A Demon's Journey

Two days had passed since the incident between Azaroth and Tiana.

Jonas had finally returned to the Rhodes Estate. The first person he met up with was Azaroth.

He directly went to Azaroth's room and spoke, "I have the permission for you to control the Kloras Town and also asked the king to exempt you from the taxes for the next 3 years. Make good use of these 3 years."

Jonas had spoken the last sentence with a hint of a sneer.

Azaroth remained completely neutral and replied, "Alright, I will take care."

For some moments, Azaroth remained silent before he suddenly spoke, "The Silent Death Organization and the Merchant Union seem to be creating chaos in the city. How do we deal with them?"

Jonas's expression turned colder as he heard Azaroth, "Yes, I saw their men publically harassing the citizens. It seems they don't plan on showing us any face. It's time to remind them just who is the Lord of this Territory."

Suddenly, there was a serious look on Jonas' face as he stared at Azaroth, "I went to Kloras Town, and surprisingly, there is no longer any 5 Star Beast living in that area."

Azaroth showed a surprised expression. When Jonas saw that surprised look, he was somewhat relieved. It meant that even Azaroth didn't know what had occurred there.

However, Azaroth was surprised for a totally different reason. He didn't expect that Jonas had already gone to the Kloras Town and investigated the surroundings. He was planning to ask for a 5 Star Warrior to deal with the 5 Star Beast but it seems that he couldn't do that anymore.

"I have no idea." This was the only response Azaroth could give to Jonas.

Jonas though looked satisfied and left his room. His focus was on the Silent Death and Merchant Union organizations. He was intent on teaching a lesson to these two organizations.

Even though Merchant Union was under the Royal Family, it couldn't do as willfully in the territory of a Noble Family.

Meanwhile, Azaroth ordered his servant to summon his retainers. The three were training right now and it was time to put their training on hold.

Amongst the three, Sargan was the one who had rejoined the training. He was recovering from his loss of Blood Essence for the last 2 days and only today had he recovered enough to begin his training.

Soon, the three received orders to gather in front of Azaroth with all their things.

They didn't have a lot of things so a single back for each of them sufficed.

Azaroth went out and met up with his retainers, "It's time to leave." He spoke those words before walking outside the Estate.

The three retainers understood that they were finally going to move from this place. They were probably moving to the place mentioned by Azaroth earlier.

A carriage was stationed outside the Rhodes Estate for Azaroth. Other carts were used to carry his personal belongings and supplies. 10 guards were accompanying him; 7 guards were three-star warriors while 3 of them were four-star warriors.

Noah, Sargan, and Ralph were given horses but embarrassingly, only Sargan knew how to ride a horse.

Ralph and Noah had no idea about what to do.

The guard captain stared at Azaroth, wondering what to do about them.

"Sir, these children can't ride the horses. Do we have them sit along with the guards?" The guard captain asked Azaroth.

Azaroth nodded and then proceeded to enter his carriage.

The carriage was quite spacious from the inside. From his estimate, 8 people could sit inside it comfortably.

The carriage soon began to move.

Other heirs of the Rhodes House saw Azaroth leave from their respective rooms or balcony. They were happy to see that Azaroth had left the Rhodes House.

The fact that he was leaving for that demolished town meant he would be busy solving the issues in that area and won't have time to gather enough funds for the campaign for the inheritance of the Rhodes House.

Azaroth also knew that he was leaving behind a wonderful opportunity. However, even if he remained behind, the actions he could take were limited.

He had to first form an organization and expand it. It would be impossible to do it within the Rhodes House where he would be under the eyes of many experts.

He wanted to get some freedom to expand the organization and strengthen it.

But still, the fact didn't change that he had to sacrifice the inheritance of the Rhodes House.

He was sure that his competitors will do everything in their power to grab the necessary political influence and prevent Azaroth from returning or regaining any power here.

~~

A few days earlier in the Wrihull Forest…

Laura and Yrellea were left in that den of the Golden Eyed Tiger's cave by Azaroth.

Laura was an elf princess who had lived all her life in the forest. He was sure she could survive in the forest without any difficulty. It shouldn't be hard enough to look after Yrellea as well.

But there were things he couldn't anticipate as well.

Such as the scene of Yrellea and Laura glaring at each other.

The reason for this was quite obvious. The two were from different races. And each one was taught since childhood that the other party is evil.

Laura hated demons with a passion. Her mother often told her stories of how the demons had once attacked their homeland and burned it to the ground.

If not for the World Tree giving its blessings to the Elf Queen at that time, the entire elf race might have been annihilated or become their slaves.

As she grew up, she had read quite some information regarding the demon's abilities. The elves recorded the evil abilities that the demons possessed and made sure to guide their children to be careful of them.

Now that Laura was alone, facing Yrellea, a succubus demon, she remembered her teachings and displayed her annoyance openly.

As for Yrellea, since her childhood, she had seen that the other races like the humans, dwarves, giants, angels, elves, and even demons looked down on their succubus bloodline.

