The gates of Vilindros were even more bustling than Qiu Meng had imagined.
Though it was barely past morning, a long line had already formed on the entrance road paved with white marble. Merchant caravan wheels rumbled over the stone slabs, producing dull creaking sounds. Pack beasts swished their tails and snorted impatiently. Several waterway porters wearing short cloaks pushed small carts, skillfully weaving through the crowd while shouting “Make way,” delivering goods filled with shell spices and barrels of salted fish toward the inner city.
The air carried the salty scent of sea breeze, mixed with the aroma of baked bread and fish soup. The sounds of blacksmiths hammering echoed around Qiu Meng.
Standing behind her father, Qiu Meng peeked out half her face, watching the figures coming and going through the gates. She had thought that after escaping here, her mood would lighten somewhat. But standing in such a bustling yet unfamiliar place, she instead felt at a loss for what to do.
For Qiu Meng, this place was safe enough now.
But… it completely lacked the unrestrained freedom of her hometown.
Beside her, her mother was carrying a heavy burlap sack.
The contents clanked and rattled the whole way—sounds of metal, bottles and jars, weapons, and perhaps some spoils of war best not explained in detail at the city gates.
So when Sailafei approached with two students, the first thing she noticed wasn’t Dante or Qiu Meng, but Shalin, simply because her burlap sack was so conspicuous.
Sailafei fell silent for two seconds.
“…Are you here to move houses?”
Her expression was quite serious.
Precisely because it was serious, the statement seemed especially amusing.
Shalin blinked and replied naturally:
“We’re actually refugees~”
“…”
Sailafei looked at her face, which showed hardly any sign of being a refugee, then at the burlap sack clearly stuffed with loot, and found herself momentarily unable to respond.
Dante rubbed his forehead.
“Can’t you say something a little more normal?”
“What’s not normal about me?” Shalin tilted her head. “We really did escape from the border.”
“Refugees don’t carry burlap sacks into the city!”
“I collected these goods myself—I just left in a hurry!”
Dante looked at Shalin and let out a helpless sigh.
Qiu Meng silently looked up at her mother.
‘Search, strike, withdraw… huh… sigh…’
Sailafei cleared her throat, forcibly steering the conversation back on track.
“Where are you from? Border Town?”
“Something like that.” Dante replied.
Qiu Meng whispered to her father, “Who are these people?”
Hiding behind Dante, she curiously observed Sailafei and the two students behind her. They all wore Magic Academy uniforms, the fabric clean and tidy, with the Vilindros Academy emblem on their shoulders. Unlike the border patrol soldiers whose armor was worn and dull, they had a certain disciplined air characteristic of the Magic Academy. All wore wristbands but carried no visible weapons.
Sailafei’s gaze also fell on them.
The man before her was travel-worn, with bandaged wounds visible beneath his cloak, but his veteran’s stance was unmistakable. The woman beside him seemed strangely young, yet her eyes weren’t those of an ordinary traveler, and there were bloodstains on her cuffs—likely skilled in assassination. As for the child, she wore travel clothes with a slightly nomadic style, her face showing some fatigue, probably not physically strong, yet she truly looked like a child who had just escaped disaster.
But this combination of three people didn’t resemble ordinary refugees at all.
‘Really… President, could you please do your own inspections next time… I can’t handle people like this at all. What if they’re some assassination group? I’d be finished!!!’
Sailafei felt things were getting increasingly troublesome, but she couldn’t just ignore them. She immediately coughed twice and said, “We’re the Magic Academy patrol team.” She began, “These are unusual times. Please present identification. If this is an imposition, please forgive us.”
Dante studied her eyes, confirmed there was no issue, then took an old emblem from his pocket and handed it to Sailafei.
It was an Iron Medal emblem, edges even worn in several places, the black coating on its surface mottled by age. But when Sailafei saw the crest at the center—a cracked sword and dark star—her pupils contracted slightly.
“This is…”
A combat emblem from the Dark Decade period.
To confirm its authenticity, she infused it with mana, and indeed, the emblem contained mana. This wasn’t a fake.
Sailafei’s gaze toward Dante immediately changed.
“I see. Since you hold this, you may enter the city.”
Qiu Meng let out a small internal “Wow”.
—— So this was Dad’s power?
Though he usually seemed unreliable and even got beaten flat by Mom over a single word, when it really mattered, he seemed genuinely useful.
However, Sailafei didn’t fully clear them.
