It took a bit of traveling along the front lines, but Kaden eventually did find a place where there were signs of recent battle. Sacronan was basically just defending. They had only some idea what was happening and seemed to be only connected to rest of the front line. They lacked manpower with a lot of them wounded, but were still able to defend the area.

Kaden knew from Nelsen that saints were throwing an attack to the place repeatedly due to the weakness of the spot. It was less significant part, though, and bigger fights were just a bit further away. So while defenders were weakened, the attacking force wasn’t much better.

It was a good spot to try go across. They were far too busy with everything else and to truly making sure no one really passes by unnoticed would spread them too thin. Perhaps they would at best know someone made movements, but they wouldn’t go after.

For a moment Kaden thought of causing some problems to them, but he couldn’t think of a good way to do so. Instead he rushed through after making sure there were no traps or anything along the way.

“That was easy”, Kaden thought to himself. “I’m now back at Saint Empire. There might be dangers on this side too, but its still better.”

Nelsen had told Kaden to return to the nearby saint encampment and report is return there. Then go back to Corand where Nelsen was. Whatever happened from then on would be revealed then.

Kaden didn’t really want to report his location, but there were some military rules that needed to be followed.

“I guess its not a problem”, Kaden thought as he went towards the saint fortified areas.

There was a slight commotion when he appeared, but soon his identity was verified. There wasn’t really anyone else who looked like Kaden and military had its ways to confirm identitites anyway. Kaden was not entirely aware of the details, but it had something to do with your aura, presence that everyone generates. It was something Kaden had wanted to try circumventing, but it was still work in progress.

At first the soldiers looked suspiciously at Kaden. Their opinions quickly changed for the better once they heard it was Kaden who caused the damage behind the front lines making their lives much easier.

To Kaden this was entirely secondary. It would be good that these people looked at him favorably, but technically he viewed them as future enemies so he didn’t really care what they thought.

Kaden was at the encampment for some time giving a detailed report. He had traveled quite a long distance in Sacronan’s territory and had seen things. Obviously, he had known he would give such a report and had thought up ways to hide some things. This included such things as the visit to Dashire and the Sandstorm Hawk.

If someone did go and check the place, perhaps to hunt the beast by themselves, they might find signs of combat. Still, considering the beast swarm that he had triggered and all that, it was plausible that Sacronan had decided to put it down and only things that would point to Kaden were the attack types.

Kaden didn’t worry about this too much. The entire area was warzone. No one would without significant reason go do some detailed investigation. Besides the beast swarms in the area were Sacronan’s problem.

To begin with Kaden’s only worry was that someone would tie him to ordering around the beasts. That would be something he didn’t want anyone know about.

Kaden didn’t wish to waste any more of his time once he had given the report. He wanted to return to Corand. It was by far the best place to get resources. After all was done, he left immediately.

He still had to become stronger. Serin had almost managed to beat him at the end and only by chance had he gained ability to strike back.

While Kaden knew he could fight slightly stronger people than himself, his chance of winning was questionable. Serin had been at mid Formation Stage. What about Juren? Marwen? Erral?

All of them should be at least mid Formation Stage. Possibly advanced and perhaps even at limit. Possibly even beyond Formation Stage.

“Well, I didn’t ever think all this would be quick”, Kaden muttered to himself as he traveled along a road. “I was somewhat lucky with Serin.” Kaden pulled out Vengeance and listened Serin’s still screaming soul and then put Vengeance back. “I’ll probably get quite a few contribution points. I need to use them well.”

On his way back, Kaden expected more assassins. Yet, none came. He frowned a bit and wondered why the nobles were not using their best chance to get rid of him in secret as he was traveling alone where no one would be able to help him.

He even stopped at some random town he found along the way. He stayed at an inn for a few days. He had prepared himself for a fight and rigged the area with formations to help him. It too ended up being pointless work.

He should have appeared as easy target. More so when he spent some time cultivating and doing some of his research too.

“Could it be that they have yet to connect me and deaths of Olren and that Dorin?” Kaden wondered for a moment. “No, thats probably not it. Even if, they don’t have any proof, they should know.”

Did they simply not care? Was he not worth the effort? Kaden had always viewed the nobles as petty and vindictive.

Kaden felt odd, but eventually just started to assume they had something else in place and already prepared. Assassins and attempts to kill him had already failed several times. Perhaps they didn’t wish to try again until they were more certain of success.

“Also… perhaps I’m just being paranoid”, Kaden thought to himself.

He was used to being constantly in danger and thus always be careful. Then when there was clear reason to expect something and nothing came, it caused Kaden to feel some amount of irritation.

While Kaden was well accepting of uneventful way back to Corand, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat disapointed that he had no one to kill. There were even no strong beasts along the path he took due to it being basically in middle of human territory.

