Ray was walking around the palace without any destination in mind.
He had already decided his next actions.
'The East Duke sent me an invite yesterday, so I'll visit him tomorrow… and after that I'll visit the North Duke to see what's wrong with the Duchess…'
'And then I'll just observe what my new slave sees and hears, and I'll decide if anything new needs to be done before my coronation…'
'Oh and I also have those corrupted officials in my dungeon I recently made my slaves to work… hee hee… a lot of things need to be done, but I'll do nothing today. Just want to enjoy myself…'
He walked past the corridor and entered Isis' room, but she wasn't there.
'Well, being the ruler gives you very little time. No way I'm sitting on the throne all day long after my coronation.'
Ray closed the door and walked down. He entered the training grounds where everyone immediately stopped to bow to him.
Slightly nodding at them he kept walking and entered the court of mages where several mages wearing robes were tinkering with artifacts, practicing mana control and reading scroll while moving around. Whenever someone saw him, they would bow down and on his nodding continue walking.
Before he exited the hall he saw an old man wearing a black robe sitting down, intensely reading a book.
Without anything better to do, he approached the old man.
"Sir Wilfred!"
The old man named Wilfred lifted his face and on seeing Ray instantly broke into a kind smile, while he shut his book.
"Your highness! What brings you here today? Magic control practice?"
"No, no, just passing by…"
"Well, you don't need to practice control anymore either way. You are even better than me in that area."
"Old man Wilfred, you are still the most respected archmage in this palace."
After talking for few more moments, he decided to move on while the Wilfred opened the book with pentagrams and glyphs in its cover open and began reading again.
'This old man died has a monstrous amount of mana and can crush people without using a single skill…'
'He always reads higher level magic research books… just like now…'
Ray decided to appraise the book while he was at it.
[Hardbound Book: 'Best jokes to lighten up a tense situation Vol. 23'- Freeman]
"…"
'You destroyed my reputation old man! Really? A book for jokes and a volume 23?'
Ray swore to find this 'Freeman' one day while he moved on.
He visited several of his organizations, encouraging people to continue their job, while also getting showered for his concern in return.
After he was done, he decided to visit the maids and use love sight and find interesting people for well… research purposes.
While on his way to the maids' quarters, he met with Rachel, his childhood friend.
When she saw him, the most beautiful smile bloomed on her face while she ran towards him.
The moment she approached Ray, he could smell her sweet shampoo, instantly lifting his already happy mood to another level.
"Rachel! How are you? I didn't get time to meet you yesterday at all!"
"Your highness! Were you trying to visit me?"
Ray instantly postponed his 'research' to another date while his glib tongue took over.
"Of course! Do you know how much I missed you?"
"And yet you didn't get time to meet me yesterday…"
Rachel pouted and pretended to be angry.
When these two were together, they forgot their status, and were pure friends. They had already come to an understanding a long time ago that Rachel was his friend first and maid second.
Ray had told her not to work at all, but she was adamant about trying her best to learn everything.
Her reason being: 'Since Ray is working hard to become emperor, I'll work harder to so I can help him forever!'
That's the resolution she took before she practically begged her mother, who was a senior palace maid, to send her to three years of training.
She had returned a few weeks earlier, and was extremely busy handling a lot of things for Ray's coronation.
"Well, after your coronation, I won't have any more work!"
"You don't have to work even now, I told you. There are lots of maids but you are being stubborn in doing everything by yourself."
"No! The maids don't know you at all. All they see is a prince eager to become emperor. They don't know you as closely as me! So I'll arrange most of the things for your coronation to your liking!"
"Oh? You know me closely?"
"Do you have a doubt?"
"Well, I don't know…"
"You…"
Rachel and Ray smiled at each other, and finally Ray started talking again.
"How's your mother? I heard she was sick for a few days?"
"Oh that! Nothing much, she just suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed…The healers said she was alright though, so it's fine."
"Hmm... it's good that nothing serious happened."
"Yes…"
"On another note Rachel… want to visit the city the day after my coronation?"
"H-Huh?"
"So?"
"W-What do you mean? You will be the emperor! How will you visit the city? And even then… with me…"
"Oh please. Don't say 'I'm just a maid' again or I'll smack your head."
Rachel immediately guarded her head while peeking at Ray.
"And how many times did we sneak away from the palace without anyone knowing before?"
