Stupefied, the middle-aged man stood there with an expression filled with total disbelief.

After some time has passed the man seemed to have calmed down. He took a few deep breaths and spoke again:

"Freaking hell! I knew it!"

He got closer to Arthur while closely inspecting him from head to toe. For some reason, he didn't even doubt for a second that it's a trick or some kind of hallucination.

"No corpse, no conclusive evidence about your death... I fucking knew it!"

After gazing at Arthur for who knows how long, he shifted his attention to the woman next to him. Average appearance and an expressionless face, her presence here is a complete mystery for him yet he tried to come up with some scenarios on his own.

"It's been a long time, Josef."

Arthur smiled as he stepped ahead and extended his hand for a handshake. However, the man didn't follow with the courtesy and instead went it for a sudden hug.

"Man... I just knew it! You couldn't have died like that. A heart attack? Motherfuckers don't even know how to lie!"

He whispered those words excitedly as he hugged Arthur, who didn't push him away or show any displeasure.

The short-lived reunion ended quickly, the man held Arthur's shoulders tightly and said

"Come come! This is gonna be a long afternoon!"

He gestured for Arthur and Lucy to stand on the comfortable chairs that are facing his desk while indicating for his secretary to go away only to find out that she already read the mood and understood that it's going to be a private conversation.

When all three people were seated, the man curiously threw some glances at Arthur and said

"I know you as a lonely man, so who might this lady be? Wait wait! Let me guess!"

He assessed Lucyf or a bit more and resumed

"I say she was your savior! Some kind of dramatic encounter where two fates were bound together, right? There's no way you can find a girl by yourself, much less a proper partner, after all, you're a loser in romance hahahaha"

He banged the desk as he mocked Arthur, who had a weird grimace on his face. Josef seemed to have hit the nail in the head but he didn't need to say the last part, or so thought Arthur.

"Indeed, she's my savior. You're still good at coming up with random yet correct assumptions."

Arthur tapped the table with his finger, a bit nervous that Josef would utter some embarrassing moments from the past.

"My name is Lucy MoonStar, his wife."

Lucy calmly introduced herself but her words only made Josef stop mid-laughter and stare at Arthur dumbfoundedly. To avoid any unnecessary explanation, Arthur waved his hand and added:

"It's complicated. Let's change the subject, shall we?"

"A-ah yes yes, I want to hear the details!"

Josef changed into a serious look and listened to Arthur, who briefly explained what happened and the events that led to his death. Obviously, anything about Astria and the reincarnation were omitted.

Going back in time for a few years, Arthur and Josef were close friends. Josef was probably one of the few friends Arthur had. They weren't best friends, neither were they simple acquaintances, in a way, they are more like business partners than friends but their relationship deepened with the passing of years.

Although Arthur wasn't sure of all the people who helped Claudia, he was at least sure that Josef is definitely not amongst them. Actually, the reason is really simple, he didn't have any reason to kill him or steal his money.

Josef is a businessman richer than Arthur by a lot, he had political power, a powerful backing and multiple companies with LobiSoft being the main one.

Going to such lengths as to torture him and get him assets wouldn't benefit Josef that much since he didn't really need them. Moreover, Josef, this man, is a sly person that would use tricks to win over many wealthy people but he had never backstabbed people. He's more of a direct person, a few people could handle him when his foul-mouth goes on a rampage, they would hear all kinds of insults.

Of course, there's no way to tell that he's the kind to backstab or betray his comrades or not but Arthur believed that he is a rather honest person compared to others, like Claudia.

"That snake bitch! All those tears I've seen were nothing but fart!"

Josef let out a long sigh when Arthur finished telling him the short version of his death. Although he kind of expected that Arthur was killed, he didn't think it'll be this horrific.

"So what are you gonna do?"

This time, it wasn't Arthur who answered but Lucy

"We're going to clean up the trash, obviously."

"That, I know. But going straight at Claudia isn't an easy thing, the guards around here are no joke."

Arthur chuckled and retorted

"Can those guards stop this?"

As he said that, he pointed to the center of the room where a jet black pit appeared. In an instant, a Death Knight more than two meters tall appeared, with an expressionless face, dark-clad armor and a greatsword on its back.

It was the embodiment of death, just looking at it brought chills to Josef, who was flabbergasted for a few seconds before he snapped out of his daze.

"I can't see its Level..."

Arthur shrugged and said

"It's because it's over a thousand."

"A-A thousand?"

His expression became exaggerated but instead of cowering in fear, Josef darted next to the Death Knight and started examining it, going through the armor and the weapon, without touching it, of course.

"I've heard rumors of some people acquiring the Necromancy skills but I knew they were nothing but dogshit. But... shit! This is the real fucking deal!"

Suddenly, the Death Knight looked at Josef thus causing the latter to flinch and take a step back but the look of curiosity never disappeared from his eyes.

"Can you summon more than one?"

"If I go all out then I can summon forty."

"f-forty.... one is more than enough to decimate all the Heroes on Earth."

"Yes, but I don't want to decimate anyone, I just want to pay back some debts."

Arthur seemed uninterested and summoned the Death Knight back. Josef took some time to collect himself and calm his fastly beating heart before he took his seat again.

Some time passed while the two talked about some minor things until Arthur asked about what's intriguing him from this morning

"By the way, that game your company created, Hell Gate, was it? Mind telling me more about it?"