As soon as the adventurer’s guild came into view, Red had a bad feeling about the situation.

He looked at Allen. “We need to go back.”

The young master, however, didn’t agree with him. “Why? We’re so close to discovering something big!”

“It’s not that simple.” Red shook his head. “Gustav has people in the Lesser Ring Realm working under him. If we get too close to the place, we’re definitely going to get caught.”

“But what if those empire guys are planning something evil with Gustav? We need to warn the others about it!”

“We don’t even know if the person we were following was an actual imperial agent. Besides, we’re probably not the only ones keeping an eye out for them, and there’s no way Domeron and Hector wouldn’t find out about this, eventually.”

Of course, there were other reasons outsiders would seek to work with Gustav, much more so ones in search of information. The man was the most powerful merchant in the region, so it only made sense to ask for his help. They didn’t have enough information to conclude this was some sort of conspiracy.

Allen, however, argued back. “Even if the old man knew, he would be too scared to do anything.”

“And what do you suppose you could do in this situation if even Hector won’t move?” Red shook his head. “We’re messing with powers beyond our reach right now.”

The younger master gritted his teeth. “I know you’re right, but… I just don’t want to sit still anymore.”

Red sighed. He understood the boy’s frustration, but he wasn’t keen on risking his life. Sure, he was curious about this mysterious situation and eager to get his hand on cultivation resources, but not at such high costs.

‘If only there was a way to better assess the situation.’

It was at that point, though, that an idea came to him.

“I have a plan.”

At those words, Allen looked eager. “What plan?”

“I can’t explain it to you. It might not even work, but depending on how it goes, we might be able to spy on this individual…” Red trailed off. “I’ll need your help though.”

“What do you need me to do? Do you want me to serve as a distraction again?”

“Not this time.” Red didn’t dare to put Allen’s life at risk. He doubted Gustav’s goons would do anything to the kid in fear of Hector, but the elder might be mad at Red if he discovered his strategy. “I just need you to stay close to me and watch my back. I might not be in any condition to fight back if we get discovered.”

Allen looked confused, but he nodded. “You don’t even need to ask! Of course I’ll have your back!”

Red was satisfied with the young master’s response. “We need to get closer, first.”

‘Within one hundred meters, preferably.’

The boy’s plan was to rely on his crimson sense, of course. He hadn’t gotten used to this new ability yet and sometimes forgot to take it into account when planning. This new power, however, was formidable enough to render otherwise impossible plans viable.

There was, however, a problem with this idea of his.

Although Red could function properly at this point, the fluctuations still overwhelmed his crimson sense, and this made it hard for him to distinguish proper information passing through this ability. The boy still decided to gamble on it, though, and try to focus on the fluctuations. At the very least, it was likely he could tell if any Lesser Ring Realm experts were inside the building, if Hector’s own powerful signals were anything to go by.

The duo approached the guild without problem. The place wasn’t as active as the inns, and the other buildings provided more than enough cover for the boys to approach unnoticed. Once they were in range, Red called for a stop.

“What now?” Allen looked back at him.

“Give me one minute.” Red closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on his crimson sense.

Almost immediately, his head protested in pain. Although the sensations he received from the power came from all around his body, it was always his mind that the overwhelming information punished. The boy always found this curious, but he didn’t have time to reflect on it. He focused his attention on the direction of the guild, and could detect more than a dozen fluctuations.

Some of them were ordinary, while others had strange attributes. None of them were anywhere near as strong as Hector’s fluctuations, though. There was, however, something that caught his attention - a signal he could faintly recognize. Before he could examine it further, though, his headache worsened, and he let go of his focus.

Red almost stumbled to the ground in a bout of dizziness, but Allen helped him keep balance.

“Hey, are you okay?” the young master asked.

“I’m fine.” he waved him off.

Red wasn’t fine, but he was recovering.

Allen let him go with a frown. “What happened? It felt like you were focusing on something else for a moment there.”

“It doesn’t matter.” the boy shook his head. “I have our information, though. There are no Lesser Ring Realm cultivators inside the building.”

“How do you know?!”

“That’s a secret. I would ask you not to tell the others about it, either.”

“If you say so.” the young master nodded. “I won’t tell anyone about it!”

This was good enough for Red. Although Allen was unreliable at the best of times, the child still had a good moral compass. Not even Hector could intimidate him into a different course of action, if he was sufficiently determined.

Red continued. “We can try getting closer. There are about a dozen people inside the building, though, so we still need to be careful.”

Allen followed his instructions, and the two of them approached the guild once more. As they got closer, though, Red was quick to notice a problem. The vicinity of the building was very well illuminated and with little cover. From this distance, he could already hear voices and see movement on the lower floor through the windows, and if they continued to approach, someone would notice them, no matter how sneaky they were.

“What do we do now?” Allen asked him from behind.

Red frowned and examined his surroundings. Once he saw some of the other buildings around the guild, he had an idea.

“We’ll spy on them from above.”

