It was around lunchtime when Sophia and Roxana woke up. At first, Roxana was confused and scared as she hadn’t seen the mansion yet and she didn’t know where she was. She opened the door and peered out to see a butler and she walked up to him.
“...where is mama?”
“Ah, young miss, your mother should be in the bathing room. I will have a maid escort you there.”
The butler walked over to one of the halls and asked a maid to escort Roxana. The two walked to the bathing room and Roxana was reunited with Sophia.
After bathing, the two of them headed towards the dining room which had a long table. There were three large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and a maid saw them approaching.
“Ma’am, young miss, would you like to eat? You can ask the chef to cook up anything you would like as long as we have the ingredients for them.”
“Anything is fine. What do you want Roxana?”
“...meat…”
“I shall relay you orders to the chef.”
The maid left to go through a door and Sophia and Roxana sat down. They looked in amazement at the beauty of the room.
“Oh! Roxana, have you seen where Rune went?”
“...papa isn’t with you?”
“I’m afraid not. I don’t know where he is and I would probably get lost trying.”
“Ma’am, young miss, here are your dishes, the bolognese pasta, that the chef has cooked. She hopes you like them.”
“Thank you.”
“...thanks…”
The two of them started to eat the delicious food while talking with each other. While this was happening, Rune was taking care of a newly found problem.
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“A~ah!! Yes, punish me!!”
Rune would have clicked his tongue if he had one, but now he could only watch as the Succubus was squirming in her chains. He had dragged her to the empty room and chained her in the corner.
Originally, he had planned to build some innovations, but he didn’t want to have the Succubus see. He blindfolded her, but it became worse when she came to and started sprouting nonsensical words.
Rune had to take the blindfolds off and he just created a wall around her. This room was used as a training room in the past, but now was just a barren room with no purpose. Rune decided to turn this into his lab where he and Sophia could work without being bothered.
Rune had considered offing the Succubus, but he wanted to get some information out of her first. He definitely couldn’t torture her due to her masochist tendencies, but he could lock her up. He used the formed wall and created a small prison, void of any light, and left several holes to breath in. Then he continued his work.
He believed that it was possible for him to craft weapons not seen in Earth or Arborea. For Rune, he was able to use magic and he still kept his knowledge from Earth.
If he was able to use his skills and magic, he could most definitely create some of the weapons he had in mind. While thinking this, he could hear muffled sounds from the makeshift prison he made.
Maybe I’ll set up a couple guards here if she gets out.
He started to get to work.
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“Oh!!! There you are!! I haven’t seen you for hours. What are you doing?”
“Oh, no. It’s just that Roxana was wondering where you went.”
“Sure!”
Rune strode up to the makeshift prison and wrapped a chain around it. He had just developed it and it even helped him rank up his [Enchant[ skill so that he could now place four enchantments on a single item. Then he strode up to Sophia and they left the room.
Rune walked to follow Sophia and they went to into the foyer. There were three people seated on the sofa already and Sophia and Rune sat across from them.
“Hello. We meet again, Rune. As for you, hello, I am Charlotte, the daughter of Oren, a viscount.”
“Hello, I am Sophia.”
“I am Lisbeth, one attendant of Charlotte.”
“I am Riley, one attendant of Charlotte.”
Sophia noticed Lisbeth and Riley, but did not say anything. Lisbeth and Riley carefully looked at Sophia and rune.
“I am here to once again thank you for saving me and to congratulate you on becoming a marquis.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“I am here on King Leo Regis Domini’s orders. You are to go to the demon country to scout out and defeat the Demon Lords competing to become the Demon King. They are stirring the majin like crazy and it seems that they will try and kill humans. They seem to be on a neutral agreement with the beast people.”
“Yes, we shall provide passage there as well as expenses. If you complete the task, you shall be rewarded with one thing you want. The king knows that he can only depend on you since the only A rank adventurers don’t want to take part in a war and the one S rank is nowhere to be found.”
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This must be the orders that the king said he would give. I didn’t imagine it would come within two days. At least I have a bit less than a month until I have to go.
Rune was working on his project to quickly finish it by the time he had to leave. He had to leave both Roxana and Sophia behind and he talked to Lisbeth before he left.
She sighed and took a sip of tea from the cup she held. They were sitting in the foyer and everyone else had left. Then Lisbeth used telepathy.
