'There was a traitor among us.'
"!!!" Noel widened his eyes in shock.
'That traitor not only fed the enemy with information, but it was also the cause for my wife to die. If not for that traitor, my wife would still be able to endure the demon king's army until I arrived.
'That's why I have prepared these five gifts for you.
'There is no need to explain about the badge, the scroll, and the black cube. The qualified Ardagan family's members will be able to understand them without me explaining it.
'The key is a key for the Ardagan family's treasury. I don't have much, but the Treasury will definitely help you. Last but not least, the ring. This ring has a special power, but rather than explaining it myself, you should find the Dark Butterfly Spirit's contractor. The Dark Butterfly Spirit can explain it better than I do because this ring is a keepsake from my grandmother.'
"..." Noel fell silent after reading the messages. There were three things that came into his mind.
"If there are indeed two demon lords, it means that I can't be the only one to reach the spirit king stage. Anna should become one as well. However, to reach that level requires a lot of resources. If we look at this, it's going to be extremely hard for us to become spirit kings at the same time.
"I don't know what's going on, but I guess this is the only way. However, Anna will surely say that if we can't defeat the demon kings, it's fine to repel them first and kill them later once she becomes a spirit king.
"That's why I have to consider this possibility as well. As for those three items, considering it's actually related to Ardagan, I might have to wait until Ardagan wakes up before I know what they are.
"Judging from what I've seen so far, I'm sure they're going to give me something. If that's the case, I should focus on the key and the ring. I can easily bring this ring to Layla, but to confirm it, if I personally go there. Anna has distracted the enemy, so if I go there right now, they might cause some trouble.
"I guess we have to wait for a bit more. As for the key, where is the Ardagan family's Treasury? There is no mention of its location. I guess Ardagan will know about it.
"He can even confirm whether there are two demon kings or not. I guess Ardagan hasn't said anything because we're planning to become spirit kings together..."
Noel fell silent for a moment, contemplating what he should do.
"Fair enough." Noel started releasing his spiritual energy, lifting up a chunk of soil at a time.
It didn't take too long for him to actually find the rope Vivi was talking about. However, it had deteriorated to such an extent that he couldn't pull it anymore if he didn't want to break it.
Hence, he just lifted up the soil around it and continued to follow this black rope.
After several minutes, the rope started leading down. It turned out there was a hole that had been covered by dirt, so Noel carefully excavated all the soil until he could jump into the hole.
He threw away the soil and cleared up the area around the hole, revealing two things.
When he turned to the left, he saw the ceiling, the walls, and the floor, confirming that this was a tunnel. Unfortunately, the tunnel had been fully blocked, and he didn't have any business in that direction.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side, there was a door made of metal. There was a wheel, which only had one meaning.
Noel carefully grabbed it and started turning it, testing which direction would work.
*Creak!*
Unfortunately for him, the metal wheel actually snapped. Yes, it snapped.
"Huh?" Noel blinked a few times, looking at the wheel on his hand. Because of this, he couldn't open the door anymore. "This is... How am I going to open this door? Should I just destroy it? There is no rune around."
Noel tried to scan the entire area with his spiritual energy, which actually revealed another door behind this one, which had a different mechanism.
"Yeah. I think there is no other way." Noel clenched his hand into a fist.
*Bam!*