A Demon's Journey

After Noah's subordinates gathered, he led them to the location where the registration for the Heavenly Dragon Battleground's Tournament was occurring.

While his men were enjoying themselves in bars and brothels, Noah gathered information about it in Crario City.

The participants could only register from a particular entrance to the Crarian forest.

When Noah reached the location, he noticed a huge crowd. If he counted each person, they would number more than a thousand individuals.

If each group had brought 50 warriors along with them, it meant atleast 20 groups were participating in this tournament.

It was extremely unusual to find 20 private groups capable of rearing 50 or so warriors who had attained the 3rd or 4th Star Rank in the entire Glerian Kingdom.

Most of these groups were formed through the Royal Princes' influence or by using wealth to hire the sect's disciples.

A few groups even belonged to the sects and their core disciples. They held a great desire to attain control over the Glerian Kingdom's army as well.

If they possessed control over the Glerian Kingdom's army, their manpower would increase, and they could be slightly free of the Royal Family's control.

All the sects were forced to obey the Glerian Kingdom's Royal Family. The major reason was this army's devotion to the Royal Family.

The army possessed soldiers whose strength varied from 2 Star Rank to 5 Star Rank.

The 4 Star and 5 Star Ranked Soldiers were actually officers. The 4 Star Soldiers were allowed to lead their personal team, while the 5 Star soldiers could lead a battalion.

After soldiers, another force threatened these sects. The Union of the Knights and the Paladins.

These Knights and Paladins were in service to obey the orders of the King or those of the Royal Family.

They naturally followed a flawless hierarchy. Thus there was no dispute in carrying out a command.

The King's words were of supreme importance. And then those of his brothers or his children.

Their task was similar to that of the Royal Guards in the Sinyalian Kingdom.

However, this system was much more diverse in the Glerian Kingdom than in the Sinyalian Kingdom.

The King was in a good mood these days.

The materials he had bought from Azaroth at the cost of those rare herbs were working wonderfully. They were actually even better than he initially expected.

As soon as they were placed at the sight along with the boosting effect of an array, the resources in the mines had begun to replenish at a rapid rate.

The Sinyalian Kingdom had no idea that it would take the Glerian Kingdom at most 2 months to recover enough resources to continue the war against them.

They would definitely be caught by surprise. That would be the perfect opportunity to deal massive damage to the Sinyalian Kingdom.

However, there was another matter being discussed in the courtroom.

To divert their attention from the Sinyalian Kingdom to the Lamhilhan Theocracy.

"Supreme Pontiff of the Lamhilhan Theocracy just died after fighting a lengthy battle against the Demon Emperor. The Demon Emperor is injured and in hiding. It's said that his cultivation has dropped, and he no longer possesses his power at the Demon Emperor Level. It would be a good idea to send our experts there and finish him off. The Head of a Demon Emperor is quite valuable. Moreover, we will have a chance to get the treasures from his Spatial Ring," One of the King's advisors spoke.

A long discussion started because of those words. Some were in favor, while some were against it.

"A Demon Emperor should never be underestimated. We don't know anything about his injuries, whether he can recover his power or not, and how long it will take him. Without knowing this, sending our soldiers after him would be equivalent to putting them on a suicide mission. We should wait it out and use our spies to gather more information."

Another advisor put forward his point.

The King was inclined to concur with this logic. The King was greedy but not hopelessly foolish.

Trying to deal with the Lamhilhan Theocracy and the Sinyalian Kingdom would be asking for too much.

The Lamhilhan Theocracy was extremely wealthy. It was also one of the sources from which the Glerian Kingdom might obtain emergency supplies.

It was not the time to oppose them.

A lengthy debate began in the courtroom. The advisors were split into two factions.

Some were in favor of the first proposal, while others favored the second proposal.

Just as the King was about to mention his preference, another advisor requested permission to speak.

The King granted him the authorization to speak. The advisor took a deep breath and spoke, "Your Majesty, I have another suggestion. While we are focusing on the Demon Emperor, I believe we shouldn't ignore that the Lamhilhan Theocracy's Head seat is now empty."

"The Supreme Pontiff has just died. A new one will be nominated based on the cardinals' votes. What if this new Supreme Pontiff is sympathetic to us and our cause rather than the peace that the previous one envisioned?"

The entire courtroom remained silent as this proposal was spoken.

Suddenly, there was a burst of loud laughter and then a delighted voice that spoke, "A most interesting proposal. Continue thinking in this direction."

Once the king had given this order, all the advisors were now thinking along that suggestion.

The advisor who spoke the proposal quietly sat down. However, the king's eyes remained focused on him for a couple of minutes before he turned his gaze away.

The King vividly noted down the advisor's appearance who had presented this fantastic idea.

The man was in his late twenties. His face appeared rather unremarkable, but now that the King observed him, a mysteriously dense aura was around this man.

Naturally, the aura didn't give a threatening feeling to the King, but for a 4 Star Warrior, it was quite deep and hard to analyze.

Thus, all the advisors in the courtroom began to think of a way to influence the elections in the Lamhilhan Theocracy.

And how they could appoint a candidate that might serve them.

There were many issues that the Glerian Kingdom was facing. They lacked money, resources, and even the army to some extent.

The army was barely adequate to protect the boundaries of the Glerian Kingdom. The King couldn't deploy his troops and risk exposing a weakness in the Kingdom's defenses.

A specialized team had to be created. This team had to be led by an extremely smart individual with an eloquent tongue.

Someone with the ability to influence people.

'I can't send someone already famous in the Glerian Kingdom. It needs to be someone with an unfamiliar face. Who should I choose?'

'I need to use the Silver Command to find such an individual who can lead this operation.' The King thought seriously.

The Silver Command was one of the King's commands to order one of his intelligence agencies known as the Silver Hawks.

The King was convinced that the Silver Hawks could find such a person for him. They were his most secretive organization that was active in various cities and sects.

Only the King and its members were aware of this agency's name. All others who knew were dead.

All the advisors also promised the king that they would find appropriate warriors for this mission.

At the end of this debate, the king ordered them to take an oath of secrecy. This information must not spread in the Kingdom.

The advisors solemnly took an oath. They knew that the King was utterly serious. If they dared to leak this information, the King would know and have their head!

~~

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