Three luxurious carriages left the premises of the Jaxith Family's guest mansion as they galloped through the city streets to their destination at sunset. The cold wind was accompanied by light snowfall.
The streets were lit up by countless magic lamps and bustling with pedestrians returning to their homes after a hard day's work, clad in thick winter coats as they walked down the streets of the central district.
As they were trying not to draw much attention to themselves, these luxurious carriages did not carry the emblem of the Jaxith family or the Darknar family.
Unlike the large carriages the envoys from the Darknar family had arrived in, these carriages were far smaller and more fancily designed for in-city use. Pulled by several armored Demonic horses, they were also being escorted by a few riders mounted on powerful magic beasts.
Driving each carriage was fully armored Royal knights wearing thick fur cloaks to hide their equipment from the public. The first and last carriages in this miniature convoy were filled with more knights assigned with the protection of the Darknar emissary.
The main reason for this level of security within the city walls was in two parts, to protect the envoy from the spies of the other neighboring families and to prevent the use of the Darknar family's undead legion within the city to prevent panic amongst the masses.
The Jaxith family seems to be doing everything possible to hide the presence of the undead within their Royal Capital. It was easy to imagine how the neighboring families would incite a revolution if strange rumors were to spread around.
The ride to the Korver family's mansion within the city would take around an hour and it would've been several times faster if they had just flown but Rain didn't mind the extended journey.
The interior of the coach was supremely decadent. Judging by the furnishings alone, it was more akin to a mobile and portable high-class suite than a simple carriage, from the furred upholstery on the walls and floor to the soft and comfortable seats, everything, including the soundproof walls and tinted windows with magical reinforcement.
Everything about these carriages was designed for private and secret conversations without any interruptions.
Only one other person was permitted to share this luxurious conveyance with Rain, which would've meant that there would always be a total of two people occupying the space of the cabin in any given instance. However, for the first time since this arrangement began, Rain declined the maid's request to join her and sent her forward to share the front cabin with the Knights.
Rain sat leisurely by herself in the comforts of the coach and the moment the carriage left the vicinity of the Emerald Palace, the shadow cast on the seat next to her by the magic lamp in the carriage slowly moved as it morphed into a slender shadowy figure with glowing green eyes.
"Zelda!"
Just as the shadow's body was fully formed on the seat next to her, Rain practically tackled her with a tight hug as she happily rubbed her face on Zelda's cleavage.
Zelda's expression did not change as she tilted her head in confusion at the unexpected situation. She could not understand the reasoning behind this action and thus could not formulate an adequate reaction.
"Hmmm... I was right. That scent. You smell more like Lord Ty each day, I wonder why? Is it because your connection to him is growing stronger? Or do shadow creatures usually mirrors the scent of their master after spending so much time within his shadow? Or maybe a little of both? I can't believe you're closer to him than I am, that's not fair!..."
Zelda was at a loss for words as Rain continued to sniff her chest. To her, all shadows share a connection to the shadow dimension so perhaps they were all continuously connected to her master as her connection to him was still strong even when they were so far apart.
"Ahh... I've missed this scent so much. I didn't think being so far away from Lord Ty and Liz would make me feel so lonely. This never happened before..."
Rain's excitement suddenly came to an abrupt halt as she gently pulled away from Zelda and asked with a serious expression as she gripped her shoulders.
"Is it just me or are you getting stronger the more you fight? Is that normal?"
Rain asked but Zelda's expression remained confused so she just decided to use appraisal on her instead. If Zelda didn't want to, she could always resist the use of appraisal to learn anything about her but this time, she just sat there and accepted it.
Rain didn't have the appraisal skill so she simply cast the spell which was only at the Tier 3 level and could be resisted easily.
"Max Magic - Appraisal."
???????
Name: Zelda.
Race: Undead.
Class: Shadow Rogue - Peak Tier 6, Breakthrough imminent.
A powerful immortal undead rogue that was created in the depths of negative energy, grasping the secrets of the shadows and Darkness. Possesses a greater affinity for the Darkness element due to an enhanced Darkness core.
Enhanced Darkness core: Capacity - 97%
Magic Type: Darkness, Shadow, Lightning, Abyss.
Racial Skills: Shadow Dwelling; Invisibility; Shadow Movement; Assassinate; Darkvision; Perfect Stealth; Magic Sense; Mark Soul; Darkness Aura; Dark-Shadow Assault.
Skills: Dark Lightning(D); Abyssal Bind(A); Shadow Clones(N); Shadow Swap (N); Shadow Armor(A); Shapeshifting(A); Death Claw. (D)
Resistances: Darkness Damage Immunity; Negative Energy Immunity; Immortal; Magic Resistance Mid; Physical Damage Resistance Low; Lightning Damage Immunity; Destruction Energy Resistance Mid; Chaos Energy Resistance Low.
