“What?”

“I mean military spies,” Hein said. “The ones who specifically sneak into camps, pry into secrets and assassinate important figures just like me.”

“If I were to assassinate you,” Elijah bit on the belt and tied a knot above the wound, “I would definitely poison you.”

“Are you a spy or not?”

Elijah shook his head, “I'm here to look for a kid.”

“A kid?” Hein was shocked. “Yours?”

“A boy from my employer's family. Sixteen years old, with brown hair and green eyes. He ran away from home last month and stole the family heirloom to pay for his journey. I heard that the people from Warlock's guillotine had bought something similar, so I came here to check it out.”

“Which family is it?”

“An imperial noble family. I can't tell you anything else.”

Hein changed the question. “What did your employer say? Is it more important to find the boy or get the heirloom back?”

Elijah thought for a while. “The kid is the fifth in line. There's no way he'll inherit the title, and he doesn't have any important marriage contracts either. So the heirloom is more important.”

Hein wasn't surprised. “What about now? Have you found it?”

 “It's not here.”

When Elijah first got close to Hein in the tunnel, he knew he had made a mistake.

Although the compass had reacted strongly at that time, what it had detected was the ring on Hein's necklace instead of the thing he was looking for.

That ring was a rare guardian-type magical instrument, and Elijah could feel its huge and gentle power.

To be honest, the energy field of this thing definitely surpassed that of the lost heirloom. But since it had nothing to do with the task, Elijah didn't intend to cause any more trouble.

Until now, the hissing sound of air leaking was still going on.

“What’s that noise?” Elijah asked.

“Air storage tanks,” Hein replied. “The water pressure at the bottom of the river is too high. I didn’t want water to rush in and destroy the tunnel when I opened the secret passage, so I stored a lot of compressed air in advance and used air pressure to counteract the water pressure.”

Elijah nodded but actually had no clue. The word “compressed air” was completely foreign to him.

“Then what? Do we swim up?”

“If you can't swim,” Hein suddenly got all excited. “I've got an escape pod right here.”

Ten minutes later.

The silt in the middle of the riverbed got all stirred up, and a whole bunch of bubbles were rising up thick and fast, clear and see-through.

The exit of the secret passage opened wide, and an oddly-shaped airbag got pushed out of the hole.

The material for making this airbag was the stomach of a giant evil creature. It was super tough, easy to stretch, and had a kind of translucent dark red color all over.

Hein tied a rope around his waist, with the other end hooked up to the airbag.

He calmly shut the secret door, then casually moved his arms and legs to swim up through the water and floated towards the river surface.

Elijah was sitting inside the stomach of that demon, trying his best to keep cool.

It was pitch-dark underwater. He couldn't see a thing or hear a sound. He had no sense of direction or balance. All the normal senses he was used to were gone, and all he could hear was his own breathing. This kind of environment was really a test of nerves.

The only thing preventing him from drowning was a thin membrane, which hardly provided a reliable safeguard.

If it hadn't been for the arrow in his arm and the worry about losing blood, suffering from hypothermia and getting an infection in the water, Elijah would never have volunteered to be in this unlucky situation.

Thump—

Something collided with the airbag.

Vaguely, Elijah caught sight of a fish tail flashing past.

The moon must have been bright right now. Upon reaching the middle layer of the river, with the faint light, Elijah could make out objects that were in motion.

At this moment, Hein swam up to the airbag and signaled in a particular direction. Apparently, a large shoal of salmon was swimming upstream.

Elijah had never witnessed such an underwater spectacle before. Nevertheless, at this precise instant, he simply couldn't summon any enthusiasm for admiring the view, so he made a gesture suggesting "ascend".

But just then, a powerful undercurrent struck them.

Hein expertly treaded water and managed to escape the rapids. However, the airbag was too large and the force it endured was rather astounding. Soon, it started to drift sideways.

The water current was so extremely fast that it caught them completely by surprise. In just a matter of seconds, the airbag was pushed over ten meters away until it slammed into the mast of a sunken ship and finally came to a halt.

Unluckily, the thin membrane got torn by the broken end of the mast, and air bubbles spurted out like a floodgate being opened.

Rather than panicking, Elijah managed to calm himself down. He had kind of expected that something unfortunate was going to happen.

Hein swam over along the rope and signaled to Elijah to rip through the membrane, showing that he would guide him to swim up to the surface.

Elijah felt around for the tear in the airbag and tore at it with force.Although Hein was helping, it was not convenient underwater, and the airbag was quickly filled with water.

Elijah only felt a continuous stinging pain in his wound and his strength draining away. Finally, with his last breath, Elijah wriggled out of the membrane of the airbag and tried his best to paddle through the water.

All of a sudden, he noticed that Hein made a "dangerous" gesture.

He stretched out his hand forward, but Hein backed away and made a gesture that signified danger.

The next second, a huge shadow rose from the water, and the sand and algae buried at the bottom of the river were all stirred up together, making the water murky.

The last thing Elijah saw was the body of a strange fish sliding past in front of him, like a thick wall.

It crashed into something, sending out powerful waves, and then with a sweep of its tail, the river mud swept over like a sandstorm.

Elijah was hit by the fish's tail and almost let out the air in his lungs.