They shook hands and Lisbeth told Charlotte that she will not be going with her for a while. She told her that she would stay at Rune’s mansion for a while to teach Roxana.
Rune continued to work and Sophia started to work on alchemy. For several days, they worked and played with Roxana and Rune occasionally left to “train” himself.
Roxana seemed to understand and grasp the basic concepts of magic quite easily. Lisbeth was definitely the best instructor that Rune could have chosen. Roxana even warmed up to her in a matter of hours.
At one point, the Succubus spoke while he was working on his project. Her voice was fine for someone who spent eleven days in isolation.
“I heard that you are to go to the Demon Country. Let me help you. I know the way around there.”
“Being in danger is much more fun than being isolated from everyone.”
“Well, that too, but mainly adventure and the chance to prove myself as a loyal servant of you.”
After the thirtieth day, Rune walked over to Sophia. Roxana was still studying with Lisbeth. Sophia was looking out of the balcony and Rune kneeled down near her.
Sophia looked down, stunned and nodded wordlessly. When Rune stood up, she hugged him.
Sophia was in tears as Rune embraced her and they stood there for a while.
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“Tch. What a cliche moment which would raise several death flags, but we won’t let him die.”
“Yeah, I want to see his new weapons!!”
It was Myrkul, god of death, and Tempus, god of war, who were talking with each other. They were sitting in chairs looking up at a large monitor. It would remind most people of two guys being lazy on a couch.
“Yeah, how many weapons do you think he will make and how many will he kill? It seems that his life will be a much more interesting story if he is alive.”
A person walked up to them and rested his arms on the sofa. It was Bhaal, god of murder.
“Yeah, he will definitely kill more people and creatures if he stays alive. As long as we don’t do anything bad to him, the other gods won’t come after us as well.”
“Yeah, cheers for the existence of a murderous protagonist!”
The three gods clinked beer cans together and drank. To people of Earth, this scene would seem like three buddies cheering for their favorite sports team winning.
There were other classmates that the gods could look at, but they weren’t particularly interested in them as they were in Rune. There were a couple like Stacy who were building up their fame or empires. In fact, Stacy was in the middle of creating her empire where people who were outsiders were welcomed. There were Fallen Angels, Dampirs, Were Animals, and Half Dragons.
It seemed like their tiny country of two hundred thousand was flourishing in the coast. Stacy was also mainly worshipping Helm, god of protection, and Chauntea, goddess of agriculture. Only those two focused on her and each god looked over the most interesting classmate to them.
Most of the evil gods, Auril, Bane, Bhaal, Loviatar, Malar, Mask, Myrkul, and Shar, were watching him. On top of the evil gods, Gond, god of Craft, Lliira, goddess of Endurance, and Tymora, goddess of Good Fortune, were also watching over him. It seemed like most of the gods favored him.
To them, it would be a shame to see a main source of their entertainment die.
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“...papa...will I see you again?”
He had some insurance in case he did die. It would be absolutely suicidal to not have a backup plan. Especially for a dangerous mission where most people would die. In case he did die, he had created a suit of armor that would bring his soul into it and it was even stronger than his current cold steel body by itself.
He also finished one project that he was happy to see finished. It was a defense system in case the mansion got attacked. They were Flying Swords that danced through the skies and, when one of the servants, Roxana, Sophia, or Lisbeth were in danger, they would defend them. They were also much stronger than regular swords and carried different elemental attributes and enchantments.
As for the Succubus, he imprisoned her in a small jewel that was on his new necklace. He could summon her at any time and even use telepathy to talk to her. The Succubus, however, wanted to actually be standing by his side and not in a piece of jewelry.
“Bye.”
Sophia had a sullen look on her face as she looked at him. Rune went up to her and hugged her for a while before letting go.
“I know, but… Do you really have to leave?”
Rune moved away towards the carriage and entered it.
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“Ok. Here are your teleportations crystals. We have given you four just in case. You have to go there, eliminate the Demon Lords, and come back. Understood?”
It was the black knight from earlier who was now seated at the same table as Rune. He had a map out on the table and was pointing out and marking where he needed to go.
“We will give you one week. If you cannot do it, come back and tell us the information."
Rune spoke after he collected his supplies and teleported to the designated location.