A few weeks after the Devil army incident, while I was dealing with paper-work in my office one of my butlers knocked at the door. I told him to enter quite satisfied that I had an excuse to finally stop this tedious and extremely boring task that is paper-work. Though the fact that I needed to be called for something is somewhat making me nervous. The butler entered and bowed like a proper servant if you think about it they just went from under the king''s rule to mine but they really obtained a feeling of self-confidence that they did not have before, the pride they have for their work is really impressive maybe I should strive to be like them. Anyway, what is important right now is what he wanted to tell me.


    |Master, Duchess Rebecca is asking for an audience with you.|(Butler)


    Duchess Rebecca is the third most powerful person in the kingdom after me and the king, well, she is less powerful than the king because I back him up and she''s less powerful than me for obvious reasons but her strength does not lie in military force but in economics as she owns more than half of the trade road in Garmille and she is definitely one of the most wealthy noble of the kingdom. Being the man I am the only times I got involved with other nobles was to wipe them out of the earth''s surface so I never did much investigation on her. Mostly because she never seemed to cause any trouble.


    |Great, tell her she''ll have an appointment in five days after lunch.|(Apocalypse)


    The butler''s face became complicated and he said.


    |My lord, I fear she is already here.|(Butler)


    |...|(Apocalypse)


    Had she been a commoner I would have forgiven that be she is a noble with absolutely no ties to me, the fact that she isn''t even using proper etiquette is very insulting and as a high-class noble she should know about that. By not waiting for me to give her an appointment she is clearly insulting my work, Duke like me are usually really busy, which I am, but she implies I am not and that I can, therefore, receive her whenever she wants, should I not receive her word that I do not greet my guest would spread and my reputation would drop. Though my reputation is already rock bottom with the other nobles because of the tournament incident it doesn''t mean that every noble stopped supporting me.


    |Sigh, I''ll go meet her.|(Apocalypse)


    I stood up and went to the meeting room. In the room, a woman was waiting. She has dark skin and yet still has blond hair, something I do not remember ever being genetically possible on Earth but that do not make her less beautiful, it adds a strangeness to her beauty. She was wearing a long turquoise frilly dress. One of my maids had offered her some tea, which she was quietly sipping from a cup. I entered and nodded the maid away, whatever happens in that room is sure to be aggressive, I do not like to be made fun of.


    |Oh, sir Vermillion ... or should I call you sir Crimson ?|(Rebecca)


    I gazed at her with inquisitive eyes and put my hands behind my back. I slowly went to the nearest window, without a word, and checked with my Ki, the magic barrier surrounding the mansion and my own sight if someone was there beside her and me and what a huge surprise ... there is, if you don''t include Monti who is my personal assassins squad leader there is someone else hiding in the shadows and they are neither Vermillion nor beastmans.


    |Could you tell me what brand this tea is ? I''d like to avoid buying it by mistake, the herbs are so ... cheap, I almost thought it was medicine. I guess this is what you get when you use cheap herbs for such a distinguished beverage.|(Rebecca)


    I slowly looked at her, my eyes completely cold. For a few moments, I lightly smelled the air and picked out the scent of Yualina''s tea. Although taste change from person to person insulting the work my wife has put making that tea is not something I will forgive. Besides, that tea is fucking amazing.


    |Do not joke with me Human, I''ve killed some of yar kind for less than that. Get straight ta tha point.|(Apocalypse)


    |How rude of you but I''ll tell you the reason for my visit since you want to know about it so much. It is ... war.|(Rebecca)


    I silently looked at her, what she just said could have serious consequences in the history of this continent, the last war that took place was between the Empire and Garmille but after my arrival, my intervention the two of them became allies, mostly in fear of what would happen if I ever stepped on a battlefield. Although the Empire and Garmille are part of allied kingdoms alliance it just means they are under the church influence, that kind of thing never stopped war, many kingdoms under the Catholique church fought with one another all the same ... just without crossbows, after sometimes the pope declared using a crossbow against other Catholics was a crime.


