Chapter 421: Interlude - The Divine Dragon Empire and Stalkers
The upper echelons of the organization did not recognize her yet at that time, regardless of how many powerful children she had given birth to. In order for her to prove her worth, she was tasked with an important mission on the Northern Continent. If she was successful, she would be promoted to a reliable rank, but it utterly failed, which resulted in her assumed death.
To avoid aimless journeys and make any progress, Azrael had been traveling from nations to nations as an adventurer and began to acquire any available information, directly and indirectly.
He had been doing that for quite some time until Raphael encountered Melville, Rubina\'s daughter, and successfully enslaved her. Based on the information Melville provided to them, they found out that the organization was apparently based in the Divine Dragon Empire of Ayzan, a huge nation in the central part of the continent.
The Divine Dragon Empire of Ayzan was a nation that was predominantly inhabited and ruled by dragonpeople and other reptilian races. The Dragon Empire existed longer than any other nation, and its history could be traced back tens of thousands of years.
It was currently the biggest nation in terms of total land area, and they were still expanding. Its military prowess was the most powerful on the Southern Continent, probably the mightiest military in the whole world. Not only did each of their militants have quality, but they had formidable numbers as well.
The most difficult dungeon, a hundred-floored one, on the continent was found there. They were the first recorded nation to establish their own adventurer guild, and the Dragon Empire was home to the most powerful adventurers on the face of earth, including the world\'s most powerful known adventurer.
With that kind of threat level, Azrael was not dumb enough to enter the Divine Dragon Empire without any plans. Even though he was confident he could secretly snuck in through, he still could not be sure if he could escape unscathed. There might probably be some people who could take him down, or even Raphael.
He had to gather as much valuable information as he could from the dragon empire and study their strong and weak points. Once he got the grasp of their might and understood his opponents and obstacles, from that point on, he could start investigating the dragon empire either through venturing personally or deploying his remote visions.
Currently, his multiple Supernatural Observations, the upgraded form of Clairvoyance from the Ultra Skill: Eyes of Providence, were flying around the dragon empire to gather information about the empire.
As he was still in that process, he continued his life as an adventurer in the Holy Nogara Kingdom. Azrael was still in Rank C, and so was his whole party, since the competition was tough and it was really difficult to reach the minimum level to rank up.
Azrael was still in a relationship with Lummel, one of his partymates, and they were as intimate as ever. Recently, he just disclosed his intentions to Lorna, also his colleague, and since they had somewhat shared the same feelings, he started courting her.
Meld, Lorna\'s father, was protective of his daughter and expressively showed his disapproval of Azrael. Regardless of her father\'s objections, Lorna still accepted Azrael, and they had been in a relationship just recently.
Even though he did not want to admit it, Meld knew that Azrael was a lot more powerful, stronger, and younger than him. With that said, he admitted that Azrael could protect Lorna better than he could.
Actually, despite his mysteriousness, Meld could say that Azrael was a kind and gentle person, especially toward women. Azrael might be a womanizer, but if his daughter did not mind it, he was glad that she was able to find her happiness.
Living on the Southern Continent, Azrael was able to get himself two lovers. In order to gradually gain the trust of Meld, he did not lay a hand on Lorna until now. He did not know how he was able to hold it, but he was pretty excited to get his first threesome.
But despite constantly keeping himself low, he could sense that there were a few people who seemed to be secretly following him for days. Nobody noticed their presence other than him. From his view, these individuals were quite good in this field and skilled in executing reconnaissance.
They might be sent to investigate him since he was doing well for a foreigner. However, what confused him the most was that he could say that his stalkers were not from this continent at all. In order to answer his questions, he decided to confront them.
Along an empty alley in the capital of the Holy Kingdom, Azrael was walking around as his stalkers were tailing him just like he wanted. When he stopped in the middle of the alley, he turned around and faced the empty and narrow space.
"You can show yourselves here. I can assure you that no one is going to hear us here."
"..."
Azrael called them out to reveal themselves, but no one replied. He then let out a sigh before he continued.
"There\'s no need to hide anymore. I could clearly feel your presence ever since you started spying on me exactly six days ago. If you want your colleague named Alice to deliver the reports back to your origin unscathed, I kindly ask you to show yourselves, or something interesting happens."
A few seconds after he said those sensitive details, several figures began to unblend themselves from their surroundings. Before Azrael, a group of four individuals unveiled themselves.
"Well, well, well," Azrael creepily curved his lips. "Can you please tell me what the Imperial Intelligence Unit of Dixon is doing here?"