"Anatol." Ciel replied. The Anatol kingdom, also known as the land of beauty, was on the other side of the ocean. Although it was a kingdom, it only occupied a small part of the eastern continent. The rest was a neutral land. It was the perfect place to go to avoid his father and play around before the story began.
However, Ciel's plans were shattered when the man's eyes flickered apologetically.
"I deeply apologize, Anatol is currently going through a turbulent period. The kingdom has closed down the borders and it's almost impossible for outsiders to get in."
In the novel, the only time the Anatol kingdom had been in complete self-isolation was when its three princes had been fighting for the crown after the king had died. In the end, it was the third prince who became crown prince. And as expected of an influential young man, he almost immediately joined the protagonist's fish tank—her harem.
During normal times, it would have been easy for Ciel to go to Anatol if their friendly relationship with Acyuta was taken into account.Ciel really was unlucky, he just had to choose this transition time to leave the tower.
Ciel gave one more try. If it was White Night, that peerless underworld guild depicted in the novel, it was completely possible that they had a channel to get him to Anatol.
"Almost impossible means that I can still go there." Ciel insisted.
"Correct. However, only clients who pay 100,000 gold coins for a gold order or higher can go there. Are you willing to pay?" The man's eyes squinted.
That was a whole 87,000 gold Ciel didn't have. He cursed silently.
—Damn, it wasn't that they didn't have a way, it was him who didn't have the money.
He had to go somewhere with lower possibilities of his identity being discovered. No matter how much the emperor hated him, no one would tolerate the direct descendant of imperial blood running around randomly like a vagrant.
Staying in the empire was a definite no—everyone here knew what the empress looked like, and he could tell just from looking at his reflection that he would grow up to look exactly like her.
In case the emperor had another brain problem like back when he had put a barrier around the tower, Ciel had to hide thoroughly and far far away—at least until he grew into a independent strong being that the empire couldn't easily touch.
That was why the overseas Anatol was the prime choice, but since that option was temporarily unavailable, he'll have to make do with traveling to the smaller kingdoms beyond the emperor's influence.
'Though, I still need to find an opportunity to go to Anatol later. In the novel, it was described as the kingdom of beauty. Hmm, I should get one of those recording crystals too.'
In any case, with his mother's fairy bloodline running through his veins, he had a long lifespan even without advancing his mage rank.
Unlike his old world, the people here could easily lengthen their natural lifespans by preserving their body's internal and external systems through mana or aura. Since he was now a creature who had fairy blood flowing through half of his veins, he could probably live for another half-century at the very least.
"Forget it then." Ciel got up to leave. It didn't matter if he couldn't travel to the Eastern continent where Anatol was, he could also go to the Nocturne kingdom on this continent. During the protagonist's travels, she had stopped by there, and it had been described as a peaceful kingdom where artistic talent, not strength, prevailed. That sounded like a nice place for a weakling like Ciel to go to.
As for artistic talent? He could sing—in the past, his siblings had always said that his singing was very good~
Thinking this, Ciel got up to leave, but the man stopped him.
"What?"
The man held out his hand, "Payment for the cookie you ate."
Ciel pulled out a gold coin. He had forgotten to exchange his gold coins for copper or silver coins.
The man was about to pull his hand back when Ciel stopped him, "What?"
Ciel smiled under his hood, "A cookie isn't that expensive. Give me my change."
"There's no need to be so stingy."
Ciel rolled his eyes under his hood.
'Says the man who wants payment for a single cookie!'
"I'm a very poor person."
"I'll give you 10 silver coins."
"A cookie isn't 90 silver coins. Give me 99 silver coins and 99 copper coins."
"Sugar is very expensive these days when Anatol is blocked off, I'll give you 50 silver coins."
"99 silver coins."
"60."
"99."
"80!"
"90." Ciel played with a lock of his hair lazily.
Oops, now his hands were dusty.
"85 silver coins." The man gritted his teeth.
"85 then, and I want that ribbon around your hair." Ciel pointed at the man's hair. Ciel's hair had gotten too long for his liking, and he was only keeping himself from chopping most of it off because he could go to the barbershop later and sell it for money.
The man sullenly reached into his pockets and gave Ciel the money. Ciel smiled and jumped up, pulling the ribbon from the man's hair.
'I can sell this later.'
He was very experienced with higher quality goods and he could tell that this ribbon, which was decorated with intricate gold patterns, was a customized product.
Laughing softly with his milky voice, he politely bowed to the man before leaving.
Since he wasn't going to Anatol anymore, Ciel immediately went to a barbershop. On the way, he passed by a large gate.
'Smoke?' He frowned. He could definitely smell smoke. There was no food scent mixed in so it wasn't from a late-night barbecue. Ciel could sense that the fire was close by, but nothing was burning around him. He turned around, the smoky smell seemed to come from behind the mansion gates.
