To the town square

You follow Alice's family to the town square, despite their insistence that it wasn't necessary. You may be weaker now, but you're certainly not helpless. During the meal, you had been slowly improving your mana circulation, allowing mana to flow through every inch of your body, essentially brushing off the cobwebs in your system. While it'll be a while until you can casually rip out hearts with just your mind, you feel confident you can match any lesser being not only in magic, but also in combat. Plus, you feel that a debt is owed to Alice and her family, and you're always one to repay your debts. You're definitely not doing this just because you've recently developed a sense of empathy and feel a sense of injustice for what's happened to them. What a ludicrous thought, for you to have morals.

The town square, which is nothing but a sad little clearing, is jam packed with families, all lined up neatly. A rough estimate tells you that there's around 40 people gathered, and many of them hold similar boxes or pouches which no doubt also contain coins. Alice was uncharacteristically quiet during the walk here, grabbing at her shirt in nervousness. Addy, carrying their family's tithe, walks to the front of the crowd and places it on the ground, and converses with an elderly man, who you guess is the village elder or representative. While you could enhance your hearing to listen in, you're attention is focused on the three masked men standing in front of the crowd. "Those are the order's chosen", Alice whispers to you quietly. "They have power granted to them directly from the Gods." The order. That's another term you're going to have to investigate.

"What do you mean, power of Gods?" You whisper back to her. Honestly, you would not be too surprised if these country hicks were deceived by parlor tricks or sleight of hand. But you decide to give her the benefit of the doubt, and take a closer look and examine their aura.

"I've never seen it myself," she replies, voice low and shaky, "but mom has, and she says they can conjure enough fire to roast a man alive." However, by this point you were barely listening, because you were just hit by a sudden revelation. This was the first time since you broke free from the seal that you could sense magic in someone, if only faintly. This conclusion, logically, made absolutely no sense to you, since all humans hold at least some amount of mana within their body. You should've sensed magic all around you, especially when you entered the village, yet you didn't. You had taken for granted that everyone from your time had possessed some level of magic that you didn't bother examining the people around you. On closer inspection, you discovered that apart from those masked men, all these villagers, including Alice and her family, didn't have a single ounce of mana within their body. Even in your youth, before the Gods interfered in the world, all humans were born with some amount magical talent. The fact that all these villagers together somehow had no mana reserves was simply baffling.

The first masked man raised his hand, signaling for silence, before beckoning the elder forward. "How was this month's dues? I presume it's all here," came the muffled voice behind the nondescript white mask. From what you can see, the masks are purely decorative, with no real function except to obscure vision and make it harder to breath. The dark cloak the man wears also serves this purpose, to make him seem more imposing than he really is. A neat trick, but ultimately wasted on you since you've used those same tricks in the past. The fact that he's trying so hard to appear mysterious and intimidating is a relief to you, since someone who's genuinely powerful has no need to rely on such paltry displays.

"Uh...the C-C-Cassius household is short 8 s-s-silvers," the old man stammers, offering up a pouch for the masked leader to examine. From right beside you, you hear a small gasp come from Alice, and she wasn't the only one. All around you can hear worried murmurs, and Addy has already covered Mina's eyes with her hands. From this, you can surmise that not having enough money is liable for some hefty punishment, though you decide to stay your hand and observe for now. There will always be time for heroics later, once you've gathered enough information.

"Lorian Cassius," the masked leader's voice came loudly, "explain yourself at once." Evidently, he was not amused, and his two similarly dressed lackeys step forth into the crowd, dragging a young man out by his arms. A girl, either a wife or a sister, was down on her knees and pleading with them, but she only received a kick to the face for her efforts.

"Please, my lord, the harvest this year was terrible, we could barely feed ourselves!" Lorian begged, but it seems that it was not a good enough of an excuse.

The leader raised his hand, and from his palm burst forth a ball of flame. To you, it was a simple, low level spell that any new student from Hawk's Perch Academy could perform, but to the villagers, it was nothing short of an act of God. To them, anyone capable of manipulating the elements must be one of God's chosen, who stands above the rest of humanity. The villagers knew they were helpless before them in the same way they were helpless against a true **** of nature, like an earthquake or a tornado.

Having seen more than enough, you feel compelled to take action, if only so that the girl standing next you, whom you just met earlier today, would stop sobbing as she watches this atrocity unfold. Of course, there are several different options for you to take. It would take very little effort for you to simply incinerate these fools, and show them what it truly means to wield fire. The main downside of doing that would mean that everyone in this village would know that you're a sorcerer, and you're not sure how comfortable you are with that. Preferably, you'd like to have as little attention drawn to you as possible, especially if arcane wielders are rare in this era. There's also the matter of interrogation: as skilled as you are, even you can't glean information from a pile of ashes. You slowly rub the pommel of your sword, considering the alternative. You're certainly not a great swordsman compared to the legends of your time, but by enhancing your body with your magic, you could easily win even against skilled opponents through sheer power and speed to overwhelm their technique.

Staring at the fireball resting in the masked man's hand, you come to a decision.