The ball was surprisingly interesting. For Sol whose life usually revolved around the tower and the church, he had to admit that this fairy tale-like environment was something to be really enjoyed.
Still, even though he was surrounded by a sea of beauties who kept smiling at him, if he had to be perfectly honest, he couldn’t help but feel empty.
‘So many facades.’
Those smiles, those laughs, those words of appreciation; everything was nothing more than lies and artifice.
This made what was supposed to be an enjoyable moment, nothing more than a chore to be done with as soon as possible. What’s more, a nagging doubt kept bothering him.
‘Why make a party?’
Sol would be a fool if he thought that this party was really for him. Even if he had to make his debut night, it should be the royal family or the church organizing it, not a noble.
‘Perhaps he knows we might attack him tonight?’
This was another possible solution, but this begged the question, ‘If he really knew about the attack, who might have informed him?’
The Duke was once again standing in the upper room as he observed the noble dancing and cozying up with the prince.
It was then that a servant opened the door and entered boldly without introducing himself.
Loki didn’t even bother turning around as he spoke, “What brings you now? And when did you kill this servant?”
“Haha! Killing, such a big word. Let’s just say that I graced him with a new beginning. Now then, let’s not focus on useless things, and let’s talk about the important matter… It’s time to begin..”
The duke narrowed his eyes and turned to face his servant, or rather, the puppets that were now controlled by the necromancer.
He idly wondered how many of his servants were already dead. Not that it particularly mattered. After this night, he would enter the annals of history.
“Why now?”
“Nothing much,” The puppet shrugged as he continued, “My boss is getting cranky. What’s more, you are more or less ready, right? So let’s accelerate.”
Loki nodded, he was indeed basically ready. “Just let me ask you once again, are you sure I am able to kill the prince without suffering from divine wrath?”
The servant gave a hearty laugh, “Of course you can, those shitty goddesses like their games you know? The rule is that one can neither kill nor overthrow the blessed king or queen of their race. But...He isn’t a king as of now, right?”
Loki nodded, the rules set by the goddesses had many loopholes, or perhaps those loopholes were left intentionally. It was by using those loopholes that they could dominate King Neptune back then.
“Then, what about his core? Will getting it really allows me to siphon mana from the atmosphere like S-rank creatures?”
“Kuh! Kuh! kuh! for this, I do not know. There are simply too few samples to give an accurate answer. But, the chances are high. So, why all those questions? Do you wish to give up now?”
“Give up? No, in reality, the result itself does not matter in my eyes.”
Saying so, he turned around and once again looked at all the nobles gathered in the hall.
Since the Gorfard were extremely influential and the invitee of honor was the crown prince, all the nobles present were people extremely important in the kingdom.
Some were ministers of war, some of finance, some had large farmable fields. Finally, even the sole and only prince was also present.
It wasn’t a mistake to say that if anything happened to any of the people present here, the kingdom losses would be immeasurable.
If they also lost the future king?
Lustburg would be doomed.
Just thinking of this, Drei, who was watching the Duke through his puppet, felt his non-existent heart pounding in his ribs.
‘Hahaha! Soon, soon, this filthy kingdom will be destroyed. I have waited 600 years for this. Sister, they will all pay! First this kingdom, then the world, and finally...The Goddesses themselves.’
[Vault of the Gorfard family]
Neun previously known as Mio, when she was still a servant of the royal family of Wratharis, frowned as she felt the semen seep out of her.
Ideally, she would have rather taken a bath, but because the moment was too good to pass, she had been forced to act and increase the usual dose of the incense Drei had given her.
The vault of the Gorfard family was very special.
In order to open it, a four steps recognition system was necessary. The first one being with blood, then a password known only to the heir and the leader of the family, followed by a full-body recognition to note the absence of wounds or accelerated heartbeat, and finally a voice recognition.
Those four systems assured that it was basically impossible to kill or threaten the one who could open the door and it could only be done so willingly.
That was why she had decided to use her body to seduce the Gorfard’s heir and had been playing the helpless slave all along. What she had needed was enough time to slowly corrupt his mind and take control of him, without having to kill him.
