The masked person didn’t respond verbally, but their posture became ever so slightly more rigid, as if not expecting William to have noticed the staring.

“Maybe don’t antagonize them, William,” Jane said, shifting her gaze between him and their ‘protectors’.

“I’m only teasing slightly to lighten the atmosphere here. It’s not like we have any inherent bad blood. We all want to see Stonegate eat shit I think, or at least the ones cracking the whip,” William replied, speaking loud enough to be heard by all the people around them.

“Too right!” One of the masked strangers cheered before getting a stern glare from the one that had eyed William and flat stares from the rest of the masked people.

William had a feeling that the guy wasn’t meant to speak. Oh well, it was an opportunity to build some familiarity.

“So guys, and maybe gals, hard to tell, though I guess that’s the intention. I’m guessing in this sort of situation, you aren’t meant to speak to the people you’re… chaperoning. Nod if I’m right, unless you can’t do that.”

The one that had in William’s mind checked him out gave a short and subtle nod. Good. Some familiarity was being built slowly. William however, didn’t know what to say next without it getting awkward again.

Fortunately for him, Nite and the guy he assumed was her boss emerged once again.

“Okay, I know the full situation and would like to offer you our hospitality. The proper one this time. Go about your business, guards.

The masked people nodded and vanished as quickly as they had appeared. It made sense given the stereotype they portrayed.

The leader led the group through the gates and onto dimly lit streets, illuminated by lit torch sconces. Unmasked people moved around as if it had always been their town, but having that many people up and awake in the city at once was more like an old earthen city. William hated crowds and confined spaces, but thankfully the people moved quickly in the remains of Shaderest. He wondered how many were assassin’s or thieves and how many were admin and diplomatic advocates? Or other supporting roles within this ‘Foundation’ organization.

“Sorry about the precautions we took. This territory is limited to our knowledge. Now I know that you all are local, I’d like to form a working relationship. You can call me Raze. Nite has told me your names and I’m happy to meet you. We have a lot to discuss.”

William took in what Raze had just said. On a side note, the name was quite cool. William wondered how that name came to be. It was probably his alias, like Nite had hers, but it implied he liked to burn things. Did they form an alias of their choosing, or are they given one for deeds done?

Stacey gently tapped William’s arm. He was getting distracted yet again. William realized he had been staring off in thought with out reply for too long.

“We aren’t quite local. Well, Maya here hailed from Everglade, but the rest of us are integrated into this world,” William replied, giving an apologetic smile.

Raze looked at him knowingly and said, “By any chance, are you in the process of learning new fighting forms or techniques at present? I’ve seen that kind of distraction before. Also, that is even greater news. Many integrated people over the years have went on to be powerhouses and noted in history.”

William was frankly amazed at how quickly Raze had figured out his current issue. He also wasn’t surprised that his position as an integrated person would be seen as a boon. One of the few isekai things that actually met his expectations since coming to the world.

“I am indeed in the middle of learning another form of my martial style. Sadly, time hasn’t been the most available resource lately.”

Raze nodded, his visible eyes seeming to convey tiredness.

“It’s nightfall and we won’t be solving the Stonegate problem in the morning, so you might as well go ahead and rest up. There’s still plenty of houses unused here, so just grab one of those and rest in there. We can talk more later once everyone has more energy.”

Some final words were shared between William and Raze, then Nite accompanied them while the party looked for a place to rest. William had Echo scout a few buildings until one stood out. It was clearly a hovel, but it was secluded and off of the main thoroughfares. It would do the job fine. Nite memorized the location and said that she would collect them in the morning to talk shop with Raze.

The group picked different areas to set their beds up. John and Jane set theirs up on the eastern side of the building, Maya had her bed in the center of the room stating that she wanted to be able to move quickly in any direction if need be. William and Stacey took the western wall.

Stacey and William lay in their bed as Ashen and Echo were curled up at the bottom of it. The door to their building had a functional lock so their was less need to have Echo keep watch all night. William had instructed Echo to ping the area around them occasionally and to do it more when they had gone to sleep, just to be safe.

“William, What do you think we can do about Greenwell?” Stacey asked, running her fingers along his chest.

