[Azure Kingdom, White Castle]

Just as Amos reached the gates of the castle and was escorted in by some human soldiers, he then saw the hero himself pondering on what to do after getting rejected by Michael once more to be his trainer. Even though the hero looks fine on the outside, Amos clearly knew that he was experiencing quite a turmoil inside of him, he was lost.

Unfortunately that was not his problem, that is Sato's own problem that he needed to tackle. What he need to do now is to meet up with Asagi. Coincidentally just as he was thinking of this, he then met Anna, Asagi's favorite maid, in order to welcome him back.

"Welcome back sir Amos!"

"Oh Anna! Long time no see  how have you been?"

"I'm fine thank you"

Following that Leon, Benkei, and Iris greeted Anna which the girl herself also greeted back.

"By the way Anna! Where's her majesty?"

"Oh right! I almost forgot, her majesty is waiting for you at her garden, she wants to personally welcome you back and hear everything that had transpired on your end"

"I see... then just will head over there too"

After that he then turned around as he ordered Leon and Benkei to take their needed rest, while Iris is assigned to be his guard in this situation. Even though Leon wanted to raise an objection, he then somewhat remembered how talks are quite cumbersome for him. Since he had no interest to listen to long winded talks whatsoever, he has no choice but to held his opinion back and ket Iris guard Amos herself.

After that was given, both Amos and Iris left, as they headed to the garden where Asagi is located.

Not long after both Amos and Iris finally arrived at the garden where they saw Asagi quietly enjoying her tea on the garden hut that was served by the other maids when Anna is away. Once they reached the hut and Amos finally sat down, Anna then gave Amos his tea in order to relax his nerve in this situation.

Likewise Iris nodded at Ariel who was guarding Anna, before stationinh herself behind Amos. From there, their conversation finally started.

"It seems like you have quite an eventful time back in your empire" said by Asagi

"Well I'm not the only one, I also heard some tidbits about your recent activity" replied by Amos

"Yes indeed! But let's hear yours first"

Hearing that, Amos took a sip on his tea, before proceeding to talk.

"To be honest, it was quite a mess... some people in my empire turned out to be traitors, thinking that the current emperor is a naive kid, they want to overthrow Rusch in order to ascend to the throne... how laughable! They covet the throne in order to satisfy their own greed... its so funny that I would like to kill them myself if only I wasn't hiding my existence"

"Thats indeed quite a mess, I believe that there are a lot of backstabbing too?"

"Oh indeed there was, because of that very reason, I have no choice but to overuse my ability to see the future to avoid being stabbed in the back... it is simply mentally draining"

"So what happened? How did you deal with it?"

"Well of course I killed some of them, but for some reason even though I'm actively eliminating enemies at the shadow, it feels like they just kept increasing like a parasite, from there I wondered how this was possible... in the end I found out that all of this was instigated"

"....."

"Looking through it, I found the person who instigated  the rebellion, but that person too is just a puppet to the real mastermind, however catching the person who we primarily thought to be an instigator did bore fruit, such as we found the other people who are like minded like him and apparently we also found out that such bastards are already deep rooted within the empires government and history"

"!!!"

"I can't believe it either, all of that was so shocking that I initially tried to disregard, but looking through how they act in the presence of a nobody, I somehow learned a bit or two"

"What is it then?"

"It was all an act... I thought that I had a very good eye in judging people, apparently I was sorely mistaken... From there I devised a plan on how to get them all and even involved my half brother Rusch on it, even though there were words of worry from my half mother, we were still able to implement  the plan to capture all the rebels in the empire"

"....."

"First off I had Rusch announce a party for some random reasons, by doing that were basically letting our guard down and expose Rusch towards those bastards in order to lure them out, thankfully our efforts bore results and those traitors did attend the party with the intention to kill the current emperor in the party"

"....."

"In the midst of the party when it almost reached its climax, my guess did happen, especially by sending assassins towards Rusch under the guise of terrorist attacking the empires ruler, thankfully I prepared before hand and manage to station some guards around Rusch in order to protect him and hus mother. From there the fight ensue and ended in our victory"

"....."

"Of course seeing the situation, those bastards betrayed the attacking group and helped us in order to hide the fact that they are traitors. Unfortunately they can't hide that from me as we exposed them and somewhat cornered... from there everything went downhill"

"....."

"They begun exuding dangerous mana, demonic mana... at first I thought they were demon's, but after fighting against them in a heated battle, I realized that they were only humans... and the reason why they possess demonic mana is all because they were possessed"

"Then that answers everything"

"Indeed, initially I though that the loyalty they showed me while I was in the throne was all an act, apparently it was genuine and the reason why they suddenly changed is because they got possessed... which begs the question, since when?"

"....."