    |Do elaborate.|(Apocalypse)


    |I assume you remember that prince you killed a few times ago ?|(Rebecca)


    |Although I care little for his name I indeed see who ya are talking about.|(Apocalypse)


    |Since I do not have to remind you of him, should I tell you his parents are planning to wage war on us.|(Rebecca)


    |Oh are they ? Even when they know who I am, Humans get more stupid everyday it seems.|(Apocalypse)


    She gracefully stood up and walked up to me. I am genuinely surprised by the information she just gave me, it could be false but what reason would she have to lie to me, I rarely get involved in the kingdom politic and I think I made it clear enough that I do not care about the death of Human beings. Although my pledge as a Duke is to keep the kingdom safe I can easily warp it as protect the royal family, something I''ll gladly risk my life for. However, I doubt the royal family would agree with me just watching other dies while I protect them, therefore she is trying to pull me into this by using the relationship I have with Alice and her Family.


    |Maybe it is because like I, they do not believe that you are one of the so-called Vermillion.|(Rebecca)You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    I blinked twice in amazement, it is true that I did not do anything an S rank adventurer could not do, killing a hundred men or even defeating a dragon is not unheard of, take Eleonore for example, she killed a dragon by herself and I''m sure most of the other S rank can easily handle a little army of drunkards. Though I did use unknown magic, froze a castle, swapped gender and summoned a Nordic goddess right in front of their eyes, that and the Apostles of the Dragon goddess literally confirmed who I was. Is the denial the Human race is known to have really that strong ?


    |You seem shocked, did I hit the bull''s eye ? Did you think that after all those years your lies wouldn''t come to light, too many inconsistencies, why would they return after five hundred years why would these brutish evil lesser gods be gently sitting in a mansion to sometimes make people remember them by killing a few corrupt nobles. Why would they have emerged all at the same time but not at the same places, therefore leading to the frozen castle the royal family had for a few days and most importantly why would there be internal conflict in a race that only seven individual can govern, and those seven individuals if trusting my research ... have always been on your side.|(Rebecca)


    I, once again, blinked but instead of staying silent I began to laugh. Her main argument is because our race has been described as mindless violent beasts in books, books written in countries where the church of the goddess kills anyone who worships the Tytans. I am impressed by her cleverness in stupidity, she has the mind of someone who has conquered the marker but also the mind of someone who has been indoctrinated and can''t think outside the box.


    |HAHAHA, girl, ya''re amusing me. So clever yet so stupid, a girl ready ta enter tha tiger''s den with only one servant ta protect her ...|(Apocalypse)


    I walked to the table and used some wind magic to make it levitate, because of my heritage I do not need to chant just for that. With a little bit of wood magic, I shaped the table as a spike and once again using wind I sent it straight in one of the room''s shadow. No words came out of my mouth and an enormous splash of blood was sprayed on the wall. A body fell out from the shadows with a spike coming out of his torso. I walked to him and crouched down, I grabbed the man''s head and turned it so I could see his face, it was a man, a really handsome one at that, maybe nineteen or twenty but not much older. Many enchanted bracelets were embedded into his skin as if they had been welded to his skin. I let go of his head and grabbed his arm, I carefully looked at them, studying the magic circuit, I know next to nothing about enchantment but they don''t look like the reinforcement circuit of my hammer nor do they look like some kind of shield so I guess they were used to help him being stealthy.


    |Now that this has been dealt with, let''s keep talking shall we ? If war were ta break out, what is the so important thing that will happen that ya had ta bother me ?|(Apocalypse)


    She blinked once, twice and then got out of her surprise. She is visibly shaken, not because of the blood, as a high ranked noble she has seen much executions and in this worlds ... they aren''t so nice as to just hang them or cut off their head, sure on Earth things like dismemberment or other impalement existed but in this world they use magic, the more dangerous criminal become test subject or a priest use a healing spell on them however it doesn''t do any good to them, before that they feed them with highly magic sensitive mixture, when the healing magic comes in contact with what remains of the mixture in that guy body it causes an expansion of magic energy and causes the symptom of heavy magic poisoning.


