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The king nodded, and his expression turned carefree again, "Well, the purpose of this meeting has been completed. Now, I heard that you call Raymond 'Uncle'. Why don't you call me that way too?"

"..." Alex was speechless.

"Un...cle..."

"Haha..." The king laughed happily.

"Your Majesty, you can't do that. I am planning to introduce him to my daughter back home," Gilian protested.

"Hehe... let's put aside that matter for now. What is this new idea that you are talking about?"

Gilian wanted to protest once again, but the duke cut in, "It is called a 'Water Wheel'."

"Oh... what is that?" The king and the rest were interested to hear about this idea.

"Here is a paper, you can use this to describe your idea," suddenly the Minister of Education who kept silent all the time, spoke and gave Alex a piece of paper.

Alex was astonished by this person. He was thoughtful and seemed like the type of person that can support someone well.

Alex then focused on the piece of paper and tried to draw a water wheel. "This is a water wheel, we connect this two-wheel with plates. Therefore, when the water stream flows in, the wheel will rotate. If we connect the wheel with some mechanism, we can grind the wheat automatically to turn it into flour. I can't draw this mechanism now, but I can somehow make a rough drawing for that in a week I think."

"Yes, you can take your time. I see that this water wheel seems practical. It can be used in other areas," the king said.

Alex nodded, "Yes, but this is the only thing I can think about at the moment."

"Alexander... what's your take on education?" Suddenly, Adrian, the Minister of Education asked.

"Education..." Alex pondered for a moment, "How about establishing a school to teach writing and reading for commoners? If we have smarter citizens, then a lot more people will start to think critically and more creatively. With that, people will start to invent things more. Civilization will progress faster."

Adrian nodded, he thought about this as well. Therefore, upon hearing Alex expressing this idea, he felt secretly happy.

The king thought for a bit, "Sure, let's do that. I will leave the details for you, Adrian."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I won't disappoint you."

Then, the king turned to Alex solemnly, "Alex."

Alex looked at the king's solemn face.

"I heard about the hero that will come in the next few weeks. Remember this, the kingdom will back you up. If they want to start a war, we will let them know why we are the strongest between the three kingdoms," the king said.

Alex was moved by this. He smiled and sincerely said, "Thank you."

"Alright, the meeting for today is over," the king dismissed all of them.

They left, but Gilian grabbed Alex, "Young Alex, let's visit my home first. We can talk about our collaboration there."

"Stop! Sir Gilian, you can't snatch people like this. Are you going to kidnap him?" The duke intervened.

"Tch!" Gilian then smiled, "What do you mean by that? Kidnap him? Have your ears gone bad? You are still young, Raymond. I am only inviting him."

"If that's the case, I turn down your invitation on his behalf."

"Can you represent him?"

"Sir... Sir Gilian, I will visit your house next time. I still need to train myself," Alex refused the invitation politely.

Gilian dejected. After hearing how Alex refused his invitation, he then went home dejectedly while the duke smiled smugly.

***

Alex and the duke went home right away. After saying goodbye, Alex went back to his room and laid on his bed.

"I somehow managed to master Power Throwing. But I can only use this technique on some spare spear. Throwing my spear means I am abandoning it. It is dangerous to abandon my weapon in the battle. I also need a Melee Combat Spear Technique, and maybe some Movement Techniques."

Alex sighed, "I can't be too greedy. One step at a time."

"I will start training my Spin Throwing tomorrow. I also need to spare some time to design the water wheel. Well, since there is still time before the night comes, I should try to design the water wheel."

He got up to his desk and took out some papers. In a few hours, he managed to draw two water wheel concepts. The two were the stream and undershot water wheel. The stream water wheel was used in a river with a strong flow. While the undershot water wheel was good in a river's slope, utilizing the difference of height to make the river's water flow.

Alex wanted to make a water wheel that utilized a waterfall, but he never saw any waterfall, so he decided to design it later. However, the problem was the mechanism to utilize the energy from the water wheel. He contemplated and tried to connect some gears, but he still couldn't make the design work. Alex scratched his head and looked outside. He noticed the time, it was almost midnight.

He decided to stop and cultivate again. He did this process for a week. In the morning, he woke up and practiced his Spin Throwing until evening, then went back to his room to come up with some ideas for the mechanism.

"Alex," the grand duke called.

"Uncle, what happens?" Alex asked. He noticed that the duke seemed to be in a hurry.

"I received information that the hero will reach this city in a week."

"I see," Alex only nodded.

"And also, Alicia and the rest are already on their way. They will arrive tomorrow night."

Alex's eyes brightened.

"I will inform you when they arrive."

"Thank you."

Alex then went back to his training.

***

The next day, Alex practiced until evening and didn't draw any designs anymore. He waited patiently for Alicia.

In the evening, Alex, duke, and madam were waiting for them at the house's entrance. Soon, a carriage was coming closer, and then stopped in front of them. The door was opened and Alicia, as well as Mia, got down from the carriage.

"Father, mother," Alicia cheerfully hugged them.

Mia also hugged them.