"In order to find that out, I captured all of them rather than killing them, and asked them this questions, and the answer they had given me really shocked it was the time when I left the empire in Rusch hands, from that moment my once trusted people one by one are being possessed by demons... it was so infuriating that someone dared to do this the moment I stepped down on my throne, it was like it was mocking my very own choices"

"That was a long time ago, so they've planned this all out from that point on and you just learned of this when the situation was so dire already... but if what you said is true, then there must be a person who was responsible for this possessions to occur right?"

"Yes there was, I asked that to the one I captured, but I only got one reply from them before a mysterious power killed them from afar"

"Killed them from afar? So that means it has been watching your movements even before long and when it realized that it was about to be exposed, it then cuts its tail in order to prevent further information leak"

"Regretably that's my assumption too, it was like I was dancing onto of its palm, it just doesn't sit right for me... however I did learned the name of the person who initiated the possession"

"What is it then?"

"Andras!"

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Andras

???

Marquis Demon

One of the demon's in ars Goetia (51st)

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Hearing that name, Asagi realized that another demon had managed to cause chaos in the central continent while she was absent and based on its name, and how the system notification pops up, this Andras person is one of the demon's in the Ars Goetia. First it was Lucifer, now it was this, as times goes one she couldn't help but find more and more name demon's making appearance on this world.

Andras is a Great Marquis of Hell, having under his command thirty legions of demons. He sows discord among people. According to the Goetia, Andras was a Grand Marquis of Hell, appearing with a winged angel's body and the head of an owlor raven, riding upon a strong black wolf and wielding a sharp and bright sword. He was also responsible for sowing discord, and commanded 30 infernal legions. He is the 63rd of the 72 spirits of Solomon.

Andras was considered to be a highly dangerous demon, who could kill the conjuring magician and his assistants if precautions were not taken.

After Asagi heard that, she then understood what happened next and begun telling her side of the story and the existence of another named demon which further shocked Amos and realize just how dire the situation is.

*********

While Asagi and Amos were having their own conversation of the garden, the new members of the hero party then finally arrived as they reached the  the teleportation hub.

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Goda, Jun

18 years old

Human male

New members of the hero party,  Paladin

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Watanabe, Genji

18 years old

Human male

New members of the hero party,  Berserker

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Adachi, Hirohito

18 years old

Human male

New members of the hero party,  Priest

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Inaba, Kanako

18 years old

Human female

New members of the hero party, Thief

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Miura, Chinatsu

18 years old

Human female

New members of the hero party, Black mage

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"We've finally arrived, I can't believe we got chosen to be part of the Hero's party this time" said by Goda

"But if you think about it, there must be a reason why the members changed, what do you think happened to the previous members?" Asked by Inaba

"They must have chickened out, what do you think Adachi?" Asked by Watanabe

"I don't care, but I do know that with this chance, we would be able to prove that we are much more reliable than the previous party, I will then be soon recognized as much more reliable than the saint" replied by Adachi

"Well that's great to hear, come! Let's go to the castle, maybe Sato will be waiting for us there" said by Goda

Under the lead of the Paladin, the rest of the party followed behind as they're new profound confidence bloomed when they received the news that the previous party will be replaced.

Unknown to them, they have mistaken the situation as the previous party being replaced due to misconduct, when in fact they are being replaced due to the fact that they were greatly wounded and currently unable to continue their journey. All of their unfounded confidence stems from the fact that they thought that they were better than the previous party and haven't experienced the bitter world.

Due to the size of the white castle, the new members soon reached the castle gates and were given opportunity to enter the castle. Just like they expected they actually saw Sato near the castle gate and mistaken it as him welcoming their arrival, unknown to them Sato was in deep thought as he can't help but be reminded the events that happ3ned in the town.

"Sato! We're here! It's nice to see you again!"

But the moment they saw his expression, instead of happily smiling at them with pure welcome, all they saw is his exhausted face as if he had just faced a millions of tribulations.

"You guys... I see so your the new members of the Hero's party"

"Yeah! You don't have to worry about a thing Sato, with us here we can handle anything"

"He's right! No one can stand against us" supported by Adachi

Seeing them like this, Sato couldn't help but remember how they act in the past, just like them  they were also confident that nothing can stand there way since basically they were like the protagonist of a story, unfortunately reality was harsher than they imagined and they were instead humbled time after time again in those days in the western continent.

In comparison to their strength, they were clearly weaker than the forces in the other continent, they were simply frogs inside a well.

"I see... I expect a lot from you... I hope your not a burden"

After Sato said that, he then left while not even giving them a welcoming smile. Of course his behavior was caught by Inaba and Muira, after all his once happy expression that can often be found when he led the whole class was nowhere to be seen. It was as if he had seen something that greatly changed his personality.

"What's up with him?" Asked by Adachi seemingly taling offense at how Satk acted around them

"He must have grown arrogant as a hero" said by Watanabe

"I don't think that's it, he must be tired" said by Goda

"Hey! Why don't we asked him about it? Let's follow him, maybe we can find out what happened to him"

Under Miura's suggestion, the new members of the hero party then followed Sato who is seemingly trying to ask for Michael guidance once more.

***ReadAtWebnovel***