Barrett arrived alone at Old Tony's residence. The house was locked up tight, and the dust and neglect outside made it clear no one had lived there for a long time. Old Tony's nephew Eddie had most likely moved in with Old Tony's daughter.
Barrett picked the lock on the door without any trouble. He stepped inside, pulled out the small copper can, and held it in his hand. Ever since he had bathed in the Dragon Progenitor's blood, he too could wield magic. He pictured Old Tony's face and voice from the old days, and the little copper can instantly flared into a glowing orb that dropped to the floor and became a completely naked Old Tony.
True to his reputation as a high-level mage, Old Tony accepted the fact of his own resurrection without batting an eye. He didn't bother putting on clothes. He stretched his frail, wrinkled body and grumbled, "Why didn't you bring me back young?"
Barrett let out a short, exasperated laugh. "I revive you and you start complaining instead of thanking me?"
"I saved your life once before. Now you've saved mine. We're even," Old Tony said shamelessly.
He grinned. "Truth is, I don't know how to repay you. You used something this rare to bring me back, so you clearly don't need money anymore. Otherwise you would've just sold it. Tell you what—I've got a bottle of gender-change potion. If you don't mind having this old lady around, I'll drink it right now and become your personal maid. I'll serve only you from now on."
As he spoke, he gave Barrett a playful wink. If he actually knew how to flutter his eyelashes, Barrett was sure the old man would have done something even more revolting.
"Enough, enough," Barrett said, waving him off. "Just seeing you running your mouth like this is all the thanks I need."
"Where's your nun captain?" Old Tony asked. "I'm guessing you never would've gotten your hands on a resurrection item this valuable without her."
"She did most of the work, yeah. But let's not talk about her—she's off handling some big business." Barrett replied.
EeDechi was about to sneak into the royal palace and assassinate Queen Renner. Whether her plan succeeded or failed, it would kick off a massive storm. For a job this huge, keeping Old Tony completely in the dark was the best protection he could get.
"Let's go find Eddie. I'll dress up like a ghost and give him a good scare," Old Tony said. He pulled on a hooded robe and tucked his face deep into the shadows.
Barrett was struck speechless. This old rascal—the very first thing he does after being resurrected is go scare his own family.
The two of them slipped out the door and headed for Old Tony's daughter's house. They crouched in a corner and watched stealthily for a while. Sure enough, his nephew Eddie soon stepped out of the building.
The capital was buzzing ahead of the queen's wedding. Everywhere you looked there were lively street fairs and cheerful celebrations. People were smiling from ear to ear, and Eddie was in high spirits too, walking with a light, bouncy step.
He rounded a corner. Old Tony leaped out like a big bad wolf, scaring Eddie so badly he froze in place.
Old Tony bared his teeth in a hideous grimace, ready to chase after the boy who was about to run for his life. But Eddie suddenly lunged forward, threw his arms around Old Tony, and shouted, "Uncle! I missed you so much!"
"I… I'm a ghost, you know… Aren't you scared?" Old Tony stammered, completely thrown off.
"I know, but I'm not scared," Eddie said, lifting his head with tears sparkling in his eyes. "I really missed you."
He patted Old Tony on the back and added in confusion, "How come a ghost has a solid body?"
Old Tony's silly little prank finally came to an end. He explained that he had been resurrected, and the two of them hugged tightly again. Eddie was overjoyed.
After saying goodbye to Eddie, Old Tony decided he was going to head to the adventurers' guild tavern next and scare some people there. Once he was done, he planned to throw a party with Barrett and the rest of their adventurer buddies and drink themselves stupid.
On the way to the tavern, he noticed Barrett had wrapped a scarf around the lower half of his face. Old Tony asked, "You get yourself wanted again?"
"Mm," Barrett nodded.
"Is it a serious crime? I'll pull some strings and see if I can get the wanted poster taken down," Old Tony said.
"It's not something you can get mixed up in. Just enjoy your quiet retirement," Barrett replied. In truth, he wasn't the one wanted at all. The Great Tomb of Nazarick had put a bounty on EeDechi; Barrett was simply listed as dead.
The two of them reached the tavern run by the capital's adventurers' guild. Old Tony had once been the guildmaster here, so he knew the place like the back of his hand.
