Suspicious men

Azaroth observed the individuals seated 3 tables away from him. However, soon enough, his interest waned, and he turned his head to the front.

After some minutes, the manager returned along with an old man wearing luxurious clothing like Azaroth. In fact, this old man's clothes seemed to be on an even higher tier than Azaroth.

The old man's clothes appeared to glow with a faint blue color.

"This is Sir Ashton." Firstly, the Deep Anemone Inn manager introduced the old man next to him, and then he gestured towards Azaroth, "And this is Lord Edwin. He is the one selling the 4 Stars Beast Core."

The old man focused his gaze on Azaroth and observed him quietly. Soon enough, the old man asked with a rough voice.

"How much?"

Azaroth had already decided upon what he wanted to buy. He said, "I want a grade 4 elemental weapon. Preferably, a sword or an axe."

Sir Ashton appeared surprised and asked Azaroth, "You don't want to exchange with the Gold Coins or Spirit Coins?"

"No." Azaroth coldly replied. That sort of currency was useless to him.

For some moments, Ashton continued thinking and then asked, "I only have a grade 4 sword with the lightning affinity. Will it work?"

"Lightning, huh?" Azaroth fell into deep thought.

'According to my analysis, my Humanely Ardor is attuned to Wind Attribute, the Demonic Ardor is attuned to Fire Attribute, and Celestial Ardor is attuned to Lightning. Possessing a sword attuned to Lightning Attribute isn't a bad idea.'

'However, if I exchange for this sword, the news will definitely reach the Rhodes Family. They already know that I have a wind attribute and might question why I bought a sword with Lightning Attribute. Maybe they will even forcefully inspect me.'

"No. I want a sword with the Wind Attribute." Azaroth firmly spoke.

Ashton lowered his head and spoke, "That's a pity then."

The manager on the side was sweating nervously and spoke up at this moment, "Lord Edwin, maybe you can ask for something else. Sir Ashton is a Branch Manager of the Merchant Union's branch in Wrihull City."

Azaroth gave him a cold glare. Instantly, the manager started regretting… Why did he have to open his mouth here?!

Azaroth then looked at Sir Ashton, "How about this… If I require a Lightning Sword, then I will exchange this Beast Core with you. And if you find any Wind Attribute Sword or Ax, then bring it to exchange it with me. Is that acceptable?"

The old man named Ashton looked surprised. He then nodded his head, "Fair enough."

Azaroth seemed satisfied with this and stood up. He was heading out of the Deep Anemone Inn. But before he stepped his foot outside the tavern, Azaroth heard Ashton's voice, "I am curious. Why would a Rhodes Family Member decide to trade the 4 Stars Beast Core with me instead of placing giving it to the Rhodes Family?"

Azaroth replied without even batting an eye, "Is it really that difficult to guess? I won't receive anything much if I contribute this Beast Core to the Rhodes Family, but it's a different matter if I trade it with you. Isn't that right, Sir Ashton?"

Slightly tilting his head, Azaroth stared at Ashton with a sharp glint in his eyes. Ashton looked impressed and spoke, "You have a good vision. It appears that not all the rumors about you were true."

"Not all the rumors are to be trusted, Sir Ashton. Have a good day." With that, Azaroth pushed upon the gate of the tavern.

However, he added while he walked ahead, "Next time, don't think of sneaking up on me. I hardly restrained myself from cutting off your head."

Sir Ashton remained calm even as he heard those words, treating them as passing wind. He kept thinking deeply 'This youth is only a 2 Star Warrior. How did he get 4 Stars Beast Core? Was he assisted by the Rhodes Family?'

However, Sir Ashton immediately shook off that deduction. There were multiple reasons why he shook it off.

Firstly, even if all the rumors about Edwin Rhodes were exaggerated, Ashton believed that there wouldn't be smoke without a fire. Moreover, as a Branch Manager, he had kept notes of the Rhodes Family.

There was no doubt that Edwin Rhodes was treated quite coldly by his brothers, cousins, and even his father. His mother's former servants had been taking care of him. But they were all relatively weak. They couldn't kill a 4 Stars Beast.

Secondly, if the Rhodes Family was the one to assist Edwin so that he could get his hands on a 4 Star Beast Core, they definitely wouldn't allow Edwin to trade this Beast Core with someone from the Merchant Union.

Ashton continued to think with a frown.

'Who helped this boy and why?'

Indeed… What would anyone gain by helping this kid? This kid didn't even possess any real status within the Rhodes Family, so Ashton failed to understand how it would be worth investing in him.

However, a thought suddenly appeared in Ashton's mind.

'Don't tell me that someone wants to use this kid to spy on the Rhodes Family? Indeed… With his sensitive situation, it will be easy to coerce him. Maybe this Beast Core was a gift from that person to let the kid believe him.'

A smile appeared on Ashton's face because this was too good to be true.

Although the Merchant Union was set up by the Royal Family to manage the trade and handle the market. The officials of the Merchant Union were far from being satisfied with that.

They wanted more power and influence. After all, even though the Merchant Union was quite influential, it was only because they relied on the Royal Family.

The Merchant Union's higher-ups wanted to free themselves from the Royal Family's control, but they knew that they had to be subtle about it. That was why the Merchant Union targeted the Noble Families.

They were trying to decrease the influence and power of the Noble Families. However, their primary motive was to steal the Noble Families' secrets and give rise to their own martial artists whose loyalty would be pledged to the Merchant Union.

It was quite a long-term plan by the Merchant Union, and they had succeeded in stealing the secrets of some Noble Families of the Kingdom of Sinyal. A batch of martial artists had already been formed, trained according to the Noble Families' secret manuals.

'It will be a good idea for me to remain in contact with this kid. Using him, I might grab hold of the secrets of the Rhodes Family.'

~~

Azaroth had more or less anticipated what thoughts were going in Ashton's head. This had been his primary aim.

More interactions with Ashton meant that Azaroth could know more information and form connections with people outside Wrihull City. Moreover, Azaroth wouldn't need to entirely depend on the Rhodes Family.

He wanted to maintain a balance between using the Merchant Union and the Rhodes Family to gain the greatest benefits. Perhaps he was too greedy, but Azaroth hardly cared about this fact.

While Azaroth was walking towards the Rhodes Family Mansion, he sensed 2 individuals tailing him.

'That woman and the man from that group of four. Did they split up to follow me?'

Azaroth knew that this was no coincidence that these two individuals left the tavern right after him.

Moreover, he had seen their table, which was still covered with food. They hadn't even eaten half of that amount, so why would they come out so soon?

However, confronting them also wasn't a good idea. These two individuals were 3 Star Warriors. Their aura was also quite similar to each other. This meant they used similar arts to cultivate their Ardor.

This indicated that they belonged to the same faction that provided them the resources and secret art to become stronger.

'The other party still doesn't know that I am aware of them. I need to investigate this in secret and figure out their motive.'

Currently, Azaroth was walking in the market while these two individuals were following him, maintaining a gap of nearly 200-300 meters.

'How long will you pursue me? Or are you waiting for an opportunity to contact me?' Azaroth was curious about this.

He had kept on walking for nearly 15-30 minutes now, and these two were still persistently following him. Although they were clever enough to hide from his plain sight, they couldn't escape Azaroth's senses.

After another 20 minutes, the Rhodes Family Mansion was in sight.

The two individuals following Azaroth stopped immediately and turned in the right direction, and ran off. It was as if they complete their objective.

Azaroth didn't follow them. For now, he wasn't interested in his stalkers.