Red felt for the remaining fluctuations inside the room. He got up from his cover to look into the open window of the inn.

The older merchant, whom Red could recognize because of his extravagant clothing, was pacing around the room with a nervous look on his face. There were two other large men standing by the walls, equipped with scale armor and carrying weapons at their waist. They seemed to be ready to take on any invaders, even in the middle of the night.

Just one look at them told the boy they weren’t your common mercenaries.

‘The third bodyguard is not in the room.’

Red could feel the fourth fluctuation walking downstairs, perhaps to investigate what had happened.

The boy was hesitant as he examined the situation.

‘Rimold told me nothing about the carriage.’

Red also thought it was strange how nervous the merchant was. Wasn’t the man carrying his most valuable possession in his strongbox? Why would he be so worried then?

The boy wasn’t fond of receiving incomplete information, but this wasn’t the time to curse Rimold’s name. There was only a brief window of time to act.

…

The merchant turned around to glare at his bodyguards. “Where is your other companion?!”

“He went downstairs to speak with Hubert.” the man said with a steely expression.

The merchant sneered. “Are you sure he’s not going to get lost on the way over?!”

The bodyguard frowned but didn’t respond.

“I don’t know why I even pay the lot of you!” the merchant was losing his temper. “Didn’t you tell me you left someone to watch the carriage?! How did they even-”

“Wait.” the bodyguard’s expression changed as he looked at something behind the merchant.

“What do you mean ‘wait’?! Are you out of your-”

“Get down!” the bodyguard rushed forward to pull the merchant back.

His other companion’s hand went to his weapon, but it was too late.

They saw a small shadow at the window. A pink light was glowing in their hands, before it suddenly exploded in a flash towards them.

Then, they only saw darkness.

…

Red was shocked as he stared at the scene. He never imagined Rimold’s talisman would be so effective. One second, these men were standing ready to face an intruder, while on the next, they had all fallen down like sacks of potatoes.

The boy made sure they were all truly unconscious before entering the room.

The first step - locate the strongbox.

Red gave the room a cursory glance, but he found no signs of said strongbox. The container was too big to be on the merchant’s person, according to Rimold, so the boy went straight towards the wardrobe and clothes chest in the room, the only other places it could be hidden.

‘Nothing in the wardrobe.’

The boy moved over to the chest. He threw the clothes out but still didn’t find the strongbox. Red didn’t panic, though.

He roughly measured the chest from the side, noticing something strange. Red took out his short sword before stabbing it down into the chest’s bottom. He heard the ting of his weapon stabbing something metallic.

‘Hidden compartment.’

Red didn’t bother looking for the mechanism to open this compartment. Instead, he opted for the tried-and-true method of brute force.

He continued to slash at the chest’s bottom, hacking the container to pieces. Finally, he broke enough of the wood to take out a metallic strongbox. Red didn’t bother examining the box. If this wasn’t what he was looking for, then he had to commend the merchant for fooling him.

Red used his crimson sense to examine his surroundings. No one was coming to the room, so he still had time.

‘Next, the key.’

He walked over to the merchant, patting him down. He found a coin pouch, which he pocketed, as well as a handful of jewels. No signs of the key.

Red looked at the man’s neck, noticing he was hiding a handful of necklaces under his shirt. The boy pulled them out, and sure enough, there was a small key amidst the jewelry.

Red was about to snap the chain out of the merchant’s neck before something suddenly drew his gaze in. It was one of the pendants.

A dark, opaque jewel was hanging off the necklace. It was a pure black color, darker than the night, and that seemed to draw all the light from its surroundings, as if threatening to swallow everything in. It didn’t seem to fit all the other jewelry the merchant was wearing.

It looked almost demonic in nature.

Yet, no matter how much Red tried, he couldn’t shift his gaze away from it. Slowly, something seemed to shift in the endless darkness of the gem. An image formed on the surface of the pendant, and then the boy saw it.

A lizard-like crimson eye, staring back at him, holding the end of the world in its gaze.

Suddenly, Red remembered.

The rage.

The violence.

The death.

The destruction.

The chaos.

The dark star.

It had seen him.

Like a floodgate, something seemed to unlock in the depths of his mind. A trembling came over his entire body as Red fell to the ground in horror and dizziness.

‘N-No, I have to…’

The boy tried getting up, but his body seemed to refuse him. He looked around, searching for some support to stand up, but he abruptly noticed his entire vision was crimson.

His hand went up to his eyes, feeling a damp fluid running down under his mask. Panic overtook his actions as the boy fumbled around, searching for anything to help him.