Kaden comforted himself by knowing he had a few people to kill in Corand and that there was no need to rush.

There was indeed no problems along the way. Any military points he went through, only assisted his return.

Once he reached Corand, he quickly went to the military layer. There he went to Verdict’s place, but there was no one there anymore.

“Hmph”, Kaden snorted as he looked around.

Walden had been quite useful, but he had been puppeted by the nobles to look into his background. He couldn’t be trusted. It was good he was dead.

Olren was an idiot who didn’t need to continue living.

Hem was a nobody who Kaden couldn’t really care less about.

Sari had been positive so her death was a bit of shame, but Kaden didn’t care about her either.

Nelsen had tried to arrange him to Judgement. That apparently didn’t happen, but something was going to happen. Eventually. His association with military was resources. Not of loyalty. If his plans went as he liked, most people would be his enemies. So anyone who knew about him, would need to die, if possible.

As for Nelsen, he was supposed to meet Kaden there at Verdict’s base. Nelsen was notified of Kaden’s return.

While waiting Kaden decided to mock the God of Laws at his altar.

“Haha, looks like some of your loyal minions kicked the bucket”, Kaden said in his mind as he stood before the altar. “That is the fate of those who worhship gods anyway. Used and then tossed away like trash. You gods are disgusting.”

While Kaden continued to mock the god, Nelsen came. To him it seemed like Kaden was praying to Jorn.

“Sometimes things just do not go our way”, Nelsen said to Kaden as he approached the altar too. “It is truly a shame.”

Kaden stopped mocking the god.

“So what happens now?” He asked. “I would like to have a chance to spend my whatever contribution points I have received and get access to more resources.”

“You are considered unfit to join Judgement”, Nelsen said after a moment. “Too young. Too… unpredictable.”

Kaden listened.

“Considering what you achieved, I tried to have you promoted”, Nelsen continued. “If they weren’t going to put you to Judgement, perhaps some other then. With rank, some roads would open. That too was rejected.”

Kaden frowned. He didn’t really care about rank other than access to, yet again, more resources.

“In fact, it seems like your progress to do anything is being blocked”, Nelsen told Kaden.

“Huh?” Kaden turned to look at Nelsen. “They can do that? Waste military resources for… whatever reason this happens.”

“It seems so”, Nelsen nodded. “You got your contribution points, though, and whatever resources you might still have left from the remnant or gained along the way. Better make good use of them. As long as you are being suppressed, you won’t be doing much. You are being put to sidelines. With Verdict gone, they can just let your status… float about.”

Kaden though the matter for some time. Its not like this was entirely a bad thing. If military truly became road with dead end, he could always go back to other ways. This also gave him time to maneuver things by himself and not be tied to missions or something else. Military was not his career. It was merely means to an end.

“I did plan to cultivate and research for a while”, Kaden said finally. “I’ll deal with that first and deal with future when I need to. I can play this game for some time.”

“I sure would like to know what this all is about”, Nelsen said. “Probably someone is very interested in whatever was done to you. I would guess, despite everything, it is a pretty good body enchancement.”

Nelsen wasn’t yet aware of the actual reasons. It would be good it to stay that way. False assumptions would delay whatever investigation there was going to be. Be it the nobles or Nelsen. To begin with, all this was due to Kaden simply stepping onto their plan to grab a bit more power. It was very likely only small amount of the nobles, those directly involved, that were causing everything.

Resources allocated to remove him were probably limited. If very few cared about him, that amount of resources would remain small.

Being on the sidelines wasn’t bad from this point of view. A lot of things could be done in such situations. Kaden’s goals in life were very different than whatever the nobles expect.

“Oh … and due to Verdict being basically gone, this place is being repurposed too”, Nelsen said and waved his hand a bit. “It seems you are being kicked out too and I have no place to give you right now other than common soldier barracks. This is slightly petty.”

“I have money”, Kaden replied. “Unless I’m being blocked from using it too?”

It wasn’t against any rules for soldiers to have their own residences as long as certain conditions were met. Those who succeeded and gained power, were allowed to use it. Money being one of them.

“That won’t be something they can completely deal with even if they were to try”, Nelsen shook his head.

“In that case, I will arrange something for myself”, Kaden nodded. “I have my phone unless thats being confiscated. If you have any arrangements for me, you can let me know.”

“Then all is settled”, Nelsen said. “Try not to die. Someone will eventually come after you.”

“Then that someone will die”, Kaden pointed out and walked out of Verdict’s base.

There wasn’t anything he wanted from there that he could take with him. He would need to arrange a mana forge, but he should be able to do that with his current resources.

Kaden now had a lot of things to arrange and surprisingly quite a bit of freedom to do so despite being supressed.