Chapter 375: Shadow Empire
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ozzic offered to help. “Master, can you ask Orsie to talk to them? We all can go search for Ms. Suzanna with you.” Anfey never showed too much emotion, but everyone knew how important Suzanna was to Anfey. Now Suzanna was lost, Anfey definitely would search for her and find her.
Anfey had looked worried a moment ago, but now he looked unusually calm. The changes on his expression make others worried and scared.
“There is a saying that no one knows a man better than his own father. Similarly, Suzanna is my wife. No one knows her better than I do,” Anfey said calmly.
“Master, you…” Ozzic and others did not understand what was on Anfey’s mind. They looked at each other, hoping to get an answer from their companions. The druids did not understand either.
Anfey slowly clenched his fists and then released them, trying to relieve his stress. He was right that no one understood Suzanna better than he. Suzanna was not good at decision making. It was not in her nature. That Darius obviously did not like having his subordinates develop independent thinking skills. He only wanted people to blindly follow him, so he never trained Suzanna for independent thinking. In other words, Suzanna could not be a heroine for the world because heroes and heroines needed to be charming, smart, ambitious, visionary, and with strong willpower. Alice was a good woman, so was that Scarlet, whom Anfey had never met. Suzanna and Scarlet had two totally different personalities. Suzanna did not have the ambition to care about the concerns of all humans. She was happy if she could take care of her own family.
Suzanna probably would help people if she saw them in need. However, no matter what kind of secrets she found out, Suzanna would not leave her family and friends unattended. Unlike Suzanna, Anfey was more willing to take risks for the benefit of his legion or country. Anfey knew Suzanna definitely would not do anything else except going back to Moramatch as fast as she could and tell him what happened on the way, and then wait for Anfey to make a decision.
“Can anyone tell me where Suzanna is now?” Anfey sounded worried. He was so worried that he forgot to hide his emotions and showed his true colors. By now he had calmed down. Anfey had reason to think the so-called secret was just a setup. Suzanna had acted too weirdly, and that druid died too suddenly, which showed there was something wrong with the scenario.
Even though the secret could change the situation of the whole Death War, Suzanna would not do something on her own without telling Anfey first. If Suzanna was challenged to make a choice between two sides in life threatening situations—with one side being Anfey and Shally and the other being millions of innocent people—Suzanna definitely would choose to save Anfey and Shally without any hesitation. Self-sacrifice was a quality of heroes, which had nothing to do with Suzanna.
The druids might have been worried Anfey would suspect the head druid, so they killed him. This way they cut off all possible traces of any suspects. However, unexposed secrets easily intrigued others.
“There is an unnamed valley around Blackwater River. Master, we know the place,” a druid answered.
“Time is tight. We should leave now.” Anfey’s urgency made sense in this situation. The druids seemed happy with the way Anfey responded.
“Orsie, can you take care of Moramatch?” Ozzic sounded urgent as well.
“Sure,” Orssie said.
“Master, that is the necromancers’ territory. If we have too many people going there, they could easily notice us,” a druid said hesitantly.
“F*ck, what do you mean?” Ozzic could not help cursing.
Anfey stopped Ozzic. “Ozzic, they are right. Ye, go and select a few people to go with me,” Anfey said.
“Master…” Ye looked hesitant about Anfey’s order.
“Just go,” Anfey ordered again with a much firmer tone.
“Ok.” Ye gave a slight sigh. It seemed too risky to take only a few people to the deep region controlled by death spirits, but Ye had no other options.
“Don’t you need some rest?” Anfey laid his eyes on the druids.
“No, thank you, Master. This is urgent. We’d better leave soon,” a druid said.
“You guys could leave now. I just have some words for my legion. I will catch up with you,” Anfey said.
The druids looked at each other. A druid said, “Ok, master, we will be waiting for you.”
Watching the druids walking off, Ozzic said with hatred, “Master, can we go with you. I don’t think those guys are good people.”
“You are right,” Anfey said.
“Huh?” Ozzic was so shocked that his jaw dropped. He was just speaking out of anger. He did not expect Anfey to agree with him.
