Free and Unfettered 119 Visiting The Hopcaper Tribe

As she entered the perimeter of the tribe, the gates of the tribe remained closed as they stayed vigilant. There were countless eyes on her and her students as they were scanned. The scores of undead lingering around were not being dealt with quickly, but rather, slowly and steadily, like an artist slowly chipping away at a woodblock.

Nine hovered slightly off the ground as she watched Andrew and Valerie make quick work of the undead desperately clawing at the gates. With their scent unhidden, more and more of the undead turned towards them, mindlessly charging at them.

Without any apparent effort, the couple used a series of Tier Two spells, quickly taking care of the undead in the area. With hardly any time passing, there were none left in the vicinity.

Unlike Cosmos City, the Hopcaper tribe, though large, did not attract that many undead to them. Those that came were within the manageable threshold, allowing them to survive.

In the past two weeks, Nine had been worried that the tribe might not be able to handle the influx of undead upon their tribe, but clearly, the ward stones they left in the area did its job properly, maintaining the light elements in the air. The previously heavy scent of death that lingered in the air of the tribe was completely gone by now.

"They aren't undead," someone finally confirmed. "They're human." Without another sound, the gates opened for their safe passage.

One of the guards took precautions against them though they were clearly human. "Who are you? Why have you come here?"

Though the voice wasn't shouted, it was clearly projected within their minds. Nine looked up at them, causing a few of those standing guard to gasp at the chilling blue eyes that seemed to pierce into their soul.

"Identify yourselves!"

Nine waited in silence, not bothering to answer. Seeing their Teacher's stance, Andrew and Valerie similarly didn't make a sound.

At the top, Matthew nodded to the guards. "Let them in," he said.

A few of the guards frowned, exchanging looks. They were not sure whether or not they should follow that order.

An old, wizened voice was heard from behind them. "Listen to Matthew. They mean us no harm."

"Elder Mildred! At once!"

According to Mildred's instructions, an opening barely enough for a single person to fit through was made in the gates, allowing the three of them to dart in. The moment they were in, the gates shut without a sound, as if it had never opened in the first place. The gates shut without a noise – something that they had learnt to do fairly quickly, with how some of the undead seemed to come back around at the loud noise.

Matthew met them at the gates, beaming.

Nine nodded at Matthew before he could say anything, keeping him from saying anything else.

Matthew only gave the briefest of pauses before nodding in understanding. There could always be physical spies around the tribe even though he knew that the surveillance items had been taken care of.

Nine's eyes lingered briefly on Mildred before they left.

The foursome arrived at Matthew's house, which was near the outskirts of the tribe. As the door opened, they were met with a bouncing and clearly excited Justin.

The preteen froze midjump as he spotted Andrew and Valerie behind Nine. With a war cry, he launched a dagger at Valerie with very practiced motions.

Valerie hastily caught the dagger mid-air right before it hit her, flicking her hair behind her. "Not today, twerp! You're a hundred years too early!"

Justin growled, tackling the woman as Nine stepped out of the way. The two, woman and child, rolled around on the grass outside, disregarding Andrew's exasperated expression.

Nine sat down on one of the available armchairs inside, leaning against it, watching as Matthew did the same.

"Master," Matthew finally greeted, smiling.

Nine nodded. "How are things going for you?"

"Not too badly. Since the number of light elements in the air is so concentrated, most of the undead prefer to veer away from us instead of coming. Of course, those that do come are easily taken care of before the sun rises."

"Have there been any suspicious movements in the tribe lately?"

Matthew shook his head. "As far as I can tell, no. If there is indeed a spy still left in the village, they either haven't contacted Helce yet, or are so deeply hidden that no one would even suspect them."

Nine tapped her index finger, thinking. The results of the investigation had definitely led her here, but there was no way that Helce herself was still in this remote tribe, with only Wererabbits around.

It was just a strategically bad decision. The Hopcaper tribe was located in the wilderness and far from any other settlements. They preferred to grow their own crops and produced their own water, so it was hard to influence anyone else here.

That only left the fact that there was a spy here, and that the ones who planted the pebble in the tribe's only reservoir. That they were moving under Helce's orders was quite likely, but it had to be a tribesman who knew about the ins and outs of the village. That meant that they had a traitor that they had not yet dug out.

The problem was, now that the air was practically saturated with light elements, the traitor would also have been dissolved of the darkness elements in their blood. If the spy was smart, they would not do anything else but wait for more orders.

Now that 'Darkness Uprising' had already started, they had no need for more actions since it would only intensify.

This left them with fewer clues than expected. Though the tracking spell could give the general location of where the person was located, it wouldn't allow them to pinpoint who it was now that they were already in the vicinity.

Previously Nine had been working on the assumption that the one who planted the pebble was Helce, when she visited Matthew to blackmail him, but in hindsight, that had been careless of her.

Of course, someone who had extensively planned out something like this would not cast all of their eggs in the same basket lest they break. No. There were traitors in this tribe, and it was likely that there were more than one.

"Who has access to the reservoir?" Nine questioned Matthew.

Matthew paused to think about it. "The guards of the tribe always have access, since everyone takes shifts to rotate on guard duty, but other than that, the Elders have access as well. Altogether, there are a hundred and four people who have access to the reservoir."

"Are you able to get their profiles for me to view?"

Matthew nodded immediately. "I can. Although I'm not an Elder of the tribe, I do have some connections remaining that are available for me to use. Justin's father is an Elder," Matthew said, nodding in the directions where the two of them could still hear shouting and laughter.

Nine's finger that had been rhythmically tapping paused for the slightest second before resuming. Matthew had not noticed the pause at all, with how slight it had been.

"How quickly can you get the profiles?" Nine asked.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll have them all for you," Matthew promised, standing up.

Nine nodded, watching as the man left the house. Her eyes were dark.

Chapter end