My Soul card is a Reaper

"And this company Arc also seemed to quite suspicious. For a company that deals with mining rare materials, collecting beast corpses, and manufacturing blank cards, its assets are quite astonishing. Its net worth is over 3.8 trillion credits. 

But, they got a clean chit from WAMO. That means their finances are legit. What's more, nine of their board directors are anonymous. Even WAMO could only find out a couple of their names. These two are public figures who enjoy high respect in society. They were also damn wealthy. Maybe, that is where the company's funds are coming from."

Azzy assumed that this was probably why Agent Alder wanted to get closer to Aaron and get into the inner circle as the latter suspect that the company is somehow involved with the dark organization 'Assad'.

"Anyways, let's focus on this Arcana festival. 6 days isn't a long time. I need to meet Flora and discuss it with her."

***

The next day morning;

"Everyone, this is Albert. He is going to take my place after the summer." Aaron introduced a buffed fellow standing beside him in silence.

Albert only bowed slightly as a way of his greeting and stayed silent. Aaron nudged him with his elbow and whispered, "C'mon, say something."

As Albert sharply glared at him in return, Aaron awkwardly smiled at the rest of the staff members and covered it up, "He is quite a shy fellow and will take time to get familiar with the strangers. Don't go after his appearance. But, when at work, he is the best man for the job. I can assure you that."

"A legendary realm expert, eh? It looks like 'Arc' company is really taking me seriously. Or he might be sent to keep the principal at bay while Aaron thinks that he could handle me. Either way, it'll be fruitless," thought Azzy as he glanced at the newbie who tried to steal his job.

Meanwhile, the other guy was trying his best to sense Azzy's soul but he could feel nothing. He felt as if Azzy doesn't have any soul orb or soul energy. 

It led him to believe that Aaron did right to become wary of this teenage-looking Arcana Master.

For the next few days, Albert followed Azzy every time he goes outside the academy. 

As a highly skilled assassin, he knew how to erase his presence, but to his bad luck, Azzy could see the aura of the humans. And his invisible state isn't strong enough to escape the Reaper's senses.

Hence, Azzy knew Albert's presence as he went out. As he almost completed his investigation, he didn't need to go out but he just roamed out to have some fun in the amusement parks or sports complexes in order to dash his hopes.

But, what Albert doesn't know is that Azzy also followed him every time he goes out on his own. With the Erasure skill card, Azzy was safe from getting sensed by anyone below the supreme realm. Hence, he was able to escape Albert's senses.

Unfortunately, Albert majorly goes out to buy either beast carcasses from the market or some high-grade weapons from the black market. 

Four days went by with neither of them getting any useful information they seek from the other.

However, on the night of the Friday, Azzy's patience paid it off. Albert didn't go to the black market that day. Instead, he used the world portal points for the first time during the past week.

Closely following him from behind, he stood beside Albert without touching him or any other human as the teleportation formation was lit up below them.

Both of them disappeared at the same time and reappeared in the city of Emberfall, a tier-3 city in the Republic of Llyne with a population of less than 200,000.

As Azzy was about to follow Albert, the Reaper first advised him to scan the city. They don't want to have any 9-star realm Arcana Master within the ranks of the enemy as it would make his invisibility useless.

Luckily for Azzy, no aura present in the city is stronger than this Albert. He then followed his target from the sky, not wanting to accidentally bump into someone on the sidewalk.

Albert boarded a taxi and went to the branch office of 'Arc' company. Azzy's suspicions only increased further and closely followed him until he went to the second floor where a huge projector screen was placed on the wall.

After wearing a blank mask, he opened the laptop and logged in to a website. Azzy didn't forget to note down the website name in his mind and continued to watch.

Soon, the projector screen was divided into nine sections, and one after another, masked men started to appear in their respective sections.

"Please confirm your codename and code number. I'm Falcon 94," said Albert.

"Cheetah 11" "Zebra 45" "Gorilla 77" "Alligator 04" "Pegasus 26" "Hydra 81" "Platypus 71" "Orca 60" "Dragon 00" "Elephant 38"

While Azzy mentally noted down those codenames and code numbers, Albert nodded and continued, "As you all know our previous plans have been canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. Fortunately, we have another opportunity tomorrow but without your help, it cannot be accomplished."

"Yeah, I know. We have agreed to it long ago but do we really need to send that many experts to kill one person?" asked the woman with codename Pegasus.

Albert nodded firmly, "Yes, we do. This person isn't that simple. He has the knowledge of the ancient sealing technique that can seal the soul orbs of his opponents. He also seemed to be able to manipulate the natural energy from the surroundings. 

According to Aaron, this person is highly suspected to be the person who ambushed him on the night Aaron killed Alder after finding out that he is an agent from WAMO, not knowing the real truth about him.

If his suspicions are right, then, we will be dealing with a necromancer, who can manipulate natural energy, summon a legendary realm undead creature, a strong sealing master, had the Arcana of the mythical genie, and a cunning person who doesn't hesitate to use underhanded methods.

Unless we have a team of legendary realm experts and a supreme realm expert as a backup, it is just riskier to deal with him. Not to mention, there will be other teachers alongside him. They might interfere. You never know. If only we have more time, it wouldn't come to this."

"I guess you are right," commented the masked fellow with the codename Alligator. "His life is much more valuable for us than for Aaron. We can't risk him getting executed."

Hearing that, the one with the codename Dragon, "If it really comes to that, before it happens, we will have to assassinate him in his cell and steal his corpse."

"Oh, please, come to the ground, Dragon." The person with the codename Hydra chuckled in response. "Did you forget how many times we have tried it and failed? If we could do that, we would be able to escape him long ago."

"We will go all out and I myself will go with Elizabeth Bathory," growled 'Dragon'.

'Hydra' countered his statement in calmness, "And that way, our cover will be blown off and everyone here will be marked for death."

"You…" As 'Dragon' looked like he was about to erupt, Albert took control of the situation, "Calm down you two. Let's focus on what we have now."

Standing behind Albert in the invisibility state, Azzy mumbled in a bit of surprise, "Elizabeth Bathory? I have heard that name. She's still alive?"