Nero woke up and found he was tangled even tighter with his wife. Altia was over him, pinning him down like a professional wrestler. A lock of green hair on his side told him they weren't alone. Craning his neck around, he saw Crystal sleeping on Altia's side of the bed, without touching him. When he tried to wriggle free, both girls held him down.

"Right. Ladies, I think it is cute and I love how you show you need me but I should be going. I need to go outside and see what's happening."

"No. Don't go!" Both said at the same time.

He pondered over his options. They had enough food cards to stay months locked inside the shelter. Water would never be a problem as the shelter had its own spring. After pondering for a while, Nero was sure he could design part of the shelter as a wheat field, or barley, or flax. Those would disappear if taken outside, but what if they were eaten or processed with Essence? He had no idea if he could reshape the shelter without emptying it first, and it wasn't the time to do tests. Not with prince Tyre out there.

Maybe it was for the best. He shouldn't go out there without being sure his anger wouldn't run out of control. Whatever the prince did could be best countered by the adults anyway. He should stay home and look after the mental health of his sister. It was more important than his curiosity or desire for vengeance. The guy brought enough knights to take over a walled city and he was dangerous enough by himself. Crystal said he had an Agility of four hundred with the limiter on. Nero had no idea how fast that was. Probably eight times as fast as him. Landing a single blow would be impossible and he'd be dead before the attack completed.

It was a scary thought, his Agility. He was around level two hundred and fifty. It meant forty percent of his Agility past fifty points was three hundred and fifty. His total Agility without the limiter would be... Nine hundred and twenty-five. What did a person need to stack to reach that much? Maybe Crystal would reach it if she kept stacking Charisma. Then Nero thought that maybe a single attribute was the way to go, stacking Skills and Class special features that made that one Attribute cover for the others. Tyre probably added Agility to a half of the other Attributes.

Yes, not meeting Tyre would be the best idea. Nero rubbed Altia's back and nape, kissing her. She hummed happily and even relaxed her death grip a bit.

"I'm staying here with you," He said. The outside world could sort itself out.

----------------------------------------

He fell asleep somewhere after that. Nero woke up hearing Amaryllis' voice. "Nero. Nero. Nero," repeatedly. Once he shook the fog off his mind and found himself pinned under his wife and with his arm tightly held by Crystal, the voice changed.

"Awake? Could you get your sorry ass out of your pocket bubble and come here before the prince gets angry and executes half of your village?" The pixie's voice spoke in his mind. "And leave the others in the shelter. It is not safe for any of them out here."

He felt that whatever effect sent the message also allowed him to reply. He mentally rejected to acknowledge the message. It was sent four times before he answered with an annoyed mental "Okay, I'm coming!" They stopped after that but he felt they would come back if he didn't do something. It meant he needed to go outside.

Nero tapped the girls. "I need to go to the outhouse. Let me go."

He found the eanling twins in the kitchen. Pretending to be in a hurry, he left through the back door and entered the outhouse. Well, at least he wasn't lying about that part and he didn't say he'd be back right after. Nero switched his Class to the stealth [Rogue], cast [Invisibility], and left through the portal he opened inside the outhouse. The archway halfway between the tree and the beach was only decorative and to give people entering the shelter a sense of orientation.

The portal opened behind the same house they hid in, as he expected. It would be bad if something could move the exit point while they were inside but Nero wouldn't discard any hypothesis against someone with unlimited resources. He saw nothing dangerous and skulked around the back of the houses, scouting the village. The people were going on their daily affairs, but each entrance had two knights guarding it. They weren't harassing the villagers so it was a plus in his book. In front of his house, he saw the prince's carriage but no sign of the dreadful monsters pulling it. Nero looked around and saw a tall stone tower a quarter of a mile outside the village, near the Goblin Dungeon. It wasn't there last time he checked.

He waited for a while and when an opportunity to cross the main street to his parents' house came, he took it. Nero was immediately yanked up and had to fight to keep from shouting. He rose a hundred feet up in the air and found a very angry fairy.

"There you are. Gosh, we need an easier way to contact you inside that shelter. I just burned a yellow consumable to send you a message."

Nero looked down. The tower was in a spot where it could watch over the Goblin's Den and the village. Soldiers with bows were on the roof and a small tent camp was set in a recently cleared section of the forest they cut for the palisade. There were knights and soldiers around the entire village. It felt as if the prince had taken over the place. Probably did. Finally, he checked himself. He was still invisible.

"I thought you could break-in," He replied.

She shook her head. "Only if I know exactly where the portal was. And it doesn't work if you are outside. The entry point moves inside your body."

