833 Traitors

“This is the first time someone came and asked to have my child,” said Arthur with intrigue. “Is this still your goal?” Arthur asked since he didn’t know what to do with her. Finally, however, he retracted his hand from her stomach.

“The goal remained, but its reasons changed. I wanted to mother a strong child, but after I met you, I wanted my child to be like you. If he carries a trait of yours, then he would be precious.”

“You flatter me, but I’m not going to do that. I don’t have plans to father a child I don’t have the time to raise, and not with someone I don’t love.”

“Then I just have to make you love me,” said Rain with a grand sigh. “If this body failed, then I wonder what would work?”

pAn,da n<0,>v,e1 “How about starting to listen?” asked Arthur as he massaged his temples. “In any case, I want to know what Lyle is doing. I heard that he has secret things to do in Living Forest?”

“Indeed,” said Rain with a nod. “Princess Ivory visited us as we were smuggling your friends into Helios. She told Lyle that her father plans to do what the forger Gray warned about.”

“The matter about stealing the citizen’s lifeforce?” asked Arthur with genuine surprise. “I thought he had no access to the arrays and had no capable runemasters to help him.”

“Sun Emperor Workshop turned out to be behind this, Lyle reported. He found someone who knows how to destroy the place from the inside.”

As she was explaining, the bracelet on her hand started blinking. Rain frowned and touched it, answering the communication coming. Moments later, Lyle could be heard on the other end.

“Rain?” the voice came static and distant, accompanied by loud noises that made it hard to understand. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can. However, there are still several hours before your report.”

“This is not about that,” said Lyle on the other end. “We need to contact Arthur as soon as possible. I just spotted someone he would care to know about.”

“I’m here, Lyle,” said Arthur to the communication watch, and there was a brief silence. “Rain just told me about your mission. Who are you talking about?”

“Your brother, Oren Silvera, is here attacking this camp. I was working with an old researcher to sabotage this array, but Oren appeared with countless forest spirits to attack the settlement. However, he is having a hard time against the lasers.”

“Oren is there?” repeated Arthur with confusion. As far as he knew, Oren should have left Living Forest days ago, accompanied by Marvi. “Is he going to lose?”

“Unless I offer some aid,” said Lyle. “This is the reason I wanted to talk to you. I thought your brother was on your side.”

“Things happened, and he left the guild. In any case, there is no need to help him. Unless you are certain of his death, do not intervene. Send us the coordinates if you need to come back, and I’ll create a portal.”

“…I understand.”

After that, the call ended. Rain retracted her wrist while staring at Arthur’s absent expression. He was thinking about his brother, and it made him sigh.

“If you are worried, then you should help him.”

“He will be offended if he knew that I helped,” said Arthur before smiling. “These runemasters must have been harming the forest spirits, making them seek help from Oren. If so, this is his adventure to live.”

“What if he dies?”

“Oren won’t perish. He can be far stronger than I am as long as he fights what he believes in,” said Arthur with a smile. “He left Ascent because he disagreed with a decision of mine. At that moment, I realized he was becoming a man of his own instead of just a younger brother.”

“Right choices are the hardest to make,” said Rain as she patted his head. “Let’s have dinner before we go meet Lyle’s sister.”

“…how did he take it?”

“Oh, he lost composure for sure,” laughed Rain heartily. “I had to punch him just to get him back to his usual self. Although he was calm when he talked to you, I doubt he would be when you two meet again.”

“…I had no other choice, after all. She came wanting to help once she knew we could save her grandfather. I doubt she cares about the rebellion as much as about saving Zonas Mantra from prison.”

“You had the choice of refusing both her and Ai, but you wanted your most trusted to be a part of this plan,” said Rain with slight resentment. Arthur raised a brow at her. pand(a-n0vel.c)om

“The people hate us. If we fight against the emperor now, then the public will be the ones defending him. While I go to the Light Prison, the rebellion should rally behind Ai.”

“Lyle would not like supporting someone as the Elemental Saint or whatever,” said Rain with a frown. “She is an outsider, Arthur. Our soldiers will not like her.”

“Let them see her first, and we can decide later. Furthermore, I will never leave Ai here. She will be coming with me to Ascent once this is over. We will use her to appease the public during the transition.”

“How would we be different if we fool the public into following someone who has nothing to do with the Transmutation Guardian? This is what the emperor is doing.”

“I met Rolan of Orlan once I was in Ilios. He was a calculating man who didn’t care about history or who was following him. Orlan was his home, not this.”

“…then, what about me?”

“What about you?”

“Where would I go once this is over?”

“How is that my decision to make? You need to decide for yourself,” Arthur said before walking toward the table, where food was already prepared. He waved his hand, warming it. “Let’s sit down.”

“I have already made my decision,” said Rain before walking toward him and grabbing his hand. Arthur stared at her as she raised it and kissed it gently. “Ascent better have a place for me.”

After saying that, Rain sat down and started eating, moaning at how delicious the food was. Arthur stared at his hand and then at her before sitting down and eating.

After the meal, Arthur talked to the rest of the camp. The half-giants were frustrated, while the rest of the soldiers were bored. Arthur decided to give them a speech, telling them that the end of their rebellion would be soon.

The two were about to embark on their journey when one of his shadows returned. These shadows were ones he created as soon as he reached the camp and made them posted around the rebels.

“What is this thing?” asked Rain with confusion while Arthur stared at the shadow with a deadpan expression. Then, he sighed.

“I expected the rebellion to have spies since it was unrealistic to believe all of them are loyal. Thus, I asked my minions to monitor the situation and tell me when someone leaves this camp.”

“The rest of the rebels don’t know about Lyle,” said Rain, reassuring him. “After you told him about the importance of keeping himself hidden, Lyle spared no effort to conceal his identity. New rebels were not told about his identity.”

“We can pray that the emperor doesn’t know about him, but I doubt it. Better keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. The wise thing to do is assume that the emperor knows about us.”

“Then, what is stopping him from executing Lyle, as he would do with Zonas?” asked Rain with a confusion that Arthur shared, and he shook his head without answering.

“We need to clear our camp from such spies. My shadows will take care of it,” said Arthur. “The spies are usually weak since strong ones would raise suspicions and investigations.”

“Tell the rest of the camp of their sin since their disappearance would raise unease and worry,” advised Rain, and Arthur nodded. The two embarked on their journey, leaving several corpses hanged around the camp with a single word carved on their skin.

Traitor.

Arthur knew he was cruel and that this would raise fear and tension among the soldiers. However, it was better to make an example of the traitors rather than let more betray them.

Helios was not difficult to infiltrate if you could use every rune. Arthur and Rain teleported to the safehouse created by Rain, where the three women stayed. However, they were all out.

“Ai should be visiting the different churches with the disguised Haro, and Layla should still be convincing the escapee to help us. It wouldn’t be hard to find them, though.”

“Then, let’s help Night.”

The two disguised themselves before walking through the abandoned streets. The three districts of Helios were growing more different every day, with a disparity between the three districts.

Arthur was shocked to see Rain take him to a particular building in the slums, which he had visited before. It was the inn where Grandma Mo lived. “This is the place,” said Rain, as Arthur stared with confusion.

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