Chapter 22 - The calm before the storm

Pshhh.

Hot and steamy water sprayed from a showerhead in a custom-made bathroom. Ryu didn't precisely remember, but he had been taking a shower for over two hours.

Ba-dump... Ba-dump... Ba-dump...

For some reason, his heart beat abnormally fast since meeting Yume. His mind couldn't focus as my chest tightened from excitement.

This world didn't even have sophisticated soaps or perfumes. Yet, a soft, peaceful scent went through Ryu's nose whenever the spring wind hovered when he was carrying the Princess.

Ryu even forgot to appreciate the beautiful scenery: The mountains that looked attractive and tiny when looking from high above, the rivers, rock, and trees that painted the ground, birds that flew from one place to another, and the sun that had a jewel-like light that covered the sky.

'Am I some degenerate fan?! No!'

Bam!

The bathroom wall cracked as he smashed his head, cooling it off.

'Don't think of any weird thoughts, Ryuu-jin! What I ought is to protect the Princess!'

Determined, Ryu quickly left the bathroom, dried himself with magic, wore sleepwear, pulled the blanket, and wrapped himself tightly.

Zzz...

***

Three hours ago, before sleeping.

"Welcome back, Your Majesty."

When Ryu returned to the mansion, the servants naturally greeted him with respect equivalent to royalty. He is the King of Xan Kingdom, more likely known now as the Kingdom of Slaves.

Xan. A nation formed with a ninety-nine percent population of purchased slaves.

The mountain Kaori thought was the real Drakon Mountain is now called Crown Mountain. Three large mountains surrounded by smaller ones circled together, forming a King's Crown.

In the middle of those mountains, they built a castle. It was a good location that protected the kingdom from unwanted intrusions. The domain didn't need to create additional walls.

They used five years of constant development to make the kingdom self-sufficient. So it wouldn't be dependent on another country. The improvement was not complete. But slowly, it was flourishing.

First, they placed the foundation of the castle in the middle. Ryu's previous life knowledge gave him a slight idea of how or where to place individual structures for the most beneficial and practical result. He also instructed the castle to have multiple towers to house archers and magicians for monitoring and defense.

Second, they formed a government for everything to be in order. Assigning different leaders to handle and improve their group. For example, Kaori got promoted to Royal General of the Xan Royal Army. She would train those who could be great leaders until they were good enough to command their units.

Then, the kingdom would promote worthy individuals responsible for creating their next successors. The same was done with aspiring scholars and other professions that would continue as long as the Xan Kingdom exists.

Not only that, but they also established the palace's officials.

Instead of one person working in one position, Ryu applied and created different departments. Human resources, finance, communications, training, legal, research and development, manufacturing, marketing, and many more to manage the kingdom's affairs.

As he learned that two heads are better than one. And a group is better than two.

Third, with the help of magic devices, they secured water sources by creating a few self-cleaning and self-purifying dams and irrigation. An impossible task without the support of the old sage, the one who secretly lent Ryu the Advance Magic Book and taught him further, his magic master.

Now, not only do they have enough water for their needs, but they also have enough water for future generations.

Fourth, they created farmlands for food and production and meat farms as the primary food source. The location was placed at the innermost back, so the kingdom wouldn't have trouble surviving when a siege befell and they were forced to be isolated from outside.

The food source would be safe and secure. Ryu learned this from history, where the attacking kingdom would cut off logistics to weaken their enemy. So he was hoping this would fix one problem.

Lastly, they invented things by combining knowledge of this world and the knowledge from Ryu's previous life. Other kingdoms might look down on them because they thought the country mainly consisted of slaves. But from education, technology, and training, he should assure everyone they were a hundred times better than any kingdom and would continue to get better.

Not to mention that the Shadow Intelligence Group got big enough to be considered a guild. It continues to grow more extensively throughout the world, without anyone knowing that they were operated by the Xan Kingdom.

'Who would dare to mess with us in the future?'

Now, going back to the present.

Ryu arrived at the mansion with lots of thoughts. He eyed one servant, walked towards her, and grabbed her hand. She got dumbfounded.

"Your Majesty?"

"This is not it."

He released the servant's hand and murmured.

"My heartbeat didn't change."

Ryu was trying to reproduce the feeling he got holding the Princess.

"Heartbeat?"

He hastily went to the next person to gather more experiment results and grabbed another pair of hands.

"I'm sorry about this."

"Ngh!"

Not getting the feeling, Ryu continuously tried to hold the hands of those around him.