“Where are Long and Ling?” Anfey scanned the group.
“They hid in the village.” Ozzic turned around and yelled their names. Long hurried out of the village when he heard Ozzic’s call. He took a look at the few small figures in the distance, then sighed, “Master, are you calling me?”
“What kind of person is Manstuly?” Anfey asked.
“Huh? Master, why are you asking about him?” Long asked.
“We have limited time. Don’t waste time. Answer my question,” Anfey said.
“How to put it? He is cruel, and that is why everyone calls him “Reaper”. He did not reap crops, but people’s lives.” Long could tell Anfey was worried, so he tried to put it as short and simple as possible.
“I am asking about how he does things,” Anfey asked.
“He is cunning. Bruzuryano the Guardian is a lot more honest than him. He took advantage of Bruzuryano a few times,” Long said.
“What? You guys have conflicts among druids?” Ozzic asked in surprise.
“Why not?” Long had a bitter smile. “Three big empires among humans have been fighting all year long. Druids would not fight like that, but we do have conflicts. I remember one time Bruzuryano was so enraged that he brought his people to Manstuly. If Mauso, the Observer, had gone to mediate, druids would have been divided into different groups.”
“What made Bruzuryano so mad?” Anfey asked quietly. Anfey did not know Bruzuryano well, but he knew Brunzuryano was an honest and nice old man. There had to be a reason for him to take his people to attack another group of druids.
“I am not sure what happened.” Long thought about the situation for a while and shook his head. “I think it was because Manstuly sent people to attack Bruzuryano’s central temple by surprise, but Bruzuryano found out. Their surprise attack failed, and a few of the attackers were caught alive by Bruzuryano.”
Anfey went quiet. If Manstuly’s subordinates planned the setup, Manstuly himself had to be involved as well. Anfey just did not quite understand why Manstuly would want to kill him, since he did not have any big conflict with him. This had nothing to do with what kind of a person Manstuly was. He must have some motive, otherwise he would not make moves against Anfey. No one would do it for no reason, unless he was crazy.
“Ok, I will follow them with Ye and few others. Long, can two of you follow behind us. Do not let them notice you. Ozzic, Shinbella, can you follow after Long? Any questions?” Anfey had no time to give more thought to the plan. “Orsie, can you send people back to Moramatch to tell Alice that Suzanna is in danger. Tell her that I wanted her to know. Ask her to find Suzanna at any cost. Let’s get Suzanna back safe and sound!” He could feel the bad intentions from the druids. If they had wanted to use the same method to cheat Suzanna, Suzanna would be in danger right now. What made Anfey nervous was not their setup, but Suzanna’s safety. Since he had noticed their bad intentions, he believed he had more chance to win this battle.
“Got it,” Ozzic and others answered in unison.
At the same time, Black Eleven, who had been checking on zombies suddenly jumped. Anfey did not know what had happened. After killing death spirits, Black Eleven would always look them over to try to find some useful information. This was his only job. After repeated disappointment, he finally found something that would shock everyone.
“Ye, can you take them to try to catch up with those druids?” Anfey asked quickly and turned to look at Black Eleven. This was the difference between Anfey and Suzanna. If Suzanna knew Anfey was in danger, she would come to help him no matter what. However, Anfey had to take everything in. He could not ignore it if something surprised Black Eleven so much. “Black Eleven, what did you find?”
“He is our guy.” Black Eleven looked up at Anfey. He pulled his sword out and tried to pick a metal tile out of a zombie. Suddenly, a palm-sized metal tile flew few yards away and fell to the ground.
“What is this?” Anfey saw that metal tile too.
“It is our secret pass. He should not have brought it with him.” Black Eleven hesitantly walked over and saw the back of the metal tile facing up. It was carved with a few words.
“Shadow Empire?” A mercenary with good eyes saw the few words and yelled.
Black Eleven frowned. He speculated that this spy had this pass on him and carved few words on the back of it because he knew there was no way he could flee and hoped to pass some information to his organization. The words “Shadow Empire” gave off a gloomy feeling, but Black Eleven had no idea what it really meant.