After a chaotic moment, he found that he had broken free from the undercurrent and reached a shallower position, only a few meters away from the surface of the river.

He trod water and managed to get his mouth and nose above the water surface before his oxygen ran out, gasping for air heavily.

He swam over to the riverbank. The wound, having been soaked in water for so long, split wide open, and the flesh underneath was laid bare.

Elijah tore off his sleeve, gritted his teeth, pulled out the arrowhead and bandaged the wound anew.

Under the blowing of the river wind, his body heat was quickly dissipating, and his lips turned a bluish-purple color.

Hein hadn't emerged from the water yet.

Maybe he had already climbed ashore earlier than me, Elijah thought. It was just that they were in different locations,  neither of them had seen the other.

But he couldn't forget what had happened underwater.

That fish had crashed into something. Maybe it was Hein.

If one choked on water in the deep water, of course it would be impossible to float up. Instead, one would drown within a few minutes and there would be no way out.

Anyway, there was no reason for him to take risks by going underwater.

Elijah thrust his hands into his hair. He took deep breaths again and again, yet still felt short of oxygen. Elijah pressed his temple. It seemed that something deep in his brain shrank into a ball and then exploded like lightning—

“Whoosh!”

On the river surface a dozen meters away, suddenly round ripples appeared, and Hein Vondio's head popped out.

The structure of the tower on the north bank was pretty much the same as that on the opposite bank.

Elijah lit the fireplace, and the orange-red flames leapt up. The burnt smell of wood spread indoors.

He got as close to the fireplace as he could to warm himself up.

Hein took off his shirt, shook the water droplets off his head. After rummaging around for a while, he found half a bottle of strong liquor.

He took a big swig. His bare chest rose and fell in the firelight, and the ring on his necklace swayed along with it.

Hein looked towards the fireplace.

The masked man was staring at the flames. His wet shirt clung to his back, outlining the shapes of old scars. They were intertwined like earthworms, creeping upwards until they were hidden by the cascading blond hair.

Hein took another sip of the liquor.

“Where are the people in this tower?” Elijah asked.

“I don’t know. Word got around in Snow Island that I was dead. It’s said that the legion sent a few people to find out what had happened.”

“So they narrowly escaped death. How lucky.”

“On the contrary,” Hein walked forward and handed over the remaining liquor. “Their ship sank in the Stormy Sea.”

Elijah took the liquor but didn’t drink it. “What was that fish just now?”

“A giant catfish. They can be found in several nearby rivers. It’s just rare to see one as big as that. I managed to get away by tying it up with a rope.”

By the flickering firelight, Hein also noticed many old scars on the other man’s chest, abdomen and arms.

“You didn’t take a breath for at least ten minutes,” Elijah said.

“It took me at most three minutes to deal with that fish,” Hein explained. “I thought you were tangled up by waterweeds, so I searched around at the bottom of the river for quite a while. If it’s just about holding my breath, my limit is a quarter of an hour. While I’m not the best at it. Many fishermen around here are better than me.”

Elijah raised the bottle and took a sip of the liquor.

Taking this opportunity, Hein suddenly lifted his mask.

“...”

“White Knight Ingmar?” Hein exclaimed in surprise.

Elijah stared at him in bewilderment.

“It is said that Ingmar of Holy Blood City is strikingly handsome and noble, a renowned knight-errant in the southern regions,” Hein explained. “I thought you were him.”

Elijah retrieved his mask and tossed it aside. “I'm not a noble, nor do I go around acting chivalrously. I only do things for money.”

“A sellsword then. How much would it cost to hire your services?”

“I won't seek a new employer until my previous contract is terminated.”

“I admire loyal people,” Hein turned and walked towards the hall, circling around the center. “Tell you what, as long as you swear not to disclose the secret, I promise not to cause you any trouble.”

“Sure, I swear not to tell the Matulans or their allies about the secret passage at the bottom of the river,” Elijah said. “Is that all? Can I leave now?”

“Actually, I have a better proposal - I'll help you find the kid and the heirloom. You stay here to recover from your injuries and also clarify tonight's events to the rangers. What do you think?”

“Sounds good,” Elijah replied. “It would be even better if I won't be regarded as a murderer by the rangers and hanged.”

“If you're not the murderer, you can rest assured. We have courts, tribunals, and priests. Any sentencing is determined through at least three divinations and there will be no wrongful convictions.”

“Before going to court, you have to get past the rangers first. Their attitude just now was not very friendly.”

“Because they were deceived,” Hein said with certainty. “Before coming down to find you, I tied Aaron and Torus together. After the rangers arrived, they must have lied, saying something like a wizard transformed into me and went on a killing spree. I'll explain it clearly to them.”

“Alright.” Elijah finally agreed and sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace.

Hein walked out of the tower and then poked his head through the crack of the door. "You won't run away, will you?"

Elijah shrugged. “Your plan is better.”

Hein finally withdrew his head and closed the door. A few seconds later, Elijah heard the sound of the lock.

“Ha.”

When the sound of footsteps faded away, Elijah showed a faint smile.

He groped in the lining of his trousers and soon found the witch charm sewn inside. Then, Elijah dripped his own blood onto the thin stone tablet engraved with runes.

Half an hour later, Hein reopened the door and led the rangers into the hall, only to find that the area in front of the fireplace was empty.