"Alex," Alicia grinned and made a 'V' sign with her hand. "I reached rank 3."

"Haha, good! This trip was bountiful for you I guess," the duke was happy that his daughters finally came home.

Different from the duke, Alex noticed that Alicia seemed a bit maturer, so he came closer to her and gently smiled, "You have worked hard... and welcome back."

Alicia was surprised, but soon a big smile appeared on her face, "I'm home."

"How is your progress, Mia?" The duke asked.

"I almost reached rank 4," Mia nodded and said in a low voice.

"Good. It seems like you are going to follow your sister, Lea, to graduate as a rank 5. There is still more than one year to reach rank 5, so keep working hard!"

Mia nodded.

"Let's talk about it later, come in first and take a bath. Then we can talk after dinner," the madam said.

All of them then went in. 

***

After dinner, "You girls have worked hard for the past one and a half months," the duke said.

"Hehe..." Alicia was embarrassed, while Mia only nodded her head.

"That's right, there are two pieces of news about the hero. First, he will reach this city in a week, and second, he will join our academy as a special student."

"That lecher?" Alicia was shocked, she recalled when she met the hero a year ago. He didn't bother to conceal his lust in his eyes, so she was displeased with the hero. Then she looked at Alex.

Alex kept calm, so Alicia was relieved.

After chatting a bit, they went back to their respective rooms.

When Alex came back to his room, he sat on his desk and continued his design. His mind seemed refreshed after he saw Alicia, but he didn't know why. And soon, he completed his design.

"Finally done," Alex stretched his hands. The whole week of hard work finally bore some fruits.

'Knock knock.'

Alex frowned, who came to his room this late? He reached the door and opened it. He was surprised to see Alicia by the door.

"Alicia," he said once he opened the door.

"Can I come in?" Alicia asked.

"Sure," Alex smiled. He let her in and she immediately sat on the sofa.

"What happens? Is something bothering you?" Alex asked.

"No," Alicia shook her head, "I just want to check on you."

"Me? Why do you want to check on me?" Alex was perplexed.

"I mean, the hero and his companion will come here, right? So I was worried about you, since you..."

Alex only smiled at her, "Don't worry about it. It was all in the past. I'm not saying that I don't want to seek revenge. I'm sure I will do it. Actually, in the past, I wanted to kill them."

"Then..." before Alicia said another word, Alex stopped her.

"I will kill them, but it will be bad if I kill them here. This kingdom will get dragged into this mess. But I will not let them have a nice stay in the academy," Alex said calmly.

Alicia observed his expression. Alex seemed so calm, so she was relieved. Alicia then looked at his table where some papers were scattered on it. Even in the dormitory, Alex never used the table. So, she stood up and went to his table.

"Alicia?" Alex was confused when she suddenly stood up and moved closer to his desk.

"What are you drawing here?" Asked Alicia as she was looking at the drawing on Alex's desk.

"Oh, this?"

Alicia went back to the sofa and placed the paper on the table. She looked at Alex curiously.

"This is a water wheel," Alex said shortly.

"Water wheel?"

"Yes, when we traveled back then, I noticed that this territory has rivers with strong flow. So, I think this mechanism will work. The principle is using the water current to rotate this wheel, and this rod will transfer the rotation to this equipment. Then this equipment will move automatically. I only designed this for flour's processing though, since the Minister has this problem."

"Hmm..." Alicia made a thoughtful look. Then suddenly, "I don't understand this device, but I am sure there are many benefits it can provide, even though I can't exactly point that out."

Alex shook his head, then he smiled. "Alicia."

"Mmm...?" Alicia looked at him with a confused expression.

Alex hesitated "Nevermind..."

"What is it? Alex, what is it?" Alicia looked at him curiously.

"Why don't you tell me about your experiences in the dungeon?" He wanted to change the topic.

"Oh, you want to hear it? Alright, I will tell you. First..." Alicia told the whole story from the first day they went inside the dungeon.

After she finished her story, Alex looked at her gently, "You have worked hard."

Alicia looked at him with a surprised look. Soon a big smile appeared on her face, "Then, I want my reward."

"Reward?" Alex was surprised by this since he didn't prepare anything for her.

But suddenly she laid down on the sofa, placing her head on top of Alex's lap. "Firia said she always feels happy when she does this with her mother. Her mother will always stroke her head and she loves the feeling."

Alex's sweatdropped. In his head, he was screaming, 'She does it with her mom! And I am a man!'

Alicia looked at Alex expectantly. He soon gave up and started stroking her head gently. When Alicia felt his hand on her head, she was happy.

"She doesn't lie about this feeling," she muttered in a low voice. She continued savoring this feeling, and after a few minutes, she slowly fell asleep.

"Huu..."

Alex looked at her. From her story, Alicia seemed to experience a lot and became maturer. He slowly lifted her and carried her to his bed. He covered her with a quilt. When he was looking at her sleeping face, he couldn't resist bending down and kissed her forehead.

Alex was a bit surprised with his boldness, but soon he shook his head, "Goodnight, my princess."