‘No, I can’t… Not here.’

Almost as if by instinct, his mind went back to the meditation technique, trying to use it to calm himself down. Yet, it was to no avail. It was as if every fiber of his being was consumed by fear and despair, and no matter what Red did, there was no getting rid of it.

His mind dug deeper, searching for something to help him. Then he remembered something.

The first time he saw the crimson mist on the surface - he had felt the same way back then as he felt now. It was a force beyond his understanding, and the boy wouldn’t have been able to get rid of it if it wasn’t for that one image.

The white slate.

As soon as Red thought back on it, he felt his fear and despair fade away like dust blown by the wind. The boy took a deep breath, noticing he had seemingly been unable to breathe the entire time. The terror dissipated from his mind, but the effects it had on his body were still there.

‘I need to hurry.’

Red didn’t dare to contemplate what had just happened. He wiped at his eyes with his sleeves, clearing his vision somewhat, before stumbling a few times trying to get to his feet. That was when he felt an approaching fluctuation.

‘The other bodyguard is returning.’

The boy tried to hurry. He picked up the strongbox, completely ignoring the key, as he was too afraid to even look back in the general direction of the merchant’s neck. Then, like a drunk, he stumbled towards the window.

He looked at the ground below.

‘I can’t climb down in my state.’

As the boy was pondering, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. The boy frowned, but didn’t hesitate any longer.

He threw the strongbox first and jumped down after it from the second floor.

In a normal situation, someone like Red who had opened quite a few veins wouldn’t have any trouble landing that jump. Yet, in his state, his landing was not graceful. He fell down on his side, and he felt the breath being taken away from his lungs.

The boy swallowed down his pain, though, and got up as fast as he could, which wasn’t fast at all. He grabbed the strongbox and limped away, using his crimson sense to scout his surroundings.

Above him, he heard a scream of alarm. He knew the bodyguard entered the room. Red hurried even more, almost fainting to get out of the alley before the man looked out the window.

However, he wasn’t confident in his speed in this state, and was already fishing his talisman out of his pocket in preparation. Then, a few seconds later, he heard a terrible shriek from above him, followed by a scream of terror.

Red felt his blood run cold, and he looked back at the window. He couldn’t see anything from his position, but above him, he heard the sounds of flesh being torn apart. From inside, more screams of panic sounded out, and the boy felt a new fluctuation appear in his detection range.

It was a demonic fluctuation.

Red shivered and started to run away without looking back. Thankfully, whatever appeared in that room had plenty of other distractions in the Adventurer’s Guild, and didn’t chase after the boy.

Soon enough, Red had successfully fled the scene of the crime, as the entire town seemed to be awoken by the death throes of the adventurers.

…

The boy didn’t immediately return to his agreed upon meeting spot with Rimold. The whole town seemed to be in a panic, and the guards were running towards the Adventurer’s Guild while screaming in alarm.

Red hid by an alley until he had recovered enough and the majority of the guards had passed him by. Only then did he return to his sect’s street.

The boy was somewhat hesitant as he approached. He knew the rest of his sect members would have woken up due to the panic, and it was likely they would find his and Rimold’s rooms empty. How wouldn’t they suspect the two of them for being responsible?

There was a bigger emergency at hand than worrying about the other’s suspicions, though. As Red approached the sect grounds, he sensed Rimold’s fluctuation hidden behind a few ruined houses.

The boy approached him, and he saw the rogue was in an alarmed state.

He shot up as soon as he saw Red, even ignoring the strongbox in his possession. “What did you do?!”

The boy shook his head, still shaken by the occurrence. “Something… Happened.”

Rimold’s eyes widened in anger. “You’re telling me?! What the fuck did you do to alarm the entire town?!”

Red caught his breath, thinking about how to explain it. “I was looking for the key… Then… Then there was a demon.”

The rogue froze. “… A d-demon? How was there a demon?”

The boy shook his head. “I don’t know. I just looked at the merchant’s necklace then-”

“Wait!” Rimold cut him off. “You said there was a necklace?!”

Red nodded.

“Did it have a dark gem?” Rimold asked with a troubled look.

The boy nodded again in surprise. “How did you know?”

The rogue shivered after his confirmation. “Oh… Oh no.”

“What is it?” Red was perplexed by his reaction.

“We’re doomed.” Rimold shook his head in denial. “We’re all doomed.”

The rogue fell silent before looking back at Red with a terror-stricken face.

“We’ve messed with demonic cultivators.”

The boy felt his blood run cold.

This was indeed a reason for worry.