HILLFRONT

In a private room, Suri waited for him, casually drinking tea. Hamon had been happily escorted to a side room with the pretty woman who owned the house they were in, Suri’s friend. Suri didn’t feel comfortable sharing this side of hers with him yet.

“Hello… The lady.” Theo smirked. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Theo bowed, almost not containing his laugh.

Suri rolled her eyes. “A woman still cannot make herself useful without being mocked those days?”

Theo laughed. “You have been very busy lately, as I see. Used really well the information I gave you.” Theo let his last words trail off.

“Yes. It is impressive how easy someone lets himself trust... if what you want to believe into is thrown right at your face at the right moment.” She smiled. “Obviously, being able to pass myself as a lot of people has helped when gathering influence with others in the city.”

“So I saw.” Theo sat on a nearby chair. “The guide told me to pass some good word on him to you.”

Suri laughed, “I think this one is more infatuated with me than actually on my game of interests,” and eyed his arms, bandaged behind his back.

“Why does everyone have that reaction?” Theo laughed.

“Isn’t it normal to worry about broken arms? What happened?”

“Not broken, quite a bit worse, maybe. Some toxic mist made them useless for a while, nothing to worry that much.” Theo shrugged.

The silence trailed in the air. The previous topic being quickly forgotten as both became trapped in their thoughts.

Theo had an almost imperceptible smile as he looked at her intensely. Suri recognized those eyes, her father held the same gaze in the past. She came here to see if Theo was still useful to her. However, even before gathering any information, she noticed her wrong ways. Those eyes were of someone who was looking at an unexpected yet useful thing; they weren’t of someone trying to convince or beg for her. Theo was planning into the distant future and only waiting to see how far she would be able to follow along.

Suri decided on her new course of action as she became much more straightforward. How to behave in such a situation was a lesson she had already learned before. “What do you need from now on? What’s the plan?”

Theo was slightly caught by surprise as he straightened himself on the chair. “Fast and to the point, nice. How much do you know about what happened in the canyon?”

“Not much.” She shrugged. “Clara got some lightning artifact that she will probably show off in front of me later. One escort died, and four others managed to bring some artifacts back too.”

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Even if she tried to act nonchalantly, Suri was a bit proud of her information-gathering capabilities in such a short amount of time. “So you don’t know about the good stuff yet,” Theo smirked. “Let me update you.”

Theo’s story about the canyon and the earthen calamity took her completely off balance. Suri had also passed through the canyon in the past, even if her rush was much more sheltered. She was escorted by an elite team as they bulldozed through the canyon with speed wristbands providing boosts. She couldn’t fathom how they managed to leave because she wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to do the same even in Hamon’s position.

“The main problem right now is that killing the earth calamity will drag unwanted attention to me, even if I just used some random friend’s name on the leaderboards.” Theo frowned. “People are quite determined on the abyss.”

Suri laid back on her chair. “And how can I help?”

“You are my bridge inside the town.” Theo smiled. “First of all, I need somewhere safe yet challenging for Hamon to train. He has spent far too much time by my side, and that will only skew his views on the abyss.” Theo kept tapping the floor with his foot. “He needs some experience alone and with people of his level.”

“Yeah, I can arrange that.” Suri fixed her bangs. “No problems.”

“Do you know that the leader is planning to invade a nearby dungeon? Their first expedition on a real one?” At Theo's question, Suri nodded.

Theo didn’t know how much she knew really, or about the following consequences. In his previous life, the expedition troops failed in their dungeon dive. A gang named scarlet fangs completely dominated the weakened troops that came out of it and tortured them for information on Hillfront defenses and personnel. What followed next was a full-blown assault to the city a week later with devastating consequences. The town leader assumed their whole expedition party was completely wiped out inside the dungeon and was caught completely off guard. The person in charge of relaying information in such extreme cases was a mole from the scarlet fangs. The scarlet fangs seemed to be a band full of brutish and murderous people, but their leadership reached their position for a reason.

“We need to counter prepare for an assault on the expedition troops,” Theo spoke seriously. “A gang, named scarlet fang, recently got in the rule of a nearby town. They have been unsatisfied with the clan’s rule, control and imposed peace, and seem to want to take things into their own hands.” Theo shrugged. “Personally, I think it’s just an excuse for their leader to try to trigger something with a mass murder.”

“How do you know about that? I didn’t hear a word of it before.” Suri frowned.

“I open my ears, Suri, and hear.” Theo looked in the distance, solemn. “When you hear the silent whispers of every action and start to connect them, everything seems much more obvious.”

Obviously, Theo was just cooking up some bullshit to avoid explaining anything. However, he said like he meant it, and Suri had no other choice besides trying to come up with her own conclusions based on his nonsense musings. Eventually, when she confirmed the assault, she would have no choice but to believe in his ‘silent world whispers’ or come with an explanation of her own. Theo was fine with either.

“I almost forgot.” Theo perked up. “If you could also find someone to heal those arms, it would be really nice. Even if they don’t hinder me, it’s an inconvenience.” Theo smiled. “Good thing you have your way around here, I thought fixing them would take a lot longer.”

“Yes. I will see if someone can treat your... inconvenience” Suri added another label to Theo in her mind: weird. “I don’t know when I will be able to see you again. It’s a bother to set those meetings without breaking the illusion in Aaron’s mind.”

“Maybe I can help.” Theo proceeded to tell Suri about his blessings. Just now, he noticed she didn’t know yet. Theo copied Suri’s blessing, which made her a bit deflated, but after showing the cloning blessing, her eyes sparkled once again. At the time at the village, Theo copied this blessing on a whim to set up his plan during the event, but this one was showing itself useful time and time again, beyond his expectations.