Chapter 110
When Anastasia heard Michelle’s words that the hardest part was only about to come, she frowned and turned to stare at Michelle. "What do you mean? I thought I could already use it, so what’s the next thing to do?" she asked as she stood up.
Michelle turned her head away from the sunset and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world: "You may have gained control over the power in your body, but can you control it perfectly? Can you guarantee that if you got into a fight, you won’t lose your grasp of it in a crucial moment? From now on, you need to relentlessly use your soul energy and spar with someone until you are confident that you will never lose control of your power."
"Also," Michelle continued. "It’s not only about saving yourself. What if you lose control while attacking someone or demonstrating your power? Then, it could run rampant and harm those around you, your friends, or your allies.
Listening to Michelle, Anastasia had no other choice than to agree. "Let’s start with the training tomorrow," she said after a while. She was already mentally exhausted and wanted nothing other than to sleep. Maybe that was also why she didn’t realize such an obvious thing as the need to train with her newfound power, so she could master and perfect its use.
After talking for a while longer, both Michell and Anastasia returned to the mansion. Anastasia went to her room while Michelle went to the dungeon. There, she found Kieran and Ivona discussing something some distance from Ferdninads cell. When they noticed her, they weren’t really surprised. "We interrogated the suicide soldiers you captured, but they didn’t know a thing, except that someone powerful hired them in the lower realm and sent them to the Land of Exile to listen to the Ostrich family," Ivona said without even needing to ask Michelle why she came down to the dungeon.
Before going to train Anastasia, Michelle woke them both up and told them about the assassins she had captured. So the first half of the day, Kieran cultivated and Ivona sparred with the knights, while in the afternoon, they were in the dungeon interrogating the assassins.
"Well, that was to be expected..." Michelle wasn’t really moved by it. "Did you try to find out what organization they worked for in the lower realm?" she asked after a moment of thinking.
Ivona shook her head, but then Kieran spoke up: "I did. I was here a while earlier than Ivona so I interrogated them about the less important things before she came."
Then, he started explaining. To put it simply, the assassins were from an assassination and information guild from the lower realm called Dark Domain. It was ruled by powerful people, who were clearly from a place higher in rank than the lower realm.
But the low-ranking assassins and scouts never dared to ask anything, because after one of the high-ranking scouts tried to probe about the group of leaders, he suddenly died of poisoning. And even the best doctors in the whole lower realm couldn’t tell what kind of poison it was. No direct cause of death. Just that it was poison. Nothing else.
There was also one more thing the assassins knew. It was said that the group of leaders was actually taking orders from someone; that they, too, were subordinate to someone. It was like a huge pyramid, and the assassins couldn’t see the top. They were guessing that they were barely seeing into the middle of the pyramid of power. And that not only terrified them, but made them realize that, after stepping into the guild, they had no way of leaving or rebelling. Well, maybe leaving was possible since they were of such low ranks, but revolting was ruled out.
Kieran also questioned the assassin about the original wording of the request the guild received from the Ostrich family, but they said that they were just ordered by a mid-ranking assassin to take a badge given to them by the client, go to the Land of Exile, find the Ostrich family, and show them the badge. If the family recognized it, they were to obey the family, even if it meant dying for them.