"But… that's when we were young…"
"Well I am still pretty young my grandmother."
"G-Grandmother? Alright! I'll visit the city! Let's see if you dare sneak away the first day you become an Emperor!"
"Hahaha that's my Rachel! Alright, it's a date then!"
"D-Date?"
Without letting Rachel think anymore, Ray winked at her and walked away towards the throne room.
Rachel meanwhile stood there dazed. Her ears were getting warmer and she felt steam rising from her head.
While walking away Ray suddenly remembered something and used 'Love Sight' on Rachel and what he saw made him stop in his tracks for a few seconds.
[Target: Rachel
Relationship: Childhood Friend, Maid
Love: 75%
??? (Hidden Stat)
Innate Traits: Loving (70%), Loyal (90%), Sadism (0%), Friendly (100%)
Fetishes: Vaginal, Foreplay, Outdoor sex, Light Femdom, Light Sadism
Likes: Spending Time with Ray
Dislikes: Polygamy
Condition: Really wants to kiss host, wants to confess to host, fears rejection and abandonment
Special condition: Friendly but trying to become something more
Title: The pure and innocent childhood friend]
'What the fuck? Sadism? Light femdom? Oh hell no. I'll have to do something about this…I need the fetish refresher skill...'
Without getting too flustered he started walking towards the throne room.
'I'll do something about it later. First I'll have to make her mine completely. Only then will I deal with those things somehow…'
Suddenly a pink screen appeared in front of him.
[Lust System side quest generated]
[Lust System (Legendary)
Quest: Childhood friends? Let's upgrade that shall we?
Condition: Conquer your childhood friend and add her to your harem
Clear conditions: (1) Have sex with your childhood friend- Rachel
(2) Increase her love for you to 100% and make her completely yours
Rewards: Fetish Randomizer-(SS)-Can randomly add one fetish to a female of your choice. Use at your own risk.
Remarks: You think you have a choice? Just clear both conditions man.]
'Fetish Randomizer? It's a risky skill… what if a gentle woman suddenly develops some weird fetishes? But it's an exciting skill, and I would have done it either way.'
[Lust System: Hell yeah, make a move during your date!]
'I know I know, just keep watching. But you know... I would have preferred the fetish refresher skill more...'
[Lust System: ...]
Ray sighed and shook his head while he kept walking.
Thinking about the ideal way to make a move on his childhood friend who was infatuated with her, he reached the throne room.
While entering he could see a noble he didn't recognize kneeling while voicing out his problem, while a woman he had previously appointed to help Isis was standing at the side, recording down whatever the man was saying with a device.
Meanwhile Isis was sitting on the throne without paying much attention to whatever was going on. She just had to be present and not do anything really.
Ray had previously sneaked into this place multiple times at night, when it was empty and carved a lot of different magic arrays around.
They had a lot of functions like detecting people hiding in the palace or only allowing people with royal bloodline to be able to use mana here.
He did all this for safety measures. After all, even after one could enter here only after multiple layers of checking, taking precautions could never harm.
He sighed and after remotely sweeping the palace with his mana and finding no apparent threat he nodded in satisfaction.
Then he glanced towards Isis, who was still sitting there oblivious to whatever was happening, activated his appraisal and expanded the screen to view her complete stats.
[System: Ascended Healer System (Unique)
Name: Isis Celestia
Age: 38
Species: Human
Bloodline: High Blood-cells Regeneration (A)
Physique: Self-Healing (S)
Mind: Normal (D)
Disposition: Good, Holy
Titles: The Celestial Empress, The Innocent Queen, The Peaceful Queen,…
Strength: (E+)
Agility: (B)
Intelligence: (A+)
Charm: (S+)
Dexterity: (E+)
Stamina: (A)
Mana Quantity: (SS+)
Mana Output: (SS+)
Mana Control: (S)
Mana Purity: (SSS)
Passive Skills: High speed Regeneration (S+), Stamina Regeneration (S), Cell Proliferation (S), Limbs Regrowth (S+), …
Active Skills: Mass Heal (SS), Massive Area Buff (S+), Blessing (A), Heal (B+), …]
'No wonder she is the best healer in the empire… her physical stats might be weak, but the mana stats are absolutely monstrous.
Ray was trying to decide which skill he would copy.
'Everything sounds enticing…'
'Well, I'll choose this one later…'
Deciding to copy his mother's skill later he decided to do something more… interesting.