A Demon's Journey

The next day, Azaroth placed the guards' corpses on the stage. Each one of them was laid on a wooden stretcher with a white cloth over their bodies.

People began gathering in the Cypress Plaza and their eyes were at the top of this stage. They were shocked to see the corpses of so many guards.

"Everyone, as you can see here. These are the men who lost their lives while fighting those beasts. Even though they were outnumbered, they fought valiantly until they were able to force the beasts to flee. A few of them lost their lives at the hands of the beasts while the rest died because of their injuries. I regret to inform you that I was late to arrive or else many of them would have survived." Azaroth spoke all these words in a single breath.

The people on the ground were quite emotional as they stared at the corpses.

To think that these men fought and had sacrificed their lives to save them… It touched them greatly.

They felt guilty that they couldn't assist these men.

"Every single one of them was fighting to protect you. They wanted to protect you so that you can use your talents for Kloras Town. Only if work with all your might would the prestige of this town increase. Once the prestige increases, we will begin generating business from trade and the Kingdom will focus more on this town. We will receive so many guards that the beasts won't even be able to reach the fields and nobody would die an undeserved death. I would also be able to open hospitals where the physicians can deal with most of your diseases." Azaroth shouted the words that greatly resounded in the people's minds.

Even though the majority of them were farmers and workers, they felt as though their lives had a significant meaning after hearing Azaroth's remarks.

They felt that Azaroth was saying that Kloras Town's rise completely depended upon them!

"Mayor, we will definitely give our all. This setback isn't enough to defeat us. We will rise stronger than ever!" One of the individuals in the crowd shouted.

Those remarks appeared to light a fire, and the rest followed suit with motivational remarks.

Azaroth internally smirked as he saw this scene. He hit two birds with one stone.

He dealt with the guards who knew about Laura, Tiana, and Yrellea's presence while also raising the morale of these people.

In the hearts of these individuals, his esteem should have risen as well.

The next step of his plan was a question of where he should send Laura, Yrellea, and Tiana.

It had to be a location Jonas could never think of.

Azaroth soon returned to his mansion. He closed his eyes and sent a mental message to Gibson, "Did the King give you another order?"

"No, master," Gibson replied a while later.

Azaroth cut off the connection between them and thought 'It hasn't reached the king's ears. This means that Jonas is not sure and is going to come here to confirm his guesses. That's a relief, atleast.'

For the next few days, Azaroth prepared to destroy any pieces of evidence that these three women lived here.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed.

~~

Today was the day Jonas and Shun appeared.

Jonas was in his official clothing while Shun was wearing the clothing of the Inquisitor Fox. Shun had even worn some more clothes just to give a wrong idea about his physique.

If the Demon was going to observe them, he wanted to give that demon wrong data.

Although this wasn't major data, there was a chance it could prove useful.

Azaroth sensed Jonas had arrived but he felt someone else along with him as well.

The surprising thing was that this man revealed no spiritual fluctuations.

'Who is this person? Why can't I inspect his spirit? There is no way his spirit can be more powerful than mine.'

Azaroth frowned as he thought of this.

He still remained in his room. He had to prevent himself from making any unnecessary movements.

Just as he could sense Jonas, Jonas could also sense him from this distance.

In fact, he was probably checking his location carefully to know if Azaroth was suddenly making any suspicious moves.

It would be pathetic to be exposed by making such a silly mistake after that careful planning and working hard to remove clues in this one whole week.

Currently, Azaroth had assigned the guards position to a few laborers. These laborers were initially puzzled but were very happy. They thought they had been promoted to be the guards because Azaroth was happy with their hard work.

They could now live in the same mansion as Azaroth and eat even better food.

This further motivated the other laborers to work even harder.

In reality, Azaroth didn't care about their results. He just wanted to fill in the numbers.

There were now 15 guards and a guard captain. All of them were exceptionally weak who hadn't even begun their cultivation path.

Azaroth, on the other hand, was unconcerned. He had no intention of employing them in battle. Instead, he just intended to utilize them for menial work and for show. If Jonas discovered that his guards had died but he had not enlisted anybody else, it would appear strange.

Jonas and Shun soon landed in Kloras Town.

The two remained calm as they saw nearly the entire town was empty. There were only a few locations construction was going on.

In the sky, they had also seen many people doing farm work.

Jonas was certainly pleased that his son had atleast begun the work in Kloras Town. But this only further proved Shun's theory that Edwin was following some demon's orders.

He found it hard to believe these ideas were something he thought on his own.

The location they landed was near the area where the laborers were building the manors for the merchants who hired them.

Shun asked them, "Where does the Mayor live?"

The laborers had seen Jonas and Shun fly and were utterly shocked. Once they realized that these two warriors were talking to them, they gave them the direction to Azaroth's mansion.

It was in the outskirts of Kloras Town on the other side.

Soon, Jonas and Shun appeared near the Azaroth's mansion.

The guards saw them and were startled to see two warriors flying towards them. One of them immediately went inside the mansion to inform Azaroth of this information.

