"I see…" Erza was a bit startled when she heard his words. She soon remembered that in that samsara life, there was a rumour saying that Rage Guild had a close relationship with Glacier Family. Presumably, Vanessa's mother was someone from Glacier Family.
"Younger sister, this big brother truly hopes that you could think over this issue first before making any decision." Caesar quickly said as he was afraid that Erza would be acting recklessly again.
"Big brother should calm down. I'm not a fool." Erza smiled again.
"Really? You will let Edward live?" Caesar asked in doubt, but he was visibly relieved to hear her answer. Erza did not reply his question as she calmly drank her cup of tea.
"By the way, big brother, do you have a vacant room here? I just arrive in this city today and have not had the time to look for a place to stay."
"Of course! We have many vacant rooms here. Come, let me show you your room." Caesar was surprised at first before gladly brought Erza to the best Guest Room available in the mansion.
Arriving at the room, they talked a bit more before Caesar excused himself and leaving Erza alone to rest. After closing the door, Erza quickly inspected her room before setting up a barrier which prevented others to spy. There was nothing wrong to be extra careful.
Next, she took out Abraham's storage ring and carefully looked over all the items inside. As expected, it was full of riches. There were at least ten millions gold coins inside the ring, as well as several rare herbs and pills. However, they were not the item which Erza was looking for.
Finally, Erza's eyes caught on a jade slip amongst the many treasures. Thanks to the many books which she had read in Black Snow Royal Academy's library, Erza was aware that some people used jade slip to store information. Therefore, she quickly grabbed the jade slip and sent her mind in.
Soon, a large amount of information about Mirage City flooded into Erza's mind. Apparently, this was the map of the city and this was exactly what Erza was looking for. Five minutes later, Erza put down the jade slip and slowly pondering over something.
After consuming a few recovery pills, Erza then spent her next hour meditating, in order to restore her energy back to its peak. She was truly exhausted after such a long day. Once she felt better, Erza stood up and walked toward the window.
"Well.. my plan should work." Erza muttered to herself before she took out the Cloak of Aztaroth and put it on herself.
........
Even though it was late at night, Mirage City was still bustling with activities. Some went to brothels to enjoy themselves, while some spent their time with their comrades at the bars. Under a bright full moon, no one noticed the girl who was flying up in the air.
Along the way, Erza listened to the random discussions of the people below regarding the total annihilation of both the Rage Mercenaries and Collin Clan.
The Collin Clan and Rage Mercenaries had very strong reputations within Mirage City. For them to both be exterminated in such a short amount of time was surely a shocking news. It quickly spread throughout the city like wildfire. No matter if it was a small or large street, every person was talking about it.
At the same time, every single major power within Mirage City had immediately set out to scout for information the moment they heard about this.
...…..
'This should be the place.' Following the information she received from the jade slip, Erza finally arrived at the Glacier Family's Residence in Mirage City. It was located in the northern part of the city.
Just past the large hall behind the courtyard, Edward sat there looking at some books with two people by his side. Both of them were quite young, but their presence was strong and their eyes flickered with an unusual light, making others feel that these two were definitely not common people.
"Brother Edward, do you find the information that you are looking for?" One of them asked.
"Not yet… It will take some time as I need to go through these books one by one." Edward answered as he kept turning page after page.
"Take your time then. You should be safe here. Just let us know once you have find clues about the identity of the girl." The other person spoke up. She was a beautiful lady in her late twenties.
As the two people were going to take their leave, they suddenly felt a stinging pain coming from their necks. At the next moment, their heads fell down and rolled on the floor.
Hearing the sound of things fell down to the floor, Edward paused his reading and lifted up his head. To his horror, he saw his two friends' headless bodies released two fountains of blood before finally falling down to the ground.
Before Edward could react, he suddenly felt a stinging sensation from his chest. Looking down, he saw a familiar sword stabbing through his heart. He then saw the owner of the sword suddenly appeared in front of him.
"You….." Edward did not have the opportunity to finish his words as his body was quickly covered in flames before it turned to ashes.
Until the last moment of his life, Edward did not know what was the true reason behind his death. What did he do wrong to cause the girl to have such a dead enmity with him? He was quite sure that today was the first day he ever saw her.
