“Brother, I’ve been waiting for you. I was originally going to contact you when you’re back, but…”
Upon seeing the great hospitality that the exhausted Baris was showing him, Davey immediately flicked his brother’s forehead.
“Aaack?!” Baris shrieked. He fell to the ground, looking up at Davey in embarrassment at the sudden turn of events.
Then, noticing the change that had occurred in his body, he immediately jumped up and exhaled. He exclaimed in awe, “Ah…!”
“It’s a simple fatigue recovery. How many days have you been awake?”
“Haha. Who knows? Probably a couple of days…?”
A person would probably have gone crazy without getting any sleep for three days or more. However, Baris had held out pretty well. It seemed like the playful and mischievous boy was now gradually growing from being exposed to the actual workings of the kingdom.
“Is it hard?”
“Yes. It’s hard,” the rascal unhesitantly said with a smile. “But I think that’s because my passion has grown. As I learn how to manage the state and kingdom’s affairs, I began to realize how hard our father is working.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course, I have made some mistakes over the course of my learning.” Baris chuckled, pulling out a letter from the inner pockets of his uniform. “This is a report. I did some research with the help of the book that you, Brother, has lent me for a while. It seems like the reports about a fire breaking out of the Haoji Mines were true.”
“The culprit?”
“That… I don’t think it’s the work of a human. Please take a look at this.”
Unlike on modern Earth where science and technology were spread far and wide, the Haoji Mines, with its poor technology, was a famous killing ground with abysmal human rights. Due to that reason, most of the miners being sent to that location were sinners or criminals.
Of course, this was unsurprising. The Rowane Kingdom had a law that deprived the sinners and the criminals of any human rights.
After leading Davey to the basement, where a body laid on top of a large stone bed, Baris said, “The rest of the bodies have been burned to ashes. There’s only one cause of death. No matter how I think about it, all I can say is that a fire was set to burn all of the possible traces. However, we did find this one body.”
He rubbed his exhausted and tired eyes, fixed his glasses, and then removed the cloth covering the lifeless body.
—They suffered greatly.
‘These f*cking bastards.’
There was no need to determine the cause of death anymore. However, just to be sure, Davey placed his fingers on the corpse’s neck and silently released his holy mana.
“Brother, it’s the vampires, right?”
“That’s right. And it’s a pretty strong bastard too.”
A radical vampire’s body was always surrounded by a strange and mysterious power, since they always displayed their power of immortality. That made it easy to distinguish between the radicals and the moderates.
“Why did the vampires suddenly target the Haoji Mines?”
“Did anything seem different or peculiar?”
“That… We went through the mines several times, but we found no signs that suggested they had gone to the mines to look for something. It’s as if they had gone there for no reason and just decided to kill everyone before leaving.”
“Number of casualties?”
“There were a total of 282 corpses, with more than half of them lost or unidentifiable.”
“Is that so?”
The fact that the vampires had gone to a very remote area without touching anything else meant that there was something they wanted.
“Speaking of, Brother, these are results that I have gathered by doing an independent investigation,” Baris said.
He had clearly been wracking his brains and trying to make a hypothesis with all the clues that he had found.
He continued, “They deliberately caused the fire so it’d be hard for us to figure out the exact number of people in the mines. Maybe they wanted to hide the number of people they have possibly taken from there?”
“Yes. For example, Carlus, Benedict, or Duke Bariatta.”
Queen Lynesse Bariatta’s life had been taken by King Krianes, so only those three still remained alive.
—We don’t have any guarantee that those three would be the targeted ones.
‘That’s also true.’
“Baris, I want you to investigate a few more things.”
“Yes, Brother. Please tell me what you need me to investigate.”
“Check and see if there are similar cases in other nations.”
“In other nations?”
“That’s right.”
“First… I understand.”
“What about Carlus’ body?”
“We haven’t found it.”
Davey nodded quietly. He thought this sounded like a sharp knife being hidden beneath a thick cloth.
—They’re most likely doing an experiment.
‘It would not be easy to create the Demon Lord’s body.’
—When the time comes, are you going to let me revive and come back?
‘Stop joking around. You can’t come back.’
Perserque frowned at Davey’s firm words.
—How come? Davey, I’m sure I’ve told you this. If you don’t want the Abyss to be able to do anything when the time comes, then you have to let me be revived as the Demon Lord.
While listening to Perserque’s persuasion, Davey smiled coldly as he climbed the basement stairs. He muttered, “Do you think the Abyss is something that you can deal with so easily?”
—What?
“The vampires’ radical faction is now trying to revive the Demon Lord by using the power of the Abyss, but they have already been beaten so fiercely before. So why do you think they are being manipulated again?”
—That…
“And I have already told you this before. It’s very obvious as to who will stand against you once you get revived as the Demon Lord.”