????????
"Oh my..."
Rain's eyes widened as she received the information on Zelda's stats. As the Leader of the diplomatic party, she had naturally received compiled and detailed information about all the undead accompanying her, this included Zelda's information as recorded a few weeks ago.
As a result, she had named all the undead under her command.
With her memory capacity, Rain could recall each and every little detail of the information written about all her undead units which was why this had surprised her.
From what she just saw, it seems Zelda had gained several more skills over the past few weeks and was almost at the point of a breakthrough, which shouldn't be possible for a freaking Undead.
From what Rain knew about the undead, she didn't think they could improve at all much less so rapidly by themselves as the only way to grow was to absorb enough negative energy to enhance their cores either naturally or by outside means.
As Zelda's core was already enhanced by her master, she should've already reached the peak of her potential yet she had gained a couple more skills in the span of a few weeks and was now on the verge of becoming a Demigod as her core Capacity was already almost at it's maxed.
"No fair... Is this also because you spent so much time within Lord Ty's shadow or because you share a Soul Link? How in the world does this work?"
To be honest, Rain was a little jealous about Zelda's soul connection with her beloved, as the first shadow creature he had created, he seemed to have a soft spot for her and she should have a stronger connection with him than the others, which was probably why she was growing so fast.
'Even her expressions have become more lifelike recently.'
...Sigh...
Rain sighed in resignation, if only she had possessed a similar connection she wouldn't feel so lonely. However, now was not the time to mope about when she had a mission to complete. The sooner she gets this over with, the faster she could return to her beloved.
Rain's demeanor instantly changed as she became more serious and composed, an attitude more befitting of the leader of a diplomatic party.
"So how was your investigation?"
Zelda's confused expression also disappeared as her soft voice, —still accompanied by a ghastly undertone,— reverberated in the cabin.
"Unfortunately, I'm unable to bypass the encryption of that girl's special storage box without leaving a trace so I cannot confirm the use of the item she received."
"Is that so? No worries, her plans don't seem to be in their final stages as of yet. Just leave her be for now."
"I've confirmed there is a connection between one of her attendants and that Demigod but he's role appears to just be an observer for now."
"I see... Perhaps his presence alone is all they need, interesting. What about the other thing?"
"You were correct, it appears that girl was the one to request an invite be sent to the falling noble house of Heartrail."
"Hmm... So he must be from one of the families connected to that organization Z was talking about. The one with the member that was rude to my love, 99 was it?. To think he would be the first person to approach me."
"Unforgivable."
"You're right. Still, I can understand how Z gets his information but how does she? Uh, I'm quite impressed."
Zelda was confused once again but Rain didn't think she cared that much for her to explain herself so she decided to move on.
"And the last thing I asked you to investigate?"
"I've searched the entire city. No Dark elves are being kept prisoners anywhere above ground. It doesn't seem like there's any slave trading operation going on in this city even in the slumps."
According to Z's report, the underground organization prominent in this region was known as the Dark Order, a group of devoted Devil worshipers that deals in larceny, terrorism, Assassination, and Smuggling.
As this group's only goal was to summon the Great Devil Lord into the physical plane in exchange for power, their grasp on the criminal underground was laxed at best, allowing the space for an outside organization like Numbers to operate discreetly within their territory.
Hence why Zelda stated that there were no slave trading operations happening in this city. Rain had instantly picked up on the underline meaning behind her words.
"Above ground? I take it you found something underground?"
Zelda nodded as she continued.
"Several high-level concealment spells are being used in the City's underground tunnel system and I'm unable to break through them easily. There are also several illegal brothels within the city that seems to be using the tunnel system for smuggling slaves and other goods."
"Seriously, a concealment spell you can't bypass, how intriguing. Hmm, wait, did you say several?"
There was something in Z's report that made Rain even more interested in making the Jaxith family vassals to the Darknar family, something the other regions should not be aware of and the reason why the Great Five are being so secretive in their actions against the Jaxith family.
After reading Z's report, Rain had three objectives in coming to the Floato region, a place on the brink of destruction by three neighboring families.
The first was to sign a favorable trade deal for the Darknar family. The second was simply to find and free any Dark elves being used as slaves in this region, she didn't care about any other race and would even abandon the dark elves if freeing them would negatively affect her new family.
The third was the most interesting one of all, it was to find out the reason why both the Great Five and the underground organization known as Numbers were so interested in this region and why they were so desperate to keep it a secrete.
Basically, she wanted to know, what exactly the Jaxith family was protecting from the world. What was the Jaxith family's Greatest Secret?
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