By the time Balubalen and Renith returned to their residence, the light of dawn had already quietly spread across the sky. As a count and an archmage, they didn’t need to indulge in as much rest as ordinary people. After a simple breakfast, the two walked side by side toward the tavern.
Normally, taverns don’t open in the morning—their business hours are usually concentrated around noon or evening. However, when they arrived at the tavern entrance, they were surprised to find two people standing at the door.
“We meet again, Miss Anna, Teacher.”
The one who greeted Renith enthusiastically was a fellow of unremarkable height but whose clothes were anything but plain—that was Rum.
Standing nearby, Stimmert snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing Rum’s voice. He slowly took off his glasses, carefully wiped them with the corner of his shirt, then smiled and greeted Renith and Balubalen.
Only the two of them had come this time—there was no sign of the reporter named Grey. Renith gave a slight nod in response.
“Grey didn’t come?”
“I went to his place this morning to ask. He said he’d be a bit late.”
Rum quickly replied to Balubalen’s question.
Click-clack, click-clack.
The sound of hurried footsteps approached, and a figure came rushing toward the tavern from outside.
Grey apologized profusely for oversleeping as he hastily inserted the key into the lock at the bottom center of the door, then yanked it upward with force. With a faint click, the rolling shutter door slid up with surprising ease.
A faint smell of alcohol lingered in the tavern. Balubalen walked ahead with steady steps, while the others followed behind, chatting about what had happened over the past few days.
Quite a lot had happened recently—and more than half of it had been caused by Renith and Balubalen.
Balubalen didn’t stop at the front counter but headed straight toward the back kitchen.
The group passed through the kitchen and stopped only when they reached a door at the very back.
It was then that Grey spoke up to Balubalen:
“Teacher, did you come here last night?”
Grey pointed at the cellar door in the corner of the kitchen, which had already been closed.
Balubalen gave an awkward laugh, then apologized and promised he would never steal alcohol again.
“You said the same thing last time! Teacher, even if you’re going to steal alcohol, at least close the door properly!”
Grey said with a hint of exasperation.
With that, he walked over and shut the cellar door.
“Ugh, you kid don’t usually seem that sharp—how did you figure out at a glance that I stole the alcohol? Gularal steals drinks every day too, why didn’t you suspect him?”
Balubalen asked, somewhat unconvinced. He felt he’d done a good job last night—apart from not closing the cellar door, no one should have been able to see anything.
“Setting aside the fact that leaving the cellar door open is something only you would do, Teacher—Gularal tells me every time after he drinks and leaves the appropriate coins on the table. That’s completely different from you, Teacher!”
“Of course, you only steal once or twice a year, Teacher. Gularal is the regular. Though I don’t know what he’s been busy with lately—he hasn’t come by in a week.”
Grey explained patiently.
“A week?”
Balubalen grew alert at the mention of that timeframe.
A week was far too long. Balubalen was now constantly worried about his disciples and students getting into trouble. He planned to look for Gularal after this meeting ended—conveniently, this place wasn’t far from where Gularal lived.
“Alright, let’s head down first and check on how my other students are doing.”
With that, Balubalen reached out and pushed open the door at the deepest part of the kitchen.
The space behind the door was pitifully small, piled high with firewood—it seemed like an ordinary firewood storage room.
Working together, everyone cleared out the massive pile of firewood, revealing a door carved with strange patterns set into the floor.
The moment Renith laid eyes on the door, her heart felt as if something invisible had gripped it hard, and an inexplicable feeling welled up inside her.
Renith instinctively used her magic to probe it, only to find that her magic couldn’t penetrate the door—what she sensed was merely an ordinary patch of floor.
Being able to disguise its own presence—this thing was clearly a rare magical artifact.
But why did the style of this door look so much like something from the demon race?
Seeing Renith frowning at the patterns on the door, Balubalen walked over to her side and explained:
“This is one of the rewards the king at the time gave me after the demon war ended over two hundred years ago. There were too many things at the time, so I kept a few pieces and gave everything useless away to others. But this door felt different from the other items, so I kept it.”
“This door is incredibly heavy—so heavy that even a count can’t lift it. Normally, when you open this door, it doesn’t react at all. It wasn’t until a hundred years ago, after I installed it and pushed it open, that I discovered there was a sealed space inside.”
“At the time I didn’t think it was good for much—just treated it as a place to relax in my spare time, occasionally look at the snow. But I never imagined that a hundred years later, I’d actually find a use for it—using it to preserve our fighting strength.”
When the door opened, a faint ripple of magic and spatial energy emanated from within.
