Azaroth's three retainers, Noah, Ralph, and Sargan, were in the fields of the Rhodes Estate and running at the perimeter with their full speed.
Ralph was the fastest and the one with probably the most stamina, Sargan with the second, and Noah was the third.
Azaroth observed them and thought 'Sargan hasn't inherited the physique of a demon. It seems he has only inherited the Evil Eyes of the Bach Clan.'
However, even the evil eyes possessed myriad abilities. He was curious about which abilities did Sargan unlock.
Azaroth's Mystic Eyes of Perception could be considered Spiritual Eyes, a skill imprinted in his soul. Even though Edwin had no relation to Azaroth's bloodline, Azaroth could still use his Mystic Eyes of Perception effortlessly.
In fact, the only thing that was restraining his Mystic Eyes of Perception was his own cultivation base.
It was far too low to take complete advantage of its abilities.
As for the Evil Eyes inherited by Sargan, this was a skill passed through blood. Sargan wouldn't be able to use it if he possessed some other person.
This Bach Clan was created by one of their ancestors whose title was Evil Eyed Emperor. He gained his reputation by continuing to empower his eyes using certain divine resources found in that era.
It was also said that he took the eyes of the Abyssal Dragon to gain the power of death inducement.
This was the ability that had earned him great renown.
Unfortunately, this Evil Eyed Emperor failed to become a Demon God otherwise, he would have combined his Evil Eyes with the Myriad Eyes.
His descendants who inherited this bloodline didn't inherit all his abilities. They all unlocked different abilities.
Some very talented individuals inherited three abilities of the Evil Eyed Emperor at the same time.
Such individuals were too rare though. And now, Azaroth was wondering if Sargan was talented or not.
Or else, he would have to artificially activate that bloodline so that Sargan can fully make use of it.
Soon, Azaroth's vision fell on Ralph and thought 'His physique is good enough but his spirit appears to be weak. He probably can't maintain his transformed state for very long.'
And lastly, Azaroth looked at Noah, who had a slightly anxious look on his face as he tried his best to increase his speed. But it was to no avail. In fact, as the exhaustion caught up to him, the distance between him and Sargan widened greatly.
Sargan and Ralph noticed that Noah was lagging behind greatly. They had smug looks on their faces as they looked in Azaroth's direction.
They wanted to see a look of disappointment on Azaroth's face. After all, Azaroth had made Noah his right-hand man. And this guy was losing to them in this exercise.
A sense of pride and accomplishment flowed through the two. But unfortunately, Azaroth remained calm-headed.
This was something Azaroth had expected from Noah. He was merely a little kid who had been starved quite a long time, even though he was training with that rod in the prison, how could he possess a stronger body than these two demi-humans possessing the bloodline of a beast and a demon?
All three of them continued to run for a few hours. It was after nearly 3 hours that Sargan collapsed. And then after another 2 hours, Ralph collapsed as well.
The only one who was still making rounds was none other than Noah. Because of his speed, he had lagged behind them greatly and in the time it took them to complete two or even three laps, he would barely complete one.
Thinking that he was still behind a large margin, Noah continued his run. Another reason why he didn't stop was that Azaroth had still not ordered him to stop.
An hour ago, he had already felt his lungs and heart giving out. His brain was hurting badly while his entire body was dead tired as he dragged his body forwards.
Currently, he was in a half-dead state, with only a single thought moving his body words. And that was to not halt unless ordered.
Soon, he lost his sense of balance and fell. As his face crashed into the ground, Sargan and Ralph instinctively closed their eyes.
They could already imagine how hard it must have hurt him. Unlike them, this kid didn't know how to use Ardor at all.
His muscles must be throbbing from all this sudden running. He must have fallen unconscious because of exhaustion.
As they opened their eyes, they were shocked to see Noah still trying to crawl forwards.
Then, Azaroth spoke out, "Stop. It's enough now."
He soon went over to Noah's side and placed his palm over that kid's body.
Soon, a refreshing aura enveloped Noah's body and was activating his self-healing. Azaroth knew that if he healed him through his flames, Noah's body won't benefit from all this running.
The torture he had endured must bear good results as well.
He picked up Noah and soon walked towards his room. As he passed by Ralph and Sargan, he spoke with an emotionless voice, "1 year. All it will take him is 1 year to surpass you to the point you won't even have thoughts of ever catching up to him even with your special bloodline abilities."
Ralph raised his brows in surprise at those words while Sargan snorted in response. Sargan believed that Azaroth was just saying those words to motivate them into working hard.
How could a kid like him who didn't even know of Ardor surpass them in just one year? It wasn't like they wouldn't train hard to keep getting stronger. And it would be absurd to even think that Noah would be able to surpass them with the already great gap in them.
However soon, his expression changed as he recalled that Azaroth was someone who possessed Mystic Eyes of a Demon God. His background was too mysterious… Maybe he did possess a skill to increase Noah's abilities greatly in this one year.
