Unsealing Emptiness

“We mostly did things under the shadows. We had enough power, but we were not foolish enough to flaunt our strength.”- The man continued in a downcast voice. His stuttering had also disappeared.

“Until... the Leader began to behave weirdly. He suddenly received some information which caused him to think of some master plan of his.”- The man continued;

“We did not question his orders since he was the Leader. We all believe in Lord Zeph, who had ascended as a diety some eons ago.”

This Lord Zeph caught Ozul’s attention as he did not understand what did he mean by ‘ascended’. However, he did not bother to ask anything as it was not important at this moment.

“Mhm... How powerful is your Leader?”- Count Oliver asked when the man was finished with his explanation.

“He... is a Rank-8 Mage.”- The man was hesitating at first, but the glare from Butler Albert was enough for him to speak.

Count Oliver was astonished to find out that such a person had escaped the kingdom’s eyes for so long! The 4 Dukes in the Silverbird Kingdom are also Rank-8 Mages.

.....

If such a person goes around some small kingdoms, they would be treated even better than the kings!

Oliver sucked a deep breath because this matter was out of his hands if the person leading the Eclipse’s Order was a Rank-8 Mage.

“Why do you kidnap children?”- Count Oliver asked.

“No one knows... The Leader only said that they would be used for some sacrifice.”- The man replied fearfully.

Count Oliver also received the location of one of the hideouts of these men. But Ozul did not care about it as they would have already noticed the man’s disappearance by now.

They would probably not find anything there. Moreover, Count Oliver would send his men to investigate, and he can just receive the report.

Even though they received quite a lot of information, they were not so happy. They could not do anything with such knowledge!

The only significant piece of information was the Rank of their Leader. And this too could only help them prepare for the worst.

Ozul also had to change his mindset as his careless way of handling this situation might be fatal.

After some questioning, they had learned everything that the man knew. Oliver expectantly looked towards Ozul as if asking for some favor.

“You can take him... I don’t care.”- Ozul said as Oliver gestured towards Butler Albert to bring the man away.

Ozul was the one who brought this man, but Oliver wanted the man in his custody so he could gain some merits.

Since they did not have any lead now, Ozul asked Oliver to bring the big map, which showed all the Cities around the Silverbird Capital.

All he could do was look at all the concerned locations. But looking at the map, Ozul’s already expressionless face turned even more wooden.

“Hey... Oliver, why are these two Cities not marked?”- Ozul pointed towards the two cities which were surrounding the Capital but were not marked as the inflicted spot.

“Oh, that! Well, nothing happened in those two Cities...”- Oliver said as a matter of fact.

However, Ozul looked towards Oliver with a deadpan expression and asked;

“And why was I not informed?”- He was curious as to why no one mentioned anything about this to him. Even Borin only said that all the Cities surrounding the Capital were inflicted!

Oliver could not understand where this conversation was heading, but he replied;

“Oh, everyone just thought that the culprits did not have so much the resources to affect all the Cities. So, it doesn’t matter...”- Just as Oliver was speaking, he was cut off by;

“You know Oliver, I thought of you as a smart man...”- Ozul sighed while shaking his head a little.

“W-what? Did I do something wrong?”- Count Oliver knew that Ozul was a smart man, so he wondered what happened, for him to say that.

“Oliver, the Eclipse’s Order dared to move against the Silverbird Kingdom... Do you think someone who does not have such resources... would dare to target this big of a kingdom?”- Annoyance was apparent on Ozul’s face as he said this.

“How can you people be so arrogant... to even think that your enemies aren’t prepared? You didn’t even bother checking those Cities?”- Oliver was speechless as he realized the situation, but Ozul continued;

“And besides, now that you know... their Leader is a Rank-8 Mage... Do you still think that they can’t afford the resources?”-

Each time Ozul stated a fact, Oliver’s face dropped in shame. He considered himself a clever man, but such an undeniable fact escaped his eyes; it was a big hit to his pride.

“Anyways, tell me about the City Lords in those Cities.”- Ozul said as he knew that he should not continue berating Oliver. Even his higher-ups did not think about such an obvious point, so he could not only blame him.

Oliver came out of his self-deprecation and started telling about those two Cities.

One of them was Sester City, while the other was called Prinas City. The names were weird as most of these Cities were named in ancient times, and no one bothered to change the names.

Count Oliver explained that both Cities were under the jurisdiction of a Count. However, one of them was a greedy bastard, while the other was an old man that had his head filled only with women!

This meant that they were indeed the best options if the Eclipse’s Order wanted to do something shady!

“Request for your higher-ups to check on those Cities... Inform me if they don’t...”- It would be better if these people would just do all the work, but if they don’t, Ozul would just have to work extra.

But for now, Ozul wanted to have rest as he had done more than enough already.

. . .

On the way back home, Blaze had some questions;

“Why would they neglect such an obvious point?”- Blaze did not understand how the kingdom could be so careless. Not that it mattered to him, but he was just curious.

Ozul looked towards Raven and saw that she was also just as curious, so he sighed before explaining;

“The Silverbird Kingdom is one of the top powers on the continent... After decades of not struggling... they’ve started to think that they are invincible..”-

“So, what are we gonna do now?”- Raven asked because she could not think of anything except going for those two Cities.

“I will think about it later... At this moment, I only want to sleep.”- Ozul lazily replied.