“But everyone, pardon me.” She extended her hand. “I still need to perform a simple magical screening as required. Just to confirm there are no dangerous spells or corruption from magic stones. No need to be nervous… it’ll be quick.”
Shalin looked at her but didn’t immediately extend her hand, simply staring at Sailafei.
At this moment, Sailafei also frowned, looking back at Shalin.
“Your meaning, madam?” Sailafei asked.
Qiu Meng immediately retreated behind her mother.
Shalin looked down at her daughter, then back at Sailafei, and finally decided to cooperate, slowly extending her hand.
“Fine.”
Sailafei gently placed her fingertips on Shalin’s wrist, infusing a trace of detection mana.
The next moment, her brow furrowed deeply.
The woman before her wasn’t devoid of magical fluctuations, but the flow pattern didn’t resemble the academy system’s concealment magic techniques, nor was it like regular mercenaries’ magical fluctuations. Her body itself seemed to have undergone some special training, deliberately making magical detection impossible without inspection magic. The true magical fluctuations were instead concentrated on her cuffs, waist, soles, and various invisible small equipment pieces.
Sailafei silently stepped back half a pace.
It was at this moment that she noticed the token hanging at Shalin’s waist.
‘This token… it’s from the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union…’
“Madam, could I take a look at the token on your waist?”
Shalin didn’t mind, casually removing it and handing it over.
Sailafei examined it carefully, her frown deepening.
The token’s material was fine, and the rune structure did belong to the Merchant Guild system, but the pattern on it wasn’t the insignia of any of the four major powers. It didn’t resemble the Northern Domain’s meteoric iron emblem, the Western Domain’s navy emblem, the Eastern Domain’s war pattern wood emblem, or the Southern Domain’s guard emblem.
It was an emblem she had never seen before.
This made things even more complicated.
“Are you with the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union?”
Shalin simply looked at her, then after a moment, smiled and nodded.
“Correct.”
Sailafei: “…”
She suddenly felt that today’s shift roster might be quite unlucky.
The President had just said the border was in trouble, the Inquisition had appeared, the academy hadn’t even fully entered alert status, and now at the city gates appeared a woman suspected of being from a special branch of the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union, accompanied by a Dark Decade veteran and a little girl.
“I feel like I’ve stumbled into trouble…”
Sailafei muttered under her breath, then turned to a student behind her.
“Go notify the President. Tell her there are Four Alliance Merchants’ Union personnel here who need her arrangements.”
The student immediately nodded and hurried toward the academy.
Shalin didn’t seem concerned at all, merely squinting with a smile as she looked at Sailafei.
“Can’t we go in first?”
“Please wait a moment for now.” Sailafei said. “I can’t make arrangements on my own. Of course, if you’d rather not, you can wait in the rest area outside the city. We don’t require you to stand here.”
Shalin looked at Dante.
Dante helplessly looked at Qiu Meng, then sighed.
Qiu Meng blinked and simply shook her head.
In the end, the family of three unanimously chose to wait right where they were.
After all, they had experienced most of the dangers life could throw at them all in one night. Now, mere waiting felt quite mild in comparison.
Meanwhile, inside the Student Council Room.
Wei’erna had just looked up from a mountain of documents when he heard urgent knocking.
“President!”
A brown-haired student pushed open the door, still catching his breath.
“Sailafei says there are Four Alliance Merchants’ Union people at the city gates!”
“The Four Alliance Merchants’ Union?”
Wei’erna slowly stood up, his expression clearly darkening.
“What are they doing here at a time like this?”
He was about to move when another student with black hair burst through the doorway.
“President! Something terrible has happened!”
Wei’erna’s brow twitched.
“…Not again. What happened now?”
If Sailafei were here, she would probably say the same thing—What happened now?
The black-haired student’s face was pale.
“There’s an explosion in the eastern magic classroom!”
The air went still for a moment.
Then, Wei’erna let out a low curse.
“Casualties on site?”
“Not yet clear, but there’s smoke, and part of the barrier has been shattered.”
“Organize people for rescue first. Seal off the area—don’t let curious students get close.”
Wei’erna made rapid decisions, throwing on his coat as he turned to the brown-haired student.
“We can’t ignore the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union people either. Go tell Lafi to let them into the city. Have two people watch them. Don’t provoke them, but don’t let them wander freely either.”
“Understood!”
Wei’erna didn’t linger, heading straight toward the academy’s eastern section.
Trouble always likes to arrive in pairs, and the Student Council President would always be as tired as a dog.
Whoever said that, it certainly applied today at Vilindros Magic Academy.