Necromancer Of The Shadows

Leopold sat in front of Alaric with a calm look on his face. Both of them were sitting on the ground under the shade of a willow tree and there was a small tea table between them.

Haruto, the fox with eight tails, poured tea for both of them and stood silently behind Alaric.

Leopold held the teacup and took a light sip, nodding his head in satisfaction when he found the taste of the tea quite good.

Alaric also took a sip of the tea and nodded his head in satisfaction.

"So, why are you here?" He asked while looking at Leopold and the man in black clothes who was standing behind him.

Leopold placed his teacup on the table and instead of answering the question, he looked sideways at the pond where a beautiful woman with short red hair and black eyes was sitting, looking at the fishes with a bored expression.

"Before I tell you my reason for coming here, do you mind telling me who she is?" Although the aura around the red-haired woman was very calm and Leopold felt she was quite weak compared to him, his instincts told him that she wasn't normal.

Alaric glanced at Anastasia, who had changed her appearance and took another sip of his tea.

"You don't need to mind her. She is the subordinate of one of the governors of my forest and came here to help me with some matters related to the Dark Forest."

Anastasia rolled her eyes upon hearing Alaric call her a subordinate of one of his governors but didn't say anything. She glanced at Leopold from the corner of her eyes but soon lost interest because even though he was a Rank Five Core Evolver, she could tell that he wasn't specialized in fighting and was more like a rich businessman.

"You allowed her to enter your hidden realm without taking any security measures against her..." Leopold said while looking at Alaric with a small smile on his face.

He knew that Alaric was a very cautious individual, and even now, the person sitting in front of him was just a fake projection instead of his real body. Before allowing him to enter the hidden realm, Alaric asked him and his subordinate to leave their weapons and storage rings outside.

But when he saw Anastasia, he immediately noticed she still had her storage ring and more importantly, from her expression, he could tell that she did not care about what Alaric was saying one bit, which was quite strange considering she was practically working under him.

"I thought with your cowardly personality you would never allow anyone to enter your hidden realm with their weapons and storage ring," Leopold remarked.

Alaric sipped his tea hearing Leopold and looked at him calmly.

"I think you've got something wrong, Leopold," He said in a plain voice while placing the teacup on the table. "Even if I allow you to enter my secret realm with your weapons, I can still kill you easily because you are too weak."

"You—" The person in black clothes who was standing behind Leopold was angry when he heard Alaric and wanted to say something, but his words got stuck in his mouth when a world-crushing pressure fell down on his body, forcing him to kneel on the ground.

"I advise you to keep your dog on a leash. I am an old man and I don't like undisciplined people," Alaric said in the same tone as before and the pressure the man in black clothes was feeling disappeared. The man panted heavily with cold sweat pouring down his forehead and he looked at Alaric with a wary expression.

Leopold didn't glance at his subordinate and looked at Alaric without any expression on his face. Although he wasn't showing any emotion, he clearly understood that Alaric was telling him to mind his own business and that he didn't need to tell him what he could or couldn't do.

'He is more aggressive than usual,' Leopold thought inwardly. He had provoked Alaric in the past, but most of the time, Alaric completely ignored his provoking and didn't care about it too much. However, earlier when he called him a coward (which he usually does whenever he meets him), Alaric was quite angry.

'Don't tell me he was angry because I called him a coward in front of her,' He thought and glanced at Anastasia who was looking at the pond while completely ignoring them.

'Is he trying to impress her?'

Leopold looked at Alaric strangely and felt this old man was trying to eat young grass. Though, he didn't know the young grass he was thinking about was as old as the world itself.

If Alaric knew what Leopold was thinking, he would have definitely broken his third leg. The reason he was annoyed when Leopold called him a coward was because for the past few days, Anastasia was also calling him a coward for staying in this hidden realm most of the time, and he was fed up with being called a coward.

He wasn't a coward; he was just a pacifist who didn't like fighting and needless troubles.

"So, care to explain why you are here?" Alaric felt the way Leopold was looking at him was quite strange, but he decided to ignore it and asked him in a plain voice.

Hearing Alaric, Leopold stopped thinking about useless things and his expression turned serious. "I am here because of that thief."

Alaric raised an eyebrow upon hearing Leopold.

"You know, you don't need to come here for such a trivial matter," He said in a calm voice. "My subordinates are still looking for him. I will immediately inform you the moment I find any clues about him."

Leopold took a deep breath upon hearing Alaric and clenched his fist. "Alaric, do you take me for a fool?"

"What do you mean?"

Leopold didn't say anything and looked at the man in black clothes. Seeing his master's gaze, the man in black clothes took out a few papers from his pocket and placed them in front of Alaric.

Alaric glanced at Leopold, who signalled him to look at the papers. Alaric picked up the papers from the table and looked at them and upon looking at them his eyes narrowed.

"This—"