Unsealing Emptiness

Haley understood what he was trying to say. Since it did not matter, it was up to them to choose, and he would not object whatever it was.

“Oh! What about ‘The Three-Eyed Strangers’? We will know everything but will never interfere since we are just strangers.” Irvin hurriedly replied, making Haley look at him with a deadpan face and Ozul simply looking at him.

If it were anyone else, he would have insisted on his decision, but the two staring at him were both people that he dared not oppose, so he replied, “Haha... I was just-”

“It’s okay,” Ozul replied, cutting him off.

Haley glared daggers at Irvin, making the latter sweat buckets. Now that Ozul had said that the name was okay, she did not dare change it now.

Actually, she found the name to be decent but nonetheless wanted to decide it with more options later.

.....

“First and foremost, what is the situation right now?” Ozul asked as he watched the sun going down. There must have been at least something from the Royal Family or at least the nobles.

Hearing him ask for a report, Irvin instinctively went to pick up his file. He was about to give it to Ozul before Haley snatched it from his hands.

She opened the file and began to read out the brief version of it to Ozul. Only then did Irvin realize that he was too disrespectful by giving the file directly to him.

Cursing his stupidity, he stood to the side, listening to his wife explain the report.

“After you left, Irvin first dealt with the Marquis supporting the previous leader. He tried to create trouble, but we have yet to hear from him after Irvin showed him his power.”

“What about the other nobles? Anything from the Royals?” Ozul asked while still staring outside the window.

“A messenger had only once come here to ask what business we did, and we needed to answer considering that we owned a whole building and tens of people worked here.”

“And what business do we do?”

“We are merchants...” Haley answered.

“Hm... Continue.” Ozul did not care what their public identity was.

“Other than that, there has been no contact with either the Nobles or the Royals.”

‘Weird... Why was there no approach from them? Did the Emperor decide to take a safe approach and not do something in case I returned? It is likely...’ Ozul could not help but think.

“However, Irvin did get in contact with Marquis Orbthorn as you had suggested. He said that he could only help financially at the moment. He gave us a massive sum in Gold Coins,” Haley continued,

“Since there were no actions from Nobles or the Royal family, we gave the organization a new look and set up a basic system of command. Although it is not much, it is a start. Irvin was thinking of setting up bases in other cities as well...”

Haley finished giving her report. The rest of the things were of minor importance and did not require Ozul’s attention.

“No. Don’t set up a base in other cities yet. You don’t have capable men yet. Expand here till the Royal family has no choice but to show a reaction,” Ozul replied as Haley nodded her heads.

Irvin was an assassin before. He did not understand much about these things, but he was at least aware of what Ozul meant.

As they were now, the Royal family or any of the Nobles did not take any action because they either did not have the means to or did not think it was worth the trouble.

He did not know about the Nobles since at least a Duke would require to take action personally for them to deal with him, but the Royal family was without a doubt sufficient to respond.

And no action against them at all meant that they were nothing in their eyes yet. However, they still sent a messenger to show that they were aware of their activities.

Ozul wanted them to expand in the capital city for as long as the Royal family intervened and responded. Once they did, it would mean that they could not tolerate an organization any bigger than that in their capital city.

That would be the cue for them to expand outside and build bases in other cities.

“Picking up talented orphans is a long term process. It would help if you had more capable men now. The current ones are worse than amateurs.” Ozul commented while looking at Irvin, who shuddered.

“I... I will take care of that.” He stuttered. In his mind, Ozul was an old monster who only appeared to be young because of his cultivation. That’s why he was afraid of displeasing him.

“You are good at management; take care of that... Take over that.” Ozul said, making Haley’s eyes shine with excitement.

She hurriedly bowed towards him, “Thank you, young master! I will not disappoint you.”

Even if not for their life debt towards him, Haley liked managing and accounting. One could say that she only enjoyed it since it was what she was taught to do in her family. But she was good at it and happy that she could be of help.

Ozul had changed his words as Irvin was really bad at this, and Haley seemed to be capable of handling these things. Not to mention that she was the boss in their relationship, so she could easily tell Irvin what to do without worrying about consequences like someone else would have done.

The room quietened down after that, and Haley dragged Irvin out of the room when she noticed that Ozul did not have any other orders.

A few moments later, she came back inside and asked, “The servants have prepared a room; would you like to rest?”

Haley was quite observant. She knew that although Ozul was strong, he unusually slept even more than ordinary people.

Ozul did not reply but stood up and followed her out of the room. The building had somehow three floors now as Haley led him to a room on that floor.

Haley respectfully asked if he needed anything before leaving the room.

Meanwhile, Ozul was still thinking about the Emperor.

Since he had gotten ahold of his limbs even before the Church, Ozul suspected that there might or might not be one of his arms with him as well.

However, there was no other way to find out but directly ask him.

For such a thing, Ozul needed to have confidence that he could defeat the Emperor. Not only that, but he also needed to do something about the formations. If a formation with a Rank-8 Mage could be so annoying, he could only imagine what else they could do in the hands of a Rank-9.

The Emperor had a whole bunch of resources and tens of Rank-8 Mages at his disposal. And Ozul was sure that he would not be able to even get near the royal palace against such a setup.

An even greater threat was the hidden strength of the groups. If the Church and the Ashin Family could hide their real troops, others could too.

Although it was unlikely, what if there were any chances of another Rank-9 Mage or even a Rank-10 Mage in the Royal family that they have hidden from the world?

That is why Ozul had first decided to set up this organization so he would know about things that he didn’t before.

Right now, he could only make a general guess of what the Emperor could do.

‘I am not his match right now. I need to get stronger...’ Ozul was aware of his own strength.

Judging other Rank-9 Mage’s strength from Raymond’s, although he did not see himself losing, Ozul was sure that he would not be able to win either.

‘I will also have to study the formations...’ Ozul reminded himself before going to sleep.

. . .

The next day, Haley had come to deliver food, but Ozul rejected it as usual. He was never really hungry, but as she was about to walk out, he stopped her and took the teacup from her hands.

The tea smelled nice, so he could not help but give it a try. Haley’s face formed a motherly smile as she was about to turn around, but Ozul stopped her again,

“I forgot to give you these...” He put his hand in the Spatial pouch and took out the two small seeds of different colors wrapped in the Ball of Purity.

“What are these?” Haley asked curiously. She could not relate the two seeds to anything in her mind.

“They are Elemental Seeds,” Ozul said, thinking that Haley did not know about them. But just as he said Elemental Seeds, Haley’s eyes widened as she asked,

“Are they really...?”

“Yes,”

“But we cannot accept this. We are already in your debt-”

“You work for me now. I don’t need weak people. Take these or leave,” Ozul used the same strategy as with Blaze and Raven. Not surprisingly, Haley immediately took the seeds out of his hands and bowed many times before leaving the room.

After she left, Ozul enjoyed the tea, “It’s okay...”

The only time he ate food was when Grandma Carol was alive. That too only so she would not worry about his health.

Thinking about it now, Ozul thought that he should keep trying out new stuff. If this simple tea tasted good, maybe other things would too?