Lucien picked the gold notes without caring about anyone, putting them in his pocket.
Just as he was about to tell Elena to follow him and leave, a cry was heard.
"You killed the young masters, how dare you?"
It was an aged person that said those words, looking at him, Lucien detected the Vampire Path on him.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the butler of the SiverMoon family, Count Vernon."
"Now tell me, why did you kill the young masters, depending on your answer, you might die."
"Are you stupid?"
Lucien looked as if he saw the biggest joke in history.
"WHAT?"
The Count looked a bit enraged, but it was all sham, he was having a bad feeling about this whole situation.
"You think that I care they had the SilverMoon family as their backing?"
The feeling was somehow getting worse, he knew the background of this youth and was never going to actually harm him, he only wanted to preserve some face for the SilverMoon family by wanting an explanation.
"You little Count, go back to your master and tell him, if I wanted the SilverMoon family dead, none of you would be standing here today."
"So why does it matter if I kill a young master or two who were looking for it, there is nothing you can do about it."
The feeling was intensifying and he was already starting to sweat.
"If I want your life, you master would kill you himself and bring your head to me, he wouldn't even offer me your blood, as I don't drink piss."
The Count was not pale, he realized with the backing of this youth, that course of action was completely possible.
"I'm sorry, lord. I didn't realize who I was speaking to until I saw your noble eyes, I'm very sorry if I offended you, I would offer you my blood, but I don't want to ruin your palate."
"I'll take my leave now."
"Elena bring all the corpses with you and follow me."
Elena was completely mesmerized by how dominant Lucien acted to an elder of her family, her heart was beating fast, but she didn't hesitate, she ordered for a cart to be prepared with all the corpses and 2 people to follow them.
Lucien went back to that hotel, and when all the bodies were on the floor and the 2 lackeys left, he looked at Elena.
"You didn't disappoint me."
"If a saw even a hint of hesitation on your face, I would have broken the deal and dealt with all the aftermath, then and there."
"I wouldn't dare to betray you, Lucien."
"I hope so."
Elena looked a bit sad at this point.
"You are strong now, do you even have a use for me?"
"Actually, yes. You are still useful, but if you delay your training more, I won't need you soon."
Determination replaced the sadness, she knew he was her hope for a bright future, she couldn't let him go like that.
"I see."
"For now I want you to use 12 500 and get me 5 more Rank 1 Vitality based slaves and use the rest to get me Rank 1 meat, I need atleast 4 kg per day for 5 months, so get me 600 kg of Rank 1 Beast meat. I'll wait for the meat in this hotel after handling some matters, and then I leave the capital for a while, you have to keep accumulating the blood, make sure the quality doesn't drop, use whatever method is needed."
"It will take no more than a year, and we can resell the Rank 1 slaves and invest it back into the business."
"Okay, I'll do as you say, I didn't manage to drop off the blood from the last time, you were not responding to your communication device, so I'll keep it save for your return, is that all?
"One more thing, I guess, it's been a week."
Elena blushed at the mention of the amount of time, she knew what he meant. Then she grew excited, it has been a while for her a well.
After they were done with their wild exercise, Elena left, while Lucien had his meal with the 2 Rank 1 Young Masters and the 4 Rank 0 lackeys that died in the battle.
From 39 000 Existence Points, after purchasing All Lower Paths at Rank 0 for 7000, speeding up the time in Crimson World for 3600 and getting the Soul Blade Attack for 10 000, he was left with 18 400 existence points.
Since they were within his Soul Devour Domain, Lucien got their souls, which improved his soul by 14.1 points bringing it to 514, and brought him 3200 existence points.
And their bodies got him around 10 000 existence points, he was back to 31 600 existence points, by just killing some vermin.
'100 000 is not far off.'
'Now I have to get my independence from the emperor, I don't care anymore, I will not be confined in that palace unless I want to be there, I'm sure if I leave the capital right now, he will know and come fetch me.'
While Elena went to procure all the things Lucien wanted, he went back to the palace to face his father for the second time in this fashion, this time he wouldn't reveal more power, he would just stand his ground.
Henry was reclining on his throne, looking bored when his son walked in.
"Hello, father."
"What bring you here, son?"
"I want permission to leave the palace and the capital whenever I desire."
"This is the second time, why haven't you tried to leave before speaking to me?"
"I know as a prince I have certain restrictions, you don't want to lose me in such a way, so you prefer if we stay here and grow us like flowers."
"Well I do have a point, don't you think?"
"You know, not long after you asked me to leave for the first time, Vlad also came and did the same, he was much older than you, so it was not as impressive, it was just the curiosity of a young teen. I didn't even give him protection, he was not special in any way. But as you saw in the elimination round he had his encounter, his luck was good."
"But you puzzle me even more, I gave you the stone, but you clearly didn't even care about it, it didn't bring anything back for me to see, it was either buried or hidden for the whole year and you took it out when it was time, you were not even planning to use it to protect yourself."
"I know very little about you to this point, and now you want to leave again, I presume you don't need the protection as well."
"It doesn't matter, father. If I'm weak enough to fall outside the palace, how can I survive inside of it?"
"What is the use of protection, isn't it the same as staying inside of the palace, if I met danger it would save me, and then I could hide like a rat for the rest of the year."
"I don't plan on being like my eldest brother, dying in the hands of scum."
"Growing with the resources you provide is too slow, I want more, so I will go out and get it myself."
"If you want me to be the monster that helps this empire grow further, you will have to let me forge myself in blood and tears to become a true monster."