As he entered through the house's chimney, Vicente heard the voices of these people, Acolytes in general.
From the position of metallic objects such as coins around the house and where the voices came from, he could feel exactly where each person was. At the same time, he could sense how strong they were by the mana disturbance around their bodies, which vibrated with the metallic objects near them.
Vicente's magnetic ability was sharp. It could tell him what the metallic objects within his range 'felt.'Thus, he knew how many and how strong the people there were.
Items with and without the ability to contain mana had a very similar function in terms of absorbing mana. Both sponged mana that struck them, but some kept the mana within themselves while the others returned it to nature.
Coins were of the second type, and when they received mana that leaked from magicians' bodies, they absorbed it and then lost it over time.
Noticing the different metallic objects on these people, Vicente could tell the difference between the mana of each person talking about their group.
Some had colder mana, others warmer mana, which were like fingerprints, individual and unique to each person.
At the Academy of Stars, Vicente had learned that even twins emitted different mana. Using his ability to sense this property, he learned this in practice.
Noticing how many there were, he walked slowly down the chimney that led to a large living room on the mansion's second floor.
When he quietly reached the second floor of the residence, he used metal around his body to hold himself upside down and looked through the unlit fireplace into that living room.
There was no one in the room at the moment, but there was a hallway in Vicente's view where some lamps were lit, and two servants were standing by, waiting.
From the door in front of these servants, he could sense the people talking.
He went on into the fireplace, raising himself a little to hide his head.
'24... 23... 22...'
He closed his eyes and continued counting, waiting for the moment to act.
...
Outside the house, some of the men from Vicente's group were standing on the street corners, getting ready.
Rory stood with these men, mentally counting down to the moment of attack.
'15... 14...' He kept his eyes closed, feeling a little nervous.
The armed men, their identities protected by masks, looked at that place and sweated coldly, anxious because this was their first time acting like this.
But considering that they would soon be acting against nobles, this was a good test for them!
"One!" Rory opened his eyes and said, making his men swallow their saliva and follow Vicente's earlier orders.
Sss!
Flames came out of Rory's hands as these men helped him point in the direction of the devices that had been placed around the estate earlier.
...
'Zero!'
BOOM!
When Vicente finished counting, a moment passed, and then a huge explosion erupted, shaking the entire residence.
The people there heard the loud boom and put their hands to their ears, while the stronger ones realized that the noise and shaking had been caused by something too close to them.
"Enemy attack!" Jax shouted as he rose from his seat and ran out of the residence.
The women were nervous when they heard this. Still, like magicians who had faced difficult situations before, they circulated mana around their bodies, raising their defenses.
While the people there ran out to see what the problem was and to defend the place, Vicente took advantage of the general distraction. He came out of the chimney, eventually standing in the main room of the place.
He paused for a moment and felt the structure of this residence, feeling the 3D map of this house appear in his mind due to the number of metals used in the construction of the house.
Seeing the way to the place where most of the metals of this residence were, Vicente didn't hesitate any more and moved silently towards his goal.
When he came to a locked door, his Red Pentagram appeared in front of his right hand. Soon after, Vicente felt the lock's components on this wooden door and moved them to the open position.
A low metallic sound came from the door. Noticing that no one was around, Vicente opened it. He entered shortly after, manipulating the traps' metal objects there so they wouldn't move.
He quickly descended a flight of stairs and came face to face with a small room of about 10 square meters, with several side cabinets similar to a closet.
But there were no clothes inside them, but several coins of different types, jewelry, crystals, and documents!
Seeing this, Vicente smiled, grabbed a bag, and quickly collected the most valuable items for himself and his group.
As he did so, he noticed what was written on one of the documents there.
[Magical Mining Agreement...]
He saw the beginning of an agreement between this family and a local noble house regarding mining rights and the provision of services by this family to that noble house.
'This family is mining for the Symons?' He was impressed because the family in question was the only noble house of a Viscount in this area of Millfall!
Thinking about it, Vicente couldn't help but be interested.
'If I steal these concessions, they will be useless to me. But if I trade with this family, I can legally take part in their business!
In Polaris Realm, Magical Agreements were things of the utmost importance. Not only did they obligate both parties to fulfill the contract, but they could also be used as property titles.
If party 'A' signed a Magical Agreement with party 'B' to exploit a mine, for example, that also functioned as 'ownership' of the right to exploit that mine.
Anyone with the appropriate papers could claim rights to the exploitation of the mine and act as if they were the actual owners of that agreement.
Why is this? The person possessing the papers in question could destroy the Magical Agreement, thereby nullifying that agreement. By doing so, one could end a pact that may have been in place for decades and, by doing so, present a better option to the other side of the treaty, such as House Symons.
In that case, a family like Peters would be in big trouble!
Vicente knew that if he stole those papers, the chances of Viscount Symons negotiating with him would be very slim. But if he could get the Peters family to hand them over to him, everything would be different.
He smiled and left the papers there, quickly walking back the way he had come.
With 2 cloth bags full of items, he used the distraction created by his staff to leave this place, having closed the door of this secret underground room before leaving.
While climbing up the chimney, someone suddenly stopped on top of that place, and Vicente stopped climbing it. He manipulated some of the metals on his body to form a metal box that covered his whole body inside that dark tunnel.
'That was close!' He shouted in his mind while maintaining his position.
