"Take care of yourself and come here during your break" Grand said to me before giving me a basket full of potions.
"Yes thank you, Grand," I said before entering the car. After the winter celebration, my family members started to get busy with their work and as planned I have to go to Zanuki's main mansion at Soga Mountain to prepare for my enrollment at HGA.
Soga Mountain is located not too far from Kazigare Valley and only took around a few hours of journey by car. If we took a detour to the east, we would be heading towards the Moran territory which was situated in a swampy and muddy area where their main economy is craftsmanship and medicinal herbs.
"We have arrived young master," Ron said waking me up from my sleep. Since I have motion sickness, I would always sleep when riding four or more wheels vehicles.
"Hmm" I responded lazily.
"We will lead you to your bedroom young master. A tailor will come in half an hour to take your measurement for your uniform thus you have to be prepared. Later, you have a dinner appointment with the matriarch and Master Zen. Tomorrow you have to resume your training with Ran. The day after tomorrow your sister and cousins will take you around Soga Town for the whole day. The day after that you seem to be free" Ron briefed me on my schedule while leading me towards my bedroom.
I'm listening while looking around the mansion which looked the same as the one in Kazigare Valley but more modern and lavish.
"Next we will wait for the tailor in the study. We have to meet the tailor every two months since the young master is still in his growth phase thus your uniform might need little adjustment from time to time" Ron said after we left my luggage inside the bedroom.
After less than half an hour of waiting, a male tailor came, took my measurements, and discuss with Ron a few things before finalizing everything after an hour.
"Bring my lunch here," I said to Ron when I realized that I didn't eat lunch yet and Ron also seem to forget since today's schedule was kind of rushed.
"I'm sorry young master. Please wait for a moment" he said before quickly going to the kitchen. Luckily the cook already put aside my meals and just wait for my butler to take them to me.
"You go sleep early tonight since I don't have anything else after dinner," I said to Ron as I was heading to the dining hall for dinner.
"I already put a document sent by Lady Zerisa on your study table. She said you have to call her after reading it" Ron said before leaving me alone and entering the dining hall.
'Maybe it's just the game system proposal' I thought to myself and decided to take a look tomorrow morning.
**************************************
"Hmm, why is Eris calling me so many times," I asked Ron who was passing me my communicator.
"I'm not sure young master. Since it looks urgent, I have to disturb your training" Ron replied.
When the communicator rang once again, I quickly picked it up and asked her what was the matter.
"Have you read the document I send through your butler?"
"Isn't it easier to send me a digital version of it?" I asked curiously since for me it's more convenient and secure if the proposal was saved on the computer.
"It's a confidential data of the second prince so the paper will burn up after you finish reading it," Eris told me directly.
"...." I was stupefied when hearing that.
'Why the hell did she give me data on the second prince. That weird, obsessive prince'
"It seems like you've not read it yet. Please read it tonight and we discuss it during our outing tomorrow" she said before ending the call. I already used to her way of ending call abruptly after she said what she wanted.
As the future Zanuki matriarch, Eris behavior and way of conducting herself was aligned to how a leader should act, in my opinion.
"Should we end our training now young master?" Ran asked after the call ended.
"Yeah, it's almost tea time. Let's go inside and prepare tea for me. I have things to do" I said before walking away from the personal training ground.
"Hmmmmm" I was humming while reading through the second prince data or should I call it more like an assumption or rumour circulating the second prince.
__________________________
Theodore Von Hargan
- Son of a concubine from the Cairo Kingdom
-have dark skin since he was half foreigner
-have a weak body but a bright mind
-interested in the monster related stuff
-use a sword as his main weapon
- quite well verse in Herbology
Confirmed intel: will enrol into HGA next February.
__________________________
After one whole minute I finished reading it, the paper started to burn and later not even the ash was left. I could confidently say that this data wasn't anything much at all.
There's a lot of error and missing information in the data when compared to the information that I know about the second prince. First, he has dark skin because he is a quarter dark elf since his mom is a half-dark elf but she was killed by the former Empress who was the eldest princess's mother.
The royal family knew about it but just let it be. However, no one dares to touch the second prince since he is the descendent of the Dark Elves King. The dark elves have sent an assassin to kill the former Empress by making her ingested dead mana and made her die from mana contamination. It's a gruesome death and Emperor Christopher, the current emperor just turned blind eyes to it since the dark elves have helped him multiple times before.
The eldest princess was also not a stupid person thus she never plan on avenging her mother since her mother was also the one at fault. The current Empress who was the crown prince's mother, always remain as a bystander and never like to involve in politics too much.
In the novel, the crown prince would ascend the throne but the real person in power was the second prince while the eldest princess then requested to be removed from the royal family and became a high-ranking mage in Fleming Island instead.
