Third Night
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As the night approached, Lily felt a sense of panic creeping up on her. She tried to gather all the stories she had told James so far. First, she recounted Mr. Smith's story, then moved on to the court case, and later the victim's tale. She struggled to recall the details of her fabricated stories as she tried to continue the narrative.
"Tiana, right?" Lily turned to the catgirl. "Could you bring me some pens and notebooks?"
"Why would you use pen and paper in this age? Why not simply use a Magiphone or MagiTablet?" Tiana brought the requested items, albeit needing clarification on the unusual request.
"Do you have a mana stone-enhanced magiphone with its charger? I can't use the normal magiphone." Lily explained. Her words carried a more profound meaning, which Tiana understood a moment later.
"I see. You don't have [mana manipulation] skill. I'll try to find some for you," Tiana responded, bowing down. Lily being the indolent princess she was, never went out leveling. That's why she didn't have such a skill, nor did she have mana to maintain her phone.
Minutes passed, but like many indolent authors, Lily's book remained empty. Her brain refused to cooperate further, as the pages of her notebook remained blank.
"Tiana... Let me touch your ears! Maybe I can get some inspiration that way... How should I continue after the legal lolis?" Lily frantically hugged Tiana in frustration, hoping for a spark of creativity.
"How should I know? It's your story!" Tiana reflexively shouted, contemplating whether she should report this to King James. However, she knew he was only interested if she engaged in outside communication or suspicious activities. King James was a tyrant, and he would even allow Tiana to become Lily's slave if it served his purpose.
"Just give up your futile endeavor and become our property already..." Tiana sighed. To be honest, King James seemed to favor Lily, and that frightened Tiana. She has been mean to Lily, albeit with King James' order, and if Lily becomes Tiana's boss, she will suffer retribution.
"No! I'm scared. If I drink such a potion, I won't be myself anymore, right? I read about it in a book. Such potions give your body immense pleasure until you become dependent on them. I won't have any freedom of thought if I drink it," Lily explained, fearful of the potential consequences.
"You barely even use your head right now..." Tiana sighed, feeling exasperated by Lily's behavior.
"But I'm scared. You wouldn't willingly drink such a potion either, right?"
"Well, that's true..." Tiana admitted, thinking about the miserable behavior of the previous captive who had drunk the potion. Within days, they went from complete defiance to being an obedient slave, willingly kissing King James's feet like a dog. Tiana didn't want to meet the same fate if she angered him.
"Ah, I get it! So, in the legal loli war, I should talk about the equality of boobies. Then I should discuss the betterment of society, etc..." Lily moved on from caressing Tiana's head to jotting down ideas in her notebook. Inspiration started to flow, and she eagerly wrote down her thoughts.
Meanwhile, James attended a meeting with the aforementioned duke. He couldn't care less about these bootlicking aristocrats. After this, he would have to listen to the count's plea for clemency.
"Your Highness. I plead that you punish that count's son. He had defiled our daughter and made her pregnant. Due to our law that prohibits needless killing, we must now raise her child as our own. We need money for that. So, it is only natural for the cost to be split between the parents." The duke said.
"Where is the daughter?"
"She is still in our home, distressed by the news of her pregnancy."
"I see. Even though I explicitly asked you to bring her to me, you disobeyed my order. You may leave. I do not wish to speak to unrelated parties." James was more than annoyed. He was a tyrant, meaning he could do whatever he wished, even ignoring these aristocrats.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Your Highness… Very well. We shall not bring trouble to the royal family." They replied as they left.
"Well, now that one is finished..." James murmured. His butler then came in.
"Greetings, Your Highness. I guess your meeting has concluded?"
"So, where is the count's son?"
"Right this way, he has been waiting for your presence."
Next was a meeting with the father and son. They came to request clemency for the incident. One look at the son and it was clear that he was a thoughtless brute. He had short spiky hair and muscular arms, resembling a knight's apprentice.
"Greetings, Your Highness."
"Greetings. To the point, your son. Rudolf, isn't he? Tell me, why didn't you use contraception?" James, ever annoyed by this incident interrupting his time, asked him.
