Current time at the Imperial Palace.
The envoy gently placed the chest down in front of Queen Sisi. Queen Sisi crossed one leg over the other. As she enjoyed her glass of wine, she gently made a gesture with her finger for the envoy to come over. The envoy went over and opened up the chest. Inside was an entire chest of gold coins. The total sum was unknown, but it certainly wasn’t a small sum.
Queen Sisi subtly nodded: “That’ll do. It appears that Achilles didn’t do too shabby this time and earned quite a fair bit at the border.”
“With regards to the one thousand gold coins originally promised you, Mr. Achilles falsely reported it. This is the portion that we promised you. The chapel does not know about this portion, either. The chapel will soon go bankrupt, which will remove the point of having them when they do. However, we will still need to split the earnings from this time with another individual. Mr. Achilles stated that he would send it over according to the earnings.”
“You still have to split with another individual?” Queen Sisi paused then asked, “Is there really that much of the elven flavouring? How is he able to sell another batch?”
“Yes. Someone has joined us and suggested conducting another deal. We agreed to it. This time, the chapel is not in the loop, which is why we can get a bigger share… With that said, if the chapel finds out, they will most likely overreact. At present, the chapel is going crazy over their financial circumstances. They are so desperate now that they could run a brothel in their chapels.”
Queen Sisi gently pursed her lips: “I don’t care about your business or the chapels. Nevertheless, they dared to levy taxes, when it’s my money. Since they had the audacity to touch my money, I have no choice but to brush them aside. All I have to be responsible for is taking money from you behind the scenes. Frankly, seeing as how you have so many gold coins, I suspect that you didn’t try that hard when the war was waged.”
“Your Majesty, we swear that we provided you with our utmost support for the war!”
“I know. You don’t need to overreact.”
Queen Sisi shut the chest. She pouted her lips to indicate for a servant to carry the chest away. She then looked at the merchant and softly chuckled: “I heard that there are even better fabrics and more loyal servants in the Eastern nation. Can you get them for me?”
“Silk and eunuchs? We will do our best to procure them for you.”
“Good.”
Queen Sisi stood up and placed her glass of wine down. She vigorously pulled open the world map on the table. She loudly exclaimed, “I don’t want a barren piece of land. I want the elves’ forest, the dwarves’ valley and the rich nation in the East! My army is invincible. Next, it will depend on whether or not you can provide me with enough money. As long as you can make enough money, I will do everything in my power to fulfil your wishes.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Mr. Achilles will definitely complete his task.”
“Good. That said, have you found incriminating evidence against the chapel yet? Additionally, you need a suitable candidate to take down the chapel.”
“We will do our best.”
=========
Current time at Lord Veirya’s residence.
“Good afternoon. I never thought you would be able to sleep until now.”
I ate my food.
It was quite nice to have an Anna. At the very least, Leah and Veirya won’t starve when I’m busy. However, Anna only knew how to prepare quick and simple dishes, which I presume she learned in the military. Fortunately, they weren’t bad.
When I took the plates, Lucia and Veirya sat at the table and drank tea. Lucia gave me a smile with her eyes narrowed. She greeted me.
After deliberating it for a long time, I decided to throw the bed sheet and blanket out and get new ones. Although there were very few things that were worth much in the house, we did have a fair number of bed sheets, curtains and similar stuff made from fabric. By the looks of it, they didn’t plan to take heavy stuff that wasn’t worth money.
“Since we’re leaving tonight, I plan to sleep more to avoid feeling sleepy at night.”
“That’s quite the meticulous thinking!” Lucia nodded. Her long ears twitched just slightly.
Leah came out of the kitchen with Anna. She grabbed Anna’s hand and cheerfully said something. Leah seemed to be very fond of Anna after spending some time with her, probably because Anna was the only woman who wasn’t close to me… Anna and I lived under the same roof; however, she always thought Veirya and I were a family. As such, she always avoided interacting with me in private. If I was covered in Veirya and Lucia’s scent, I probably didn’t have Anna’s scent on me.
“Papa!” Leah cheerfully ran over and hugged my thigh when she saw me coming down the stars. She sniffed me then giddily giggled. She leapt onto my belly and happily exclaimed, “This time, you only have Leah’s scent on you! Papa, you must remember not to come back with Lucia’s scent on you, okay?!”
“I know, I know! You can’t do that to Papa again, though!”
“Uhm…” Leah appeared a little reluctant, but didn’t want to anger me, and thus, involuntarily promised me.
I caressed Leah’s head then looked over to Lucia: “Lucia, are you ready?”
“I don’t need to prepare anything. Nobody can detect me at night, not even demons. Moreover, humans have poor senses at night.”
Lucia was very proud of herself. Her confidence worried me. From my perspective, all the confidence in the world was unnecessary. I wanted guarantees. Anyway, Veirya nodded: “Lucia. Very skilled.”
Lucia proudly responded, “Right?! Right?!”
I looked at Lucia and said, “One more thing, Lucia. If we’re unfortunate and end up being discovered, don’t hurt anyone, understood? We’re no longer in a war with demons. If you, an elf, kill humans, that’ll become a diplomatic issue. It might even instigate a war between elves and humans.”
Lucia nonchalantly waved it off: “Don’t worry; don’t worry. Nobody will notice me. Plus, would the townsfolk here even notice anything? The townsfolk don’t know about our business, and nobody will jump us, right? I won’t hurt them. Rest assured.”
“True that…”
She was right about that… The townsfolk didn’t seem to be aware of what we were trying to do. Plus, the chapel was probably still in the dark…
========
Current time at a store interior.
“I’ll talk!! I’ll tell you everything!!”
The man’s woeful cries echoed in between the fabric. Angelina indifferently threw the child, who she grabbed the throat of, onto the ground. The child virtually couldn’t breathe. The child curled up on the ground but couldn’t even cry. Angelina walked up to the man similarly to a hunter stalking its prey. She coldly asked, “So, what do you know?”
“Leah, that girl Leah is a succubus!! She’s a succubus!! Also, also, they’re planning to sell flavouring behind your backs! I’ve told you everything!! I’ve told you everything!”
“I see.”
Angelina’s expression didn’t change. She turned around and walked over to the child on the ground as well as the woman who was knocked out. Angelina was a woman of her word. She didn’t harm his family, as he confessed.
I, however, didn’t know about what happened, yet.
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