“The Brian party!” Bellod said, welcoming them into a large sitting room with a warm smile. “It’s so nice to see you both again so soon. No Brian today?”

  “He’s got… school?” Asher went with, realizing at that moment he knew absolutely nothing about the school system in this world, let alone the capital city. Either he’d gotten lucky or Bellod decided he didn’t want to call him out for being an idiot, as the auction master merely nodded his understanding.

  “Admittedly, that is most likely for the best. I was going to suggest letting Brian sit in another room until your meeting had concluded.”

  “Why is that?” Samantha asked, perhaps a tad more protective than necessary.

  “Technically, I am bound by Grand Auction rules not to reveal the identity of the buying party without their permission…” Bellod grimaced, looking like he’d like nothing more than to prepare them with his advanced knowledge. “All I will say is that the two of you will need to take this meeting quite seriously.”

  “Thanks, Bellod, we appreciate your advice,” Asher said. “How long until the buyers show up?”

  “It is only a single person, and he’ll be here shortly,” Bellod informed them. “I’ll send someone in with some snacks a few minutes into the meeting. I wish I could say let me know if you need anything, but again, my hands are largely tied. The Grand Auction is used to holding these meetings and acting as a neutral ground between parties, but we can’t exactly interfere. If they were to try something…”

  “You’ve done enough. We’ll be fine,” Samantha said, sounding a lot more confident than she looked. The two of them had spent a good chunk of the night lying in bed with one another, discussing how they would handle different situations should they arise. And while they’d come up with quite a number of contingencies, they’d thought up plenty of crazy situations that they didn’t exactly have an answer for.

  “Then I shall leave you to it,” Bellod said, bowing one final time before showing himself out.

  “You’re sure you didn’t want to ask Donvath to come sit in on this with us?” Samantha asked. “We’re almost certainly going to be meeting some sort of royalty.”

  “I don’t think we will,” Asher said. “Donvath himself told me I’d be fielding offers from representatives. It will probably be someone super high ranking, but I doubt it will be a royal from another country.”

  “Even if it’s just a representative, wouldn’t having him here be wise?”

  “As helpful as he’s been… I’d be lying if I said I fully trust Donvath,” Asher finally admitted. “I can’t shake the feeling he’s hiding something from us. Something big. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve had the feeling in my gut ever since he played that joke on me the very first night. He told me he used his skills to see that sand-assassin coming for me, but the next morning, he revealed he’d never actually seen them with his skills at all. He’d simply guessed. His logic made a lot of sense, but it was the realization that he’d managed to lie so easily and effortlessly that gave me pause.”

  “That doesn’t exactly make me feel all that great about our decision to entrust Brian to Donvath’s truthseeker program,” Samantha said, her tone growing dangerous.

  “He’d never hurt Brian,” Asher hurried to reassure her. “I said I don’t fully trust Donvath, but I do think he wants to form a good relationship with us. I think he knows a lot more about the future than he’s letting on, and I have a sinking suspicion my strange elements and skills play a critical role in what’s to come. He needs us, so he’d never do anything as reckless as put Brian in danger. And if he can truly see the future as he claims, then he’d know I’d kill him the moment he laid a finger on Brian, his status as the High Prince be damned.”

  “I guess that makes sense… So basically, you want to hear what this representative has to say without Donvath influencing them?”

  “I also want to ask them about Donvath and hear the opinion the other countries have about him,” Asher said. “Honestly, this meeting is more than I could have ever hoped for. We’re getting unique information from an outside source, totally for free. I’m pretty excited!”

  The door swung open, and in stepped a lesser demon covered in thick armor with a massive sword strapped across its back. Without thinking, Asher reflexively activated Comprehend’s second tier ability, something he’d been working on ever since he’d been caught off guard by Talon’s surprise attack.

  As the world slowed to a crawl around them and he was separated from the adrenaline and shock already flooding his body, Asher tried to come up with a plan. They’d never encountered any sort of demon that bothered to wear armor or wield weapons before, which meant this might be an entirely new type they knew nothing about. He didn’t feel the same sense of weight emanating off the demon like what he felt from the greater ones, which meant at the very least, it probably wasn’t as deadly as they were. Samantha—

  Asher paused, his rapid-fire thoughts caught up on a strange point. While he couldn’t sense any sort of unexplainable weight from the demon, he could sense the shards it was carrying thanks to his new Shard Detection skill he’d used Permanence on back in Opal’s shop. Except…

  Demons don’t carry shards.

  Asher let the world speed back up around them, just in time to hear Samantha’s gasp as she took in the quite literal monster of a man. Reaching back, he stopped her just before she could grab her bow, giving a slight shake of his head.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “We finally meet face-to-face,” the newcomer said, walking over to them and looking down at the two of them as he took them in. Asher took advantage of the blatant analysis to stare right back at the stranger. He’d been so shocked by the man’s initial appearance, the results of Identify and Judgement hadn’t even registered until now.

