Chapter 276: Prisoner? (1/2)

Unaware of whatever Darcia and Lammert were plotting, Ozul arrived in the Ashin family's estate.

On his way here, he had noticed how previously the most crowded city on the continent now looked like it was some ghost town.

All those people had already moved outside the Neutral Lands, including many large factions as well.

The only people who still remained here till now belonged to factions that could afford to move anytime they wanted.

And without any doubt, the Ashin family was one of them.

Although the Neutral City looked completely different after more than 95% of the populace had already migrated, Ozul still managed to find the estate.

He flew directly down, ignoring the shocked look on one of the guards outside the estate who had nothing better to do than looking at the sky. They would barely see anyone even passing by from a long distance away these days.

When Ozul entered, the barrier naturally made an opening for him.

Since there was no one else who was allowed such an entry except for him, the two brothers didn't need to make a guess to know who had arrived. They came out of the building with huge smiles on their faces.

”Nephew!” x2

Ozul landed right before them and nodded his head. He looked around and noticed that their ancestor wasn't present and couldn't help but look at the two brothers with confusion.

”Ah. The ancestor had something to deal with. He said that he would take a couple of days before coming back,” Alver caught onto his confusion and cleared his doubt.

Though Ozul was confused about what that old Rank-10 Mage would have to deal with, he didn't question them any further.

”Anyway, nephew! It has been nearly four years. Where did you disappear to? Irvin wouldn't tell us anything at all,” Raymond questioned as they walked towards the garden.

Though Ozul didn't want to sit under the sun again, so he instead walked inside the building.

Raymond and Alver turned around and could only chuckle awkwardly before following behind their nephew.

”I was training Raven and Blaze,” Ozul replied to his question only after he had taken a seat on the first empty room that he found.

”Oh? No wonder your tracks were so random-” Alver replied unconsciously before he widened his eyes as he realized that he had blurted out something he shouldn't have.

Even Raymond looked at him with a deadpan face that seemed to say something along the lines of, 'Where is your calm now? Couldn't you just stay silent like you do most of the time!?'

Both of them looked nervously at Ozul, but they were relieved when they saw no obvious reaction from him.

Unknown to them, Ozul already knew that these two uncles of his would occasionally send their men to keep track of his whereabouts. However, he didn't care about it since those people never came in his way and they didn't have any bad intentions for doing this.

”I had a couple of things to ask,” Ozul didn't waste any time and went straight to the topic.

Alver finally sighed in relief before hurriedly replied, ”Haha, of course. Ask anything!”

”First of all,” Ozul spoke as he took out the old parchment he had gotten from Luthien's Spatial Ring which had the destination of the old ruins marked on it from his Spatial Pouch. He continued, ”Can you recognize this, in any way?”

Raymond took the parchment from Ozul's hand and observed the parchment carefully.

”Where did you find this from? It is quite old, and probably authentic as far as I can guess,” Raymond spoke while his scrutinizing eyes stayed on the parchment.

”From Luthien's Spatial Rings. I am planning to explore it before the test of Old Gu,” Ozul answered surprising Raymond and Alver.

”But you just returned no? Moreover, this part of the continent is really a dangerous place,” Alver had heard how there were many Rank-9 Beasts roaming in there as well.

Ozul didn't answer immediately and waited for Raymond to finish looking at the parchment before taking it back. He put the tattered sheepskin back in his Spatial Pouch and replied, ”I am planning to train Raven and Blaze there. I also have to start training myself.”

Both the brothers had a sense of realization on their faces as they thought to themselves how hard working their nephew was. When they had become a Rank-9 Mage, they had truly stopped training like they used to, so there was some admiration for not becoming arrogant as they did.

”Well, I can't say that I know about these ruins. Maybe grandfather would have been able to tell you something about this, but he isn't here...” Raymond answered with an unsure face.

Ozul wasn't disappointed either. Although he didn't get his answer from them, he didn't hold any high hopes before coming here either. It was just that since he was already here, he thought it wouldn't hurt to try.

”I want something done as well...” Ozul stood up this time, making Raymond and Alver stand up as well.

If one didn't know any better, they would have thought that Ozul was the uncle and those two the nephews instead.

”Go ahead,” Raymond replied feeling that it would again be some trivial detail.