Dragon's Tale 78 (Patreon)

“I wonder just how busy their husbands are with politics and work to leave all those women so hungry for a proper session of bedroom fun,” I murmured as I looked at the two beauty that was sprawled on the bed, unable to handle my aggressive treatment. One of them was another noblewoman that I didn’t even bother to learn the name of, the other was Cera, who had finally exhausted herself after our sixth visit even if I didn’t focus on her particularly well. 

Her exhaustion was understandable as I had been particularly aggressive during my last two visits, trying to create an opportunity for myself for a little adventure in the process. I carefully laid a spell on them to ensure their sleeping state before I moved to my next destination. 

However, despite the plan Cera had informed me required me to visit the room Olivia and Atia were waiting for me, I had a different destination in mind. 

I also had a different exit in mind. Rather than using the door that led into the estate, I had used the window to sneak out. 

Not immediately, of course. First, I gathered my mana on my fingertip, my gaze already on the runes that created a subtle decoration along the wall, slightly faded enough to suggest that it had been a while since they had been reinforced. Though, even if they had been reinforced, they could hardly create a barrier against me. 

The weakness of the ward that protected the room was a reason for me to make this room my last destination before I had moved to the next step of my plan, but it was not the only one. Because, ultimately, the wards that defended the building were weak, making it trivial to tweak and adapt a rune easily. 

Of course, that didn’t mean the Estate was easy to infiltrate. The outer wards, responsible for protecting the estate against enemy assault and assassination attempts alike, were designed in a much more unforgiving manner, making it a hard target for subtle manipulation. 

In companion, the wards around the building were much weaker, because they were mostly there to protect the nobles from any disgruntled guard or slave that might decide to exchange their lives for a pointless bout of sacrificial revenge. 

It was like the difference between a city wall and a tent fabric, the latter easily breached as long as one had a sharp instrument. The fact that they were designed to defend against attacks from outside made them even weaker against manipulation. 

The weakness of the wards wasn’t the only reason I had picked this particular room. The window itself was also looking at a particularly overgrown part of the garden — more intentional than accidental considering the number of slaves responsible for garden maintenance alone. 

The number of servants was also a part of why I had chosen this exact moment to sneak out. It was just an hour until dawn, late enough for the nobles to stay up, at least in the garden, and too early for the servants to wake up and start the preparations for the next day. 

Perfect time to skulk around in the garden. And as an added bonus, it gave the servants the opportunity to handle the noble ladies that had enjoyed my attention all night and put them in a presentable position before their husbands arrived from their political discussions. 

Unfortunately, getting out of the building and into the courtyard without raising an alarm was just the start of my journey.

A journey that promised to be more difficult than I first assumed.  

I was unprepared for how bright the garden would have been at this particular hour considering even if the nobles were awake, they would have been inside rather than experiencing the morning chill. 

Yet, the garden was still well-lit, maybe just in case a noble decided to enjoy a late-night walk. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of my challenges. The guards were still patrolling near the outer walls, their attention split between the estate proper and the walls, their numbers surprisingly high. Even with a glance, I could see three patrol groups in my line of sight.

Luckily, even with their numbers, they were still showing signs of exhaustion and boredom, their attention focused more on the crude jokes they were sharing to impress their fellow guards than paying attention to their surroundings. 

After all, what could go wrong in such a well-defended estate, stronger than a fort. 

Their flickering attention allowed me to sneak toward one of the buildings closer to the outer walls of the estate, the same one where the imprisoned sorceress had been housed.

It was an interesting building, slightly different than the others around the estate. The rest of the buildings were built in a more traditional style, low, sprawling buildings with many windows and inner courtyards. Yet, the building that kept the sorceress in was different. It was a tall, rectangular building, reminding me more of a small fort than a comfortable house. 

Still, with the help of my magic, it wouldn’t be hard to sneak in. Or at least, that was what I had the temerity of thinking before I came close enough to feel the magical stirrings of a ward. 

It wasn’t that I was surprised that it was defended separately, but I was surprised because the ward was surprisingly weak. 

It wasn’t that I expected one that could rival the ones surrounding the estate, designed to hold against a siege. Yet, those wards weren’t even strong enough to be compared to the wards that surrounded the inner buildings. Unfortunately, despite that, the ward was much more dangerous. 

Because it was actively managed. 

The difference between passive and actively managed wards was subtle, and only a few mages trained themselves hard enough to notice that small distinction. Ultimately, wards were structures that were created through a great effort, and only a few of them were flexible enough to be manipulated under a direct assault. 

And often, doing so required a significant power differential between the attacking mage and the defending mage, making the ward pointless in the first place. 

Unfortunately for me, there was one difference between actively managed wards and passively managed wards. 

It was much harder to manipulate actively managed wards subtly. 

“Maybe I should return,” I murmured, unable to measure the relative merits of disappearing completely and leaving for Egypt early, but it was nothing more than a momentary fancy. After all, there was no guarantee that Egypt was any safer than Rome, and here, at least I was aware of the culture enough to manipulate my way in. 

With a sigh, I pulled more of my mana to the surface, carefully enveloping the building with a soft aura, weaker than a misty wind, ready to pull back and escape back to the estate at the first sign of an alarm. 

It turned out that the lady luck hadn’t screwed me up completely, as a direct examination revealed that the wards were not erected to prevent attacks from outside. Instead, they were inward-facing. 

“Smart,” I murmured. After all, holding a sorceress, even if it was one not focused on combat, was hard safest thing. An actively managed ward to catch any breach would help to keep a mage strong enough to be qualified as a mobile siege weapon.  

Yet, it was hardly the safest way of keeping a sorceress a prisoner. Several wards to completely immobilize her, or potions to keep her unconscious… Tricks like that certainly would have been better to keep her prisoner, yet, they chose to monitor her with active wards, effectively assigning several competent mages full time, risking their lives. 

Ironically, it didn’t even require the sorceress to take any action to risk the lives of those mages, because managing wards actively was a difficult task. Not because it was magically exhausting, as unless the mage was forcing a change, it was hardly more exhausting than a cantrip. And normally, that would be it, because the mental load of the spells almost never was the bottleneck. 

Unfortunately, for the unlucky sods that were responsible, the active wards were one of the very few exceptions to the rule. As a mage was forced to monitor the wards for hours and hours, the mental weight of observing the structure got harder and harder, an accidental slip enough to damage the image significantly. 

Altogether, it was a very perplexing strategic choice, especially that, even with all the risks it discounted, it was hardly the most efficient strategy. If they were afraid of the sorceress breaking out, they would have used the more intensive methods like forced sleep, and if they were confident she would not act, they would have used a passive yet stronger ward structure to make it easier. 

And if they needed to keep her magic capabilities intact yet they were still afraid of her breaking, they could have put the residence out of the main wards of the estate, making any potential breakout much less dangerous. 

Even for a spectacularly-strong Patrician House like House Junia, a sorceress on the loose was not a simple affair. 

Yet, they had done none of it, instead of risking the death of several competent mages to maintain a perplexing protection strategy. I was tempted to assume it was just a stupid decision, but it was a dangerous assumption to make, especially when a House proved itself by dominating Roman politics for more than a thousand years. 

They clearly had a reason for this particular choice. 

And, unfortunately, I needed to poke that area to see there was nothing out of ordinary. 

With a sigh, I started to strengthen the mana mist around the building, slowly starting to poke the wards, my touch soft enough not to alert the mage responsible for maintaining the wards. If the wards were designed to defend against outside threats, it would have been impossible even for me, but their design gave me significant leeway. 

 Yet, I could feel my palms sweating. 

It was time for a magical challenge.