Chapter 4 - Day Off

After days of sparring and practising drills, I finally got a day off from training. I can finally escape hell! I excitedly jumped onto my bed and fell asleep thinking about my freedom tomorrow.

The morning quickly came and when I woke up, I curiously asked the maid that served breakfast, about the situation outside. The maid was reluctant to tell me anything, but she gave in after my persistent persuasions.

There's currently a lot of gossip about the assassination of the Schatten Earl couple right now, it’s one of the most popular topics in high society because the Schatten Earldom's fief wine was amongst the best and most used, there were many pre-orders from Dukes and Margraves before the assassination.

The death wasn't as popular as the topic of the ‘Mysterious Princess’ amongst commoners though. The First Princess, Rosensee Segotta, rarely shows herself, and rumours say her beauty was unparalleled. The last time the Princess showed herself was during the king’s 50th birthday 4 years ago when she was 3 years old.

"Hey! Are you done with your daydreaming yet?"

Whilst in the middle of my thinking, I was rudely interrupted by an annoying trash. Won’t I get executed for calling a Royal, trash, you ask? Well, it’s fine since it’s all in my head, I’m not saying it out loud.

“You're saying it out loud.”

“Huh?!”

Goldenloss suddenly froze in his spot and directed a threatening gaze towards me.

“Hahahaha! Look at your face! It’s hilarious!”

“Shut up!”

The threatening gaze twisted into a mocking gaze as we stared at each other for several seconds. In the past few days, I got intimate with Goldenloss and learnt of his annoying side. I don’t even know how the Perle from the game managed handled this annoying trash. I must give my praises to him, although, I still have my grudge against him for wasting $12 worth of potions.

“Anyway, you’ll be having an audience with the King this afternoon.”

While strolling out of the hallway and into the Royal garden, Goldenloss nonchalantly told me something very serious.

“Why didn’t you tell me about that earlier!? I need to prepare to meet the King, don’t I need at least a month’s worth of preparation?”

“Don’t worry, it’s my dad, so it’s fine.”

Goldenloss picked up a white lily and gave it a sniff while trying to comfort me.

“No, it’s not fine. It’s THE KING!”

“It’ll be perfectly fine, I think.”

I let loose a sigh at Goldenloss’s careless remark as we continued to

walk.

Time flew by super quickly and the time for the audience came. I just need to pray that I can perform the proper etiquettes and stuff from all the mangas I read.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

I’m currently in a waiting room with Goldenloss, unfortunately.

“Why do you look so anxious? Just think of it as meeting a friend’s dad.”

I leaked out a very long sigh after hearing another tiring remark from Goldenloss.

I waited in the room for about 10 minutes before a fancily dressed guard came knocking on the door, guiding me out to the hallway, which was very luxurious with fancy red carpet and expensive-looking paintings.

The audience I’m having was a public audience, which made it worse because the eyes of the higher nobility preying on the powerless me made me even more anxious. Relying on the Royal family was the best method to ward off nobles so I have to leave a good impression like Perle in the game. I need to freeload at the Royal Palace.

“Next! The son and heir of the recently deceased Schatten Earl family, Perle Schatten! You may come in.”

I heard a voice from across the large wooden gate that was about 10m tall. The massive gate slowly creaked open and a handsome middle-age man on a throne immediately caught my attention, the King is younger than I thought.

On both the side of the throne were a group of nobles, their eyes all directed on me, I can feel them watching my every movement.

I courteously walked up to about 10m from the King and kneeled. I could hear the echoes from the murmurs of the nobles, probably gossiping about how I walked. The chamber was quite massive, the size of it is about the same as a school's field track.

“You may raise your head.”

I looked up and stared at the King's face, it was very mature and handsome, as expected of a male lead’s dad. Also, I’m not going to go BL, alright?

“I thank you for accepting the invitation to the audience..”

“This chance to meet Your Majesty was a great honour, as of itself. I am the one who should be thanking you for granting this insignificant youth, a chance to have an audience with you.”

It's not like I had much of a choice but to accept anyway. The King nodded at my remark and continued.

“I see. I’ll get straight to the point here now. You’re now the new head of the Schatten Earldom, I will now knight you personally as well.”

Like father, like son. The King is super blunt. A ruckus was heard from the group nobles, but I continued to ignore it. The King descended from his throne with a very shiny long-sword, about 8m long, and I was casually knighted by the King.

The King explained to me what will happen from now on. The details were the same as the contract, I accepted it and the audience ended without my head flying off my body, thankfully.

After the audience ended, I headed back to my room, I managed to roughly remember which way my room is, but I got

interrupted by Goldenloss half-way there.

“Hey! How was the audience?”

I was slightly annoyed by how carelessly Goldenloss shouted in the hallway, but I replied anyway.

“I’m still alive.”

“Cool. Do you want to check out the library?”

“There’s a library?”

“Yeah, there’s one a few minutes away from your room, but we can

check out the Royal personal library for more books.”

“Are you sure I’m allowed to go there?”

“Don’t worry, take this. It’s a permit to enter the library.”

“Alright, I’ll check it out tomorrow. I’m too tired right now.”

I continued back to my room after taking a permit from Goldenloss, he pleaded me to come with him but I ignored it.

After being served dinner, I pretended to sleep for about an hour. I learnt the direction to the Royal library after innocently asking a maid during dinner. The maid became my spy unknowingly.

I slowly climbed out of my bed and tiptoed towards where the library was supposed to be. After wandering for about half an hour, I found a 2 meter tall stone door. I placed the permit in a little hole next to the door and it magically opened.

I slowly walked inside, checking my surroundings, after retrieving the permit from the hole. There were a lot of books, the shelves were several meters in height, filled with books. I should be able to find some useful stuff here.

I’m lost...

THERE ARE TOO MANY BOOKS!! Why didn’t I go with Goldenloss and let him guide me, you ask? Well, it’s because it’ll be pretty suspicious for me to search for information about important political figures and military tactics. I might be suspected of planning a rebellion.

I wandered through the maze for several more eternities, looking for the right section, after an hour of searching, I found a faint blue light reflecting off a shelf of books. It’ll be nice to breathe some fresh air in this dust-filled library.

I placed a book I had on hand back into a shelf and walked towards the light source. I took a turn and saw a long stretch of pale golden hair flowing in the radiating moonlight, the wind from the open window breathed in the cold night air as I looked at the angel before me.

"Who are you?"

A cute, soft voice came from the little angel.