It was just a few hours before dawn, but Lucien has not yet been able to sleep.
He continued to watch his beautiful women comfortably sleeping. They never slept as well as they did beside him because they felt so confident in their beloved man’s side.
Lucien wanted to keep that confidence, and for that, he needs strength. The power to protect those he loves.
Knowing that there was a lot to do before anything could threaten him and his women, Lucien slowly stood up so as not to wake the girls.
After kissing Mia on the forehead and putting Rose in his place, Lucien left the room. Lust materialized at his side as they walked down the corridor.
After the fourth floor was given to Lucien, there was no one else there besides his group. So there were a few free rooms that could be used for many things.
Lucien entered a room where they had placed different items. The room was large and had ample empty space, a table in the center, as well as some furniture in the corners.
On the table in the center of the room, there are a lot of magic storage bags and regular bags, the magic storage bags were from common people and shouldn’t have precious things.
He went to the table, looking at all the magic storage bags and regular bags on it. Inside the regular bags were several rings, necklaces, and bracelets, which were all storage treasures. Storage treasures could not be stored inside each other, so they used regular bags to carry them.
These are all the storage treasures that Lucien’s group looted during Lena’s rescue. Some from the Nunid Kingdom’s prince, his guards, and the light Captain, but most were obtained after the battle of mercenaries and adventurers.
Lucien took one of the bags, specifically the one they had kept the Cornelius’ storage ring, the leader of the mages’ mercenary group.
He focused his mind on the ring with the intention of bringing everything out. Then a second later, hundreds of books began to appear in the room. There were also some chests with gold coins, potions, and other miscellaneous items.
Lucien, who was in the middle of the empty space in the room’s center, was now surrounded by old books.
Lust appeared sitting on top of a pile of books and took one of them. “The Alliance: Myths and Facts… It seems that there is a lot of knowledge in these books. You should read them.”
He picked up one of the books. It was a large book and appeared to have more than five hundred pages. The language was not exactly that of his world despite using the same alphabet.
“I will take a long time to rea-” Lucien opened the book while saying it wouldn’t be quick to obtain knowledge of them. But he was pleasantly surprised when he saw a leaf from the book.
He opened the book in the middle and saw a page full of small letters, but it took him less than a second to fully understand what was written on the page. It is part of a detailed formula for a potion to breathe under the water.
Lust saw Lucien’s reaction and can’t help but comment. “Your senses are getting more and more powerful.”
“This means that in addition to sight, hearing, among others, there are also improvements in your perception.”
“Your brain is already working at a speed far higher than normal people, so you can read much faster than before.”
Lucien continued to read the book. Some pages had words he didn’t know, but it still took him less than 3 seconds to read the two pages and move on to the next ones.
He read half the book in less than seven minutes and then started from the beginning and read halfway, thus finishing a five hundred page book in less than fifteen minutes.
Lucien always liked to read, as that was the only thing he could do when he was exhausted from physical training. He knew that in books, he could find vast knowledge, and now knowing that he could read at such ridiculous speed, he wasted no time.
Cornelius’ books were truly a treasure. There were books on everything and the most influential people in that world. In a few hours, Lucien read about the regions of Argerim, the peoples, mystical beasts, magic, and many other things.
Some things caught Lucien’s attention, such as the story of the Sage King. He was a great man who united the land of Portgreen and turned bandits and peasants into soldiers.
Soon Portgreen was almost at the level of the Alliance and Light Empire. Then the Light King marched with his troops to take Portgreen.
The Sage King was also known as the most powerful warrior of that time, being one of the legendary SSS-Rank.
Even so, Portgreen was still an ascension kingdom, and its total population was not even half of the Light King’s troops. The so-called battle on the hill was brutal and ended with the victory of the Light Empire.
The Alliance that had been suffering from the Light Empire attacks for a long time used this opportunity to attack the Light King and killed him. Thus the two great kingdoms became weak while Portgreen was completely unprotected.
The Alliance leader was grateful for the sacrifice of the Sage King and promised never to attack Portgreen. Although he had no intention of defending Portgreen either, many demi-humans went there in search of a more peaceful life.
So Portgreen could be at peace for many years as the Light Empire did not want to attack the land, which potentially had Alliance support.
And Portgreen didn’t seem to be growing as fast as before because despite being very strong, the Sage King’s daughter was not as powerful as her father.
Lucien couldn’t help but smile when he read that part and thought out loud. “Powerful as her father? My Cassidy will soon be more powerful than any of those stupid kings.”
He read more books for more several hours before Mia and Ella came to call him for lunch. Lucien had another lively lunch with his women while they talked about various things.
After lunch, Lucien took two plates of delicious food and headed for the castle dungeon. Cassidy had said she wanted to deal with Olivia and Scarlett that afternoon, so Lucien wanted to talk to them first.
———————–
Dark stone walls, damp atmosphere, repulsive smell. The castle dungeon was like any other, a horrible place.