It meant she was experimenting with his shelter. At this point he trusted Amaryllis, she proved herself a reliable ally. It was good to know people couldn't barge into the shelter with him outside but it wasn't important right now.

"What is going on? With the asshole prince?"

"He wants to hire you to use your shelter," She answered, annoyed at the prince. "It is a personal request from the Kingdom. The Guild can't refuse this kind of request but the pay is good. I'm bringing you down. Promise me you'll listen and don't speak. I know you hate him for what he did to Crystal, you are right to feel so. But I also know you have no experience dealing with Royalty. Let me negotiate on your behalf. Do you trust me?"

Nero took his time to digest her words. He would have to work for the person he hated the most? What kind of sick joke was that? But he needed to trust someone. His parents and Amaryllis seemed like a good start.

"Okay. I'll be silent."

"If he asks you anything, you look at me as if you could shoot lightning from your forehead and I'll answer for you. I'm not one of his subjects and I have a tier over him. It means a lot and he knows he can't cross me. I wish I could tell you more but we are out of time."

She lowered him and they floated into the house through the window to his parents' bedroom. Nero's invisibility ended and they left the room into the corridor and down the stairs to the living room. Amaryllis took a seat on his shoulder and Nero swallowed down his anger and hatred as he found the leonal prince sitting on his parents' couch. Four knights were in the room, one on each corner. His parents were sitting on the other couch, leaving only the armchair across the coffee table open. The man didn't waste time to lash his tongue, showing more fangs than Nero cared to count.

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"Finally, there he is! Hiding upstairs, weren't we? Who would've guessed," He mocked with a smirk. It was obvious his knights would know if someone was upstairs. "The man of the hour, the talk of the town. The level zero that doesn't know the meaning of backing down!"

After a tap on the back of his neck from the shoulder fairy, Nero bowed deeply as was proper.

"The silent type, eh? Well, sit down, boy. We are busy and have business with you."

Nero sat down on the armchair across the couch.

"I'll represent Nero in this negotiation, prince Tyre," Amaryllis said. "Speak your proposal."

"Can the boy use language?" The leonal asked with scorn and disgust. Nero brushed it aside as a blatant attempt at provocation.

"He's too shy to speak before you. Please overlook it," Amaryllis said. "Now, make your proposal, prince."

"It came to my knowledge that he can access a pocket dimension, a separate space that is safe from intrusion. It's probably true because my best space magicians couldn't break into it," He said out straight. He looked at one of the knights and called. "Bjornis?"

One of the knights, an ursus as tall as the prince, stepped forward and read from a scroll. "Under orders of the Kingdom, the Adventurer Nero is hereby offered a personal request. Prince Tyre wants to hire you and your extradimensional space for his personal use during this campaign against Coriander. Compensation to be negotiated."

A personal request was the sharpest double-edged blade. It came only from the aristocracy and was considered a great honor, a sign that an Adventurer made a name for themselves. It was also a source of trouble as dealing with the aristocracy was usually troublesome. For the type of person that wanted to lay low like Nero, it wasn't worth it. His parents worked under these kinds of requests for the royalty of different countries several times before he was born. That's how they met Serena when she was a toddler, for example.

"What are you offering?" Amaryllis asked.

"One million per day, plus a royal pardon," Tyre said. "We know there are several individuals, including my runaway bride and a couple deserters, are under his guard."

Did he know or was he fishing to gauge their reactions?

Nero's mind ran a thousand cycles per second as it tried to figure out how the prince knew that much. The information regarding his shelter should've leaked through either Holmes, Crysopae, or their contacts. It wasn't out of character for the dungeoneering professor to boast about his conquest. He was very happy to brag about pulling one over Nero and his companions. Crystal wasn't hidden, but her personal contingency plan should've stopped him from coming after her. But how did he knew about the eanling twins? Did someone rat them out? But they kept the whole thing under wraps.

The knights that recruited them were suspicious. Maybe they figured it out because he had a shelter? Of course. Serena's rescue. They knew of the shelter, they knew how Nero took Serena out. From that to find out that the eanlings were with him, it wasn't too big of a leap. Maybe they had ways to track who was alive and who wasn't. Nero heard stories of such abilities.

"... therefore exempt Nero the Adventurer, his family, employees, and direct descendants of any duties to the Kingdom of Bast and its military."

But this bastard of a prince was too... what? Nero looked up. The knight, Bjornis, finished reading some kind of document. He missed most of it.

"There you go," The prince said. "I understand that my father entered a sort of agreement with the guild master and my bride is off-limits. I relinquish any claim I have on her and dissolve our engagement. She's used goods anyway," Tyre scorned, appearing bored.

