could properly open their eyes. He thought it would be good to let them have breakfast first before dropping the bombshell and asking for their vigilance.

They enjoyed their breakfast together but the old man James still refused to say anything that was unrelated to the box and didn't eat anything at all which made Zavier wonder if he was even human. For as long as they had been out, Zavier had never seen him eat with them. It was probably because of his suspicions regarding them.

When the meeting was convened, Valerie used a strict tone to convey the message.

"All of you should know what happened last night. Zavier had been vigilant enough so he had sensed it but you two need to be more cautious."

"Ahh…What happened?"

Alissa asked bewildered at the thought of what had happened that she was supposed to be alert for.

"A thief snuck into the camp and was quite close to us. He had been tasked to steal an item from us. Can you guess what it could have been?"

This time Dahila was the one to answer while Alissa looked at her nervously.

"It should be the box that we are escorting."

"Correct, the thief was a common man and knew nothing about magic but the fact that the enemy has acquired the help of muggles makes this even harder."

"What? Shouldn't it be easier going against someone with no magic than against someone with magic?"

The somewhat sensible question was asked by Alissa and Valerie had been expecting this question from her.

"No, it makes our task even harder. First, we need to separate the common ones from mages so we don't unnecessarily hurt the muggles. You need to understand something first. Use of magical force against muggles is strictly prohibited unless the drastic nature of the situation demands it. Even if we are on a mission, and they are trying to steal from us, we are not allowed to hurt them beyond a justifiable level that can be held against us in front of the council of mages."

At that moment Zavier understood why Valerie had so calmly handled the situation. She was afraid that it might be used against her if she hurt the thief beyond justification.

Zavier applauded her again for how she had handled the situation the day before. She clearly knew that she couldn't do anything to the thief but she still appeared ferocious enough to scare the hell out of him. Intel retrieval was quite easy because of her.

Valerie had given a pause between her lecture because she wanted to let this reality sink in. She knew that it must be hard for them to understand the profundities of the law and it must have seemed unfair to new mages.

She had thought that Zavier must have known about the law but from his lost expression she could already infer that it must have been the first time that Zavier had come across such a thing.

After waiting a while, she continued with what she had been saying earlier.

"All of you should remain extra vigilant the next few days. I fear that the storm is yet to come. If the opponent has decided to use muggles for the job, he must not have been so naïve to think that a single thief would be able to steal from four magicians. Therefore, if I was in his place, I would use numerous thieves to bear us down until one was successful. Prepare yourself for what I fear is about to come in the next few days. I want each of you on your toes, keep your eyes on the cargo and your senses on the surrounding area. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Yes Ma'am."

Both the girls called out at the same time, after which Valerie looked towards Zavier in an incredulous manner because he had failed to answer.

"Uhm …I understand."

When Valerie was finally satisfied, she broke up the meeting and they started to pack their bags and the tents that they had worked so hard to pitch.

When all was done, they continued on their way. They still had to traverse a long distance to reach their destination.

Zavier walked with his senses alert to his surroundings, the old man looked even more nervous than he was previously. Zavier figured that he must have known about the attempt to steal the box as well which was making him even more jittery than he already had been.

For the next few days there were constant attempts to steal the box. It was just like Valerie had previously told them. The enemy was trying to wear them down and dull their senses through the use of wave tactics. If he sent enough people to attempt to steal the box, then it really was possible. Zavier knew that and thought the enemy had really chosen a fearsome tactic.

If only he had sent mages instead of muggles, the job would have been so much easier. Valerie was an A-rank magician, she was strong enough to handle any of those magicians and could have wiped out hoards of them in one sweep.

The frequency of attempts started to increase and after various sessions of interrogation, they came to know that all of them had been hired using the same method; an anonymous letter with advance payment and the information about their route and the item that they had to steal.

After doing it a few times, Valerie decided that the interrogation was no use anymore. The enemy was very good at hiding his tracks. It would have been impossible to deduce his identity just based on the information wrung out of the petty thieves.

After that, whenever they came across another attempt, they would just tie up the thief at some remote place so that they could continue on their way.

This kept happening but Zavier and Valerie could tell that their senses were really affected just like their enemy had planned. If not for the length of the journey, this level of tactics wouldn't have worked at all. The excessive boredom and the isolation tended to be the catalyst.

The others were even starting to show signs of aggression. Only Valerie always had a professionally calm expression on her face. Behind that, Zavier knew that even she was tired of the constant harassment. The difficulty of the mission was not very high but it was so tedious and the enemy so persistent that nobody at that level would have managed to take on and successfully carry out the job.

Dahila was the first to show the signs of aggression. She had been thoroughly agitated by the thieves. Keeping your senses alert at all times was taxing on the body not to even mention the nerves. Dahila was past her breaking point and she almost killed the new thieves that came to steal the box.

Her ice magic had immense penetration and immobilization power. That ice magic when strengthened past a certain point could cause frostbite. The ordinary thieves could hardly protect themselves.

In her anger, Dahila cast a skill that would have caused instant death for normal humans, hell even mages would have died to that. She wanted to thoroughly pulverize them without any mercy and turn them into popsicles.

Fortunately, Valerie had already noticed what was happening and blunted her edge with her shield magic; otherwise Dahila would have encountered disaster after the mission. Being her teacher, Valerie couldn't let the situation develop any more than necessary.

"Take a rest; you three. I fear that we cannot go on like this. Sooner than later, all of you will be showing such tendencies. I will not have you do that as long as you are with me. Zavier, we can take turns taking rest. You can tell me once you are good to go. Okay?"

"Hmm."

Zavier couldn't just tell her that his instincts did not require any mental strength. Even if he didn't do anything, the perception system would still alert him to any danger in the vicinity. It was like a passive skill for him that he didn't need to activate at all. It was an instinct that he could not just turn off.

Still, he could take it easy and let her do all the work for some time. He knew that if he suggested that she take a rest first, it might have hurt her pride or it might have even angered her.

Therefore, Zavier decided to take over after a while so she could rest.