Chapter 235 Oh, You're Here Too?

"Just how much longer are we going to wait in this town?"

A low, restless female voice echoed through the room, carrying the faint metallic resonance unique to her bloodline.

There was no need to even look up at the speaker's face; the thick impatience in her tone was palpable.

"We've been sitting in this town for two days. It's been nearly a month since we left Nym. No matter how good the disguise is, they've definitely found out by now."

"For all we know, an entire squad of Purple Merit Cavalry is already on their way!"

"If we don't leave Cloudclimb Province soon, none of us will escape!"

Her increasingly shrill, rising pitch roused Verol from her meditation as she leaned against the sofa by the living room fireplace.

Her neat ponytail swayed slightly as she instinctively glanced toward the source of the noise.

She saw the only dragonborn in the party, a woman covered in dull yellow scales named Sava, opening and closing a maw wide enough to swallow a goblin cub whole. She was complaining to Wood that staying in Rivervale Town for too long would invite unnecessary danger.

Verol, for her part, felt the woman was exaggerating.

After all, the party had only just finished preparing the supplies for the next leg of their journey yesterday afternoon.

If a delay of less than half a day was enough for their pursuers to catch up, then considering the many days of travel still ahead of them, they were destined to be unable to leave Cloudclimb Province without a fight anyway.

Of course, she silently agreed with Sava's attempts to pressure them into hurrying.

They called it an escort mission, but for their employers, Hai'an and Wood, it was essentially a flight for their lives.

Every minute, every second, was precious and worth cherishing.

The same was true for Verol herself.

Wishing she could split a single second into two, she had arrived in Rivervale Town two months in advance just so she wouldn't miss this opportunity to join the party. It was the only time in the near future she could pin down their exact whereabouts.

She had used this time to make her preparations—which included fabricating a background, using her memories to rationalize her actions, and employing a few minor tricks unique to a Spellcaster. These efforts allowed her to smoothly join this secret party as an escort at the right time and place, even though she had never met Wood or Hai'an before.

As for why Verol went to such great lengths to join the party, it naturally couldn't just be for the second son of a city lord from some remote corner of the kingdom, or his two Class Holder guards whose combined Class Levels barely amounted to Level 5.

Given the heights she had once reached, and the confidence granted by the sea of memories in her mind, even if the King of the Servia Kingdom stood before her, it wouldn't make her change her attitude.

A magical glow flashed deep within Verol's amber eyes, reflecting the tall, slender figure of the dragonborn Sava.

This female dragonborn, who seemed rather difficult to get along with and likely possessed brass dragon ancestry, was currently just an ordinary adventurer making a living by taking various bounties, having yet to travel far along her professional path.

But Verol knew exactly what heights this woman would reach in the future.

With the blazing breath bolstered by her draconic bloodline, and a pair of magic-infused dragon wings large enough to blanket an entire street, this grassroots dragonborn—despite her impure bloodline and less-than-stellar talent—would save the lives of many intelligent creatures in Cloudclimb Province during the early days of the disaster.

But by the same token, the hotter the dragon flame from her heart grew, and the sharper her monster-blood-stained rapier became, the more chilling her eventual betrayal would be. Trusted so deeply, the impact she would cause was all the more devastating.

Not only would she cause the fall of several major towns that served as the most important frontlines of human defense—towns that could have otherwise held out for years during the disaster, reducing years of painstaking effort to ashes at the cost of countless lives—but she would also cause the tragic deaths of multiple vital figures in the Human Resistance Army, including Master Moore and Manquan. The entirety of Cloudclimb Province would completely fall, and its center, Nym, would be reduced to a city of the dead.

Even now, Verol still remembered the projection her colleague had replayed using Memory Magic—a Cloud of Necromancy formed from vengeful spirits and sorrowful wails that shrouded the entire city of Nym.

Sava was the main cause of this entire tragedy.

And that was precisely why Verol had chosen her as the first target to be eliminated in her plan.

Of course, on the other hand, it was also because the dragonborn's current strength was relatively average, falling well within the range of what she could handle.

