Liens glanced at the other guards around him.

Every guard his gaze swept over immediately put their crossbows behind their backs, then gave him an awkward, fawning smile.

The recent period of warfare had greatly broadened their horizons; they knew there were some people far stronger than ordinary ones.

As gatekeepers, they would find it difficult to pose a threat to such people.

And Liens's performance clearly matched the characteristics of an Extraordinary One.

Withdrawing his gaze, Liens questioned the guard whose neck was caught in his longsword: "Which faction of Kara City are you currently with?"

"We are the Kara City garrison, stationed here to prevent the Heavenly Balance Church rebels from destroying the city gate, and to provide early warning of changes outside the city."

The guard quickly rattled off the mission assigned by his superiors.

"Garrison? Prevention? Early warning."

Liens briefly summarized the guard's answer.

"The main job is still early warning. After all, if those rebels truly wanted to destroy the city gate, our small number of people wouldn't be able to stop them."

"But there shouldn't be any lunatic who wants to destroy the city gate, right? If the city gate is destroyed, the monsters outside will easily enter the city, which is bad for everyone."

Liens was noncommittal; the persecution of Life by war easily breeds madness, so it was normal for such lunatics to appear.

The existence of these guards was probably also to prevent a few crazy people.

After all, the city gate wasn't an indestructible unit; if someone truly wanted to destroy it, even an ordinary person could find many ways.

Moreover, from his experience rushing here, he didn't know if it was due to environmental changes, but the number of monsters in the wilderness was now much higher than before.

If the war in Kara City continued without stopping, and no one was free to clear out the constantly accumulating monsters in the surroundings, it probably wouldn't be long before a monster siege occurred.

At that time, how many monster attacks could a small city gate withstand?

From this, it could also be seen that the noble faction considered things more long-term than the rebellious forces; they at least knew to send people to constantly scout the situation outside.

"Tell me about the current situation in Kara City."

Liens continued, his tone declarative, giving the guard no room to refuse.

Of course, the guard didn't dare to refuse to answer, so as soon as Liens finished speaking, he immediately responded:

"According to the announcements from above, we have suppressed the riot initiated by the Heavenly Balance Church rebels."

"Currently, we are clearing out the accomplices of those rebels and reclaiming the areas occupied by them."

"That's roughly all I know."

"I'm just a small gate-keeping guard and don't know the specific details, so what I say cannot be guaranteed to be correct; you can use it as a reference."

"However, I guarantee I absolutely haven't lied; you can confirm this with my brothers here."

Hearing his colleague draw the fire to them, the other guards, who had been silently trying to minimize their existence, wished they could raise their fists and punch that guy in the face.

You blabbermouth.

Although annoyed, the other guards immediately nodded frantically like woodpeckers, indicating that the guard's answer was absolutely fine. Publication courtesy of *.

"How is the Adventurers' Association doing?"

Liens didn't pay attention to the guards' exaggerated behavior and continued to inquire.

"Um... the situation at the Adventurers' Association might not be very good."

"Because during the outbreak of the war, the Adventurers' Association chose not to take sides and took the opportunity to gather a large number of people."

"This displeased both factions, and currently, the Adventurers' Association is restricted to an area and cannot enter or exit freely."

"However, we will soon achieve victory, and at that time, the restrictions on the Adventurers' Association should be lifted."

The guard answered cautiously.

Liens had previously told him that he was an Adventurer, so he might be on the side of the Adventurers' Association.

Given how they were treating the Adventurers' Association, he worried that Liens might get angry and kill him with a sword upon hearing the news.

"That area should be at the Adventurers' Association's original location, right?"

Liens inquired.

The guard nodded.

It was similar to what he had learned from Lottie; for now, although the Adventurers' Association in Kara City was somewhat dangerous, it remained intact and had not been destroyed by either faction.

This immediately put his mind at ease; at least he hadn't arrived only to hear the terrible news that the Adventurers' Association had been wiped out.

"Who are the leaders of your side and the Heavenly Balance Church, respectively?"

Liens continued to gather intelligence.

"I don't know the situation of the Heavenly Balance Church rebels."

"But on our side, it's the nobles led by the City Lord and the Glenbagen Family who are leading us to resist the rebellious forces that started the riot."

"So, our nominal leader is the City Lord, but everyone knows that the Glenbagen Family is the true leader of our faction."

The guard answered.

"Glenbagen? Not surprising at all."

"Last question, you should all know Lucrezia, right? Is that 'Princess Knight' still in Kara City?"

Liens asked the guards present.

Both the Elemental Baptism Potion she gave him and the book about common knowledge in the Extraordinary field had helped him significantly.

Especially the Elemental Baptism Potion; although he obtained it in the Instance by selling himself, it was still given by her, and it helped him break through his cognitive barrier, saving him an unknown amount of time.

Without that potion, he might still be in Kara City, serving as a Slave of Glenbagen, forced to participate in this war.

He wouldn't have had the experience in Hughes Town, and he might not have become so strong in just over half a year.

If it were before, he might not have cared about this, even thinking, 'How can something obtained for free by one's own ability be considered a favor?'

But now he felt that some things should be repaid, otherwise, keeping them bottled up could affect his state of mind and hinder his progress.

So, since he was back in Kara City anyway, he would see if he could take the opportunity to repay the favor.

"The current Princess Knight?"

"She has been defined as a Heavenly Balance Church rebel by the City Lord."

"Who knows what she was thinking? The Princess Knight suddenly led the garrison in the Military Fortress to rebel and joined the Heavenly Balance Church rebels."

"This directly led to the occupation of Kara City's Military Fortress."

"Those rebels expanded from there as their center, which has prevented us from completely clearing them out."

One of the guards answered with a look of regret.

"She joined the Heavenly Balance Church... that's surprising, yet not too surprising an answer."

Liens said softly.

The surprise was that Lucrezia, given her status, would choose to betray the royal family and join the rebels; this was almost akin to 'Why did His Majesty rebel?'

The lack of surprise was that he had always found some of Lucrezia's actions a bit strange.

Now it seemed she might have been preparing for the current war in Hartwin Kingdom all along.

After pondering for a while, Liens's figure instantly vanished from the guards' sight.