16.

The party ended when the night reached its peak. Many nobles left with a smile on their face, while others left with a frown. Those who left with a smile succeeded in making connections or completed their tasks while others failed to do so.

Gilltian made Adjest return to her room because he saw her being sleepy and now, all that's left is the three of us facing each other.

"So, Uncle, who do you think won the bet?" I said with a smile.

Gilltian rolled his eyes as we all knew who won the bet.

"Fine, you win. Are you going to use it now?" He asked me with an annoyed tone.

"No. I'm here to claim my rewards as well." I said making Gilltian surprised.

"It looks like you know?" I said with a smile.

"What more do you want? You already have a blankšum mine, what more can I give you? Land? Your territory is already large." He said as he got more annoyed by me making me chuckle.

"An item from the Royal Vault." I said making Gilltian frown.

"Although we did have a lot of artifacts that came from the shadow world, I think we don't have something that will interest you." Gilltian said to me.

"Let me have a look first. I'll only take one item." I said making Gilltian think about it.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally made up his mind.

"Fine. Follow me." He stood up and motioned for us to follow him. Wilhelm and I followed him and went to the Palace's basement.

It was four floors deep and a huge luxurious gate stood before us. The guards noticed us immediately but before they came close Gilltian waved his hands and threw a medallion towards the incoming guard. He recognize the medallion and let them pass. It was a medallion with the Empire's crest. If you pour mana on it, it will show the holographic image of the first Emperor of Hebrion Empire.

The guard returned the medallion and opened the gate. The gate have so many magic locks that it will take quite a few minutes before being opened.

'If Uncle Gilltian is my enemy, I would've robbed this place. The physical lock in the gate is just useless, as for the magic locks, I can just nullify it and voila, instant access towards the Royal Family's Vault full of treasures.' I thought to myself.

After five minutes, the gate was opened and Gilltian took the lead as the Guards closed the door.

"Go on, pick one item you want." He said to me as if the Royal Vault is not enticing at all.

And he was right, I know that most of the things inside the Royal Vault are faulty artifacts that cannot be researched. All of the usable relics and those that can be researched are sent to the Magic tower for further study.

In the past run, I was given a chance to get an item I want inside, and I assure you, all of the 'treasures' inside the Royal Vault are just plain garbage... or is it? Maybe the technology to operate the faulty artifacts here aren't sufficient. But I only know one thing... there's something here that I, in particular, wanted to get.

I roamed around the shelves trying to make it look like I'm inspecting the artifacts closely until I stopped in front of a rusty spear.

'Partner.' I thought as I caressed the spear.

"Do you want it? But there's better artifacts in here. Even I don't know what it is." Gilltian said to me while I just smiled and picked the spear up. It was longer than my height and it was covered in rust that it feels rough to the touch and the thing that I love in this spear is its weight. Its so heavy that I have to hold it with my two little hands.

"I want this one. Uncle Wilhelm, help me carry it. Be careful its a little heavy for me." I said and Wilhelm picked it up for me and was surprised that it was indeed a little heavy.

"Why do you want that spear?" Gilltian looked at me in a weird way.

"You don't know the heart of a spearman. All you guys care about is sword this, sword that, I felt like shoving the sword up in their face. Even Uncle Wilhelm wanted me to pick up a sword." I said as I glared at Wilhelm. Wilhelm bitterly smiled while Gilltian looked at me weirdly.

"Although you want to use a spear as a main weapon, don't you think that learning the sword as a sub-weapon will make you better?" Gilltian asked me curiously.

"Hmmm. Although the sword is indeed a better sub-weapon, I need something else to cover my weakness." I said to them to keep them guessing. In the past run, I indeed used a sword as a sub-weapon with Uncle Wilhelm's teaching, not many people can tie with me in terms of swordsmanship. But... the sword was not only my sub-weapon, I also use magic sniper to cover my long-distance weakness.

Basically, I go to a fight with three weapons. A spear as my main combat weapon, a sword for backup measure, and a sniper for long range attacks.

"Covering your weakness, is it?" Gilltian asked and I nodded to him.

"Alright then, since your mind is completely set on that spear, let's go out of this place." Gilltian said and we followed him out.

"Uncle Gilltian, can we ask for some linen to cover the spear?" I asked and it piqued Gilltian's curiosity.

"Why?" He asked but he ordered a servant to get him some linen.

"To hide what we got from you?" I said while chuckling.

"To make the spies from the nobles keep guessing on what you got, is it?" Gilltian said and I nodded with a grin.

"Hehe, if those nobles saw that I got something but didn't know what we got, then they'll be distracted by it and make them cautious against me. They might consider it the best card I can play in times of conflict and make them anxious." I said with a playful grin. Wilhelm just sighed as he once again saw that grin filled with malicious intent.

"I see... your grin reminds me of your mother while the malicious intent comes from your father and you got both. What a headache. Do you know that your father was once named the "Smiling Duke" in the battlefield?" He said helplessly.

"He always keeps his smile when slaughtering enemies from the Western Coalition. As for your mother, although she doesn't have a nickname, she has a bad habit of grinning if someone is wrapped around her finger. To make it simple, when your mother grins like that, someone is going to have a bad time or in simpler terms, they're f*cked." Gilltian said while looking at me.

"What can I do? It runs in the blood." I said making Gilltian and Wilhelm laugh. Soon the servant gave us the linen we asked for and Wilhelm wrapped it around the rusty spear. We left the palace and we returned home. I asked Wilhelm to show-off the covered spear to the spies to rattle some of the nobles.

When we arrived at the gates, we saw Melissa waiting for us and a little girl standing beside her. Wilhelm, who's riding a horse immediately jumped down and ran towards the girl.

"Felicia!" He called out to her and hugged her.

I also went down the carriage and went towards them.

"How are you Felicia?" I asked her but she looked at me in confusion.

"Oh, right. Where are my manners. I'm Aegis Blackwood. You can call me big bro, alright?" I said to her.

"Big bro?" She said meekly.

"Yes, I'm your big bro. If someone bullies my little sister then I'll punish them, okay?" I said to her.

"Promise?" She looked at me with clear and bright eyes and held out her pinkie to wards me.

"Promise." I linked my pinkie towards her pinkie to seal the promise with her.

"Big bro, carry!" Felicia struggled and jumped down of Wilhelm's embrace and jumped towards me. I stopped her from pouncing against me.

"Wait, big bro is still not big enough to carry you like Uncle Wilhelm. I'll carry you in my back." I said as I offered my back to her. Wilhelm wanted to stop it but Felicia was faster and jumped on my back. I stood up and carried her and walked inside the manor.

Wilhelm asked Idom to go on while he talked with Melissa.

"When did she wake up?" He asked her.

"Two hours ago. She kept crying and saying that she can't find you. I coaxed the child and said that you are out at the moment and started crying again. No matter what I say didn't work so I told her that we'll wait for you at the front gates." Melissa explained and Wilhelm apologized.

"I apologize for my granddaughter causing problem. I'll make sure to teach her." Wilhelm said while Melissa just smiled.

"Its alright. Its been quite a while since the manor became lively like this." Melissa said and Wilhelm thanked her before going inside as well.