Chapter 63: Chapter: 61

"Is it the results of your confidence? A total failure?"

The deep cold and menacing tone of a masked man pierces through the 3 main traitors of the Azure Empire who lowered their heads in shame, they failed to comply with 2 of their main goals.

To lead the Belial's downfall through their daughter and to captivate the Crown Prince with the love charms.

They are currently in a secret room located in the basement of an abandoned building in the capital, this building was purchased under the name of the Baron as one of his properties, yet purposely being neglected with wild plants covered most of the surface to conceal the building's main function as their meeting place.

Instead of being nervous, the traitors have no choice but to sit side to side around the table with the menacing masked man.

"We're sorry, Sir. Those spies betrayed us and give us false information for years"

Baron Goldway reasoning, he is talking about Emma and co who left a letter for Miss Belial admitting that she was the one who protects her up until now as ordered by her master.

And of course, Baron Goldway never makes that kind of order, the answer is obvious, she and the other spies are serving another master and betrayed him.

"And you believe her words for years?"

Clap!

Clap!

Clap!

The masked man who is the representative of the Westerners gives sarcastic applause to the stupid pawns, looking at the Baron's rounded fat on his belly that getting bigger every time they meet, his brain seems to has fallen into it.

"Like Father like Daughter, what a gullible family"

He is talking about Lily, the Baron's daughter who believes everything told by her parents unconditionally, or precisely being blinded by the fake affection, now, her father did the very same mistake by believing his spy, Emma, without any 2nd or 3rd confirmation of her words.

"But, according to the prophecy, Emma should be your loyal subject and be the one who sparks the ruins of Belial, what's the cause of her betrayal?"

The representative of the Westerners added, everything was perfect, up until now, their road to the Golden Age is moving smoothly without any flaws just like what was prophesied by their elders, but something seems to be out of place, the flow is starting to get deviated from the original destiny of Azure, and this situation can only be explained by one thing, the existence of an anomaly...

"Ah, it might be related to those 3rd parties, Sir"

Judas blurted out as the masked man twitch his eyebrows behind the mask, he didn't recall these men giving him a report about the existence of the 3rd party.

"What do you mean?"

The masked man tried to quell his boiling rage, it was a mistake to trust these idiots, he doesn't know their inability to think will be this awful.

These traitors had been informed about the prophecy to some extent regarding the future of Azure to smoothen the plans, yet they couldn't comprehend that even a little anomaly would cause a huge difference in the flows of fate, and they didn't report such existence that might cause the ruins of the plan.

The masked man grits his teeth, to prevent the insurmountable deviation from the prophecy, it's either to erase the anomaly as soon as possible or fix the twisted part before it's too late.

As if provoking the wildfire, he heard something more absurd.

"2 years ago these people appear at the slums where the Crown Prince is inspecting our slave-trading business"

Judas started to explain, he could see the hands of the masked man is clenching into fists as if ready to punch someone, but he continues as he gulped in nervous.

"They come out of the blue, saving a young boy while blabbering about our slave-trading information to the folks, and suddenly disappear with an unknown magic circle taking the boy with them"

Bam!

The wooden table gets smacked into 2 by the masked man's clenched fist, making those traitors jolt in surprise.

"S-sir?"

"2 years ago? Furthermore, they use a magic circle?"

The masked man shouted in anger, no matter how you look at it, these people are on whole different levels from some brainless thugs in terms of threat level, they need to be taken seriously as they may become a huge threat in the future, moreover, it was 2 years ago.

"W-we thought they were unrelated to our plan because they didn't make any direct contact with the Prince at the time, and the Imperial subjects have searched for them ever since yet was to no avail"

Judas defended, while the masked man seems to calm down and sighed, at least, these so-called 3rd parties are not related to the Imperial Family yet.

To fix the abnormality of fate, they just need to find these people first, it would be fatal if the Imperial Family and these mysterious people made a contact and decided to join hands, or else the prophecy won't be valid anymore.

"What about the results of your search?"

He asked coldly while looking at the traitors shake their heads in unison confirming his suspicion of their failure to track down these mysterious people.

In the meantime, he realizes why these greedy pigs didn't report this matter, it because they want to snatch such valuable people for themselves knowing these 3rd parties are not related to their plan or being part of the prophecy.

But now everything is out of their hand, the spies betrayed them and their only suspects were these mysterious people, as they couldn't find them and fail to handle the situation, it obvious these pigs want to be helped by sharing this way-too-late information.