He didn't have a weak body since he was a magic swordsman and an expert not in herbology but toxicology.
He was even able to use elemental despite only being a quarter dark elf. He uses his elemental to monitor the crown prince and make him stay in place all the time so the future emperor would be just like a puppet.
Do I need to befriend this person? He's not bad but he kind of obsessed with controlling the royal family which was not a bad thing since that crown prince was also sometimes doing shady things.
'Should I secretly open an intelligence agency?'
Suddenly an idea popped out in my mind. Since I have the future knowledge and information that many people didn't know, it seemed reasonable if I could create my intelligence agency since the Moran already has too many tasks in serving the Zanuki.
"Hmm I should find one person first," I said while thinking about a hermit hacker that would only start showing up in the fourth volume of the novel by helping the heroes which were the main characters searching for the demons' troop exact coordinates since he has created something similar to a satellite.
"Ron" I called through the intercom.
"Yes, young master" his voice came through.
"Can you find me the information about this person? This is my personal request. Don't report it to anyone else" I ordered him before sending a list of details to his communication line.
"I'm your butler thus I always aware that not everything can be said when I'm reporting to the matriarch or your sister"
'So he did report things to other people in the family. Well, it's a given since I'm their youngest family member who they still care like a kid.'
"I don't need it quickly so just take your time. Use my allowance for the expenses" I told him before turning off the intercom.
Why should I do the hard work when someone more efficient can do it for me. Later I should try finding someone else but this is more like a stroke of luck if I could find him and made him work for me.
'Ares' partner in the novel. Yes, that pathetic villain has a partner and his partner showed up more often than him. I just wanted to see if he had already fallen into the dark path or just like 'Ares' where the situation was still irreversible.
"But it kind of easy to turn him into the good guy in the game since he will follow anyone he favours" I commented while starting to write a few more people I needed to find to work on my intelligence agency.
********************************
"Have you read it?" Eris directly asked after we finished ordering our food at the restaurant. Currently, we were sitting in a private area on the second-floor balcony of a middle-class restaurant.
"Yes I have but the data seem ambiguous and full of assumptions and rumours" I commented before sipping the ice lemon tea served.
Currently, we were having brunch in a restaurant in the middle of Soga Town which was located in the middle of Zanuki territory.
Since there were no other customers within our vicinity, I didn't wear my mask. Adrian also had already put away his beanie that covered his red hair. It's kind of eye-catching to see four red-haired individuals walking together so we kind of wanted to tone it down by wearing caps and hoodies.
"Yeah but it can't be helped since the second prince is too low profile and even the royal attendants didn't know much about him" Eris explained.
'That's to be expected since a lot of the people working at the palace during the time the former Empress was still alive were either assassinated or were fired and given compensation to keep quiet about the royal family affairs.
"Even if it is the request from the Crown Prince, that doesn't mean you have to come crawling to the second prince. Just be your usual self" Adrian commented after the waiter finished serving our meals.
"Yes, that's right. He is a prince, a lot of people will want to befriend him" Karin replied in agreement.
"There must be a reason why the crown prince requests us. It's either to protect the second prince or to restrict the second prince. This is just my conjunctures" I said nonchalantly.
"Yeah, that is kind of true since the second prince also has an opportunity to ascend the throne especially when the eldest princess who has the most support, reject in being coronated as the crown princess. But compared to the second prince, the crown prince have more advantage especially when the current Empress is behind him" Adrian added on.
"They say the second prince's mother is a foreigner. Maybe she is from a high-ranking family in her country and that kind of background cannot be set aside isn't it?" Eris's reply sounded more inclined to my second conjuncture since the crown prince was known as someone who would do something that benefits him.
That kind of person wasn't so affectionate to his half-brother that has more than 5 years of gaps in age with him.
"So just go with the flow" Karin concluded easily.
"We're going to the weapon store first right?" Adrian said changing the subject of the conversation.
"Yes. My war hammer broke and I want to buy a new mace" Karin replied excitedly.
"I think I need an extra sword just in case the one I have suddenly break," Adrian said entertaining the excited Karin.
"Do you want to buy a more sturdy Katana, Ares?" Eris asked me.
"No, the one Grand gave me seems fine so I just want to buy some gloves and metal weights to put on my body" I answered her.
"Oho, I can suggest to you the brand that I'm using" Adrian offered which I gladly accepted.
"Then we have to go to a clothing store and also the bakery," Karin suggested.
"I prefer the food at hawker stalls than those pastries" Adrian commented.
"We can go to both since we have the whole day" I replied not choosing any side.
"There will be a fireworks event tonight so it's kind of ok to stay outside until late at night," Eris said agreeing with me.
"I will have to tell Kara to come later since she always loves fireworks," Karin said while tumbling with her phone trying to type on it.
