A simple glance at the front gates of the kingdom was basically telling Claude the history of the kingdom. There were sword marks, burns on one side and a new polished look on the other. This was extremely easy for Claude to decern as he was a prodigy within prodigies.
As for his life in this kingdom, he was well off barely reaching the wealth of a noble in the kingdom with an asset of 1540 Gold, which he won from the village. In terms of the physical labor that he will need to do, he has Ken at his command to do anything.
From the looks of it, Claude will live a simple life without trouble if he were to live here peacefully, but this was not his goal.
After an around an hour of travel, they arrived at the slums and neighborhood began to look aggressive. This did not affect Claude because it didn't really matter where his house will be placed because he was going to stay in an inn.
Why he would stay in an inn despite having a house? It was simple, to leave no tracks whatsoever. His idea would be to stay at inns throughout the kingdom to get in touch with ideal merchants and informants.
Upon arrival at his house, he didn't leave at once rather he checked the place out searching for anything he might use. The carriage simply left him off at his house and the eunuch then reported back to the 3rd princess, Fia Hearth.
After checking out the house, Claude then checked out his surroundings and he noticed something odd. "Hahahaha! Really? Did you send these people to check on me? What a bunch of retards!" Claude inwardly snickered.
Every now and then people looked at him, normally if someone new lived nearby you would be wary of them but that was if it was a normal neighborhood. This was the slums where it was every man for himself, who would take the time to continuously look at him and immediately look away.
That and Claude's inhumane perception of the human body. Every single act could be seen through if you are talking to someone like Claude. You eye movements, speech patterns, involuntary movements, habits, all of these can't escape Claude's eyes. Merely being asked and not responding, Claude would immediately know the answer.
Claude sighed as he went back to his house, "Too bad all their efforts would be wasted since I am not planning on staying. Buuuuut, it would be suspicious if I suddenly disappeared, I guess its time to play a little game." A devil's grin appeared on his innocent face.
All the events this day made Claude exhausted so he called it a night and slept without any issue. Ken, however, was still not forgiven for his sins so he was tasked to find information about the kingdom and was not allowed to return nor sleep until it is finished. Poor Ken.
After a good night's rest, Claude got up and using his Creation Magic, he made a feast fit for a king. He then made a fan big enough to encompass the entire meal and sent the aroma of good food throughout the neighborhood, this was something to entice the people around him.
In an alleyway, the smell of Claude's created food reached the noses of 3 burly men. These 3 men woke up and immediately opened their eyes wide to search where this aroma was coming from.
The 3 simultaneously got up and ran to where their noses took them but to their surprise, the place where the food was coming from was already flooded with people.
"Hey! What's going on?!" One of the burly shouted with gusto but was ignored by the crowd. Within the crowd, even the guards that the 3rd princess sent out was bewildered by what they smelled. After a few more shouts they were finally answered by Claude standing at the doorway of his house.
"What are you doing here?" Claude faked a curious expression as he looked at the crowd in front of him. A few people spoke up, "Sir, we are all starving and we plead for your kindness to--." Before the few people finished speaking they were answered by a slam of the door.
The people were surprised but were not disappointed, who would ever give out free food? All they could do was hope for the best. The 3 burly men, however, didn't care anymore and rushed in front of the crowd, "If you won't give us food then we will take it from you! Who's with me?!"
The crowd was surprised at their words but nonetheless agreed. This was the slums where even the kingdom doesn't care if 100 people died. Who would care about some stolen food? It was for a good cause.
"YEAH!"
"BREAK DOWN THE DOOR!"
"FOOD!"
Loud shouts echoed within the street demanding food. After a few minutes of no response, the crowd was starting to get angry but the 20 guards that were sent out could do nothing but go along as to not reveal their true identities.
As one of the burly stood in front of Claude's house ready to break the door down, the door opened revealing Claude with an innocent smile holding a giant sign. "You guys hungry? I'll feed you all for free and all you have to do is acknowledge this sign.
Alongside the reveal of the young man, there was food behind them that was enough to feed all of them for an entire week, possibly more.
Everyone looked at the sign that said, "Writing your real name will mean that you accept the conditions below, everything written after the initial placement will be disregarded. Only when everyone present accepts these conditions will the food be delivered."
- Pay respects to the provider of the food.
- Will not bother the provider of the food after consumption for 1 week.
- Will not injure/ harm the provider of the food in any way, shape or form.
The sign that Claude had in hand could be treated as a contract. "Well these conditions are more than fair, right?" The conditions listed were all reasonable and this benefited them without any risk at all. Even though it stated that everyone must comply it was basically a done deal in the slums, what kind of lunatic would anger the crowd?
The people within the slums all ecstatic as they would finally eat for an entire week without any worries. As the crowd celebrated, the guards that the princess sent out were all sweating. "T-This really is a god damn monster... The princess didn't lie rather she even underestimated him." They all realized what they were dealing with, they were put between a rock and a hard place.
Agreeing will mean that the man in front of them will know their names and connect it to the kingdom and their relation to the 3rd princess and get killed or decline and be killed by the crowd for declining them food. Both options lead to death, what could they ever do?
Amongst the crowd was cheering but with Claude's inhumane eyesight he finally saw all the people that they sent to spy on him and memorized all their faces.
Claude called out to one of the guards and ordered him to come to him, the crowd urged the guard to go, "Tell whoever sent you, checkmate your move." The guard that was close to him didn't see a young kid but a devil with a child's body.