161: ROM for six months
"Don't. There is no end to it if you're going to be poking at every little thing like this. I'm just glad that you guys are feeling the same way."
"Ahhn, I'm so happy."
"If only I had your kind words, I could stand the rudeness of this rubbish."
I'm relieved that I've managed to appease them, who would've killed Emily without hesitation if I had not. I'm thankful that it only takes a single word to get them to calm down, but I'm worried that they might fall for some scam.
I hope someone doesn't scam them and make them buy vases and paintings for a million...
"Excuse me."
"Yes, what is it?"
However, I'm glad I managed to quiet them down, but now Emily was glaring at me like she was going to kill me.
—To tell you the truth, you're so annoying. If you don't like me, just outright ignore me.
"If you can't go through with it, go ROM for six months."
[EDN: Read-only member. A person that leaves you on seen, basically.]
"... What did you just say?"
"No, nothing."
"Hmph. Don't speak gibberish. It reveals your low intelligence. Utilizing strange words reveals your lack of intelligence."
I thought I spoke just enough to be heard, but how distorting does she have to be?
I don't think she understood the word's meaning, but I could tell it wasn't a good idea to express nuance. I was just being sarcastic.
I had no choice but to let go of the trolls since there is never an end to them.
However, as if she didn't have enough, Emily continued and pointed her fan at me with a "Bah!"
Isn't she more ashamed of her bad manners of pointing her fan at people than her low intelligence?
"You called me stupid just now, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't."
"Hmph, that's fine. It seems that you will be miserably turned into rags and tatters by His Highness Claude, so I'll let you off the hook for now. However, the moment you interfere with my scale collection today, I will smash you to pieces. So keep that in mind."
Emily, having said all that, was finally satisfied and left me.
Still, those drills were amazing when spinning and twirling with the ups and downs of her emotions. Someone please praise me for thinking but not saying it out loud.
"Kaisar, let's go to the arena. Don't you dare to run away! Bridgette, I'll get you out of that hellhole as soon as I can!"
Just after I was done with Emily, His Highness Claude, who had confirmed the school's closure and its reason on the blackboard, told me to come to the arena with the full intention of fighting a duel. He left the classroom and headed for the arena without waiting for my reply.
162: It must be my imagination
"Haah, what a pain..."
"Shall I eliminate him? I can easily crush the vermin that is His Highness Claude with less effort than it takes to breathe."
"There are few witnesses now, and it's even better because we can blame it all on the dragons."
How in the world did these two grow up to be so boisterous?
In the first place, both of them should have been people who would work for justice for whatever reason, and that's why they should have hated me, Kaisar.
What has happened to these two in this short time they have been my slaves?
Maybe His Highness Claude was right, and I had subconsciously brainwashed Bridgette and Karendoll in some way.
No, it's not just these two.
The slaves' unusual loyalty made me think there was a strong possibility of it, so I brought an elixir out of the item box. It was an item that could cure all kinds of abnormalities, not to mention brainwashing. I opened the seal with a click, took a sip, realizing it didn't taste that good, and plunged the vial containing the greenish liquid elixir into their mouths.
"Umu?"
"Amu?"
"Drink all of it, okay?"
The two drank the elixir in the vial, just as I told them, without complaining.
"What is this? My body feels so much lighter!"
"W-what in the world did you make me drink, Kaisar-sama?"
If they got brainwashed in any way, they should have returned to their true selves.
"The elixir, as they call it? But more importantly, what do you think of His Highness Lord Claude?"
"A-as expected of Master! Y-you treat an elixir (a drink made from grinding young leaves of the World Tree) as if it were a cheap recovery medicine! And about, His Highness Claude, if you allow me, I'll erase him anytime you want."
"I never thought I'd be able to drink elixir... With this, I'm immortal now! Huh? Your Highness Claude? Whenever you tell me to, I'll stop his breathing."
I heard some strange stuff like 'immortality' and another word hidden after the elixir, but I'm sure it was just my imagination.
It was one of the items that were in abundance up to the limit of the number of items in the gacha, so there is no way that drinking it will make you immortal.
But more than that, it was more important to me that their loyalty to me was genuine.
"Well, then. Let's take down His Highness Claude quickly, unlike last time..."
To be clear, the fact that I have found their loyalty genuine meant that if I were to lose their affection, there would be greater repercussions the stronger it was, and it would rebound back to me.
Moreover, losing to His Highness Prince Claude, whom I now know the girls truly dislike, will definitely lower their loyalty.
163: Brace yourself
That is to say, if the girls become displeased and I lose their loyalty, there is a chance that it could turn into a desire to kill me.
No matter how much they became slaves of their own volition, it wouldn't mean that previous actions would disappear.
They may come to kill me for shaming them rather than just terminating their slavery and being done with it.
As for the current slaves, some of them were forced into slavery by me, so it is safe to assume that the situation would be even worse if that were to occur.
The advantage of beating His Highness Claude was keeping their loyalty and not getting involved with him anymore. On the other hand, the disadvantage of deliberately losing, assuming the worst-case scenario, was that they might try to kill me, and I might still be in a situation where His Highness Claude might harass me.
In particular, judging from the actions of His Highness Claude, he has a thought process where he first talks, then consider it, and lastly connects it to some answer. So, unless the answer, 'Kaisar is evil' is changed, his way of thinking won't change either.
