102. Half A Year Later

The Cruel Brigade departed from the room one by one including Izumi. The ones who remained were Eveam, Aquinas, and Ornoth.

Ornoth wanted to talk with Aquinas alone but didn't expect Eveam to also stay here after she ended the conference.

Eveam started to talk.

"How is it, Aquinas? Is it okay to talk about that now?"

Aquinas glanced at Ornoth, then said.

"Sorry Ornoth, we need to have a private conversation right now. If you want to talk about something, just wait at my place!"

Ornoth just nodded, it looks like the conversation will be serious, so Ornoth went out of the conference room.

"What do you think about Izumi?"

"He told me everything, however please forgive me, Your Majesty. Although I have some astonishing information, let me clarify the truth first." Aquinas said it with a smile.

"Leave your formality, Aquinas! Anyway, you can't tell it now?"

"Not for now! Also, I will carry out this investigation alone together with my men."

"Why did you hide it from me? Am I really unfit to be a demon lord?" Eveam frowned. By hiding it from her, it looked like Aquinas didn't believe in her.

Aquinas started to think, maybe he should talk about Avoros. But did not intend to mention his loyal followers who might be Kiria and Iraora.

"Sigh. This matter is regarding the appearance of your brother." Aquinas stated.

"My bro– what?" Of course, hearing that was a shock to Eveam.

"That's why I want to conduct an investigation."

"If it's really him. We should tell the others to prepare." Eveam wanted to leave the room immediately to call the members of the Cruel Brigade back. But Aquinas prevented her.

"No, Your Majesty!"

"Why? Wouldn't it be better if more people knew? We could have prepared in advance before he made his move."

"I understand, Your Majesty. But it would be better if we prepared quietly. We don't know if he has spies around us. If we prepare openly, I'm afraid he'll make a move even faster than he planned. So I beg Your Majesty to remain silent! Please don't tell anyone about this!" Aquinas begged while kneeling. What Aquinas said made Eveam frown.

"Then, what's your plan?"

"I'll try to contact the Cruel Brigade members one by one. I won't tell them about Avoros, but I will try to help them to increase their strength. Besides that, I will also check Avoros' movements from time to time because I just got information from Izumi." Aquinas said.

"Can he be trusted?" Eveam asked.

"At least I didn't find any lies from him. The probability of his tribe getting wiped out by Avoros is pretty high! And with his grudge against Avoros running so deep, he could be said to be a powerful ally. The information about Avoros isn't very convincing, but if it's true, I'll come up with a plan right away." Aquinas explained.

"Alright then, if he can be trusted, then it's good for Evila to have a strong ally."

Since Aquinas was indeed reliable, Eveam ended up leaving everything to him. After that, Aquinas left the conference room.

— — — —

Unknowingly, two months had passed. In these two months, nothing serious happened. Izumi only spent his time training and hunting in the last two months. At first, he wanted to know what would happen if he increased his level. But his stats didn't seem to change even after leveling up. Only after training his Internal skills, his stats gradually increased.

Izumi recited "Status" in his mind, then the holographic data appeared.

Miyamura Izumi

Level 31

HP 14630

MP 24550

ATK 2180

DEF 1402

AGI 2695

HIT 1925

INT 1345

Magic Attribute(s): Space

Magic: Rules of The Area

Skill: Magic Destabilization.

Martial Art: Sword Art, Twin Daggers Art.

Internal Skill: Ice Pact level 5, Transcendence level 2, Stormy Skies level 1

Title: World Traveler, Sadistic, Martial Artist, Pervert, Ruler Of Space Magic, Animal Ears Fetish, Novelist, Inventor, Magic Slayer, Cruel Brigade.

His stats increased a little bit after his internal skills, Ice Pact and Transcendence increased by 1 level respectively. Also, something has been added to the status. Specifically his title, the name of his martial arts, and the name of his internal skills.

His mouth twitched when he saw those titles. "What the fuck with those Pervert and Sadistic titles?" Izumi could only curse silently.

One day, he had a visitor when Izumi was practicing somewhere outside the city of Xaos, he was Aquinas.

"What's up?" Izumi asked.

"Let's go somewhere else first."

Izumi glanced at Aquinas for a while, then he nodded. Izumi led him to a place a little bit far from Xaos. And stopped at a place where there was a small lake.

"This place is good," said Izumi.

After confirming no one was around, Aquinas spoke.

"I discovered the fact that Iraora was in contact with someone. That person wore a black cloak. From the body posture, it looked like a woman." Aquinas felt that knowing Izumi was a good thing. With this, he confirmed that Iraora had indeed betrayed the evila.