"It is finally over." Erza muttered to herself. After making sure she did not leave behind any clues, Erza set the building on fire and quietly slip away.
Thanks to her Cloak of Aztaroth, no one in the city would be able to detect her presence, not even the city lord. After all, as a Late Knight, the cloak could hide Erza presence from anyone at the late stage of King Realm or lower. And it was widely known that the strongest expert in Mirage City was the city lord - Caesar, a Late King. Therefore, if Erza willed it, she could massacre the entire city without anyone knowing who was the culprit. Luckily, Erza was not that crazy.
As expected, the next day, the news of the assassination spread out like a wildfire throughout the city. At first, everyone assumed that it was done by Erza. However, after some investigation, it was reported that Erza actually stayed in the city lord mansion the night before.
Taking into account the tight patrols around the mansion, it was very unlikely that the girl could go out and come back unnoticed. In addition, the city lord himself and several officials told the public that they had been keeping close eyes at Erza's room throughout the night and were sure that she never left her room.
In the end, the case became unsolved and everyone attention gradually turned back to the incoming beast wave.
Three days later, a great fight broke out at one of the big clans in Mirage City - Naga Clan. Their patriarch was the sworn brother of Abraham, and had been creating a lot of troubles for Erza in these past few days. In the end, Erza's patience reached its limit and she decided to openly fight against the patriarch.
Arriving at Naga Clan's Residence, Erza was surprised to see the seven Mid Kings who slipped away during her fight with Abraham. However, it did not affect her much. Regardless whether they joined the fight or not, she was confident in her chance of winning.
In the end, after a short ten minutes fight against the patriarch, Erza successfully defeated her opponent and took his life.
Next, Erza turned to look at the seven Mid Kings with a clear killing intent. The seven men could clearly sense Erza's murderous aura and their faces quickly turned pale. It was not only once that they saw her killing a Mid King. The first time, they did not witness the fight till the end since they were busy helping Edward to get away.
However, this time, they had stayed throughout the fight and witnessed everything. Luckily, they did not join the earlier fight since each of them was a schemer. They wanted to observe the fight first before finding an opportunity to deliver a sneak attack. Unfortunately, Erza was stronger than they thought. She never left an opening for them to deliver a sneak attack.
After witnessing her earlier fight, the seven of them had lost their fighting spirit and could only look at Erza with a different expression than before, but mixed onto their faces was a great deal of fear.
"Stop! Young lady, please stay your hand." Seeing how Erza was staring at them with a look full of malice, one of the elders hurriedly called out to her while withdrawing his weapon as if showing his unwillingness to be Erza's enemy.
Erza snorted, "Be lenient to you? What a funny thing to hear. Just a moment ago, I had clearly sensed a killing intent from you guys, so don't blame me."
Erza's words had caused the seven to look afraid for a moment before the elder who had spoken up before said once more, "Junior, this is nothing more than a misunderstanding. We aren't from the Collin Clan nor Naga Clan. We were only invited by them. Today if you let us go, we will not be able to thank you enough."
"That's right, junior, if you let us go today, we will truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts." The other elder spoke quickly. At this critical juncture that would decide their life, both elders had already thrown away their high noble status for a better chance of survival. In addition, more importantly, they had no grievances or hatred with Erza.
Erza continued to stare at the seven men. She was silent for a moment before a small smile appeared on her face, "So it's like that? Then I'll give you a chance to live."
Upon hearing that, the seven King Realm Experts' eyes sparkled. Despite five of the seven not speaking up to protect themselves, they all had the same strong desire to live.
Seeing the strong desire to live, Erza's mouth began to grow wider as she spoke, "There is one condition to your survival. From today on out, you will surrender and pay your allegiance to me."
The seven men's faces suddenly had an unsightly look. Each one of them went silent as an intense struggle began to happen within themselves.
Knowing how the seven were not able to decide, Erza's face went cold for a moment, but inside, she was laughing. When she was fighting earlier, other than her Time and Fire abilities, she had used every inches of her power to overwhelm her opponent. It was indeed quite excessive, but she had actually planned it all out from the start.
Her goal was simple, by use of an overpowering amount of force, she would force the seven into submission and eventually use that power to expand her influence.