Unsealing Emptiness

Although Hanry did not have any funds at hand, he was sure that Clara’s family would not miss the chance to buy drakes’ corpses.

Moreover, the bodies were in an almost perfect condition. There were no unnecessary wounds or injuries that would decrease the value of them. So, Hanry was anxious to seal the deal before Ozul really buried the bodies.

However, Hanry had forgotten to consider one point. If Ozul really wanted money, it would still be profitable to sell the corpses anywhere. Burying them only meant that he did not care about money in this situation at all.

“I am not selling them,” Ozul replied with a cold tone. Just because he did not say, it did not mean that he enjoyed repeating his words so much.

“But are you sure? We can-”

He squinted his eyes at the men surrounding them, his head lifted a little, looking down at those surrounding him. Suddenly, a huge pressure descended on all the people who were there to see if they had any chance to obtain the drakes’ corpses.

.....

It seemed that one wrong move would put their lives at risk.

“If any of you want them, you can try to take them from me. However, I will not be selling anything.” Ozul gestured towards the corpses with his hand.

The people stood there, most of them already sweating buckets even when it was only Ozul’s intent. Unlike what he had done with Venessa, Ozul had only threatened them, and there was no bloodlust. So it was bearable for some of them.

But even this much was enough to scare the hell out of those mercenaries. Even Hanry, Clive, and Barry were not spared from the pressure.

They were also ten times better than the other mercenaries, but they still felt the danger. Their instincts honed by hundreds of battles warned them that they wouldn’t live to see another day if they took even one step further.

Ozul swept his eyes at all the people. Almost all of them were already regretting coming here.

Noticing that his little trick worked, he retracted the pressure on them and turned around to look at Blaze.

Blaze had already dug up a vast area of ground, so he was almost done. He appeared to be very diligent since Ozul would rarely ask him to do things instead of Raven even if it was just digging up a grave.

Since the pressure was gone, the group of people hurriedly scattered away. They did not want to stay here any longer in fear that someone pisses him off again.

Clive began to instruct the uninjured mercenaries to look out for any danger nearby. After that, everyone tended to the injured men.

Fortunately, there were no casualties. The worst case was that a man had his arm almost torn apart. The Silver Knights gave that rank-5 mage a small vial of potion that immediately took effect and healed him.

This kindness from their employer did not escape the other mercenaries’ eyes. Their fighting spirits were ignited since it was rare for the mercenaries to be employed by someone this generous.

That vial of a potion was the recently introduced elixir that had been distributed by the Church of Light. Although affordable, it was still expensive for average men to use without any care.

They’d only use those things when their lives were on the line. But their employer had just given the man the potion, even though the injury would have healed on its own if enough time.

Clive nodded his head when he saw this scene. It was as he had expected. It was one of the lowest quality elixirs that they had. Even ordinary soldiers would be able to afford them, but their trash was someone else’s treasure.

He used this simple trick to win the hearts of the mercenaries. After this battle, their morale would have been down otherwise.

Although they did not need the mercenaries anyway, Clive knew that they still had to fight with any other danger that they would encounter on the way.

All the while, Hanry stayed near Clara just in case some other beast decided to attack them.

When Blaze had finally dug up the ground big enough for the two dead bodies to fit in, Ozul only had to use the Ball of Purity to pick up the bodies and put them in the ground.

“Bury them,” Ozul ordered before Blaze used the same shovel made up of ice that he had used to dig up the area to put the dirt back in.

It took him a few more minutes before the drakes were properly buried.

During this time, the mercenaries had already prepared everything. All the injured had recovered enough to start the journey again.

All of them were resilient enough that small injuries such as these wouldn’t bother them too much.

All the men gathered around Clive since he wanted to discuss their formation again.

“Since we have three rank-7 mages, one would be at each corner of the front. Barry and Sir Hanry would take each side while I would be leading the group...” Clive instructed, and no one had any objections since this seemed to be the best strategy.

“As for the rear, you should...*Cough* You can do whatever you want.” Clive suddenly turned towards Ozul’s group of three.

However, he changed his sentence in the middle when he remembered the event that occurred only a few minutes ago.

Even then, Ozul completely ignored his existence. It made Clive a little embarrassed, but he could not muster up his courage in front of him.

After Ozul saw that everything was fine, he turned around and walked towards the convoy, who was only waiting for his group.

Clive took that as a hint, and he ordered the convoy to start moving. Unlike before, they did not have the carriages since there was no room to do so.

Clive led the group at the front, Barry covered the left side, while Sir Hanry took care of the right side. And at last, Ozul marched at the end of the group.

As the convoy began to make their way ahead, some of the mercenaries still could not rest easy to leave the treasures wasted and buried underground. However, they could not do anything about it either.

It was at this moment when no one noticed, two small shadows leaped from the bushes and made their way towards the area where Blaze had buried the drakes’ bodies.

No one except the trio noticed this since they were at the end of the group. Ozul pretended not to care about it, but Blaze and Raven quickly realized what this meant.

The two shadows were actually the babies of the drakes! Only now did Raven and Blaze share a knowing smile as they hurriedly followed behind Ozul.

——-

*A few moments earlier.*

Ozul suddenly looked towards a particular bush in the distance. As he moved his gaze towards the dead drakes in front of him, he realized what this meant.

The baby drakes, though weak and fragile, were still drakes at heart. They were ready to show themselves even while being afraid of the men who had killed their parents.

It was only then that Ozul looked towards Jinx, who sat there leisurely. He gave her a keen look, which the latter seemed to understand immediately.

Jinx stood up and made her way to that particular bush. Almost no one noticed this scene where Jinx just stood in front of the bush, staring at it dumbly.

However, even the matured drakes were afraid of Jinx, not to mention their children. Even when the baby drakes wanted to, they could not move their bodies even near Jinx.

Ozul did not want them to come out because he knew if they did, the most likely scenario would be that the mercenaries would again start to fight over them. And since they were immature, they would capture them alive instead of killing them.

Now Ozul wouldn’t have cared about them, but the scene of the drake’s emotions while dying had reminded him of himself and his mother.

And these baby drakes were also just like him. They couldn’t do anything to protect themselves.

Relating his situation when his father took away his limbs from him to that of the baby drakes, Ozul decided to protect them just this one time. Also giving the baby drakes enough time to mourn their parents’ death.