Chapter 14: Building an image

Throughout the month that Arthur and Iris had agreed upon for training time, Arthur could now be seen darting around the compressed ground Arena, with the only other spectator insight being that of Iris, whom had stealthily infiltrated the occupied space with the purpose of spying on her opposition's progress.

Though this, of course, was something that Arthur had wanted, why else would he come to the empty ground to train every single day for the past couple of weeks if not for the young Iris to see his efforts? It's not like he was training for his own self-betterment. No, Arthur was only training to build up the image of a hard worker, which he had managed to expertly pull off as the view of himself in Iris's mind began to slowly morph from the model of a lucky peasant who had somehow stumbled his way into power to that of a child who had worked through blood, sweat and tears to reach where he was today.

"Still doing the same ritualistic workout again, Arthur!" Rono called, stepping out into the otherwise empty arena as Iris slinked away behind the wall that she had been hiding behind. Her trademark green eyes now peering through a self-created crack for a better view of the now bare-chested and sweating Arthur.

Arthur's emaciated body had begun to slowly fill out with a level of muscle, transforming his visage from that of an emaciated peasant to that of a lean but still skinny rambunctious boy with his scruffy neck-length brown hair that he had managed to cut much to the dismay of Charlotte who had grown rather fond of Arthurs long locks.

"Yeah, how else am I going to beat Iris if I don't train," Arthur giggled, wiping a bead of sweat from his pale white brow and flicking it to the ground where it would be promptly absorbed into the compact dirt floor. Of course, this was a lie. If not for the fact that Arthur had to build his image, Arthur would much rather be in his room shut away with the quiet Charlotte practising his sure win technique against his opponent, which he still had not perfected despite the shrinking deadline of one week towards his battle.

"Then would you like to have a quick spar against me to test your progress? It's been weeks since we last fought," Rono exclaimed, materialising a sword out of earth and pointing it at the "Exhausted" Arthur, who could only meekly raise his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, not today, Rono. I still have work to do," Arthur courteously replied, picking up his discarded shirt and blazer and stomping past the aghast Rono, who couldn't help but release a sigh of defeat. It had been weeks since anyone sparred with him, and he couldn't help but conclude that he had gone too hard on the group in their first fight.

"Don't look like that, Rono. I'll fight you after I'm done with Iris!" Arthur beamed

"Lady Iris, young Arthur," Rono coughed, chiding the young Arthur for his slip of the tongue before perking right back up again as he returned Arthur's sentiment. "I'll look forward to our fight. I can't wait to teach both you and lady Iris the way of the sword again," Rono smiled, not knowing that he was getting inwardly ignored by the very boy that had just been so kind to him seconds prior.

'Good luck with that, but I'm not going to learn shit from you apart from general combat sense,' Arthur scoffed. He had no plans to learn the sword from Rono. After all, why learn from some random old man when he can be taught from this world's one and only sword saint. In fact, learning anything from the eager Rono may be detrimental to Arthur's future progress in that field, something Arthur had to absolutely avoid if he wished to defeat the unknown transmigrators.

"See you then. I have to go to Charlotte now!" Arthur waved, vanishing behind the doors that marked the entrance of the arena where Arthur managed to "Conveniently" miss the crouched Iris, whose eyes couldn't help but follow the boy's shirtless figure, her cheeks now a mysterious shade of red.

{+5 Love (Iris Zepar}

{+500 Affection points}

The system remarked much to Arthur's delight as he turned through the intricate corridors of the Zepar estate, his destination…his room.

'Hey, system, can you pull up Iris's status,' Arthur requested, and the system obliged, filling up the young transmigrators' view with the blue hue of the system's panels.

