About an hour later, both of them returned home from their long walk, and to their surprise, the door was opened.
At first, Azzy thought that Camilla probably woke up from her sleep and was waiting for them in the living room but then, he saw two surprising figures instead.
Oakley fell onto one of his knees right away and bowed to the frail-looking old man. "Greetings, Your Majesty. I deeply apologize. I didn't know that you will be visiting our shabby house."
"Drop the formalities, Oakley. I'm not here as the head of the Death clan but here as an ancestor of Azrael," replied Qridus as he placed the teacup on the table. Avia silently stood beside him without speaking anything.
Meanwhile, Azzy also greeted his great-great-great grandfather with a bow. As Qridus told them to sit down, including Avia, everyone sat together on the couch. Azzy looked at his ancestor, wondering about the reason for his visit. After all, a person of the old man's stature doesn't need to visit in person just to convince him.
Qridus then spoke, "I'll come to the matter, directly. Azrael, on the 15th of the next month, there will be a hidden clan summit and our clan is hosting it.
So, I was hoping to introduce you to someone, the person who looked after our clans since the beginning. He is perhaps the only one who can draw out your full potential.
You are still young and have a great possibility of becoming his disciple. The next meeting might be a decade or even two decades later. That's why you cannot miss this. Such an opportunity doesn't come often to the doorstep.
As for Night clan's matters, Avia will tell you."
Azzy turned his head to look at his former master without thinking much about this someone, whom Qridus wanted him to meet.
Looking straight at the wall, Avia delivered her decision, "I cannot forgive Oakley Night for what he did to us but I will give him a chance to prove himself that he is a changed man.
My uncle wanted him to take the position of clan elder and fulfill his duties. I will judge fairly based on what I hear about how he was doing at his workplace and at home. That's all I wanted to say, at the moment."
A smile bloomed on Oakley's face, all of a sudden. Her words made him too happy. As he thanked her for giving him an opportunity, Azzy suggested to his grandpa that he should move into the clan after the New Year.
While he reminded Oakley about Camilla's position, Azzy's real motive is to keep him safe.
A clan heir can give order to the elder of a subordinate clan for an urgent mission. Azzy doesn't want Velez to take advantage of his absence to send Oakley to trouble.
But, after the New Year, his father will become the new clan heir and can look after Oakley. Not to mention, he doesn't want to postpone his current plans by moving back to the clan, right away.
After Azzy promised that he will surely pay the visit to the clan before the summit, Qridus returned to the clan.
Oakley wanted his daughter to stay home for the night. However, not being comfortable with staying at the place, where her mother was buried, she gave an excuse about heavy work at the Hall of Judgment and left the house too.
Once they were gone, Oakley heaved out a sigh of relief and collapsed on the couch, "That was so nerve-racking. I almost got a heart stroke after seeing Lord Qridus in our house."
Azzy let out a grin and replied, "c'mon grandpa. He is a nice and understanding person. You are unnecessarily worried."
"He is a nice person?" Oakley immediately scoffed in response. He said, "You know nothing about him, Azzy. People of our clan fear him not because he is a clan head or a peak-rank-9 expert. It is his ruthless nature that I'm worried about.
While he can't be compared to Aelius Crescent who was touted as the most powerful villain in the age of Arcana, Lord Qridus has his own history, leaving behind a legend at the end of the tenth epoch (2000 thousand years ago).
In the name of upholding the balance of life and death on our planet, he wiped out several regions through natural disasters, causing the economic collapse of countries and hundreds of thousands of casualties.
And who knows, how many millions of innocent citizens were directly or indirectly affected because of his actions?
A good thing for you is that he loves his family and is protective of his direct descendants. I heard that he became like that after he lost his younger brother."
"But grandpa, Aelius Crescent became like that because of the Protos energy." Azzy didn't know what came over him but he strongly defended his maternal ancestor. He continued, "I don't know how he lived his life but it would have been different if he wasn't corrupted by his own Arcana."
Obviously, Oakley became curious about the matter. He asked with a clueless look, "Protos energy? I have never heard of it before. What are you talking about? And corruption from his own Arcana? Azzy, where did you learn this?"
Azzy knows that he cannot reveal the real identity of Chronos. Hence, he gave a vague reply, "heard it from a reliable friend with a vast amount of knowledge. Anyways, that isn't important, right now. What I want to know is this balance of life and death."
As Oakley then explained the purpose of the existence of the Death clan, Azzy questioned how the head of a hidden clan could decide the fate of the people who don't pose any danger to the world.
Oakley didn't have an answer to that. So, he only replied that the right was given by the god of death.
Azzy couldn't help but remember Azrael's small story he heard from the Reaper, a while ago as he was narrating it to Vesyrn. "Thanatos, huh…"
Previously, he had no impression of the god of death, but now, he thought that this god is cruel and arrogant.
Meanwhile, inside his mindscape, the Reaper was nodding to himself, satisfied by the events transpiring before him. "It is good that Azrael's first impressions of Thanatos are on the negative side. I bound Vesyrn to Thanatos.
So, the negativity will only rise further in the future. So, for now, the boy should learn about the selfish deeds of the gods and cosmic entities, especially Thanatos' to cement his impressions.
The slayer of Lucifer is the perfect man for this job but that arrogant prick might also create trouble. However, Azrael's fate is linked with that man. Should I change it or should I keep it that way?"
In the present state, the Reaper cannot connect his consciousness (attached to Azzy) to the timeline and know the future as Azzy had to be atleast in the 9-star realm for it to happen. Hence, just like before, he was looking into the countless possibilities of the future in order to draw out the probability.
A couple of days passed away without any more surprises. But, on the third day, Oakley suddenly decided to make a visit to the Sliya town to sell everything there and permanently shift to Aclein.
Promising to stay a week with his grandpa before leaving for WAMO's Headquarters and completing his training, Azzy accompanied him to his hometown. Camilla also tagged along with them after taking leave from her work as she was too bored.
As a result, the three of them left for Sliya, although by the road, not through the usual portal points as traveling by car like mortals has its own charm if one asks this 71-year-old fellow who looks like he is in his 40s.
Camilla didn't mind and Azzy wasn't in any rush. So, they didn't complain.
Because of the international highway with little to no traffic between Northern and Southern Qudour, their journey was quite smooth.
However, just as they crossed the check post and tollgate after their identification is verified, Azzy didn't know why but he felt like something bad is going to happen.
Strangely for him, even Camilla commented that she wasn't feeling good for some reason. Oakley countered her comment by stating that those with a lot of enemies always unconsciously fear an ambush. When Azzy heard that, he kept his silence.
Little did either of those three expect to encounter a long-beared old man who suddenly appeared in front of the vehicle when they were only a kilometer from the destination. The car crashed into him and bounced back for a few meters as if it hit a steel wall.
"Found you, kid," said the old man as Azzy kicked away the door and got out of the vehicle. The other two were also high realm Arcana Masters and they too were unharmed by this collision.
The Reaper's voice then echoed in Azzy's head at the same time, "Careful, it is a 9-star realm Arcana Master." Azzy frowned inwardly. "Who are you?" He raised his voice. Meanwhile, Oakley and Camilla who just got out of the car became alert upon sensing that this assailant's realm is far higher than theirs.
In response, the stranger gave him a cold gaze as he spoke, "A few days ago, when you came to this town, you caused an enormous amount of trouble. Do you still remember it or have you forgotten already?"
Oakley and Camilla looked at Azzy while the latter fell into thoughts, "trouble?"
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