Kyon pressed the button, the crystal lamp went out. He stripped naked and plopped down on the soft bed, his arms crossed behind his head. It was time to reconsider.

{In this world, the strong and powerful can afford anything. The decrepit half-dead old man takes advantage (in every sense) of the beautiful maid... The poor thing has no choice. I must help her. Hopefully, my guess that Juno is Flitz's weakness is right. Will I be able to charm her off her feet? It’s a snap. I hope she is beautiful...}

It was late at night. The two moons were shining brightly, occasionally darkened by the clouds passing by.

Kyon started organizing the information about energy and stages of development. {When I got out of the mine I felt my soul started developing faster. As proof, I passed on to the 2nd stage... On the estate, the intuitive feeling doubled! It turns out the local people develop faster than the others because there’s high energy concentration in the air. I wonder what’s so special in the earth crust under the estate?}

Kyon remembered from the books that energy, as a rule, isn’t evenly distributed throughout the world. In some places, there's more energy, in others, there’s less. In places with more energy, the resources are richer and help get strong. They better nourish the body and soul, develop the unique body, and that’s not all. He was getting the global power pattern in the world. The more energy there is in the atmosphere, the stronger the empire and its people.

While they were traveling to the estate (covering as many as 2000 km (1242 mi) according to Ren and Borya) Kyon watched the moons every night. In fact, they looked more like planets. He noticed the slightest change in their shadows. The deliverer mentioned that in this world the year lasts 360 days. With the help of Synergy, the boy calibrated the time at an ultra-high accuracy and determined that 24 hours, or rather the seconds that they comprise, are close to the intergalactic standard. What an amazing coincidence! In his world, minutes could last up to 140 seconds on some planets. In particular cases, the minute was up to 5 seconds... But the 24-hour standard was observed everywhere.

When he combined all the data, Kyon concluded lots of incredible facts. For example, judging by the eclipses of the moons, he geometrically calculated the approximate distance to them. It was ~ 55 radii of the earth. It also became clear that the size of all the moons was about 3 times smaller than the earth. Praise Hipparchus! His method was simple and accurate. However, what he found out later made Kyon feel dizzy... He had traveled in the wagon for six days covering 2000 km (1242 mi) with a time deviation no more than 12 minutes! He compared the deviation with time zones and found out that the circumference of this planet is ~ 240.000 km! (~ 150.000 mi). It was about half the size of Jupiter, which means the length of the moons is ~80.000 km! (~50.000 mi). This unmistakable conclusion nearly sent him into a tailspin. Such giant planets must have a huge gravity. Only, they didn’t. His discovery of the world didn’t end there. He learned that the moon rotated around the planet, the planet and the moons rotated around the sun. The sun, the planets, and the moon, in their turn, revolved around some invisible object! Kyon thought he was delirious but his formulas for calculating the movement of the planet and the moons could not be wrong! He assumed that there was a black hole in the middle but there was not! There was no gravitational lensing effect which must be in the case of empty space. Gravity and the size were not in line with the presence of a small black hole. It was some invisible object but not a black hole. The boy’s powerful mind was on the verge of collapse trying to unravel the nature of the invisible massive object.

So, that’s what he’d found out: the star revolved around something invisible, the planet revolved around the star, and the two moons revolved around the planet.

 *sigh*

Kyon tousled his hair, swept away the problems he couldn’t solve for now to the basement of his consciousness and moved on to planning his next steps in terms of body development with the help of Synergy.

Two hours ago, he completed developing the nervous system with the help of Synergy. Now his organs were more stress-resistant, the impulses from his muscles reached his brain three times faster. It always helps in the fight to have an instant reaction not only in mind but also on the body level. Moreover, his sense of touch had increased significantly. However, it had practical application only in matters of sex.

He had to find out where to direct the essence of the universe further on, what to develop with Synergy?

Kyon identified three most relevant and useful options: sight, hearing and smell. He’d rather start with his eyesight. The upgrade wouldn’t not take much time but the advantages were going to be tremendous! At the moment, the boy felt like a blind chicken in comparison with the sight Lovr used to have.

With one question solved and Synergy running in the right direction, Kyon began to set his priorities. First of all, he had to regain his freedom and the freedom of speech as well. Until then, he was bound hand and foot; almost all of his activities were restricted. He couldn’t even think of escape: Flitz’s formation on his forehead tracked his location, and Synergy had failed to remove it. He was like a small boat flowing with the stream. He would have to take as it comes. Kyon only hoped that Juno was a nice girl, that everything would run smoothly when he got to know her.

Kyon went to bed.

A gentle knock on the door broke the stillness of the morning. The pleasant voice asked permission to enter.

Kyon was instantly awake. He said indulgently:

«Please, do come in.»

He sleepily rubbed his eyes, yawned and stretched till his bones cracked.

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The door opened and Marina came inside. She looked rather worn out. Her braids were gone. The old man must have disliked her innocent hairstyle. Her head was a mess with visible attempts to hastily comb her hair. One stocking was torn, the second dropped to her knee in a sad accordion. Her short skirt was askew, she must have put it on in a hurry. Her tired eyes revealed she wasn't getting enough sleep. She had a stack of new clothes and a tray with breakfast in her hands. The delicious aroma of scrambled eggs with vegetables spread through the room.

