William stood before the council of the Order of the Watchful Sentry. He wasn’t sure whether he was officially a part of the order or not, but he at least believed in their main goal. Today, they had specifically called for him.

“You must not create any more copies of this technique,” one elder said.

“You understand why, of course. It is too dangerous,” another one said afterwards.

“At the very least,” a third continued, “You must make sure it is always secure and guarded. If not, it should be destroyed.”

“We repeat ourselves as such so that you are clear on the gravity of the situation, even though you most probably already understand. The Demon King must not know of this technique. First because he could defend himself against it, and also because it would be a terrible addition to his abilities.”

William continuously nodded. “I understand. I have no plans to make any more copies of that. I am also well aware of the threat of the Demon King.”

The council members nodded as well. Though not all of them necessarily believed he was William Stevenson reincarnated… a few more did, now that he had Chris. Regardless, he had proved useful to the order, even with the troubles caused by killing the Archmage. However, even that wasn’t necessarily considered a bad thing. Even in the situation where it hadn’t ended up with positive benefits, the Order wasn’t in the business of judging snap decisions. Instead, they only judged intentional, methodical things such as practicing demonic cultivation methods. As for working with demons… well, William didn’t plan to go around talking about Lorelei, for various reasons. It would almost certainly be deemed as necessary and acceptable, but there was no reason to advertise it either. William almost wanted to see her again, but that would probably mean something unexpected came up, which would be bad news.

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William was preparing for the journey to Eclea. It would be faster to travel through Ostana, but that carried more risks for William and Dong Xin, even though they would be able to travel on real roads. Meanwhile, travelling through Ustil was more physically dangerous, but it should not be at a level they couldn’t handle. Especially since they would not be going deep into the country, so they should be fairly safe, as such things went.

In Eclea itself, it had already been confirmed that there were no wanted posters for William and Dong Xin. While sometimes the two countries of Eclea and Ostana worked together to capture criminals moving between them or into them, that wasn’t always the case. The members of the Order of the Watchful Sentry who had been to Eclea reported that there weren’t any posters for William and Dong Xin, but didn’t know why. It was possible they felt the charges were flimsy, or it could have been the fact that the wanted posters were too varied and thus weren’t reliable, or perhaps Eclea just didn’t care. Of course, actually asking too deeply about the situation would be seen as suspicious, so there wasn’t much to go on.

As for the general populace in Eclea, many of them were aware that the Archmage in Ostana had been killed, but after that the details varied. Along with the truth, and things similar to the truth, there were rumors that the Archmage had been struck down by a demon, or that he had been arrested by the knights and sentenced to death. There were also plenty who knew the truth that he had been killed, but the details that the killer was William or even from Liaoyang were lost, as the supposed identity seemed to change nationalities for each person who was asked. As for border security, they weren’t particularly inspecting those from Liaoyang more closely, which meant the authorities either didn’t know the specifics or didn’t care enough to bother with the effort.

The members of the Order hadn’t been able to accomplish much else, however. They had not been able to meet with any important members of the mages guild in Eclea, and when they finally received some appointments, they kept being delayed. The excuse was that everyone was quite busy, which wasn’t untrue. However, it seemed likely that unless they could present more impressive credentials, they wouldn’t be able to actually have their opportunity to speak. After all, they could only present themselves as a diplomatic group from Liaoyang, but not representing the country. As for meeting with other important groups, there weren’t many to be had.

Eclea was actually controlled by the wizards guild there, under the authority of the Archmage and the council. Not all of the members of the council were wizards, but many were. In either case, they derived their authority from the same place, and any meetings were arranged through the same channel. A small group from the most distant nation wasn’t considered particularly important to meet with, so they instead returned to Liaoyang with the news to attempt to form a new strategy.

This was why William, Dong Xin, and Yu Li were going. Two of them were actually wizards, and would likely be better received. At least, that was the hope. William was actually somewhat of an accessory while the official representatives would be Dong Xin and Yu Li, but he still had the right kind of knowledge necessary, so he would be useful. In a pinch, Chris could also do magic, but they decided it was better to represent William as someone with little magical ability for the most part.

Unlike Dong Xin’s trip in Ustil, this one had more planning- and more funding. Thus, camels had been secured for the journey, which would greatly help reduce the travel time. More importantly, it would allow them to bring more supplies and “gifts” which shouldn’t hurt their chances of meeting more important people. In addition to Dong Xin, Yu Li, and William, there were several other members of the Order who would serve as both attendants and guards. Having a larger group would at least make them look better, though hopefully they wouldn’t actually need more combat prowess, or even any.

Yu Jian made sure to spent time doting on Yu Li while there was a chance, since he “only had a few exceptional grandchildren”. Yu Huan was always around. As for William… he was in a somewhat awkward position of technically being older than Yu Jian, however he was still treated as much like a grandson as was possible in those circumstances. In this case, it was a practical but expensive gift in the form of some enchanted robes. They weren’t as good as the best ones William had possessed in his previous life, but they reminded him of the ones he had won in the tournament and used for quite some time. In Liaoyang, even such relatively minor enhancements were hard to come by and expensive, and William greatly appreciated it. Yu Li also received some enchanted robes, as well as a staff that, while not enchanted, was of good quality and would be quite useful. William obviously didn’t get a staff, both because a staff made for a wizard wouldn’t be useful for him, but also because any enchantments that they had would be geared in a completely different direction than was useful for him. More importantly, he had Chris, and William probably wouldn’t have given him up even for a better staff, if such a thing existed.