"He actually knew that we were not normal villagers? Wasn't the disguise supposed to be perfect?"
The fleeing members of the organization couldn't help but look back at the village.
"We don't know how he is able to do that. Maybe it's that saintess?"
"We have been told not to attack any member of the Moon Temple as long as they don't harm us. The Moon Temple itself might not be much compared to us, but the people have seen them as neutral. Once we attack them, their allies will run straight at us, which will be troublesome.
"Tsk. We don't have any evidence of them attacking us as well."
"Then, we can only report this matter to Madam Qiel. Noel Ardagan has the ability to find out the true nature of this village."
"Yeah. He might have an information network far better than our original expectation."
"Should we inform the others?"
"Tell them to retreat. He will definitely check every village in his territory, so we will just let him waste his time. Either way, we have completed our original objective."
"Indeed. He was so injured that he couldn't chase after us. Still, he was scary. To think that he could do all that in that condition."
"If he recovered, he might be on par against our Devil Saints except for Sir Alexander."
"We also found out how to break through his city, so let's just be satisfied with that. The main attack has yet to be ready."
The people from the organization agreed and hurriedly retreated from the area.
…
Meanwhile, Grandell had returned to Noel's side with several heads.
"I apologize, my lord. We can only kill about eight of them. The rest have escaped too far."
"That's enough." Noel nodded with a serious expression. Finding the fact that the Supreme Devil Organization disguised themselves as villagers was already one of the most important findings in this expedition. "Let's explore the village."
"Yes, Sir." Grandell hurriedly led the team into a few buildings, while Noel entered the biggest building in this village.
All the houses in this village were truly similar to those in a normal village. However, if they took a close look, there were some demon crystals hidden somewhere in the building.
They not only disguised themselves, but they were also strengthening themselves in this peaceful place.
Fortunately, there was no one hiding. Even his Affection Medal didn't find anything.
At first, Noel thought about a demon lair, but surprisingly, the Demon Hunter Medal didn't pick anything even deep underground.
If they created a demon lair in this place, they would be able to ambush him from behind. Even a hundred demons was enough to create a distraction, let alone a few hundred or thousands.
"Maybe after I killed the noble responsible for the demon's farm, they didn't have any other method that proved to be useful for a demon farm?" Noel had ruined their plans a few times. In fact, the Water Lord was supposed to die back then and his territory was taken to supply a lot of herbs for the organization.
There was also the liquid that strengthened one's body. In addition to the Saintess, he truly messed with a lot of their plans.
'I guess it's good to know that they are severely weakened compared to their previous lives,' thought Noel.
In the previous life, he imagined that the Supreme Devil Organization reigned supreme after building up their strength for a long time. Anna also told him that the Demon Banner Army was severely weakened, unable to stop the full advance of the organization.
During that time, he led a rebellion. It was a successful rebellion, but in the end, he let the Third Prince kill him.
'No, wait. The Third Prince should be related to the Supreme Devil Organization. Back then, I was a peak level Grandmaster, but what if… even that strength is not enough to react to the Third Prince? What if the Third Prince has gotten so strong that I couldn't fight against him?
'I don't think I can imagine the reason for me to sacrifice everything I've built just for the sake of rebuilding it, unless it's a hopeless situation. There is also a possibility of a Demon King getting involved.
'If I take everything into consideration, does that mean even with that strength, I still feel hopeless? Well, a Demon King is equal to a Spirit King. I wasn't a Spirit Transcendence back then, let alone a Spirit King.'
Noel furrowed his eyebrows. On the one hand, everything on the surface looked like it had been under his control. On the other hand, he felt there was a bigger secret that they didn't know.
If the rebellion succeeded, it might mean that they weren't that relevant. But the Royal Family still had a Spirit Transcendence, which was the Marshall. There was no way the rebellion would succeed if he didn't take him down.
In other words, there were still some missing pieces he had to find in order to discover the truth of the rebellion as well as Anna's rebirth.
'Seriously… How many things did I consider to determine that the situation was hopeless?'
Noel sighed. The more he dug deeper, the stronger his enemies would become. In fact, he might have to face a lot of Ancient Level Demons in the future.