The stat increases he had built up since coming to GAEA had started to show. He had a slightly leaner, more well toned build. There was a long way to go before he got those Greek marble statue levels of chisel, but he didn’t look bad. Stacey seemed to enjoy looking at his growing muscles, so that was a big win.

“Hopefully these guys will go cloak and dagger on the enemy. If they can assassinate enough of them, including the really high level dudes, then we can finish the rest off and free everyone. That would be ideal, but if it was easily achieved, they would’ve done it by now. Somethings off. Maybe the enemy have some detection magic or item in play.”

“Then how can we save everyone?”

William let out a tired sigh and ran his fingers along her hand.

“I… Don’t know. I really don’t. Hopefully, Raze will clear it up more in the morning.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“Then we save who we can… Who we want to save most. I don’t imagine we would succeed easily to even save a handful of people, but if we did, then I’d choose those I’m more familiar with. That option in itself is probably nigh on impossible, but I’m well and truly stumped.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“We’ll work it out, William. Tomorrow may have great news for us.”

“I really hope so, Angel.”

“I like it when you call me that,” Stacey said, face warmer hued than before.

William was about to reply when she kissed him. They both stopped talking then, enjoying the taste of the other. They wouldn’t go farther out of respect for the others in the room, but nearly under the covers, the two enjoyed their private world together nonetheless.

Morning came, accompanied by Nite. She looked on at the beds as they were packed away, or stowed away in William’s case.

“Killed a good number of the enemy already? Higher ups too?” Nite asked, voice tinged with amused interest.

“Pretty much. They like to travel in style it seems,” William replied, curious as to how she knew, but any spying for a long period of time would have showed others using the beds.

“The greed of Stonegate. It’s so prevalent, I’m surprised the air itself in Stonegate doesn’t try and rob you of your breath.”

“You’re particularly talkative today. What changed?” William asked, noting that her tone was less tired and flat than the previous night.

“Good news came, so of course I’m in higher spirits. Most of us are. I’m even happier, knowing that you’ve already deprived the enemy of some captains and similar officers as well as their equipment. I have one of those beds myself. Took it after slitting the throat of a greedy diplomat who to be honest deserved worse. Super cozy. Self cleaning enchantments did wonders to remove the blood stains too.”

“Got mine from the Baron’s son,” William said with a grin and looked to Stacey before continuing, “Good news came, Angel.”

“Angel?!” John and Jane said simultaneously, their faces full of amusement at the discovery.

“Okay, first of all, fuck you both. Secondly, fuck you again,” William said, prompting the pair to laugh even harder.

William sighed and gave up, feeling comforted as Stacey gave him a pat on the back and whispered, “I love it. To bad their relationship isn’t as deep as ours yet.”

William smiled and looked back to a now wide-eyed Nite. Her eyes were fixed on William and even with the mask on, her mouth was clearly hanging open.

“What did I say, Nite?”

“Is it really true? William, did you really kill the Baron’s son?”

“Um… Yeah, I basically obliterated the top half of his body with an attack,” William said, catching Maya grimace slightly.

“William, do you know what killing him has done?”

William felt a lot of guilt at the consequence, but not at the deed. He was anticipating the warmer welcome becoming a deadly encounter, and mentally readied himself.

He scanned the doorway behind Nite, expecting more cloaked figures to enter.

“Thank you William. Thank you so much.”

He had honestly not expected that. She had genuine appreciation in her voice as she said it.

After a moment, she continued, “He was a vile scumbag, exploiting the poor women in Fort Boulder. To speak up was to see your entire family put to death. He took the purity from so many young women and didn’t have any negative repercussions. As a woman who grew up at Fort Boulder, thank you so so much. The boss will like to thank you for different reasons.”

William smiled, but didn’t understand what ‘other reasons’ translated to. She must have seen his questioning look and decided to explain.

“The mobilization of troops has thinned the numbers at Fort Boulder and there is little love lost for the garrisoned out-of-town troops. Other agents will act in Fort Boulder from the reduced presence, furthermore, most of the bad apples in Stonegate’s forces are deployed here. Sadly, the most just men often die suspiciously in Fort Boulder or end up forced into doing dark deeds that break their mind, body, and soul. With this, we can thin the herd in a two pronged attack on the town’s forces. There are a lot of high level and high ranked people in the region that have much less protection than back in the fort.”

