After countless arguments with Ravenors, Duchess Selara showed some restraint, because of that Azrion succeeded in escorting ten percent of the elves he had come to take.
Most of those left behind were children. And the women who could not take their children with them, instead forced to return to their homes alone, grieving every step of the way.
They searched for reasons, asking again and again why they were not staying, and why their children could not come beside them.
They were happy not to be sold as slaves, but being separated from their children was heartbreaking for the mothers.
For a brief moment, Azrion felt relief.
The elves he escorted did not yet know the reason for their misfortune.
That relief did not last.
The truth was revealed only after they passed beyond the city gates.
The human guards claimed their punishment was deserved. The reason their children were being sold was the attempted assassination ordered by their First Princess against their lord's son, the heir of the house that had provided these captured elves protection and food.
Because elves tried to act against their bloodline, the lord of the land declared that all remaining elven children, along with those who stayed behind, would be sold as a display of their response.
The humans made no effort to keep the truth hidden, and Azrion soon realized he could not silence the elves even if he wished to.
Most of the warriors and archers traveling with him were not loyal to his command. There were even spies belonging to the Forest Court faction, a group that had enmities against House Silverbloom family.
This reason would serve them well.
Azrion understood the consequences the moment the thought formed. Once these elves reached the capital, the truth would spread, and blame would fall upon the royal family. The balance that held the realm together would crack.
Azrion considered standing out of the drama.
Perhaps neutrality was the wiser path. Once the demon problem was resolved, he would support whichever side emerged victorious in the struggle that was sure to follow.
It was the opening move of a greater conflict.
That same night, Kael used Corrupting Gaze to absorb some mana from the guards protecting his room. After hours of watching them and draining their mana to the right amount, he used the skill's other ability to control them.
He created a perfect image of himself in their minds, making it appear as if he were still in the room, and then snuck past them.
They might awaken from the control once their mana recovered, but that would take until morning and Kael was confident he would return before then.
After leaving the post, he began moving north. The reason he chose this post to approach the wall was its proximity to the hidden ruin that contained an A-Rank Core Stone he intended to take.
He knew the locations of other core stones, even S-ranks, but he intended to take this particular stone because its skill was exactly what he needed.
Its name, if he remembered correctly, was Perfect Clone. That the user can create a perfect duplicate of themselves that copies their appearance, voice, and basic abilities.
One of the demonic humans in the future would eventually get it from this ruin, and he had foreseen it when heroes were clearing demonic humans from the nations.
He would return again and again, even when the heroes thought they had killed this man for sure.
After they found the real body by chance, he would finish him off for real that time.
"If I get this skill, I can sneak out from the castle, travel the world, and increase my skill mastery while my clone replaces me," Kael thought.
Because he could raise Swordmaster, he could bring Black Sun skills to full extent until summoning, but he could not raise his high-ranked skills while practicing them in secret.
Because he could not tell why there was a black mirror floating around him, even if he changed its shape to a shield and wore it, people who saw its effect began to question its origin.
And add to that, he had never used his B-rank skill, Ripple Slash, after awakening, as it was too eye-catching in his mind. Shooting water from a sword was weird, he thought.
While thinking about that and moving under the dark sky, with the full moon illuminating the land around him, he eventually reached a small forest on the north side of the post.
At the forest's edge stood a tree taller and thicker than the others, with roots as big as nearby trees.
Kael reached out to that tree and began searching for a rabbit hole under the twisted roots and thick undergrowth.
The entrance was almost invisible unless one knew where to look—and Kael knew exactly where to look. Beneath the roots, there was a tombstone, and deeper under it, there had to be a rabbit hole.
"Ah, I found it," Kael said, confirming the presence of a real hole. He drew his sword, coated it with mana, and stabbed at the hole.
This ruin would soon be discovered, but most people would find nothing there except a portal to an unknown place, even he did not know where it would lead.
Anyone who entered it never returned, and over time, people would come to treat this site as a real old ruin without treasure and only an unknown portal.
The ground beneath Kael's feet began to shake and tear, and he moved aside quickly, waiting until a path opened.
After a few minutes, stairs leading underground beneath the tree roots appeared. Kael took out a torch from his ring, the latest creation of the Magic Tower, which researched the mysteries of magic and skills.
It was expensive and offered only about a couple of cubic meters of space, but he needed some basic things, as it would take too long to reach the core stone.
He still had to pass the traps first and find it in the ceiling of one of the twenty rooms, as he didn't know which one.