A Demon's Journey

Azaroth brought his retainers to the location written on the back of the bill. It was the location of a house.

Moreover, this was a bungalow on the exact opposite side of the border. Azaroth was surprised as he couldn't sense anything out of ordinary from this bungalow.

Azaroth continued to move forward with his retainers. He met up with the bartender who struck a deal with him.

The bartender handed him 7 sheets of paper. Azaroth noticed that these were the passes he had requested.

"Go straight inside. You will meet a servant. Give him your passes. He will know what to do." These were the final bits of instructions by the bartender before he walked away.

Azaroth nodded his head and followed his instructions.

Just as the bartender had spoken, he met a servant who took Azaroth to a basement.

The servant placed the bed away and pulled the carpet before showing a handle on the floor. He raised the handle and displayed a hollow cavity.

"Get inside."

The servant told Azaroth and his retainers to get moving.

Azaroth used his Ardor to make his retainers fly and floated down in the hollow cavity.

He slowly increased his pace of flying and after traversing a couple of hundred miles, he finally saw the ground beneath them.

Just as he had been informed, a tunnel had been dug out here. Azaroth guessed that nearly hundreds of Earth Elemental Warriors had collectively created this hollow cavity and this tunnel.

It probably took them a few years to create it.

Azaroth and his retainers' feet never touched the ground. They continued to fly ahead at a slow pace.

While they were flying, Sargan asked Azaroth, "Boss, where does this tunnel lead to?"

"To the Glerian Kingdom," Azaroth replied coolly.

A confused expression appeared on Sargan's face and he asked, "Then why did we attack the border checkpoints? Was it to test us?"

Azaroth responded casually, "That was indeed one reason."

"My primary reason for attacking the border checkpoints was to give false information to my enemy and ease some pressure for my clone. Also, I wanted to probe the King's mind." Azaroth stopped speaking.

Sargan muttered, "Probe the King's mind?"

"Yes. You see, there are a total of three tunnels in the Sinyalian Kingdom that would lead us to the Glerian Kingdom. Among them, one is in this city, another one is in Wrihull City, and the last one's location is currently unknown. But it does exist. I chose to move from this city because I had always planned to attack the border checkpoints to not just test you but also to test the rumors." Azaroth spoke.

He then asked a question, "Tell me, did you read the news about Earl Burke?"

Sargan and Azaroth's other retainers nodded their heads.

Ralph spoke out, "Many of his evil deeds have suddenly become public. To punish him, the Major General dragged him out of his estate."

"Yes. You see, since a few months ago, there were rumors in the Wrihull City that the Glerian Kingdom has ceased any attacks on the borders near Yhord City. And the Sinyalian Kingdom was planning to launch a counter-attack on the Glerian Kingdom."

"However, the King suddenly gives that city to Earl Burke and the counter-attack on the Glerian Kingdom never occurs. Instead, rumors begin to flow that the borders near the Yhord City are relaxing their patrolling and security."

"And now, when we attacked the border checkpoints and killed soldiers there. When the Major General learned that his subordinates Colonel Nate and Earl Burke were involved in corruption, he acted quickly by punishing both of them. A day later, all of Earl Burke's evil deeds are listed in the papers. Why do you think this is?"

Sargan and Yrellea's eyes widened with surprise and the two spoke almost at the same moment, "The Major General knew about this corruption!"

Azaroth nodded his head, "This territory is under the Major General. How can he remain unaware whether the income is reaching his army or not? However, Major General couldn't do anything until some incident occurred. After all, Earl Burke is a member of the Burke Noble Family. If the Noble Family Union hears of this, they would definitely support Earl Burke."

"Even if the King wanted to pursue the matter, the union of the Noble Families could place enough pressure on him by giving the explanation that it hadn't harmed the army by a lot. There was no proper way to counter such a statement. Thus, Earl Burke would just be fined a bit before being transferred to another territory. This would defeat the purpose of dealing with him."

"Major General couldn't stage something because either it wouldn't look convincing or if the other Noble Families investigated it, they would be able to link it up with him. Thus, he had to be completely unaware or innocent in the situation."

"If my guess is correct, then this entire thing was planned by the King. That's because he wants to deal with Earl Burke. Thus, he intentionally promoted him and assigned him a strategic location to show that he looked favorably upon him. However, in reality, the King was perfectly aware of Earl Burke's character. He knew that once Earl Burke understands that not much fighting is going on at the borders, he would slowly start to pocket the funds the King gives to the army."

"Earl Burke's greed grew as time went, and he raised the amount he embezzled. This caused the salary of the soldiers to decrease, decreasing their morale. He probably dismissed the sensory formation, thus the range they could sense decreased immensely. Slowly, even the soldiers were getting lethargic."

"Around this time, I believe that the King was actually waiting for the Glerian Kingdom to attack. This would show that Earl Burke's corruption was becoming a threat to the Sinyalian Kingdom. After that, he had to reveal all of his evil deeds and make the public hate Earl Burke."

"This would make it easier for the King to pass judgement on Earl Burke and also take over all of his property."

Azaroth finally finished his explanation.

His retainers were in a daze. To think that the King had made such a detailed plan to deal with a single noble family.

Many of them thought that a King was supreme. He could do whatever he wanted. But once they heard Azaroth, they felt as if the King was bound in a certain limit as well.

They admired him, even more, to have seen through all this by merely gathering the rumors.

There was another reason that Azaroth didn't inform them.

'With that attack on the border checkpoints, I managed to feed false information to that Inquisitor Fox that I am Evil Fiend Flame Emperor. I also managed to probe the King's plans, and initiate my own plan along with it. Lastly, the Glerian Kingdom should be aware of the existence of a strong demon. It should make my next moves more convenient.'