Emerging outside the city within a dense forest, Jason took a deep breath as he looked at Shane who returning his gaze

"What?" Shane simply asked, but when he heard Jason's next words, he could only frown.

"Are you okay, master?"

Jason understood that it must have been extremely difficult to kill his acquaintance who he probably even considered a friend for a long time, and in the end, he was the reason for this.

As such, Jason couldn't help but feel bad even if it was not his fault that Old Drake chooses to betray them, which was the reason for him to ask his master if he was doing okay.

Seeing him sighing, Jason's guilt intensified before he heard Shane saying.

"In the end, this has nothing to do with you and was something between Old Drake and me. Both of us fought against each other quite often, until he received a serious injury that almost broke his mana core.

It was then when he began to change and if I had been a little bit more careful, I would have noticed that he wanted to have you in his grasp…"

Shane's eyes turned serious, as he explained.

"In a world that is ruled by the strong, you will never be able to know for sure whom you can trust fully...Only a soul contract might be able to reassure you that!"

Hearing this, Jason nodded his head but he felt weird by his master's words because they didn't force him into a soul contract when they accepted him as a disciple.

Knowing what his disciple was thinking about, Shane forced himself to grin.

"Right now you're wondering why we didn't demand a soul contract from you, right? Well, in the end, the reason is quite simple.

By becoming our disciple you are already deemed to be pursued by other big families because I eradicated the Shore family.

Now that I killed Old Drake, the Drake family will probably actively search for me and once someone finds out that you're my disciple, they will hunt you which is much easier than hunting me.

Even if we don't have a soul contract, right now you are forced to rely on me and Dalia which is much more important than a soul contract because it is highly likely that you will trust us more this way.

In the future, you might as well betray us but if that were to happen, other big families would never know if they could trust you even a tiny bit without a detailed soul contract.

As such, you would either be forced into submission by a big family, everywhere deemed as untrustworthy and suspicious, or directly pursued because of your high potential."

Jason's eyes widened when he heard Shane explaining everything, and he couldn't help but praise his masters' craftiness inwardly as their train of thought was certainly true.

Right now, he relied on his masters, and betraying them would be comparable to crippling himself as the big families would definitely force him into submission.

He never thought about betraying his masters but he felt a little bit annoyed that their reason for not demanding a soul contract was only their scheming and not amity towards him.

Shane could only smile lightly when he saw Jason's expression as he added.

"We also liked your determination, unbreakable will to become stronger, and attitude towards others, which were definitely also a reason for not demanding a soul contract from you"

Smiling when he heard these words, Jason was satisfied even if he knew that Shane only added the last sentence to please him.

They were still in the forest and Shane wanted to continue their journey towards their new hideout that was situated far away, when Jason suddenly asked.

"Is it possible for us to enter the Fler's house for a moment? I want to write a short message to them….and if it's not too much, I would like to go somewhere else too…"

Pondering for a moment, Shane thought that the first request was not too much and would at most take a few moments when he began to wonder what the second request might be.

"If it doesn't take too long it's fine, but where do you want to go?"

Smiling faintly, Jason's eyes turned suddenly cold and melancholic which wondered Shane who lifted an eyebrow by this sight, when his disciple said.

"I want to make a stop at the Cerus family mansion in Artes city!"

"Huh?" Shane subconsciously blurted out, when he remembered that Jason came from Artes city, but he still didn't know what he wanted to do with the Cerus family.

Seeing that his master was confused, Jason decided to reveal that his mother was employed in the Cerus family when he was younger and that she was killed there when a mysterious young family's heir went on a rampage after being defeated by the older Cerus family heir.

Hearing this for the first time, Shane was astonished and he slowly understood what Jason wanted to figure out at the Cerus mansion.

It was unknown when they would return to Astrix and it looked like Jason was finally ready to get to know who killed his mother.

However, when Shane heard this, there was something else that bothered him.

'If an heir from another clan or family dares to kill the Cerus family's servants during an event or party without anyone doing something against him, while at the same time preventing the news from spreading outside, it might be more problematic than Jason thinks….Reporter are greedy hyenas and if it were to be a small family feud, the news would have already spread but the mysterious clan seems to be influential'

In the end, Shane decided against telling Jason what he assumed as he only nodded his head, agreeing to his disciple's second request.

Shane also said that he can help to interrogate the Cerus family if they were to be stubborn as long as both disguised themselves.

Hearing this, Jason was thankful for this offer which he accepted without hesitation.

Manifesting a spatial portal, both emerged within the Fler's house, where Jason immediately searched for a piece of paper and a pen, which was extremely difficult because both were rarely used in their current era.

Pondering what he should write, he decided to keep it simple instead of melancholic or dramatic.