Azaroth did possess some of those skills but he didn't think it would be worth it to use them on Noah.
He was now convinced of the rumors of the Enlightened Sword Heart.
Even though Noah's body had already exhausted completely in just one hour, he still kept on running because of that Enlightened Sword Heart. His willpower was truly in a class of his own.
Without using Ardor or receiving prior training, Azaroth had no chance of achieving something like this.
The willpower wasn't even the main aspect of the Enlightened Sword Heart though. The Enlightened Sword Heart's true abilities were to comprehend and use the sword techniques perfectly.
A swordsman with the Enlightened Sword Heart would possess terrifying comprehension and perfectly use Sword Techniques in a fight.
It was evening time now. Azaroth's three retainers had been provided a common room which was apparently quite large enough to hold 10 retainers at the same time.
The three retainers were resting. The food had been delivered to them in their room.
Although their bodies were sore, they still got up and ate their food. They were really hungry after all.
Around this time, Azaroth went to Jonas Rhodes's room.
After knocking on his door a couple of times, he heard an authoritative voice, "What is it, Edwin?"
"I had something to talk to you, father," Azaroth spoke with an emotionless tone.
"Alright, come in."
Once Azaroth received the permission, he entered Jonas's chambers.
The room was rather large, nearly twice the size of Azaroth's room.
Azaroth's vision fell on that large king-sized bed. The bed was decorated well with some flowers on it. Soon, Azaroth turned his head and glanced at the study table on his right. Ahead of this study table was a chair and Jonas was seated on it.
"What is it?"
"Father, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to be the mayor of Kloras Town," Azaroth asked Jonas with a cool tone.
Jonas frowned as he asked Azaroth, "Kloras Town? Hasn't it been demolished by the beasts and its people killed? What will you do even if you go over there as its mayor? No people are living in that town anymore."
"That's not an issue. I will hire some builders and rebuild it from scratch. Once there are houses, I can set up cheap rates so that people would be more accepting to move into the town." Azaroth gave his own idea regarding Kloras Town.
However, Jonas didn't think it was such a great idea.
He sneered and replied to Azaroth, "If you do this then how will you find the money to pay the taxes to the Kingdom? In fact, how will you even pay for the services or security of the town?! You will never be able to pay off your debts."
"And that's why I need your assistance father. Please convince the king to not take taxes for the next 3 years. After those 3 years, I will pay him twice the taxes for the next 10 years."
Jonas snorted and asked him, "You seem to think of it as a game. You think it's so easy to earn money? Also, twice the taxes? I doubt you can pay off even half the taxes."
"That's my problem. I just want to ask if you will help me or not." Azaroth's response was ice-cold as he faced Jonas.
Jonas narrowed his eyes as he stared at Azaroth, "…Very well. Let me see just how you will do as you have spoken. Remember that I will keep my eye on you."
This was a promise along with a threat.
Azaroth disregarded the threat and turned around to get out of the room.
Azaroth chose Kloras Town for two main reasons. One was because he saw a huge profit at that location and another was because he wanted to get away from Jonas.
He knew that as long as this man was here, he won't be able to do much.
Azaroth had to use the demonic ardor very carefully in the Rhodes Estate. It would be better to relocate to a place where he would have more freedom.
Meanwhile, Jonas had his own plans. He was also thinking of rebuilding and administrating Kloras Town. But other matters required his presence…
Now that Azaroth had asked for that town, Jonas planned to let him do what he wanted with that town and then assign it to someone trustworthy.
Jonas then went on to some of his trustworthy advisors and asked them to keep an eye on some of the individuals he had in mind.
These individuals were all working for the Rhodes House. And they had the necessary talent and skill in administrating a territory. However, because of no empty position, they never rose from their posts.
But now, an empty position was available in the form of Kloras Town's Mayor.
Jonas was pretty adamant about bringing this territory under his direct control mainly because it bordered with the Lamhilhan Theocracy and also because this territory had something to do with demons.
He guessed that either the demons were hiding in the nearby area or there was a channel between the underworld and the Frascoia Continent had opened up.
Both of these were extremely favorable to him. If he killed some demons and brought their corpses to the king, then he would be rewarded quite handsomely.
And if he gave the location of the channel between the underworld and the Frascoia Continent then the King might even give him a Royal Reward.
A Royal Reward meant that he could ask for anything that the King possesses and the King would have to give it away. The only thing he couldn't ask for in this reward is the King's life.
This was a sort of reward that had continued from ancient times in many kingdoms. If a King refused then he would soon begin to lose the support of the Noble Families.
After all, if a Noble Family wasn't rewarded even after doing such a great job, what was even the point of serving such a king?
Other kingdoms might value them more than this.
For this reason, the Royal Reward was highly valued.
And Jonas was especially very interested in this Royal Reward. He had realized that he had more or less reached his limit while using the Rhodes House's skills.
Now he required the Imperial Techniques of Ardor to advance his skill.
Once he becomes a 7 Star Warrior, he could put his plan in motion.