Name: Iris Zepar

Age:10

Sex: Female

Race: Human

Rank: Mana gathering stage 7

Titles: Prodigy, Zepar Heiress,

Bloodline: ???? (Unawakened)

Charm: 9/10 Near the pinnacle of human beauty

Talent: 9/10 Prodigious by any standard

Love: 38% (Interest)

Description: Confused

Difficulty: B (Once you break her pride, it'll be smooth sailing)

Reading through the torrent of information, Arthur couldn't help but release a repressed smile. His efforts had borne fruit in the form of Interest, 'This is good, but I think this is as high as it will go… at least for now,' Arthur commented. 'at the moment, Iris still has a general grasp on her emotions, but after I defeat her in the name of Charlotte, well, let's see what happens then,' Arthur continued his mind playing out the imaginary scene of panels upon panels of affection points all directed at him from none else but the stubborn heiress.

And it was then that Arthur's feet stopped as his gaze switched away from the pale blue system panels towards the large door that marked his room.

Arthur pushed the door open….then froze, his eyes hollow while his fists clenched.

What stood before him was not the neat and tidy room he had made his home in the recent month but a wasteland of destruction in an utmost unrecognisable state. The feather stuffing from Arthur's intricately woven pillow's now lined the room as though a flock of the most pristine swans had been murdered.

His belongings, though few and mainly comprised of gifts and spare clothes he had received from Charlotte, were now strewn about the spacious room, with patches of the emerald material that made up his blazers shredded amidst the chaos of the scene. Everything was either destroyed, stolen or soaked in the water of the running tap from his ensuite that now flooded the entire room in a cm layer of water.

And in the centre of the chaos lay a seething Charlotte. "A-Arthur, this wasn't me!" Charlotte yelled, realising the severity of the situation and just how Arthur could interpret her as the perpetrator of the crime. "I-I- When I came into your room It-it was just like this, s-see I've even tried to help clean up," Charlotte further pressed, raising a sodden pillowcase stuffed with a handful of dampened feathers.

"P-Please don't get the wrong Idea Arthur. I didn't do any of this!" Charlotte cried, seeing the stunned expression on the frozen boy's "Enchanting" face.

'That fucker, I swear I'll kill him one day!' Arthur inwardly screamed, his body fully tensed and shaking as tears began to unconsciously fall from his dirty brown eyes. Arthur didn't like having his stuff fucked with or taken from him, just like anyone else in the world but even so, to experience such rage was something unnatural. Especially since this scene wasn't something unfamiliar to the newly appointed Arthur. Just last week, he had entered his room Charlotte by his side, only to find his bed sheets soaked in what he could only determine to be animal piss and shit with a singular note telling him to quit.

'William…I fucking hate you,' Arthur raged, the depths of his brain working overtime not to dredge up some of Arthur's more "Unfavourable" memories as blood began to slowly trickle from his clenched fist.

"A-Arthur, are you ok?" Charlotte gingerly questioned, picking herself up off the destroyed floor and trudging her way through the debris towards the silently raging Arthur, whose shivers abruptly halted the moment he realised that Charlotte was still in the room.

"I'm fine," Arthur lied, projecting a soft smile that couldn't fool the heart of the lovesick maiden, whose chest gave a painful throb. She didn't like this. No, Charlotte didn't like seeing Arthur like this at all, his fake smile, his softly shaking body…. Charlotte hated all of it, and even more so, she hated her father for subjecting Arthur to this torment. After all, it was no secret that William was the one who orchestrated the vandalisation of Arthur's room.

In fact, William had even openly admitted to this fact at the dinner table, not even an hour after the first incident of this happening, where he'd made open jabs at Arthur in front of the whole family asides from Vienna, who hadn't shown her presence once, much to the dismay of both Charlotte and Arthur who both had very different motivations for seeing her. With Arthur requiring more time with Charlotte's mother in hopes of drilling his figure into her memory, making it so that he could be the only man she'd ever think about and Charlotte wanting someone with the strength to defend her beloved to berate her narcissistic father.

But alas, Charlotte was powerless to put a stop to the psychological abuse her father was pressing upon her beloved. The only thing she could do right now was to stay beside Arthur and support him in cleaning up the room, though inwardly, she swore vengeance against William, 'You'll pay for bullying my Arthur!' Charlotte inwardly seethed the sound of the running tap and the slow dripping of blood muffling the heavy grating of her pearly white teeth. Prior to meeting Arthur, Charlotte never would have dreamed of opposing her father, let alone planning to kill him but now that she knew of love, more so the extremes of that emotion; Charlotte couldn't help but be overcome with the urge to erase everything in this world that could disrupt her otherwise peaceful world with the boy.