Nero clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. How dare (nevermind he's the prince) this guy talk about Crystal like that? Amaryllis tugged his ear.

"Oh. It seems the boy is not that spineless," Tyre pointed out Nero's visible anger and leaned forward, interested. "Wanna spar, level zero? I promise to not hurt you too much."

Nero felt stupid. The prince's game was to get under his skin and he basically fell for it. He controlled himself and made a vow. Prince Tyre would die by his hands. It was a petty vow and Nero probably would be viewed as a villain but if he had a chance, that big leonal was going to become monster food. Once he made that promise to himself, his anger settled. His mind became clear although he felt cold inside. He only needed to focus on the image of a frightened and somewhat feral princess Serena flinching from his mere presence in a Dungeon to heat up enough to dispel the cold in his heart.

Rule number three, he said to himself. Assholes die, no questions asked. And whoever snitched his secrets to the prince or the knights would meet the same end. Besides, Bast had a surplus of royalty. Tyre wouldn't be missed. He was probably assigned to the Coriander front to clean up his own mess.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't dare to raise up arms against Your Highness. I'll have to decline your most generous offer to teach me. But regarding my compensation, one million per day," Nero said, "Is too little."

Still on his shoulder, Amaryllis flicked his earlobe. Hard.

Tyre leaned forward. "And what do you desire as compensation for your services as a level zero Adventurer?"

"High-grade cards. Rare ones. One first-tier purple card per day and I'll put all my talents at your service, not only the shelter. I'll pledge to serve you to the best of my ability."

"You insolent--" Bjornis was about to strike Nero but Tyre raised a hand.

"And what are your talents. What can you do, level zero?" The prince asked then his mouth parted in a feral grin. "Tell me why are you worth a purple card per day."

"I wouldn't dare lecture, Your Highness," Nero said with false humility. "I believe the prince is magnanimous and wise enough to recognize the worth of my powers."

The two locked eyes in an impromptu staredown contest. The shoulder fairy was bolstering Nero's courage by orders of magnitude. But it was a silly test from Nero's part. He was pretty sure Tyre knew all about Nero's abilities, including how he could use way more than six different Skills. Holmes knew about his unique Class and if word about the shelter leaked out from him, a word about the Class would follow the same route.

"That's acceptable, under some conditions. I will put you to earn your keep though. And I hope this shelter of yours is good enough. I require a demonstration."

Tyre was too proud, even for a leonal. The whole country suffered because they were way over their furry heads. Nero worked on the assumption Tyre wanted to humiliate Nero as a servant. If that was true, the prince's pride would not let him escape. Another point in his favor was that Nero didn't lie. If he delved for real, one million per day was still hard to make but not impossible. Without being forced to pamper his sister's rapist.

There was another dark thought burning in the back of his head. People would die in this war, people with levels above his. Each death was a possible Accolade. He kept this one locked down under wraps. He would not tarnish his growth by feeding on the death of people. It could happen as a consequence, but not a cause.

Amaryllis's voice pulled him back to the real world. "I would like to remind the prince that my godson will be hired as a noncombatant. The request timer will run until you return him alive. Should he die, the kingdom will pay the request in perpetuity."

Tyre relaxed on the couch and waved a hand. "That goes without saying. If he dies, all my furniture will be destroyed. When can I get a glimpse of this shelter of yours?"

"I will need a couple days to move my stuff out," Nero replied. The pixie bit his ear to make him shut up. "And Your Highness can get an artist's rendition of the ideal environment you want. Walls, roof, floor. I'll create the shelter as you envision."

Tyre smiled."Then it is settled. Guild Master, you said Nero is your godson?"

"Yes, he is," Amaryllis confirmed to Nero's surprise. "And you better bring him back in one piece and alive. If he is going to work as your personal palace gatekeeper, there's no reason to put him in danger."

"Of course. I'm not a barbarian," Tyre said, offended. "If I wanted the boy dead, I'd just execute him for the crimes my father already pardoned him of. Helping deserters in times of war is sedition."

"I hope you have proof," Amaryllis challenged. "The words of a village trollop are barely believable."

"Despite the wishes of my captain, I won't pursue the issue," Tyre promised. "We will be partners. I will get one of my subordinates in Honeywitch to paint how I want this shelter. I'll be back in five days. You'll be ready by then."

Not a request but an order. Nero wondered if the guy even knows how to spell "please". He should've heard enough. From his sister nonetheless. Nero was about to burst. He hoped it wasn't showing and he wouldn't ask anyone.

Tyre stood up and left, the knights stomping after him.