He kept his face hidden in the shadows of his hood, cast a spell to blur his features and another to change his voice, then pushed open the tavern door and stepped inside with Barrett.
He closed the door behind them and sealed it with magic before strolling through the room.
The tavern wasn't very crowded. Old Tony walked past a stocky dwarf adventurer and rasped in a hoarse voice, "Sam, don't you still owe Old Tony twenty gold coins?"
Sam thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, but he's dead now."
Old Tony moved on to another familiar face. "Michael, didn't you buy two healing potions from Old Tony on credit and never pay him back?"
Michael shrugged. "That did happen. But when I finally got around to paying him, he was already dead, so I let it go."
Old Tony kept going until he reached a half-drunk adventurer. "Mason, back when Old Tony pulled you out from under those centaur hooves, you were crying with gratitude. You swore that if he ever got in trouble, you'd have his back. After he was killed, did you do anything at all? Or have you just been sitting here drinking this whole time?"
Mason spread his hands. "I wanted to get revenge for Old Tony too, but come on—the bastards were strong enough to kill a high-level mage like him. Squashing me would be easy as pie. It's not something I could handle."
Old Tony walked forward again and stopped beside a curvaceous female elf. In the same hoarse voice he asked, "Nymira, back when Old Tony helped you out, you said you'd sleep with him to repay the favor. So why didn't you ever follow through?"
Nymira curled her lip. "That was just something I said to shut him up. He was already so old—his lower half probably couldn't even get hard anymore. Even if I'd wanted to sleep with him, he wouldn't have had the stamina."
Old Tony went around the tavern like that, questioning one person after another. Then he stepped up to the counter and shouted at the whole room, "Every last one of you owes Old Tony a fortune! You'd rather sit here drinking than pay what you owe! A bunch of ungrateful bastards!"
The tavern erupted in angry grumbling.
"None of your damn business!"
"Old Tony's dead! Dead men cancel all debts. Even if we wanted to pay, there's no one left to pay!"
"Old Tony's own daughter hasn't come collecting, and she hasn't said a word. Who the hell are you to whine about it?"
"We went to his grave to pay our respects. We all miss him, but let's skip the money part, yeah?"
"I even took a piss on Old Tony's grave. Serves him right for deliberately blocking my rank-up back then."
Old Tony gave a small smile. He dropped the face-blurring spell and the voice-changing spell, pulled back his hood to reveal his real face, and let out a shrill, eerie cackle. "Hahahahaha! I crawled straight out of hell to collect what you owe me! You're all going to die! Nobody's leaving this tavern today!"
He flicked his wrist and fired a Heart-Piercing Curse. It slammed into the adventurer who had pissed on his grave. The man screamed, toppled off his chair, and rolled across the floor clutching his chest in agony.
"AAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"
The entire tavern panicked. Screams rang out everywhere. A dead man had just walked in claiming he was back for blood debts—who wouldn't lose their minds?
Some people bolted for the exit only to slam into the locked door and start pounding on it in despair. Others dove into corners to hide, while a few dropped straight to their knees in front of Old Tony, begging for mercy.
After the chaotic frenzy died down, Old Tony looked thoroughly pleased with the scare he had pulled off. The others finally came to their senses and realized he was a living person, not some vengeful demon risen from hell.
Most of the people in the tavern were adventurers, so they had plenty of guts. Stories about the dead coming back to life were nothing new in adventurer circles.
"Everyone," Old Tony said, raising his hands for quiet. "I only made it back from the grave thanks to EeDechi and Barrett. I know Barrett is still wanted, but that's not what matters right now. I'm recommending EeDechi for promotion from orichalcum rank to adamantite rank, and Barrett from mithril rank to orichalcum rank. Their strength and achievements more than deserve the new ranks. I'm asking you all to help me make it happen."
Adamantite rank was the absolute highest tier for adventurers, while orichalcum rank was the one just below it. Both required approval from other high-level adventurers. Old Tony himself was an elite adventurer, a respected veteran, and the former guildmaster. With his reputation and connections, he could actually pull something like this off.
But the crowd's reaction was nothing like Old Tony had expected. They all jumped to their feet, talking over each other in a rush.
"Where's EeDechi?"
