Chapter 42: Double Trolled
A few days later...
"We have arrived at the Crestellan Empire." The carriage driver informed Ray and Belva.
Inside the carriage, Belva was massaging Ray’s legs and explained, "Once we reach the gate, we will have to exit the carriage and walk on foot. This is to show respect to His Majesty."
"Is His Majesty some carefree emperor?" Ray asked.
"Of course, not. His Majesty is a very busy person."
"Then why would he even care if he walked on foot or not? Isn’t this all just pointless action and wasting taxpayers’ money?"
"..."
Belva wanted to say something to defend the act, but realized he was actually right.
With magic, one could easily detect if there were any dangerous or banned items within a carriage. The protocol to walk on foot was simply to pay respect, and they would comply with the empire’s laws.
"I-It’s pointless, but if you value your life. I don’t suggest anyone will break that protocol." She smiled awkwardly.
"Does Father need to get off, too?"
"Of course, not. The Lord’s influence directly enabled him to take the special passage."
"Got it. I’m not influential enough."
How could he not tell she was indirectly jabbing at him for being a nobody?
’Forget it, good men don’t argue with women.’ Ray made sure to keep this as strictly a mental note, and not something like a slogan to be said aloud.
Sometime later, the two had to step out of the carriage for a supposed inspection.
"From the Carrion Household?" The inspection guard noticed the carriage symbol but failed to recognize the two.
"Where else?" Ray rolled his eyes.
When the inspection guard noticed his somewhat arrogant behavior, the former no longer suspected anything else.
"You may go." They calmly said and began the inspection of another carriage.
Once the two entered the empire, Belva quickly approached him. "Why did you give the guard an attitude?"
"Turn around, and you’ll see," Ray smirked.
Sure enough, Belva turned around and was dumbfounded.
The person who was behind them in the carriage was showing a polite attitude to the guard.
However, the truly shocking part was that the person actually got extorted.
"They’re extorting in public?"
"Why else?"
The current Crestellan Empire’s financial status wasn’t that great. They were on the red as of late with all the chaos ongoing.
What appeared to be glamorous on the surface was merely the shell. Inside the shell was just an empty carcass.
The inspection guards were blatantly extorting, but the majority of that money would be offered to their higher-ups, which would then be transferred to the empire’s treasury.
Otherwise, none of them would even dare to extort wealthy merchants in the heart of the empire.
"So you showed a cold attitude to make them back off?" Belva’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Ray halted his steps, turned to her, and flashed a solemn expression.
"Nope, I have absolutely no idea." He burst out laughing.
While Belva was rendered speechless and felt the urge to punch him, Ray continued his path. But little did she expect that she was double-trolled by him.
’If I said yes, wouldn’t it be exposed that I know more information?’ He had a feeling that an extortion would take place because the protagonist had also met with the same situation.
And since the system mentioned the unknown prologue had ended, the first Chapter should show William encountering his first trouble in the empire’s gate entrance.
’The entrance should be in the East area.’ Since the Carrion Household hailed from the North, he naturally arrived at the empire in the North Gate.
However, the event would happen at the East Gate. Time was ticking down, and he needed to act fast.
He was a villain, so what does a villain do?
They steal from the protagonist!
With William’s built-in plot armor, there was no need for him to receive too many buffs and connections.
Sylvie, the heroine, had already made contact with the protagonist, but there was still another early heroine available.
Samantha, otherwise shortened as Sam, was a commoner at birth.
Despite this, her talent as a magic archer was top-notch. The accuracy and the support she offered, whether it was mid or long range, were amazing.
And later in the story, she would also learn to wield a dagger to compensate for her short-range weakness.
After all, casting magic while being pressured in close proximity was difficult to do.
’If I can deceive Sam into working under me, how easy would my life become?’ This was like collecting SSR cards in a gacha game. The higher the tier, the better they were.
Of course, that didn’t mean the other inferior tiers were useless. The synchronization and compatibility were also important when forming a party.
"Are we not going to the academy?" Belva noticed the direction they were going didn’t align with the path that led to the academy.
"You ask too many questions." Ray snorted.
He was not the answer key.
Why should he answer everything she asked?
Not to mention, he was the master here, and not her. Just because he cut her some slack due to her tragic story here didn’t mean he was going to be lenient with her.
A few minutes later, Ray was starting to sweat from the speed walk. His endurance and stamina were truly pathetic.
’I really need to steal some endurance skill next time.’ He rarely used the skills he obtained because of his lack of stamina. That was especially so for the Feral Movement skill, which he devoured from the beast.
So far, he has only had Elemental Barrier, Rend, Feral Movement, and the most recent Necromancer.
He wasn’t complaining about his progress because he had attack, defense, mobility, and Lancelot.
However, what he lacked the most was the endurance to cycle through these moves.
Just when he was deep in thought about how to increase his endurance, someone suddenly bumped into him.
THUD!
"Damn!" Ray clutched his stomach tightly. He felt like he had just been hit by a truck.
The only difference was that he wasn’t going to be transmigrated because he already had!
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