Souta came back to the palace without anyone noticing about it. He was a little bit surprised by the information that woman gave to him.
That woman, Lydia, wasn't local of this world. She was from another world that was much more advance than this one. It was a civilization that ruled over five hundred thirty-two worlds. It was called the Great Astley Empire.
In truth, the Great Asltey Empire found more than a hundred thousand worlds but most of it didn't any creatures that were living in it. The environment was too extreme for people to live in it. Only people with enough strength could handle those extreme environments.
The empire didn't stop expanding its territory. They continued to plunder and invade any world that they've discovered. They were trying to find resources and worlds with high energy density.
He was quite familiar with this civilization. In the game, there's a small event where another civilization tried to invade the Great World Imperium. The only problem was that when they opened the [Dimensional Gate], it appeared above the vicinity of the northern God's Continent.
A monster lord named Jormungandr, the World Serpent, was resting in that place. It woke up the moment the [Dimensional Gate] appeared. The next thing that happened was a one-sided massacre by a monster lord. Of course, the players that were in that place joined the event to fight the Great Astley Empire with Jormungandr.
Hundreds of sub-world got destroyed by the overwhelming power of the World Serpent. That's the first time that the Great Astley Empire learned the true power of a creature who could rival gods.
After that event, the gods placed the remaining sub-world under their rule after the World Serpent calmed down.
Well, Souta couldn't join that small event as he was in the Giza Continent at that time, fighting demons in the front line. He only knows it because a lot of players posted that event in the forum. It gathered its famed because it's the first time that the famed World Serpent showed its power as a monster lord.
It definitely lived up to its name. Destroying hundreds of worlds easily and the entire army of the Great Astley Empire couldn't do anything about it. They could only watch the World Serpent destroyed everything in its path while advancing to their homeworld.
'So it's connected to that event why Isabella got to the Great World Imperium.'
Back to Lydia... Lydia was a captain of a battalion in that empire. She was a strong woman that reached B-rank in Imperium's power level.
The captain of the 36th battalion of the Great Astley Empire. She had three hundred thousand soldiers under her command. But she rebelled against them.
It was because she realized how corrupted and greedy the higher-ups of the empire. They won't get satisfied even after plundering dozens of worlds out there. Killing millions of people of different worlds and enslaving them was something she couldn't handle anymore.
She's s now a wanted person in the Great Astley Empire. The reason was she cut the resources of the army that was trying to invade other worlds. It was simple yet she bought time for those worlds to prepare themselves for the upcoming invasion.
The reason why she's following them was because she's trying to find some ally to help her in her goal. She's gathering strong people that could fight those commanders of the army.
Right now, he left her in the inn as he didn't believe her words even though he knew what will happen. Lydia will grow suspicious if he instantly believed her without any proof.
He will act that he didn't believe her until he got a proof or a quest that will make him move.
Souta went back to the room. Only Isabella was left inside the room. The rest were gone.
"Where did they go?" He asked Isabella.
"They followed the officials to the training ground..." Isabella replied to him.
"Training ground...?" Souta raised his eyebrows at her words.
"Y-Yes, that's what I heard in their conversation. I stayed here because I want to wait for you before we go there." Isabella said as she lowered her head.
"Okay, then let's go and follow them." Souta nodded and he turned around.
The two left the room. They went around and asked some people in the palace about the training ground. Where they could find it? They were new to this place so they wouldn't know its structure.
After a few minutes, the two arrived at the training ground. The training ground was located at the back of the palace. It's a really wide place and huge place. Most of the guards of the palace were staying here and they were training here. Although it wasn't the main training ground of the soldiers, it was still a huge place.
He saw Alice and the rest talking to the officials. They turned around when they heard someone came inside the training ground.
Souta smiled and said, "Don't bother me. I'm just here to watch." He waved his hand as he continued to walk while Isabella was following him.
The officials turned back to Alice and discussed something.
Souta and Isabella went to Gyun side and asked, "What are they talking about?"
"They are talking about giving Alice a noble title if she stayed here in the country," Gyun said.
"What noble title?" Souta asked with a curious look as he glanced at the officials.
"One of the highest title, the Duke. If Alice accepted it, she will become a duchess of this country. They are also talking about giving her military position." Gyun slowly explained to him about the things that he understood in the conversation. It was shocking to see the officials of this country offered someone a high position.
"I see..." Souta nodded. He guessed that these people already did their investigation for them to offer Alice a high position.
He was right. The moment they received information about a Master-class Knight in the Buckshawn State. The officials used everything they've got to investigate this matter. They found that Alice and Souta came from the Tunbra Forest, the largest forest in the whole world.
Up until now, they only managed to explore forty percent of the whole forest. They didn't dare to explore the rest of it as they've found the territory of the fearsome dragons from legend.
The two also didn't have any information about Alice and Souta prior to the event in Buckshawn State. Not just them that were investigating about Alice and Souta, the other countries were also investigating the two. A Master-class Knight was a big matter as it will increase the overall strength of an army.
"Just wait for a moment... Alice will spar with Cirus." Mae suddenly said.
Her words gathered Souta's attention. He turned to her and asked to confirm it, "She will fight Cirus?"
"Yes, Cirus wanted to test her strength and Alice agreed to it," Mae said with a hint of excitement.
"Oh?" Souta looked at Alice.
Both of them were disappointed by the Knight Level. Ever since they learned about the Master-class Knight, they wanted to learn its strength. How could it fare against them? They weren't sure about it but since the Knight Level was C-rank then a Master-class Knight must be at B-rank level.
"It's going to start..."
Souta waited for a while. The spar was going to start as Cirus went to the center while slowly pulling out his weapon.
Cirus looked at Alice and said, "I'm ready. Just you know even among the Master-class there are individual skill differences. No one could defeat a Master-class Knight except another Master-class Knight."
"Oh? He seems confident in his skills." Souta muttered as he patted his clothes and walked towards Alice.
"Oi! Souta where are you going?" Gyun and the rest shouted at Souta when they saw him walking towards the field.
Souta ignored them as he went beside Alice and patted her shoulder. He then said, "Let me try it in the meantime. You've already tried it in Buckshawn State so let me..."
Alice nodded as she stepped back.
"Oh! Where are you going?" Cirus asked Alice.
"This man is going to fight you," Alice said as she waved her hand without care.
"This one?" Cirus looked at Souta who only had one arm. "This one is a tamer, right? A tamer is going to fight me with his pet. Are you kidding me?"
Gyun's party, Isabella, and the officials that were watching were stunned at this scene. They couldn't believe that Alice was leaving the fight to Souta.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to fight you. Also, I wouldn't use Yuko. If Yuko is the strongest in our group so I wouldn't use her." Souta said with a smile.
"Of course, you're a tamer so your pet must be stronger than you." Cirus paused for a moment and said, "You're not even Master-class Knight yet you're trying to fight me."
"Yes, you're not a Master-class. I couldn't feel any mana from you." Alyssa, the vice-head of the Military Department, said.
"Oh? So your that type of person. You had some good senses there." Souta said as he looked at Alyssa. He looked down at his bracelet and said, "Sorry about that. I felt embarrassed about it." He then removed the bracelet of silencing.
As soon as he removed the bracelet, Alyssa opened her eyes widely.
"This is..."
She felt a huge amount of mana seeping out of his body all of a sudden. She never saw anything like this in her entire life.
