Five minutes passed as Rimold fiddled with the strongbox, and the rogue’s expression became less confident and more trouble.

Rimold grunted in annoyance. “Ugh, what did they make this lock out of?”

“What’s the problem?” Red asked.

“I have never seen a lock so complex before.” the rogue shook his head. “I can’t even begin to imagine how some of these mechanisms work.”

Red frowned. “Does that mean you can’t open it?”

Rimold hesitated. “… I will need a few hours to study and do it properly, but I might still be able to do it.”

Red nodded. “As long as you can still open it, it’s fine.”

It was not like the boy had much to do while locked up in this place.

He examined the rest of the small room while Rimold occupied himself with the strongbox. There was a large assortment of equipment on the shelf, what the rogue used to steal things, Red assumed. Nothing stood out to the boy, though, and he didn’t dare to open the closed box in front of the man.

“How did you learn about the Spirit Stones, by the way?” Red asked.

“I have sources on the other side of the river.” Rimold said without looking up from the strongbox. “When Gustav asked me to steal from that merchant, I looked a bit into who this guy was. Imagine my surprise when someone tells me he might be carrying a large amount of Spirit Stones with him.”

Red frowned. “Might?”

The rogue snorted. “Well, he took out a large amount of Spirit Stones from his guild’s coffer before setting out, and my source saw his strongbox. You just need to put two and two together.”

“But how can you be so certain about it?” the boy was still skeptical.

He thought that Rimold’s information was more than just guesswork, no matter how likely it turned out to be.

“Look, I have experience with this, okay?” Rimold seemed annoyed. “Now, just sit there and let me work and we’ll eventually find out if I’m right, will we not?”

Red sighed and remained silent.

…

Just like the rogue said, it took him almost two hours to unlock the strongbox.

“Hah! Finally!” Rimold wiped off the sweat from his forehead. “I was actually starting to doubt myself midway through there.”

Red, who was sitting in a corner of the room meditating, opened his eyes and looked over. “Are there any traps in the box?”

The rogue grunted. “That’s what I’m going to check now.”

In a similar manner that Red had seen Goulth do before, Rimold lifted the lid slightly and started to check for any wires or trap mechanisms.

A few minutes later, he sighed in relief. “No traps.”

“Really?” Red was confused. “They didn’t put any traps in such an important container?”

“You’re thinking about this all wrong.” Rimold shook his head. “A merchant wouldn’t really rig a strongbox they were supposed to deliver, would they? Not only would it risk damaging the goods, but even if it was stolen, they would rather these goods remain intact so they can recover it in the future. Of course, if it was some really sensitive object or something of the sort, then it would be a different story, but for Spirit Stones they probably thought just a sturdy lock would suffice. Too bad they met me.”

The rogue smiled arrogantly and flipped the lid open. He looked down at the box’s contents. Suddenly, his expression changed.

“What the fuck?!” the rogue jumped back in shock.

Red shot up to his feet, half-expecting an explosion to occur. However, nothing happened.

He looked over at Rimold in confusion. “What is it?”

“T-The box…” the rogue pointed at the container with a trembling finger. “There’s something in there!”

Red frowned and walked over to the strongbox. When he saw the box’s contents, he understood the rogue’s shock.

“It’s a head.” the boy said.

It was a desiccated head. Its eyes socket were empty, its skin grey and pulled taut against its skull, and its teeth poking out from between its torn lips.

It turned out that when Rimold compared the strongbox’s size to a human’s head, it was more apt than the rogue imagined.

Red squinted as he examined the disembodied head. “It looks human, but there’s something weird about it.”

“Get away from it, you lunatic!” Rimold pulled the boy back by his scruff. “You don’t know what it does!”

The boy turned around to look at the rogue. “There are no Spirit Stones in there.”

Rimold’s eyes widened in anger. “I noticed! But we have more pressing concerns right now!”

Red sighed. “Why is there a head in that box?”

The boy just couldn’t imagine why a merchant, even a cultist one, would need to put a desiccated head inside this kind of strongbox.

“He was a demon worshipper!” Rimold said. “They use all kinds of blood sacrifices and other unholy things in their rituals!”

Red frowned. “So you’re saying this might have been for a ritual?”

“That’s my guess.” the rogue nodded. “Nothing else would make sense!”

“It makes sense, but you do know what that means, right?”

“What do you- Ugh!” Rimold had a sudden realization.

Red completed his train of thought. “If the merchant was carrying this with him, then it means he was probably acting under the orders of other demon worshippers.”

One of their solace after discovering that the merchant was a demon worshipper, was the possibility that he wasn’t acting under the orders of a demonic cultivator or anything of the kind. However, it didn’t seem to be the case, and this meant they had just interfered in the business of some very dangerous and insidious people.

