Even though William appeared to be casual, he couldn’t hide the uneasiness in his behaviour.

Well, as things progressed, he should have been more uneasy than casual. Why was he even trying to appear casual?

There’s something I need to make sure, before advancing further. Things hadn’t gone this wrong so early in the event a year from now.

Narrowing my eyes at the sorcerer, I walked a couple of steps forward, palms behind my back, gesturing to the others to stay put in their spot. I need to test something out, and to do that I would need both Shailyn’s and Noyar’s support. At least they did not disrupt me until I finished.

William, who was checking out Noyar, returned his one-eyed gaze to me. There were some eccentricities in his eyes. Perhaps surprised at my state, but the light was too dim to make them out anything.

“What happened to your eye?” I asked.

William stared for a few good seconds. My beat-up face might have confused him, but he seemed more confused by my lead. "It's a long story," William said, shaking his head, "but it seemed like it wasn't just me who got the short end of the warlock. What happened to your arm and that face?"

I didn’t answer and stared down at William for a good couple of seconds before I was interrupted.

"Can you two stop?" Shailyn asked from behind. “I can’t hold off against the cold. Let’s return to the camp first, before we’ll have the time of our lives to discuss what happened to us."

"Yes,“ William said, “even though the blizzard has stopped for now, the cold is unbearable. Lady Shailyn, you don’t look good, perhaps . . ."

I gestured again with my palms on my back to stay put. Shailyn didn’t seem to be in her right mind to take my gesture seriously, considering she even noticed them, but her Knight Noyar had a better grasp of the situation. She kept Shailyn in place while I advanced to complete my last test.

William seemed to notice something as well. “Unfortunately,” he continued, trying to draw attention elsewhere again, “I don’t think the camp would be a good option to return to."

I bit my tongue. Shailyn, who listened a little to me and Noyar’s caution, drew closer. "The camp?" she asked, with evident worry in her eyes. "What happened to it? What about Lord Kirien and the others?"

“Shailyn, calm down.” Noyar steadied her as much as she could.

"There was an attack," William said, looking down. "I failed to stop them. I . . . I’m sorry . . ."

"Let's go there first and—" Shailyn said as she moved.

She was about to move past, but I drew my good arm against her shoulder to stop her. She gave me a peculiar look, but I returned my attention to the sorcerer.

"What happened to Young Lord Oscar?" William asked, laughing with a bitter tone. It appeared his injuries weren’t letting him smile easily. "Why are you giving me those distrustful stares?"

I looked William in the eyes for a moment before my shoulder slumped. "It’s nothing. Sorry if I offended you. The night was long, and too many things went wrong," I said, shaking my head. I saw William relaxing a bit. “I think the cold got into my head with all the worries. By the way, how’s Yeriel? "

I didn’t uphold, showing my genuine worries in front of him.

"Yes, the cold is absolutely irresistible," William said, touching the side of his bad eye, “as for Yeriel, she should be fine for the time being. She escaped when the warlock hit us. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect her."

I bit my lips and shook my head. “I’m sure you did everything you could, William,“ I said, and brought out the container of honey. "You don’t look alright. Here, have some honey."

Saying that, I tossed the container at William, making sure he couldn't catch it, and it dropped a few steps ahead of him. "Oops, a poor toss. I’m not really well."

"Huh," Shailyn snorted from my side. “When I asked for it, you didn’t give it to me, but now you’re giving it to him. Oscar, you’re not fair."

‘Aunt, what would take you to shut up?’ I groaned inwardly, knowing that it wasn’t her fault, however, my eyes were glued to William. His left eye fluttered uneasily, hearing Shailyn, while his body shook unconsciously.

He was drawing in energy.

"Come on, take it," I told the sorcerer. “It’s good stuff, and it isn’t like someone would put some poison in it. I mean, someone needs to be a real miscreant to do something that sneaky and terrible."

"What in Ishar’s name are you talking about?" My aunt yelled, but I didn’t listen to her this time around.

The widened look in William’s eye, and him trying to escape, were enough evidence.

