"I've heard that some changes have taken place in the Ancient Beast Wilderness..."

"It's mentioned that, recently, something occurred deep within the Wilderness."

"Because of this, a tide of beasts walked out and launched a siege on the nearby cities. In just a few hours, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people had died."

As the wandering Knight spoke, his voice became low, like a storyteller who wanted people to imagine the bloody scene.

But then, his tone changed abruptly.

"Fortunately, before the beasts could break through the cities and enter the human land's hinterland, Duchess Lobelia arrived just in time."

"With her own strength and the teams of Knights following her, she was able to slaughter the beasts' leaders and drive the rest of the beasts back into the Wilderness."

"It is said that the Duchess has been staying near the Ancient Beast Wilderness ever since, putting pressure on the beasts and preventing them from launching another attack."

The admiration in the Knight's voice was apparent.

It was clear that he held Duchess Lobelia in high regard, just like most people in the northern part of the Empire did.

Liora kept this admiration in mind, but most of her focus was on the first part of his speech. The Duchess's great achievements were secondary.

"Have the beasts launched another wave of attacks? What a coincidence..."

Liora's first thought was that this was related to her destroying the Necronomicon Sect's stronghold.

Though she could not comprehend exactly how, everything pointed to this being true.

After all, it had been many years since the beasts last launched an attack on human cities.

Yet, it happened shortly after she destroyed that stronghold. It was almost impossible that this was a mere coincidence.

Very likely, the two were directly related. Or rather, one was the cause of the other.

While Liora was deep in thought, the conversation beside her continued.

It was just that now the topic had abruptly changed.

The wandering Knights no longer talked about the Ancient Beast Wilderness, but instead commented on the Empire's famous nobles.

"Among all the nobles of the Iron Armor Empire, Duchess Lobelia is the most admirable. She has single-handedly stopped the waves of attacks by the beasts for so many years. If it were not for her, hundreds of thousands of people would have died at the beasts' hands."

"As for the worst? Hmph!"

"Of course it's Duke Dandelion! I'll never understand how a person like him could become a noble, much less a Duke. It's simply a miracle!"

By the end of their speech, the voices of the Knights grew quieter.

Obviously, while they had a lot to say about the various nobles, they knew very well that their conversation should never be overheard.

Otherwise, let alone if any of the nobles mentioned overheard them, if one of the underlings did, they would end up in trouble.

Of course, the wandering Knights didn't know that a Devil with the hobby of eavesdropping happened to be nearby.

No matter how much they tried to lower their voices, their conversation failed to escape Liora's senses.

And she was quite interested in what they were talking about.

"Although there are many Knights, and Knight Techniques are not very difficult to obtain with my current strength, the ones that can allow people to reach the Great Knight rank are rare."

Only the Knight Techniques that reached the Great Knight rank had accompanying skills that could enhance Liora's combat power.

Therefore, it was only in such techniques that she was actually interested.

"Most of these techniques are in the hands of the famous nobles. Take the Duke and Duchess, for example."

"As Great Knights themselves, the Knight Techniques they practice must obviously have accompanying Knight skills."

Unfortunately for Liora, after the wandering Knights mentioned a couple more high-level nobles, the topic shifted yet again.

From talking about nobles, they had jumped to speaking about their partners, girlfriends, and wives.

Liora had no interest in this.

After she waited for some time and saw that the Knights had no intention of changing the subject, she raised her hand and called the waitress over.

After she threw a few coins and paid for the drink, she calmly exited the bar, leaving the chattering noise and laughter behind her.

Soon, she did a 90-degree turn and stepped into a dark alley.

With a move of her mind, a light struck at the space before her, causing it to split apart like a piece of paper.

The next moment, Liora stepped forward and entered the Space Orb demi-plane. The gap in the space disappeared.

--

Not much time had passed since she last entered, and, thus, not many changes had occurred within the demi-plane.

The spoils of the previous battle were still there and waiting for Liora to inspect them, while the only living person was currently asleep.

With metal chains binding her limbs and restricting her movements, and an array surrounding her and rendering her unconscious, Diana had no way of getting out of this place without Liora's permission.

Liora didn't take care of the items for now.

The reason she had come here was not them, but Diana. Or rather, she wanted to get some information out of her.

The conversation in the bar had made her next goals clearer and prompted her to seek more information regarding the famous nobles.

After all, she was bound to come into contact with them sooner or later.

Since the wandering Knights could not provide her with valuable information, Liora chose to speak to the next best person: Diana.

Approaching her, Liora's mind connected to the running array.

With a thought of her mind, the Devil Runes surrounding the unconscious woman flashed crimson before retreating, fading away as if they never existed.

As a result, Diana's eyelids began to twitch. Soon after, her eyes opened.

The first thing that Diana saw upon waking up was Liora's standing figure. Seeing this, the memories of what had happened before she fell asleep resurfaced in her mind.

Recalling the strange method that had placed her in sleep and made her unable to dream, much less think, Diana couldn't help but shiver.

However, she forced herself to calm down. With a cold expression, she raised her head, looked at Liora, and asked:

"Have you thought about my previous offer? Are you finally ready to join the Holy Church's ranks?"

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