I grabbed a leg of cooked beard and bit from it. For a while, I savoured its taste in my mouth.

'It tastes like beef with a little bit of duck aftertaste. It is definitely not bad. Seasoning is also simple. Only salt and some unknown herb, but it tastes great.'

I took another bite and another. Soon I was munching a bird, tearing its flesh apart like an angry wolf.

"You really was hungry... Haha," Rose giggled.

I ignored her as I was a literary days without any food. I didn't feel hungry, nor did I require any sustenance to survive, but when I took the first bite, the emptiness in my stomach became apparent.

Finally, I dropped the last bone back on the plate and quietly burped.

The clarity of my mind returned, and I turned a little bit red on my shameful behaviour. But it didn't take long for my shame to vanish as I experienced more embarrassing staff in my previous life.

Rose kept separating pieces of flash from birth's leg with a knife, "To be honest, you looked kinda cute when you were an embarrassment."

Wanting to change a topic and find out more about a storm, I asked, "Ehmm, are you sure that enemies wouldn't be able to do anything during a storm?"

"I am sure there is no chance that they would get around a storm wraiths."

Another lighting lightened up the room, followed by thundering thunder, "Bang,"

'Ohh, this is the information I was looking for. It looks like they are some monsters out there during a storm. Wouldn't they be a good source of XP? Maybe... But from how everyone is acting, they are probably insanely strong or in insane numbers. Also, it looks like they can't enter buildings for some reason.'

Ten minutes passed as I kept talking to the Rose about useless small talk until she finished her birth, and I opened a more important topic.

"Ohhh, are sacrifices ready?"

She gulped the last food in her mouth. "They are. We collected every criminal that we managed to find and catch. I will contact the Leader to prepare all combatants to commence purge right after the sacrifice."

"In that case, take all prisoners into a dungeon as soon as possible. And please, no preparation for purge is needed for now. We don't even know if it will be enough sacrifices. We can't risk the enemy finding out about our plan. They would get desperate and act rushed, causing unpredictable damage. We will prepare to purge enemies only after confirming that a dungeon can cover the whole city in one go. '

I couldn't stop myself from grinning at the thought of solving a major problem.

Rose changed to her cold tone as she ordered a maid, "Give us something to drink."

The sound of glass objects and steps came from behind me, and I jerked up in surprise.

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I turned my head and spotted the same maid as before. She was gracefully pouring some bronze coloured liquid into high wine glasses.

'Was she there the whole time without me realizing?'

Maid put both glasses on the table, and I immediately grabbed one of them. I brought it to my mouth and took a sip. It tasted like some kind of wine with herbs in it. From the taste and strong alcoholic aroma, I could tell that it was pretty strong alcohol, but I would have to during gallon of it for it to affect me with my physique.

Then, by some miracle, I remembered that I needed some glasses, which led me to realize something important: ' I have prepared a prototype of armour for my guards, but I forget that they need weapons too... Wait a second. Weapons are more personal than armour. It is more likely that as an elite recruited through the tournament, they will be using their own weapons or even some weird tropical weapons... Hmm, I will make some weapons, at least for ceremonies... They will have to look good with the rest of an armour.'

"Anyway, I need a few things from you."

Rose cheerfully smiled, "Anything."

"In that case, find someone to make me glasses that can protect my eyes from strong light. It would be optimal if they did it without affecting my view. Also, please pay a visit to that grumpy smith and commission a halberd and sword for him to make. Both of them have to be heavily decorated in the same style as and armour that I ordered. Also, let him place some glowing purple or red runes on it as a decoration."

Her bright face dimmed a little bit as she quietly murmured, "When did I become a secretary..."

I couldn't stop myself from laughing, "Hahaha! That's it. From now on, I appoint you as my personal secretary."

Rose expression froze, and she looked like she was thinking for a moment before her smile grew and her whole face brightened up.

In the meantime, my thought already moved to another topic, 'I have some free time now. How will I spend it? Practising magic? Yes, that is it. It is fun and useful.'

I stood up from a table, "It was a pleasant dinner, but I have something to do. Prepare prisoners for the sacrifice we will begin after a storm passes."

Without waiting for her response, I walked out of the room.

I had already familiarized myself with the way to my room, so I reached it quickly. I closed a door behind me and started to think about which magic to train, 'I am indoors, so any offensive magic is out of the question. So let's train a [Chorosmancy], [Blink] and [Pentetrating Scan] are easy to cast even indoors.'

'Khiiiii!' another loud shriek came from outside and I looked toward a window covered in rain drops.

Something dark passed around, but it was too fast for me to discern any details except for one.

I caught only one thing: ' There was no aura present... That makes it even weirder. At least it explains why I didn't see any weir auras around.'

I shook my head and refocused on my task. Casting a blink, I vanished from the place where I stood and appeared on the other side of the room. Then I disappeared again, only to appear at my original spot.

'Time to speed up. Let's see how fast I can do.'

So I started to blink between two spots in the room. I was vanishing and appearing between two spots.

After two minutes, I stopped as I felt dizzy. It was like I had just taken a ride on a rollercoaster. Also, my mana decreased by more than a third.

I sat on the armchair and started to analyze where was a bottleneck, reducing the speed of my blinking, 'Circuit construction itself is almost instant. Most of the time is taken by pumping the required amount of mana into a constructed circuit. That can be improved as I level up a [Hastened Mana Manipulation].'

When one was casting a spell, one needed to construct a circuit at first. Then they needed to pour mana of appropriate element in a required amount. It was possible to pour more than the required mana for increased effect, but it was ineffective and maximal power increase was also limited by the sturdiness of a circuit. Also, it was possible to pour a less than required mana, decreasing the effect of the spell.

'This will be a long evening. Let's go back to training'. I thought to myself before casting [Penetrating Scan] as I was still dizzy.