My Soul card is a Reaper

Soon after, Azzy escorted the wounded old man and his family to his home, leaving the young noble alone in the marketplace.

He introduced himself as Rael, who came from Planet Xyrian of the Empyreon plane in order to make a name for himself.

Through his subtle interrogation, which he was very good at, Azzy found out that the young noble he beat up earlier is actually the son of a captain who serves as the Knight of the House of Celestial Flame.

The House of Celestial Flame is one of the four major noble houses of Aurelis, headed by Archangel Michael. By sheer coincidence, he actually flew into the region of Aurelis, and that too, to the planet ruled under the same major house.

However, the major houses don't directly control the world. The minor houses do.
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One can imagine the Archangels as Kings. The heads of the major houses are Dukes. The heads of the minor houses are Barons.

Each minor house rules a world in this one-planet star system.

The major houses always compete with each other to increase the number of worlds in their control. As such, the number of minor noble houses below them isn't exactly the same.

Due to the absence of Archangel Michael for the past few decades and Adam, the acting King, mostly staying away from the affairs of the angels, Aurelis has lost its status as the strongest kingdom under heaven and is currently somewhere in the middle, with almost one-fourth of its territories snatched away by other kingdoms.

Hence, the joining requirement for the Knight has been significantly lowered.

However, Azzy didn't choose the easiest route of direct application, since it would no doubt expose him before he could even get to meet Claire.

Another new piece of information he found from this village chief is that Princess Claire is also majorly found at the Knight Academy of Celestial Flame. She was supposedly working as the head of Card Creation, a recently founded department in the academy.

Claire brought the knowledge from her high school to establish the department there, making everyone understand the importance of Card Creation. How skill cards make their battles easier, how storage cards can be bound to one's soul and replace traditional storage bags and rings, how message cards can be used for communication, etc…

Angels, who don't have blacksmiths, had it tough to manufacture them, but Claire seems to be working on it. At present, this technology has yet to become public, apart from skill cards, as they are just one-time-use blank cards where people can store their techniques as they wish.

Azzy chose the tournament route as a result.

As long as one reaches the top-8 at any regional tournament (on any planet), they will be receiving the academy pass to study there. Those who went through that route wouldn't have to pay any fee.

But, for those who want to enter normally, the fees would touch as high as ten million per annum.

Azzy might have fifty million grace shards in his dimension bag but he doesn't want to spend them uselessly as he might need those for other basic necessities.

He chose the tournament route, and luckily for him, a tournament was being held in the town, not far away, about a couple of hundred kilometers away.

At first, he thought of settling in that town, but, at the thought of this young noble coming back at this village chief later for revenge, he decided to stay with them at their residence.

During his first three days of stay in the village, Azzy learned that the angels in this village were all nice and good people. Weak and fearful to the strong. They don't have the courage to help the weak, but they atleast have kindness and are very helpful to those who are unfortunate. They were also trusting people.

The village chief and his family trust Azzy, a stranger with their hearts. There is a teenage girl in their house, and yet, they don't seem any discomfort with a stranger adolescent male living with them.

It is like their world is black and white. As far as pure bloodline angels are considered, their personalities seem to be either good or bad. There is no gray section here. Bad doesn't mean one is a criminal or sinner. It is just like that young nobleman who acted arrogantly. His personality is bad, as far as everyone thinks.

All of this improved his impression of the Angels. And this also increased his dislike of the Nephilims.

Two more days passed but that arrogant Angel never returned. And the time for Azzy to leave this village has also come.

The night before the day of his departure, the teenage girl, Elise, couldn't sleep. She came out of the house and flapped her wings to fly to the roof; there, she saw Azzy lying there and watching the stars.

"Big Brother," She greeted him, landing beside him and taking him by surprise.

"What are you doing here, at this time?"

"Can't sleep. What about you?"

He slowly got up to a sitting position, letting out a sigh, "Missing my parents and my little sister. It has been a while since I left my home."

Taking a seat beside him, Elise said, "My father always says that I'm the most talented in the village. Once I turn 16, I should leave home and pursue to become a Knight. But, is it really worth leaving our loved ones for the sake of attaining some authority and power? It's not like everyone can become an ascendant and live for thousands of years."

Unlike on Gaia, where Arcana masters slowly earn a life span every time they break through to the next rank, the Angels here had a maximum of three years of life span, regardless of their tier. Only when an angel becomes an ascendant/demigod, does their lifespan increase multifolds.

Hence, for some with low aptitude and who live in villages, improving their tier appeared to be pointless.

Elise looked to be one of them, although her age and attachment could be one of the reasons.

Azzy looked at her and asked, "Do you want to become a Knight?"

Elise tilted her head, "Not really, but I like to fight the bullies."

Azzy chuckled, "Then, you must pursue it, especially if you want to fight against those bad guys who want to bully the weak, just like I did."

"I will follow Big Brother's example," Elise nodded firmly, making a determined expression. Azzy couldn't help but smile again, wanting to ruffle her hair but forced himself not to do it.

He then took out a skill card from his dimension bag and handed it to her, "Use this when you and your family are in crisis. Just pour your energy into this and Big Brother will come to your rescue, alright?"

"Eh?"

The next day;

At Town Cardel, many Angels from nearby villages and many from far away places arrived for the tournament and lined up in front of the registration desks.

There was a floating island right above the town where the semi-annual tournaments were supposed to take place. Such islands were dozens in number all over the world.

While these floating islands looked cool, it is also just nothing but a simple island floating in the air. There was nothing on top of it.

After paying a nominal fee of 10000 grace shards, Azzy received a token, which he carried in his hands as he went to the floating island by landing on top of one of the pillars that acts like an elevator. There are 3-star and 4-star ranks in the contestants who had yet to sprout their wings. Hence, such arrangement seemed perfect for Azzy, who doesn't want to showcase his wingless flying ability or his twelve golden feathered wings.

There, a guardian angel checked out everyone's tokens and grouped them in one spot until it was noon and the registrations stopped altogether and a giant barrier was raised to cover the floating island, barring entry to others.

Azzy found himself in the midst of atleast four hundred Angels, of which, the strongest one was only around 5-star rank, excluding the guardian angel who seemed to be at mid-7-star rank. Hence, he too suppressed his strength to a 5-star rank.

Meanwhile, far away in the Silver City;

A Seraphis walked into a large prayer hall and knelt down to an elderly-looking angel, who was silently staring at a giant statue resembling a man sitting on a throne.

"High Commander Zeraphiel, there is a grave news. We confirmed the death of…"

The elderly angel raised his hand, stopping him from speaking further. He spoke in a deep tone, "I know. I'm also aware that his death wasn't caused by the outer god. It was caused by the death."

"There is also another news, High Commander," said the Seraphis. "There is an appearance of a young Seraphis in the world of Astrael. A rumor states that he is from the outer world."

"A Seraphis from the outer world? That's impossible." Zeraphiel, the high commander of God's Army and the leader of the Seraphis race turned his head in surprise, "Find him."