Unsealing Emptiness

“Oh? That isn’t important. Listen to me first,” Raymond said while sitting on the only chair present on the table.

Alver was left standing as he respectfully listened.

“I met someone yesterday. You know about The Feral; it was him. Consider him and his newly established information-gathering organization as our allies now,” Raymond informed.

“Alright. But what is so important here?” Alver did not understand how this was so important that his elder brother, who always maintained his indifferent face, acted impatient today.

“His actual name is Ozul Ashfall,” Raymond spoke slowly.

The woman on guard who listened to their conversation did not understand why his name was so important. But she had never seen her master, Alver, so surprised.

.....

Alver did not react for a few moments as he heard the name before he quietly muttered, “She always said that she liked the name Ozul...”

The two brothers stayed silent for a little while before they collectively sighed.

“But how is it possible?” Alver asked. He wanted to believe that it was indeed their nephew, but it just did not make any sense.

“I know-however, his face, the Ashin family’s black hair, and his age match. I only have doubts because he is a Rank-9 Mage,” Raymond said with an unsure face.

“I have already sent two of my men, don’t bother,” Raymond said when he saw that Alver was about to order his subordinate to investigate.

Alver gestured with his hand, and the woman returned to her position.

The two brothers stayed quiet before Alver spoke, “It was all my fault; I should have been more careful.”

“No, Alver; it was not your fault. The ones really at fault would pay dearly for it,” Raymond said with his voice burning with deep rage.

At his words, a cold glint flashed past Alver’s eyes as well. The woman standing at a distance shuddered as she saw this scene.

——-

Unaware of the commotion that he had caused in the Church and the talk between the two brothers, Ozul at this moment was flying towards the Silverbird Kingdom.

Since he did not have to put much effort other than keeping a part of his consciousness with the Ball of Purity, he looked as calm as ever. But he was traveling so fast that life on the ground could not even catch a glimpse of him.

To them, there were only a few extra winds today. Only someone at least at the Middle Stage of Rank-9 could match his current speed.

It took him just a few hours to completely leave the Neutral Lands. He was now back to the wild area where there were tens of towns and cities.

Ozul did not stop to rest at any place. First of all, it had only been a little more than half a day, and second, he wanted to return as fast as he could.

However, at the end of the day, he did stop at the Fer city, which was the nearest to the dividing mountains and the Old Whispering Woods.

‘One or two days won’t matter...’ Ozul did want to return as fast as possible, but sleeping every day had almost become a habit by now.

The next day, he flew straight towards the direction of the Old Whispering Woods. He could not avoid that area since it was in the middle of the direct route back to the Kingdom.

He did not have any reason to avoid this area in the first place.

As he flew above the old jungle, he could not help but look towards the direction in which the trees spread thicker and even more tangled.

The more one traveled in that direction, the more dangerous it was since it brought people to the forest’s middle areas.

‘Though dangerous, I am sure there must be some fascinating things there,’ Ozul thought as he looked in that direction.

His power had stagnated to whatever he had right now. Though absorbing Rank-8 Core did improve, the growth was so little that he was better off not starting a massacre.

The only two other options that he had left were Rank-9 Core or found something new.

A Rank-9 Mage was not some cabbage sold in the market. Even if he were to encounter one, he was not sure if he could kill them so easily.

‘Even if there is nothing, there should at least be one Rank-9 Beast,’ Ozul thought.

As their ranks increased, Beasts became even rarer than the Mages. It was fine just protecting themselves from humans, but they also had to protect against the other Beasts.

However, one thing that did give a Beast at a similar rank was their prowess. They were significantly more powerful physically, and their affinity with Mana could not even be compared.

One of the actual weaknesses of the Beasts was their intelligence, but a Beast at Rank-7 had already learned to speak. So it was without a question that Rank-9 Beasts were just as smart as any other human Mages!

‘Not now...’

However, Ozul did not turn towards that direction. Although he did want to improve his strength after realizing that he was still weak, setting up the organization was his priority.

Without wasting any more time, he resumed his dash towards the Silverbird Kingdom.

A couple of days passed before he was actually out of the forest. In between, he did not take any rest this time.

Although he was only flying from above the Old Whispering Woods, he did feel better leaving the sight of the same trees everywhere.

This day, he was above the forest that connected with the Silverbird Capital city. He slowed down a bit and saw the city buildings after half a day. They were exactly as he had left them.

It only took him almost a week to return to the Silverbird Kingdom alone!

Months had passed when they traveled in the convoy because they had to take things slow to keep the security maximan. However, since he was alone, he did not have to hold back and sped as fast as he could.

‘Maybe I should have done this before...’ Ozul realized that if he was that fast, maybe he did not have to stick together with the convoy from the start.

After all, he had only followed along because he wanted to visit the Neutral Lands and want to see what the Emperor was up to. But now, he had certain plans that could only be completed with the help of Raymond.

With such thoughts in his mind, Ozul went towards the city. To not attract all the attention to himself, he came down on the ground and started walking normally.

As he entered the city, he did not notice anything unusual. Everything was just as he had left them. However, one thing he did notice was that the Silverbird Capital city did not feel so prosperous now that he had seen the Neutral city.

The difference was too huge to even compare.

Walking down the streets, he did notice a few men looking at his way before hurriedly evading their eyes. They did look suspicious, but it wasn’t to the point that one would think much about it.

Ozul had also only noticed them because he could sense that they were not really curious because he had the conical hat on his head that covered his face.

These few men and women were actually more impatient than curious. It was like a dog impatiently wagging his tail before he picked up the ball to give it to his master.

Ozul noticed that the men disappeared from the crowd after giving him a few glances.

‘Not enough...’ Ozul thought before he quickly made his way to the alleyway where the organization’s building was located.

Reaching the alleyway, Ozul noticed that those few men who had been acting unusually were also in the crowd close to it. This confirmed his assumption that they were indeed men from the organization.

He ignored them and immediately entered the alleyway. As he arrived before the building, the same old man sat before the entrance with the newspaper in his hand.

The old man did not even look up from his newspaper as he let him in. Ozul had taken off his hat at this time.

Before him, there was a small lobby that had not even a speck of dust.

‘At least he did something right,’ Ozul noticed that there were no hundreds of men running around with piles and piles of documents.

Such an organization with little to no administration could only work at a small scale. If he wanted to expand, those messy structural systems would never work.

He needed everything arranged and it seemed that he was right in his choice to pick Irvin to build the organization because he was already doing a good job.

“What do you want, sir?” A woman wearing a somewhat similar uniform as he had seen with people of the Ashin Family asked.

Ozul turned around and noticed a woman behind the counter.

“Call Irvin,” Ozul simply said before making his way to the couch that was placed in the middle of the lobby.

“I... Irvin as in Master Irvin?” The woman asked hesitatingly. She did not know if this person in front of her was even aware of what he was saying.

“Yes, the one who runs this place,” Ozul repeated his words before taking a seat.

“... I am sorry sir, but Master Irvin was not expecting a visit...”