Reborn Apocalypse Ready War Goddess by My Side (Ezekiel Valor) novel Chapter 242

Chapter 242 Outside the Walls

Small clusters of beasts turned up sporadically throughout the day; the ordinary manageable kind that came with life outside the walls.

It was nothing like the coordinated sieges they’d been bracing for.

The tension across the squad eased down to something bearable.

Peter drifted over to Steven’s side with a grin. “What level are you at now?”

Steven kept his expression flat. “Thirteen. You asked me that exact question yesterday.”

Peter laughed. “I figured you’d already be at fourteen by now.”

“I’m not a cultivation engine,” Steven said. “It doesn’t work that fast.”

Alan and Olivia both heard the exchange, and neither of them said anything, though the same thought moved through both of them.

3

When they left the city, Steven was at level 11.

Peter kept talking. “Still, the speed is insane. I kept wondering what was wrong with you when we first met. Now it makes sense. SSS–rank explains everything.”

Peter tilted his head. “But why hide it at all? If you came out with it openly, you’d get resource priority from the Academy. People would think twice before messing with you.”

The rest of the squad glanced at Steven with quiet, genuine curiosity.

This was a question most of them had been turning over privately.

Steven waved a hand with easy dismissal. “What’s the point of showing off? My girlfriend is SSS–rank and she already gets the resource priority. I’m not missing out on anything critical. And like I said before, announcing it just means getting put on everyone’s target list earlier than necessary.”

Silence settled across the group.

r

The real reason was probably something deeper than that. And a person Steven’s age being willing to set aside that kind of recognition for the sake of staying under the radar pointed to a kind of discipline that didn’t come from nowhere.

Someone significant had shaped his thinking, or perhaps it had something to do with needing the safehouse to advance.

Steven registered that everyone was reading into it.

He steered the conversation elsewhere. “Captain, when we requested Sentinel Eye support from the military and got turned down, and then our position got leaked right after, do you think there might be someone inside the military who…”

Steven left the sentence deliberately unfinished.

12:29 pm

1. PP.

Chapter 242 Outside the Walls

Alan went quiet for a beat.

Finished

“There are almost certainly compromised individuals inside the military,” he said, his voice carrying no particular emotion. “How many and who exactly, that’s unknown.”

The squad reacted with sharp, collective unease.

“You’re actually serious about that?” Mason’s voice came out tight and urgent.

Everyone looked at Alan.

Alan gave a calm, unhurried nod. “Yes. But no one knows who they are.”

The steadiness in Alan’s response seemed to settle something in the group. If their captain had already made his peace with this reality, there was a certain logic in accepting it without panic.

Mason pressed anyway. “But why? Why would anyone inside the military do that?”

Alan shook his head. “Nobody knows the full picture. Every time someone gets identified and pulled out, they end up dead before anyone can get much out of them.”

Mason started to ask another question.

Alan cut it off gently but firmly. “This isn’t something any of you need to carry. Do your jobs well. The military has people whose entire focus is handling this.

“The compromised individuals are few enough that they haven’t been able to change the larger outcome.”

Mason let it go.

Steven, though, understood the full weight of what wasn’t being said.

The biggest traitor wasn’t some nameless operative. It was the Divine Saint Marshal himself, and one unexpected strike from that quarter had already altered the course of so many lives.

Someday. That man’s mask is coming off.

Around midday, they reached the seventh target location and planted the Celestial Eye without incident.

Everyone took a short rest.

9 pm

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