At first, Aquinas was suspicious of Izumi, but in the past two months, Izumi had only been training and hunting, while on the other hand he had also been spying on the other Cruel Brigade members. Surprisingly, Aquinas got such an unexpected result.

Izumi thought for a moment, Avoros had the appearance of a shota. If it's a woman, then…

"Hmmm, it might be another Valkyria."

"Another Valkyria?" Aquinas popped his eyes.

"The Valkyria project certainly doesn't produce just one Valkyria, right? If the project is restarted and produces one Valkyria, nothing would be impossible if another one appears." Izumi explained.

"Makes sense."

"Try to remember, is her posture the same as Kiria's?"

"I'm not sure."

"Then use these to spy on Kiria and the woman who met Iraora. Well, naturally you shouldn't stop spying on Iraora." Izumi took out small metallic spiders. Izumi made them for reconnaissance purposes by providing a mini camera lens and also using an ultraviolet tech battery for each. He also took out a tablet that could be used to control both devices.

"These?" Aquinas didn't understand why Izumi would give those. And seeing Aquinas' face that didn't understand how they worked, Izumi explained step by step from the beginning.

Izumi also said,

"Actually, I have a friend who has unique magic. He can reveal anyone's status. Too bad he hasn't come here yet."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah. I told him to come here, but it looks like he wants to travel first. If he's here, maybe he'll be of more help to us."

Aquinas pondered.

"Well, even if he has a unique ability, it's useless if he's not here. I'd better use these devices you gave me."

Izumi nodded. But then, he put on a serious expression.

"I would also warn you not to underestimate Valkyria. An artificial demon capable of destroying the capital is no joke."

"I know. I'm not that rash. Also, I'll contact the rest of the Cruel Brigade except Iraora about this."

"If possible, don't tell Marione! I'm afraid he might snap."

"But still, he should also know. Although, I have to wait for the right moment. Or at least, I have to control his emotions first so he won't act recklessly afterward."

"It's not like I can't trust him. He is indeed a proud warrior of Evila. But, knowing his character, he is just like a side character in the novel who died earlier than others."

Aquinas knew that Izumi didn't mean to curse Marione with his words. However, Izumi's words were still impolite.

"I'll make sure he won't do something unnecessary. Also, he's not what you think. Despite his character, he still manages to keep secrets in his own way."

After that, they discussed the Cruel Brigade members getting training. They were strong, but their strength was far below that of Aquinas or Izumi. In order to face Avoros and his followers, their strength was still insufficient.

— — — —

Day after day has passed. Every day in the capital city of Xaos, Izumi trains his internal skills to reach higher levels. Apart from training his internal skills, he also helps the Cruel Brigade members train their fighting skills and raise their levels. Especially Grayald who seemed to be the weakest among the Cruel Brigade members. Aquinas also took turns with Izumi to train them.

The longer Aquinas knew Izumi, the more he knew how strong Izumi was. He was even surprised to learn that Izumi had insane fighting skills. When Aquinas tried to spar with Izumi, he felt as if Izumi had two other eyes in the back of his head. Because of that ability, Izumi is almost untouchable.

Izumi also learned magic from those he fought using his left eye. But alas, even if he studied the structure of the magic, he was completely unable to imitate it.

From his speculations, perhaps he was only proficient with things of the spatial attribute. This is proven by his magic and ninjutsu. Regarding his spatial ninjutsu, he had managed to learn it when he was in the world of One Piece. Even though he hadn't had the chance to use it yet, he had become proficient with that ninjutsu after training in his world before coming to Edea.

Izumi became more proficient with his sword after practicing more earnestly upon arriving at Edea. The way he played with the sword was also calmer than the way he used to be. He didn't make unnecessary movements when wielding his sword so he conserved his strength and knew where to precisely swing his sword at the enemy at the same time. Another reason he changed his way of fighting was getting used to not using magic in case it couldn't be used in certain situations.

Within a few months, Izumi became close friends with Aquinas, Shublars, Grayald, Ornoth, and Teckil. Apart from Izumi, Aquinas, and Ornoth whose strength increased steadily, the strength of Shublars, Grayald, and Teckil increased drastically.

And unknowingly, it had been half a year since Izumi's arrival in Xaos.

At that very moment, Evila received a confirmation of the peace treaty from the Humas side. They agreed to hold a peace treaty conference on the condition that the meeting would be on the Humas continent, to be precise in the Holy Oldine. Holy Oldine is an ancient temple for the resting place of heroes who died in the past.

The time for the conference has been set. It will be held in the next 2 weeks for the peace treaty conference to be held in the Humas continent.