Chapter 49: Unease
The strage silence emanating a sense if unease and the rapidly rising tension occupied the empty room that was formerly the demon king’s chambers deep inside the massive castle known only as the demon king’s castle as the actual name of this place had been lost in sands of time.
Three figures stood still by the entrance of this chamber clearly still in shock or maybe it was confusion. Two if these figures were clearly more shaken that the third as their eyes widened and their mouths opened and closed several time before finally mumbling something to themselves.
Albert narrowed his eyes at the muttering of the two ladies behind him as he observe the room. It was already beyond rude of him to enter this place without permission and it wouldn’t be outrageous for him to lose his life for something like this, so searching the room any further was definitely out of the question.
However, with the current situation at hand the the presence of the two ladies behind him, what exactly was he supposed to so next.
Although he felt there was surely a good explanation for this, he also didn’t want any escalated rumors to spread amongst the recovering residents of the Red ogre settlement and especially amongst the newly added kobolds and trolls.
The red ogre settlement and kobolds had only just fully sworn their loyalty to Lord Ty and even though that may have been because he had saved their lives and had also offered them a place to stay. It was still a fact that most of them had only done it because of his strength alone, especially the trolls.
After all this was the demon continent, a place where strength was everything, and although the demons had mellowed down over the past millennium. Strength was still a major factor amongst the top. It was the reason why the Great Five exist on a whole different level that the rest of the nobles.
With that said, it was no surprise that everyone here knew the value of being under a being such as a behemoth, and after the trauma they had faced under the horde of Tier 5 Lesser Basilisks, it was only natural for them to seek the safety of a powerhouse at the same level of a Demon Lord or in short, a Behemoth.
However, if they suddenly learn that their new Lord had sudden disappear without a trace, it didn’t matter the reason. They would assume it had been too good to be true, and there would be panic amongst them which could lead to someone making a rash decision that could get someone else killed or even worse attract more trouble to the rest of them.
Albert then closed his eyes as he apologized to Lord Ty within his heart before activating a skill. He hadn’t sensed anyone leaving the castle and even though Lord Ty practically had no aura most of the time, he was still a living being and had a presense. With this skill he should be able to sense him.
Even if he had used an invisibility spell like the Tier 2 camouflage and the Tier 4 invisibility. However, those spells could not hide ones presence. Unless there was an higher tiered spell he wasn’t aware of that does that. (His knowledge only extends to Tier 5)
As long as he could find traces of his presence he would be able to tell were he went and if he had actually left the castle or if he had used a secret passage in this room. Albert thought the latter was the most reasonable assumption based on where they are and what he had heard lord Ty say so far. He solidified his resolve abd activated his skill.
°Keen Eyes of a Demon°
His brown coloured pupils glowed slightly and his irises turned into a slit as he tried to observed the room. Just as he had thought, this place wasn’t ordinary as his eyes were forcibly closed by an invisible force. He suddenly dropped to a knee and the the ladies behind him were startled.
They exclaimed as they ran over to help him up as soon as they could. That was when they noticed his eyes were actually bleeding, they were so startled and almost screamed. “Captain! Are you okay.”
*cough… “I’m fine, I just did something I shouldn’t have…”
“Are you sure… Please use this handkerchief to wipe the blood.”
“Thank you.”
“Er… What about our Lord? Is he okay?”
“…I’m sure he’s fine. There is a lot we don’t know about this place so it’s better if we don’t go searching anymore. Lord Ty is just busy at the moment and he hasn’t granted us permission to look for him so all we have to do is wait.”
“…Hmm, are you sure?”
Albert finished wiping the blood off his face as he turned to stare at her for a few seconds, with a slight smile he asked. “Have I ever lied to you before?” The female ogress got a little flustered as she hadn’t expected that reply. She shook her head as her reply.
Albert was confident in his response. It wasn’t that he confirmed anything with his skill. Although there were a lot of variations on the Tier 1 spell ‘Keen sight’. Albert had been the only one to turn it into an high level skill that had a variety of functions. Yet, he hadn’t even seen anything before the room aggressively shut down his skill and even attacked him. What this told him was that he was right and there was really a secrets passage or something similar hidden in the room.There might even be something more valuable here.
