"L-last night, when I was at the crescent moon guild spying on them as your order, 3 people suddenly barged into the bar and..."
Nine reported with a stuttering voice seems to be scared of what happened last night.
"And...?"
The anxious Prince has a bad hunch about it because he knows of a certain troublemaker who was sneaking out of the mansion last night.
"T-the terrifying little girl who seems to be the leader killed the receptionist and... She..."
Nine is trembling in terror recalling that nightmare while Rex's narrowed eyes met with Grizel's uninterested ones, whom he believed to be the culprit of the incident at the dark guild.
Indifferent as always, Grizel just shrugged off her shoulders nonchalantly eating cookies served by Dion for her.
However, Dion flinched when he realizes the situation by looking at the 2 Devil's strange interactions with each other.
'Is she the culprit? Oh, God! At this rate, I should ask for an increase in my wage to heal my mental damage every time these 2 causing trouble for me to clean'
He peeked at the Butler who stood still behind the little troublemaker, making sure if he was aware of his Lady's doing, but unfortunately, the smirk on Levi's face has confirmed everything.
'So this Butler is her partner in crime'
He facepalms, but before he finished his silent complaint, Dion was struck by another hit.
"She...she eats the guild master"
Said the pale young spy in his early twenties reporting to the Prince.
"What?!!"
Shocked by the abrupt report, Rex unconsciously raised his voice then look at the little girl who ate the guild master with a look as if saying, what the heck are you doing this time?
"Ah, I am not talking about cannibalism, Your Highness, precisely, the guild master was absorbed alive into her hand and I don't know what kind of power that is"
Because Grizel saying vicious things like 'thank you for the food' after absorbed the guild master and acquired his blessing, Nine's traumatic event seems to has exaggerated a little in his mind.
"How about the other members of the guild?"
"62 people choose to stay and work for her, 4 decided to leave including me, and the rest of the members who weren't aware of the situation are still unknown"
Even with a chaotic mind, this spy at least managed to count the number of people who choose to stay in the guild, he continued to report the main issue after he left the building.
"Out of 4 people who choose to leave the guild, I am the only one who can clearly remember what happened last night, the 3 spies who left with me falling into a deep slumber the moment we stepped out of the mysterious barrier and when they awake their memories seems to be twisted"
"Ha! Sounds like a familiar pattern"
Rex quipped to the nonchalant culprit.
"Pardon?"
The Imperial shadow guard was surprised by the Prince's remarks who seems to know the culprit.
"Never mind that, continue your report"
"Ah yes, I stayed not far from the guild to observe their next movement but..."
He gulped before continuing his report.
"The whole building vanished as if the bar never existed along with the intruders and the members who choose to stay, all of them disappeared entirely leaving only a 1-meter-sized tablet stone with a message engraved on it"
"Message?"
"[We will free the Lunar child belonged to the darkness] is what they say"
"Soon the rumors of a mysterious organization whose goal is to free the assassin slaves spread like a wildfire among the black market causing the chaos"
"Haaaaa..."
Rex sighed, as he massaging his temple, he started to think about how to deal with it before the situation gets uncontrollable.
'I need to handle it a soon as possible, this fiancee of mine won't stop here, she will messing around the empire and throw the troubles for me to clean, I need to hire more people, wait...'
'didn't she gives me the list of potential aide a moment ago?'
"Is it why you give me the list of talented people to be my aide?"
Rex asked Grizel in a suspicious tone, but only get a sweet smile in return instead, still didn't say a word.
"Your Highness, please excuse me for my impertinent, but there is something else I want to report"
Nine interrupt reluctantly but he needs to report the most important thing.
"What is it?"
"It's about the appearance of the intruders, Your Highness"
"Hhmmm, is that important?"
As Rex mumbled by himself, Nine responded in perplex.
"Pardon?"
"Ah, nothing. Go on"
"Yes, Your Highness. The intruders are 3 strong awakeners, I believe the leader is the youngest girl, I can't see her figure clearly as she is wearing black assassin attire with the hood on, the same with the other 2 people who seem to be her guardians, 1 of her guardian is a woman in possession of an ancient weapon that shapes like a scythe, and the other one is a young man who can manipulate barrier"
Rex glances at Grizel, he knew that Levi could manipulate barrier, and the ancient dual dagger's tattoo on her wrist, but he didn't know anything about the woman with a scythe, the mystery surrounds his fiancee seems to be endless.
"Ah, I remember her height is around... Hhmmm"
Nine looks at the little girl who sits on the couch casually eating cookies.
"Ah, she is around Milady's height. Oh, and this Butler's height is the same as the guardian as well"
Dion sighed helplessly to the innocent Nine, this guy didn't know how harsh the reality is.
"But the biggest secret that I have found is..."
He speaks as if uncovering the world's biggest secret, his low voice saying like a whisper after looking at his left and right checking his surroundings.
"She has the rare blue eyes, it was cold like the deepest part of the ocean"
His traumatic head did it again, the exaggeration to describe the mysterious girl's eyes color.
"Like her eyes as well?"
Rex asked his spy while pointing to Grizel with lifting his chin.
"Yes?"
The innocent soul looks at Grizel lifting his head feeling confused with his Prince, yet his heart is beating loudly when his gaze met hers, it's certainly nothing like a romantic way of heartbeats.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The restless beat becomes chaotic when she started to smile and hearing her voice for the first time since he comes here...
"Hello... Again?"
Grizel and her evil smirk teasing the young junior spy.
Swoooooossh...
The sudden movement made the breeze to flutter Grizel's hair and dress.
