Unsealing Emptiness

Since it was the Neutral Lands, Irvin and Ozul themselves needed to be present. Meanwhile, it became Oliver and Haley’s duty to manage everything in their absence.

There were many more Rank-7 Mages under Haley’s command, so they need not be so worried if anything unforeseen happened.

Irvin took some men and they headed towards the Neutral Lands together with Ozul. In these more than 5 years, he hadn’t once returned there since he did not have any solid reason to.

Unbeknownst to him, Raymond and Alver were waiting for him to visit. As much arrogance as they had for being Rank-9 Mages, they were hesitant in being the first one to approach since their only nephew had grown up to be someone who could match them without them ever being there for him.

And they were afraid that he would think negatively of them as if they were telling him only now they got to know of his power. Even if it were not true, they were afraid that Ozul would think as such.

“Where are they going?” Ozul asked right after meeting up with Irvin and the tens of men behind him. He was pointing towards those men.

.....

“Uhm... with us?” Irvin answered while hesitating.

“No. They are staying. Only take Rank-7’s.” Ozul did not want those below Rank-7 to join because it would again take months to travel all the way to the Neutral Lands.

If there were only Rank-7 Mages, then they would require only about a month or so.

“But I will need men there...” Irvin muttered meekly.

“Hire your men there. If you can’t, then the Ashin family will help... If they don’t help, then you will create the base by yourself,” Ozul replied resolutely. Listening to his tone, Irvin knew that he had no hopes in persuading him out of this.

He ordered those below Rank-7 to return and only kept the few men who met the requirement. He sighed in defeat and hoped that he would be able to find more men to build the base.

They could just empty some big building and call it their headquarters, but proper measurements were required. Not only did he have to work on the defensive formations, but also initiate the proper steps to set up communication artifacts.

There were supposed to be two giant artifacts each having identical runes etched on them. Once both were powered, anyone would be able to convey their message from one artifact to the other in written form. These artifacts were usually giant glowing crystals. At least that was what Irvin had in his Spatial Ring.

They started their journey towards the Neutral Lands immediately.

. . .

A few more days than a month was all it required for the group to pass the barren ring of area and step in the Neutral Lands.

The few Rank-7 Mages were a little nervous. It was their first time here in the famous Lands that acted as the backbone of the entire continent.

Irvin was familiar with this place, so he led everyone directly to the town where they planned to create their headquarters. Comparing this town with any city outside the Neutral Lands would result in this town winning, but here in this place, they were only known as towns.

Ozul scanned the whole town and found something that he could not ignore even if he wanted to.

‘Why is there a Rank-9 Mage here?’ he was confused exactly because he sensed a Rank-9 Mage right in the center of the town!

“Stop right here,” he ordered Irvin at the entrance of the town before flying his way over to the tall building in the middle.

Only when he reached there did he realize the reason for that Rank-9 Mage to be staying here in this town. He squinted his eyes at the extravagant sign that spelled out ‘The Mercenary Guild’ at the top of the building.

He had almost forgotten that even the Mercenary Guild’s main headquarters was in the Neutral Lands. But since this organization was really neutral, they hadn’t built it in the Neutral City for the exact same reasons as the Three-Eyed Stranger’s.

‘From what I know, there shouldn’t be only a single Rank-9 Mage in the Mercenary Guild,’ Ozul remembered that they were supposed to be a force that individual Rank-9 Mages did not dare to offend.

For all he knew, there might even be a Rank-10 Mage supporting the Mercenary Guild. So, he wanted to avoid getting into a conflict with them as much as possible.

“That Irvin...” Ozul muttered before making his way back to the group.

Irvin approached him as he landed and was about to ask a question, but Ozul beat him to it, “Irvin.”

“Yes, Young Master?” Irvin asked respectfully. He did not know why they were ordered to stay at the entrance in the first place, so he was clueless at the moment.

“You knew the Neutral Lands from when you used to work for the Ashin family, yes?” Ozul started with a question.

“Y-yes...” Irvin understood that wherever it was going, it would not be something good for him because of Ozul’s tone.

“So, did you know that the Mercenary’s headquarters was also located in this town?” he followed up with another question.

“Y-yes, Young Master. Is... there any problem?” Irvin asked while stuttering.

“Yes, there is a problem! The problem is that you were going to create a base which would end up blown away before it is even created,” Ozul could not help but reprimand him.

There was only confusion on Irvin’s face, so he had to explain further, “The Mercenary Guild did make their base all the way over in this town instead of the Neutral City to avoid any conflict. But it does not mean that they would allow just about anyone to undermine their business.”

“...” Irvin still stood there with a blank face.

“You were smarter when older,” Ozul could not help but shake his head.

The day when Ozul first met the couple, they were old, or at least they looked older than their current appearance. He was implying that Irvin seemed brighter when he hadn’t removed that Core-latching poison.

Irvin could only smile wryly at his remarks.

He wasn’t that dumb actually. If he had been, Ozul wouldn’t have trusted so many things to him. It is just that compared to Haley or Oliver, Irvin’s brain worked better in life-threatening battles with which he had grown up with.

“The Mercenary Guild earns their income through the missions, and a quarter of these missions are actually related to some sort of information gathering. And what do the Three-Eyed Strangers do?” Ozul asked.

Only now did realization dawn upon Irvin as he made a thoughtful face.

“So they would not take it kindly that some people who are affecting their business have their headquarters in the same town as theirs instead of all those other towns or cities that they could have gone for,” Irvin finally understood what he was trying to say.

“Yes. Now let’s go find some other town,” Ozul said with annoyance seeping out of his words.

Irvin almost stumbled hearing his colder than usual tone and quickly followed after him nervously. It was never a good thing to get on the bad side of a Rank-9 Mage.

Ozul led the group inside the town and found a place to discuss where they would be building the base. Irvin drew the general map and some towns that he knew on the ground since they did not have a full map of the Neutral Lands.

In the end, Ozul decided on the 2nd closest town to the Neutral City after eliminating this one from the choices. He again confirmed if there was some other force residing in that town, and fortunately, it was not occupied.

“Why not this one?” Irvin questioned while pointing at the closest town.

“Because there is one organization already there,” Ozul replied while raising a brow at him. If no one else, at least he should know about the Order of Dusk since he worked for the Ashin family directly.

“Oh! I almost forgot about that...” Irvin could not help but rub the back of his head embarrassedly after he recalled that.

After deciding on the town, the group quickly made their way over. Irvin was sweating all the way since it was the first time that he had managed to piss off Ozul so many times at once.

As they reached the town, the sun was starting to set, so Ozul took a random inn and told Irvin to start examining the place and look for a suitable area in the meantime that he slept.

He was a Rank-8 Mage, sleeping wasn’t a problem for him.

. . .

The next day, Irvin had already started the work on their headquarters. He could not find any suitable area since this town seemed to be a little packed, but he wanted the base somewhere near the center.

In the end, he had to force a shop owner to move his shop somewhere else. That shop was surrounded by some other buildings but they were old and no one lived there so a big area was cleared up for their base.

“It is time that I give Raymond a visit,” Ozul muttered while watching Irvin desperately trying to recruit talented people for a couple of days. He was ignored by almost everyone and whoever answered only did so because they sensed that he was a Rank-8 Mage.

Even if he did manage to recruit some people, it was a waste of time since they were not sure to have the knowledge about building the structure nor setting up formations.

Only Raymond could help him now, so Ozul left the town to have a meeting with the man directly.