On her way back, Renith encountered several patrols.
She easily avoided their lines of sight. Whenever she spotted a transmigrator among them, she would decisively kill the target before leaving without making a sound.
“Since just now, we’ve had two little tails following us… The stronger one is a viscount, while the other is a baron.”
Renith spoke softly.
Ever since she had killed the transmigrator in the second patrol unit, she had keenly sensed two faint auras trailing behind them.
The pair were exceptionally skilled at tailing people. Had she not deliberately searched for them, she probably would never have noticed their presence.
“Should we take care of them? These guys aren’t particularly strong.”
Barubarun carefully sensed their surroundings as well. Sure enough, two suspicious figures were lurking in a corner.
He offered his suggestion. Since those two had practically delivered themselves to their doorstep, there was no reason to show them any mercy.
Renith glanced behind her. The two men were sneaking along after them, apparently with no intention of confronting them directly.
With a wave of her hand, she conjured a thick veil of mist that instantly enveloped the entire street.
Using her Refraction skill, Renith plunged into the mist alongside Barubarun.
Seeing this, the two trackers followed without hesitation.
However, the moment they entered the white fog, they became as disoriented as headless flies, completely losing their sense of direction.
Just then, Renith and Barubarun suddenly emerged from the mist and launched their attack.
Renith opened her grimoire, sending razor-sharp blades of water shooting toward the two men. Meanwhile, Barubarun let out a mighty shout and swung his longsword at their enemies, the blade whistling through the air.
The two men had no time to dodge. Within moments, Renith and Barubarun had subdued them.
“Wait—Teacher Barubarun!”
The two battered men finally spoke, addressing Barubarun as their teacher.
Barubarun took a closer look at them and exclaimed in surprise.
“Isn’t this the once-in-fifty-years genius I discovered? Danny, who became a viscount in just ten years… And his little sidekick, Levi?”
The battered figure lying in a sorry state was indeed Danny.
Upon hearing this, Renith immediately released the restraints binding Danny and Levi.
“Oww…”
Danny rubbed his face, which he had always considered quite handsome. Now, however, it was swollen like a pig’s head.
He cursed his bad luck inwardly. He had already spent several days practicing his combat techniques and hadn’t shown his face among the resistance during that time. Now, with his face looking like this, he wouldn’t be able to show up for even longer. The other four would probably laugh him to death.
Danny desperately wanted to unleash his anger on the two people standing before him. Unfortunately, one of them was Barubarun—his strictest teacher and, at the same time, the strictest father figure he had ever known.
Barubarun’s training methods were practically demonic. Danny had absolutely no desire to experience that torment all over again.
“Even though you’re Danny, I still want you to explain why you were following us.”
Barubarun gave Danny a serious look, his eyes radiating an unquestionable authority.
“Actually, I’ve been practicing my combat techniques over the past few days. Becoming a viscount isn’t enough. I also need to master those techniques. Otherwise, I’ll be at a disadvantage in a direct confrontation.”
Danny hurriedly explained.
Seeing that Renith’s expression remained unchanged, Danny grew nervous and quickly added more details.
“As for following you, yes, I admit that I was tailing you. But there was a reason for it. I’d just finished practicing my techniques today when I went outside and saw two powerful individuals slaughtering transmigrators. I was incredibly curious, so I followed you.”
“But it was too dark for me to see who you were. Before I knew it, I’d continued following you, wanting to find out where you were ultimately headed.”
Danny turned his head slightly, and an unexpected hint of shyness flashed across his face. After a brief pause, he continued speaking to Renith and Barubarun.
“I never imagined I’d run into you, Teacher, let alone a powerful mage whose rank I couldn’t even identify. Then you discovered me…and beat me to a pulp. Now I’m starting to regret following you two. I should’ve just gone straight to the resistance and asked them what was going on!”
“Everything I’ve said is true. Levi can vouch for me.”
Danny’s voice sounded sincere. Levi, standing beside him, also nodded repeatedly to confirm that Danny was innocent.
Seeing this, Renith decided not to pursue the matter any further.
“However, tomorrow, this young friend of mine will be visiting our resistance to take a look at our situation. So you must be there tomorrow.”
Barubarun gave the order.
Danny touched his swollen face and began worrying inwardly.
Will this swelling really go down by tomorrow? If I show up looking like this, everyone will make fun of me.
However, this was ultimately an order from his teacher, and he couldn’t disobey it. For a moment, he found himself caught between a rock and a hard place.
Seeing his predicament, Renith retrieved a medicinal ointment from her grimoire and handed it to him.
“Go and apply this. With your physical constitution as a viscount, you should look considerably better by tomorrow.”
Danny gratefully accepted the ointment.
Once this little incident was over, Barubarun led Renith back to the street outside his home.
Before they even reached the entrance, they spotted a figure standing by the door.
The moment the stranger noticed Renith and Barubarun, he tightened his cloak around himself and darted into the darkness.
“Who’s there?!”
Renith was about to give chase when Barubarun stopped her.
“There’s no need to pursue him.”