And who would believe me if I, who had a past of being scum in my own and others' eyes, said, "I've changed my ways, and I'm going to live an honest life from now on"?
Even though I wouldn't trust such characters, how could others trust me?
"Haah, how did this happen ..."
Remembering memories of my previous life was not a bad thing in itself. In fact, it is quite gratifying to think I can avoid the doom that will occur in the future, but if you were to look at the hassles I've gotten involved in, it appears that the number of trouble has increased.
Have I done something wrong?
At this stage, the level of my deeds was too far to be undone.
My original goal of ignoring everyone and living a slow life by myself with plenty of money after graduation fell apart like a sand castle.
Isn't it all because of His Highness Prince Claude?
If only His Highness Claude hadn't asked me for a duel that day, Bridgette wouldn't have thrashed him up, people wouldn't have looked at him with skepticism, and maybe he wouldn't have been kidnapped.
It makes me angry to think about it.
I know it's too selfish of me, but since the other side was blaming me for everything, I had the right to blame His Highness Claude for everything causing the current situation.
If you say that fights can only happen between those on the same level, then this is the only time I will fall to the level of His Highness Claude.
Prepare yourself.
The more I thought about it, the more the anger I'd been holding back until now came out, so now that he has been abandoned as a member of the royal family anyways, it wouldn't be much trouble even if I hit him.
164: Cheapstake
I headed into the arena, determined to make sure His Highness Claude stopped biting me for the rest of my life.
By the way, Bridgette and Karendoll also followed me instead of going home as if it was natural to accompany me like some Suke-san and Kaku-san.
I could tell the two to, "go ahead and beat up His Highness Claude," but my main goal is to imprint my presence as a symbol of fear in him so that he never has the nerve to challenge me ever again.
We can play a certain world-changing grandpa game any other time.
"Hmph, you've come instead of running away. I give you praise for that."
"With pleasure."
As I arrived, Claude, in a leisurely attitude, mocked me.
Was he mistakenly thinking I'm not a match for him?
He was blinded because he mistakes the royal family's power as his own.
"What an idiot."
"Hmm? Did you just call me an idiot?"
"No, it must be your imagination."
"Is that so? Let me tell you one thing. I am the future emperor. Be careful what you say, do, and act in front of me."
"Perhaps you heard me saying His Highness Claude is an idiot with a brain the size of a walnut and an IQ below that of a goblin."
"Huh?"
Since I'm going to beat up him anyway, there is no need to care about him anymore.
"I heard you. It seems you're very eager to die."
"Let's just get on with it and duel. I don't wanna waste my time arguing. So, tell me what will happen after win or lose."
"Very well then. I've been wanting to beat you up as soon as possible. If I win, you'll have to transfer ownership of Bridgette to me for a week, while if by any chance you win, although it's one in a hundred million, I'll give you everything I have."
"Ah, with what you just said, I made a spirit contract under these conditions."
"Ha? You dare to!"
"Don't tell me it was a lie?"
"Don't be stupid! How can I get defeated by you? You're the one who is making fun of me!"
"Then why not sign a contract with a spirit? I would rather have you praise me for saving you the trouble before the duel begins."
Incidentally, there are disadvantages to breaching a contract because it was a spirit contract, but I dared hide the details of it to incite His Highness Claude.
I am sure His Highness Claude was so angry that he couldn't even use his common sense to confirm the details of the contract.
A little agitation and he was blind to the world around him.
What a fool.
165: The chosen fool
"Well then, I'll have to make a spirit contract with you, but the fact that you did it without telling me is still..."
"Referee."
"You dare to ignore me... Ha? What about a Referee?"
"Yes, refree. I'm talking about the referee, Your Highness Claude. There are three dragons heading this way right now, and currently, no one is here. The audience, which you had originally planned to gather to humiliate me, did not come. You must have been thinking desperately with your empty head that you would defeat me, free Bridgette from me, and expose my evil deeds in front of the audience."
"Empty head, you say!?"
"My apologies. You probably misheard me, so please calm down. Anyway, since there is no one and no judge here, you can't show your heroic victory to your people..."
As I said that much, His Highness Claude finally calmed down and appealed to me to continue the conversation with his gaze.
I had already said almost 90% of what I wanted to say, so I held back from saying, "Think for yourself, you idiot," even without urging me to continue.
I stopped the conversation without finishing it because I believed His Highness would realize what I wanted to say, but it seemed like the contents in his head were more disappointing than I had imagined.
I had thought that he was just as stupid and foolish as I was, but I didn't think he was this stupid.It was my fault for not realizing how stupid His Highness Claude was.
Forgive me, Claude.
"I'm not sure, but aren't you making fun of me a lot right now?"
"No, of course not. How could I make fun of His Highness, a member of the royal family and the future emperor?"
"Then it's fine, but..."
For a moment, he showed the keenness of wild intuition characteristic of idiots, but he was still a determined idiot. It was easy to fool him.
"So, to return to the story, of course, there is no one to judge because there is no one here. Therefore, since I could not bother His Highness, I made a contract in advance using spirit magic."
"Well, that's very clever of you, boghei**—!"
Since His Highness Claude seemed to have believed me so easily, I punched him while he was still talking.
In the first place, the battle had begun as soon as we completed the spirit contract.I hope you'll be grateful that I waited this long to do that.
"Y-you bassstard!!! How dare you! Violation! That's a violation! You shall receive the penalty for violating the spirit contract!"
Yeah, that was some dirty squeal.