A Simple Carriage Driver

Regulus watched with an impassive gaze, his chin laying on his palm, as a fight broke out in the commoner's district, or how he preferred to call it; the slums.

It seemed to be a normal occurrence as the passerby weren't bothered by it, instead; they opted to keep walking and completely ignore the fight.

Regulus soon lost interest as he watched one of the participants cast their magic, creating a fist of rock that launched itself at the caster's enemies.

The victor was obvious, in Regulus' opinion.

At least, that was until he saw the retaliation.

"Wormhole!"

A black haired boy with fair skin calmly said, pushing his right hand forward and creating a magic circle that shone with a purple and black hue.

The circle created a blackhole; one that absorbed the rock that came at them.

Then, the boy held his other hand up, and said in the same, emotionless tone.

"Release."

An almost identical magic circle came forward, creating the same blackhole that he casted seconds earlier. Only this time, the fist-shaped rock from earlier came out, shooting in the rock mage's direction at fast speed.

Regulus sat up straighter, regaining his lost interest in the fight. His attention was on the shadow mage.

"Are you seeing this?", he addressed the carriage driver as he observed the black-haired mage continuing to cast more spells.

"Yes, Your Highness. It is rather uncommon to see a shadow-attribute mage. Even rarer to find one that is proficient at it at such a young age."

"He's about my age, is he not?"

"From my observations, he is indeed about your age, my lord."

"Mmh. I want him to be one of my people. He looks like he has potential."

"If I may ask, are you picking him for his rare attribute? If so, I believe that there are plenty of shadow mages in the Custos family."

"There are indeed many of them in our family, but, most of them are too old, or too young to be my attendant."

The carriage driver paused, before replying. "If so, would you like me to capture him right now?"

Regulus hummed thoughtfully before replying, "No. Just leave him be. Let's finish watching this fight and return home."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

"What is your name? I'd like to address you by your name, rather than speaking to no one in particular."

"It is my honor to give you my name. I was given the name Borat at birth, and has kept it ever since."

Regulus nodded, "Then Borat, once the fight is finished, let's head home."

"As you wish."

The two resumed watching the fight, their attention on the black-haired boy, who was clearly the strongest on either side.

The fight was, disappointingly, quickly over once the earth mage was taken down.

The victors gathered the losers' unconscious bodies in a pile before the shadow mage held both hands up, creating a large magic circle that covered the entire pile of bodies, before exhaling, "Chains."

Ethereal chains came out from the circle and bound the bodies tightly together, before solidifying into black and purple chains.

"Let's go.", Regulus saw the end of the fight and beckoned for his driver, Borat, to head for their castle.

Borat began to steer the carriage in the direction of the castle, and as they almost exited the slums, they were stopped by a group of malnourished men.

"Move.", Borat warned the men, who did not seem to care about his warning. The only thing on their mind was how fancy the carriage looked.

Borat sighed before moving his hand into his breastpocket, pulling out the Custos family's badge.

"This is the carriage belonging to the Custos family. I'd like to politely request that you gentlemen move out of our path before I move you."

At the mention of the Custos family, the men faltered. No one could live in the Vessila Empire and not know of the Empire's blade.

But then, as if recalling something, the man at the head of the group whispered to his allies.

Regulus' enhanced senses caught onto their conversation, as did Borat.

'We can't give up now... if we get them we can feed our families for an entire year without having to work!', whispering to his comrades fiercely, the presumed leader encouraged them.

'Also, there's only two of them! We have 12, and 3 of us are mages!'

As the presumed leader presented the two side's data, his followers were slowly losing their doubt.

'The driver addressed the man inside as Your Highness, so it must be someone important to the Custos family! If we use this as ransom, we would live our entire life set!'

Like a devil, the leader kept whispering words into his followers' ears, who listened fanatically to him.

'I want no parts in this. I ain't getting hunted down because of y'all!'

One of the followers whispered to the rest of the group, before parting, walking as fast as he could to get out.

The others then faltered, one of their own left. Probably because they see the group's hopeless destination.

'Ignore him!', the leader whispered once more. "We don't need no cowards in our group! We need strong men! We need to provide for our family! We have to fight!"

As this point, the group were shouting. Regulus didn't even need his enhanced senses to pick up on what they were saying.

Borat, the carriage driver, whispered to Regulus.

"Should I spare them, young master?"

Humming thoughtfully, Regulus considered Borat's question as he looked at the group.

"Kill the ones who doesn't have a family. No one would miss them. As for the other, well, do what you wish but don't kill them."

Regulus gave out his orders to Borat, who faithfully listened as he stepped off the carriage.

"Then, excuse me."

Borat pulled down the blinds on either side of the carriage, leaving Regulus' sight confined to the interior.

"Gah!"

"Kugh!"

"Oof!"

"W-w-wait! We can tal- I'm sor- AHHHHH!!"

Grunts and screams of pain made itself home to Regulus' ear, who wondered what was going on as he looked at the plain interior of the carriage.

A few seconds passed, and all noise suddenly stopped.

The blinds were then pulled up, and Regulus looked at Borat, who adjusted his coat as he hummed a tune while boarding the carriage.

Regulus then looked at the site, curious about the aftermath, only to find... nothing.

There were no signs of a battle at all. There was not a single drop of blood, nor was there a single body.

Regulus asked his driver, "What did you do?"

Borat replied, "I taught them their place, Your Highness."

Regulus could see that Borat did not want to explain his methods, and Regulus respected his silence.

As the two rode through the city, Regulus looked at the setting sun, and finally asked Borat the question on his mind.

"Who are you, really?"

Borat turned around to face Regulus with a smile, "I'm just a simple carriage driver."

'Yeah, right.'