Aurelia seemed ready to protest, but caught herself. After a few seconds of silence, she responded.

“I haven’t tried it before.”

“Do you think it would work?” Red asked.

“It’s possible, though there is always a risk things could go wrong with that girl. Using something like a pill would be far easier.”

“Pills may also be more easily detected if someone were to do an examination. Your undeath energy could be easily disguised as death energy, which could come off of a deathly sick person.”

Red was making some assumptions, but they had some basis in his previous encounters with undead creatures. Undead energy came from death energy, and even though the two were not the same, one could be disguised as the other. All it would take for that to happen is a cultivator skilled enough to make it happen.

Aurelia looked thoughtful, seriously considering the suggestions.

“There are a few other problems,” she said. “I would need to be close by to monitor her situation, as it is possible the undead energy could kill her outright. I also can’t guarantee the disguise will hold if a stronger cultivator examines her.”

“How strong exactly?”

“A Greater Ring Realm cultivator might be able to see through it.”

‘Would they put such a cultivator to spy on her?’

Red suspected the Empire was keeping an eye on Yrsa, but would they place such a strong cultivator just for watching a mortal? Not just that, but would such a cultivator even be able to infiltrate the city? They didn’t necessarily have the same connections as the demonic cultists in this place.

In the end, this was a risk he was willing to take.

“If such a cultivator appears, we’ll deal with it then.”

His plan was simple. Kidnapping Yrsa would arouse too much suspicion if the Imperials were indeed watching her, which was the last thing Red wanted to do. Instead, he planned on faking her death, have her be buried, and then unearth her body to sequester her in Lady Ilse’s manor.

It was a simple plan, which wouldn’t arouse suspicion given the girl’s sickly state. There were other factors that could come into play, but it was impossible to make specific plans for the unknown, so he could only deal with them if they ever came to pass.

With his course of action decided, Red discussed the specifics with Aurelia and informed Lady Ilse to be ready to receive Yrsa over the course of the next few days.

…

“Yrsa, three meads to the gentlemen in armor near the entrance! Be quick, we have more people coming in!”

“Y-Yes, Tulley!”

Yrsa moved through the busy inn, weaving through rowdy and drunk customers as she picked up a plate with a set of tankards on top of it. When she lifted it up, though, her arms trembled, and she almost lost her balance.

Tulley, who was busy filling more tankards, noticed this from the corner of his eye and looked at her with a worried frown.

“Are you sure you’re okay? If you’re not well, we can talk to one of the girls to-”

“I-I’m fine!.” Yrsa cut him off and wandered off carrying the tankards.

Her expression looked focused, with fine beads of sweat running down her forehead. Yet, if anyone paid attention to her, it was obvious she was trying her best to hide the strain she was under.

Her body was weak, and it felt as if the simplest of tasks were becoming harder and harder for her to do. The medication didn’t seem to have an effect anymore, and not only that, but the people from the Golden Hand said she wouldn’t be receiving any more pills as they hadn’t gotten payment from her brother in months. This wasn’t something Tulley and his wife knew about, though.

‘What happened to you, Rimold?’

It wasn’t uncommon for her to not see him for months on end, but he had never missed a single payment for her medicine. This was a sign that something must have happened to him, and her worries increased when she heard the Empire had attacked a southern town some months ago, in the region where Rimold operated. Nothing had escalated from it, and the Royal Court hadn’t retaliated either. Yet, some months before then, she had stopped getting word from her brother.

‘What can I do?’

That question crossed her mind many times. She even considered going off on her own to search for her brother, but just around that time, her illness also worsened. Or maybe that was just an excuse she made for herself.

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As she delivered the tankards to a table, she heard a familiar voice call to her.

“Young Lady Yrsa, it has been a while.”

Yrsa turned around, looking at the source of the voice as her face brightened.

“Sir Lyon, you’re back!”

The individual in question was a middle-aged knight, wearing worn down plate armor that was missing pieces and patched here and there, sitting in an isolated table at the corner of the rustic inn. He looked like a vagrant mercenary, with a long scraggly beard and his brown hair tied back in a long ponytail. His face, however, seemed to bear the features of a distinguished nobleman more so than a warrior.

He also happened to be one of the few connections she still had to the outside world - one of her brother’s old friends.

“It has taken me the better part of a year, but yes, I’ve finally returned.” Sir Lyon said with a smile.

“S-So, what have you foun-…” Yrsa caught herself, looking embarrassed. “I mean, I hope the road has been treating you well, Sir Lyon.”

Lyon laughed. “No need for pleasantries, Lady Yrsa. I know you are worried about your brother.”

Her eyes lit up. “And? Have you found him?”

