Abium didn't respond to Randolph's question; instead, he glanced at the gray-haired old man and realized he was trying his best to touch the green gem-embedded pendant on his neck.
'An artifact?'
Without delay, Abium walked near him and snatched it from his neck.
He felt some invisible creepy power was hidden in that item and decided to check it later.
After that, Abium stored the emerald pendant inside his spatial ring and quietly focused on the grey-robed old man.
Anger, hatred, anxiety, and helplessness appeared in that man's eyes, causing Abium lips to curve upward.
"Tsk, do you even know why both of you are in this state?" Abium clicked his tongue and asked while looking into their eyes.
"W-Who are you?" The gray-haired old man went silent for a moment and asked with bloodshot eyes.
Meanwhile, Abium smiled and removed the 'Faceless Glass' mask from his face.
Instead of a human, a blonde-haired elf appeared in front of them!
But soon, Abium noticed that both of them were showing clueless expressions on their faces and sighed helplessly.
"How could you forget about me after killing my soldiers and even sending their heads to me in bags?" Abium's expression went icy cold as he asked with a sharp tone.
"You are the Baron of Alastall Woodlands? Y-You did this for those six soldiers?" Randolph asked with disbelieving eyes. When he was in Moondale town, he thought that the newly titled Baron would return for revenge and made sufficient preparations to control him. But even after waiting for a week, Abium didn't show up.
After that incident, Randolph had already forgotten about Abium and even thought of him as a coward.
Abium didn't reply to Randolph's question. Instead, he stared at the old man with dagger eyes and asked coldly.
"Who are you? Why did you kill my soldiers?"
"Hehe, do you think I will tell you with these little threats? Laughable! You are just a chess piece, puny kid." That old man's arrogant tone made Abium's expression darken. No! Not his arrogant tone, but something else made his emotion rise instantly.
'Is he thinking I won't kill him?' Abium instantly loaded another bolt and directly pulled the trigger while aiming at the old man's forehead.
The next instant, the metal bolt flew into the old man's forehead and killed him instantly, leaving Randolph dumbfounded.
At that moment, Randolph didn't expect this elven kid to kill his friend ruthlessly and became alarmed.
Even Abium was surprised by his unusual behavior and felt something was wrong!
Sigh!
"Now tell me, Elder Randolph. What should I do with you now?" Abium sat on the opposite sofa and asked while aiming the crossbow at Randolph's chest.
'Kid, can you move towards the table? I want to take a look at those two old papers.' Azolla's voice echoed inside his mind, causing Abium to startle inside.
'What happened?' Abium asked as he creased his brow and moved towards the wooden table at the center.
'Hmm, aren't these characters look like abyssal language?' Abium frowned. Although he didn't know the meaning of these words, he was sure it was an abyssal language.
'How come there is an abyssal language paper here?' Abium quickly picked those two pieces and started asking.
'Azolla, can you decipher these words?'
'Yes, lad. It is an old abyssal language and only the chaos beings knew about this Abyssal language. Most of the letters are very hard even to write. But it's an easy thing for me. If you have time, I can even transmit the language knowledge to your mind later.' Azolla's words made him breathe out a sigh of relief.
"No! Give those back!" As Abium was about to put it inside his spatial ring, Randolph started to shout in a low voice. His face looked pale due to the poison, and his breath grew ragging.
"Tell me then. Where did you get these two papers?" Abium shifted his gaze towards Randolph and asked curiously.
"I-Its our family ancestor Novak's diary pages. We don't know what is written in those two scripts." Randolph said solemnly.
'Oh? Does he have any other scripts like this? Ask him, kid.' Azolla suddenly became so interested and started to speak his mind.
"Do you have any other scripts like this?" Abium asked.
"I have another three scripts in our family ancestral hall, but I won't give them to you. Our ancestor Novak gave the other scripts to different families and even hid in various places before his death. I heard that these scripts contain a deep history of an empire, and our ancestor was the only person who escaped from that empire's destruction." Randolph answered with a serious tone and even revealed many secrets, making Abium speechless.
'An empire? Which empire? I never heard of an empire being destroyed in any history books, though.' Abium frowned deeper and asked quickly.
"Do you know the name of the empire?"
But Randolph gave a bitter smile and replied while shaking his head.
"We don't even know what is written in this paper. But there is a prophecy our ancestor Novak told us before his death. 'When the chaos arrives, collect those remaining pieces and bring them to the south. An entity will be there to protect you.' That's what he said." Abium felt some utter motive was hidden within the prophecy-like words and shook his head.
'It might be some fake prophecy.'
After that, he glanced at the gray-haired old man and asked.
"Who is he? Why did he order your son to kill my soldiers?" Abium doesn't care much about this so-called history or prophecy. All he needed was the answer.
"He is the one who came here to ask this script from me in exchange for gold. He told me that there is someone who could decipher these ancient words in his organization and offered us help. As for why he killed your soldiers, he told me that it would be beneficial for us if we managed to enslave your soul using a special artifact. The wealth contained in your Alastall territory is immeasurable, and we thought of controlling you to plunder the whole wealth." Randolph said with a self-mocking laugh.
'Enslave me? Is he a necromancer? Possible!' He hurriedly picked up the gray-haired old man's spatial ring and checked it.
The next instant, Abium's expression grew solemn as he confirmed that this gray-haired old geezer was indeed a necromancer!
'Moreover, he appears to be a first-tier necromancer. I thought he was a fourth-tier warrior, but I was wrong. If he had discovered paralysis poison in the juice earlier, it would have ended differently.' Cold sweats appeared on his forehead as he stared at the necromancer.
"What is his name? Tell me more about him." He asked in a serious tone.
"His name is Baxter. We became friends when I was younger. From time to time, he would send me letters and ask about our kingdom's situations. He had a mysterious background, and I don't know much about him. He came to our capital with his friends to complete some secret mission but I know nothing much about it." Randolph said without hiding anything.
'Hmm, this Baxter must have arrived here with the same motive as those necromancers. Truly troublesome.' As Abium was in deep thought, he heard a slow knocking sound from outside.
Then, a silvery woman's voice came.
"My lord, did Charles enter your room?"
It was the head maid!
Abium glanced towards Randolph and signaled him to reply.
"Yeah, he is with me. Don't worry; I was the one who called him inside." Randolph understood Abium's meaning and replied hurriedly.
A second later, Abium heard the footsteps moving farther away and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was a close call. Old man, I will take Baxter's corpse with me. About the poison cure, there is no cure for you. You will lose your strength slowly and die in a few months." He paused for a moment and said with a wicked laugh.
"But don't you even think of revealing what happened here to anyone. If you do that, you better wait for the consequences. Of course, I won't do anything to you, but I will erase your whole lineage." Abium then moved behind Randolph and knocked him out using the sword hilt.
After that, he erased the broken spiritual mark on Baxter's spatial ring and replaced it with his own before storing Baxter's body inside.
'Okay, it's time for me to go.' Abium changed his clothes into black ones, moved towards the slider window before opening it, and then jumped from the second floor. A moment later, he blended into the darkness and left the mansion without alerting the guards.