'Now that I think about it, Anna told me that I didn't reveal a lot of Advanced Level Runes, right? My Rune Mastery was already at max, but the system still only released Intermediate Runes in the shop. Is it related to my job instead? I have gotten used to fighting with runes, but I still haven't completed the mission.
'Well, I already have knowledge of the runes, but learning how to use them is a different matter. It'll take too long for me to learn them, so it's better to use the system.'
Noel fell into deep thought. It seemed that he had to focus on changing his job from this point onward.
He managed to sort out a lot of things during the expedition. One thing was clear to him. The opponent was far stronger than he thought. Unless he grew even faster, he would be crushed.
"In that case, let's set up a target. According to Anna, we should have about four more years. Hence, I have to become a Spirit King within four years. If I only need to absorb Demon Crystals, it won't be hard. But I have to get a lot of Superior Demon and Ancient Demon Crystals, which will be troublesome unless I go outside the border.
"If that's the case, should I involve the demi-human kingdom? But we don't know the conflict that will happen because of it… Besides, we've been progressing much faster, so the enemies might also hasten their progress.
"We might only have less than four years, if not three years. In that case, I have to become a Spirit Transcendence in one year and a Spirit King two years after that."
Noel's expression turned solemn. The challenge looked impossible when Spirit Transcendence was only a dream for many. Even in all four kingdoms, there were less than ten Spirit Transcendences.
But if he didn't take on this challenge, he wouldn't be able to protect everything. Old Ru's shell had already gone, so there was no more chance for them if they messed it up.
"Sword Skill, Fire and Ice Abilities, Runes, as well as my personal Spiritual Energy Reserve… There are a lot of things I have to do." Noel sighed. Aside from his personal development, he had to take care of all outside matters like Rune Academy, Rune City, and even the Supreme Devil Organization's bases.
He tried to calm himself down by looking around the building. After a few minutes, he exited the building, finding Layla and the others waiting for him. It seemed that they also wanted to explore the building, but they didn't want to enter unless Noel confirmed that no one was inside.
"Go on. Everyone from the organization should have vacated the village." Noel pointed at the door.
"That's good. Aurelia." Layla gave a relieved smile.
"Understood."
As soon as Aurelia and the knights entered the building, Layla couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? You seem to have a lot of things on your mind."
"Let's just say the situation is messier than I thought." Noel sighed.
"Is that so? If it's about demons, will my Moon Temple be able to handle it?"
"Can your temple handle Ancient Demons?"
"…" Layla fell silent. As she expected, an even stronger demon would appear in the near future. An Ancient Demon might be the least of their worries. After all, the organization could control them and turn the demons into a proper army.
And if that Ancient Demon was a plant type Demon, it would definitely become a much harder opponent to beat.
Layla raised one finger. "If an Ancient Demon comes to your city while I'm still there, they can only destroy the city after I die. As I told you earlier, we fight demons and help people… even if that's the last thing we do."
"Thanks." Noel nodded.
They continued the investigation for a few more hours until they determined the village was safe. Although he had to send another group of knights to remove everything related to the organization before he could allow new villagers to take over, it was good to have another village to utilize.
Without hesitation, they continued to the second village, which wasn't that far from their location. It only took them an hour to reach this village, and surprisingly, this village wasn't empty. In fact, they were real villagers.
When they saw the lord, they kneeled down. Some of them even admired Noel, which was shown by the Affection Medal.
Noel also investigated the village a little bit but found nothing extraordinary. It appeared that the organization didn't touch them in order to make their disguise look more real.
After ensuring that the people were not spies or the organization's members, he continued to the next village before the sun was set.
But this time, the village was completely empty. Unlike the first village, the people from the organization had enough time to bring all their belongings and even destroy all the buildings so that Noel couldn't take advantage of it.
In the end, he had to set up a tent to rest for the night.
It was at this night that Anna sneaked out of the city, heading straight to Noel. The Sword Arbiter was watching her figure disappear into the distance from the top of the wall, ensuring that no one attacked her on her trip.
But since they had eliminated all the spies in the city, no one knew that Anna had disappeared.
Anna didn't know that Noel had a big surprise for her.
