Chapter 8: Politics

After the commanding the knight, Cavell stated his resolve to carry out the command. But before he left, Cavell told his original intent of coming to the office.

According to Cavell, the people from the Chimera Association had been informed would probably be in the manor after a couple of minutes. After that, Cavell left the office.

Ace was left alone in the room. He sat on the chair again and read the papers.

After minutes, a knock sounded from behind the door. He voiced permission for them to come and the door opened, revealing a woman in thick green coat and a man in brown coat; the man looked old and wore glasses.

"Mayter greets the young lord of Trion." The man introduced while bowing slightly, his breathing was a bit ragged. There was obvious exhaustion while looking at the man.

"Ellesse greets the young lord of Trion." The woman beside him muttered while bowing. Although she tried to hide it, it was obvious that they were in haste.

Ace gave a slight bowed and nodded. Being a High Nobility, bowing to people possessing much lower status was unnecessary. But Ace still bowed, although more like nod. This is to show that despite the difference in status, he respected them and the force behind them.

"Sit down, please." Ace gestured towards the coaches beside the blue aquarium wall.

"Would you like some tea?" Ace asked. It was courtesy of a noble to offer a drink to people when discussing something.

"That's unnecessary, young master." The man named Mayter muttered.

Both of them sat down and looked at young man in front of them. The old man pushed back his glasses and muttered: "Young master Trion, I believe you probably know who we are. Please excuse us, but our time is limited, we shall now get to the purpose of our visit."

Although this statement was a bit disrespectful especially to a noble of such caliber, but Ace nodded calmly. He wasn't particularly a fan of wasting his time on pleasantries if such is not necessary.

"Go on."

"We would like to ask permission to acquire the Shawl Lizard corpses. The association is willing to pay a sum of 100 Crean for each." Mayter uttered with confidence.

Ace looked at the two with hidden scrutinizing gaze. Crean is one of the national currency of Armorial Kingdom. 100 of such coins is not a small sum of money, especially to commoners. Two of such coins is enough to feed a family for a month, but for nobles, it was pocket money.

Noticing the noble's second of silence, the woman sitting beside Mayter tactically responded: "Young master, the state of the corpses is only somewhat salvageable. Only two could only be considered intact, one was of the two is even missing an arm. Please understand."

Now, Ace remembered how he brutally killed the other three lizards; cut to pieces and pierced by dozens of blades. It was only natural that only would be considered intact.

'People probably believes I killed the Lizards with some sort of mysterious weapon or relic.' He thought. Since he was considered 'weak' all his life, believing he had killed those Lizards was obviously hard, so thinking that he had some powerful items infused with magic was more believable.

He looked at the two. Since the start, he noticed that the two was somewhat in a hurry. The old man named Mayter was obviously nervous but tried to hide it, but to Ace, it was obvious that this man was in a haste, although he didn't why.

It was also seen in the way they stated their intention. 'The Chimera Association is probably up to something again.' He thought.

The Chimera Association had a black and white reputation in Armorial Kingdom. This organization had been in operation for 500 years. This organization is made up of Academe, and naturally, they dealt with various experiments that may be ethical and some non ethical.

The Armorial Kingdom isn't actually hostile to them. This is because even if the Chimera did some bad deeds, they also compensated in doing good deeds such as researching medicines and technology.

In Cion, the Chimera Association functions more like a hospital in the town. They treat illness of the commoners and even creates medicines for the lower class. But sometimes, they also delved in corpse study and some weird experiments, this fact is only known to influential figures.

After a couple seconds of silence, Ace voiced with a stern tone.

"I'm willing to offer the corpses to Chimera Association in one condition."

"Two Necro Crystals. That's my final condition." He stated.

The two frowned hearing that. But the man named Mayter quickly hid his face of dissatisfaction. He pushed his glasses back and nodded.

"That's... We'll relay your offer, young master." He smiled. But Ace noticed something wired from that smile.

Not minding it, Ace responded, "Farewell. I will not send you out."

The two got up, although the woman, Ellesse, seemed reluctant to leave and had a dissatisfied expression, she was dragged by the man name Mayter out.

***

During his ride to the cathedral, despite his exhaustion, he thought of ways to kill the Necromancer. And from a memory of Castileo, he thought of Necro crystals. A crystal extracted from aged corpses in special environments.

