Not long after, the two of them finally reached the large golden door of the Ravenshade mansion. The guards outside noticed them approaching and pushed open the door.

The sun had not yet set, which meant that Adrian had essentially passed the test. Walking up to a guard standing by the door, he held out his hand, showing the coins worth a thousand lux.

"Take this and give it to Mother, and make sure to mention that it was I who gave these coins."

The servant took a glance at the coins and then picked them up from his hands. Giving Adrian a light bow, he left toward the mansion.

As Adrian watched the servant enter the mansion, Ravian tapped on his shoulder and spoke.

"It’s getting late, I should return to my mansion now, too. Adrian, I had fun in the city because, believe it or not, I also don’t go out very often. This was my first time going out of the mansion without guards following me."

Adrian tilted his head.

"What are you talking about? The guards were obviously following us this time, too; they were just doing it while hiding."

Ravian’s eyes widened, and his mouth hung open unconsciously. It was as though he had heard something shocking.

’Why is he reacting like that? Shouldn’t that have been obvious?’

The two of them were children of powerful noble families; there was no way they would simply be sent out into the city without any protection. More than that, how would his mother even monitor him otherwise?

After all, if she didn’t monitor him, how would she know that he didn’t break any of the rules she had set for him?

Still seeming somewhat out of it, Ravian walked away. Moments later, the large door opened once again, and the Graveshroud carriage passed through, leaving the Ravenshade mansion.

As the guards closed the door back, Adrian turned away and began walking toward the mansion at a light, unhurried pace.

Suddenly, he felt a slight weight over his left shoulder as a deep, abyssal voice entered his ears.

[You are quite good at manipulating children, feeble one. I hope you aren’t proud of that fact.]

Adrian turned his head and glanced at his side, meeting eyes with a black bird sitting on his shoulders. He turned his head away, looking ahead once again.

"I am not sure what you’re talking about."

The bird flew off and landed on his right shoulder.

[It’s no use trying to act clueless, I can perceive everything you can. Back when you two were making a deal with that merchant, that child was unable to answer when the merchant questioned the credibility of your offer. But how could that be? After all, he was only speaking what you had made him memorize.]

Adrian didn’t react, still walking silently.

[There is no way you wouldn’t have predicted that such a question would be thrown at you. After all, it’s you we are talking about. You predicted it, but intentionally didn’t include that question in the things you made that child memorize.]

Still walking, Adrian calmly asked.

"And why would I do something like that? How would I benefit from it?"

The black bird lightly poked his neck with its beak.

[To get that child used to pressure in case the situation unfolds in a way that isn’t included in the instructions. More than that, you showed him that you could easily handle unpredictable situations, too, thereby deepening his trust and reliance on you.]

Adrian stopped walking, standing still for a bit before moving his feet once again.

"Alisardarc, it seems you aren’t as stupid as I initially thought."

Sitting on his shoulder, the bird angrily flapped its wings as it shouted.

[Hey! I was never stupid to begin with.]

After that, neither of them spoke. Walking forward unhurriedly, Adrian finally reached the mansion’s door. But just as he was about to push it open and enter, his hands paused.

Standing there motionlessly, he sighed and then turned around, walking away without even touching the door.

Walking between the flower segments, Adrian soon reached the clearing where he always trained his infusion art. But instead of picking up the wooden sword lying on the grassy ground, he walked to a nearby tree.

He sat down with his back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes, feeling the soothing, gentle breeze on his face.

Alisardarc flew off his shoulder and landed on the ground. For a while, both of them remained motionless. The light breeze ruffled ‌the small feathers on the black bird’s neck.

[Feeble one, is there something on your mind?]

Adrian didn’t reply for a while, quietly sitting and feeling the breeze over his skin, as though he hadn’t heard the question. Then, he slowly opened his grey eyes.

"Alisardarc, did you know? The one who created the empire’s currency system, as well as the one who introduced the concept of imperial nobles, it was the same person."

Adrian paused for a bit before speaking in a heavy tone.

"Sthenios Cruor Rurikvel, he was the one. And even though the technological revolution had happened only fifty years ago, he was the first person to push to make magitools a commonly used technology."

Alisardarc tilted its head abnormally.

[What are you getting at?]

"The current state of the empire, it feels as though it was all arranged by Sthenios four hundred years ago."

In the empire, Sthenios was treated as the very example of intelligence and insight, crowned with the title of the Grand Orchestrator. But Adrian had always remained skeptical about him and his supposed intelligence.

After all, if the man was really as insightful and strategically brilliant as the stories claimed, then why did the War of Pandemonium drag out for twenty-seven years? If the stories were true, then that war shouldn’t have dragged on for longer than about fifteen years.

But if Sthenios had really engineered the current state of the empire four hundred years ago, then his intelligence would easily surpass what the legends about him claimed.

It would be stupid of Adrian to deny the facts that were right in front of him. It was just that...

"But there is one thing that simply doesn’t make sense. If he really was that brilliant and had planned for the imperial authority to become stronger even after his death, then why would he let the Ancient Nobility exist?"

From the empire’s perspective, the Ancient nobles were like termites who were weakening the imperial authority as time passed. They were destined to remain hostile to the imperial family forever, and there was absolutely no merit in their existence.

Ancient nobles were like a ticking time bomb that was destined to explode someday. And that day would be when another war on the same scale as the War of Pandemonium breaks out inside the empire.

’Really, this would be obvious to anyone, so there was no way someone like Sthenios didn’t predict it.’

Then why did he let them remain and grow powerful? He could’ve simply killed them all off once they stabilized their territories after that war. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

’It just... doesn’t make sense.’

***

Within the grand Ravenshade mansion, the lady of the house–Duchess Seraphina–sat behind a rectangular wooden table in a large office room.

Colette stood right behind her, ready to aid her master at any moment as her personal maid.

The room was illuminated by four lamps attached to each corner of the wall, as their bright light reflected off the paintings hanging neatly on the walls.

The window was covered by maroon curtains, but if one looked closely, they would be able to spot the orange glow of the setting sun through the small partition between the curtains.

In front of the lady stood a man wearing a plain yet neat black suit, with his white hair combed back neatly. It was the butler, Winston.

He offered a deep, respectful bow.

"My Lady, as you had instructed, the whole city was thoroughly searched. Also, since the city was so large, the knight in charge had to mobilize a lot more people in favor of saving time and finishing the task as soon as possible."

The lady calmly nodded.

"I see. It was a task that needed to be completed as soon as possible, or the perpetrator who caused that incident might escape, so I am not going to blame that knight for his decision. Still, he shouldn’t make that a habit. Anyways, what was the result?"

Winston didn’t reply immediately as he briefly glanced at Colette. It was as though he was trying to read the room, which meant that the news wasn’t very positive.

"Well, they didn’t find any person who could be identified as the perpetrator. But... we accidentally uncovered traces of a hidden organization near the industrial district. We currently know nothing about that organisation, but we are continuing our search for more information."

The butler tensely glanced at the lady’s face. Colette couldn’t see it since she was standing behind her.

"I see. A hidden organization that operates in Aevithar, huh? Continue the search and use more people if needed."

Winston nodded. Just then, a knock was heard at the office door.