Villin looked at his companions and then at the two bodies on the ground. He saw Rein and Kayley heading toward the woman that held the briefcase with the ‘drug’ but he stopped them.

“This is too much of a coincidence, we should assume we’ve been found out, we have to move.”

Amelia nodded but neither Rein nor Kayley were convinced, Kayley was the one that spoke up with a frown “Come on Villin, they’re only a couple of mortals. There’s not even an ounce of magic energy on these people. But that drug, if it's really able to awaken someone's web, it’s invaluable, the council would pay great prices for such a find.”

Even though Villin found everything really sketchy, he planned to let Kayley and Rein grab the objects, after all, he wasn’t their boss and it wasn’t like he could tell them what to do.

But just as he gave in and Kayley went back over to grab the briefcase, Rein looked at the briefcase with an odd look. Then, just as Kayley was about to reach it, he pointed his wand toward it and cast a spell.

None of the others had expected this at all, after all, Rein was one of the people who also wanted to get the contents of the case. And just like that, the spell hit the briefcase straight on. The briefcase shot twenty meters further back and a purple gas came out of the hole Rein’s spell had created.

Kayley was just about to get angry at Rein for not discussing anything when the latter spoke. “That’s no special potion, it's a sort of knock-out gas. A whiff of that and you’ll drop like a rock. We shouldn’t overestimate our luck. It seems like Villin and Amelia were right, this is too much of a coincidence. For us to stumble upon such an important event within our first hour here, and for the event to be shown and explained to us like this, it seems it is too coincidental.

Rein spoke in a calm and composed manner causing Kayley to listen without getting enraged further. She huffed before turning around, causing Villin to frown.

When he thought about it, he really didn’t know any of his companions that well. He didn’t know their ideologies, beliefs, or even their true personalities.

Kayley still stood where she was before pointing at the second briefcase, the one holding money “Then that one should have that gas too right?”

Rein didn’t respond but simple pointed his wand and once more the familiar streak of red light shot out of it. The briefcase got shot back and once more gas seemed to be coming out of it. Kayley was immediately taken aback “Shit, you’re right.”

Rein nodded as he looked at Villin and Amelia with a somewhat odd look. “Let’s go then.”

Villin really wanted to get out of here now, and he wanted to get out quickly. Since Rein’s words were proven true it meant there were people that knew they were magus. The existence of Magus was supposed to be a complete mystery for mortals. And well, everyone in this group had simply assumed this was a decision made by the magus, hell, even Villin agreed magus were a superior species overall.

But they were wrong, and soon they found out just how wrong they were.

With everyone now knowing they were being hunted in some capacity, nobody wanted to be the reason for delay. Villin was the first to run to one end of the alleyway but the others weren’t far behind. 

As for Rein knowing about the gas, nobody questioned it, this wasn’t the time or place to discuss some things.

Villin was already making a plan inside of his head. They would go immediately and find a mode of transportation, get to another city, wait until night, and then find a hotel. Instead of paying for the place, they could use magic to sneak into one of the empty rooms.

But all of that was bound to never happen. Just when the group got out of the alleyway they were greeted by ten men in combat gear, all of them having rifles pointed at their faces. Villin knew this and that from the mortal world since he was able to access some of this body’s previous owner’s memories. Guns were rare, and extremely expensive to make. Rifles were only used by elite squads of the military and the bodyguards of the most important people in the world. It wasn’t something just anyone could get their hands on.

All four of them swallowed as they looked at all of the barrels pointed at their faces. Villin didn’t have any spells that could protect him from physical harm at all. Reverto and Sheldium were both made to defend against magical attacks.

As for Amelia, she was about to try and cast a defensive spell on the group when she saw a glint on one of the rooftops. There was a man laying there with a sniper rifle. Now that she saw this person it didn’t take long for her to spot three more.

No matter what there was no way her defenses could defend against a weapon such as that.

All of the people pointing their guns were wearing black clothes and a mask covering the upper half of their faces.

They all put their hands up and just as they did so, they felt a prick against the back of their necks, less than a second after this prick, they had all fallen to the ground.

“Targets neutralized, bring them over to the temporary research facility for questioning.”

The leader was one of the men holding a sniper rifle and soon his orders were followed as the quartet got tied up and put into a black van that pulled into the small street.

The civilians walking just a few streets away had absolutely no clue what had just transpired. And so, the four of them were sent to a warehouse just outside of the city, two hours away. The four of them had their wands taken and were now each tied up to a chair.

‘Out of the frying pan but into the fire.’ was a good idiom about how they each felt as they woke up.