He thought of buying one from various nobles outside of the Fiefdom. This is because the crystals are frowned upon by the Holy Mother Church. With the Trio territory having the Holy Mother as the main God, it would sour the relationship between the Church and the Fiefdom if found out that the son of the lord possesses one.

Also, the claim of succession would tilt to the favour of Mariah. Although the church doesn't participate actively in fight for successions of nobles, their support would undoubtedly affect the result.

Just as he trying to recall noble houses that had one, he thought of the organization that dealt with corpse study: Chimera Association.

Despite being involved in these crystals, the church simply frowned at them with no additional hostile actions. This is because the commoners greatly supports the Chimera, and 90% of the town's population are commoners.

With that considered, the church could do nothing but glare at Chimera. If they take steps to destroy the organization, and this be known by commoners, it would surely trigger an uprising as many commoners were already dissatisfied with the church only using healing spells at rich people.

'Phew... Politics.' He sighed. One of his most hated type of 'Story'. He didn't like the feeling of being schemed on all sides; with the possibility of falling from the very top to the pitiful bottom with one wrong word.

Walking around the blue mansion, he felt his stomach growl in hunger.

He remembered that since his possession of this body, he had not eaten anything. The body also didn't eat anything in that morning, and thus being saved from the mass poisoning.

Thinking back to the scene at the kitchen, he felt not eating in the manor. Despite being used to deaths and blood, even if it was just 'Character', it wasn't pleasantly appealing to him.

"Eating outside is too cost too much time... " He muttered. He didn't have the luxury to act sissy. So, he decided to eat the manor for now. But, he did feel something inside him being repulsed by the idea. But he simply ignored it.

Entering the dinning area, he saw several maids going in and out of the kitchen. The maids also saw him and deeply bowed.

"Is the kitchen completely cleaned?" He asked the nearest maid in blue attire.

"Yes, young master." The maid replied with a lowered head.

Glancing at the large dinning area with several hanged chandeliers and long blue clothed table, he voiced: "Bring me an apple and some other fruits."

"Yes, young master." The maid and the maids behind her hurriedly sprinted towards the kitchen. Looking at their haste footsteps, he mused. With the kitchen master, along with the head maid, and attendants dead, they were obviously trying to earn his favour.

For those maids, this was their chance to rise in status in the manor. If their position was elevated, they could earn more money and had more authority in the manor. And obviously, they fought for the highest position a servant could in the manor: Young Master's personal attendant.

It wasn't long before several maids bought back baskets filled with familiar and unfamiliar looking fruits. The maids lined up and held the baskets towards him.

Looking at their expectant eyes, he inwardly mused. He picked an apple from the nearest maid and left calmly without saying anything.

The maid—holding the basket Ace picked the fruit from— triumphantly smiled smugly at the rest of the maids.

***

'What's taking them for so long?' Ace thought. He was referring to the people from the Association.

'Informing the association shouldn't take this long...' He thought. With the existence of magic, and to the Chimera Association that is mostly run by scholars, they should have ways to communicate even in long distances.

Ace needed that crystal handed personally to him so that no one knows he had one, and with Cavell not in the manor, he could not completely trust anyone.

He looked at the orange tint in the window. Time had passed quickly and it was already dusk; he could see the setting sun in the horizon. The sounds of people clamouring around the manor also lessened indicating the manor was cleaned.

Behind him, papers and books were scattered in a table. He didn't wait idly, but read as much as he can about the town; architectural structure, sewage system, roads, population reports, and even history, that was completely ignored by Castileo.

Sighing, he left the office and proceeded towards the tent where the Lizard corpses were stored. Covered in black cloth soaked by green blood, he could smell the scent of iron in the air.

'I need more information about Mariah Ed Trion's plan with the Shawl Lizard Clan.' He gazed coldly at corpses.

So far, the memories of Castileo had been very informative to him, but knowledge about Mariah and Shawls did not exist in the memories; only his relationship with his sister was clear: a cut-throat relationship.

He still didn't know why she sent these Lizards instead of directly hiring assassins. It was impossible for her to not consider the possibility of her's and Shawls relationship be known.

'Too much is going on behind the scenes.' He frowned at the thought.

Turning around, he left the tent and instructed the man who wore a simple cloth mask and black coat to look after the corpses.