Chapter 7: Meeting Tronte

The next day, Azaroth finished up his breakfast very early. And just as he anticipated, he didn't encounter any of his brothers while he went to eat.

Even though they were harmless to him, they could be considered annoying flies. And Azaroth was somewhat worried that he might accidentally crush them, so he decided to avoid them.

After having his meal, Azaroth went out of the mansion.

No one questioned where he was going. They just let him go out as they saw the empty look in his eyes.

Azaroth was going towards the house of one of Edwin's friends. His name was Tronte.

This guy had helped Edwin quite a bit, so Azaroth was going to meet him. This man was an agent and held many connections with some shady people.

He was Edwin's friend from the Academy. Unlike many of his other friends who took up jobs in the Capital City of Sinyalian Kingdom, Tronte returned with Edwin.

His power was relatively weak, but his connections made him a person to be feared in Wrihull City.

From the outside, this house looked impressive. It had been built with burgundy bricks and had tan brick decorations. Tall, large windows added to the house's overall look and added to the house in a very asymmetric way.

Azaroth entered Tronte's house.

"Tronte, come out," Azaroth called out for Tronte.

A few minutes later, Azaroth heard Tronte's voice resounding in the house, "…Edwin? How come you are here?"

Tronte soon came down from the first floor.

Brown, frizzy hair clumsily hanging over a long, lived-in face. Darting brown eyes, set a-symmetrically within their sockets.

He stood towering among others, despite his muscular frame.

He looked into Azaroth's eyes with a surprised look on his face, which was quite natural, according to Azaroth.

Although Tronte and Edwin were friends, Edwin would rarely visit Tronte's house since he didn't want Rhodes Family to think that he had connections to someone who dealt with shady business.

It was for Tronte's and his own safety. So typically, it would be Tronte who organized a meeting with Edwin.

And today, Azaroth had come straight to Tronte's house, so how could Tronte not be surprised.

"I had something to discuss with you," Azaroth said to Tronte with an anxious look.

"Alright. Calm down. First, come inside. What will you have?" Tronte said with a small smile as he gave a soothing aura.

"Jasmine tea."

"Alright. Let's talk in my room."

Azaroth walked into Tronte's room. If Azaroth had to compare it to his own room, it could be considered relatively small. However, the room was well organized, with a bed on the left side, a study table, and two chairs.

The walls were painted with blue color, the same as that of Azaroth's hair.

Soon enough, Tronte brought two cups of jasmine tea. Azaroth picked up his tea and took a sip.

After one sip, he lowered his cup and looked at Tronte, "This is good tea."

He was indeed happy to drink good tea.

Tronte looked pleased when he received the compliment and spoke haughtily, "Obviously. It was made by me, not you. Hehe…"

"The offer of becoming my cook is still there. You up for it?" Azaroth cheekily said to Tronte, who just laughed off.

"Alright. What did you want to talk about?" Tronte decided to get straight to the topic.

"Yesterday, my servants died while protecting me in the White Swallow Forest. And when I returned, the family's reaction was cold once again. I then realized that you were right. Since the family doesn't want to help me, I need to take action in my own hands." Azaroth spoke out while taking another sip from his tea.

"See. I was telling you from the start that you need to stop depending on your family. I knew that such a situation was going to come sooner or later, but you were too stubborn." Tronte looked really unhappy as he said that.

"Yeah, yeah. It was my fault. But I just didn't want to enter into this shady business. However, now, I have no other alternative if I want to survive." After speaking, Azaroth took a sip of the tea once again.

Tronte nodded his head and replied, "I perfectly understand your worries. Now tell me, how should I help you? Do you want me to introduce you to someone who can protect you? Or tell you the location of an expert who plans to take three new personal disciples in the next few days."

Azaroth was slightly surprised. This Tronte guy indeed seemed to have a lot of connections. And not just links, but he probably also knew the secrets of many individuals.

'Should I read his mind?'

This thought immediately entered Azaroth's mind. However, he soon shook that thought off.

Firstly, Azaroth's mind-reading skill wasn't that good. If he tried to forcefully read Tronte's mind, there would be no way Tronte would be unaware of it. Even drugging him won't help since he would feel like someone was poking a needle in his brain. The only remaining option would be to kill Tronte.

And even if he could learn the secrets, he would need to invest quite a bit of his time on these matters, which couldn't be considered very important. Entangling himself politically even further was the last thing Azaroth wanted.

Secondly, it would be useful to have a subordinate or maybe a friend who could manage all this on the sidelines.

Thirdly, there were more appropriate means to carry out this mind-reading skill. Just that Azaroth would have to control the situation quite a bit.

