...
(two weeks later)
Feeling the hand upon my shoulder shake me awake. I groggily opened my eyes and looked to my left to see Rem already dressed and patiently waiting for me to move. Noticing my awareness of her presence, she looked down at me with a pleasant gaze.
"Good morning Rem." I said as with a yawn before wiping my eyes. "Is it that time already?"
"Good morning." She said before leaning down and giving me one of our good morning kisses. And as she pulled back, she let out a chuckle as she went out of the door. "And yes it's time, make sure to get dressed okay? You and I both know how ruthless my sister can be when we are late."
"Got it!" I yelled out as she closed the door leaving me alone in my bed. Now alone, I let out a smirk before pulling out the phone that had come with me this world. And with a spark of genius, I set the alarm before getting under the sheets once more.
"Just a little more sleep won't hurt."
.....
Finding myself in a butler's attire, I served Roswaal and a guest tea while they spoke about business. Or rather about a few inventions and innovations a new company under Roswaals' name had begun to develop.
"These ideas are absolutely splendid!" The guest said with shock as she went over the uses that was written down in a report made by said company. Of course, all that was written down was merely the uses and how it can effect the kingdom in a positive manner. And not how to actually build any of the equipment described. "May I ask of the genius's name who introduced these things?"
Roswaal hearing her began to ponder in silence before beckoning me over for some tea. Calmly, I got in the way of our guests sight and poured him a cup. But as I poured the liquid, we had a conversation with our lips. And Roswaal seemed to get the memo as he nodded and leaned back into his chair.
Once he did that, I merely stepped to the side and listened in on the conversation.
"I'm afraid~ I can not do~ that." He said while shaking his head bitterly. "The contract between us forbids~ me from disturbing his privacy."
"I see....." The guest said as she looked down in sadness. "How unfortunate...."
"Yes, how~ unfortunate indeed." Roswaal said with a smirk which went unnoticed by the guest as she was looking down. "But fortunately~ for you, I can pass~ on a message to him if you~ like."
Hearing him, the guest's spirit and head both raised up a bit as she looked towards Roswaal with a serious expression. "Then tell him thank you."
"Thank~ you?" Roswaal asked as he drank the liquid out of his cup. "But may~ I ask why~ it's only a thank you~?"
"Well it's as you said." The lady said with a calm smile. "The man in question who introduced this into the world doesn't want to be disturbed. So I doubt he'll listen to a request of mine. But he clearly does care for the world as he is introducing so many technologies that will lessen the burden on the poor and even the rich."
"His ideas will help stimulate the economy of Lugnica and for once may take the economic power out of the corrupts hands that have kept the poor 'poor' and the rich 'rich'. So yes Roswaal, give him my thanks." The lady said with a serious expression before looking around the table in confusion.
"So is there anywhere I can sign?" The guest asked as she picked up a feather and dipped it in ink. "I'll gladly help fund this company on yours."
"Splendid~." Roswaal said with a smile before giving her a piece of paper and pointed towards a certain place. "Just sign~ here."
.....
As I started my jog around the whole forest surrounding the Mansion. I let out a sigh as I felt some movement to my right. Looking in said direction, I saw a Wolgram jump towards me with a snarl.
Seeing this, I paused my feet before grabbing it by the throat with a slightly reinforced hand. And with a quick movement of said hand, the Wolgrams neck snapped killing it. I then dropped the body and continued with my warmup.
That guest of Roswaal's was actually hand chosen among all of the businesses of Lugnica. And she was chosen because of her kind-hearted nature. Now why did I ask for someone like this to work with?
That's because a lot of the things I will be introducing into this world will help not only the rich, but also the poor. And I know that a lot of those 'noble' businessmen won't agree with the poor getting a piece of the pie.
Lugnica actually has a pretty shrewd way of business with a lot of the people on top of the economic temple preventing people from growing and helping the poor. It's one of the main reasons why 'the slums' are 'the slums'.
When I first heard of this, I was doubting how the Kingdom of Lugnica was even still standing. In a certain time period of my past country, their was a time where the rich overtook the government and deprived the poor also. But the poor didn't just stay still in my past life, they gathered up and rebelled against the rich.
But no one in the Kingdom of Lugnica has the nerve to start a rebellion. And it's solely because of the Sword Saint. His presence not only keeps crime low in Lugnica, he also keeps rebellion in check. The rich know of this and proceeded to abuse this factor to further deprive the poor and roll in more money.
Just how ironic is it that the 'protector' of the kingdom is indirectly the cause for the kingdoms economic situation? Even I wouldn't dare to do anything shady if he was in the kingdom. But I still want those guys up top to bankrupt.
Their foolishness has caused the kingdom to stagnant in growth for almost three decades. This has caused a massive unspoken divide to form between both the poor and the rich. And as most of Lugnica is poor, the whole kingdom might as well be divided.
Stopping at a familiar clearing, I took time to look towards the collapsed rubble of ruins and took a seat on the ground. Once seated, I put attention on my gate and worked on increasing my control over mana. Doing so will allow me to control bigger amount of mana making me able to hold more mana inside of my gate.
As I am right now, I am able to hold a fourth of my gates natural capacity. Growing in my mana has certainly slowed by a bit, but I should be able to produce at least one Al Shamac by the end of these seven months. But I am guessing that I would need to be at the next stage of mana to safely attempt it.
Feeling my ability to hold mana grow by another miniscule amount, I knew that would be all I could do for today and got back to my feet. And with a hop in my step, I went back to the mansion.
.....
(Somewhere under Roswaal's mansion)
Walking down the steps I had my hand on to the wall to support myself. Stairs and I have a bad history so I don't want to risk dying to them once again. My hand which was on the wall was touching stones filled with mana.
These magical stones embedded into the walls provided me light to see. Since torches would poison the one secretly held here. This area is hidden behind a certain wall which is tightly shut most of the time making any gases unable to escape. So the person down here would suffocate from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.
Finally touching the bottom of the staircase, I looked across the room and saw a familiar face tied down. His wrists, legs, and torso where all chained up with a special kind of chain Roswaal had enchanted. He also had his mouth gagged so he wouldn't bite his tongue to commit suicide.
"MMMMM!" The figure made a muffled yelled once seeing me as he madly tried to get free of his binding. I even noticed that the skin on his wrists had even started to tear showing pink. "MMMMMMM!"
Walking up to him, I used unseen hand to hold him in place before ungagging him. And when the gag went out, he immediately tried to bite down on his tongue. But a quick use of unseen hand held his jaw in place preventing it.
Noticing that it failed, he looked up at me in anguish as tears started to fall down his face. His familiar blonde hair has become dirty and mangled, his lips are torn and dry from lack of water, his figure has become skinny and is full of scars; but his eyes still have some sort of resistance despite his feeble looks.
"Hello Arthur." I suddenly spoke causing him to flinch.
"Did you miss me?"
.......