I arrived back at the inn before nightfall. The trip to the barracks had taken a good majority of the day and Sil had decided to take some time to himself after we’d escaped.

  After I’d killed Claude.

  He was unhappy with me. I didn’t blame him, perhaps killing Claude had been a bit much, especially after I’d made my promise to him. But he had said he’d report us. Part of me had always known he would, but to know it was already crossing his mind…

  I shook the thought from my head. No, I’d done what I needed to do in that moment. I wouldn’t regret it. Before this war was over, there would be casualties on all sides. Sil had to know that.

  I passed through the kitchen and into the master suite, where I cleared the papers and scrolls from one side of the desk. pulled the map that I’d taken from the captain's office and spread it out on the desktop.

  I traced the grid lines that they’d drawn over the various districts of the city. Some places were circled, while others were marked with a circle with an X through. It was impossible to say what the symbols meant, but I could guess, especially since one of the circles with an X over it was the building the guard had burned here in the Eastern Quarter.

  “What’s that?” Irinda asked, coming into the room with a tray of tea and bread.

  I waved the tray away. “Not in the mood,” I muttered.

  “You need to keep your strength up,” she said as she set the tray down and poured me a cup of tea. “Looks like the trip didn’t go as smoothly as expected?” she asked, motioning to my frazzled and bloody appearance.

  “Better, actually.” I lay the black steel sword across the map.

  “Why is it that color?”

  “It’s called black steel,” I told her, taking the cup after several attempts to shove it into my hands. I took a sip, the warm liquid sending a flush of heat through my body as it restored my Stamina and Mana, before telling her about everything that Claude had told us about it, including that it was going to eventually be handed out to the entire guard.

  “I assume the armies will get it at some point, too, if they don’t already have it.” I told her before setting the tea cup down. I removed the sword from the desk, propping it against the wall behind me, and then returned to the map.

  “Best Sil and I could guess, this map is part of the plans they’re working off. There are several circled buildings, but we’re not sure what they mean just yet or why they have them circled.” I also shared with her how I felt the places marked with an X might be significant, which she agreed with.

  “Is Sil around?” Irinda asked as she readied another cup.

  I shook my head. “He’s taking some time to himself. He wasn’t fond of how our excursion ended. But he’ll get over it.”

  “What did you do?” She narrowed her eye at me.

  I let out a huff. “I killed a man. A guard. He led Sil and me out, and I promised we wouldn’t kill him. But then he didn’t give me a choice. Sil was unhappy with it.”

  Irinda frowned as I spoke. “We both know there is always a choice, Aria.” She left the words hanging there as she turned to the door and left the room behind, the steaming tea and plate of bread the only indication she’d even been here.

  Well, that and the weight that those words seemed to put on me.

  I tried to ignore them as I looked back at the map. I began to trace the locations the circles outlined. There were multiple places I recognized—like the Temple of Lothos just outside of the docks in the Southern Quarter—but I wasn’t sure why they had circles around them.

  “I wonder if Lilan has people hiding in any of these places…” I muttered as I looked over it all. I heard the door open again and looked up to see Yen walking in

  I nodded to her and she joined me by the desk.

  She peered down at the map for several moments before quirking an eyebrow up. “Why do you have the orphanage over on Daedilin circled?”

  I looked at where she was pointing, to a small building in one of the grids that spread over the Eastern Quarter.

  “I didn’t draw the circles,” I told her. “What do you know about that orphanage?”

  She shrugged. “Aurelion has his hands in a lot of places. That orphanage is one of them. He made some kind of deal with the people that run it.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Now what kind of work could Aurelion possibly need doing by a bunch of orphans? That was a bit of a stupid question, especially considering the fact that his entire army was basically children—though there were definitely those like Ophelia, Felix, and Yen who were still young, but basically adults already.

  “Do you know what kind of work they’re doing together?”

  Yen shook her head. “I think he’s mostly handling shipping things through them. Less questions get asked if big crates are going to places like that. Easier to write off as food or other needed supplies that people don’t ask a lot of questions about.”

  A commotion from the kitchen drew our attention to the door, which slammed open a moment later.

  “—you can’t go in there!” A woman’s voice yelled out. “I don’t even know who the hells you are.”

  Ophelia strode into the room, turning as someone else hurried in after her, one of the new girls that worked under Irinda.

  I met Ophelia’s eyes from behind the desk and Yen let out a little gasp.

  “It’s okay, Elliana,” I told the woman as her eyes went wide, realizing that Yen and I were both in here. She was one of the newest members to join the inn’s staff, and she hadn’t been here when we’d brought Ophelia in.

  “I’m so sorry, Miss Aria, I didn’t realize you were in here. Do you know this young lady?”

  I nodded. “She’s the friend we had staying in the room on the third floor.”

  “Oh my, I had no idea!” The woman immediately backpedaled out of the room, shouting at least three more apologies before closing the door.

  Ophelia and I met eyes once more, and then the three of us started laughing.

  “I thought she was going to try to beat me with a pan,” Ophelia said after the laughter faded.

  I couldn’t stop myself, I rushed around the desk and pulled her into a tight embrace. She hesitated for a moment and then returned it. We stood there for a few good moments before I pulled away and looked her over. She still looked beyond fragile, her body far thinner than it had been when I’d met her weeks ago.