Goddess Freyja was someone who surprisingly liked tragedy.
“That’s why you…” Davey did not finish his sentence.
Noticing that a little girl was waiting for him in the otherwise empty royal palace corridor, he muttered, “You…”
“Hello, Brother Davey O’Rowane.” As her clear but frightened voice rang out, the little girl clenched her fists. She refused to back down and avoid Davey.
“Aeonitia.”
Aeonitio O’Rowane was Queen Lynesse’s youngest daughter. She was also the only surviving member of the Royal Family from the noble faction, who had staged a rebellion in the Rowane Kingdom. To be exact, Davey had let her live.
“What’s the matter?”
Davey did not really have any grudges against the young girl. In the first place, she was a scaredy cat who never really got out of her palace much.
“Your Highness, the Princess!”
At that moment, a maid looked at the two of them in shock. She rushed over from afar and hurriedly ran to Aeonitia, pushing her behind her back. She quickly bowed to Davey and said, “For… Forgive us, Your Highness, the First Prince. We’ll go back immediately.”
“Cilly! Wait! I have something to say!” the girl protested loudly.
“Your Highness!”
Once he saw the maid’s panicked expression, Davey slowly reached out his hand and stopped the two of them. He asked calmly, “Enough. What’s the matter?”
The both of them had stiff expressions on their faces. Before Davey could speak any further, the maid cried out, “For… Forgive us, Your Highness! I will bring Her Royal Highness away immediately!”
This time, Aeonitia could not even move to stop the maid.
“Wait.” Davey stopped the two of them once again. Then, he looked at them with a more calm and relaxed expression before asking, “Do you have something to say to me?”
Davey was aware that any form of unnecessary kindness would raise the vigilance of the young girl. Therefore, he chose to show a moderately cold side to the girl, in hopes of giving Aeonitia more confidence to say what she truly wanted to say.
“Forgive us, Your Highness! Please… Please spare our lives! Her Highness is still very young!”
“Did I ask you?”
When the maid flinched at his cold voice, Davey said, “You’re meddling without any hesitation. And from what I can see, you’re thoughtlessly ignoring a member of the Royal Family in front of another.”
“For… Forgive me.”
“Aeonitia.”
“Yes… Yes!” the girl answered with a start as her expression remained stiff.
“Follow me. You have something to say to me, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Seeing the girl nod in firm determination, Davey thought that she was much better than Carlus or Benedict despite her young age. She acted so differently that he even wondered if she was truly a child who had come from the same mother. The thought was so funny that it made Davey chuckle.
***
Davey could not help but admire the First Prince’s Palace, a place located on the outskirts of the Royal Palace. He had not visited this area in a long time. It seemed like they were managing it much better than what he had thought.
“That… Royal Concubine Anisha manages the palace in her spare…time.”
“Is that so? That’s good then. Although it’s been a long time since I’ve been here, it’s still a place that I’ve lived in before.”
Remaining quiet, Aeonitia nervously walked beside Davey and listened to him speak.
“Well then, this is tea made from the Elven Forest. It has quite a good flavor.”
“…”
—That’s a very awful tea…
‘As long as they don’t know the ingredients, this is just a very delicious tea.’
Perhaps aware of the truth about the tea, Aeonitia just silently looked down at her teacup. As for Davey, he looked at her with a relaxed and comfortable air around him.
Although Aeonitia was the youngest daughter of Queen Lynesse, Davey’s enemy, it did not mean that she was a sinner. After all, her mother’s crimes were not hers. Besides, both her brothers, Carlus and Benedict, simply reaped what they had sown.
“At one point, there has been quite a lot of discussion about killing you.”
“Hiccup!” Aeonitia hiccuped as she looked up at Davey carefully. In a frightened voice, she said, “Your Highness…”
“We might not be on good terms, but that does not mean that I’m going to cut off our relationship like I did with your brothers. Feel free to call me Brother.”
“So… Sorry.” Aeonitia bowed her head and went silent for a long time again.
A while later, she quietly said, “Brother Davey… Do you not hate me?”
“You? You didn’t do anything to me, though?”
“Th-That… B-Because I’m the daughter of a sinner…”
“Did you join the rebels?”
“That…”
“Or perhaps you are in cahoots with them?” Davey smiled, watching the child in front of him savor the cup of tea and drink its contents slowly.
Since Aeonitia had learned the Royal Family’s etiquette from a young age, her posture and gestures were very good. However, the child still burned her tongue and immediately looked up in shock.
—She must be very nervous… Tch, tch…
“Carlus and Benedict just reaped what they have sown. However, we have judged that you are innocent. That’s why we have left you all alone.”
“That…”
“Now, seeing that you’re willing to approach me… That means that you have a favor to ask of me, right?”