Olivia gazed at a drip in front of her as she strengthened her vows to take revenge on Lucien. Of course, in the group of people she had to take revenge on, Lucien could only be the ninetieth or hundredth, there were too many even for her to remember.
After hearing the rustle of the iron doors, the last door was opened, and a man entered the cell, not a man but the devil himself. His damn pleasant smell could overcome even the stench of the room, which only made Olivia angrier.
“I brought you some delicious food. I know what you have been eating down here probably wasn’t very good.” Lucien crouched next to Olivia and put the large plate of food in front of her.
“ARH!! DAMN!” Olivia tried to kick the plate, but she forgot that her leg was chained, making her feel intense pain when she forced the chain.
She didn’t step back but continued to force the chain while looking at Lucien. He couldn’t see her angry expression as she was always wearing the mask, which covered her entire face.
“What do you want? Are you here to torture me? Your damn devil!! If you don’t kill me now, one day I will kill you!! I won’t give you a clean death and-”
Olivia started to scream, but Lucien quickly grabbed her neck. He didn’t squeeze it and just touched her, but it was enough for Olivia to shut up, mostly out of confusion as she expected him to attack her.
“If I wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t have made it out of the battlefield alive. I really want to make a deal with you.” Lucien spoke close to Olivia’s face, and his scent soothed her more and more with each second.
Before Olivia could respond, Lucien got up and headed for the door. “But you hurt my wife, and now your life is in her hands. Eat now, and then I will let you take a bath before your destiny is decided.”
Olivia saw Lucien leave the cell and then looked at the plate of food. It was evident that the food was of the best quality, and no one would ever give such treatment to a prisoner.
“Bath? Does he want to mess with my mind? Damn devil!!! What’s his problem??!?!” Olivia can’t help talking to herself. She also ate the delicious food, thinking about how different Lucien was from anyone she had met before.
———————-
Lucien left Olivia’s cell, took the other plate of food, and went into Scarlett’s cell. The cells are identical, and Lucien felt a little bad about seeing the previously cute demi-human, now dirty and smelly.
As soon as Scarlett saw Lucien, she smiled. “Oh? Did you remember this little slave?”
“Hahaha… You don’t have the qualifications to be my slave.” Lucien can’t help laughing. He had to maintain a ruthless attitude, or Scarlett could try to use her cuteness to manipulate him, which would be bad.
As soon as Lucien put the plate in front of her, Scarlett started to eat while trying to speak at the same time. “Hum… Very goo- Thank you… Really delicious…”
Lucien had to control his desire to pat Scarlett on the head because he found her really cute. Her ears trembled as she heartily ate, and Lucien turned away not to be influenced.
“Go easy because it could be your last meal in this life.” Lucien had no reason to lie. He hoped to use Olivia and Scarlett to some advantage, but he would let Cassidy decide as she was the one most hurt by them.
Scarlett did not stop eating while trying to negotiate. “If you let me die, it will be your biggest mistake. I have a lot of valuable information, and I can be very useful to you.”
“So would you be my loyal little dog? I don’t know if I can really trust you.” Lucien can’t help making fun of her.
“There is a forbidden spell. Few know about it, but I can give it to you so that I could never betray you. You can also use this on others, so you should know how valuable it is…” Scarlett thought she had a good bargaining coin, but she ended disappointed.
“Oh, the Black Mark? Did you forget that it needs at least mage in the early layers of the Mortal Realm? Oh yes, you don’t even know what that means.” Lucien surprised Scarlett with information that she didn’t understand.
Lucien did not know about the Black Mark until today. He read about that spell in one of Cornelius’ books. It is an ancient spell, which only a few people in Argerim were able to use.
These people were described in the books as SSS-rank mages, which Lucien and Lust concluded to be the very beginning of the first layer of the Mortal Realm.
Scarlett quickly recovered from her surprise to continue negotiating. “I know about many other things. I have several connections that can help you. I-“
“That’s enough. You will have to reason with my wife, so there is no use in begging me.” Lucien looked sternly at Scarlett as he remembered the story about her attacking Cassidy. He found detailed records of that in Cornelius’s stuff.
Scarlett was silent, not to make Lucien angrier. He approached her and looked into her eyes as he spoke coldly.
“If you survive today, we can negotiate… But if you try to do any harm to my women again, I will cut your throat and watch you bleed to death.”
*Gulp*
Scarlett did not doubt that Lucien would brutally kill her for his women. She said nothing and bowed her head because she knew when to be silent.
Lucien prepared to leave the cell but remembered something, so he approached Scarlett to speak very close to her ear, making her feel a mixture of fear and tickling.
“Also… You stink. I’m going to let you take a bath before meeting my Queen.”
He didn’t wait for her answer and left the cell, leaving Scarlett with different feelings such as anger, envy, fear, curiosity, surprise, shame, and others.