"Wah!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Kya!"

"Sorry!"

When Ryu noticed his heartbeat had not changed, he moved to the last person. But instead of a female servant, he quickly grabbed a man's hand, Felix's.

"May I know what you are doing, Your Majesty?"

"Felix, something might be wrong with me."

"Can you please elaborate?"

"Earlier, when I was holding the Princess, my heart suddenly pumped faster, and my chest tightened. I think I am sick..."

"Huh? Your Majesty thinks you're sick?"

Felix covered his mouth for an unknown reason. He even turned around for a second.

Then Ryu looked around and felt that everyone was doing the same.

"I think you are not sick, Your Majesty."

"How can you be so sure? You can't even feel how my chest hurts."

"...Nevermind, Your Majesty. Maybe you just need some sleep."

"Right? I think so too. I haven't been able to sleep enough for this month."

***

After taking a shower, all Ryu could remember was falling asleep. But when he opened his eyes, he was now in an unknown scenery.

"Ugh! Where... Am I?"

Mumbling as he asked himself.

The sky was dark.

'Is this the Royal Academy?'

A voice came out of nowhere.

"Your Majesty."

"Who?"

"Your Majesty."

The voice repeated.

"This voice... Yume?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, look here... Behind you..."

"Behind? Is that where you are—Prince Shin?! What are you two doing together?!"

"Isn't it obvious, Your Majesty? I married the Crown Prince... I'm now the Crown Princess."

"No! This is not true! Yume, how can you marry someone who will bring you harm?!"

"What are you talking about, Ryu? Of course, I love Yume. I'm just playing hard-to-get. But everyone knows that she is my fiancee from the start. So she will always be with me. Forever!"

"No! This can't be!"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I also love Shin, my fiance."

"Enough! Why, why are you hugging each other?!"

"Why are you such a loser, Ryu? Can't you just be happy with us?"

"No! What are you guys doing?!"

When both of their lips gradually got closer, Ryu shouted, reaching out his hand, hoping to prevent them from going further.

"STOP!"

Flashed!

It was a dream.

'Huff! Huff! Huff! A dream? Haa!'

Ryu soughed, waking up from his sleep. Caught his breath as he pondered how these thoughts suddenly came into him while sleeping.

16 years from being reincarnated, he never had this kind of bad dream.

'Maybe, something was indeed wrong with me.'

He got up from the bed and changed into his academy uniform. Looking at the mirror, he saw dark circles around his eyes.

"Afiste ton eafto mou an anakampsei."

Restoration Magic.

The corner of his eyes brightened, and the dark circle vanished.

'Good.'

After fixing his appearance, Ryu went to the dining area to eat breakfast.

"Breakfast will be served, Your Majesty."

The butler notified and signaled the servants. Five servers came out while pulling and pushing the service carts.

Three maids set up the table, and the fourth maid brought the soup.

"Your Majesty, this is a soup we called 'Have a nice morning soup.'"

Pffft!

'That caught me off guard.'

"What kind of name is that?"

"Please forgive me. We noticed that Your Majesty has been having trouble since yesterday. So we came up with this."

"Well, it did help. Thank you."

The maids smiled, bowed their heads, and returned to the side.

Ryu was so blessed to have these people around. Thinking, who said that slaves didn't have hearts?!

Before the food got cold, Ryu picked up a spoon and started eating.

Sip!

"This is good!"

The soup tasted so well that lousy table manners were showing.

"Please pardon my behavior, and oh, please tell the chef that the soup is to my liking."

"Yes, Your Majesty. This soup contained different kinds of seafood such as scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, three different types of mushrooms, and rare herbs."

"Our chefs are improving, it took four years, and we already have a good cook."

"The chef will be delighted by your praise, Your Majesty."

The butler clapped his hands to serve the main dish.

"This is a charbroiled steak, specially prepared for your well-being."

"Wow! You don't even need to describe this. The smell of the grilled meat is already telling me how exactly this was prepared."

The aroma of the meat made Ryu unable to hold back his hunger, so he quickly held the steak knife and sliced the beef cleanly and without effort.

"How tender."

"The chefs have taken notes of the things you've taught us, and now they improved and created their own methods for tenderizing the meat."

"Yes, let's not talk about this anymore, and let me—"

Chomp!

"—Oh! This is so good! Did it just melt in my mouth? And the juice inside burst, and I could taste all the flavor! Then... Then the sauce, let me dip it in the sauce... Delicious!"

Thanks to these incredible people, Ryu's day started perfectly.