Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 228: Too many unknowns.

“It is better if we don’t stand out,” Ozul cleared their doubts but didn’t bother to explain.

These people were thinking of making the organization more famous, but Ozul felt that their current popularity was enough.

To gather information, they were required to operate in secrecy, and the more attention they gained, the harder their task would get.

“How many days till the tournament starts?” Ozul asked. Irvin had earlier gotten the news that Emperor Luthien had accepted the invitation as well, so everything was going smoothly for now.

“Just three days, Young Master,” Irvin answered. He then added, “In three days, they will only announce the start of the finals, but the battles would start on the 4th day.”

Ozul nodded his head in understanding.

“Alright, listen here,” Ozul said as he leaned forward. The people in the meeting were already fully focused on him, but when he specifically told them to listen, they felt that it might be serious.

.....

And it proved true just the next moment when Ozul said, “Inform the sub-headquarters in the south-east part of the continent to call back their elite members back to the base.”

Immediately, their expressions changed. The south-east part of the continent was the one where the Silverbird Kingdom was located, and they had already managed to create the sub-headquarters in that part. It had released a large part of the burden weighing on Haley.

However, the people present here had their minds all stuck on why the sub-headquarters had to call back all of their elite members from any ongoing missions. Whatever it was, they didn’t like the sound of it.

“Why? What is going to happen there?” Haley was the first to question.

Meanwhile, Irvin stayed silent at the side. Being the professional butler, he hadn’t even told his wife about what Ozul most probably was planning to do.

“Well I am going to do something. And that might or might not end up with a war with the Silverbird Kingdom...” He hadn’t finished his words when a couple of people stood up in shock.

Though when they noticed that most like Haley, Oliver, Raven and Blaze were still calmly listening, they faked a cough and sat back down.

“You don’t need to know what I am about to do. But if the war will break out or not will depend on two things; first is if I fail whatever I am about to do, and second is the decision of the Silverbird Kingdom if I fail,” Ozul didn’t go into details even when all of them present here had sworn oaths.

It was better that others didn’t know of what he was planning to do. He only needed them prepared if something did go wrong in the end.

Those who didn’t like the idea of going to war with the Silverbird Kingdom kept their thoughts to themselves, not daring to say anything in Ozul’s presence.

Even though the Three-Eyed Strangers had grown their influence to everywhere on the continent, it wasn’t hard to notice that they were not even remotely close to having enough strength to go on a war with such an old kingdom.

Although Ozul might be able to match or even defeat Emperor Luthien, their organization not only did not have strong enough members, the Silverbird Kingdom probably had ancient artifacts to help them as well.

No matter how they looked at it, a war with them would destroy the Three-Eyed Strangers.

“Anyways, I will take care of it. You just do as I say,” saying that, Ozul stood up and left the meeting room. Raven and Blaze soon followed after.

When they left, the mood in the room turned solemn and for a few seconds no one uttered a word.

To break the awkward silence, Oliver was the first to speak, “Haha. Why are you worrying so much? Didn’t he just say that he will take care of it?”

“But it is the war with the Silverbird Kingdom we are talking about! Do you not understand what the consequences would be?” a Rank-8 Mage spoke.

“Hahaha!”

In the face of his question, all he received was laughter from Oliver. The others who agreed with the Rank-8 Mage didn’t like his attitude.

Oliver realized that and said, “I very well do understand what the consequence could be. However, I trust him. For all I know, since he said that he would take care of it, he would hold true to his words.”

Saying that, Oliver also left the room with a smile on his face. On his way out, he patted the Mage’s shoulder and said, “He is the leader of this organization, not a fool.”

Oliver’s laughter drastically improved the atmosphere. Also, his words caused these people to rethink their doubts.

Seeing that Oliver had already done half of her work, Haley said, “He is our leader. If you are not going to put your trust in him, then why are you in this organization?”

Hearing her words, those who still held doubts in their heart bowed their heads in shame.

Haley’s tone was colder than usual since voicing out their opinions was one thing, but she could clearly see the dissatisfaction on some of their faces.

‘Fortunately, I had already had all of them take oaths before even accepting them as the core members,’ Haley thought inside her mind. If she hadn’t done that before, she would have to doubt their loyalties now.

‘I just hope Young Master really has a plan...’

. . .

Ozul noticed the two following behind him and remembered that he hadn’t told them anything either.

“I will be doing it alone. Also, both of you need to be in the tournament,” Ozul said, expecting them to obediently nod their head and walked away.

However, it was Blaze who spoke, “Are we still not strong enough?”

Blaze felt that it might really be the case. And if that was it, then all of their hard work in the previous years felt really useless. So what if they had become Rank-8 Mages if they were still not strong enough to be of his help?

“No. You are strong enough that I can take you with me,” Ozul answered truthfully.

“Then why?” Raven followed up with her question. Both her and Blaze were in sync.

“It’s because I don’t know what I will face there myself. However, whatever it is, I have the confidence to protect myself. Even if you had more than double of your current strength, I wouldn’t have taken you with me,” Ozul briefed.

He realized that these two might get depressed at this point if he didn’t tell them his reasons clear enough.

The duo’s brains automatically ignored the first sentence, and focused on the second one, bringing their mood even lower.

*Sigh...*

Ozul sighed noticing that it was his cue to counsel them again, “Listen here, you two. In this month that I taught you, you have improved significantly.”

He didn’t know what would happen in a real situation, but Blaze could occasionally block or dodge his blades. What Ozul hadn’t told him was that not only had he increased their speed, but he had also decreased their size which made it harder for him to sense.

Even then, Blaze had improved quickly. Raven, after his talk, had shown visible improvements as well.

Ozul could tell that she was still aware of his hidden needles pointed at her head, but it was not a bad thing.

Being aware of them was actually beneficial, but at the condition that Raven was actually able to defeat the enemy in front of her. What use was her focus on surroundings if she died because of the opponent in sight? But Raven had come a long way in just a little more than 40 days.

“I want you to continue improving and... not get depressed. Both of you are doing good as of now,” He hadn’t even completed his last sentence when smiles bloomed on the duo’s face.

Unfortunately, there was no one else on the stairs to witness this rare scene which would have made the hearts of both men and women race to the point of making them nosebleed.

Those depressing emotions were getting darker by the second. If he hadn’t done anything, he would have been constantly annoyed.

Fortunately, he realized that he hadn’t praised them for a long time.

‘They like being praised that much?’ Ozul mused as he said, “Alright. Focus on your training. I wouldn’t be around.”

He walked away after saying that, leaving Raven and Blaze fervently nodding their head like chickens.

Unknown to Ozul, whenever he didn’t praise them, they felt as if they weren’t doing good or working hard enough.

. . .

Ozul went back to his room where Jinx was somehow already on the bed, sleeping peacefully.

He laid near her and muttered, “Ha... we have work to do...”

As if understanding his words, Jinx opened her eyes and looked at his face for a couple of moments before going back to sleep. Ozul followed her and also went to sleep.

The next day, Ozul decided to give the Ashin family a visit.

Before he started, he decided to confirm every information from Alver. Although he trusted Irvin, there were things that he wasn’t able to discover on his own.

‘Alver would know if that Luthien guy had arrived here or not,’ Ozul thought as he made his way towards the Ashin family’s estate. The Ashin family being one of the organizers would have the record of all Rank-9 Mages.

Ozul already had too many unknowns about the Royal palace, it was better that he cleared some of his doubts beforehand as well.