Those were all very good reasons to rejoice.

“It seems to be a day for good news then!”, William cheered.

Nite chuckled at that and replied, “I’d say that going into discussions with the boss, he’ll be more than happy to make accommodations on solving the problem and helping you guys out. We should get moving though, I think it’s gonna be a busy day.”

Nite led the group out and through one of the main thoroughfares cutting across Shaderest. Lots of the buildings were similar to the one they stayed in and William assumed that was the level of standard accommodation in the town. As they walked, the houses and other structures started to get taller, more detailed and decorative. They were apparently headed for the swanky part of town. Most of the buildings were undamaged. It seemed that when the raiders took over, they only burned the areas around the poorer parts. In fact, the more they walked into the center of town, the less that mostly wooden buildings appeared. It made more sense then and people living in these places must have been very wealthy. It didn’t really help them in the end though. Then they saw it.

A large rectangular building made wholly from stone, bearing three stone towers with parapets laced throughout stood high. It wasn’t as tall as some of the merchant manors that they had passed, but it was chunky and sturdy from a glance. “How the hell, did the bandits get into that place?” William thought, and then he saw it. The main gate to the complex. The gates were wide open and as they were less than twenty meters away, William could see the hinges on the gate were warped and bent. They appeared to be of solid iron so how did they manage to do that?

Nite spotted the confusion on his face and looked at the hinges then back to William.

“We think that a magic wielder was behind it. One of our own mages confirmed traces of elemental magic around the hinges. Did you ever encounter any capable mages among the bandits? Any exceptional ones even?”

William thought back and one person came to mind.

“Yes. Ar’Nass or Nass for short, apparently. He was manipulating the bandits for his own means and is who knows where right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him. The rest of the story fills itself out I guess. Gates cant shut due to damage. Bandits charge in and slay everyone. Step three, profit.”

“That is roughly in line with our own theory, minus your… unique way of explaining things,” Nite said, gesturing for them to keep following.

William caught glimpses of shadowed figures moving around the building and along the walls lining the complex.

Jane touches her hand to the wall, running it across the partially smoothed stone.

“What is this place?” She asked, scanning the outside walls with interest.

“I believe it was formerly the barracks of the guard garrison originally here. Now, it’s our headquarters in the region.”

William could see the barracks design now. The outside walls were several feet thick and inside the complex, three separate towers were spaced out in an equilateral triangle around what William could only describe as a circular building that was wider than it was tall. The towers and walls were far higher than the main building. At the base of each tower was a marquee made of stone that formed a round lip that covered rows of beds underneath. It was a peculiar design, but the amount of beds and stacks of crates spread out with barrels of arrows certainly implied barracks.

“I’m guessing this is the center most point of town?” john asked, seeming to have some revelation.

“Yes… how could you tell?” Nite replied, sounding as curious as William.

“Well, what do you want guards to do when the town is attacked?”

“you would want the guards to run out and stop the threat,” William said, not sure where he was going with the line of thought until a mental penny dropped and William added, ”never mind, got it. The barracks is centralized so that no matter where the town is attacked, it is an equal distance away and a response can be swift, which is reinforced by this whole open plan barracks set up.”

John let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Dude, at least humor me. I wanted to be the impressive one for a change.”

William felt bad then, he had stolen his friends thunder and that was a dick move.

“Sorry man, got excited. One thing though, you can literally make fuck tons of fire to incinerate groups of enemies. That’s pretty impressive.”

William meant it too. He ignored the fact that Stacey could do it too as that wasn’t the point. He was trying to reassure his friend. Thankfully it seemed to work and John looked a little more animated.

“Before completion, everything must have a foundation. Foundations of life, of kin, of honor. To lay the foundation is to ensure a path to completion. You may never see completion, yet future kin will,” Nite said, nodding sagely.

She was kind enough to elaborate, much to William’s appreciation.

“Your friendship is growing from a foundation. You built it from nothing and now are willing to give way to the other to help raise them high. That process can be applied everywhere in life. This is the belief of our members. We may not see the fruits of our labor, but future members, friends, and kin will, be it ten years, one hundred years, maybe even a millenia.”

William felt a little more nervous as he asked a question that had just cropped up.

“Nite, is the Foundation a cult?”