A Demon's Journey

From the very next day, Noah's subordinates began to gain multiple insights one after another. They gained ideas for newer techniques, a better fighting style, and even how they could deal with their personal issues.

As they continued to fight, romantic relationships were budding within his group. Noah had noticed that there were many couples within his group. Initially, it was fine, and Noah was planning to ignore this, but he had noticed that these couples were slowly losing their motivation to grow stronger.

In fact, some of them wanted to settle down at a quiet location and start their families. Noah was a little resistant to these facts. His companions, with whom he had previously shared the training ground and the battlefield, were going to leave him.

The reason they joined Noah's group was to gain prestige, money, and skills. Now that they had acquired all these things, they wanted to settle down in a quiet village and live their lives in peace.

These couples had already informed Noah that after their current expedition, they would leave. They were very thankful for his guidance and leadership that had allowed them to reach this step.

Noah was genuinely distressed. He also felt that if he allowed this to occur, more would follow them. His subordinates would be scattered, and this entire group would cease to exist. Naturally, he was thinking in an extremist manner.

Fortunately, before making any big decision, he had made up his mind to contact his master and inform him about this situation. If Azaroth left the situation to him, then he would take action to prevent his subordinates from retiring.

When Azaroth heard about this issue, he gave a simple answer to Noah, "Allow them to retire. Forcefully keeping them would be detrimental to your group. The dissatisfactions within your faction will grow like a plague."

Noah was unhappy to hear these words. But he had made up his mind to obey whatever Azaroth spoke. Since this was Azaroth's command, he would naturally obey those words. But Azaroth wasn't done speaking.

"I perceive that you have a strong bond with your subordinates. After spending so much time alongside them, it's only natural. This separation may be excruciatingly painful, but you must become accustomed to it. Never forget that no one else should ever be the cause of your melancholy. You can be sad and even cry, but you can't be in a state of despair for more than one night. When the dawn rises, you must leave your sorrows behind you and move toward a brighter future," Azaroth spoke solemnly.

Azaroth knew that this was the first time Noah was experiencing these emotions. Perhaps what he saw ahead of him was only darkness and despair. He required some guidance that would allow him to pass this darkness.

When connections break, both sides would be hurt. The couple who was retiring and Noah. However, these warriors had made up their minds. They no longer wanted to risk their lives for prestige or money.

  "Yes, master," Noah spoke with a feeble voice. It was as if all energy had been sucked out of him and he looked very melancholic.

After a few seconds, Azaroth spoke up, "…Actually, instead of having them retire, I will have them do something for me. Let me talk to them."

"Alright, master," Noah was confused to hear his words, but he nodded his head. He gathered all those warriors who were planning to retire. After they were gathered, Noah sent a signal through his Mystical Spiritual Connection Ring.

The signal reached Azaroth's spirit and a Holographic Figure of Azaroth's face appeared ahead of these warriors. The face was extremely large, and it was created of pure blue-colored energy.

Many of Noah's subordinates recognized Azaroth and immediately kneeled down to pay their respects to him. They had witnessed just how much Noah respected and obeyed Azaroth. They knew it would be best to show great piety to him.

The ones who had recently joined didn't recognize Azaroth. All of them still kneeled as they were following their seniors' actions. They felt that if their seniors were kneeling, there was no reason for them to remain standing. They could be punished for no reason.

In total, there were a total of 20 couples standing here. That meant 40 warriors who wanted to retire. Azaroth stared at them with a cold gaze and spoke out, "I heard that you all want to retire."

"…That's correct, Master. We are incredibly thankful for what we have achieved. It wouldn't have been possible without your or Sir Noah's guidance. However, we have realized that this is not the path we want to pursue in our life. Please allow us to retire after this expedition," A warrior spoke with a calm and steady tone.

"I see," Azaroth said coldly, his gaze fixed on the warrior. His stare lingered on the warrior, causing him to break out in cold sweat. The warrior felt as if he shouldn't have spoken anything and that he would soon pay the price for attempting to be too clever.

"I reject your plea for retirement. Do you think you can leave so easily after gaining all that you wanted?" Azaroth's cold words fell on their ears like divine thunder. Before any of them could speak up, he added, "I can allow you to leave Noah's group, but only on a single condition."

All these couples looked at each other and then lowered their head. They felt that Azaroth's words made sense. They were going to leave after gaining what they wanted. But they hadn't exactly been useful to Azaroth.

Thus, these warriors were ready to listen to this task that Azaroth was going to assign them. If it was possible, they would accomplish it and repay the debt they owed Azaroth. Naturally, trying to repay their debt to Azaroth was just their wishful thinking. Azaroth was smart enough to prevent this situation from occurring.

"In other words, even if you stop fighting for Noah, you are going to work for me. I will assign a town or a city to each couple. Your task will be to monitor that town or city and report valuable information to me," Azaroth ordered them.

"…" All the warriors fell into deep thought. They were calculating the risk involved in this task. All of them had endured Noah's training and were hot-blooded warriors. They still had quite a bit of pride and confidence in their skills that they could do any task assigned to them.

They just needed to report valuable information about the area they were living in. It would be easy enough. The only complication would be when Azaroth asks them to get an important document or capture someone or give another underhand task to them.

In the end, all these couples agreed to this task. Azaroth immediately contacted Sargan and had him assign these warriors to different cities where he still hadn't developed his network.

Sargan would require a general overview of those cities and towns. It would be perfect to assign those cities or towns to these couples. They could scout those cities and towns, gain a general idea of the politics in those areas and report to Sargan.

Sargan could then form a strategy to deal with those territories. When Azaroth informed him of his plan, Sargan immediately agreed and assigned these warriors to different cities and towns that he had in mind.

In the meantime, Noah let out a sigh as he understood that he would need to get used to this feeling. He decided that he couldn't personally teach any more warriors.. He had to create a small team that was capable enough to train newly recruited warriors.