After finishing that job, Zaos was left wondering what he should do next. Proceed to South since the closest target would be there or head westwards and attack a target that probably wasn't expecting him since he was on the side of the kingdom?

"Come to think of it, I should have followed the inverse pattern, attacking the West, South, and then East," Zaos said. "Once I finish this, I will leave the kingdom, and using a ship will be better."

  Zaos wouldn't be welcome in the mercenaries' country, and he didn't know much about the country in the South. While he was fairly known in Vezar due to the incidents three years ago, Zaos didn't have to stay there. He just needed to keep moving until he found a place that he liked, and the kingdom had no influence whatsoever.

"I guess I will go to the West, and I'd better hurry up," Zaos said. "If I take my time, they will think that I changed targets."

  In the end, it took Zaos four weeks to cross the whole kingdom from East to West while avoiding all the main roads. Those parts he knew fairly well, so he knew which moments of the day were best to move. During that time, Zaos focused on practicing Sleep while drawing the symbols in his head. Once he knew that he could succeed in using the spell with relative ease, he began to try to customize it. The spell was too useful to ignore, but it still had some troublesome demerits.

  Now that Zaos could translate or find a translation to all spells, he knew what he had to do to customize and obtain results as fast as possible. That being said, Zaos still had to experiment for a full week to see what he had to do. On the incantation: Spirits of the wind, night, and darkness… put my foes into a deep slumber… and prevent them from seeing the truth that light brings… Sleep… he just had to change the word from foes to foe, and then he took out half of the last sentence. Once he did that, he managed to control the spell to the point where it could affect a single person, and he just had to point his hand toward the target.

"Not bad, huh…" Zaos said after he tested the spell on a rabbit.

"HIIINNNNNNN!" Moody complained.

"Deal with it. I can only give you the apples when I find them in the open," Zaos said. "I can't enter any villages and towns to buy them."

  Life without having the chance to use the commodity that money brings was a bit difficult, but Zaos had the right skills to survive in that as well. However, it felt kind of lonely. It couldn't be helped since Zaos had been working with others since he was ten in the northern base. Not to mention, since he was fourteen, he had been leading hundreds of soldiers. So, it had been a while since Zaos had a day of so much peace and quiet.

  Eventually, Zaos reached the town of Grelun, where his next target could be found. However, even before he could enter the place, he noticed that the town looked pretty gloomy. Maybe it was because the rainy season had arrived or because the number of people leaving and entering the town was pretty low.

"Hmm… I guess they found out that I changed my route," Zaos said and then sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped."

  Since Zaos had already been found out, he couldn't see much sense in waiting for the night to invade the place. But he believed it would be better if he did that anyway. At night, he could do things without letting others notice or understand.

  In the end, Zaos hid his things and Moody in a grove several kilometers away from the town and returned once night fell. However, he only invaded the town around midnight. The place was one of the few walled towns of the region, but Zaos easily climbed the walls and knocked down the guards that approached by putting them to sleep. He had to be fast because eventually, he would be noticed, and he couldn't take down all the guards in the walls without alerting the others nearby.

  Although that was supposed to be expected, Zaos couldn't help but frown because he felt that the town was too quiet. He knew that the next target would have prepared better, but it seemed that it was a preparation much bigger than he had imagined.

  It was quite weird given that the place was supposed to keep jailed many prisoners, but the mansion was right in the middle of the town. How did those guys transport their prisoners? In the open? Even at night, some rumors were bound to spread if that were to happen. Regardless, Zaos couldn't see the number of guards from that distance, so he decided to approach more, but then he suddenly stopped and dashed to his right side when he felt a certain presence.

  Zaos swung his sword and almost destroyed a barrel filled with trash, but then he stopped his swing when a shadow jumped from behind the barrel. Zaos barely had seen the shadow moving… that speed was inhuman. Not even he can be that fast when he enhances his legs and tries to run without armor.

"You finally showed up, huh," Zaos said to the dark-cloaked person in front of him.

  That person had the same presence that Zaos felt numerous times when he was with Ameria. It almost didn't look like a human, but that was probably just Zaos's imagination since he couldn't see a single body part of the person under the dark cloak. The weird thing was… Zaos couldn't feel any bloodlust coming from them.

"Ameria is calling for you, Zaos Sielders," A female voice came from under the cloak.

  Zaos frowned when he heard that… to think that the assassin-type bodyguard was actually a woman. Still, that made sense. A bodyguard like that would watch Ameria day and night.