historical

Azaroth hardly cared about how the Rhodes Family members treated him.

The one thing he did find shocking was that there was not a single woman in this family meeting.

He knew that this was a male dominating society but the females weren't oppressed to such an extent. There was definitely a specific reason for this..

Jonas had gone over to his personal palace that was some distance away from the Rhodes Estate. It could be said that all his concubines including his wives lived in that palace.

That palace could be considered a heaven for some hot-blooded men.

Today's meeting also allowed Azaroth to look at the whole picture rather clearly.

Jonas was using him to balance this race of the next family head.

According to him, Jonas was in his peak years. And would continue on to live at this peak for the next 50 years. And if by any chance he broke through to the 7 Star Rank then he might even live for another 400 years. However, it wasn't that easy to break through to the 7 Star Rank, or else there would have been many existences of that level.

So, Edwin or his brothers had little to no chance of getting his seat until either Jonas was very old or Jonas died due to some reason, or Jonas was crippled.

Clearly, there was a low possibility of any of the three options to occur. In fact, Azaroth would go on to say that no one in the entire Sinyalian Kingdom could cripple or kill Jonas.

Well, except for that man named Spencer Russel.

Other than over-exaggerated rumors of that man, Azaroth didn't know anything much. So, he couldn't gauge the strength of this man. However, according to his understanding, Jonas should be capable of running away even if he can't have a one-on-one battle against Spencer.

After having thought about things related to the Rhodes Family, Azaroth began to think about how to evolve his Ardor to the 5 Star Rank.

According to his instincts and reasoning, the shortcut would be to use the Celestial Method.

He required a tremendous amount of faith energy.

A few days later, Azaroth received a message from Tronte to meet him.

'Why does he want to meet me?'

Curious about the reason behind this meeting, Azaroth left the Rhodes Estate and went to meet up with Tronte at his house.

He had to take a detour and lose his pursuers before going to meeting Tronte. Because of his presence in the meeting, Laurance and his other brothers were taking him as a serious opponent.

They wanted to keep an eye on him at all times or deal with him quickly without dirtying their own hands.

Just as Azaroth reached Tronte's house, the door to the house opened up. The one who opened the house was naturally Tronte and surprisingly, he was standing with a young woman right behind him.

The woman was wearing black clothes and was quite a beauty. Her dark hair flowed down to her waist and her blue eyes focused on Azaroth.

At first glance, she appeared to be an ice-cold woman who would remain calm and emotionless in any situation.

Tronte seemed to be smiling as he invited Azaroth inside, "I have been waiting for you, Edwin. You finally found the time to visit me."

Azaroth replied with an amused tone, "You seem to have quite a company with you in the form of this beauty. I hope I am not a third wheel here."

Tronte smirked at Azaroth's words and gave a casual response, "She is Evelyn. Don't worry about her. She is just my newly hired secretary."

"Oh, I see.."

"Come now. Let's talk inside."

Soon, Azaroth, Tronte, and Evelyn were seated on three different chairs in the living room.

Tronte and Evelyn were seated on the same side while Azaroth was seated on the other side.

"Let's get straight to the topic. Why did you call for this meeting?" Azaroth asked with a serious voice.

He had multiple reasons for asking this question. However, the main reason was to check whether Tronte was actually willing to speak anything ahead of Evelyn or not.

Meaning, Azaroth wanted to know whether Tronte actually trusted Evelyn or not.

Tronte's response would indicate just how much he trusted Evelyn.

"It's been quite a long time since we last met. I just wanted to meet up with you and introduce you to Evelyn." Tronte spoke with a thin smile.

"Evelyn, this is Edwin Rhodes. He was one of my only friends in Acadia Academy and it's only thanks to his protection there that I have survived till now." Tronte first introduced Azaroth to Evelyn.

Azaroth was surprised to see a flicker of emotion in Evelyn's eyes as she gazed at him. It was as if her gaze had turned rather gentle.

The woman who hadn't spoken a single word to Azaroth until now finally spoke rather softly, "Greetings, Lord Edwin. As Lord Tronte has spoken, I am Evelyn, his new secretary. I hope to be useful to Lord Tronte."

'Lord Tronte huh?' Azaroth naturally noted the title this woman used for Tronte.

According to his understanding, Tronte had no relation to a Noble Family and was only an ordinary man. Why would this woman refer so respectfully?

'As expected Tronte isn't simple at all.'

"Nice to meet you, Evelyn." Azaroth's greeting was polite and respectful as he looked into Evelyn's eyes.

Once Evelyn had slightly nodded, Azaroth turned his head to Tronte's direction and asked him, "Anyway, what about those slaves I mentioned? I need them urgently now."