Rimold had a grim expression as he understood this. “Why did everything have to go so fucking wrong?!”

Red ignored the man as he walked back over to the box.

The rogue continued to complain. “I mean, I just wanted to earn some money to repay my debts, so why- Hey, didn’t I tell you to get away from that?! You don’t know if that head is cursed or carrying a disease or something!”

“It’s strange…” Red said. “I feel like I recognize this head.”

“You do?” Rimold looked shocked.

He reluctantly walked over and also examined the head by the boy’s side. His expression became intrigued as the seconds passed.

Rimold frowned. “Now that you mention it… Those large teeth do remind me of someone.”

Red didn’t respond as recognition came to him. The boy felt his blood run cold as he finally recognized who this head belonged to.

‘Isn’t this Viran?’

The boy couldn’t believe it. How had these people gotten to the old warrior’s body? Wasn’t it lost in the underground? More importantly, why had they done this to his head?

Red felt both indignant and terrified at the same time.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Rimold tremble. “This… No, it can’t be.” the rogue dropped down to his knees as he approached the strongbox. “M-My mother…”

The rogue’s words shocked Red out of his daze. He looked at the man in confusion. “Your mother?”

Rimold ignored him. “N-No, it can’t be… How could they do this to you, mother? H-How could they…”

The rogue was just about to reach into the box and touch the head. Red, however, realized what was happening.

“Rimold, no!” he tackled the rogue into the ground.

Rimold was taken by surprise and glared at Red with fury in his eyes. “What are you doing, you fucking bastard?!”

The rogue looked like he was about to attack Red.

“It’s not your mother!” the boy warned him. “I’m seeing someone different on its face.”

Rimold froze, looking at the boy in confusion. “W-What do you mean?”

“I recognized someone else in the head’s face… But it was a man.”

The rogue trembled in horror.

“There’s something wrong with it.” Red said. “We shouldn’t look at it.”

“R-Right.” Rimold nodded in a daze.

Red got up and walked over to the box, not daring to even spare a glance at its contents. He closed the lid without hesitation, and only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

“W-What was…” Rimold stuttered in fear. “What was that?”

Red shook his head. “I don’t know.”

The rogue looked down at his trembling hands. “When I looked at that head… I felt something change. I-It was like a creeping feeling… When I recognized my mother’s face, I… I felt like I needed to touch it.”

The boy frowned. “We should tell Hector about this. As quickly as possible.”

“Y-You’re right.” the rogue nodded.

To his surprise, Rimold agreed with him.

“But should we bring it with us?” the man looked back at the box.

“No way.” Red shook his head. “Let’s leave it here.”

As far as they knew, the head only affected them once they looked at it, but the boy would never risk bringing it back to their sect. It was too dangerous.

Rimold got up and looked at the box with apprehension. “We should leave.”

Red nodded. “Agreed.”

Neither of them dared spend one more second close to that thing.

…

A few hours had passed since they had hidden away, and the town seemed to have calmed down somewhat. They still saw quite a few guards running around, but the sense of urgency in them was gone.

‘They killed the demon already.’

This was the only conclusion that made sense to Red. Now, they were probably looking around town for any other signs of demonic activity.

The boy looked back at the ruined hideout they had just crawled out from, feeling a shiver run up his spine. He hoped that wouldn’t result in another demonic summoning.

Rimold led the way back to the sect as they sneaked under the night sky. It didn’t take them long to arrive at the sect’s street.

The rogue stopped and turned around to look at Red. “Let me do the talking, okay?”

Red nodded. If Rimold wanted to receive the brunt of Hector’s anger, who was he to stop him?

They walked towards the sect’s courtyard and Red already felt a handful of fluctuations moving about. Eiwin, Domeron, Allen, Goulth, and Hector.

He didn’t feel Narcha's or Rog’s fluctuations.

‘Must have gone to investigate the scene.’

As soon as they got within a few dozen meters of the gate, the doors swung open. Hector walked outside, staring daggers at the two of them.

“You little shits!” the man trembled in anger. “What the fuck have you done?!”

“Wait!” Rimold raised his hands up. “I know you’re mad, but there’s something really important we need to tell you! Whatever punishment awaits us can wait until then!”

Red praised the rogue’s approach in his mind. Hector’s temper was explosive, but these bouts of anger disappeared just as quickly as they came about, as long as the elder had something else to focus on, that is.

“You…” Hector gritted his teeth in anger.

It seemed the old man knew exactly what Rimold was doing, but he could do nothing to stop it.

“Fine!” the elder waved his sleeve. “To the hall!”

He spun on his heels and walked back into the courtyard. From behind him, Red saw the figures of Allen and Eiwin looking at them.

The young master’s expression brightened up once he saw Red. “Did you steal something?”

Eiwin frowned from the side.

Red didn’t respond to the boy’s question.