“Let’s go in.”
Balubalen was the first to jump in. His disciples and students followed behind him, and Renith, after her probing failed, jumped in without hesitation as well.
After a bout of tumbling, Renith slowly opened her eyes and found that they were no longer in the kitchen—they were standing in a dense mountain forest.
“Coniferous forest? This is… the Aztec Mountains!”
Renith looked around and blinked in surprise.
Because only north of the Aztec Mountains could such an expansive coniferous forest exist.
But upon closer inspection, Renith realized this wasn’t the real Aztec Mountains—this space didn’t extend outward. There was an invisible barrier that blocked Renith’s detection.
Renith quickly concluded that this was a sealed space modeled after the Aztec Mountains.
A magical artifact that could control space—whoever made it must have reached the level of a grand archmage.
But in Renith’s memory, among the human grand archmages, aside from herself and her master, no one could wield spatial forbidden magic. And this door had been seized from the demon race.
Most likely… whoever made this door was probably the Demon King—or at the very least, another demon general.
But why would the Demon King create this space modeled after the Aztec Mountains?
Could there be something in the location used as the model that even the Demon King coveted?
Renith pondered silently, deciding to find a chance to check it out.
Renith sensed carefully for a moment—there was nothing strange about this space. It was perfectly safe.
The texture of the snowflakes and trees wasn’t much different from reality. This seemed to be an ordinary space modeled after the real world.
“Hey, Miss Anna, over here!”
Rum, noticing that Renith hadn’t followed, ran back and called out to her.
Renith snapped out of her thoughts and quickly caught up.
About two or three hundred meters ahead, Renith saw the outline of a village.
It was a winter morning, and the sky was just beginning to show the pale light of dawn. Soft morning light shyly peeked into the village.
Inside the village, wisps of smoke rose from every chimney.
All around, everything was draped in silver—rooftops, tree branches, everywhere covered in pristine white snow.
In the open area outside the village, a row of young men and women were diligently practicing their fundamentals.
“This is our secret base—where we keep the most elite fighting force of our resistance army.”
Balubalen said proudly.
There were about a hundred and twenty people in this village, including fourteen barons and two viscounts.
Compared to Möbius City, these were indeed the elite of the elite—but still far fewer than what Balubalen described from the old days.
Renith recognized one of the viscounts—it was Danny, who had secretly followed Balubalen and her last night.
Seeing someone coming from outside, Danny immediately ran over, with Levi loyally trailing behind him, both wearing welcoming smiles.
“Miss Mage, Teacher Balubalen, you’ve come!”
Danny’s face had swelled down considerably compared to last night, though the marks of his injuries were still visible.
Levi, meanwhile, still timidly trailed behind Balubalen. Anyone who didn’t know better might think he’d done something wrong—but those who knew understood that this was just Levi’s personality.
“Levi, say hello.”
Danny nudged Levi’s back.
“Hello, Teacher Balubalen… Hello, Miss Anna.”
Levi said timidly.
“See? You can speak properly when you try.”
A smile bloomed on Danny’s face.
Renith paused and looked at the backs of Danny and Levi walking away, a strange feeling welling up in her heart.
“Let’s gather everyone first.”
Balubalen walked to the center of the village, clapped his hands, and called out loudly:
“Everyone, assemble at the open area at the village entrance.”
Hearing the call, everyone set down their work and hurried toward the open area in front of the village.
Before long, the open area was packed with people.
Seeing that almost everyone was present, Balubalen walked to the front of the crowd. At the sight of his serious expression, everyone stopped their playful chatter and waited quietly for him to speak.
Balubalen slowly began:
“Today I’ve brought two pieces of news—one good, one bad. I won’t keep you in suspense.”
Renith suddenly seemed to realize something. She walked over to Balubalen, whispered a few words to him, and then left.
“Let’s start with the bad news.”
Seeing Renith leave, Balubalen raised the letter in his hand with a grave expression:
“Just last night, we received another letter. It says that the guards of Wengler City are going to conduct a city-wide search of Wengler.”
“Everyone inside the gate needs to minimize going out for now. Those on the outside must conceal their movements—absolutely do not expose your identities, and absolutely do not reveal any information about the gate.”
Everyone acknowledged the order—this was a matter of life and death.
Having been through several battles, they were no longer the naive rookies they once were. They understood the stakes all too well.
Rumble.
Just as Balubalen was speaking, the entire space suddenly began to shake.
Ordinary people who hadn’t trained in magic fell to the ground one after another, unable to suppress the terror on their faces.