With that, Barubarun pushed open the door. Renith immediately noticed a sheet of paper lying in the gap beneath it.
She used magic to pick it up gently. Then, with the aid of holy light magic, she illuminated the paper and read its contents.
“What is this?”
Renith handed the letter to Barubarun so he could examine it.
The instant Barubarun saw the letter, he snatched it from her hand, his expression turning grave.
“To be honest, I don’t know who the sender is either. But ever since two years ago, our resistance has been receiving letters from this mysterious person without interruption. They contain information about the activities of the local guards, the security corps, and other organizations.”
“At first, we didn’t believe them. But when most of the information began to come true, we had no choice but to take the letters seriously. Whenever we encountered a crisis, these letters were what allowed us to escape time and again and survive until now.”
Barubarun lit an oil lamp and began reading the letter, squinting at the text.
The more he read, the worse his expression became.
“Grandpa Barubarun, what do you make of the letter’s contents?” Renith asked.
“These organizations are preparing to make a major move. They intend to turn the entire city of Ongler upside down. They’re determined to find the mage who appeared today, the warrior who rescued that mage, and members of the resistance.”
He looked at Renith.
“In other words, they’re looking for you and me.”
Even if the authorities searched every inch of the city, it would be virtually impossible to capture two powerful individuals like Renith and Barubarun. If they wanted to escape, no one would be able to stop them.
“Are you worried about the resistance?” Renith asked.
Barubarun nodded.
“We can escape, but the resistance members don’t have that ability. If the authorities really do turn the city upside down, our secret base will be exposed. When that happens, the resistance—which already has very few members—will be wiped out completely.”
“You know me. I can’t stand by and watch my men die one by one while I remain safely out of harm’s way.”
Renith couldn’t help but admire Barubarun.
He might have been a little too strict, but he treated the lives of his subordinates as if they were his own. It was no wonder so many people had been willing to follow him back in the day.
“Fine, I understand. Since I’m involved in this matter and it concerns me directly, I’ll help you. Let me see the letter again. I’ll try to think of a solution.”
Renith reached out and took the paper back, carefully examining it once more.
She noticed that the letter contained numerous words and phrases expressing uncertainty. This suggested that the plan to search every corner of the city was probably still internal information from a particular department and remained at the approval stage.
In other words, they didn’t need to panic just yet. They still had some time.
“Tomorrow’s schedule remains unchanged. I still need to visit the resistance’s secret base and learn about the true state of the resistance here in Ongler.”
She paused before continuing.
“Also, Grandpa Barubarun, could you tell me more about the history of your resistance? How did it develop into what it is today?”
Since the letters had been arriving for two years, Barubarun’s group certainly hadn’t been formed just six months ago, when they received the call to action from Mobius City.
Perhaps this was a well-established force that Barubarun himself had built up over a long period of time.
Barubarun nodded in agreement.
“Very well…but first, you need to come with me to a certain place.”
Having only just returned home, Renith and Barubarun headed out again.
Their first stop was the tavern they had visited that afternoon. The entrance was tightly locked, but that posed no obstacle for Barubarun. He slipped inside through a nearby hidden passage and went straight to the wine cellar, where he took two or three sealed jars of aged liquor.
The cellar was filled with a rich, intoxicating aroma of wine.
“Going to that place without any wine would feel like something was missing. Besides, my apprentice owns this tavern. He told me I could take whatever I wanted.”
Barubarun’s voice carried a hint of melancholy, mixed with the quiet delight of getting something for free.
“It’s a shame, though. He could have continued training under me. He had quite a bit of potential…but perhaps things have turned out well enough this way.”
Barubarun sighed. That was the real reason for the sadness in his voice.
The two chatted as they left the city. Battling the fierce wind, they traveled east for about two li—roughly one kilometer—before arriving at an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Ongler.
Behind the warehouse lay an enormous cemetery.
The wind howled around them, making their clothes flap violently.
“A cemetery?” Renith asked, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
“That’s right. I paid a fortune to purchase several plots of land in this cemetery.”
As Barubarun spoke, the corners of his weathered eyes twitched slightly. Bitterness crept into his voice, and a trace of nostalgia appeared in his gaze.
He led Renith to a row of graves.
These tombstones were unlike any of the others nearby. They were covered in densely carved names. Across all nine tombstones, the names of nearly five hundred people had been engraved.
The tombstones looked almost brand-new, and every name was still clearly legible.
Barubarun’s gaze remained fixed on the stones. For a long time, he couldn’t bring himself to look away, as though his very soul had been torn from his body.
He placed a hand on one of the tombstones. Sorrow and remembrance filled his eyes, as if he were speaking to the resistance members who had died.
“Are these…members of the resistance who fell in battle?”
Renith’s voice finally brought him back to his senses. He rubbed the corners of his reddened eyes.
“That’s right… Most of them were resistance members who died in the battle two months ago. The rest passed away from old age.”
“There are no remains buried beneath these tombstones. The battlefield was practically a river of blood, and I had no way to bring their bodies back for a proper burial. So I relied on my memory and had craftsmen engrave all their names onto these stones instead.”