"I suppose I should start cleaning this up now then," Arthur sighed, reaching down towards the nearest pile of debris and pushing its contents towards the dampened pillowcase Charlotte had passed to him to use as a makeshift bin bag. 'I'll be scolded if I throw out any more than necessary,' Arthur groaned, making a mental note to keep anything salvageable such as the drenched feathers. 'I suppose I'll have to skip training today,' Arthur sighed, 'God, William's so fucking petty, doing all this shit just because he doesn't like me, urgh, and of course, he had to vandalise my room today just as I was finally getting closer to learning "that" technique, doesn't he have anything better to do…like I don't know~ trying not to get cucked,' Arthur continued before he was going to be secretive about his relationship with Vienna and give William an abrupt but still painful death(if it ever bore fruit) but now Arthur felt a deep urge to flaunt it mentally torturing the future cuck of a Marquis before eventually inflicting the same pain upon his body.

"I-I'll help!" Charlotte panicked, snapping out of her delusions of a rose coloured life with Arthur and rushing over to the still running tap, which she promptly turned off before joining the boy in his mission which he attempted to deny more so for appearance sake rather than practicality yet alas Arthur's "attempts" to dissuade the blushing maiden might as well have been air as Charlotte now joined him in his venture to clean through the mound of Chaos known as his room, a task which the two would spend hours pursuing before they finally lined the room with a pile of wreckage no man could save.

"I'll take this out then," Arthur announced in his petite hands, now rested two pillowcases full of ripped clothes, many of which he had been meaning to hand over to the Zepar's families maids, however, just as Arthur was about to exit the room leaving behind a lone Charlotte he was halted by the firm grasp of weirdly panting girl, her eyes were unfocused while her thoughts were unknown.

"Y-yes, Charlotte?" Arthur stuttered, surprised by the crazed girl's sudden actions.

"I'll take that!" Charlotte panted, her breathing growing more laboured with every second that transpired.

'For some reason, I don't think that's a good idea,' Arthur inwardly commented, his mind reflecting upon the image of Charlotte's love metre for a second and the astronomically high number the girl possessed. However, Arthur's body thought otherwise. Taking any excuse to get off of work, it passed the two bags over to the now furiously blushing Charlotte, who, upon taking the items, instantly bolted out of the room, her destination…unknown.

'Oh, shit!' unknowingly, a shiver ran down Arthur's spine as if he had just performed an action he would later come to regret. 'It should be fine, right after all. Despite having so much love for me, Charlotte seems to be much more dere than yan,' Arthur furiously reasoned, unaware of just how wrong he was.

Charlotte may have acted tame around Arthur in the past couple of weeks, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. In fact, her actions would be something that may frighten the "all-knowing" Arthur as, unaware to him, Charlotte had begun to collect anything related to the boy coining every possible thing as Arthur's merchandise that she was both the sole proprietor of and buyer. This could range from the drool she would collect from the sleeping boy all the way to the sweat, blood and even thrown away tissues.

And right now, Arthur had just willingly blessed her with a massive stock of the stuff, from worn albeit shredded clothes to the irreparable pillowcase and even duvet he would sleep under every night…just thinking about her haul gave the young heiress a bloody nose. 'Calm down Charlotte, calm down, you can't be getting all excited right now…no, I still have to get back to my room without having my precious Arthur merchandise stolen from me!' Charlotte commented, her eyes darting around the empty corridors like a paranoid cat.

Charlotte's paranoia only stopped the moment she arrived in front of an ornate golden wood door engraved with the sigil of the Zepar family. This was, of course, her room. With one quick shove, Charlotte pushed the large door awry, giving rise to a scene that would by any means be deemed horrific.

