Schemes

Arisa was chewing her lower lip, pacing back and forth across her room. Alastor had moved faster than she had expected, in addition to beating Havin. 

She was the one who gave that Magic Item to him, just in case Alastor was going to try his luck and fight. It had been a few weeks, and now that she had made her official appearance, Alastor seemed to be doing the same. 

Once Arisa realized the situation, she tried to force Havin to use the item although she knew it was dangerous. That man was but a pawn in her fingers, why would she care about his life or death? 

But she had expected Alastor to be at least heavily injured, and to lose. Fate had played her so hard and not only did Alastor not lose, he did not even seem to be that wounded. 

'Shit, all of my plans are going down the drain at this rate.'

How can Arisa use that weakened moment of his to investigate him, when the weakened moment was nonexistent now? That made her infuriated and on edge. 

'How did he even escape that mind numbing monster?!'

The Magical Item was created by enforcing several types of mana and injecting them into a Mind Controlling Monster's egg. Once it was crushed, it'll emit a mist that will cloud the brain and numb it. 

The Ascension Battle was like a slap on her face. 

Somehow, though, this had given her another idea. Albeit a little far away from what she had planned at the start, but she could do with it. 

Her ultimate goal was using Alastor as her servant, a useless servant would surely bring trouble to her. So, the result was not the worst. If anything, she should actually be happy like that. 

Arisa looked through her documents and sighed, her emotional condition had been becoming worse since hearing about the Ascension Battle. 

Taking a deep breath, she wrote that note for Alastor to not raise any suspicion from him. From now on, she decided to take another route. 

Alastor was climbing up in the ranks and she was already in the top class, she decided to try pushing him up, although with more difficult challenges to assess his power and capabilities. 

The Princess was not aware how she was fighting against a monster who had never cared about the difficulty, instead, he actually wanted everyone to throw them at him. 

Her door was knocked, prompting her to straighten her posture as she allowed the person to enter. 

"You may come in."

The servant opened the door and approached her with his head lowered, he gulped, rolling the words in his head. 

"Speak up," Arisa ordered once she saw him not speaking for a while. 

Swallowing a heavy sigh, the servant finally spoke up, relaying a message. 

"Your Highness, your father is requesting an audience with you as soon as possible. He had noticed the missing Magic Items that you borrowed and apparently, he was dissatisfied."

The young Princess let out a soft sigh, she should have expected something like that. Her father had never approved of her little stunts she pulled against her siblings, ever. 

Helpless, she could only leave her room and go to meet with her father. Her plans about monitoring Alastor's growth would need to wait for a while. 

Meanwhile, Vian had just left the Instructor's office with a huff. Dealing with that guy made her absolutely disgusted, but since it was for Alastor, the repulsive feeling only lasted a few minutes. 

Arisa was already one step behind, as Vian had already bought this Instructor. 

Vian wrote a note and sent it to her family, specifically, her sister. Her orange irises glinted with mischief. 

'That old man thought he was going to be rewarded, but only hell awaits after finishing my errands!'

Being the pampered daughter of the Archduke was truly a great thing. Vian chanted her chant and casted a spell, then signaled Alexander to fly. 

The white flame that soon shone in her hand coated the phoenix, making the small bird bigger enough of a person to ride on top of them. 

Without much hesitation and in front of everyone, Vian hopped onto Alexander's back. Her gaze was mocking everyone that was spying at her as she soared to the sky. 

Vian noticed how many kept their gazes on her once she came here, they all were surely drawing their own speculations about her reason. 

People would always be scared of the high and strong, and Vian could only mock that. Now, she wanted to reach Alastor as fast as possible to tell him that she had done what he asked her to do. 

If her parents knew how happy she was for being an errand girl for some low-class Baron, they may faint from shock. 

Despite that, Vian did not care. She felt she found something more interesting to focus on, and she was not counting on Alastor being a random nobody. 

That scent had already told her a lot about him. 

Alastor was not aware about the untold rivalry that he accidentally created between the Princess and the Archduke's precious daughter as he spent his time meditating in his room, trying to repair what he could from his damaged Foundation. 

Of course, he was not alone in the room. Someone was there, nagging him like he was a little child. Which eventually ticked Alastor off as he kept losing his focus. 

Groaning audibly, he turned to who was nagging him with a displeased expression.