'What a greedy bastards'

The masked man cursed inwardly, these people shouldn't be trusted to begin with, it was his failure to recognize their idiocy this late.

"The Northern and Southern territories belong to Judas and You"

He pointed out Judas and the other traitor who is the Duke of the North part of the Empire.

"And we are backing up the Western territory for the rebellion"

The masked man said back to his calm demeanor, the situation is still in their favor.

"It means we have 3 of 5 major territories in this continent even if we failed to conquer the Central and Eastern territory through the schemes"

The central part of the Empire obviously belongs to the Royal Family meanwhile the Eastern territory is the former land of the Belial kingdom, or now, known as Belial Archdukedom after becoming a part of the Azure Empire.

"If the secretive way didn't work as planned, we just need to take it openly by force"

He is clenching his hand in front of the eyes of the traitors gesturing a forceful action to take over the Central and the Eastern region of the Empire.

From this moment onwards, the Belial and the Royal Family will be deemed to be their enemies, no more fake unnecessary drama to fool the Prince or the Miss of Belial Family.

"With this advantage, we will start a-"

Grasp!

Before the masked man finished his words, he grasped a green pendant wore by Judas and pull it harshly.

"What is it?"

He asked Judas once again in a menacing tone, hanging the pendant in front of him.

"I-it's a new magic item produced by the Imperial Family, is there something wrong with it?"

"Hmm..."

The masked man mumbled by himself, he doesn't know why but somehow this thing is emitting a sense of foreboding, especially when he was about to say the next plan just now, as something really bad will eventually happen if he continues to speak and ignore this feeling.

He closed his eyes hold the pendant tightly to sense the magic inside the pendant.

"I can feel some combinations of the complicated ancient magic circle and an unknown strong seal that prevents me from peeking any further, but..."

He lifted the green mana stone that warped with a snake-shaped decoration and observe it thoroughly.

"The source of my bad hunch is I can feel this pendant somehow connected to somewhere else"

"Aaahh, it must because this magic item is a long-distance communication tool that connects between pendants to whomever as the owners' wish"

Judas explained like the simple manual book received along with the box of the pendant, even if the concept of the manual book is kinda odd and has never been heard before, but this is very helpful since this magic item is revolutionary, as the very first ones who obtained this item, no one except the book can teach him how to use it.

"What?!"

The masked man replied in surprise, even the westerners who were known as the most advanced in terms of magic tools are still failed to make the prototype of a long-distance communication magic item, yet this azure empire is suddenly released the complete version of it.

How ridiculous.

Looking at the masked man who started to leak a dark aura, Judas quickly added to protect himself.

"E-even as the Grand counselor of the empire I know nothing about this, Sir"

The dark aura stopped, if only this was another secret they kept to fill their greed, he won't ensure their safety anymore.

"Explain"

"Y-yes Sir, this project is carried out by an unknown Merchant guild named Fortuna and the Emperor himself, we don't know the rest of the contract but it seems this Merchant is the item's creator while the Emperor is their protector"

This time, Baron Goldway is the one who explains it to the masked man since he can understand Fortuna's intention the most as a fellow Merchant.

"What a fearless merchant to use the Emperor as a shield"

The masked man replied, but unlike before, there is no hint of sarcasm in his words, this explains how much the value of this invention is, but...

No human should have this kind of ancient knowledge, somehow it reminds him of the unknown 3rd party that also used an ancient magic circle, but he has no evidence of their connection, it can be a coincidence or if the worse comes to worst, they are the same people and had formed a contract with the Emperor.

The situation might be more serious than he thought it was.

"I need to inform these anomalies to the elders"

He mumbled to himself before giving back the pendant to Judas and added.

"We need to proceed with the plan as soon as possible"

"But, Sir. You didn't finish your words about the plan yet"

The masked man frowned upon the stupid question behind his mask, the answer is quite obvious if they want to spend a little bit of their time thinking, these people are hopeless, they can not be trusted with the responsibility.

"The plan will be carried out by my trusted men, you just need to strengthen your territory for the time being and give your best support for the West Rebels"

He stands and walks towards the only exit door in the room before adding his last words.

"Don't do anything stupid, lie low and wait for the next order"

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The steps of the masked man are getting further and further before finally couldn't be heard any more from the hallway.

Sigh...

The 3 traitors heaved a sigh of relief, the pressure around the representatives of the Westerners isn't a joke, it was far heavier compared to the presence of the Emperor even though he is not in a high position among the Westerners, this shows how powerful and how good they are at hiding their fangs.

