Lyle opened his eyes as the chirping of birds that had perched themselves on the roof woke him up. He had only slept for a little bit, but it was enough for him, well, at least it used to be.
He felt sleepy and tired, but he had to get up. The first thing on his mind was to move out of the inn. He got up and got dressed before going to the corner of the room to retrieve his things.
He had hidden a suitcase where his gear was located and a spatial ring.
He quickly transferred everything over to the spatial ring that he had taken from Ilya as it had much more space.
The one that he wore only had 2 cubic meters of space, which, although plenty to store important things, was simply not comparable to the one he had right now.
Even the ring he had, the lowest grade of a spatial ring, was incredibly expensive and Lyle had forked out about 10 000 gold coins for it. For comparison, an average family in the empire would have a yearly income of about 100 gold coins, making it impossible for them to afford such a thing.
The empire had over 1 billion people, and even though a majority lived a normal life and simply worked in order to provide for their families, the minority that was wealthy and powerful still numbered in millions.
Compared to other empires in the world, the Golden Lion Empire of which Lyle was a part was a middle-ranked empire.
The stronger empires not only had a larger territory, but the population was higher as well, especially the two strongest empires of the world.
The Empire of the Soaring Sun was led by the most powerful human in the world, Arshavin "The Sunborn" Ilithel.
The other was the Moonless Night Empire which was led by the Empress of the Night, Isabella de Cosse herself.
The two empires were the two largest empires in the world, but there were 3 others that were as powerful as they were.
The kingdom of the dragon king, which although smaller in size and lesser in population was in no way less powerful.
The realm of the elves was another place where even though their numbers were not as high as the two empires, each of their people had incredibly long lifespans and could live for hundreds of years. The ruler of the elves was one of, if not the oldest living being on the Corleon planet and was incredibly powerful.
The final power that was equal to the three was one that was probably even above them individually. The underwater realm that was ruled by the lord of the dead sea was the vastest of them all.
The powerful sea creatures there couldn't even be counted while the lord of the dead sea was the most powerful being that none could defeat when he was underwater.
Luckily, most of the creatures couldn't go on land and the lord couldn't fight with his full power on land or air, otherwise, they might have even conquered the whole world simply because of how many of them there were.
The Golden Lion Empire had become a middle-ranked empire mostly thanks to the previous duke who was the second strongest person in the empire, his talent, however, was above all and it was a given that he would have reached the realm above Titled Knight in the future.
The empire only had one person in that realm and it was the protector of the empire, the oldest human of the empire that was near his final years. Compared to other middle-ranked empires, they were weaker.
Lyle packed and left his room before making his way down to the reception. The receptionist recognized him from yesterday and was quite understanding of his reason for leaving the inn.
Lyle told her that he needed to go back home after all that has happened and that he feared the city might get locked down again because of the duke's death. He thanked them for the good service before stepping out and making his way to another inn.
He was wearing his disguise as he used the kit he had previously in the bathroom. The first thing he needed to do was to find a place to change his appearance once again before going to the inn.
He walked before reaching a restaurant, upon entering it he was seated and ordered food. The food came relatively quickly as Lyle had ordered some simple dishes. He ate it before paying and going to the toilet.
Upon entering the toilet, Lyle first locked it before taking out his disguise kit and changing his appearance and clothes. He quickly finished doing it before leaving the restaurant and walking to another high-class inn.
He did the same as before, he found a room that was on the top floor and paid 200 gold coins to book it for a week. The price might sound steep, but the inn was almost full, and so were the upper rooms.
Lyle's plan for the coming week was to simply go to the forest every night and hunt monsters. He needed to regain a part of his strength before returning to Orsvald, one of the largest cities in the empire and the headquarters of the organization.
Lyle could be considered to be part of the upper echelons of the organization, his strength wasn't as high as the others of his rank in the organization, but his great talent and high success rate during mission had been enough for him to progress.
The backing of the old man who had recruited him into the organization so long ago was also another factor. Lyle had only met the man thrice after the initial encounter. The first time was after he had finished the training and was introduced to the organization and was about to become a formal member.
The second time was after he had managed to progress and join the middle ranks of the organization while the last time was a mere 2 months ago when he had risen to a high-ranking individual in the organization.
The old man was one of the top members of the organization, a Shadow. There were only 4 Shadows in the entire organization and each one was as powerful as a Titled Knight or archmage.
Compared to a Titled Knight or archmage, however, a Shadow was weaker in direct combat, but that was because they were assassins and their main way of fighting was by using a stealth attack to kill the enemy in one hit before leaving.
Not only was Lyle not close to a Shadow, but he wasn't even a Night Blade, which would be the equivalent of Tier III for assassins. Of course, Lyle was different as his vampiric side allowed him to fight a knight of the same tier evenly, while his transformation boosted his strength to be almost equal to a Night Blade for a short period of time.
Spending time in the restaurant allowed Lyle to find more information about what had transpired after he left the city. The royal soldiers had taken over the castle and the whole city, they were quick and efficient and nobody had left the castle yet.
'All of those that were part of the duke's entourage are probably jailed right now, the soldiers have probably been able to find any documents that they needed to link the duke with the enemy as well.' Lyle thought as he entered his room.
'Ilya's chambers will definitely be searched as well, the old bastard has probably put formation after formation to protect any important things he had, the soldiers will probably be unable to crack the formations and if a formation expert doesn't come, they might suffer the backlash or even get the documents and other things he had hidden to be destroyed.'
'I would love to go and try to get some benefits, but I can't, the commander is a peak Golden Knight, even back in my prime I would have had no chance to defeat him, even assassinating him would have been impossible, not to mention sneaking in right now underneath his nose.' Lyle thought before lying down on the bed.
'It's still morning, I need to get some more rest, and allow my wounds to heal before heading out tonight, I wonder how hard it will be to get out, from what I have heard, the soldiers are not banning anyone from exiting or entering the city, I hope it continues like so until I leave.'
Lyle fell asleep before waking up after about 9 hours of sleep. He had previously woken up in the morning and right now, the sun was starting to set. Sleeping for so long was something that Lyle hadn't done for ages.
He got up, and went down to have some dinner before returning to the room and checking his gear.
He nodded before donning some normal clothes and leaving the inn. He would first leave the city before putting on his gear.