Days later...
While the royal families of Albano, Rosser, and Blackrock were acting for the sake of their interests, Minos and his wives were finally arriving in the first major human city of the Flaming Empire!
After fleeing the new volcanic region between this state and Rosser, they traveled without much trouble after entering the 'peaceful' region of this area further northwest of the Empire.
Obviously, there were countless dangers on the way, as the living creatures in this state were of a much higher level than those in the northern region, where they could move around without danger.
But given the fighting proficiency of everyone in that group, counting Gloria, who was at the end of the 7th stage, few problems could stand in their way.
The Flaming Empire had high-level Spiritual Saints in large numbers, compared to what was happening separately in the northern realms of this state. But most of these beings were at their organizations' headquarters, in their homes, not randomly traveling around the state.
And even those of low level was not so easy to find. After all, Spiritual Saints in the Flaming Empire were like Spiritual Kings in the northern region before the rise of the Black Plain.
As such, problems like the previous one at the border were hard to find within that state, and Minos' group had thus been able to travel somewhat smoothly these past few days.
In any case, now that they had entered the Flaming Empire, it was finally time for them to get on with their business travels in this state.
Minos had some side interests in coming to this Empire, such as meeting the families of two of his wives and the Gray Clouds Sect.
But until they reached these goals, they had a long journey, with many stopping points to place orders for the spiritual techniques that his state desperately needed.
Minos had good techniques for warriors. After all, not only had Henricus Longus left a significant inheritance to him, but many enemies killed so far had helped the Black Plain collect more techniques.
But these were techniques for fighters, not spiritual professionals, just what he had been seeking by coming to this state!
And with the help of Gloria and Ruth, he already had a route to follow through the Empire, through the places he would have to pass to find the best spots to buy what he wanted.
Among those places was the city his group had arrived in the night before.
That was the headquarters of the Holy Sect, one of the eight high-level organizations in this state that were below only the imperial family.
In this fantastic place where Minos and Abby were impressed by the local beauty, partly because of the floating neighborhoods that made the scenery somewhat magical, they spent the night together to rest.
Gloria's belly was slowly starting to show, but the four of them still kept their fun days in whenever they had a chance to be in a city. So instead of going out to do business the day before, they had relaxed between the Spatial Kingdom and this city.
But as the day began, the four of them soon left the hotel room they had rented to get on with their business in this city.
"Minos, where do we go first?" Abby asked as she held one of her man's hands.
He looked at the street in front of them, a large tree branch connecting two floating neighborhoods, and said. "Let's find a place to get something to eat. Then, after we satisfy our hunger, we'll go to the place Gloria mentioned earlier."
"Hmm, I am starving." Gloria massaged her belly and commented to them, feeling the intense hunger that had only been intensifying as her pregnancy progressed.
But that was not the only reason for her hunger. Neither of them was good at cooking, so naturally, they did not have an easy time traveling through forests for days...
Fortunately, at their level, their bodies had little demand for food.
So the four of them made their way to a cafeteria from which a delicious smell wafted, a not very busy place, but where the customers seemed to eat with enthusiasm.
In particular, a brown-haired woman was eating alone at one of the tables at the entrance of this establishment as if she were tasting a divine gift after months of starvation.
Minos looked at that woman, feeling he had seen her before, and then decided to probe such a person.
'Hmm? That's King Brown's daughter!' He remembered Diana, the eldest daughter of this old enemy, who had confronted him years ago during the attempted peace negotiation led by Gloria.
But not only Minos had noticed someone there. The moment he had laid his eyes on her, Diana, who had returned from the northern region after the resolution of the problem with Albano, looked at him, sensing something wrong.
As she looked into Minos' brown eyes, she immediately let her fork fall to the ground as she recognized her father's killer.
"Minos!" Diana, level 60, angrily stood up from her seat, already with her fists clenched, looking at this enemy with hatred in her eyes.
"Diana, huh? What a coincidence to find you here..." Minos commented as his three women looked at the sister of the current king of the Brown Kingdom.
Gloria and Abby remembered Diana very well, but Ruth, who was not with Minos then, could only look at the beautiful Spiritual Emperor there with curiosity.
"Coincidence? That's my place, my home. How is it a coincidence?" She asked in an irritated tone. "Don't tell me that now you intend to take this place too? Have you had enough of the northern region?"
"Why so angry at me?" Minos said in a provocative tone. "All right, I killed ... No, I didn't kill your father. He died from a high altitude fall."
"You bastard! Don't you recognize what you've done?" She indignantly looked at him.
Minos laughed. "Diana, your father and I were enemies. He tried to kill me several times and would have done it if he had the chance. So why do you treat me like I have committed an unparalleled crime? I merely protected my life from a power-crazed person."
"Son of a..." She took a step forward, feeling like punching the face of this dictator who oppressed the northern region of the Central Continent.
But at the same time, she remembered the words of the Matriarch of the Spiritual Church, who had told her that Minos would not stay in the northern region for long. 'It looks like she was right. He must have gotten tired of that place, and maybe he'll leave my region alone!'
She felt her mood improving a little, but she still had anger for being around her father's murderer. "Minos, don't think you can do what you want here. This is the territory of the Holy Sect, and I am a disciple!"
"Then stay away from me, or I'll cause trouble for you!" She threatened him, feeling good that she finally had the chance to do that.
...