{Flitz… Asshole! Am I jealous?} – He was surprised to find himself thinking that.

His judgemental piercing eyes made the girl lower hers. She adjusted her skirt, embarrassed.

«Flitz told me to take you to the office in fifteen minutes... You’d better hurry up, Kyon.»

«Yes, sure.» - Kyon nodded his head in understanding, got off his bed and carelessly picked up the stack of his new clothes from the girl’s hands. Marina gave a sudden cry and staggered back, hiding her crimson face in her hands. Hmm, what was that pantomime about? ... «Marina, are you alright?»

In response, the girl desperately shook her head, unwilling to open her eyes.

Kyon looked down. Ah yes... Of course... How could he forget? He was no longer an emperor, he was a slave! It was indecent, to say the least, to walk around naked with morning wood. He’d better get rid of the habit to sleep in his birthday suit.

The boy dropped his hands down covering his package. He cringed, doing his best to feign shame and said hoarsely in a shy voice:

«Did you see it?»

Marina shook her head again. It didn’t happen too often that she had to deny the facts. This naked sinewy guy will stay on her mind for a long time.

Kyon breathed a sigh of relief, pulled out his underpants from the stack and hurriedly put them on.

«I'm glad you didn't. I can keep being pure and innocent. If you knew how scared I was…»

His shamelessness left the girl breathless. She even took her hands from her face:

«It’s me who should be complaining! How can you…»

Kyon said with irony in his voice.

«You’re right. Look at you. Was it really bad last night?»

The girl let out a growl. She closed her eyes and counted to ten trying to gain control over her emotions.

«Why did you say that, you little shameless scoundrel?!»

Kyon laughed, turning everything into a joke. They had finally broken the ice which was a significant achievement in their relations. It was going to be easy from now on.

After that, she did not say a word. She threw occasional discontent glances in his direction. He kept a straight face. Anyway, it wasn’t in her nature to hold grudges, let alone against fools. He probably didn’t even get it what he did.

Kyon pulled on his new black pants, a shirt, and a pair of socks with black shoes. No... They weren’t slave clothes, by any means. Only the noble could wear that. The things were of good quality, durable, expensive... He looked good in them. Only the formation on his forehead showed his position as if saying: “Look, I'm a nobody!”.

After the delicious breakfast, they left the room in silence. Marina handed the boy a sound transmitter he had asked for. It was a compact box, with a cloudy green spatial stone inside.

«The quality of the sound transmitter is low. You can't take calls at the distance of more than a hundred kilometers.» - The girl explained with some reluctance. – «Each sound transmitter has its frequency. It is not difficult to find it out. When somebody calls your frequency, the transmitter vibrates and you can take the call... To make contact, you need…»

Kyon nodded understandingly. On the whole, there was nothing complicated. It was an analog of a standard mobile phone.

On the way, he asked Marina about Juno’s closest circle. Any information could come in handy.

His future lady had such close relatives as her mother, grandfather, brother and an elder sister. Her grandfather was the Patriarch. He was always in the capital of the kingdom as well as her mother. She ran the plantations, which was very honorable. Her brother was being trained to be the head of the mines, and her sister had fled for some unknown reason.

On the way, Marina kept throwing impatient glances at him. She could not wait to find out about Flitz's weakness. She was a modest girl, too shy to start the conversation and about to burst with curiosity.

{Every female dreams to have a device to control males.. In her case, it was the old man. It is important not to cross the line, though. When men turn into a toy, they lose their attraction.}

Unfortunately for cute Marina, Kyon wasn’t going to satisfy her curiosity yet.

The entire estate of the Stone family was surrounded by tall and thick stone walls. To one side, thirty kilometers away, there was an endless sea, to the other, fifty kilometers away, there was a mountain range thousands of kilometers long. That’s where the memorable mines were located.

The estate was divided into the courtyard, where family members of the 3rd rank and above lived, and the outside area. A strict hierarchy was observed: the closer to the center, the higher the rank of the dwellers. Democracy was out of the question.

The streets were not empty in spite of the early morning. The servants scurried here and there, the beasts roamed freely. Many of them looked dangerous and even bloodthirsty but apparently, they didn’t attack people.

Two girls noticed the way Marina looked and whispered maliciously to each other:

«Look, it's Flitz's favorite maid! She looks terrible. What did he do to her!?» ... «Who's there next to her? Do you think she is with that slave…»

The men on their way did not overlook the appearance of the blonde, either. Poor things, they nearly broke their necks when the girl passed them by. If the gossip girls looked at the sexy maid with a malevolent and even pitiful look, the men’s eyes were full of lust.

Marina was red in the face. She walked with her head lowered, her eyes fixed on the floor. She couldn’t stop adjusting her skirt. She had hardly had any sleep and needed badly to take some rest.

Finally, the couple reached Flitz's office.