Indeed, the other houses in the area were not as well illuminated as the guild. If they got onto their roofs, then they could approach their target without getting noticed and look through the windows.

“That’s a great idea!” Allen nodded.

After the two of them chose a rather large building, they got to scaling it. Thankfully, the constructions in this town were anything but smooth, and they didn’t have a hard time getting up on the roof. Once they were up there, they were able to look into the windows of the guild’s second floor.

“Over here.” Red led Allen to hide behind a chimney from where they could spy better.

Unfortunately for them, most of the rooms inside the guild were dark or empty, not allowing them to peek inside. In the lit up ones, they saw no sign of their target.

“Maybe he’s still on the first floor.” Allen said.

Red nodded. “Or maybe his room is on the other side of the building.”

They moved to an adjacent building. Once again, they saw nothing on the back side of the guild, but once they moved to the right side, they finally caught sight of their target.

“There he is!” Allen pointed at the tall blonde man.

“Shut up!” Red dragged the boy down so they could remain hidden.

In a lit up room, they could see the tall blonde man and the mercenary who had accompanied him into the guild. They seemed to be arguing about something, but Red couldn’t make it out because of the closed windows.

“How many agents did Hector and Domeron say there were?” he asked Allen.

“Five, but they said there might be more. They weren’t acting together all the time, though.”

That would explain why they only saw the tall man in this room. Or maybe they had gotten the wrong guy in the end, but Red wasn’t willing to back down just yet. A few minutes passed, and the argument inside the room continued.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Allen was clearly having problems staying still.

“I don’t know.” Red shook his head.

“Shouldn’t we find out?”

“And risk being discovered? Not yet, we’ve not come this far to do something stupid.”

Allen just nodded in resignation. Finally, after almost ten minutes had passed, it seemed the men’s conversation had ended. The tall man handed over a small bag to the mercenary, and the latter left the room.

“What did he give him?” Allen asked.

Red, however, just ignored him and continued to watch. A minute later, and they saw the mercenary leaving the building, still in his fidgety state and looking around in suspicion.

Allen frowned once he saw that. “Should we follow him?”

Red hesitated, but he shook his head in the end. “He’s not our target.”

Indeed, the one they were looking for remained inside the room. At that moment, the tall man was sorting through his equipment. After he was done, he sat down at his desk and started to write something.

Ten minutes passed by and the man was still writing at his desk.

“What do we do now?” Allen, who had never been put into such an exciting situation before, asked him.

“We keep watching. If he doesn’t leave his room, we have no choice but to give up for now.”

“But-”

Red stared back at Allen.

“Fine…” the young master just sighed in the end.

It seemed, however, that the duo was in luck. After another ten minutes, the man folded the paper at his table and sorted through his equipment again. Once he was done, he put out the lamp in his room and left. Not much later, and they saw the man walking out of the building and onto the streets.

Allen was ecstatic. “Finally! Now we can break in!”

Red interjected. “Not yet. We’ll still get noticed if we approach the place.”

“But-”

Another stare.

“Fine!”

It took almost another hour before the lights inside the guild went out. The two of them waited in anticipation, expecting the man to return to the room at any moment and screw up their plans. However, that didn’t come to pass. Finally, the path ahead was clear and they could sneak into the building.

Allen smiled. “We can finally go in!”

“I’ll go in. You stay here and keep watch.”

“But- Argh fine! But be quick about it!”

Red did just so. The guild building was just like the rest of town, made up of ruined bricks and other materials, so he didn’t have a problem scaling it and eventually made it up to the window sill on the second floor. Looking back at the neighboring building, he saw Allen smiling and waving at him.

Red ignored him and checked the window. It did not surprise him to find that it was locked by a latch from the inside. Thankfully for him, though, they did not really make these windows to keep burglars out. After all, who would try to steal from a guild full of dangerous and armed adventurers?

The boy was able to unlatch the lock after jamming his knife into the gap in the window. Careful not to make any noise, he entered the room and looked around. He saw a large bag near the bed and inspected its contents. It mostly contained rations and other camping supplies, keeping in line with the man’s traveller’s identity.

Over at the desk, though, Red saw something more interesting. There were no letters left at the table, but a fairly large, locked ornate box was placed there. It reminded him of the merchant he had stolen from, and without hesitation, Red picked it up. It was too heavy to carry with his own two hands, though, and he picked some bedsheets to make an improvised sling.

After confirming there was nothing else of value hidden in the room, Red went back out. He didn’t bother closing the windows behind himself. After all, the man would have to be an idiot not to notice someone had robbed him. He waved at Allen, telling him to come down, and then scaled down the guild building himself.

The two of them met up in a nearby alley, and the young master looked ecstatic that their plan had worked out.

Allen laughed. “We did it! We tricked those imperial idiots!”

“Come on, we should return.” Red said, ignoring the boy’s joy.

“Wait! First you have to tell me.” Allen looked at the box Red was carrying. “What’s in that box? Do you think that’s where they keep their evil plans?”

“Plans?” Red frowned. “I just took it because it looked expensive.”