"My friend, who was a [Bio] Mage, said he had cast a contraceptive spell. But he also claimed it only worked for three hours. Since I was the last one to have fun with her, she ended up pregnant."
"I see. So, that's where the mistake came from," James nodded while sighing. "At least take up some [bio] magic lessons..."
"My [Intellect] status isn't high enough to learn magic, and My [Mana] is abysmal," the brat replied.
"So, will you give clemency to us? Giving up one hundred thousand guldens to that greedy duke will bankrupt us. We still need to pay tuition for his knight course and support his two other siblings." The count pleaded, almost in tears.
"You will still have to pay some sort of penalty to the nation and for child support. But, I will see what I can do with the amount." James sighed. "By the way, will you marry her?"
"Well, I didn't hate the girl. But, her parents were outright villainous to me. I don't mind marrying her, but only if she comes to our house and not vice versa."
"Do you think she will agree?"
"Nope. She is quite prideful. I am sure she was looking at me as some sort of leisure playtime. She is not the type to be attached to just one man."
"I see. So, she is quite promiscuous, you say?"
"A nice one, at least, the one you would befriend with but not putting any commitment,"
"Alright, you may leave. I have other matters to attend to." James then looked back at his computer before the day turned to night. A notification pinged on his magiphone. It was another request for support against the border of Yellowbox and Whiteboxes. Now that the Bluebox country was beaten, their territory automatically went to him. However, there were a lot of resistance and interruptions.
"Maybe I should go to them instead of spending my time here babysitting some counts and dukes." James sighed. "I want to kill some more. My level is not enough. I need more EXP."
"Brother! What are you doing? Let's hunt some salamanders!" the knight captain, Isaac, barged into the meeting room. It was a daily occurrence for him.
"No, I don't think so. Instead of some lizards, I think we are going to be needed at the border."
"Damn it. People are hard to kill. It's hard to find them, and their exp is smaller!"
"Yeah. But the rebellions aren't stopping. The Whiteboxes are doing everything they can to hinder us. And the Yellowboxes are in sync with them. If we let them be, Bluebox will be a lawless land."
"Are they working together?" Isaac asked.
"Don't know. Let's just go to Bluebox, then assign two armies at the border with Yellowbox." James sighed.
"Alright! Let's do some leveling!" Isaac gleefully shouted, then left to do the preparations. James then worked through the logistics and decided to bring Lily and the other two of his slaves to Bluebox. If he could show the masses that their royal family now obeyed him, it could pacify the region.
Meanwhile, night soon came, and Lily stared from the balcony. In her hand was a notebook she had painstakingly written the continuation of the story 'The Civil War of Legal Lolis'. Without the [Scholar] class, her handwriting could not be called good handwriting. However, it was good enough to read on her own. Once again, she reviewed her notebook while picturing herself telling the story to the tyrant James.
Behind her, Tiana was standing stoic, unmoved as she continued to monitor her in accordance with her directive. James had subtly mentioned that Princess Lily was suspicious. It was proven by asking Tiana to confirm Lily's presence visually. Tiana's level was obviously lower than King James', so she had lower status and possibly missed some skills, so she didn't know what tripped King James' alarm. She was below fifty, only comparable to average soldiers. However, no matter how many times she looked at Lily, she only appeared as a ditzy princess to her.
When Lily tried to visualize how she would tell the stories to James for the umpteenth time, James came in.
"Tiana, prepare a dress for her," James replied. "and bring slaves number eight and nine."
"Yes, sir."
"Ah, wouldn't you be interested in the tale of the legal lolis?" Lily said, but her voice was passed over unheeded. When James mentioned bringing her with other slaves, she was deathly afraid.
"I have prepared this story by spending all afternoon for you! How could you ignore me!" Lily thought as she was seething inside, but she knew better than to voice her dissatisfaction and thus, remained silent.
"You, sleep now. We need to go out at dawn tomorrow. You can use the guest room. Get out." James said condescendingly, and Lily nodded to obey.
Even as she survived yet another night, she was not as relieved as yesterday.