Jonas and Shun though soon landed just ahead of the mansion.

"W-Who are you? W-W-Why have you come here?" The guards who were laborers not long ago asked with a nervous tone.

Jonas looked at the guard and noticed the uniform he was wearing. He frowned, "Who are you? I don't remember sending you along with Edwin."

Shun spoke before the guard could explain himself, "Leave him be, Marquis Rhodes. This man was a laborer and has been recently promoted. There is no need to bully him."

Soon, he raised his head and saw Azaroth coming down the stairs, "Also, the one we wish to see is here already."

"Whatever." Jonas snorted in response while turning his head towards Azaroth as well.

Shun was carefully observing Azaroth. His walking style, his clothing, his hair, his eyes, and his facial expressions.

Azaroth was doing the same with the two.

He saw Jonas standing there with an annoyed look. However, Azaroth unconsciously felt that he should focus on the individual next to him.

This guy had nearly covered his whole body with clothes. Only his sapphire eyes could be seen from his mask.

Also, Azaroth understood why he couldn't sense this man's Spiritual Fluctuations. It was because he was wearing some sort of Spiritual Clothing that blocked all Spiritual Fluctuations.

If his guess was right, it was to protect himself from any inspection. He stood upright, not showing any laziness. And his eyes were focused entirely on Azaroth.

Once Azaroth reached near them, he first spoke, "Greetings, Father. Your visit today has surprised me greatly."

"Hmm," Jonas grunted in response.

Azaroth then turned towards Shun and asked, "And who might you be sir…?"

"This man is Inquisitor Fox." Jonas introduced Shun to Azaroth.

"…Inquisitor Fox?!" Azaroth showed a surprised expression. He knew about the Inquisitors. They were under the direct service of the King.

'Why has Jonas come with this man?'

Azaroth had some guesses regarding the answer to this question but he didn't dare to let his imagination run wild.

It was better to calmly gather more information.

"That's correct. King Valliadis has assigned me a crucial task and for that, I required Marquis Rhodes' assistance. And considering the complexity of this case, I might also need your help as well, young master Edwin." Shun spoke with a calm voice.

This voice had naturally been altered by using the voice-changing mask he was wearing. Shun had always used it to make sure no one could recognize him even by remembering his voice.

"I will be pleased to help the Inquisitor in any way I can. Please come in, we can discuss this in the living room with some tea." Azaroth spoke sincerely.

Jonas nodded, "Alright. Let's go then."

The two were moving inside the mansion.

Shun observed the insides of the mansion and noticed something 'How interesting.'

Soon, Azaroth sat on the couch while facing Jonas and Shun.

"What a great wooden mansion this is, young master Edwin. Pardon my curiosity, but how long did it take you to construct it?" Shun asked his first question.

Azaroth was surprised to hear this question. He didn't think this would be the first question they would ask.

But he quickly composed himself, "In reality, it didn't take too long. While I was on my way to Kloras Town, I heard rumors of a man possessing Wood Ardor. After sending my guards and investigating a little, I found his location. It was a mercenary who was using his element to assist the local merchants. I gave him a contract of building this wooden mansion and it took him nearly an entire day to create it."

When Jonas heard Azaroth's account, he didn't seem shocked. This wasn't an unusual thing. The earth elemental warriors and the wood elemental warriors both used their abilities to make money. It was a method for them to make money without putting their lives in danger. Furthermore, the pay was really pretty outstanding, therefore many people preferred it over joining a Noble Family.

Even though Azaroth's answer appeared flawless at first glance, Shun didn't appear to be satisfied.

Azaroth hadn't stated the name of the wood elemental warrior or the location where he heard the rumors. To him, it was as if he was hearing a story that was created urgently.

Shun spoke with a merry tone, "I envy you a little, young master Edwin. The man you found was quite talented. This mansion is extremely well made and I feel like wanting to buy it from you."

"Haha… You joke well, Inquisitor Fox. You serve directly under the King. That's not a position many men can reach. If anything, it's me who should be jealous of you, Inquisitor Fox." Azaroth spoke with a smiling face but internally, he had raised his guard against Shun.

'This guy… He is actually testing me! To think he used such a roundabout manner to tell me that he knows I was lying. But why is he lying? Does he not want Jonas to know of this?'

In their first exchange of words, Azaroth felt as if he had suffered a loss.

Meanwhile, Shun hadn't spoken those words clearly because this wasn't enough evidence to prove that Azaroth had the assistance of that Elf Princess. Unless he could prove it with decisive evidence, it would seem as if he was flapping his mouth while spouting rubbish. He used that roundabout manner of telling Azaroth of this information because he wanted to check whether Azaroth would understand him or not.

Was he intelligent enough to read between the lines? And if he did figure out the meaning then check what was his reaction. Azaroth's response to his words told him that he did understand the hidden meaning.

Unfortunately for him though, Azaroth had long mastered the skill of manipulating his facial expressions.

He noticed nothing but a slight envious look in Azaroth's eyes.. It appeared so genuine that Shun had to give up on attacking Azaroth using this topic.

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