The next morning came and Athena, the princess of the kingdom of Eldaha rose. Standing up in the center of the room she rose her hand and with a yawn, snapped her fingers. Instantly maids flooded the room, saying sweet pleasantries before undressing the princess’s nightgown and redressing her in her standard dress.
After she was dressed, she was guided to a large mirror. A majority of the maids left the room, leaving only three to attend to the next task of doing her makeup and hair. While in the process, a butler came into the room. He cleared his throat to announce his presence.
“You may speak, Doug” Athena spoke, giving him but a fleeting glance to acknowledge his presence.
The older man nodded “Your schedule today include attending to a meeting with some nobles from the country side, attending to the hero and his studies, some paperwork requires your attention, and finally you have received an invitation from your brother to a small afternoon party.”
Athena glanced at herself in the mirror, giving a slight sigh “What are the nobles here for?” She asked, raising her hand to signal the maids to stop for a moment as she focused.
“They are here about rumors of escaped slaves, your highness. Beastmen, by the sounds of it. And are requesting the knight’s assistance as adventurers tend to not deal with these issues.”
She lowered her hand and the maids continued. It was too early to send the hero, and with his disposition towards his pet… regardless, something this small could be handled by a few knights. The paperwork could be handled at any point, the meeting would not go long either. Attending to the hero would be the most time-consuming task, and that just leaves… “Tell my brother I will not be attending his party, as my current duty of overseeing the hero takes priority.”
“I will tell him immediately; he shall be disappointed but… as you wish.”
Athena scoffed, her brother clearly didn’t understand the weight of the kingdom’s situation. To be partying when they already had a hero to deal with.
The maids finished their work, stepping back as Athena appraised their finished product. She nodded in approval and dismissed them. Once they left she inspected the room, it was just her and her butler. “How are the results of the request I made to the church.”
Doug bowed, keeping his head pointed down he spoke “I am sorry princess, they have declined your request for a skill orb.”
Athena’s eye twitched, she had expected as much but still. The church was getting ahead of themselves. “Is that all they said?”
“No” Doug came up from his bow “They said that if the hero needs the skill you have requested, they are more then happy to attend to him personally after a public baptism.”
Athena’s anger rose, she quickly brought her hand to her mouth, covering it as she surprised her rage “T-those bastards.” She let slip. A public baptism for the hero would mean that the church would be taking unofficial ownership of the hero, any good deeds he would accomplish would be seen as a direct result of the church, while any bad deeds or worse would be pushed onto the kingdom. Otherwise, they would act like they were the ones that summoned him, not the kingdom.
This goes beyond what the princess originally thought, they were getting too cocky.
Athena then snickered to herself, there was a silver lining. From her butlers words it appeared like they think the newly summoned hero needs the orb, when in fact it’s his pet that needs it. They already put in place a suitable replacement for him. “It was good I already expected their denial and scheduled that expedition, please keep up counterintelligence. The church must not know we are heading to that dungeon.”
Doug nodded, but looked a bit perplexed “My lady, excuse me but that dungeon is dangerous. Surely it would be better to just hire a teacher for miss Mia…”
“And where will we find a teacher for such a basic skill everyone has?! It is amazing that the beast does not have it already!” Athena snapped, remembering the dull expression of that fox made her rage grow once again. She bit into her nail’s thumb to calm herself “Just what hole did she get captured from…”
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“Oh, about that.” Doug perked up, bringing out a parchment from his coat pocket “The other thing you have asked for, thankfully the merchant found some more records.” He then opened the parchment and handed it to her.
Athena grabbed it, looking it over. It was an old inventory log from three years ago, back when the church first started their holy crusade against the Demon Lord, before they got pushed back from the Beastmen territory and were forced to put a halt to their plans. “Hrm, so she is from the fox tribe on the border.”
It was a shame it was from one of the church’s raids, she was unlikely to get an honest report out of them. Worse, they might question why she wanted such a thing. The best course of action would be to find the other names on this list and get the story out of them. But that would not work, their lips would have been sealed like the beast she currently had.