Furthermore, Sava was close by in Cloudclimb Province. Verol even knew portions of her exact path of growth, well aware that during this timeframe, she would pass through Rivervale Town on an escort mission as a guard for the second son of Nym's city lord.

'Killing Sava should yield a [Fate Trajectory Deviation Rate] of at least 0.05% or more. You could say it's a very good start,' she thought.

'But I still need to hurry.'

Constrained by the rigid, stubborn great entities watching over the River of Time, Verol could not—and dared not—seek help from the absolutely reliable, friendly factions in her memories.

She could only rely on herself for everything.

Therefore, upon realizing she had the potential to change the future's outcome, she used the memories in her mind to formulate an incredibly detailed plan of action. While improving her strength as quickly as possible, she also sifted through her memories for key nodes that could cause a shift in the worldline.

The dragonborn Sava was an incredibly important link in the early stages of this plan. Perhaps she would make certain contributions to the people living on this land in the future, but compared to the horrific consequences caused by her betrayal, strangling such a traitor in the cradle was absolutely necessary.

Time was limited, and she didn't have the energy to analyze the dragonborn's mental journey. She didn't need to figure out whether Sava had always harbored treacherous intentions—using her early friendly acts merely to deceive the strong and borrow the Alliance's resources to grow quickly—or if some other reason later caused her betrayal.

Shouldering a heavy mission that was enough to crush a will of steel, Verol couldn't afford to worry about so much. Everything had to be prioritized by efficiency.

All she needed to know was that once Sava died, the future would be free of her betrayal. Cloudclimb Province and Nym could hold out for a few more years under the impact of the disaster, and she herself would be one step closer to success. That was enough.

As for why she didn't just deal with the woman the moment she saw her, instead choosing to temporarily join the escort party as a teammate, it was because of a secret regarding Sava's path of growth.

This mixed-blood dragonborn definitely couldn't be called highly talented, and the clan behind her was merely average, lacking any profound background.

Under normal circumstances, the resources she possessed would not be enough to support her advancement to the Transcendent Tier, let alone anything higher.

Completing a single class transition to become a veteran Class Holder below the Transcendent Tier should have been her limit.

However, in her past life, Sava had risen at a blistering speed, snowballing rapidly.

Perhaps in the future, her initial rise in strength and the corresponding speed of improvement she demonstrated had earned her investments from various factions.

But all of this ultimately required a starting point—a key node that allowed her to transform from a bottom-tier adventurer into a promising figure worth betting on.

And based on Verol's comprehensive investigation of Sava's growth process in her memories, the dragonborn's transformation began precisely with this escort mission.

Whether it was Magic Equipment or a high-quality combat technique legacy, the woman had definitely obtained some crucial item during this commission and turned it into the stepping stone for her rise.

Adhering to the principle of maximizing her gains and needing to increase her strength as quickly as possible, Verol naturally wouldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Thoughts swirled in her mind.

Meanwhile, Sava's complaints from the living room ahead grew increasingly grating.

"Who else do we need to wait for?"

The fine scales protecting the vulnerable vitals beneath her neck quivered with their owner's fluctuating emotions.

Her cold, slit pupils reflecting Wood in front of her, Sava was incredibly agitated.

"It's just an escort mission. At most, we'll run into a few useless bandits or a couple of goblin tribes along the way. The few of us are more than enough."

"And honestly, in just these few days, what kind of helper could you possibly find in this town?"

Normally, Wood would never have allowed her to speak to him with such an attitude.

But right now, his Young Master was right beside him. Moreover, he knew this was simply Sava's nature and that she bore little malice, so he merely lowered his stance.

"Just wait another half day. Half a day," he placated.

"If he hasn't arrived before the sun sets, we'll head out tonight."

"The supplies are already prepared; there won't be any delays."

Seeing Wood make such a concession, Sava's scale-covered face still displayed deep dissatisfaction, but it was hard for her to say anything else. She merely snorted coldly and turned her head away.