Davey was the First Prince who had given up his right to inherit the throne. He was also someone who rarely visited the royal palace. However, all of the nobles who came and went into the royal palace had no choice but to watch their words and actions when they were in front of him.
What would happen if they crossed the line and stood out in front of him? Well, they had already seen it happen once before. A list of the nobles who tried to gain money by bringing in several underworld organizations to the Heins Territory had been handed over to Baris, who had taken action at the King’s command and sent them all to be executed.
Davey just wanted to show them that if they did something wrong, then they would be placed in a position where they had to be executed. However, to the current nobles, they only saw Davey as the huge hand behind the reign of terror.
Aeonitia must have heard a lot of the rumors about Davey from the nobles who came and went to the royal palace. That was why she was very afraid of him.
“I… I know that I shouldn’t be asking you for something like this, Brother,” said the girl as she clenched her fists. Then, she bowed her head to Davey and said, “Please send me to the engineering kingdom of Bettelstrock.”
“Bettelstrock?”
Bettelstrock was a nation located in the Central Continent. It was fairly developed when it came to alchemy. To put it simply, it was a nation with very advanced technology.
“Yes. I… I want to learn more about alchemy and engineering.”
“Then, why are you asking me for something like that?” Davey asked, feeling curious about the reason why.
Aeonitia looked at him and said, “That… Because I’m the daughter of a sinner… I can’t do anything beyond Brother Davey’s sight…”
Davey sighed. “If you want to do something, then you can do it.”
“Ah…”
“However, going to Bettelstrock is a no go.”
Aeonitia’s eyes grew wide at Davey’s words. She immediately jumped up from her seat and shouted, “Wh… Why?! Bettelstrock has an academy with famous scholars! Any member of a noble or royal family has the right to enter that academy…!”
The gist of what she wanted to say was: ‘I want to go to that academy!’.
Davey’s answer remained firm and steadfast. “No can do.”
“W… Why?”
Davey had no other choice. Although the continent seemed somewhat peaceful, with the war between each nation completely suppressed, he knew that that was only an illusion. Each of the nations had simply been left to deal with their own internal problems.
The problem was that Bettelstrock was in the same situation as the earlier Rowane Kingdom with their prime minister faction and king faction. Davey could tell through his vast knowledge and experience that a civil war would soon break out in that kingdom.
“A civil war will soon break out there. You’re just eleven years old. You’re still too young to go there and endure such hardships.”
Aeonitia was truly adorable and cute at eleven years old, and Davey truly felt that she was still too young to experience something like that.
Davey watched as the girl’s expression turned despondent before something caught his eye. He asked, “What’s that?”
Aeonitia hurriedly covered the small mechanical device on her wrists in fright.
To be honest, the bracelet looked a tad bit too crude and sloppy for a lady who should be pursuing beauty and elegance. However, Davey did not care about that. The thing that caught his eye was the effect and use of the bracelet.
“It’s… It’s nothing.”
“Did you make it?”
“…”
When Aeonitia chose to stay quiet, Davey asked again, “Did you make it?”
“Yes, but it’s just a trifling item…”
“Can I see it?”
Aeonitia, with a stiff expression on her face, held out her tiny hands toward Davey.
Taking a closer look, Davey could see that the small mechanical device was truly crude, sloppy, and boring. However, the use and efficiency was very much faithful to the basics. And above all, the idea was novel.
—Is that a watch?
As Aeonitia looked at him uneasily, Davey said, “You made something that can allow anyone to easily check the time, right?”
“That… How did you know…?”
“Hey, how about doing business with this brother of yours?”
Davey would provide and teach Aeonitia the technology. After all, the technology that Davey had learned from Eva, his alchemist teacher, was far above the technology that was wide-spread in this continent.
“What…do you mean by business?”
“That’s right. I won’t allow you to go to Bettelstrock, but I will teach you various techniques and technology. I can teach you as many skills as you want until you become of age. But in exchange, you have to provide me with all of your ideas.”
Children’s ideas were far more novel and unique than adults’ ideas. It was already amazing enough that Aeonitia could make something like this with the engineering skills that she had learned from who knew where.
Davey could also tell that Aeonitia was quite talented in this field. That rugged and shabby watch on her wrist was a testament to this fact.
“First, we should write a contract first. How about doing a 7 to 3 profit margin? Considering the fact that I will be providing you with the technical skill and the capital, I would be the 7. Of course, I will give you all of the support that you need. On top of that, I will show you all of the skills that you want to see in person.”
“That…”
“However, there are conditions,” said Davey as he smiled at the clueless look that his sister was giving him. “Do you know about lifetime contracts, Aeonitia?”
Davey’s favorite contract was the slave contract that he often offered. As for his least favorite contract, it was the slave contract that others offered.
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