She bit into her nail again, then paused, noticing something about the list. “Along with the beastmen, the merchant also received humans at the same time…” It was a gamble, but the chances that their orders might not have been as tight on the beastmen, “Did you check if he had any of the other slaves on this list?”
Doug shook his head “No, my lady. Mia was the only one that kept coming back into his possession.”
That, was something Athena was grateful for. Despite her hate for the beast, it was quite the blunder for letting that stay in the public eye. A beastmen with that much magical capacity was unheard of, sure, if a beastman dedicated all their points into mastering magic they could become a decent mage, but starting out with 50 intelligence right from the get-go? At level one? If the church had realized what they obtained they could have easily brainwashed her and have her be a twisted apostle, fighting her own kind. The war at the time might have gone different.
Not that Athena had any better plans for her. Granted, with the current teachings of the church in their country, if anyone sees a beastmen cast powerful magic there will be problems. For now, she will have to settle on having the beast not use magic, while hoping she gets enough points on level ups to make up for it later.
She crossed her arms, handing the list back to the butler “See if you can find any of the humans on this list, get with Rowan after he is done training the beast if you have to be more…discrete, about it.” Athena watch the butler nod, excuse himself, and leave the room. Leaving her alone.
She sighed, she was going to be busy, juggling her tasks, dealing with the hero, and dealing with the unexpected add on of his pet. His pet, while unexpected, could be considered double edged sword. On one side him not directly opposing slavery, and instead purchasing one for himself, would improve the citizens opinions of him. Adding to that was she was the actual owner, allowing the beast to be used as a spy.
On the other hand, the current hero was acting in an unpredictable manner. She still remembered how he did not approve of any of her personally picked companions, instead insisting that the princess herself accompany him. He even refused to eat anything brought to him by some well laid honey traps at the greeting party.
The princess was glad he somehow, despite pushing others away, had an affinity for her. And trusted her despite pushing other traps away. Unfortunately for him, after being so unreasonable the princess decided to get rid of him, until he showed promise. On his third night after training, he correctly guessed there was an assassin placed above his room and killed them without a second thought.
He then blamed the minister for the assassination attempt. Of course, this was without evidence and caused a stir in court. But the hero, being unpredictable with random knowledge, repeated his lucky guess and pleaded with the king to believe him and he would show him proof the minister was corrupt. Daddy, the king, amused by this and wanting to use it as a chance to get rid of this hero, agreed.
Then the hero lead everyone to the minister’s house and despite not being inside a single time, lead the knights down a secret passage he opened by pulling an out of place book on a bookshelf. Inside the passage, to everyone’s shock, was piles of gold and evidence of money laundering. Athena still remembers the smug expression on the hero’s face, looking as satisfied as you could possibly be.
This solidified him as the hero, and the princess as his caretaker. This was the other side of that sword. His unpredictable tendencies were sometimes right, knowing of events before they happened. His pet was one of these unpredictable results, and what the hero might know and isn’t telling might come back to bite her. Right now, she believed it was under control, the slave was under her orders, and would tell her anything the hero tells her.
She sighed, it was becoming more trouble than it was worth, she found herself wishing she sent two assassins that night more often. Especially after last night's events, just thinking about it made her blood boil. The beast, Mia, had one upped her. Going to the hero directly and appealing to him before she had a chance to explain.
She bit into her nail; she’d have to take her revenge. Harsher training? The hero would notice and that would create unwanted issues. She also couldn’t be too heavy on separating her from the hero, as she was technically the hero’s pet. She might have to settle on something petty, and ordering the beast not to pull a stunt like that again.
She gritted her teeth, grinding away at her poor nail before a knock at the door interrupted her train of thought “Yes, who is it?”
“Sorry to disturb you mistress, this is Ashley… I have brought Mia.”
Perfect, just the person she wanted to see.