****************************************
"Say cheese" Karin shouted while we were taking selfies with the fireworks still going in the sky.
Currently, we're standing at one of the peaks in Soga Mountain which is not far away from the mansion to watch the firework.
The picture turn out great where the sparks of the fireworks could be seen behind the five of us. Adrian then sends the picture to our family group since grandpa and Uncle Zenin likes to ask about our pictures.
"Eris make sure you edit the photo exposure first before uploading on Ares's Star account," Kara said when she saw Eris log in to my Star account.
Seeing Eris seemingly lost on what to do with the picture, I edited it myself by making the exposure higher since our surrounding is quite dark. Then I adjusted the colour and tone before I feel the picture look more descent. Taking pictures at night sure is tricky no matter how advanced your camera is. Luckily this world's camera is better than my previous world.
"Oho helps me edit the other pictures," Karin said to me.
Thus I spend around 10 minutes crouching down while editing a dozen of pictures that we took just now and sharing it with the four of them through something like a Bluetooth function.
"Hmm, can you edit the picture of the food that we took," Eris asked me after she finished uploading a picture on my Star account.
"Yeah, I will give it to you later" I replied easily.
**************************************
The next morning, after I finished editing all the pictures of the day, I looked at my Star account and read the comments. I did realize that Eris always delete all the bad comments but I just let her be since I could still know what those comments talking about when I went into the forum site.
I just have to type my name and there are quite a few posts that have been written about me, especially on why I was wearing a mask.
Then I decided to post a picture of me not wearing a mask but still, only the upper half of my face could be seen while the lower half is covered by a bowl of a sundae dessert.
Not more than half an hour, many people already commented below that picture. While waiting for more comments, I chat with Eris, Karin, and Adrian as I send them the edited pictures.
When I re-open my Star account, I saw the three of them already posted some pictures. Eris didn't post anything about her but just the food that she ate yesterday. She didn't seem to like to post her picture too much since the majority of her pictures were informal settings.
Karin posted pictures of her eating and trying new weapons which were so 'Karin' like behaviour. Adrian on the other hand posted the firework pictures and the candid picture of him walking around like a tourist. Most of his posts were candid pictures and that does suit him since he has a good-looking face.
Then I looked through my account and saw there were already quite a few dozens of comments under my latest post. Yesterday's post didn't have that many interesting comments compared to today's post. I started reading through the comments slowly since I already told Eris not to delete any of the comments anymore.
[Damn, put down that bowl. Are you trying to make us fight here?]
[Brother, only your chin is shown but why do I think you're good looking]
[Hey upstair, I kind of agree with you]
[Ayoo little brother, you're quite naughty huh?]
[This picture shows that he knew what people wanted to see the most]
[Can someone hack the restaurant CCTV. They must have captured his face somehow]
[Brother please gives us more hints]
[I bet he will give more in the future since I have never seen an ugly Zanuki so far]
[Can I apply to work with the Zanuki. If lucky I can see young master Ares's face]
[Damn upstair your idea is something else]
[Aren't you guys focusing on the wrong thing? Look at his eyes]
[His eyes are the first thing I saw when I first saw this picture on my timeline]
[It seems like he has heterochromia]
[Thanks upstair, I keep on trying to find the term until now]
[His eyes are pretty. I don't care if his face is ugly. He can live just by showing half of his face]
*(Upstair = the comment above the current one)
I continue scrolling and most of the comments were kind of the same where they complained about how I didn't show my face properly.
Later I decided to change my face profile from a cat picture to a close-up picture of my upper face which highlighted my heterochromia eyes since quite a lot of people commented about it.
*(heterochromia = when a person's irises are different colours)
After that, I passed on my days quite leisurely while Ron was busy packing my things to be brought to HGA. My enrollment letter also has arrived and I have to register on February 1st.
My cousins and Eris would go back to HGA a week earlier than my registration since their classes started early.
During the break, I helped Kara with her magic research and it helped me to understand magic more but not as in-depth as Kara. I also started to learn the programming system of this world which was easier compared to the one I learned before since the computer system was more advanced and made a programmer's life easier.
I managed to finish the framework of the chess and Go game before my registration day. Kara's magic card has also progressed about 60% where she has to find a more stable substance to add on. I just let her continue since she will be fine.
In the original timeline, it was Kara who created the magic card after Ares went away from home. She must have gone through Ares's thing and found the set of cards that have weird pictures and randomly drawn magic circles on them. It was a set of tarot cards but behind it has an incomplete magic circle each.
That was why I only improvised the cards a bit and gave the paperwork to Kara for her to finish In the novel, she sold the cards through SMT and managed to get a lot of money. I just wanted a portion of that money to create my intelligence agency.