The man’s face became more serious. “After I finished my other obligations, I went to Bestrem, where you told me he operated from. When I got there, though, I found the town was completely abandoned.”

“A-Abandoned? Weren’t they attacked?”

“That was my thought too, but there didn’t seem to be too many signs of a fight. Some royal soldiers were also there, and they stopped me from investigating the city, but they told me they also failed to find anyone, or any corpses, for that matter. Still, I tried to go to the surrounding villages and settlements, since I know Rimold was a wanderer, and while some of them had met him before, none of them seemed to have seen him recently.”

Yrsa felt a ball form at the pit of her stomach. “Then, do you think he is…?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Lady Yrsa. Rimold has always been very adept at avoiding trouble, and no one has found any corpses. Even if he is in trouble, it doesn’t mean he is dead.”

This seemed to offer scant comfort to Yrsa, whose pale complexion seemed to worsen.

Lyon saw this and frowned. “How is your condition?”

“I-It doesn’t matter,” she shook her head. “Is there really nothing more we can do?”

“That depends. Your brother had a lot of friends and connections, so others might know about his fate better than me. That being said, if he is in trouble, he might be hesitant to communicate with you through normal means.”

“But if that’s the case, how will I ever know if he’s alive?!”

“Now, calm down,” Lyon raised his hand as if to pacify her. “I said he wouldn’t communicate with you through normal means. As I said, he has a lot of friends, and some of them might try to approach you through unconventional means that you might not even notice.”

Yrsa frowned in worry. “No one has talked to me, though.”

“Are you certain, Lady Yrsa? Has nothing strange happened around you? Maybe someone tried to give you a sign?”

The young woman gave his words some serious thought, but she couldn’t remember anything close to a sign.

‘Wait, that one night…’

Her expression changed, and she felt a cold shiver run up her spine.

Lyon was quick to pick up on that change. “Did you remember something?”

“N-No, it’s not that. I just remembered a nightmare I had one night, but that didn’t really feel like a sign.”

The man studied her expression for a while before sighing. “Just keep an eye open, Lady Yrsa. You never know where a sign may come from.”

With that, he got up, dropped a couple of gold coins on the table, and made to leave.

“Wait, Sir Lyon!” Yrsa rushed after him. “Where will you be going now?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave,” the man looked at her with a smile. “I will ask around the city if anyone has any new information. Rimold was a precious friend of mine, and I don’t intend to abandon him.”

This seemed to offer Yrsa some comfort, and she nodded with a forced smile. “Thank you, Sir Lyon.”

The man nodded back and left the inn. Not soon after that, Yrsa heard Tulley calling her from the bar.

“Yrsa, where are you girl?!”

“I-I’m coming!”

…

After Red made his preparations, he left to execute his plan on the same night. Both he and Aurelia had decided it was best to leave the puppet body behind and have Red carry the crystal core with him, so they would be harder to detect.

Generally, Aurelia was limited in how she could affect the world around her in her soul form. Though she could push herself to use a lot of power in that form, that came at the cost of her very soul, something she couldn’t recover in this state. If she used too much of it, she could just cease to exist.

Still, manipulating the Spirit Energy inside the crystal core was something that she could still do. While the power she could summon in that state was very limited, it was still more than enough to do what they planned to do.

At this point, Red had committed the route to the inn to heart. He floated from roof to roof like a ghost, expertly avoiding detection by guard patrols and common citizens alike. Then, as he got close to his destination, he spread his crimson sense in that direction, perching himself in a nearby building.

After living in the capital for so long, the hundreds of fluctuations that entered his mind didn’t overwhelm him any longer. Still, it took a while for him to sort through all that information and find his target.

A familiar, trembling fluctuation that stood out amidst all the others. This was Yrsa. However, as Red continued to examine the other fluctuations in search of someone out of place, something caught his attention.

Another fluctuation, moving away from the inn. It was a man’s, not a cultivator, but someone who had probably opened all his veins. For some reason, Red felt a sense of familiarity as he examined that fluctuation, but nothing came to mind immediately.

Still, he would never ignore this kind of feeling, and started to search his memory. First, from his recent time in the city to when he first arrived here.

Nothing.

With a frown, he thought further back to his time back in Bestrem town with the Water Dragon Sect around the disaster that struck them.

Still nothing.

‘Am I mistaken? No, that shouldn’t be.’

Red felt familiar fluctuations often as he wandered the capital, but none of them ever seemed to evoke the feeling he had right now. Whoever this was, it was imperative he found it out.

“What are you doing staring into nothing?!”

Aurelia’s voice reached his ears, but he ignored it. He thought back even further, to many years in the past, all the way to the time his sect was still whole, as well as all the fluctuations of those around him.

Then suddenly his eyes narrowed as a wave of shock hit his mind.

‘Reinhart.’