    In most case of magic poisoning you''re out of it for a few days and have high fever but there are more serious symptoms, quick expansion of skin tissue, heart beat going out the window, eyes going out of their orbits and quick mutation of the bone structure, most of the time the victim doesn''t survive after the second symptom has shown up, either because the blood system imploded along with the eyes or the lump of skin suffocated them, if they so unlucky as to survive until the third symptom they became a grotesque lump of meat and bones due to the corroding effect of magic.


    Magic is simple, it fucks with reality, it''s not derived from the gods'' power for nothing. In the wild, an accumulation of magic can have two results, either the magic is filled with an attribute due to the environment and a monster will be created or if it is pure magic then it will act like a poison to the land and kill it. However when already inside a corpse, unless it is a monster, it will only act as a poison and the result is ... pretty gruesome, I care little for life and I am not afraid of gore but I''d rather avoid seeing that shit again. The church use this method to make the populace think that this is what happens to people who defy the goddess, the plebs don''t know about the mixture and think it will only react when in contact with Holy magic, which is completely false, any kind of magic makes it react just that there isn''t enough magic in their organisms and the surrounding to kill them instantaneously.


    Anyway, the point is, she cannot be disturbed by a little bit of blood especially since it wasn''t that gruesome. I can only guess that she either did not know about that guy or she did not expect me to detect me so easily. Since he isn''t wearing any distinguishing feature like a blazon or armory which is normal for someone who''s being sneaky, assassins or the like don''t want the person who sent them to get find out, otherwise, they are not trusted. She got back to her senses and looked at the man, she bit her lower lips.


    |I ... I don''t know who he is.|(Rebecca)


    |I did not ask about him, tell me what ya came here for.|(Apocalypse)


    |Ah ... Oh ... yes ... Some of us were thinking ... that since you caused the ... animosity ... maybe you should ... go to the front line ... once war breaks out.|(Rebecca)


    I''m sure her plan was way better than just saying that bluntly but it seems if I quote a French saying, "Je lui ais mis des batons dans les roues". I did not expect her to lose her composure after seeing such a little display of power, just how much was she underestimating me ? I''m feeling a bit insulted. I stood up and looked at her.


    |Great, I guess it will be an opportunity ta prove tha veracity of who I am.|(Apocalypse)


    That is, of course, a lie, I do not need to prove myself to the Humans, if I cared about what those inferior beings thought about me I wouldn''t be in the situation I am right now, absolute power over a kingdom.


    |Ah ... Great ... I''ll take my leave then.|(Rebecca)


    |Yes, do just that.|(Apocalypse)


    She hastily went away, I waited for a few minutes before I snapped my finger. A figure stepped out of the shadow as if it was made of smoke, it was Monti. I gave a quick glance at and looked at the door again, a few seconds passed and I gave him my orders.


    |It seems I left a few games alive during my last hunt, would ya mind getting rid of it ... Oh, also, make sure that we get a hold of her "possessions" we will need them fairly soon.|(Apocalypse)


    It seems like any nobles she is the kind to send other dies in her place on battlefields, she did not believe in my strength and still wanted me to go on the front line, clearly wanting my death. When I disrupted her plan, which is still foggy to my eyes, she lost her composure. She is a strong woman, I''ll give that to her and the fact that she decided to step in my house with only one bodyguard when she clearly stated a few minutes ago, in her daze, that she wasn''t the only one that wanted that proved she was more courageous and better placed to ask this of me.


    Had she met anyone else she might have lived but those types of people remind me too much of this asshole to be left alone. Talking about him, I wonder what fuckery he is up too ... well, I guess this is a good enough reason to return to Mundus for a few days. I sat in one of the sofas and sighed since she has connections with the Dwarf market I should be able to get some materials for the Homoculi.