  “How are you feeling?”

  She shrugged. “Better. I have a lot of questions.”

  “I imagine you do. And we’ll have time for those answers, I promise. But right now I just need to make sure you’re okay.”

  I used [Insight] and checked over the information that popped up. It all looked as it always had, which was good. That meant nothing new had happened while she was out.

  “Do you remember anything? Where did you go?”

  “I just needed to clear my head after I came to,” she said.

  She seemed uncomfortable about something and part of me wanted to push. To figure out what it was. But I decided to give her a chance to bring it up herself.

  “Yen here was just telling me about some of Aurelion’s operations,” I told her, changing the subject as I returned to my spot on the other side of the desk.

  The two girls met eyes then and Yen smiled at Ophelia. “Been a while, O.”

  Ophelia nodded. “Yeah, it has Yen. Good to see you got out from under Aurelion’s thumb. Though, I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand what happened with all of that. A lot of my memories are hazy at the moment.”

  “Not much to tell,” I said, leaning back for a moment. I grabbed the tea that Irinda had given me and took another sip. No warmth spread through my body this time, which meant the first had refilled everything. If only the tonics were as potent as this tea.

  “He seems to think we abandoned him when we left the city—even though we didn’t exactly do so by choice. Felix tried to kill me, which I’m still a bit upset about. Seems he’s decided to make a play for the imperial throne himself, instead of backing me.”

  Ophelia barked out a laugh. “Of course he has.” She shook her head and crossed the room to the desk. “So what are we looking at then? His operations?”

  “Not exactly. Sil and I took it from the captain’s office in the city guard barracks. Based on what’s here, it looks like it might be places the suspect of being involved in activity they want to keep an eye on.” I pointed to the building that had been burned down and its mark on the map.

  “This building here was used to send a message to everyone recently. They burned it down with people trapped inside.”

  Ophelia frowned.

  “Then Yen was telling me about this orphanage here. Apparently Aurelion might be using it to bring supplies and other goods into the city while keeping it under the guard’s radar. He had a deal with the captain—so did the guy that used to run this place—but maybe the business has turned sour with the ‘King’ making new alliances.”

  I shoved a finger all the way down toward dock street, telling both Yen and Ophelia about how I’d made a deal with Woldroff previously, which was why it had been a huge surprise to find him seated at a table next to Aurelion the other night.

  Several minutes later, having caught Ophelia up on what we knew about her former ally’s recent dealings, we all stood around the desk, peering at it and debating our next move.

  It was clear from the way the two girls talked that they wanted to make a move against Aurelion directly. He’d hurt both of them too much with his decisions, and both seemed to be harboring a deep anger for the man. I couldn’t blame them. I had my own reasons for hating him—chief among them his betrayal—but I also knew that going at him headfirst wasn’t going to accomplish much at the moment.

  We needed to strike him where he least expected it. Somewhere that might benefit us while also hurting him.

  I pointed at the orphanage on the map. “You said that he probably has shipments coming through here?” I asked Yen.

  Her eyes followed my finger and she nodded. “I think so. I was never told the exact reasoning for the deal, but I’ve seen several people get sent over there only to return with crates and other things.”

  I chewed on that for a moment as the two of them began to catch up.

  If he did have shipments coming in through the orphanage, then taking it down could generate a lot of weight on his other operations. It was clear the guard had some kind of interest in it, too, so perhaps there was more to the story here than Yen knew or was letting on.

  That paranoia dug at me again, the same one I’d felt in the barracks. I’d given her System access, there was no way she was the [Hero]. But she had been under Aurelion’s thumb for gods only knew how long.

  There was at least one way to tell she was being truthful, at least. Though I wasn’t wholly sure how it would work since I still hadn’t used it much.

  I focused on the young woman as she talked to Ophelia and activated my [Party Leader] ability.

  The change was almost imperceptible. Her eyes widened slightly, and she pulled back. Her gaze flicked to me as she spoke, as if expecting me to say something.

  “Okay,” I started, continuing to focus my attention on Yen as I spoke. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Yen, you’re sure you don’t know anything else about this orphanage?”

  ? Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] ?

  by DivineRei

  Bleeding to death was unexpected, but waking up in a magical world sure as hell beat that. It seemed like a miraculous second chance until Lev realized just what kind of a world he was in, one his adult mind understood far too well.

  Monsters thrived on Monarch, the planet riddled with endless hordes. Hunters and Adventurers didn't chase glory, they ensured that humanity continued to persist. Those in charge tried their best to suppress how dire their situation was but, deep down, everyone knew the truth.

  The future looked bleak and Lev wasn't willing to accept it lying down, not when he had yet to truly live even once.

  Armed with two titles of unfathomable power, apprenticed under an obscenely strong mage, and accompanied by a precious found family, Lev was going to do his utmost to not just survive, but to thrive on the harrowing planet. He finally had the power to make a difference, and he wasn't afraid to embrace it.

  No number of monsters would stand in his way to forge a worthwhile future.

  What To Expect:

  - Numbers go up.

  - Low stakes and struggles at first. Problems will become massive quickly.

  - Long story.

  - Maybe Romance

  - No Harem.

  Read 40 advanced chapters on .