Unsealing Emptiness

Strongest?

As they kept walking back, Raven had countless thoughts running through her mind. She did not say anything since the beginning.

Ozul had noticed Raven’s weird behavior and decided to ask her later. Spending so much time with her had allowed Ozul to be a little more expressive.

Occasionally, there would be some noises on the streets. Since the death of the Viscount, the Azmar city had only been flourishing.

Count Oliver did his things in the shadows. So, no one thought wrong of him. Instead, everyone felt that it was due to him that their lives were getting better.

It was nighttime. So, there was no one to notice the strange man covered in blood following behind Ozul and Raven.

When they arrived in the garden, Raven went inside to prepare some things. Blaze did not dare enter inside the house when he saw the eye Raven gave him.

Even though he had accepted Ozul as his Master and swore to himself that he would follow him, he didn’t know how things worked here.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Ozul also didn’t enter and just went under a tree to rest.

.....

Blaze went towards Ozul and just sat at a little distance from him with his legs crossed. He didn’t know what he should be doing right now. Was he supposed to protect him? Or was he supposed to guard the whole house?

Sometime later, Raven came back with some rough clothes and some headband of sorts. She coldly looked towards Blaze and threw them onto him while gesturing towards the house with her thumb.

Blaze understood what she wanted him to do. So, he took his leave to change into something that wasn’t soaked in blood.

Raven herself went towards Ozul and sat down. She put Ozul’s head on her lap and began to play with his hair.

Ozul wasn’t complaining either. But he knew that something was on her mind, So he asked;

“What is it? Do you think that I shouldn’t have taken him under me?”- Ozul, who was sensitive to emotions, knew that Raven turned angry whenever she saw Blaze.

“Hmph! I don’t care.”- Raven snorted, and then continued;

“It’s just that bastard tried to kill you! And now here he is trying to act as if nothing happened!”- Raven began to rant.

“How dare he act like that!? And..and...”- Raven voice started to hesitate as Ozul asked;

“And?”- Ozul.

“And why didn’t you tell me anything before!? You never told me anything, while in front of that guy, you explained your past like it was nothing!”- Raven was feeling really bad whenever she thought of this.

“Sigh... I didn’t tell, yeah. But...did you ask?”- Ozul did not open his eyes as he asked this question. He was already numb to the past events; he didn’t care about it anymore.

Since Raven had never asked such things, he never bothered to explain either. All he wanted now was to get his parts back and learn about himself.

Raven could not refute Ozul’s claim as she had really never asked anything about his past, fearing that it may hurt him.

“Raven, Blaze is already under me now. He may be together with us all the time... You will have to get used to his presence now.”- Ozul explained to Raven.

He wouldn’t like it when things did not get done just because of some small miscommunication.

Raven perceived what he was trying to say and did not bother to talk any further. The best she could do was not to kill that guy at first sight! She wouldn’t make any promises.

Blaze came out as he had changed his clothes, and there was a blue headband on his forehead that hid the ‘Crystal Crown’.

There was actually no need to hide it, but it would only bring them unnecessary attention.

He walked up to the duo and stood at some distance. He wanted to ask something but hesitated as he did not know how he should start.

Ozul had noticed his presence, and when he saw that Blaze stood still at a distance, he asked;

“What are you standing there for?”- Ozul never understood many things about humans.

“Oh... I wanted to ask, what am I supposed to do? Guard the house or something?”- Blaze did not know what role he was given, so he could only ask.

Ozul opened his eyes and weirdly looked towards Blaze. He said;

“Huh? You think I wanted you with me to guard some house?”-

“Uh... You didn’t?”- Blaze thought that such a powerful man like Ozul would surely don’t need his assistance to do anything major, right?

Ozul did not even bat an eye when he blocked all of his attacks. It was because after ten years, Ozul’s raw power may have stagnated, but his skills kept improving!

When he noticed that Blaze didn’t understand about his own talent, Ozul said;

“Idiot. I don’t need some guards... I need people to do everything for me. And that everything is dangerous... So, those people need to be strong.”- Ozul had learned to talk more in the expense of pausing in between the sentences.

He would give a little delay between sentences so he wouldn’t tire out. This would also let his words sink in before he said the next sentence.

His conversation skills also increased after the previous decade. He continued;

“You don’t know your potential... I believe you can probably surpass the peak existence on the whole Mainland.”- Ozul didn’t know how else to explain his talent. So, he told him in a way that anyone could understand.

He didn’t want to explain it all from ‘What are the Gifted people?’ to Blaze.

Blaze went wide-eyed at Ozuls ‘exaggeration’. He didn’t think that he would ever be able to achieve something this big.

But Ozul believed in him—for the first time ever, someone had placed their trust in him. Blaze was overwhelmed with emotions and his heart turned resolute.

“But... For now, go to sleep. And let me too...”- Ozul did not care about those bright emotions that were thrown at him from Blaze. It was already late, so he wanted to sleep.

Blaze nodded his head and went away to a different tree and laid down under it. He couldn’t sleep inside the house when even Ozul, his Master, was sleeping outdoors.

He wanted to sleep, but all of today’s events started playing in his mind. In just a single day, his life had turned over, but in a good way.

Back to Ozul, just as he was about to close his eyes again, Raven asked;

“You... Did you tell the truth when you said that he could become the strongest on the Mainland?”-Raven was starting to get jealous already.

Ozul had never praised her like this. Even in the best times, he would just say that she did well.

“Hm? He has an exceptional affinity with the Ice Element... With just a little effort, he will surpass you. “- Ozul looked at Raven and was somewhat dissatisfied that she had doubts about him speaking the truth.

Raven realized her blunder and began to pat Ozuls’ hair to divert his attention—which was, of course, super effective.

Ozul went back to sleep, but Raven could not rest easy.

‘What if he leaves me when I am not powerful enough?...’- These kinds of thoughts began to form inside her mind.

She shook those thoughts away, and her determination to work harder grew. She will not accept that new guy taking her place!

But for now, all she could do was play with Ozuls’ hair to calm herself down.

‘I only have to work harder, that’s it!’- She nodded to herself before she also closed her eyes to end the day.