The Retreating Hoard, Albert's Shock

A white 'meteor' flew towards the emerald tree.

When the dragon egg was about to fly up the tree, an invisible barrier blocked its path.

The next moment, the dragon egg disappeared and reappeared before Bremont and Albert.

The dragon egg struggled to break free, shaking violently in midair.

Seeing this, Bremont said,

"Be patient. Just wait a little longer. It hasn't ripened yet."

The peculiar vowels reverberated throughout the hall. Albert's expression remained unchanged outwardly, but internally, he was stunned.

Dragon Tongue. Wait, so this was a dragon egg?

There was a dragon egg in this place?

He couldn't understand what Bremont was saying.

But thanks to Barron, who was a Dragon Knight, he could at least tell what language it was.

The dragon egg seemed to understand what Bremont was saying and quickly quietened down.

Albert looked at the floating dragon egg for a while. After making sure that there was nothing unusual about it, he turned to look at the viewing portal suspended in the air.

In the image, George was leading Celia through the forest.

At first, Albert was relieved to see that George and Celia were safe.

After all, he was a saint candidate, it would be best if nothing happened to him.

But Albert soon noticed something strange.

Why did the two of them look completely unharmed? Were they that powerful?

Were they so strong that they could remain unscathed even when attacked by a hoard of hostile monsters?

After watching for a moment, Albert became even more confused.

However, what puzzled Albert the most was that George and the others did not encounter any monsters along the way.

At first, Albert thought it was just sheer luck, but he soon realized that things weren't as simple as they seemed

George was heading in the same direction he went.

In other words, George should have encountered the retreating monster hoard head-on.

Even if this candidate had excellent perception and was able to avoid incoming monsters in advance, when faced with a large number of monsters, he would inevitably still run into some.

However, no matter how long he watched, no monsters appeared before George.

What was going on?

Seeing Albert stare at George, Bremont wrongly assumed that he was worried about George and piped up,

"Don't worry, the monsters in the forest can't get away from him fast enough. No monsters will attack him."

"What?!" Albert looked at Bremont, puzzled.

"It seems that you don't really understand your Saint."

Albert failed to notice that when Bremont addressed George, he did not refer to him as a saint candidate. Instead, he addressed him directly as a Saint.

Albert responded to Bremont's question composedly,

"You are correct. Before my arrival here, the higher-ups have not made contact with this saint candidate."

There was something very wrong about what Albert had said, but Bremont wasn't bothered.

Because Oath Knights couldn't lie.

Therefore, when it came to secrets or sensitive information, Oath Knights would usually deal with it by concealing the truth.

Bremont's aged voice echoed in the hall.

"In the eyes of the monsters of the forest, he is a walking calamity. The managers of the forest call him 'The Demon of Gluttony'," he said to Albert.

"Demon of Gluttony!?" Albert was very surprised. He couldn't figure out why this special saint candidate would be given such a title.

What had he done?

However, Bremont's next statement surprised Albert even further.

"I completely agree with this title.

"Come to think of it, this is the first time I've ever seen anyone eat that much.

"I see shadows of the Demonic Beast Holbrador in him. Holbrador is a beast said to be capable of devouring everything."

There was a rare inflection in Bremont's tone, it was clear that he was genuinely surprised.

Towards the end of his speech, there was a tinge of nostalgia in Bremont's voice, as though he knew this Demonic Beast personally.

Bremont tapped his finger on the armrest and the image in the portal changed.

The screen split into two. Both screens depicted the same place, but at different time periods.

The image on the left showed a tree bursting with fruits. But the one on the right was completely bare, even the leaves had thinned considerably.

"This is the original appearance of this area, and this is what that area looks like now."

Bremont zoomed in on the two images sequentially and explained the situation as Albert looked on.

After hearing about George's 'achievements', Albert didn't know what to say.

It was hard to tell from the image, but Albert knew how enormous those seemingly normal trees were.

And so it goes without saying that the proportionate-looking fruits would also be equally enormous.

But all of these fruits had ended up in the stomach of the saint candidate. Albert was speechless.

Albert looked at Bremont in disbelief, even his voice had become distorted

"This was all done by the saint candidate?"

"That's right. From a human's perspective, this isn't just shocking, it's unthinkable isn't it?."

Upon receiving an affirmative response from Bremont, Albert couldn't help but begin to doubt. "This was done by a human? Could he be…"

"Oath Knight, you should know why Saints are called Saints."

Hearing the doubt in Albert's voice, Bremont's voice became noticeably more stern, almost reproachful.

"Don't worry, he's most definitely a human. I can guarantee you that."

It was then that Albert finally noticed the way Bremont addressed George.

Saint? Why did this lord keep addressing this saint candidate as 'the saint'?

Could it be that in his eyes, this candidate was qualified to become the Saint?

Or was it that the idea of saint candidates was nonexistent to him?

Albert was more inclined to believe in the first theory. He also had faith in the judgment of this powerful being who seemed to have lived for a long time.

Realizing this, Albert's expression changed.

It would seem that he had to adjust his attitude towards this candidate.

While Albert was lost in thought, Bremont spoke again,

"I'm guessing his outrageous performance is likely due to his constitution.."

Just as Albert was about to say something, the hall suddenly began to tremor.

"What happened?"

Albert looked left and right, and suddenly discovered that there were no doors in this hall.

The tremors had caused many branches and leaves to fall. Due to this, Albert saw even more details of this hall

Amidst these gaps between the vines, Albert was surprised to find that the walls of this hall were made up of some kind of metal.

A frightening thought suddenly occurred to Albert.

It was as if the entire hall was this man's coffin.