Azaroth shook his head to Tronte's suggestions and replied, "I don't need a bodyguard or become someone's disciple. I already have a plan on how to get stronger. What I want you to do is introduce me to a merchant-"

As soon as Azaroth stated his request, Tronte cut him off, "That's easy. Do you want weapons, gems, or Ardor metals?"

A smile appeared on Azaroth's face as he heard Tronte speak, "Don't be so quick in your judgement. I want you to introduce me to a wealthy merchant from Gler. I want to sell him Ardor Metals and gems."

The Ardor Metals and gems Azaroth was talking about were the ones in his spatial rings. These were the things that he had prepared near the end of his previous life. He had many Ardor metals and gems in them. Some of them were even considered very rare in today's era, and only the Noble Families possessed them.

The Ardor Metals and gems also had a hierarchy according to the number of stars assigned to them. Azaroth was naturally planning to only sell those that wouldn't be too suspicious and help him achieve his motive.

Meanwhile, Tronte showed a surprised look as he stared at Azaroth, "You will sell Ardor Metals and Gems? From where did you get these things? Did you find a mine or what?"

A smile appeared on Azaroth's face as he said, "Tell me, Tronte, don't you see what I am wearing on my fingers? Or are you just pretending not to notice them?"

A look of understanding soon appeared on Tronte's face, "So, these are really Spatial Rings?"

"No. Two are dummies while one is real." Azaroth replied calmly.

Once Tronte heard his words, he laughed out, "Haha… I didn't expect such a clever trick from you. Anyway, where did you find it? Don't tell me that stony father of yours took pity on you and finally gifted you something? Or was this left behind by your mother?"

Azaroth snorted, "As if that guy will gift me something. He is too busy having fun with his harem."

Tronte replied, almost absent-mindedly, "Yeah. I heard that he married another woman. Moreover, this woman is just 24 years old and was considered as beautiful as a fairy. What a pity. A beautiful flower will be ruined by that man."

"Anyway, Yesterday, when I was escaping from the vipers, I stumbled upon an inheritance ground left behind by an expert. Fortunately, there was no trial… The residual Spirit just wanted me to do my best in killing any demons I encounter. And it gave me a spatial ring with lots of stuff. Most of them are of the first three stars ranked materials, while the higher-ranked stuff is quite rare. I want to sell this lower-ranked stuff since its quantity doesn't really help me." Azaroth mixed truth with his lie and then told Tronte what he wanted to do.

There was no point in keeping it hidden since he wanted good support from Tronte. If Tronte felt that Azaroth was hiding something, he might not help sincerely.

"Okay. Then why a merchant from the Kingdom of Gler? Why not sell it to someone from the Kingdom of Sinyal or the Lamhilhan Theocracy? You should also be clear of the relations between the Kingdom of Gler and the Kingdom of Sinyal." Tronte asked with a serious expression.

It was natural for Tronte to be serious regarding this. Because there was quite a bit of bad blood between the Kingdom of Gler and the Kingdom of Sinyal.

It was well known that the King of the Glerian Kingdom wanted to expand towards the south. And towards the south was naturally the Sinyalian Kingdom. The first region that received the Glerian Kingdom's attacks was none other than Rhodes Family's territory.

In terms of numbers, Glerian Kingdom's army could be considered nearly equal to the Sinyalian Kingdom. However, when it came to the fighting prowess of martial artists or soldiers' quality, the Sinyalian Kingdom was superior.

To effectively counter the Sinyalian Kingdom or even suppress them, the Glerian Kingdom had heavily invested in weapons and armors. However, although they were successful in making relatively superior weapons and armors, their resources were limited.

The Sinyalian Kingdom had requested its allies to stop any trade regarding the Ardor Metals or other resources to the Glerian Kingdom. In reality, the other kingdoms were also quite cautious of these new designs of the weapons and armors made by the Glerian Kingdom. They knew that their current King held a wild ambition. If they supported the Glerian Kingdom now, it would come to bite them later.

For that reason, many of the kingdoms did as the Sinyalian Kingdom had requested and put an end to any trades between them.

With the lack of resources, the attacks from the Glerian Kingdom had lessened and eventually stopped.

It could be said that the Kingdom of Gler had declined quite severely.

And now, Azaroth wanted to trade with the Kingdom of Gler, dealing with the Ardor Metals and gems.

"I naturally am aware. And precisely because of this, I am choosing the Kingdom of Gler." Azaroth mystically spoke.

"What are you planning, Edwin?" There was a serious yet curious glint in Tronte's eyes.

"To reignite the war between the Sinyalian Kingdom and the Glerian Kingdom," Azaroth said with a small smile. He enjoyed Tronte's wide-eyed expression.