[Azure Kingdom]

A few hours after the meeting between the archangels and the conclusion that Azrael would not be held responsible for the accident involving their queen due to an outside interference, every single one of them returned to their post, while Asagi's very own meeting also concluded after her report.

Her report itself greatly distressed all the nations, after all the involvement of the demon in the western continent became much more apparent than in the northern continent. Especially since they learned that the demon's themselves can turn a human into a demon itself. In face of this powerful curse of demonization, the power of the holy city would be needed the most in the foreseeable future.

Naturally this in turn put a lot of burden on the holy city and its pope, nevertheless they accepted the mission to enhance their exorcism in order to combat the demonization.

At this very moment Sato was standing by the window on his room, as he stared at the blue horizon from afar while tightly clutching on a piece of paper on his hand. The piece of paper contains the will of the rest of the party to temporarily leave the party itself.

The others may have left the party due to medical reasons, but for Ban, she simply left the party due to the reason that she felt lacking as a Saint. With the role of a Saint, her mission was to bring salvation to people, ease their suffering, and save them from distress, however after the recent incident, she had failed all of her creed as she wasn't able to save anybody.

From there, she somehow felt like she wasn't worthy of the title as a Saint, due to that she left the party in order to further improve herself by entering a pilgrimage in the holy city. Alongside it Takahashi also expresses his desire to return after recovering and improving himself.

In fact Takahashi felt that they were really not strong enough for this kind of exploration, he felt weak and powerlessn and this made him feel helpless. So after recovering, he plans to head to the northern continent, apparently he heard that there was something in the northern continent that could help him grow stronger. With him holding unto that hope, he then left the party to grow stronger.

All in all Sato was left alone in the Azure Kingdom. However as things stand, the exploration can't be stopped, so the various nation then begun to assign new companions that will join the Hero's party.

From the letter left behind, everyone expresses to return with an even more stronger version of themselves. Since that was the case then Sato would have to reciprocate their feelings and further improve himself. What's more he also knows the best man that could help him  improve.

After some time Sato got out of his room as he walked across the long hallway and bypass the garden itself. From there he saw the only surviving citizen of the Tekoa Town and the only family left of Ester, Talia.

After the death of both her parents, Talia seemed out of it, as she often gets nightmares of them leaving her behind which occasionally caused for her panic. Even when she got here which is considered a paradise, her nightmares still persist which wakes her up during the night.

Thankfully both Anna and Lloyd were there to comfort her. Of course in order to somewhat make Talia be together with both Anna and Lloyd more often, Asagi plans to enroll Talia into the academy where both the twins are currently studying at.

Seeing the three children frolicking in the flowers of the garden, Sato couldn't help but remember Ester as he vowed to kill the very person who turned him into such monster. Apparently after the whole incident, he had learned from Azrael that Ester was turned into a demon by one of the great demon's themselves. Upon hearing that Sato made it his goal to avenge Ester and finally let his soul rest in peace, but in order to do that he needed power.

After awhile of searching throughout the castle, he finally found Michael in front of the castle gate, as he was looking at the city that had grown considerably. Upon seeing him, Sato then ran up to him in order to get his help.

"Sir Michael!!!"

"?"

"Sir!"

"Oh! Sir Hero what brings you here?"

"...."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just felt like I'm not worthy of having the title of a hero"

"If your not worthy of this title, then who is?"

After Michael asked those words, Sato fell silent for a bit, until he then answered.

"I... I don't know, I just felt that I failed"

"So you felt like you failed since you weren't able to protect anyone in that town?"

Hearing that coming out from Michael's mouth, Sato couldn't help but feel a tinged of pain in his chest as he somehow felt guilty. But before he could answer, Michael then continued on.

"Saying that you failed in protecting anyone is an insult to the people who have survived that incident... if it weren't for you, the others would have died much more earlier and my queen wouldn't be able to deal with the demon on time... your efforts had saved lives, don't belittle yourself"

"Thats..  that's not what I meant, I mean that if I was strong enough I could've saved more lives, I could've protect everyone"

"Protecting everyone while ignoring the sacrifice is a tall order, not even great heroes can do that... if you want a reality check, all I can say is you can't save everyone, in this case, there will always be a case where someone gets killed... your not a God, your a human, don't resent yourself too much"

"....."

"Look throughout my experience, I can assure you... even God cannot save everyone, why do you think accidents occur? Destruction? Death? All of these are unstoppable force, the only way he can save lives is having them believe in him, but as we all know not everyone believe him right?"

