888 Secret Realm (Part 1)

A few days before the incident in the Tomb of the Ancient...

Alaric looked at the papers that Leopold gave him without any expression on his face.

Leopold observed Alaric's expression while he read the papers, but he couldn't discern anything from his expressions.

After reading the content of the papers for a while, Alaric placed them on the table and sipped his tea without saying anything.

Leopold also remained silent, patiently waiting.

After a minute of silence, Alaric finally opened his mouth and asked in a calm voice, "Who gave you this information?"

Leopold picked up his tea cup and after taking a sip he replied with a small smile on his face.

"Don't worry, none of your subordinates is a traitor. I received this information from the people who came to the Dark Forest to search for those two thieves after I announced the bounty on their heads."

Alaric nodded his head upon hearing Leopold's explanation, as he had already suspected as much.

"Still... In order to get this information, you must have paid a lot of people since it is not easy to gather so much data about the movements of the monsters that live in the Dark Forest."

Leopold just smiled hearing Alaric and asked in a low voice, "So, can you tell me what is going on here?"

Although Leopold asked with a smile on his face, Alaric could sense he was quite angry.

"Actually, I have nothing to tell you. The data in these reports is correct," Alaric said while looking at his teacup.

Hearing Alaric's response, Leopold couldn't hold back anymore and slammed his hand on the table. "What do you mean the data in these reports is correct? Does it mean you never tried to look for those thieves and were fooling me this entire time? Do you want to go back on our deal?"

Alaric frowned upon hearing Leopold and said with a displeased expression, "You should hear me out first before you slander me."

Anastasia, who was sitting not far away from them rolled her eyes upon hearing Alaric's displeased voice and the way he was acting.

'As expected from a fox. His acting is really top-notch.'

"What do you want me to hear? When I paid you to help me look for those thieves, you said that the monsters of the Dark Forest, who are your subordinates will search for them. But according to the reports that I received from the people, they never saw the monsters of the Dark Forest looking for the thieves for the last one and a half months."

Alaric sighed upon hearing Leopold and said in a serious voice, "Leopold, you should know that I take business very seriously. It is not the first time we have made a deal. Do you think I would try to destroy our long business relationship for no reason?"

Leopold was silent upon hearing Alaric because the fox was right. The Dark Forest is a place filled with many rare resources. In the past, Leopold had made many deals with Alaric when he needed something that could be found inside the Dark Forest and asked him to search for it for him.

Leopold took some deep breaths to calm down after hearing Alaric and asked in a serious voice, "Tell me, why did you break our deal and stop looking for them?"

Hearing Leopold, Alaric didn't speak immediately and showed a conflicted look on his face. Seeing the conflicted look on his face, Leopold narrowed his eyes and felt the matter was more serious than he thought.

After showing a conflicted look for a while, Alaric finally sighed and looked at Leopold with a serious expression.

"Before I tell you my reason, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this."

'Looks like this matter is really not simple,' Leopold thought when he heard Alaric's serious tone and nodded his head. "Don't worry, I promise you that I won't tell anyone."

Alaric nodded and glanced at the figure in black clothes standing behind Leopold.

When Leopold noticed him looking at his subordinate, he reassured Alaric.

"You don't have to worry about him. He is bound to me by a soul contract, so he wouldn't be able to tell anyone about what we are talking about unless I give him permission. And since I already promised you not to tell anyone..." Leopold said while looking at Alaric.

Alaric looked at the black figure for a few seconds before he nodded his head.

"The reason I stopped looking for them one and a half months ago was because the two people you are looking for are not in the Dark Forest."

"What?" Leopold stood up upon hearing Alaric and said in a shocked voice, "What do you mean they are not in the Dark Forest? I am one hundred percent sure that those guys entered the Dark Forest after stealing the Enlightenment Stone."

"I never said they didn't enter the Dark Forest. In fact, before you contacted me, some of the monsters in the outer area of the Dark Forest even saw them moving towards the inner area," Alaric said with a sigh.

Leopold frowned when he heard Alaric, but suddenly, he thought about something and asked in a low voice.

"Are you trying to say they left the Dark Forest?"

Since Alaric mentioned that some monsters saw Evan and Cedar in the outer area of the Dark Forest, but they were no longer inside the forest, the only explanation Leopold could think of was that both of them had left the Dark Forest.

But to Leopold's surprise, hearing him, Alaric shook his head.

"No, they didn't leave the Dark Forest."

Hearing this, Leopold looked at him with a strange expression and felt the urge to slap him.

He took some deep breaths and tried his best not to lash out.

"You're saying they entered the Dark Forest and never left, but at the same time, you're saying they are not in the Dark Forest anymore. For God's sake, can you tell me already where the hell are those two people?"

Alaric didn't care about Leopold's outburst and after taking a sip of tea, he said calmly, "Both of them have entered a secret realm."

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(A/N: <ABDHY953KVSTNCVDA> Redeem this code to get ten fast passes. Limited to first ten people)