There was a flicker of disdain and disappointment in Evelyn's eyes but she remained quiet.

However, Tronte merely smiled and replied, "Have I ever disappointed you, bro? I searched all the nearest cities for the best slaves in the underground and found out an organization that deals in this business of selling slaves. We can go there if you want."

"For that, get me some clothes to conceal myself. It won't be good if someone recognizes me there." Azaroth spoke to Tronte who was more than delighted to hear this.

"Well, what would you like to have? Tea or coffee?" Tronte asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

"As you already know, Jasmine Tea." Azaroth dryly replied to Tronte's question.

Before Tronte even gave an order, Evelyn went to make the tea. She was making three cups of jasmine tea; one for each of them.

Just as Evelyn had gone away, Tronte began speaking, "I received a report from the Glerian Kingdom. The King seems to be quite suspicious of the offer received from Lennox Rees but he is willing to take some risk in this trade."

Azaroth more or less understood that Tronte didn't want to talk about this issue in front of Evelyn. It meant that he didn't trust her that significantly yet.

"Why did you hire this woman as your secretory? She appears to be rather cold and doesn't seem to be your ideal type of woman. In fact, her chest area also appears to be lacking.." Azaroth asked Tronte with a casual tone.

Tronte had an embarrassed smile on his face as he replied immediately, "Get your head out of the gutter. She is a valuable assistant, that's why I hired her as my assistant. Her ability as a martial warrior is praiseworthy enough and her ability in handling the budget would be second only to me."

"My head is in the gutter? Even a blind man would see your intentions." Azaroth spoke a voice full of disdain.

"Haha.." Hearing Azaroth's words, Tronte just laughed aloud.

"On a serious note, do you have some useful information about what the Glerian Kingdom's ruler has decided? Will he accept my offer or not?" Azaroth casually asked this question.

He didn't really expect an answer from Tronte's side though. After all, how could Tronte know what the King of the Glerian Kingdom had decided?

Azaroth was waiting for Lennox Rees's letter or news of another individual from the Glerian Kingdom. Those would be the best way to signal that the King was considering Azaroth's offer.

However, even if the king didn't accept his offer, Azaroth had another method to force the Glerian Kingdom to wage war upon the Sinyalian Kingdom.

For that, he required some servants.

While these thoughts were revolving in Azaroth's head, Tronte suddenly began speaking in a calm yet serious manner, "The King is quite tempted by the offer. The general and the prime minister of the Glerian Kingdom though were against this offer."

"They gave the reason that this sudden surplus of resources had a rather suspicious origin and felt that it was a trap dug by the Sinlyalian Kingdom. After all, no matter who it was, there was no way an individual can give off so many resources to satisfy a kingdom so this meant that it was either the Sinyalian Kingdom or some other kingdom behind this conspiracy."

"However, the King was still not convinced by them. He seemed to be quite confident about taking this risk. If not for his son, Prince Villar Barker, stopping him then he would have already accepted the deal and sent his people here to trade with you. The King then decided to first investigate the source of those resources and also investigate the person who gave that offer to Lennox Rees before making any further decision. First, they questioned Lennox Rees and then they found out another issue."

Azaroth wasn't surprised to hear that the King of the Glerian Kingdom had nearly accepted his offer. What he was more shocked was that Tronte seemed to possess detailed information of what occurred in the court of Glerian Kingdom as if he was sitting there when the proceedings went on.

As for the part that the King was now using his connections to investigate him?

"What did Lennox Rees say when the King questioned him about my identity?" Azaroth asked Tronte as he was now curious just how deeply was his spy network inlaid in the Glerian Kingdom?

Tronte calmly whispered, "Lennox Rees mentioned that he had that deal with a demon."

Tronte then acutely observed Azaroth and seemed to be making a mental note of all his movements.

"Why would he describe you as a demon? Just what did you do that horrified him so badly?" Tronte was quite curious about this matter. Although he knew the methods to mentally break someone, he didn't think Edwin would know or use any of them.

"It's surprising how a blindfolded man can believe a couple of lies so easily." Azaroth gave a weak excuse.

Before Tronte could ask any more questions regarding this topic, Evelyn returned with a tray. In that tray were 2 cups of tea; one for Tronte and the other for Azaroth.

Azaroth glanced at Tronte and signaled him to talk later.

Tronte understood that Azaroth didn't trust Evelyn. And he was right to hold his doubts over her.

Speaking of such a delicate and risky plan in front of someone unfamiliar was just shortening your own life.

Azaroth changed the topic by asking Tronte, "So, you have any info about the special slaves that I might find out?"