Seeing this, the half-elf Hai'an standing beside Wood couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Yet, a visible trace of worry still lingered on the delicate face he had inherited from his elf mother.

"Young Master, there's no need to worry," Wood said softly, sensing his mood.

"With his personality, even if he's unwilling to get involved in this matter, it's impossible for him to snitch to anyone else."

"I've always been a good judge of character."

"No, it's not because of that," Hai'an said, simply shaking his head at the reassurance.

"I was just thinking, wouldn't it be a bit too dangerous to drag him into this just like that?"

"After all, you told me yourself that he only just gained his Class Level last year, didn't you?"

"If—"

"A rookie!?" As if hearing a trigger word, Sava suddenly spoke up from the side before Hai'an could finish.

"So, we waited in town for so long and braved such huge risks, all just for a greenhorn who only recently got his Class Level?"

Her dragon-like face revealed a very human shock and bewilderment, which quickly morphed into the fury of having been deceived.

"Wood, you never mentioned this to me."

It was hard to blame her for being angry. After all, under normal circumstances, if an adventurer had only recently advanced, they needed a certain amount of time to adapt to and understand the professional adventuring environment.

This was especially true for those who climbed up step by step from the bottom ranks of adventurers. They would spend one to two years starting from the simplest quests, gradually adapting until they finally joined a fixed party, which was when they could truly be considered to have laid a firm foundation among Class Holders.

As for this current escort mission, although she verbally claimed it wasn't difficult, she was well aware of the dangers they might encounter.

Protecting the mission target, Hai'an, already occupied the vast majority of her energy; she had no time to look after some ordinary rookie Class Holder.

"I told you, trust me," Wood's tone toughened, perhaps also a bit dissatisfied with Sava's attitude.

"You just need to take the money and do the job, it's that simple."

Hearing this, Sava's brows shot up as her anger surged.

It looked as though the two were about to come to blows.

But right at that moment—"Knock, knock."

A crisp knocking sound suddenly echoed in the room.

In an instant, the explosive tension in the air fell into dead silence.

Cold gleams of light quietly flashed.

Daggers, a rapier, and an arrow nocked on a bow—in the blink of an eye, before the lingering echoes of the knock could even fully dissipate, the group had already prepared for battle.

Serving as the party's vanguard, Luca strode quickly out of the kitchen, the aroma of food still lingering on him.

He held an iron-studded wooden shield in his left hand, his right palm gripping an iron axe tightly.

Deliberately stomping his feet to sound like the homeowner, he raised his voice and called out, "Who is it?"

A steady, emotionless male voice answered from outside the door.

"It's me, Xia Nan."

As soon as those words fell, Wood and Hai'an behind Luca visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

Sava and Luca, however, maintained their wariness toward the stranger.

Meanwhile, no one noticed Verol at the very back of the group. The mage hadn't participated in the argument at all, merely sitting on the sofa in solitary meditation to ponder her future plans. The instant that voice rang out, her expression went blank before immediately stiffening, her amber pupils trembling involuntarily.

'It can't be—' she thought. Clinging to a sliver of hope that she might have misheard, she locked her gaze dead onto the wooden door.

It wasn't until Luca opened the door at Wood's instruction, revealing that cold, sharp face framed by fragmented black hair, that she finally gave up all hope.

'Damn it! Death Omen? Why is it him?'

'Was he supposed to cross paths with Sava at this time? No, no, no, there wasn't anyone like this on this mission in my memories!'

'Why!?'

'Could it be a chain reaction caused by me?'

Just as Verol plunged into a mental storm, her mind reeling from this unplanned arrival to the point where she could barely maintain a basic expression, the figure standing outside the door caught sight of her.

"Sorry, I just got back from the forest recently. I had a few pieces of equipment left at the blacksmith's for maintenance and repairs, so I was delayed for a couple of days and only managed to get here now."

"But as for supplies and such, I've already prepared everything myself. We can head out directly; there's no need to waste any more time."

"Oh, Verol?"

"What a coincidence, you're here too?"