Said by Michael as he depicted the happenings back on earth. Hearing this Sato was surprised as he looked at Michael, only for the latter to simply motioned him to not talk about it. After guessing his intent, Sato kept quiet and buried the notion deep within him.

"In this case, if you want to save more lives, then you need to grow stronger"

"Yes! That's what I want and that's why I'm here"

"... what do you mean?"

"Sir Michael! Can you please train me, please help me grow stronger"

When Michael heard Sato's words, he was simply astounded, while shocked at the same time. Nevertheless he suddenly realized his situation.

"Ahahahaha.... no!"

After saying that, Michael quickly makes his escape as he immediately flew away from the place. He has already had enough of thinking about Asagi's safety, he just can't afford to be burned with another one.

Unfortunately Sato never thought of giving up, with that he plans to catch up to him in order to ask him once more.

*********

Located in another area, Asagi is currently sitting on her office as she browsed through the documents and easily documented them all due to her previous profession. After doing all of that Ariel brought in some snack and tea for her to enjoy.

In fact before her day started Ariel had already expressed her concern and distress towards Asagi, from there she couldn't help but feel like being scolded due to the recent incident. After hearing her out for quite some time, she finally mellowed down which brought them to this current situation.

"Ariel! I'm really sorry for worrying you" said by Asagi

"I already understand your highness, Azrael recounted everything and Jophiel will provide additional information after he revives in a few days time... even if I were there, I'm not confident that I could go toe to toe against Lucifer, the only reason why Azrael was still alive in this point is because he was able to contend against Lucifer"

"Nevertheless I'm sorry for all the stress"

"Your majesty! I'm supposed to be the one to apologize, I'm sorry for my outburst"

After saying that both of them laughed, as they somehow felt that both of them somewhat returned to the time where they have less to worry. However this feeling came to an abrupt end when Ariel remembered something to report.

"Oh yes! By the way your majesty, I received a report from Leon who had gone with the former Emperor Amos... apparently they had finished their business in regards to the shadow rebels in the empire, with that they will then return tomorrow at an immediate notice, after all he is still considered dead, so he can't afford to stay for long since his cover might be blown"

"I see... when did they sent that?" Asked by Asagi

"Yesterday"

"!!!"

Hearing her words, Asagi seemed to somewhat notice something as she suddenly asked.

"Did you read the time of their arrival per the report or exactly on the paper?

"Exactly as on the paper"

"Wait! The did you say that it's tomorrow or did the paper say exactly tomorrow word"

"Well exactly tomorrow word"

The moment Asagi heard that, she then immediately got up in alarm as she said.

"Thats today!"

"?"

"...."

"!!! Oh my... thats today?"

With that said, both Asagi and Ariel looked put the window as they looked at the direction of the tower hub where all the teleportation tower are connected.

*********

Just like they expected, Amos and the rest of his group finally returned as he breaths in the clean air and relish the feeling of being in the clouds.

In fact never did he expect that the problem in the empire would get longer than he expected. After all this shadow rebels are all targeting his brother in order to rule over the empire themselves. As a former ruler and the sole brother of the current emperor, he can't afford some no name back water sewer scum to just steal the throne and kill the remaining family he had.

So in order to to prevent that from happening, he returned to the empire under a guise of being a mercenary. From the shadows he directed and protected his brother. There were many ups and downs during his operation. In fact there were even assassination attempts, thankfully he has a foresight ability and was able to prepare beforehand in order to deal with the assassins.

But due to him repeatedly succesful in saving his brother, the rebels then falsely concluded that Emperor Rusch have the same ability as the previous emperor, due to that they prepared countermeasures against his foresight ability, because of that the operation went longer than expected which resulted to them just being back now.

At last about yesterday Leon together with Iris and Ben Keith finished off the leader which resulted to the downfall of the rebellion. With the rebels quelled, Amos bid farewell to his half brother and half mother before retreating back to the Azure Kingdom.

"We are finally back! I didn't expect that I would miss this place" said by Amos

"Thats only natural your majesty! After all this place us a paradise of peace"

"I see, but didn't I tell you not to call me that? I'm not an emperor any longer Leon"

"I know what you meant Your majesty  but for me, Iris, and Benkei, you will always be our emperor"

Hearing that Amos simply stared at him, as he gave up since he knows that Leon would keep insisting to call him by his previous title. That is just the life of someone who has a loyal follower.

"... you know what do your own thing, I don't care"

After that Amos looked at the city and noticed some powerful figures around, unknown to him he had somewhat sensed Zaheer and Asmaveth who is currently in the city.

"Looks like something has changed, I can't believe that there are strong individuals in this capital city"

***ReadAtWebnovel***