once inside the Specter castle dimension, there wasn't any need to conceal the bad news, even if for some miracle Almony and Alice managed to arrive back to Skuria II safely, it would be effortless for the "cleaners" of the Garian absolute monarchy to annihilate the entire population, much less kill one little fourth-stage cultivator
as mentioned before, for the immediate future Almony and Alice would be forced to stay on Verulus or one of the nearest solar systems, that is, if they wanted to stay alive, further than that the security wouldn't be tight enough to prevent an assassination
of course, spies were present even on Verulus, the population was too exaggerated to perfectly keep track of every individual, but if they did anything to stick out they would almost always be found out immediately, escaping or even just hiding after a murder was simply not possible the experts of the police were always extending their senses making sure that their area was always under surveillance, it was better than any security camera, knowing that nobody would waste a spy that took years to train and implant just to kill a fourth stage cultivator, even if they couldn't bear her existence
as Vincent, Daniel, Alice, and Almony sit down in the living room, Vincent started to speak "there is something we couldn't speak about using long-distance communication as those channels are never secure, and before revealing what it is, I would like to apologize to both of you and Almony for keeping it secret"
Alice and Almony seeing the seriousness on Vincent's expression were confused, but the only thing they could do was to wait for his explanation
Vincent continued "while we were talking previously, some information you shared prompted Daniel to analyze a sample he had taken from Almony previously when she was extracted from the machine, and that sample revealed that she has the making of Garian royalty"
Almony shocked replied "royalty? I am a princess or something like that?"
Daniel replied "not exactly, Garian's are all about the purity of the race, while there are other races living peacefully under their ruling, they don't allow any crossbreeding, so since you have enough silverium in your blood to challenge the authority of the current rulers, they see you more as an offense to all they hold dear and believe in"
Alice thought for a moment and then replied "that explains some stuff when they are captured people have many different reactions, there are some that say stuff like you know who I am, or how dare you to do something like this to me, but her father was the only one that said go head enjoy yourself you won't live for long anyway"
Vincent said "if I may ask, what happened to him afterward?"
Alice a little embarrassed said "well at that time we used to take care of them permanently, to make sure they wouldn't come back to look for trouble"
Vincent thought for a moment and then said "I thought that it could have been him revealing what happened that brought to Almony's assassination attempt, if it's unrelated and they don't know about Almony it's still risky but maybe we had too big of an imagination"
Daniel replied "I don't think so, which idiot would target a kid when right next to it there was the leader of their enemies, unless Almony erroneously took the poisoned thing away from Alice, how were you poisoned?"
Almony replied "I was walking down the main street of the black market we used to visit while doing some shopping, suddenly I felt a pressure on my lower back and I started to feel nauseous before I knew what happened I was on my bed and could barely move my fingers"
Alice said "I wasn't with her, that place was relatively safe, and the crew was strolling around, but nobody saw her being attacked she was walking down the street and suddenly stopped and passed out after a few seconds, some of the crew carried her back and that's when we found out she was poisoned, but we couldn't even identify the poison and put her in stasis, we all though Solanis did it, an old enemy of mine, but many years later I found out that she couldn't have, she had been captured long before by some people seeking revenge, I'm actually the one that freed her from the captivity"
Daniel said "since you made peace with each other now, have you tried to find out if one of your other old enemies did it"
Sophia walked down at this moment and said "I don't think that's possible, that poison was concocted with alchemy, even if not anything special it still requires a certain level of ability, and some rare ingredients are in its recipe, no offense but it's not something that can be made by nomad pirates, if I have to hazard a guess I would say that a seventh-stage or a genius sixth-stage cultivator probably made that poison"
Vincent replied "well this isn't definitive proof, the assassin could have just bought the poison but it's also true that you guys probably don't have a seventh-stage cultivator much less a seventh-stage alchemist"
Alice nodded and said "you are right, the strongest among us are 4 sixth stage cultivators, non reached the seventh yet and none of them are alchemists"
Sophia gave Vincent a less-than-kind look and said "please explain where some nomad pirates would find a seventh-stage alchemist to buy poison that has ingredients that are rare even for me"
Daniel sighed and said "that they could buy it or not, this doesn't change the fact that all this is nothing more than pure speculation, but if there's a chance that the Garian's knows, it's probable that the moment you leave the federation space, your ship will be destroyed"
Alice nodded and said "that's not really a problem, if your government allows it I can stay here as the representative of the Skurians, and it's normal that Almony stays with me since it's been many years since we last saw each other"
Vincent nodded and said "of course, that's not a problem at all, Daniel already said that we have a lot to gain from studying your technology, that's already much more than other vassals offered, so I'm sure everything will go swimmingly on our side"
Alice smiled and said "that's exactly why I'm happy, we don't have anything else to offer, all we produce may it be food or technology it's consumed internally we even had to alt production a few times because of the lack of basic materials, the only thing we can share it's this kind of exotic knowledge, I'm happy that it's enough"
Daniel looked at her and said "don't sell yourself short, this technology really has extraordinary compatibility with alchemy, refining, and formations, as soon as it is shared a lot of people around the federation will thank the Skurians for this invention, riches don't move the hearts of those who have more than they know what to do with, but something new, interesting, and that they never heard of before, they will jump on it like starving wolves"
Alice took out a bronze-colored medallion and putting it at the center of the table said "I'm happy something good can come from that bastard at last, after all the suffering he caused, this contains the proposal put together by our government plus the data that the young master wanted about the biomechanical technology"
Vincent asked "that bastard do you mean the person that invented this technology?"
Alice sighed and said "yes, it's not something I reveal easily, but in the spirit of transparency, I can tell you, there are seven survivors from that bastard harem today, I'm one of them, I was just 14 years old at the time, unluckily he saw me going back from school one day, next thing I knew, I was leaving secluded in a building with the other women like an item on a restaurant menu, but it's ok, he died a horrible death and I'm happy now, and since I'm a peak-fifth-stage, even if there is probably only a little chance for me to break through further, I still have enough lifespan left, and neither of my daughters has blood ties with him"
Almony who still hadn't let go of her mother's arm hugged it even more tightly but didn't say a word
Sophia looked at that scene tenderly and said "you had it rough growing up, it doesn't matter whom or when, if you live long enough, tragedy it's bound to strike at least once"
Alice nodded then while patting Almony's head, smiled and said "it doesn't matter anymore, let me show you the proposal"
as Alice touched the medallion a holographic screen and keyboard came out of it, Alice inserted the password and many screens full of data appeared
seeing this Daniel said "if you don't mind can I use my method to take a look?"
Alice nodded, and soon later she saw a silver puddle come on the table and infiltrate the medallion, soon later thanks to the password Tickles downloaded the content of the medallion and returned to Daniel that became busy analyzing its content
in the meantime, Alice surprised by the strange thing asked "what is that?"
but since Daniel was already in his own mind, Vincent answered "a living machine, different from yours it came alive after developing a soul for many years like an artifact, and somehow Daniel ended up making a soul contract with it"
Alice was surprised and said "it's the first time I saw someone who made a soul contract, I heard they are really dangerous because the will of the other soul can damage the soul of the contractor"
Sophia nodded and said "that's true, but as a machine, it was empty, since it didn't have a will the contract worked out much more easily than it should, it's a lucky coincidence"
Alice nodded and said "I see, ops, I almost forgot what I was doing, let me explain the proposal"
Alice continued to explain how their technology worked, and how it could be reproduced, Sophia who had a deep knowledge about alchemy started to understand what Daniel meant when he said that it was very versatile and compatible