In fact, her initial target had been the Duke itself, but she gave up on this because, despite the high number of children and concubines he had, the Duke wasn’t a lustful man. For him, sex was just a means of procreation.
The other members of the wings had been against it at first, and she was thankful for it, but at the end of the day, before even being a warrior, she was a kunoichi. A female ninja trained in the art of seduction, infiltration, information gathering, and assassination.
She felt nothing about using her body during all those months to manipulate that stupid noble. As a kunoichi, her body was nothing more than another weapon. She could use it to fight, or she could use it to ensnare her target. Either way, as long as the mission was accomplished, nothing else mattered.
It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination. Despite what one might think, the door of the vault was rather inconspicuous.
“Your highness, please.”
Looking at Leonard, she asked him with a somewhat sultry voice, without forgetting to use the drugs.
Leonard, who was once again about to expire doubt, simply nodded after sniffing a little.
This drug wasn’t something that could really control the mind. It was more about lowering inhibition. In a way, it was like being drunk.
Over the long months during which she served him, she had been constantly using this, making the previously trash but cunning heir into nothing more than garbage without any redeeming features.
Even then, she had never mentioned the vault and never did anything suspicious. All of this, for this one moment, this one instance when his mind would be at the weakest and the Duke as well as the other servants would be too occupied to care about what the heir was doing.
The opening of the door took a few minutes, but once it did, Neun was almost blinded by the amount of jewelry and gold.
Even though she wasn’t particularly materialistic, even she felt her heart miss a beat and she immediately used the dimensional ring created by Eins and given to all the main members of wings of freedom.
The ring was nothing special in appearance, just a silver ring with the number 9 graved on it.
The moment she began to sweep out the wealth, no matter how entranced Leonard was, he wasn’t so deep as to not understand that he has been tricked.
“You! Bi..”
The moment he wanted to continue, his throat was clamped by a delicate and fair hand, before his legs slowly left the ground.
“Sigh, your highness, or should I simply call you Leonard, it seems like this is as far as we go together.”
Leonard couldn’t believe his ears. All this time, he had been looking down on this woman and had been using her as he pleased. But, as he looked at her now while he felt her suffocating aura, he couldn’t help but shiver.
‘I am going to get killed.’
He could see it deep in her eyes. He tried to bring his contract, but no matter what he did, his mana was simply too messed up to succeed.
“Yo-your sister. If-if you kill me, she will d-die.”
He tried to speak to remind her about the fact that her sister was in his hand, but all he got was an incredulous look, before she exploded out in laughter for a short while, as tear gathered in the corner of her eyes, then finally showed a sad smile.
“I am sorry to say this, but she already died long ago.”
Thunder roared in his mind as he finally understood that all along, he had never been in control. He had been nothing more than a clown dancing for their amusement.
“Please. Don’t kill me.”
He could only beg for his life now; all his pride, all his ideas of supremacy, were nothing more than fleeting clouds in front of his impending death.
Looking at the grown man begging down for his life as snot and tear gradually flowed, Neun suddenly felt bored.
Even though his hits and violation were nothing more than tickles to her, she had not been his first victim.
Just how many lives did he destroy? Just how many women did he ruin? Just how many people had begged their life like this to him?
Initially, she had been curious and wished to ask him all that. But now, she understood that it was just a waste of time.
This man reminded her of the current king of Wratharis. Snakes that could only crawl on the ground while admiring the eagles soaring in the sky but that would not hesitate to spit their venoms if they were given the chance.
That’s why now that he had already opened the door and had no other uses,
*Crack*
She simply snapped his neck, as easily as if she was breaking a twig, and put an end to his miserable and worthless existence.
Leonard’s eyes were still open wide as if he could not believe that he could die like this. He had so many dreams, so many aspirations. Sadly, all of it was over.
Watching the life fade away from the eyes of the man she had once called master, even though she did not mean it, Neun allowed herself to felt a little sentimental, then proceeded to simply toss his body away as if it was a sack of trash.
Then, continuing deeper in the vault while stealing all the wealth along her way, she finally reached her goal...A portal.
