Seeing the Routine Again

After leaving Vitus Restaurant, the two of them should have headed to the market or the city gates to meet up with Diphiya and the others. However, after walking for some time, Seraf discovered that his master was leading him into sparsely populated alleyways. His pace alternated between fast and slow, as though he were waiting for someone while also fearing being caught by whoever was behind them. Having done business for so many years, how could Seraf not understand what this meant? He immediately quickened his pace and stayed close to his master. After all, there were few people who could rival his master in combat prowess. At this moment, his master's side was the safest place to be.

After traveling for a quarter of an hour, Sordil and Seraf gradually left the bustling streets behind and arrived in a run-down district with few people around. At that moment, Sordil finally stopped. He slowly turned around and called out to a dilapidated residence ahead to his left, "I never thought you people from the Intelligence Guild moonlighted as bandits too. You really know how to make a living! Are you short on people over there? If you are, do you think the two of us could join?"

The surroundings were utterly silent. No one answered Sordil's question, and not even a shadow could be seen in that crumbling building. If Seraf had not known what his master was capable of, he would certainly have thought Sordil was trying to fool him.

Seeing that no one answered, Sordil continued, "Since you refuse to speak to me, I suppose I'll have to invite you out myself! I hope you won't blame me for hitting too hard later!"

"Compress!"

As Sordil's words fell, the ruined building ahead to the left shrank rapidly like dehydrated vegetables, eventually becoming the size of a toy model.

Bang

The instant the building shrank, a black shadow burst from beneath the ground and fled into the distance. At the same time, a tiny black speck the size of a beetle flew out from within the building and escaped in another direction. An ordinary person would have needed to put in some effort to catch those two, but unfortunately for them, they had encountered no ordinary person—they had encountered Sordil. Their fate was therefore easy to imagine.

"Prison."

"Shift."

Invisible Space Magic crossed the distance and constructed a transparent cage before the two of them. Then, a tremendous pulling force dragged both of them, along with the transparent prison, back before Sordil.

"Sand Sculpting: Rock House."

After capturing the two, yellow light flashed in Sordil's hand. The destroyed building and ground returned to their original state, as though nothing had happened here. But that was not all. After repairing the damage caused by the battle, pink runes appeared around Sordil one after another. A Magic Array then formed, and Sordil and the others vanished from the spot.

"This is a Magic Space I constructed. No one can discover this place. Uh... at least, no one in this city can find it. Now, we can talk, right?"

The two people, now shrunk down and held in Sordil's hand, stared at the scene before them in astonishment. Yet neither of them bowed their heads or begged Sordil for mercy. Instead, they remained silent. They firmly believed that their master would soon send someone to find them. As for Sordil's nonsense about no one being able to find this place, they did not believe a word of it.

"It seems you have great faith in your master! Fine, then let me guess who he is!"

"Not long after we left Vitus Restaurant, the two of you followed us. That means you must have received instructions from the Wendester Guild. But the Intelligence Guild normally has no interest in the identities of its employers, much less sends people to follow them. So, you definitely aren't guild members. Then who are you?"

"You should be subordinates of the black-robed man who received me. And I only made two requests of him: a residence, and General Langu. The residence should not have aroused his vigilance, so it could only have been General Langu who made him wary of me. That makes his identity obvious. If he isn't General Langu's subordinate, then he is the king's eyes and ears among the common folk!"

"However, Wendester is a major guild that has existed for nearly a century, with an exceedingly strict internal structure. It would be extremely difficult for an ordinary person to infiltrate the guild. The black-robed man holds an important position overseeing the handover of missions throughout Philiers, so the difficulty of winning him over is obvious. That is absolutely not something a general stationed at the border could accomplish. So, is there even any need to guess who his master is?"

"Well? Was my analysis correct?"

Gulp.

As Sordil finished speaking, three sounds of swallowing echoed out. The two captives and Seraf all stared at him in astonishment. Seraf felt that his master was practically the incarnation of He Xi, a wisdom angel descended into the mortal world. Being able to serve under him was simply the greatest fortune of his life. Unlike Seraf's delight, the two captives felt as though they had fallen into the hands of a devil, with no secrets left for them to conceal.

Seeing that the two still did not answer, Sordil became even more certain of his deduction. "It seems I wasn't wrong, was I?"

Faced with reality, the two prisoners could only nod, confirming that Sordil's guess was correct.

"Master, you are truly brilliant! This subordinate admires you beyond measure! What should we do with these two now?"

"Pack them up and take them with us for now. That way, the other side won't send more people to bother us."

Facing Seraf's deeply reverent gaze, Sordil replied expressionlessly. In truth, Sordil did not think it was anything remarkable. After all, he was a man who had received higher education and been steeped in countless fantasy webnovels. This kind of little scheme was nothing. Once Seraf had properly packed away the shrunken pair and the house, the two of them headed for the city gates again.

"I heard Slaik went to bully some outsiders, but got beaten up instead!"

"Really? Slaik got beaten up? You're joking, right?"

"It happened on the main street ahead. Whether it's true or not, why not go take a look?"

"You're right! Come on, let's hurry over!"

Just as Sordil and Seraf reached the area near the city gates, they overheard the pedestrians' discussion. A bad feeling instantly filled Sordil's chest. He hurriedly stopped a passerby and asked, "Excuse me, who is Slaik? Why was he bullying outsiders?"

"You two are newcomers, aren't you?"

"That's right!"

"That explains it! Everyone in Philiers knows Slaik is a scoundrel. He specializes in gathering beautiful women for the nobles to curry favor with those high-and-mighty lords. After gaining the nobles' protection, he began collecting protection money from every shop. If they refused to pay, he sent people to cause trouble. Anyway, if anything happened, his men were protected by the nobles and would be fine. Relying on this method, Slaik became one of Philiers' 'Four Tyrants.'"

"However, everyone in Philiers knows how he operates, so they hide their young and beautiful women away tightly to keep him from finding them. As a result, Slaik could only turn his attention to women from outside the city. Sigh! Who knows how many innocent women have already been harmed by them. I heard that this time, he set his sights on four or five beautiful women who had come from elsewhere and led people to seize them, only to be knocked to the ground instead. We were just about to go see whether it was true!"

"Oh, I see. Thank you for telling me!"

After learning the full story, Sordil let the man leave. Not only that, he immediately changed direction and rushed toward the scene with Seraf. After hearing the passerby's account, Sordil felt as though he had run into the classic fantasy-novel trope of a cannon-fodder tyrant trying to snatch the female leads. He wanted to confirm whether the "female leads" being targeted were Diphiya and the others.