William sat and pondered. So far, he had been fortunate to not be wrong in his assessments of people. Except perhaps for Geoff Lockridge, who he had thought had settled down but had just been waiting… and waiting… for an opportunity. That had cost him his life… which fortunately wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Now, he was considering the current Cyril family. They seemed quite trustworthy, and he hadn’t seen any reason to believe otherwise. On the other hand, they got along because their goals aligned. Granted, William thought everyone should share the goal of taking down the Demon King, but still. He wouldn’t want them as an enemy. Perhaps if they were in a more advantageous position they might act more like the Lockridge family. William couldn’t say for sure. However, he did know that currently, he had no complaints. They were decent people, and they thought things through. They had also passed down through their family that the Demon King must be stopped, so there was some longevity to their thinking. More importantly, in this case, they seemed to be good at keeping secrets where they should be.

Because he wanted them to be as well prepared as possible for that, William was going to make sure they knew all of the tricks of magic. The only problem was that he wasn’t a wizard. It would be strange coming from him. Likewise, Yu Li and Dong Xin were admittedly new to the practice of magic. It might or not make sense for them to have a moment of epiphany. However, there was also another thing. Perhaps they already knew. William wasn’t sure. He had told Marius everything important. That chants, at least specific chants, weren’t necessary. It was a simple thing, but significant. There were other things as well, but William thought that was the most dangerous thing for the Demon King to learn. As far as he knew, the Demon King had a massive amount of magical power. William already regretted making the knowledge about shortening chants… somewhat public. If he didn’t have to take as long to cast spells… the effect could be devastating. Alternatively, he could spend longer to perform even more terrifying spells than what they had already heard he was capable of. However, it would be even worse if nobody knew what spell was coming and thus how to counter it. It also sometimes allowed continuation of a spell instead of a failure when stumbling over words. That was up to concentration, but if he still believed he would fail, he would fail.

In short, William wasn’t sure how to bring the subject up. Thus, he went to Lorelei. She already knew that he knew about such things. She already knew that he was reincarnated… although not twice. Plus, she had stayed with the Cyril family for… William wasn’t sure how long, actually. However, they trusted her, and thus she might know. Most importantly, with her William could be direct. “Does the Cyril family know how to subvert chants?”

“Oh, absolutely. I was planning to teach them that, but they already knew.”

William nodded. “That’s good. At least a few trustworthy wizards will know, then… Hopefully, that will tip the balance somewhat.” William sighed. “Though it would be the worst way to win… if we can just destroy him, even if we lose a big battle or the war… it might be enough. I’d really rather that not happen though.”

“Me too. Personally, I’d like to live. However, I might have to get personally involved in this war. More than I am now, even.”

“I don’t suppose you have any magical formations or such that would help in the war?”

“Not much that isn’t already known. There are a few that aren’t known here, but most of them are just impractical. Either because they aren’t actually that effective… or are ridiculously expensive. The Demon King can use them because he has control over the resources, or because he doesn’t care about efficiency. I suppose there are a few things I could teach, though. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Hadn’t gotten around to it yet? How long have you been here?”

“Actually… not that long. Half a dozen years? Honestly, I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for my apprentice. Ugh, forget I said anything about my top-secret apprentice, okay?”

“Is it strange for you to have an apprentice?”

“A real one? Yeah. Sure, the Demon King tells me to educate some people on magic, and I like living so I’ve taught some people basic junk, but I rarely ever have an actual apprentice. Sometimes I’ll have one for a few dozen years, but then they go off and do their own thing.”

“So you’re here because of your apprentice?”

“Didn’t I say that was top-secret? I think I did. It’s fine if people think I’m here just because I want to help. It’s not… entirely wrong. I do want the Demon King dead.”

“... I’m glad you’re on our side, I guess?”

“You should be!” She patted William on the head. “Without me you guys probably wouldn’t have a chance. Though to be honest I barely have anything more I can do here.”

“Maybe we can come up with something.”

“That would be excellent. I’m sure with a couple dozen years we could come up with something amazing. Though… I suppose you have other things to do as well.”

William nodded. “I need to make sure that the other countries at least stand a chance at being prepared for the war. I think that’s something I can do. Especially since I can’t show my face in this one. I suppose I also need to continue cultivating… though my individual contribution to the war might not be that critical. At least we’ll have one more person who has a chance to destroy the Demon King.”

-----

In fact, there were wanted posters for William in the city of Domaro already. Daniel brought one for William to see. William looked at it. “Hmm, that’s a pretty big number. Also, wow. That sketch… Umm, who is that?” William squinted his eyes. It still didn’t look like him. Certainly, it looked something like a person from Liaoyang, but not like William. Dong Xin’s poster was closer. However, William couldn’t relax, because there were other posters that were closer. More importantly, some amount of suspicion would probably be cast on everyone from Liaoyang. That was just the way these things went.

Actually, the posters from the knights were less accurate. Even though the ones from the wizards were only from people who saw him as he had walked into the tower… and perhaps on the way out briefly, they were closer. Not accurate, but closer. William knew the ones from the knights had to be intentionally incorrect. That said, he imagined that if he got in any trouble in the Ostana it wouldn’t matter much if he didn’t look exactly like the posters.