Unsealing Emptiness

Even without Ozul trying to sense her emotions, it was obvious that the woman was lying and did not intend to reveal anything so easily.

“I don’t have time for these things, are you going to tell me or not?” Ozul said as a small black needle appeared right in front of the middle-aged woman’s eye.

Her eyes widened with horror at the thought of what would happen to her if she did not comply with whatever he asked of her.

However, the woman did not give in. Tears began to flow out from her eyes as she saw the needle slowly closing in. She wanted to scream, but she also knew that doing so would anger the person as well.

Ozul watched the scene without any shred of pity. If the woman really did not say anything, then he would mercilessly end her as well. The most he would do was to appreciate the woman’s determination.

Just when the needle was an inch away from piercing her eye, Ozul smelled a foul stench and realized that the woman had lost control of her bowl from the fright.

.....

It worsened his mood, but the woman finally gave in when the needle was just half an inch distance from the cornea of her eye. He had purposely slowed down the needle because the slower it was, the more terror she felt.

And it worked as the woman stuttered with much difficulty, “S-Stop it! I-I will t-talk! Stop this!”

He made the needle disappear. The woman stopped crying, but her arms and legs did not stop shaking. She knew that there was no other way to save her life except for answering whatever he asked.

“I... I work for t-the Three-Eyed Merchants,” the woman spoke.

Her words, instead of clearing Ozul’s doubts, confused him even more. Hearing the word Three-Eyed did indeed make him realize that the worse hadn’t happened, but he did not know why this woman said Merchants instead of Strangers.

“If you work for some merchants, why were you so insistent on hiding it?” he asked, knowing full well that this woman was not informed of everything. As far as he knew, she was telling the truth. So it could only mean that she herself believed that she worked for merchants.

“I... had orders from above that n-no matter what happened, I... were to never reveal a-any information regarding t-them,” the woman answered as she stammered occasionally.

There was only so much a random member could tell him about, so he asked, “Where have the merchants made their base at?”

The woman looked quite surprised at his question, “It seems you are new here... e-everyone nowadays know about the Three-Eyed Mercha-”

“Just answer my question.” Ozul looked unamused, making the woman break down in cold sweat. She hurriedly spoke, “Y-y-yes! T-the main b-base of operation would be in the Azmar c-city.”

‘Azmar City, hmm...’ If it was really in that city, then Ozul was assured that nothing bad had happened to the organization.

And from the woman’s surprised face, the Three-Eyed Merchants should be popular among people nowadays. It made him relieved a little as he freed the woman. She immediately fell to the ground because her body was weak due to the continuous trembling of the muscles.

Ozul ignored her state and left the dark alley. The woman did not know much anyway, so he did not care if she lived or not.

‘Only they will be able to answer,’ Ozul knew that unless he met Irvin or Haley, he wouldn’t be able to understand the situation. Without wasting any more time, he left for the Azmar city.

Since he had already confirmed that things weren’t so dire as he had assumed, he travelled at a normal pace.

. . .

Half a day later, he was in Azmar city. He looked around to notice all the new buildings and the increased crowd on the streets. He had spent years in this city, so even the small changes were quickly spotted by him.

‘Oliver has been doing a good job,’ Ozul praised Count Oliver in his mind. It had been a couple of years since they last met him.

‘I should meet him as well. But before that, I have to learn about the situation first. Sigh... I left for only 1 year, and things changed this much... ‘ Ozul could not help but sigh internally.

He stopped a random person on the street and asked if he knew where the Three-Eyed Merchants had their base set up.

To his surprise, the old man that he had stopped to ask this question immediately pointed towards a certain direction. Ozul got the meaning and walked in that direction.

Only when he had reached the other end of the city did Ozul noticed the tall building with people constantly going in and out in a hurry.

“There you are...” he muttered when he felt the two familiar auras in the building.

When he entered the building, the busy men and women gave him a side glance, but no one stopped him. However, he did notice that all the people here only looked at him weirdly and no one else.

It was as if even in the big crowd, everyone knew which face belonged here and which did not. Adding that to the fact that he had the black conical hat on his head, he stood out like a sore thumb.

He quietly made his way into the lounge where people were doing their work. Without even looking at the receptionist’s bar, he took the stairs to the 2nd floor.

Even the 2nd floor was filled with people, and they each had stacks of documents in their hands. Some people looked his way, but when they noticed that he was going to the 3rd floor, they went back to their work.

Their boss had the office on the 3rd floor, if this new face was directly going there, then they need not worry about him creating any disturbance.

On the 3rd floor, he easily spotted Irvin’s office on the far end of the corridor. He sensed that there were more than a few people in the room currently.

There was a man who stood guard at the door, he was a Rank-5 Mage and seemed to be almost bored standing still for so long.

Just when he was about to enter, the guard stopped him and said, “Whoever you are, there is currently a meeting going on inside. Better wait for it to end, pal.”

Ozul lifted up his hat a little to meet the guard’s eyes and glared with an emotionless face. The single look from him caused the guard to stumble back in fear. For some reason, he felt that stopping this person once more would have heavy consequences.

“... Whatever! Go ahead, don’t blame me that I didn’t warn you. Madam is really strict with whoever gets on her nerves,” the guard spoke when he saw Ozul entering the room. He did not have enough courage to stop him, so he could only threaten with words.

. . .

When Ozul entered the room, he noticed the several people in the room all had their eyes fixed on him. Half of them were glaring at him while the other half seemed to be looking at him in pity.

However, all of their looks changed when suddenly they heard the two people sitting on the chairs loudly yell,

“Young Master!” x2

It was Irvin and Haley who shouted simultaneously standing up from their comfortable chairs.

Ozul noticed that the other people in the room all had surprised expressions. He coughed and motioned towards Haley who, as expected, immediately understood what he was referring to.

“The rest of the report can wait later. All of you are dismissed,” she said while indicating them to leave the room. Even when those men and women were confused, they did not dare disobey Haley’s orders and one by one left the room, but not before giving one last curious look to Ozul.

After everyone had left the room, Haley closed the door and immediately got on her knee, followed by Irvin, who was always slow on the uptake.

Ozul nodded his head and indicated them to stand up before he approached the couch placed on the corner of the room and took a seat.

“You are back, Young Master!” Irvin spoke, but just as he had finished his words, Haley stared at him with a deadpan look and moved her lips which Irvin easily translated to, “How many times have I told you to stop stating the obvious?!”

*Cough*

“Yes, I am back. And I can see a lot of improvements in you two,” Ozul said while staring at the two. He was referring to their cultivation base. Given that both of them had an Elemental Seed aiding them, it wasn’t a surprise that Haley had jumped a smaller realm and reached the Middle stage of Rank-7. Irvin too seemed to be close to breaking through to the End-Stage of Rank-8.

“It’s only because of Young Master’s kindness; if you hadn’t gifted us the Seeds, then it might have a few more years,” Haley politely replied, bowing to him in respect, which Irvin followed quickly after.

“That aside, I have many questions,” Ozul said, making the old couple have myriads of facial expressions flash past their face in a single moment.

Haley and Irvin knew what he was going to ask about. Since Irvin wasn’t good at words, Haley had to start the explanation, “About that...”