Gusts of stream released from behind me as my body lurched towards William, who was on his first step to escape. Within a moment, I was there, the Punisher held tight to my good arm while a transparent wall of shield formed before William.

Holding nothing back, I swung. A crimson fire burned in the nail sword the very instant as it penetrated the shield before my body collided against it, shattering it like clear glass. The shield dissolved into thin air, but my sword was still lit in the crimson glory of purgatory.

I didn’t attack William with the sword, though, as I needed a few answers from him, but I didn’t hold back when my body collided against him, flinging him a few metres away.

“What’s happening?” Shailyn yelled from behind.

I didn’t listen to her, and it seemed William was showing his true face as well, drawing in energy to form dark flames. But, before he could finish his spell, I shot again, taking full advantage of the false-ward to fling him away once more, jerking my head back and right leg forward for a flying kick.

William appeared to be more resilient than the average Magus, but with the persistent kicks and sword swings without spirit energy, he succumbed. When I finished, he was still in better condition than I or anyone appeared to be.

Well, I was too fatigued to use spirit energy, so my feet and bare sword did all the work. The result was just what I desired, and I have to thank the false-ward for that.

It wouldn’t be possible without that. It is only where it stands advantageous against the Dominion of Gravity. I only need a few strands of energy to manipulate it.

William didn’t struggle more as my sword pointed right at his neck, while Shailyn and Noyar followed, jamming any route of escape for the warlock. Yes, Warlock. It appeared there was a warlock in our midst, hiding in our ranks.

“Aunt,” I called, my voice dry, “Can you guess how you’ve been compromised?”

The little luminescent lamp didn’t have enough light to see properly, but I could guess my aunt had an unsightly expression on her face, staring at William. It was as if something had broken inside her at this betrayal.

“Why?” she asked the warlock, sealing his channels first. “Why did you do it? After a year of so persistent work, you . . . I trusted you. . . .“

William stared at her for a few good seconds before looking away, not uttering a word.

“I had trusted you and brought you to this post . . . .” her voice quivered, lips shaking.

Cursed warlock! She was truly vulnerable. Even though Shailyn seemed fine physically, I could make out she was anything but fine inside. Noyar was there to take care of her.

"Now, will you tell me what happened to your eye?" I asked then, resting my sword in the scabbard. "Or is it also fake like yourself?"

William said nothing and stared at me hatefully.

“How did you know?” Noyar asked me. Other than the revelation that their colleague, who has been with them for over a year, was a Warlock, she seemed shocked at my display.

I didn’t answer first, but searched for the little container of honey. Finding it, I held it towards Noyar, giving William a gaze. "I think he mixed some kind of spirit-numbing drug into them. It's likely when I first gave him the container. I was too busy doing other things to notice anything then, but after drinking that honey twice, I’m sure something was wrong with it."

I sighed. “I’m sorry. It seemed that my poor performance had dragged the team down, and who knows what he did in the camp?”

Yeriel, is she alright? Oh holy hell, I gave this poison to her, didn’t I? My stomach churned at the discovery. And there’s also Lord Kirien. Now I know why William was so headstrong in getting everyone the honey.

"How?" Noyar asked, examining the honey. She found nothing wrong with it from the outside. "I literally saw you taking the honey a few minutes ago. How are you fine? You even drew spirit energy to capture William."

"The answer is with the Hunter bee’s honey. Among many of its features, it’s a very potent medicine to neutralise some poisons in particular." And more importantly, Purgatory burned most of the poison that infected my system. All it needed was a little time.

First, I thought the dullness was because of the tranquillizers Althan and his buddies struck me with, but after I took the honey a few moments ago, I felt a jolting reaction from purgatory, burning the honey away. That was when I suspected William, as none other to whom I handed over this honey, would do that. However, I needed to make sure that's why I looked for signs.

I acted as if I was sure William was the culprit, and William fell for it and tried to escape. In the end, all played well.

"Enough of that. Let's return. I’m worried about others." I said, letting out a breath of worry.

All played well, after all the damage William caused.

________