"Old Tony, you really did just crawl out of the grave, huh? You don't know anything! EeDechi is the Sorcerer Kingdom's most wanted criminal right now!"
"The Sorcerer Kingdom is offering ten thousand gold coins for EeDechi!"
"Have you seen her? Where is she? Don't even think about keeping that ten thousand gold all to yourself!"
Barrett leaned in and whispered something in Old Tony's ear. Old Tony's brows immediately drew together in a deep frown.
He motioned for everyone to settle down. "Easy, easy. I'll tell you everything I know about EeDechi right now."
Every adventurer in the tavern stared at him with hungry, wide-eyed attention.
BANG!
Old Tony suddenly swung his wand and unleashed a mass stun spell. Everyone in the tavern except him and Barrett dropped unconscious in an instant.
"Barrett, give me your hand," Old Tony said.
He grabbed Barrett's hand and launched into a long, drawn-out incantation. The spell took a full fifty seconds to cast. A blinding white radiance exploded from the tip of his wand and rained down over the entire tavern like glowing droplets.
"All set," Old Tony sighed in relief. "I wiped the last three minutes from their memories. No one will remember I said anything about EeDechi."
He turned to Barrett. "You two really have balls of steel. The capital is crawling with Sorcerer Kingdom agents right now. You need to get out of here fast. I'll buy you a cargo wagon and forge some travel papers so you can pass as merchants."
"No need," Barrett said. "I came straight from E-Rantel using the teleportation circle. Once the captain finishes her big job, we've got our own way out. I'm not dragging you into this."
"Things really have changed while I was dead. Not only did the king turn into a queen, now we've even got teleportation circles."
"Queen Renner set them up between the capital and E-Rantel to stay on the Sorcerer Kingdom's good side."
The two of them hurried out of the adventurers' guild tavern. The unconscious patrons began waking up one by one, their recovery times varying according to each person's magic resistance.
But one man had never been knocked out at all, and his memory was untouched.
The owner of the Golden Apple Tavern, Joseph Lesua, lay slumped over a table with a wide-brimmed sun hat pulled down over his face, looking exactly like he had passed out drunk. On the back of his hand, the E-Rantel "Honorary Citizen" brand burned with a sharp, stinging pain.
Earlier, he had gone to the adventurers' guild to post a request for rare brewing ingredients, then come straight to the tavern for a drink. He had gotten half-drunk and dozed off at the table.
The mass stun spell Old Tony cast jolted him awake, but Joseph didn't dare sit up. He thought the tavern was being robbed.
The group memory-erasing spell that followed had no effect on him whatsoever, thanks to the E-Rantel "Honorary Citizen" brand burned into the back of his hand. It was a magical mark forced on him by the Sorcerer Kingdom—like a tag looped around a farm animal's leg. It branded him like livestock, but it also granted him powerful magic resistance.
He stayed perfectly still, pretending to be asleep. From the corner of his eye he recognized the tall man with the scarf covering half his face as the big guy from the trio he both hated and loved.
After those three had caught him secretly cursing Ainz, they had blackmailed him into abusing his authority and letting them ride the teleportation circle without official Sorcerer Kingdom approval.
True, the trio had paid him extremely well ever since, and he had been quite happy with the money, but this was still walking on a knife's edge. If the Sorcerer Kingdom ever found out, the punishment would be brutal.
Joseph Lesua had kept telling himself they were nothing more than illegal travelers and smugglers. Even if they got caught, he would only end up in prison.
But after overhearing the conversation between Barrett and Old Tony, Joseph finally realized the truth with a chill of pure terror: two of that trio were EeDechi and Barrett!
EeDechi had a ten-thousand-gold-coin bounty on her head—the highest reward ever offered. Most people had talked about it, and everyone knew the Last Defender of the Way adventuring party used to have four members. Barrett and two of his teammates had died, leaving only EeDechi alive.
And now Barrett and EeDechi were both still alive—and Joseph had been helping them use the Sorcerer Kingdom's official teleportation circle the whole time! Helping EeDechi, the number-one most-wanted criminal!
If the Sorcerer Kingdom ever found out, it wouldn't be a simple prison sentence. It would be the capital crime of executing his entire family!
Joseph couldn't stop himself from shaking all over.