Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 205: Clueless Irvin.

Ozul went straight back to the town where Irvin and his men were staying.

“That was unexpected...” he muttered on his way back. He hadn’t expected that his mother would turn out to be a member of the Ashin family.

However, the biggest shock was not his heritage. It was instead the behavior of Raymond and Alver. The two surprisingly had a completely different side of them in front of a family member. Being on that topic, Ozul couldn’t just casually call them uncles.

A conversation between them would be much smoother if he were to address them by names instead.

Putting these thoughts behind for now, Ozul reached the town where Irvin was anxiously waiting for his return.

Known as the Farnfoss town, this place did not lose to any normal city outside the Neutral Lands. However, the place did not have any tall buildings and such. But it wouldn’t be long before it happened since they were going to set up the headquarters here.

“Did you scout the area?” Ozul asked.

.....

Irvin nodded his head in response. He had already cleared the area. The area where they would be building the structure was occupied, so he had to threaten some people to move places, but completed the task nonetheless.

“The people from the Ashin family will come to help. Use them to the best of their abilities, don’t hesitate,” Ozul knew that his ‘uncles’ wouldn’t mind it. After all, he was even granted free entry inside the estate whenever he wanted.

Just then, Irvin’s eyes widened as he noticed the silver-colored ring on that dull metallic finger.

“Young Master! That-” It seemed that Irvin knew what the ring represented as he was about to blurt out whatever came to his mind. He stopped when he realized that they were out in the open.

But even that did not stop him from pointing at the ring with astonishment written on his face.

“Hurry up. Get back to work. I won’t be helping you unless anything life-threatening happens,” Ozul shooed him away before he started asking questions. He was too lazy to explain everything to him.

Even listening to the story that long had annoyed him. Narrating it to someone else was out of question.

Irvin noticed that Ozul wasn’t in the mood to explain, so he dropped the topic and took his men to start working on the town. Simply building a large building didn’t mean that it was their headquarters.

They had to secure the surroundings as well. Unless it had all the measures to protect itself from a large organization, they wouldn’t call it their headquarters.

Meanwhile, Ozul looked for a place to laze around since he had done enough for now. He had some things to think through.

...

A couple of days later, Irvin had tens of men working under him. They had already removed every building that came in the way.

Most of these men were Rank-7 Mages, but there were even a couple of Rank-8 ones. However, none of them complained since Irvin was a peak Rank-8.

Seeing that everything was going as planned, Ozul decided to take a stroll through the Neutral City again. He needed more books on the formations; the previous one was not enough.

‘That girl of the Auction House still needed to pay me back...’ Ozul remembered that the girl still owed him, so he decided to give her another visit.

Unknown to him, the day he left to venture into the city again was when Alver and Raymond finally decided to have a heartful talk with Irvin.

They suspected that it might be him who had taken care of Ozul when no one was there for him since Irvin was a trusted person before he made the mistake of loving the woman from the enemy’s side.

—–

-In the Ashin’s estate-

“Are you sure about it, brother?” Alver asked while walking out of the room with Raymond.

“A thanks is the least we can do for Irvin if he took care of our nephew all those years, Alver. Remember, it was you who had sent those men after him in rage,” Raymond reminded his younger brother.

Hearing his explanation, Alver suddenly gulped as he realized what this entailed. If their guess was really correct and Irvin had indeed been taking care of their nephew all those years he sent men after him, then the consequences of those people succeeding in the assassination attempt were something that he would not be able to bear.

“Indeed. It would mean that you were basically sending men to kill our nephew as well,” Raymond said in a cold voice. He had tried to persuade his younger brother not to issue the order of Irvin’s death from the start.

However, Alver was enraged in those years since it was the same enemy that had caused them to lose their one and only sister. He did not tolerate one of their most trusted men marrying a woman from their side.

“Not to mention... I don’t have the face to ask my nephew how he had lived all those years. Do you?” Raymond asked as he prepared to fly towards the town.

Alver did not reply to his question since everything that Raymond said made sense. The Rank-9 who never left the estate or whatever they were doing even when their men were in danger were doing so now only to give their thanks to the person who they assumed had taken care of their nephew.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive in the town. They quickly noticed everyone busy at work.

The fact that the Three-Eyed Strangers were building something in the middle of the town wasn’t a secret to anyone. Those who knew about them were surprised, while those who hadn’t heard of them before sent their men to inquire about any information they could get on them.

They were both Rank-9 Mages who rarely appeared before ordinary people. Even when they did, people wouldn’t recognize them. However, all the men working around the town were sent by them. It would be worrying if they didn’t recognize their own leaders.

Even when those working recognized who they were, no one dared to approach the two. Only when Irvin noticed everyone glancing in a certain direction did he realize their presence.

Immediately, he began to look for Ozul. He was especially terrified of Alver as he was the same person who wanted him dead for so long because of his simple mistake of falling in love.

‘I need to find the Young Master fast! These two are too scary for me to handle...’ Irvin thought as he frantically looked everywhere.

In his hurry, he forgot that Alver and Raymond had noticed him from afar as well.

‘Why did the Young Master had to disappear today?!’ Ozul hadn’t told Irvin that he was going to the Neutral City, so he wasn’t aware of his absence.

Just then, he finally noticed that the two brothers were walking towards him.

‘Damn it! What do I do!?’ In a panic, Irvin was going to shout his lungs out in hopes that wherever Ozul was sleeping would wake up.

But before he could do anything, Alver and Raymond disappeared from their place and appeared right in front of Irvin, at a distance of only a few feet.

In fright, Irvin took a few steps back and almost fell to the ground after stumbling from a small pebble.

“...Y-young Master isn’t here...” these were the only words that could come out of Irvin’s mouth as he tried to act as if he was perfectly fine.

“Oh? That’s better then...” Raymond sighed in relief since he would be embarrassed if he was here.

However, his words had a whole different meaning in Irvin’s mind.

‘Dammit! They still haven’t forgotten anything! Young Master... forgive me for your servant would not be of any help in his death...’ Irvin knew that if a Rank-9 Mage decided to kill him, he would have no means to protect him at all. Not to mention, there were two Rank-9 Mages in front of him!

However, before he could say any last words to them, he heard the words that almost made him jump in the air,

“We have come to express our gratitude for taking care of our nephew all these years, Irvin.”

Raymond had a kind smile on his face. And although Alver did not have the same smile, his expressions weren’t of anger either like Irvin had expected.

“What?” Irvin stared back at them dumbly.

“...”

“...”

“Nephew? Who?” Irvin did not understand what they were trying to say, but he did realize that they weren’t here to finally finish him off.

“You didn’t even know?” Raymond asked as it finally hit him that they had assumed too much with too little information. In the end, it was just a coincidence that Irvin was working for their nephew now.

“Know what?” Irvin was still confused about the whole situation. Just a moment ago, he had accepted his death. However, not only was he alive, but he was also bewildered about why the people who were supposed to kill him just now were thanking him.

“It’s useless, brother. He is clueless,” Alver commented while shaking his head.

Raymond nodded his head in agreement and said, “Let’s take this to somewhere better.”

They were almost in the middle of the town. Even if they didn’t sense anyone strong listening to their conversation, they were exactly these weaker people they had to watch out for.

Although Irvin was afraid to follow them anywhere, he still nodded his head. ‘If they wanted to kill me, they wouldn’t need to ask me,’ he thought before following the two in a more secluded place.