Lining the emerald green walls of Charlotte's spacious walls were jars upon jars full of multicoloured liquids, all of which had specific labels underneath, such as Arthur's saliva (Sleep), Arthur's sweat (Post-workout), Arthur's blood (Naturally spilt), Arthur's blood (gathered). Countless other vials of the stuff caked the room, leaving no space for the emerald green walls to show their colours.

However, these were not the only pieces of "Arthur merchandise" that Charlotte had gathered, as upon placing the two pillowcases of tattered clothing on her ornate bronze handled bed Charlotte quickly pulled out what could only be called a quilt of poorly made quality, comprised of fabrics of miss matching materials and colours.

'Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, Arthur!!' Charlotte inwardly moaned, inhaling a big waft of air that emitted from the oddly odorous fabric that seemingly carried the scent of the young boy, bringing her mind to a state of heightened euphoria.

The room was soon filled with a suppressed moaning, and frantic thumping as Charlotte inhaled Arthur's sent to the max before calling it quits and hurrying out of the room that she had recently made uninhabited after managing to "Convince" Arthur into letting her stay with him under the guise that "Friends sleep together all the time." Of course, Arthur knew that all of this was bullshit, but he just couldn't refuse the free points + excuse combo Charlotte had offered him on a silver platter, even if it meant skewing his morals.

"I'm back, Arthur!" Charlotte announced, rushing into the now cleaned all be it empty room, with a bed void of covers and a seat ridden of a change of clothes.

"What took you so long?" Arthur obliviously questioned, taking note of Charlotte's strangely prolonged absence. 'The place where the maids do the cleaning shouldn't be that far from here,' Arthur inwardly commented, still unaware of Charlotte's overwhelming affection for him.

"Um…" Charlotte hummed, her cheeks growing redder and redder by the second. "I got…lost?"

'Huh?' Arthur snapped. "You got lost in your own home?" He continued, 'She wasn't doing anything weird with my clothes, was she?' Arthur rhetorically questioned, speculating on the wildest, most outlandish possibility, which unknown to him was the absolute truth. 'Wait, isn't this just like what happened a couple of weeks ago?'

'Bad, bad, bad, that was a bad lie. Oh god, has he seen through it?' Charlotte panicked, her ears now turning the same hue as her dyed cheeks as she peeked at Arthur's now quizzical face. 'He's definitely seen through it,' Charlotte gulped, her stream of thought growing chaotic as she attempted to develop a greater lie to supplement the first.

"Well, what I mean is that I didn't really get lost, it was more like there were no maids in the laundry room, so I had to go and look for some?" Charlotte blurted her words slurred, and her speech hurried. "But no matter where I looked, I just couldn't find any…that was until I returned to the laundry only to see one right there, crazy right, haha, now let's go to bed!" Charlotte continued her rapid-fire barrage of lies before abruptly cutting herself off in fear that if she stretched the mock scenario out any longer, it would collapse in upon itself.

"Ok," Arthur sceptically replied, crawling towards the bed's headrest alongside Charlotte, who had agreed to sleep at a distance of at least a metre away from him as per their terms and agreements upon Arthur's acceptance of her proposal for the whole shared bed arrangement.

"Can you turn the light off?" Arthur asked, his eyes fixed upon the magically lit chandelier that rested in the dead centre of the ceiling.

"Sure," Charlotte hurriedly replied, sending out a burst of element less mana that triggered the device's mana receptors (Which, in this case, were a set of engraved runes) and turning the artificially made light off. A feat that Arthur ironically couldn't perform thanks to him never learning how to use his element less mana.

"Night," Arthur yawned, coiling himself up into a foetal position to generate more heat for himself in the lukewarm room.

"Night~ Arthur," Charlotte responded in tandem. However, Charlotte's gestures told another story. Her eyes couldn't have been further from the drowsiness her "Partner" was experiencing as she stared at the sleeping Arthur with eyes more similar to that of a hawk than that of a human. Her breathing was rapid. At the same time, her body heat surpassed that of any warmth a duvet could have given her.

'Today's going to be another sleepless night,' Charlotte dreamily sighed, pulling out a clear glass vial from her finely made dress.