He was a formal demon Lord and even though he wasn’t privy to the most valuable information of the top nobles, he was still aware of the reason why the Great Five wanted this castle. Although he wasn’t quite sure what they wanted exactly, he still knew there was something the word valuable couldn’t describe hidden here. He had also taken the chance to look around the castle during his supervision of his cleaning crew and hadn’t found anything.
The only places he hadn’t searched thoroughly was the throne room because the aura the throne emitted frightened him a little. He also didn’t have any plans if searching this room if he hadn’t discovered that Lord Ty was missing.
With a sigh he clapped his hand once to get the ladies attention as he spoke. “Since we have intruded on the Lord’s Chambers without his permission, even if we are to get punished we must first of all make sure this place is sparkling clean.” The two ladies nodded in agreement, they hadn’t even paid much attention to the punishment part as they felt that was natural.
They had only come under Lord Ty’s rule last night and they were already being a nuisance. If they got away with only punishment then they would consider themselves lucky, there are servants in noble households that are killed off for less. More importantly they were.relieved by Albert’s attitude and confidence that their master hadn’t abandoned them and wanted to show their loyalty even more.
They proceeded to clean the room, and as none of them had the clean spell they had to do it manually. Of course this was on purpose as they would rather take their time making sure the place was clean. While they were busy Albert wasn’t just standing around doing nothing either, he knew from the rest of the castle and by Lord Ty’s outfit in their first meeting that he had woken up to an empty house.
It was like going to bed at night only to wake up and realize that you had been robbed completely while you slept and the robbers took everything. Although Albert heard the story from his late father about the formal demon generals he was still stunned on how they had thoroughly cleaned out the castle without even leaving a decent set of clothes behind. Well he knew they were looking for something so they had no choice but still, having finally stepped his foot into this castle personally, he felt that the most feared demon Lord’s in all of the demon continent were nothing more than petty thieves.
Albert then opened the large double folding doors that lead to a large space that could not be considered a closet by most but another room and brought out some of the best outfits he had collected over the years that Tyler had expressed interest in back at the settlement and placed them neatly in shelves. Based on that, he more or less knew Lord Ty’s style, he liked simple outfits, neat pants and shirts along with coats and hats, he didn’t have simple shoes though so he only placed some ordinary boots there.
With the place no longer empty Albert felt as sense of pride and went back to supervising the two ladies as they cleaned the room. Since the whole place was empty they didn’t take as much time as they would usually take so they rounded up quickly.
The room was sparkling clean when they were done and Albert lead the two of them out, he also proceeded to tell them about keeping the disappearance of Lord Ty a secret so as not to create unnecessary panic and they both agreed. They had full trust in Albert which was another reason why they so quick pledged their loyalty to Tyler because Albert had already done the same.
Since he saif Lord Ty would be back then they trusted him completely. As they left Albert locked the door behind him taking one last look at the room inside. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t curious about the indescribable treasures that lay within but, that was all, a lingering curiosity.
He shut the door and left with the ladies, since it was already bright out, he wanted to check up on Erin before he planned to take a break. The ladies headed down while Albert knocked on the door that lead to the room the three women were. It was silent for a while before suddenly, a ruffling sound came from within and soon he heard someone scuffling to the door.
The door was swung open and a pair of daggers stared at his soul. They weren’t actual daggers, but just a glare, yet Albert’s heart tighten. This wasn’t a feeling he would get from an ordinary person and he knew only someone stronger than him could make him feel this way. This was also the same feeling he got from the blonde girl… Liz… This was the same feeling… perhaps this was even a little sharper.
The cold gaze that didn’t seem like they were observing him casually moved around him and he could feel several point in his body go numb. Naturally he understood what these were, weak points, in the span of a single second she had located so all his weak points and just by her glare alone they were going numb. It made him wonder what would happen if she was holding a weapon. Wouldn’t he be dead?
At tier 5, Albert was considered strong by most, he was at the same level as most of the other demon lords in the demon continent so how could so many people stronger than him appear in such a short time frame.
The person that was instilling such fear in him had Raven black hair that only extended to her neck with light green eyes and a thin face. Her nose and eyes were well proportioned and her lips were cherry red, a little thin but full, which complemented her dark skin. She had long pointed ears that were twitching a bit and right now she looked a little pale and sickly but her eyes were still sharper than his sharpest blade.
“And who the hell are you?” She asked in a commanding tone that demanded a response as her eyes narrowed and the atmosphere in the hall got a lot heavier.