Do Re Mi~
Do Re Mi~
I continue playing my harp while I watch over my beautiful Basil from my balcony.
The sun shines with the warm embrace of a lover with no clouds in sight, the magnificent colors of Basil are like an endless field of flowers, and the hustle and bustle of my dear citizens is like that of bees, bringing me the perfect ambrosia of inspiration!
I have so many responsibilities, I must prepare the tax plan for the next quarter, perfect the formula for the Springdew pills, brand the new batch of slaves, and memorize the script for my next play, the arcadian chronicle, and many, many other things.
Truly, my tasks are like grains of sand in a beach, absolutely endless.
I would finish faster if I tried to put a grain of rice every thousand years in a temple until it was full.
However, days like these help me see the whole beach, and I realize it's truly worth it.
I am happy, and nothing can bring me down!
A servant rudely enters my room. "Mistress, the young master of the Paprika clan, Octavius Paprika, wants to see you."
Crap.
That cunt bastard wants to send my fucking day down the drain.
Can I just tell him to fuck off forever?
No…
My clan will lose face if I do that, furthermore, the Paprika clan, as soulless as they are, control the market for artifacts, I shouldn't offend them for no reason.
Fuck!
The nerve of this pain-in-the-ass dwarf! Just waltzing into my territory like he owns the place and stealing my time like some sort of fucking goblin.
Fuck him.
I place my harp down and undress myself, I'm still in my nightgown after all, I have to dress for the occasion.
I see myself in the mirror, my long black hair is neatly tied into a ponytail, my porcelain.like skin is gleaming with life, I have just the right amount of volume, I'm not some fat cow with tits bigger than her head, and I'm not like a malnourished beggar that looks more like an skeleton than a human.
Truly, I have a perfect body!
I look at the maid. "Tell him I'll be there in 15 minutes."
I don't really give a fuck if a maid sees me naked or whatever, it's the same as if a pidgeon saw me.
Who the fuck even gives a shit?
And for that human headache? I'll just deal with him, he's simply another grain of sand.
She bows. "Very well." and she leaves my room without further ado.
* * *
I ended up wearing my casual green alchemy uniform, alchemy is the focus of my clan, so it shows I care about my duties, that I wasn't in the middle of any urgent job, like refining a pill or brewing a potion, but also that I WAS doing something, and he interrupted me.
It's truly the perfect choice, like always.
I go down the stairs and into the meeting area.
It's a large room with luxurious furniture, and many masterpiece paintings depicting all kinds of scenery, showing the extent of the power of my Basil clan.
The pain-in-the-ass dwarf is already sitting here with an indifferent poker face, like he always has, sipping on tea like a dog drinks his water.
He's a young man around my age, his mud-colored hair is disheveled, and he's wearing decolored clothes one size too big for him.
If I didn't know who he was I'd assume a random peasant wants to sell himself to slavery rather than the young master of our neiboring clan.
This is truly a slap on my face! This bastard, he's really showing me no respect at all!
I should just send his head back to his clan and feed the rest to the dogs.
As pleasant as that would be, I simply sit down on the chair in front of him.
"Hi." The pain-in-the-ass dwarf is talking in an extremely casual way, almost mocking, you can hear him smirk even as his face remains unchanging.
What the fuck.
Normally I'd slap anyone who dared to talk to me like that, but this is fucking weird.
This guy does NOT talk like that.
He will try and pathetically fail to lie, or talk with an snake-ish polite tone.
But not this weird mocking tone, only Axel tends to speak like that, and even isn't as disrespectful as this dwarf is being now.
"Hello Octavius, it's a pleasure to see you on such a pleasant day, though it is rather surprising too."
"Yeah, yeah, let's cut the small talk, look, I forgot to bring a map and I need some materials from the wilderness, can you lend me a silver-grade map of the region?" He continues speaking with his disrespectful tone.
I…
I have no words.
I really, really, want to strangle this dwarf right here, he's smaller and weaker than me, killing him on the spot would not be hard at all, I might have an easier time killing him than I would killing a fly, since I have a pattern of change and he doesn't.
But I don't think I can, the political fallout of such a choice would simply be unacceptable.
And for what, a silver-grade map? That's like 10 salvatores, it's less than pocket change, and basically worthless to me, though many has-beens sell themselves for less.
What the hell is going on?
He clearly understands what he's doing, for everything that's wrong with him, his head has always been lucid.
"I have to inquire, why do you need this map?" I try to smile as cordially as I can, unlike this bastard I actually care about my image as a young mistress.
"Are you deaf? I already told you I want some stuff from the wilderness." The dwarf rudely rolls his eyes.
…
I look at a maid in the eyes and nod.
She instantly understands what I meant, as I have meticulously trained all of my servants to be able to do so.
This guy wants a goddamn map? He can have his fucking map.
Fuck, I'll even give him a gold-grade map of epice, if he wants a map so fucking much.
A silver-grade map is garbage that only shows colored blobs of the general area, but a gold-grade?
It has detailed information of the area it's mapping, such a map of Epice would surely cost at least a dozen godfreys, one hundred times more than a simple silver-grade one.
And of course, I'll be sending that bill to his clan.
Lending? I'll lend you my ass, if you want something you'll have to get it with cold cash.
Hehehe.
The maid comes with a large parchment and gives it to the pain-in-the-ass dwarf.
He inspects it for a moment, he visibly shrugs with a disgusting smug grin on his face."Thanks!" And after that, he simply leaves.
The nerve this man has!
I want to hang his flayed skin like a banner outside of a sewer!
A maid brings me a cake and takes her breasts out.
I take a sip of her milk while eating the cake, of course.
Haaah, I really have trained these dogs well.
I feel like I just had a fever dream.
What the fuck just happened?
Octavius had a goal in doing this.
He clearly burned all the goodwill between us, or whatever was left anyway, we never really got along.
His political position can really suffer from this stunt depending on how I play my cards, even crippling it would not be out of the question.
He knows this, or at least he should, despite everything I don't think that he's an idiot, he clearly has a good head over those shoulders if he can make rank 2 artifacts with only a pattern of magic, hell, that kind of talent is not worse than mine at all.
So this stunt was planned, no doubt about it.
Why would he want to cripple himself though? It makes no sense…
I can only think of one thing, his position is now an obstacle to him, in some way.
Hmm, that's almost a retarded idea, however, Octavius is a little unique among the young masters of Epice, his niece is not only more talented and strong than him, but the gap between the two of them is basically impossible to cross.
Sexta Paprika is the greatest shining star of our generation, Octavius' position as a young master has always been shaky thanks to her.
However, it's rumored that the two have a great relationship, and by that I mean they are fucking, those damn degenerates.
I suckle on my slave's supple breasts again, drinking more of her delicious milk.
If Sexta wanted to fully take control of the operations of the clan, Octavius would need to step down from his position, but simply doing that is not an option, since Andrei Paprika, the current leader of the clan, personally selected him over her.
So, if I'm following the correct train of thought, and I am, the pain-in-the-ass dwarf is willingly killing himself so that Sexta can rise instead.
Now, I need to know who is actually pulling the strings in that relationship, because Sexta making herself the young mistress of the clan and Octavius using her as a puppet while strengthening his position are two very different things.
Approaching this situation from the right angle should be very profitable, but falling into their tricks could be dangerous.
Hah!
You damn dwarf, this is a clever scheme, but it's still too simple for me!
He should approach me again to try and stir the pot if I don't do anything, so I should put my efforts into prodding Sexta!
I drink from my slave's breast victoriously, having completely seen through this conspiracy.
Now, where did I leave that script, I have to learn it by tomorrow.