They were considered weak demons and were only useful as slaves.

Yrellea had lived all her life on Frascoia Continent so she wasn't sure of how the demons viewed the succubus clan but she had personally seen the contempt in the human's eyes.

And when she opened her eyes, she had seen how Laura was glaring at her.

Somewhat tired of the glares and contempt showed by people towards her, Yrellea returned the hostility by glaring back at Laura.

And this was how they were in this situation.

Before long, Yrellea finally asked Laura, "Where is he?" She was naturally referring to Azaroth.

Instead of replying, Laura asked a question while sneering, "Why should I tell you?"

When Yrellea heard Laura's words, she was a little ticked off. But then she soon noticed something.

She spoke with a clever smirk on her face, "You don't actually know, do you?"

Those words hit the mark but Laura was quick to shout at Yrellea, "Shut up you demon! I just don't want to tell you!"

"Then why are you here and not by his side?" Yrellea was long used to such words from humans and so she asked her second question.

Laura was getting nervous and had come to realize that she wouldn't win in a battle of words against this woman.

"Whatever. But he did unseal my Ardor and not yours, though." Laura counterattacked with a smile.

At this point, even Yrellea had to pause as she was surprised to hear that. Wasn't that mysterious individual worried that the two will run away?

"Isn't someone keeping an eye on us?" Yrellea asked with an uncertain voice.

"Nopes. I can sense everything in the forest. Even a rat won't escape my senses. No one is keeping an eye on us." Laura proudly declared.

Even though it was the first time Laura was entering this forest, she knew it as a backyard because of her senses.

She could sense where the water supply was, the location of the beasts, and where they could find edible food.

Yrellea though didn't completely believe Laura's words. She had felt Azaroth's aura closely and remembered it.

She was sure that such a man wouldn't take the trouble of freeing them from that prison for free. There had to be a catch.

Or was he just that trusting? That was the only possibility that remained for such a situation.

She looked at the foolish woman ahead of her, "How will he contact you then?"

Laura once again had no answer to her question and frustratingly replied, "Just shut up. I don't know, okay!"

For a second, Yrellea blankly stared at Laura as if surprised at her response.

"…Alright. Then why aren't you running away if you are basically free right now?" Yrellea asked one last question.

Laura though proudly replied, "I took an oath that I will work under him for the next 30 years. As an Elf, I can't break my oath to the Nature Goddess."

Yrellea sneered at those words but she didn't reply. She understood that this was a simple-minded bimbo and it seemed that Azaroth had chosen to trust this woman's word.

It was quite illogical.

'The aura I felt from him was that of a cold-hearted individual. But is he someone who acts on his feelings? Someone who takes his decisions instinctively.'

Yrellea truly found it hard to believe that they had been left here with no one to keep an eye on them.

"Do you want to leave?" Laura asked somewhat curiously.

"No!" Yrellea immediately replied. She was giving such an answer because of her fear of Azaroth.

There was no way to know what would be her result if she tried to run away. It was best to wait for a couple of days and confirm whether they were truly free or not.

Laura though misunderstood her answer for something else. She thought that Yrellea had also pledged to become Azaroth's subordinate and was just abiding by it.

She was somewhat happy to see that even though Yrellea was a demon, she was still abiding by her pledge. Maybe she wouldn't be all that bad.

"My name is Laura. What's your name?" Laura asked with a thin smile.

Yrellea replied some moments later, "…I am Yrellea."

"Since we are going to stay here for the next couple of days, let's become friends." Laura gave out the offer with a cheerful look.

Just as there were evil demons, Laura had also been told stories that there were some rare demons who were actually kind. But there were so few of them that it was rare to meet them in a lifetime.

Currently, Laura felt as if she had encountered one of those so-called kind demons. Since Yrellea wasn't an evil demon, she didn't mind looking past her race and become friends with her.

However, those simple words from Laura seemed world-shattering for Yrellea, "Friends? Friends with me?"

All her life, she had been looked down on because of her bloodline. No matter what race it was, they would look down on a succubus.

Yet here this elf was, wanting to befriend her.

But soon enough, Yrellea replied while turning her head, "No. I don't know you."

"That's the problem? What do you want to know? I will tell you as long as it's not a secret of our Elf Race." Laura gave a serious response.

Yrellea was somewhat overwhelmed with frustration and confusion and yelled, "I don't know, okay! But anyway, we can't be friends. Not yet atleast."

Laura was somewhat upset but stopped speaking for the moment.

Soon, Yrellea's stomach grumbled, making her hunger known.

Yrellea sighed out and then turned towards Laura, "You can sense the whole forest, right? Where can I find some edible food?"

When Laura heard her questions with that pleading tone, she had a smirk as if she had just received a new toy.

"I~won't~tell~you~" Laura replied with a singsong voice as she left the den.

Yrellea gritted her teeth but didn't move out of the den.. More than hunger, she was scared that someone would assassinate her as soon as she moves out of the den.