Chapter 4

That day, Cassian set out again at night and arrived at his mansion in the early hours of the morning. Since he was riding a wyvern, he could tell Emily and Amelia to sleep in the back, while he rode the wyvern.

      Of course, some unexpected things happened, like when he thought he had to persuade Emily to ride the wyvern, but contrary to what he thought, instead of being afraid, Emily was excited to ride his wyvern. Instead, it was Amelia who was scared.

      Emily even asked Cassian to give her the wyvern, to which Cassian simply replied with "Later when you grow up."

      And so, their journey went smoothly, although at first Emily was very excited, but in the end she was tired and fell asleep. Amelia was the same way, although she was worried, she still couldn't fight her sleepiness.

      When they arrived, Mona immediately rushed to the balcony to pick up her master. She was often up early in the morning, especially since Cassian had also said that he was coming today, so she had expected his arrival.

      Cassian came down carrying Emily who was still asleep, he then handed Emily to a surprised Mona. 

"Sir, who is this child?"

      Cassian replied as he helped Amelia down from her wyvern.

"Mine appearantly."

"Pardon?"

      Mona was surprised, she had no idea that Amelia would have her master's child. She wanted to ask how Cassian had confirmed that the child was his, but after seeing the child's physical features up close, Mona couldn't deny it either.

He did look like her Master.

      To her, this was big news. Because it meant, there was a possibility that someday this child would become the head of this family.

"I'll bring her in right away, cold weather like this is not good for children."

"Wait, I also want you to take Amelia to my room, and change her into more appropriate clothes."

"Oh... Very well, sir."

      Mona had almost forgotten about Amelia's existence. To be honest, Mona didn't really like Amelia, for her, Cassian should have married another more appropriate woman, moreover, in the capital city, Mona was sure that there were many women who wanted to marry him.

      Besides, Cassian's good looks were quite famous among the nobles in the capital, there were already many nobles who offered their daughters, but all of them were rejected by Cassian.

      Mona really didn't understand why Cassian chose Amelia, if it was about her beauty Mona could understand because Amelia was indeed beautiful, but the nobles in the capital were just as beautiful as her.

"Please follow me, milady."

      But, Mona didn't feel entitled to question her master's decision, so for now, Mona would train Amelia to become a woman worthy of her master.

      Looking at Mona, Amelia felt a little awkward. After all, Mona used to be the one who trained her, she also helped her to escape from this place. Amelia felt very indebted to her, so when she addressed her as "Milady", Amelia felt a bit uncomfortable.

      She wanted to ask Mona not to call her like that, but the pressure of Mona's gaze, which seemed to be hinting at following her immediately, made Amelia unable to do anything but nod.

      While the women entered the mansion, Cassian told one of the knights on guard to call Geralt, one of the captains of his army. 

Not long after the knight left, he returned with a red-haired middle-aged man, with just one look, anyone could tell that the man was a powerful knight, especially after seeing his magic armor.

      After arriving in front of Cassian, the man immediately made a salute by hitting his chest.

"You called for me, sir?" 

"How is the mine?"

"There was a bandit attack last night, they tried to take the gold we haven't delivered yet, but we managed to repel and kill most of them but four of our men got injured."

 "What about the Silver Wolves?"

"They haven't attacked since yesterday, looks like the adventurers Mrs. Mona hired did their job well."

"I see."

      Since Cassian had not heard from Ken about a "certain young man", he decided to take care of the matter in front of him. 

3 months ago, one of the hunters from one of the villages under his rule, found a cave by accident when he was looking for shelter from the rain. And there, the hunter found a glittering piece of stone, which was a diamond.

The hunter reported it to his village chief, and the chief reported it to Cassian's subordinates. As soon as he found out, Cassian immediately ordered his civil servants to report it to the Imperial government, and built a mine in the cave.

But the problem was, the cave was too close to the border between Cassian's territory and the territory of the Marquis Gobla of the Melka Empire who was famous for his greed.

So, based on that fact, Cassian guessed that the bandit attacks were the Marquis' doing. Besides, it wasn't just the bandits who were attacking, the silver wolves that were known for their viciousness also frequently attacked the diamond mine.

That was why Cassian told Mona to hire adventurers, since the wolves came from the Marquis' territory, he couldn't just send his knights to eradicate the wolves.

And that also led Cassian to believe that the wolves were also the Marquis Gobla's doing, as the silver wolf's natural habitat should be in the northern part of the empire far away from here.

But Cassian couldn't report it to the Empire, because he had no proof and the relationship between the Bolgram Empire and the Melka Empire was bad to begin with. 

      Marquis Gobla knew Cassian didn't want a war, but that didn't mean he was going to stand by and let Marquis Gobla continue to attack him.

"Geralt, get my horse ready, I need to see the mine."

"Now, Milord? Didn't you just arrive? I think it would be best if you took a rest first."

"No need."

"'Very well, Milord."

      Now it was time for him to plan his counterattack, of course, without causing a war.