Bloodbound Oath: Between Realms

After taking the herbs he needed and placing them on the ground along with a large bag, Sollivan watched the terrified Devlin pick them up and run off. He closed the door of the small shop, made sure the place was clean and left no obvious evidence, then quietly slipped out from under the door. But he didn’t order Noctis to return home. Instead, he decided to use the remaining time to search for the person he wanted.

Thanks to his basic knowledge of the man and the guard system during wartime, he quickly headed toward specific locations, such as the guard headquarters and the bell tower square. But he didn’t find his target. After wandering for a while, he decided to search around the city walls, specifically in the lightly guarded northern area. He leaped across rooftops like a wisp of smoke, taking advantage of the darkness, and reached the city limits.

He stopped at the corner of a rooftop and looked down at the wide street separating the residential districts from the massive wall, which stood about a hundred feet tall.

The wide street was designated for machinery and soldiers to facilitate their movement, while the fortified wall was filled with narrow windows and tall towers where archers and short-to-medium-range cannons were stationed. Some towers also housed massive mechanical bows capable of firing consecutive shots, designed to launch huge arrows over five feet long, which were considered one of the important heavy weapons in defense.

Although Red Bell City was just a small border town, it bore some marks of civilization and advanced technology, such as directed lamps and wide-range illuminating flares designed for defense against night raids, created by specialized chemists.

In this world, human civilization was highly advanced, especially in the fields of energy, medicine, and chemistry, as well as mechanical engineering, which was considered one of the most important sciences. This science was evident in improved and developed tools, such as flares that didn’t rely on ordinary fire but instead used powdered luminescent stones and raw Auraxis resonators, among other materials that enhanced lighting.

Even Sollivan’s improved pen was an advanced tool, different from the simple quill or basic pen. It was designed with a simple mechanical mechanism that allowed it to hold a small ink reservoir inside, connected to a pointed tip with a tiny ball that facilitated smooth ink flow and made writing easier. However, it was extremely expensive, and if Ellis hadn’t gifted it to him, Sollivan would never have dreamed of owning something like it.

The wide street was illuminated by massive torches and enhanced lamps emitting pure light, making every part of it clearly visible. Unlike the other side of the wall where the enemy was stationed, this side was lightly guarded.

The city’s population was around forty thousand, and the mayor had mobilized all the Arcane Masters present, whether they were ordinary guards, personal guards of wealthy merchants, or even retired soldiers and free Arcane Masters. However, the forces he had gathered consisted of about three thousand Arcane Masters and four thousand trainees above the fourth level of Body Strengthening. The numbers were large and even surpassed the enemy forces, but the quality was lower. Not to mention the long-range bombardment catapults that had disrupted the balance, along with the absence of the expected reinforcements. All of this made the mayor and prominent figures suspect some kind of conspiracy, and they wanted to fortify their defenses as much as possible.

Sollivan observed the wall and examined the faces of the stationed guards. He didn’t inspect the archers or bother getting closer, as his target would be standing in a clear corner overlooking the city, due to his cowardice. The person he was looking for was a guard named Darnell Hargrave, a somewhat infamous figure known for his extreme cowardice and poor character.

He didn’t participate in direct combat or perform his duties well, often extorting high fees from merchants passing through the gate and colluding with black-market Arcane Masters to smuggle goods. Although he had been caught a few times and subjected to interrogation and investigation, he always walked away unscathed.

But Sollivan didn’t really care about the rumors surrounding him, because he knew the truth behind that mask of lies and forged identity. After observing for a while, he changed his position and went to inspect another part of the wall. And so, as the minutes passed, he covered a long distance around the wall and approached the western gate. When he had inspected about a quarter of the wall, he finally found his target.