((Two Years before Michael's appearance and one year after Titus and Optimus's 49th battle))
The news of someone poisoned the two elders of House Armfield and House Randal spread through the entire Kingdom of Dradel like a wildfire.
News of the two elders' death quickly made its way to the head of the house, Nickmon. When he heard this news, he was stunned.
"But how? How is this possible? The two elders were Core Formation warriors, how did they get killed?" The head of the Nickmon Family muttered in dismay. It was very hard for him to believe this recent bit of information, and his heart was still finding it very shocking even now.
Just as he was in deep thoughts, a young girl wearing grey servant clothes walked into the room with a look of discomfort on her face. The girl was young and looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old. She had shoulder-length hair as well as tanned skin. Slowly making her way into the room, she placed the teapot on the table before the man.
"Master, I've just heard that the elders of Armfield and Randal were killed, is that true?" after a few moments of staring at the man meekly, the girl asked.
"I'm not sure, they were all Core Formation warriors. Men! Go out and investigate the truth behind this matter and report back to me." The head of the Nickmon Family shouted the order.
"Yes, my lord. We will go make the inquiries straight away." The guard stationed in the room immediately ran off to verify the reports.
It did not take long for the man to come back to give his report. With a frightened face, he said, " My lord, the news is true. The elder of House Armfield and the elder of House Randal have been poisoned. Their personal guards were too poisoned. Currently, House Armfield and House Randal is investigating the killings"
Thunderstruck by this disastrous turn of events, the head of the Nickmon Family had originally taken the news to be a rumor and didn't believe it. Now hearing the news from the mouth of his subordinate left him with no other choice but to believe it. Despite it being hard to stomach, he simply couldn't deny it any longer.
" Did you personally see the corpses of the two elders?" Lord Nickmon's hands clasped tightly onto the soldier's shoulders as if trying to choke out the truth.
"Y-yes my lord. It is absolutely true. We saw the bodies with our own eyes. They were green and dead" The soldier spoke in alarm. Now that two influential people of East Dradel were poisoned by someone, the soldier didn't know what to think. They knew how hard it is to even get near the house compound let alone kill the elders in their own rooms.
The Nickmon family head then waved his hand at the two guards, wordlessly telling them to leave the room.
Dazed, the lord broke away from the soldier with an absent-minded look. His Nickmon Family was indeed a power within the East Dradel, but there were still plenty of other parties and mercenary groups that were stronger than him. Usually, if elders of rival families get themselves killed, he would laugh in pleasure but now he couldn't because, before their deaths, he was working with them secretly to bring an ancient artifact that could make the Nickmon family's power skyrocket.
Now that the elders were killed, finding the artifact had become harder than ever before. His dreams of rising exponentially in power and status had been dashed, turning into nothing in a single stroke. In other words, the fall of the two elders n had meant the chance of the Nickmon Family becoming the most powerful significantly fell.
When the girl heard the guards, a cold smile appeared on her face. She hated the nobles as much as she hated General Quintus for invading their homeland. As far as she was concerned, the world is better off without these nobles on it. At first, she thought the nobles of outside continents would be different from the southerners but after being brought to Elon continent by a slave merchant, she realized these cultivating nobles were just as bad as the southern nobles or even worse. Her childhood friend was killed with a single spell for just bumping into a noble two years ago, she could still hear her friend scream in agony before turning into nothing but ashes. That noble was none other than the man sitting in front of her.
She wanted to burn him, just like he did to her friend. And after killing him, she hoped to grow stronger and save her brothers. If it was two years ago, she wouldn't even have thought of saving her brothers as she was just a helpless girl then but now, she was learning under a Grim Reaper captain.
The drastic turn of events had been a huge blow to the development of the Nickmon Family, giving the man a tremendous headache. Letting out a heavy sigh, the man walked to his desk, "Girl, fetch me a cup of tea!"
"Yes, master!" The young girl replied before moving to prepare a cup of tea for her master. Then standing behind him, she began to dutifully give him a massage as the man expected from a slave like her.
Bringing the cup up to his lips, the lord of the Nickmon Family had only just taken a sip from his cup of tea when the young girl began to suddenly radiate murderous intent. A delicate-looking dagger slid into her hand before she ruthlessly stabbed it into the back of him.
"Tsk!" Under the unflinching hand of the girl, the dagger buried itself so deeply within the man that not even the blade could be seen.
The man let out a pained cry as the cup of tea in his hand fell to the table.
He was a man at the Core Strengthening stage 3 and possessed a quick reflection but the girl's sudden attempt to take his life caught him off guard.
He immediately rose from his chair and backhanded the girl away. She flew across the room before slamming into the wall on the opposite side, but the damage had been done. With a mouthful of blood, the man knew that he had been seriously injured.
Pulling out the glowing dagger that had been embedded in his back, the man looked at his slave in disbelief, "Bloody bitch! How dare you try to kill your master?"
Staggering back up, the girl's eyes were flowing with tears as she stared hatefully at the head of the Nickmon Family. Clenching her teeth, she angrily replied, "You! You burned my friend alive. I will take revenge for her!"
Startled, the man threw down the dagger in his hand in outrage, "Fucking bitch! Have you gone mad? What in the world are you talking about?"
By now, the girl had lost all pretense of being the obedient slave she had been pretending to be. Letting out an angry shout, she said, "Two years ago, at the Weleg market, you burned a young girl like me alive because she bumped onto you. Ever since that day, I wanted to kill you, burn you alive!"
A drastic change had overcome the man's face now as he stared gravely at his slave. Soon, his serious expression turned somewhat calm, a cold smile appeared on his face.
"I didn't think killing a lowly slave would get me stabbed in the neck. I've clearly underestimated you, especially if you were able to carry on for two years with such vengeance in your heart without my detection. That in itself is worthy of being called the slave of Nickmon. Although this enchanted dagger could pierce my skin, it's not enough to kill me. Besides, you're not even a cultivator. What other means do you have to kill me?"
"You underestimate me too much. There's no way I'd believe so naively that I could kill you with a single knife. I put some poison in your tea that you just drank. The poison is a dangerous one that will burn your organs within. Nickmon, you cannot escape death today!" The girl let out a cold laugh as she spat out her hatred for him.
"What? You've poisoned my tea?!" The head of the Nickmon Family cried out with terror. Throwing himself at the girl, he roared, "Hand over the antidote at once!"
She had been prepared for such an action and training to run for two years. The moment he had charged at her, she ran for the door, quickly disappearing from sight.
He had not given chase and instead stared venomously in the direction she had disappeared. Angrily, he said, "Where did this bitch get this enchanted dagger and such colorless odorless poison? " Asking himself the questions, he hurriedly took out a bottle filled with pills from his space ring. He then swallowed the pills to alleviate the poison or at least half its current progress in his body.
After swallowing the pills, the head of the Nickmon Family stalked out of his room. Calling forth for his men, he and the hundred others immediately left the household right away.
Leaving with haste from the Nickmon family compound through the hidden path, the young girl went to the dark alleyway where she was instructed to go. Her body was in a weaker state than before since she had been struck by the head of the family. She had received no major injuries, but she was not a cultivator yet. Her body was not accustomed to taking such a blow thus, it heavily impacted her condition, causing her face to pale.
"Did you get the job done?" When she reached the dark alleyway, a voice appeared from behind, she quickly turned behind to see her mentor standing in front of her with a calm smile on his face.