When the 3 of them prepare to leave, the escorts stationed outside the room during the meeting come to their masters, as always the Baron brings one of his best assassin slaves to be his escort as a replacement for his missing top assassin 4 years ago, the former escort is none other than the famous 'Phantom' who is unknown to be dead or alive until now since her last mission for the assassination attempt to the Miss Belial.

And the other traitor brings along his most trusted knight to be his escort, all of them seem to be extra careful except for Judas.

"How many times did I need to tell you to bring an escort in case something bad happens"

The other traitor once again reminded the man who seems to be complacent about his own security.

"Who dares to touch me? I am the Grand counselor of this nation, a best friend of the Emperor, a comrade to the Rebels, and the Westerners are my back up, I have no enemy except for that nonchalant Belials who do not even show a slight of interest in me, this is the safest place"

Judas replied arrogantly, the same as always, he insists that he needs no escort as long as his identity as the traitor of the nation didn't leak.

Since he was sneaking out secretly of the mansion without telling anyone, bringing an escort is nothing but a hindrance.

"Just let him be"

Baron Goldway scoffed at the two while putting on his robe, he is feelings annoyed by the same conversation in every meeting.

Without any more talks, the 3 of them parted their ways with different routes to prevent any suspicion of other people.

-•-

Grizel couldn't stop smiling as she got a lot of new information about the Westerners.

Prophecy?

Elders?

And...

"They plan to start a civil war"

The tip of the hooded girl's lip curled up forming an evil smirk, she is sitting on the edge of the roof quite far from the abandoned building where the secret meeting of the traitors is being held, listening to the whole meeting through her earring while swinging her legs.

Behind her is the loyal Butler patiently standing there in silence guarding his master who is busy eavesdropping on the traitors' secret meeting.

The Westerners failed to conquer the Azure continent through the schemes, but that doesn't mean they are at any disadvantages.

By using and combine all of their cards that were planted in this empire, they will have enough power to forcefully seize the throne and take over the Belial territory.

Even though the casualties will be less in numbers if the scheme succeeds, however, this aggressive plan won't be the loss of the Westerners either, because the blood that will be shed is not theirs, but the people of the same nation, that's why it called...

A civil war.

Grizel smiled as she recalled that they have 3 major territories in their hands;

the rebels in the West,

Judas as Lord of the South,

and the last traitor as the Lord of the North.

She imagines the map of Azure continent in her head, in terms of Geography, they have a huge advantage against the Central and the East territory because most of the land governed by the Belial belongs to the den of the monsters or widely known as the Forest of Demise, in case they have a way to make those monsters going rampant and go out of their forest...

The Imperial Family and Belial will be trapped and attacked in every direction.

"What a ruthless plan"

She commented, these Westerners are on different levels of those traitors, they didn't hesitate to sacrifice a lot of people to gain what they want and...

Somehow it remains her with her past life.

"Ha"

"Hahahaha, great"

Levi startled by the sudden evil laugh of his Lord, he knows this laugh won't end up with something good.

"I'll trample those cards of yours in one sweep"

As if confirming his suspicion, Grizel added by speaking to herself.

"Levi"

"Yes, My Lord"

"Remind me to put a double, no, triple layers of seal to the mass-produced Fortuna pendants, these Westerners seem to be sharper than expected, and..."

Grizel stopped her words as she gets up, the gentle breeze of a cold night is fluttering her black long robe.

"Let's go to abduct our nation's Grand Counselor"

Shrieeek!

Grizel and Levi rip the teleportation scroll to move because Levi is not a Rogue Class and couldn't follow Grizel's insane speed if they were approaching Judas by foot.

Flop!

Both of them arrived at the small back alley, and not far from them, a man is walking leisurely while humming.

Without any command, Levi activated his soundproof and invisible barrier to prevent anyone to hear his scream.

Swoosh...

Grizel also activates her illusion mist around the barrier in case someone is passing by the alley.

The man was bewildered by the sudden mysterious mist and looks around his surroundings.

Tap!

Tap!

Tap!

The sounds of the footstep that approach him are getting louder and louder as a small stunning figure with her cold blue eyes and long silver hair is coming closer.

"Pleasure to see you again, Grand Counselor"

To be continued...

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Author's Corner:

‼️Announcement‼️

I don't know how to say it but I hate beating around the bush, I think will take a long hiatus and there's a possibility of the story discontinuation, I'm sorry to say it, but your support is what keeps me writing until now even though I have a busy schedule, once again I am so sorry.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY

BWAHAAHAAHHHAHHAH

✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌

Next: Mammon is coming