  [Slayer] - 3/3 elements

  The slayer’s aura felt like a cloud of pure chaos. As though the man had seen and done it all, and survived to tell the tale through nothing but his own skill and strength. It didn’t feel inherently good or bad, it just was.

  “I’m Groln. The leader of the royal slayers of the Hojon Empire,” Groln explained, placing his hands together as if praying before inclining his head.

  “Asher… Uh… citizen of the Noala Kingdom,” Asher decided, copying the gesture. Groln had surprised him with his almost regal tone and powerful presence, but Asher worked to collect himself. “This is my partner, Samantha.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Samantha managed, still staring with wide eyes at Groln. Asher couldn’t really blame her. The slayer had quite an unusual appearance.

  The reason why they’d first thought the man was a lesser demon, was because he looked almost exactly like one at first glance. Towering overhead at what had to be at least seven and a half feet tall, the man had dark red skin, and even the horns to match. Honestly, other than the armor and sword, the only real giveaway that he wasn’t a demon himself was the fact that his hands didn’t end in claws, and his eyes, while darker than usual, weren’t the same black as the lesser demons.

  “I apologize for my appearance,” Groln said, motioning for them to take a seat as he did just that himself across from them. “I am rather well-known in my own country, so I tend to forget how those who haven’t heard of me react upon first laying eyes on me.”

  “We’re the ones who should be sorry for immediately going for our weapons!” Samantha said, shaking her head and blushing as she finally managed to stop staring. “You said the Hojon Empire? Forgive me for asking, but where is that?”

  “We are to the east of the Eight Crests. Please, do not think I am seeking to make fools of the two of you, but seeing as you had to ask for our location, am I right in assuming you know little of the lands beyond the Noala Kingdom’s borders?”

  “That would be a safe assumption,” Asher nodded. While he had at the very least Incorporated one of Donvath’s maps of their continent, it was true he didn’t know much about the other countries themselves. However, based on the map he had in his head, he did know one thing.

  The Hojon Empire was massive.

  “The Hojon Empire is regarded as one of the three superpowers of our continent,” Groln explained, confirming Asher’s suspicions. “While we do not have the most people, we are the largest in terms of land, and boast some of the most powerful warriors you’ll ever meet. Rather than some countries, which prefer to focus on building massive armies of weaker soldiers, we prefer to focus on investing and developing the strengths of the individual. Because of that, the Hojon Empire has the highest percentage of people within the Stage of Power of any other country on our continent.”

  “Wait, the Stage of Power?” Asher asked, blinking as he finally realized why Groln must look like he did. “Assuming you’re referring to yourself as well, that would mean your element has been hard at work influencing your physical body.” Asher stared at the monstrous man once more, unable to believe what his eyes were telling him. “…Do you have a Demon element?!”

  “Yes. I am one of the rare cases where the element that seeped into my very flesh was not my origin element,” Groln confirmed. “I come from a long line of royal slayers. My mother was the head of the squad before me, and her father before her. My mother was lucky enough to get her hands on an incredibly rare Demon element while hunting down a cult that had been slowly summoning and storing a demon army over many years as to remain undiscovered. As she already had her three elements, and we were far from hurting for shards, she saved it for me.”

  Asher realized his jaw was hanging open, and he quickly closed it. Not only was he utterly blown away by the fact that a man with a Demon element had just walked up to them out of the blue, but he was also chatting with someone in the Stage of Power like it was absolutely nothing. According to what Draken had explained what felt like eons ago, the Stage of Power was effectively the last confirmed stage of elemental advancement, though he had hinted at there perhaps being more even he didn’t know about. Either way, that meant Groln had all eighteen of his skills evolved to the third tier, which was almost mind-boggling to imagine. It was a little hard to tell his age based on his unique appearance, but at a glance, Asher wouldn’t have pegged him as more than around thirty.

  Granted, he had met Gran, a Life element holder who looked to be in her twenties despite being hundreds of years old. But he figured that was something more unique to people with the Life element.

  “Is that why you wanted the greater demon so badly?” Samantha asked, the shock on her face having already turned into curiosity. “Your family specializes in hunting them?”

  “You misunderstand. We are royal slayers. We slay anything and everything that threatens the lives of our people,” Groln explained. “I am no demon hunter. Monsters, people, apparitions, it matters not. If it is a threat to the Hojon Empire, my team and I will handle it.”

  “Alright. So why drop twelve million shards on the greater demon?” Asher asked.

  “My people have collected greater demon corpses in the past. We understand their value and will be able to make excellent use of the corpse. Though I will admit, the greater demon was merely a nice side benefit. My true purpose in coming to this kingdom was for something else.”

  Getting to his feet, Groln stepped closer to them. Dropping down on one knee, the large man matched their sitting height, staring directly into Asher’s eyes with his own darkened ones as he spoke.

  “I come bearing a message for The Reaper,” he said, his eyes unwavering as they seemed to stare directly into Asher’s soul. “My queen would like to offer you a deal.”

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