Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

The road to return from their diplomatic expedition back to the camp turned out to be way easier than it was when they went out the first time. With the deal with the neighboring Overlord now signed, they didn't need to worry about a random party of monsters appearing from the depths of the wide grass and attacking them. 

Rather than worrying about potential attacks, everyone was happily thinking about the ways in which the camp would develop with the influx of the oh-so-important materials. 

With wood, they could finally start some actually warm fires. Having wood also meant that they would no longer need to spend hours every day just to gather enough grass to heat up their houses. 

Then came the magic stones. 

While wood was important, it was ultimately a resource that they could somehow source from other places. But the mana stones were the ultimate necessity for Layn to turn his camp into the academy he wanted it to be in the first place. Because without artifacts filling the lands of the academy with magic that anyone would be capable of using, there would be no point or even a way for Layn to teach anyone the truths of magic!

"Boss, I think we can finish it in just two days," one of the mercenaries reported as he brough a thin, stone slab with some kind of ink plastered all over it. 

Layn took the item to his hands, and after shielding it from the scorching blaze of the sun, he could make out the rough outline of how the embassy building would look like. 

"How about making it a little bigger?" Layn proposed, with the far future already on his mind. "This place is likely to turn into a logistic hub relatively soon, so we cannot make it just big enough to fit our current purpose," Layn explained his idea before passing the stone slab back to its rightful owner. 

"Yes, sir!" the man saluted before stealing a glance at the lifeless body of Befrel carried by Pavrien and Antion right behind Layn. "Boss... If I may ask... What are you going to do with this traitor?" he asked.

"Well," Layn said before suddenly turning silent. He raised his head a little as if looking into the sky could help him to come up with an answer. 'While I already know how he will end up as I'm not sure it would be wise to reveal it prematurely,' Layn thought, looking at the unconscious man on a simple stretcher. "It all depends on Befrel himself," Layn ultimately announced, waving his hand away to stop the man from any further inquiries. 

"They are going to kill me," Befrel suddenly said, proving that he wasn't unconscious at all. "Right now, he is trying to avoid saying it out loud to not lose your own loyalty," he added, throwing those words at the very same person who was worried about his wellbeing enough to bother Layn.

"As I said, what will happen to you all depends on your own cooperation," Layn said, looking at Befrel with an honest dose of amusement. "If you will answer all my questions, you will be killed for trying to set us against the neighboring Overlord. If you will refuse to cooperate and won't answer my questions... Well, then I will use methods that don't require your cooperation in the first place," Layn shrugged his arms, taking a leap of faith by admitting that the man wouldn't make it out alive. 

"See?" Befrel asked his former colleague. He then lowered his head back on the stretcher and muttered, "they are going to kill me anyway. Just get it over with," he added. 

"And what did you expect?" Pavrien suddenly spoke out, despite how silent and withdrawn he was from the conversations around him. "You attempted to put us all into peril by putting us against the monsters we barely managed to escape from the last time we clashed with them," he said, looking at the man he was carrying with a full dose of scorn. "Normally, you would be either killed on the spot for treason or brought to the master of dying to make sure your death would last for at least a few days," Pavrien added with hate oozing out of every word he uttered. 

"What's even worse, your actions lead to lady Irea almost dying," Antion joined the discussion. "While she might be our Boss's partner, she is also the one who cooks for us, the one who mends our wounds, motivates us to work harder... If you sought any form or amount of compassion from us," Antion said, turning his head around while taking care not to drop the stretcher, "then your hopes were misguided," he added before turning his head back towards the direction they were moving towards. 

"Like I ever cared about any of your bunch," Befrel uttered through his tightened teeth. He finally came to reveal his true face. "I never hoped for help from any of you. I spit at your compassion," he suddenly turned feisty, as if some sort of hope reignited in his soul. "I will die, and I can do nothing to stop it. But now I'm sure that you will all die as well!"  he suddenly shouted before breaking up in laughter. 

"What is this lunatic talking about?" Layn turned his head around, just in case that the man saw some sort of hint that the rescue was on its way. But no matter how much he stretched his eyes, he couldn't see a single extraordinary thing. 

"Irea!" Layn shouted, turning his head to the back of the small caravan. 

Even though the girl was still recovering, her way of healing was starkly different from anyone else. With an insane amount of energy now brimming in her body, rather than letting it rest, she was tasked with running in circles around the entire group just to get used to all this new power in her own flesh. 

"What's up?" the girl appeared by Layn's side in a short moment, proving that she wasn't slacking on her recovery at all. 

"Can you see anything strange around us?" Layn asked, unwilling to take any chances with the potential counterattack of Befrel's allies. 

"Yeah, there is a cloud of dust rising in the distance," Irea replied without even a single second of hesitation, pointing her hand... Right in the direction of their camp. 

"Can you guess how far they are?" Layn asked as he strained his eyes in the direction the girl was pointing at. Sadly, no matter how hard he tried to notice what she saw, his eyes seemed to lie to him, showing him just the uniform picture of the endless grasslands.

"Yeah, I would say twice as far from the camp as we are," Irea replied before stealing a quick glance at Layn's face. "Ah, I do not see it directly!" she suddenly shouted before getting a bit closer to the man and placing her hands on both of his cheeks. "Look a bit up. Can you see that the sky is slightly darker all the way in the back?" she asked, putting her cheek directly against Layn's and pointing her hand at the area she was looking herself at. 

"Yeah?" Layn replied, holding himself back from nodding his head. While holding his head cheek by cheek with his girl wasn't something insane, at the same time, it was precisely the kind of natural and gentle intimacy he always hoped to find. 

In a sense, in this slight moment, Layn was the happiest he could ever be.

"So we can return to the camp, get this fucker to speak, and prepare for..." Layn's words suddenly got stuck in his throat. 

"It's too late for you, you fuckers!" Befrel read the sudden break in Layn's words as his own, personal victory. "The emperor and his people are coming for you now! You are screwed up right now!" he continued to celebrate with his joyous shouts, proving that while he had no hopes for his own survival, the perspective of Layn's entire group ceasing to exist was revenge good enough for his own life. 

"Oh, shut up," Irea said, rolling her eyes as she slapped the man's face. But what she failed to understand was that not only her endurance increased after her treatment, but so did her strenght. 

What Irea intended to be a simple slap turned into a brutal attack that smashed a quarter of the man's jaws out of his face. 

"Dear, hold your horses," Layn said in a strange voice, with his eyes glued to the other party in the distance. While it wasn't within his range of visibility, it was well within Layn's range of magical senses. 

And what he managed to fell from the approaching party was so shocking that he wasn't able to put his own thoughts into words. 

"Stabilize him," Layn said, pointing his hand at the heavily injured traitor. He then moved his eyes back to look at the distance. "There is no help coming for you," he said, glancing over at the Befrel. "Those people are our allies."