Digging into his memories, Ciel quickly tied his long hair into a braid with his new ribbon and climbed over the gate. As expected, he felt himself pass through a thin, membrane-like thing as he leisurely hopped off the wall.
'Wow.'
The perfectly intact mansion he had seen from behind the gate was now filled with dark red flames.
'In the past, Duke Apache's mansion was silently burned to the ground in the capital as an act of terrorism from a sub-organization under the demons. No one noticed the mansion burning until the next morning. When the mansion appeared, it was as if it had burned down all in one second. All members of the household were massacred, leaving a nine-year-old heir behind. Well, now I know how they did it.'
Later on, because of this incident, that surviving child became the loyal, demon-hating dog of the heroine's harem and Ciel officially knew him as the Apache bast*rd who suggested for the nameless second prince to be left in the demon horde.
'If I could save at least one of his parents, maybe he won't go dark and become the heroine's dog. More importantly, that future genius alchemist will owe me a life-saving favor.'
With eyes filled with both glee and excitement, Ciel took out his white robe and covered his mouth and nose as he dived into the mansion. After various testing back in the tower, he had found that the robe was self-cleaning, water resistant, fire resistant, had a temperature adjustment, and would adjust to the owner's body size.
In other words, although he hadn't found any defensive functions like the usual clothing in fantasy novels, it was very convenient in a burning mansion.
Entering the main hall, Ciel could feel an eerie silence despite being in the middle crackling fire. There was definitely a silencing barrier around this mansion, there was no way he was able to hear absolutely nothing in the middle of a mansion burning down.
Stepping into a room, Ciel frowned. Corpses wearing servant garbs were lying all over the floor, their hearts were neatly torn out of their chests, with crimson blood staining the floors. It was evident there were no living people here. Whoever had passed by was meticulous and neat. Ciel stepped over their bodies, making his way down the flaming blood-soaked halls.
'This sub-organization deserves their name of being the terrorism part of the demons.'
He pulled the hood tighter over his head, he had found a new function in this robe—it also completely blocked the smoke.
As Ciel walked around, he admired the flames licking the walls. The smoke filled air was solved by his mother's gift, so the only fly in the ointment was how the fire's light was shining through the robe and was burning his eyes. However, the crimson-red color of the flames was beautiful.
Ciel selectively ignored the bloody corpses on the floor.
'Here it is.' Ciel stopped before an almost collapsed door. He easily kicked it down, not bothering to check if anyone was behind it. In the novel, the loyal dog said that he had dragged his parents close to the windows as his father tried to activate an alarm crystal before they all fainted due to the smoke.
The window was in the back of the room.
'Found them.' Next to the large fancy window, three unconscious people were heaped up to form a small pile. The man had his hand on an alarm crystal but had passed out before activating it. Fortunately, the arsonist had already left, leaving the trio to die from the fire.
From the novel, Ciel knew that the arsonists had injured the Apache couple enough so that they would die slowly, but not immediately. He didn't know whether it was to give them a chance or if it was a sick joke.
He checked the trio's breathing. Seeing that they were all still alive, he tilted his head in confusion.
'I wonder how the couple died in the novel. From their body condition, even in a smoky area, they should be able to survive until they are found the next morning. And that door would have blocked the fire from coming in.'
From his space ring, he took out the bed sheets he had taken from the tower and tore them into strips before wrapping up the trio's bloodiest wounds; there wasn't time to properly treat them, so Ciel opted to stop the blood from flowing out.
After he finished, he grabbed the alarm crystal. It would send an emergency help signal to the other holder of the crystal as soon as any mana was injected inside of it. Ciel easily inserted his mana inside, and the crystal instantly lit up before vanishing.
Ciel looked around vigilantly, feeling that something was wrong. With reinforcements coming soon, he should feel relieved, but in this eerie silence, his sixth sense was still tingling.
Suddenly, he felt a wave of heat wash over him.
'Sh*t.'
He instinctively formed a non-attribute mana barrier as the burning roof caved in right on top of him—he couldn't risk tainting his blood with rubble. Tainted blood couldn't be returned to his body, and he would lose too much blood if he had formed a blood barrier.
'So this was how they died. The loyal dog only survived because they had been protecting him with their bodies, and even with their efforts, he still got a permanent burn scar on his face.' He remembered the couple's postures when he had first found them and sighed.
'How come I don't have such good parents? One is a psycho and one is dead.'
Despite his thoughts, his eyes showed no envy. Using his remaining amount of mana, Ciel started to dig an opening in the rubble above his barrier. Help should come soon, anyone who would receive a help signal from the duke would also be an influential and powerful noble.
That was good for the Apache family but bad for him. Due to Caesar's love for his wife, he had shown her to all the aristocrats, and Ciel had inherited almost all her features, giving him androgynous features even when he was a boy.
Anyone with a brain would be able to tell he was her son. That would potentially land Ciel back into the Emperor's hands. Since the Apache family was secure, he should quickly leave.