The trauma makes him unconsciously using his Rouge class ability to drawback hiding, though it fails miserably as his mind in a mess and ended up stuck on the corner of the ceiling instead.
"HAHAHAHAHA"
The two devils are laughing loudly in unison, behind Grizel, Levi is holding his stomach with his left hand as he covers his mouth with the other one, while Dion looking upward sympathetically at the trembling spy who sticks himself on the corner of the ceiling.
"Nine~ sweety, get down here"
Grizel beckoned like speaking to a trembling kitten that stuck on the tree branches.
"You... Pfft... Hahaha, You better get down on your own before being dragged by my fiancee, Nine"
Swooooosh...
Hearing the Prince's terrifying warning, he jumped down cowering onto the ground in front of Grizel and Rex.
"He's funny, I like him"
Grizel said to Rex, both of them need a secret errand boy to deliver urgent messages or things since they couldn't meet with each other every day like this due to the busy schedule of theirs.
And they caught, no, they found a perfect person to be ordered around.
"N-no!! Please don't eat me, I don't taste good like the fat guild master"
Nine whimpered with a pitiful face, hoping for mercy.
"Pfft... Do as you wish, you're my Princess, this much authority is acceptable"
Rex chuckled upon the begging Imperial shadow guard, his dignity as the elite member of the Imperial intelligence department has shattered into pieces leaving with nothing but a whimpering young man.
Dion tapped his shaky shoulder as he shows his thumbs-up, encouraging the pitiful Nine.
Seeing the Prince and Dion didn't help at all, he cursed his choice for being an Imperial shadow than a free adventurer.
Grizel hand over a letter in front of Nine.
"Deliver this letter stealthily to the 4th young master of Roseville Barony before his 20th birthday..."
"If you late and lose his track, I will eat y-"
Swoosh...
Nine vanished along with the letter before Grizel finished her line, the fear to hear the vicious word made him forget the etiquette and bid farewell to his Prince.
-â¢-
"You know that you are my only sunlight in this suffocating house"
A young man said a cheesy line to a blushing maid who is a decade older than him, his flame-like disheveled reddish hair flutter by the night breeze sweeping the attractive face perfectly sculptured by the hands of God.
He cornered the maid to the wall of the room, his left-hand presses the wall to cage her while the other hand is playing with a strand of her hair.
"Young Master, I..."
The shy maid reluctant to answer but couldn't refuse the temptation of a sexy voice asking her sweetly.
"I know Father, stepmother, and my other half-siblings are up to something, as their trusted maid shouldn't you know their plan, right? Love~"
He asked while kissing the strand of her hair passionately melting the heart of the maiden, worthy to be called a womanizer.
"T-they arranged your marriage to the Countess of Claymore in a few weeks, I heard the marriage document will be completed before your 20th birthday"
The maid who gave up on his seductive face blabbering about the plan of her master, Baron Roseville.
'Is that why they don't have spare time to bully or beat me up these days?'
He thought inwardly as he recalled that Countess Claymore is an old widow whose age fit more to be his mother than a wife, yet left with wealth by her late husband.
"Really? Finally!"
He chirped happily, the sexy young man's smile is genuine, he is happy from the bottom of his heart that he was sold to a higher noble.
"Do you know how much the Countess bought me?"
"...I heard she give half of her late husband's wealth to this Barony"
'Pfft, now I know why there are a lot of merchants have been in and out of the residence, Ah... Good to see they spent the money splendidly'
"Young Master, is that okay with you?"
The maid asked doubting his smile, despite being an infamous womanizer, the 4th young master who was said to be as dazzling as the Imperial Family easily agreed to be married to the old Countess without any protest.
"Why? Serving an old lady wouldn't harm me anyway, or should I bring you along with me as my maid? I can serve another lady secretly"
He winks seductively to the embarrassed Maid, lifting her chin.
"E-excuse me, Young Master"
Before drowning any deeper into his charm, she pushed him lightly and went out of the room without realizing that she is bringing a troublesome small thing in her pocket.
Left alone by himself in the room, his face darkened back to his original looks. He took out a brick-like magic item and place it on his ear.
"Bzzzt... Bzzzt... How?"
'Hmm, it's stepmother's voice, as expected she was sent to me purposely to monitor my movement before the wedding, good thing that I slipped my eavesdropping magic tool in that maid's pocket secretly'
He continued to listen to the conversation between the maid and his stepmother in the other room.
"He...bzzzt...happy"
"Why...Bzzzt?"
"Bzzzt...bzzzt"
"Bzzzt...can...Bzzzt...Marry...a wealthy Countess?"
'This prototype needs a lot of improvement, too much noise and this brick-like receiver on my ear is heavy and uncomfortable to carry on, to make it worst, the radius is short, this newly developed item wouldn't be useful as a long-distance communication device like I wanted it to be'
He noted all the weakness of his latest experiment, as a genius craftsman who always selling his invention under the name of Anonymus, he was the first one who comes up with the concept of the long-distance communication device and was too engrossed in making this item lately, thus, he didn't notice the joyous atmosphere around his greedy family.
"Keep...Bzzzt...eyes on him"
"Bzzzt...Yes...Bzzzt"
He turned off the noisy device, and save it back to his storage ring. The tip of his lip curled up, smirked at his thoughts.
'I'll stay here until the last minute to let them spend more money'
'Running away right before the wedding will be seen as an impudent offense towards the Countess, pfft...'
'Hahahahaha, Good luck on saving this Barony with a huge debt and the higher-class noble as the opponent'
'What a perfect parting way to this crappy family of mine'
To be continued...