Gunmage
Chapter 60: Shadows beneath

Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Shadows beneath

Renshaw exhaled sharply as the last of the crates were unloaded. Weapons, ammunition, fragmentation grenades, a pack of explosives, every bit of ordnance was accounted for.

Even the body armor stripped from the dead, whether from Heieg or Ophris, found its way into the hands of the rebels.

Nothing was wasted.

A woman stepped forward from the group, her deep voice carrying over the murmur of her people. A thin vertical scar ran down her jawline, complimentary to the hardened expression she wore.

"We send our regards to his highness"

She said, bowing slightly.

Her name, they’d been told, was Natalia. The rest of her crew followed suit, dipping their heads in thanks.

Renshaw nodded.

"Then we’ll get going."

A hushed voice broke the moment.

"Natalia, why don’t you ask for their help?"

One of the women leaned close, but her words carried, intentional or not.

Natalia hesitated. Her face was conflicted, but she shook her head.

"No. Didn’t you hear? They’re the Prince’s guards. I’m sure they have to be by his side. We couldn’t trouble them for any more help."

Lugh sighed, already seeing the trap. Her words sounded sincere on the surface, but the way she’d spoken, out loud, in front of everyone, ensured there was no easy refusal.

Now they had to help, or risk drawing the ire of the locals. A dilemma, indeed. She wasn’t the leader for no reason.

Renshaw didn’t miss a beat.

"Yes, we’re the Prince’s guards, and as such, we have to be by his side. Major General Lovainne is the heart of this army. Without him, we’d crumble. I hope you can understand"

Natalia blinked, caught off guard.

"W-what—are you serious?"

"Yes."

"O-okay then... we don’t really need all of you, just half would do."

Renshaw narrowed his eyes.

"Half?"

This woman was being unreasonable.

"Sorry, we can’t do that."

He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he turned and leaped into the manhole, disappearing into the tunnels below.

Lugh followed closely, unwilling to linger in the tension. The rest of the squad quickly emulated him. Lyra hesitated the longest, meeting the rebels’ irritated stares through her visor before finally slipping into the shadows below.

"Did they seriously just leave?"

One of the rebels muttered, disbelief laced in her tone.

Natalia’s lips pressed into a firm line.

"Leave them be. We’ll make do on our own."

Back in the tunnels, the group moved in relative silence until Lyra finally spoke.

"Why couldn’t we have helped them? They’re not soldiers."

Lugh didn’t break his stride.

"They are now."

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

She shot back, her voice edged with frustration.

"Lyra, leave it."

Renshaw cut in before the argument could escalate.

"We have a mission. Stick to the plan."

Lugh tuned out the lingering tension, his mind already returning to the puzzle at hand.

Ever since they’d begun their operation in the city, he’d been trying to infer the location of the mages’ human experimentation site.

He had few concrete details to go on, but there were small clues he had noticed.

One such clue was that the place was very large, and yet when the beastkin had arrived her first words were:

"This place is stuffy"

It had stuck with him. Her species were known for their heightened senses, far more attuned to their surroundings than humans.

What had seemed normal to him might have felt confining to her. However, Lugh didn’t believe that was the case in this situation.

There was something else, something about what the white-haired woman had said when he first woke up.

"You’re finally awake"

Seemingly normal words. But when Lugh considered the timing, the phrasing didn’t make sense.

Normal people wouldn’t have noticed this but Lugh wasn’t normal, he was controlling a puppet at the time.

Whilst a regular person would be unable to tell for how long they were out cold, Lugh with his split consciousness knew with absolute certainty, that he hadn’t been unconscious for long.

This was where the problem lay. He wasn’t knocked out for more than a few minutes. Once this was put into consideration, the word ’finally’ in her statement stopped making sense

Although his chance of escape was close to zero, she still saw the need to decieve him whether it be consciously or not.

This could only mean that the very nature of the place had to remain a secret. Combining this with how the beastkin had called the place stuffy, which was probably more psychological than literal, lugh concluded that the mages set up base somewhere underground.

The experiments were happening underground. Lovainne’s intelligence network had scoured the city for weeks and found nothing. But they hadn’t been searching below.

That was why Lugh had insisted on traversing these tunnels. It was their best shot at uncovering what had remained hidden for so long.

Even if he was given a few years, the regular Lugh would have been unable to deduce this. The memories he had digested from the legendary spy were now showing their effects.

"The plan?"

Lyra scoffed suddenly, pulling him back to the present.

"You mean the one where we let the kid check out an area the resistance has already searched a million times over, while we pray that he finds something everyone else somehow missed?"

Lugh clenched his jaw. Yes, his theory relied on chance. But something about the way she said it irked him.

He chose to remain silent

Renshaw, seeing that Lugh didn’t pursue the matter, also held his tongue. Xhi merely observed, her amusement barely concealed.

The other soldiers shifted uncomfortably. An uneasy silence settled over the group as they continued their journey.

Ten minutes later, Renshaw stopped, studying the crumpled map in his hands.

"Okay. This is it."

Lugh needed no further prompting. He sent one of his puppets ahead to scout.

Moments later, he released a heavy sigh.

"What is it?"

Renshaw asked.

Lugh’s lips twitched.

"Don’t worry. You’ll see for yourself."

The others exchanged dubious glances. To reassure them, Lugh was the first to climb up to the surface.

The city above was a reflection of war’s aftermath. Smoke lingered in the air, rubble and shattered glass littered the ground.

In the near distance, the charred remains of what had once been Heieg’s intelligence department loomed.

A building Lugh knew well, for it was where his puppet, Riley Osniel, had met Cipher.

They had reached their destination. Except—

"What are you doing here?"

A sharp voice cut through the air.

Lugh turned to find Natalia and her rebels standing before them. Their gazes were anything but welcoming.

"Aren’t you supposed to be with the Prince?"

She asked, her tone laced with suspicion.

The civilians who stood beside her eyed them warily, their expressions ranging from skepticism to outright hostility.

So much for a quiet investigation.