With another shove, the rubble was cleared away. When Ciel popped his head out, it was pouring rain. Apparently, the barrier wouldn't block the rain. He quickly cut his hand and spun the blood that poured out into thin strings to carry the family of three carefully under a large tree a distance from the ruins of the mansion.
His physical condition as a weak nine-year-old didn't permit him to carry them with his body alone, and non-attribute magic could only do so much. Thinking this, Ciel condensed a small piece of his already miniscule mana into his blood, solidifying it into a crimson droplet-shaped crystal with his mana signature imprinted in it.
Every mage had their own unique mana signature that would be left behind in their mana. This signature couldn't be faked, and was the best way to authenticate a mage's identity. Ciel happily stuffed the blood crystal containing his mana signature in the boy's unconscious hands.
'This way, he'll have a way to recognize his benefactor in the future. The Apache dog in the protagonist's harem was described as someone who knew how to pay back their debts. When he's an alchemist in the future, I can probably extort a lot of potions from him.'
After thinking about it, Ciel thoughtfully left the remains of his bedsheet on them and left.
The bed sheets were unusable anyway. Why would he carry them around? He still had curtains as emergency bandages anyway since he had basically stuffed everything he could from the tower into his ring. Besides, injured people needed to be kept warm and dry.
Just as Ciel left the Apache premises, a lone figure rushed to the scene.
He approached the ruins quickly before noticing the family of three under the tree. He checked their breathing and sighed in relief when he found they were only unconscious.
'They're alone?' He looked around suspiciously, grasping the activated alarm crystal in his hands. The mana inside was not any of the Apache family member's mana. The man was familiar with most of the mage signatures from his empire and none of them matched the mana in the alarm crystal.
'Was it a foreign mage passing by?' He bent down, the bandaging was hurried but it was of good quality. Whoever did this was clearly experienced.
'I'll be able to recognize them from their mana signature if I ever meet them. I'll repay them at that time.' The dark purple-haired man snapped his fingers and the weather cleared up, revealing a dark night sky. Another man had also just arrived at the scene.
"My dearest emperor, why did you clear up the weather just after I got drenched?" He shook off the water droplets from his sopping-wet golden hair.
"Shiva, you didn't sense anything when the attackers came in?" Caesar jerked his head towards the ruins of the house.
Shiva's expression darkened as he shook his head, "Nothing at all."
"I'll deal with the aftermath, you can't rest until you find a way to prevent this from happening again. As the knight commander of the first order, this shouldn't have happened on your watch." Caesar's tone was cold, stopping Shiva's complaints before he could even start.
Shiva sighed, "Understood."
This time, he really was in the wrong. Damn, he couldn't even complain about being overworked!
"Your majesty?" A small voice weakly came from the side. The young boy who had been unconscious next to his parents had woken up, his small hands subconsciously clutching onto the crimson crystal.
"Andrea? How are you feeling?" Caesar bent down, his face was expressionless but his tone was warm.
"Where's the girl?" Andrea looked around in confusion.
"Girl?"
"Yeah, the hooded girl with long gray hair." Andrea replied innocently. Raising the mana crystal up, he displayed the crimson crystal to Caesar and Shiva.
"She left this behind."
***
Meanwhile, Ciel arrived at his original destination, the barbershop.
"Excuse me, sorry to intrude on you so late at night. But you haven't closed yet. So how much can this be sold for?" He took off his hood, showcasing his gray hair. Waves of dust came off at his movement. If the barrier around the tower hadn't also prevented insects and other things from coming in, Ciel bet ten silvers that there would have also been bugs in his hair.
The shop owner who was about to close his shop for the night looked over irritatedly.
"It has a nice length, but it's not well taken care of. Its dull gray color isn't welcomed much by the people who want to buy wigs either. I'll give you two copper coins." He bent down to Ciel's height.
'Damn, don't tell me my years of work growing this out isn't even comparable to a cookie?'
Ciel frowned and tried to bargain for a higher price.
"My hair's just dirty. It's actually a pure white color. White's an elegant color, and it's easy to dye. I should have at least a silver coin." Ciel saw how the shop owner frowned and added, "If you don't believe me, how about you wash it and see for yourself? I know that natural white hair is rare and many nobles want a white haired wig to commemorate the late empress. Natural white hair this long is not easy to see." He had purposely left his hair long, knowing that it would be valuable. On the other hand, a kitchen knife wasn't exactly a good hair cutting tool.
The shop owner sighed, "Fine, on the account of your young age and ragged state, come in. I'd like to check for myself how this ash gray color can turn white."
Before coming in, Ciel had already taken his white robe off after he had left, leaving only his makeshift clothes he had made himself from the curtains after he had outgrown his other clothing, making him seem like a kid from the streets to garner more pity.
Healing this, Ciel smiled sweetly, making full use of his pretty features.
"Thank you uncle."