Chapter 156: The King
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"D-Do you think Craig knew about this, teacher?"
The thought of having hundreds of layers of buffs was of course good, but Evelyn didn't think there would be many who would be able to bear the thought of having hundreds of their blood related siblings being sacrificed to strengthen themselves.
This was even more so if said siblings had been sacrificed at birth.
Aurora nodded. "Of course, as the next in line to the throne, how could he not know such a basic thing?"
Evelyn shuddered. She had never considered herself to be kind, in fact, she thought she was ruthless enough.
How many times had Aurora told her to stop bullying her? She never cared about that. If anything, she thought her teacher's pitiful look was cute. But compared to the royalty in this world, maybe she really was just a baby.
As the thought crossed her mind, the pink haired girl suddenly had another terrifying realization. "W-Wait a minute…"
When she had killed Craig, Evelyn was well aware of his position in the nearby kingdom.
As a Crown Prince, he was probably the most treasured individual of Terrazyme after the King.
Even if his position hadn't made that clear, the fact that the Terrans were willing to give him so many defensive treasures and also send out such massive amount of forces — including even the Guardian Beast of Earth — was already proof enough of his importance.
That being said, Evelyn hadn't thought he was 'irreplaceable'. Even if he was considered precious thanks to his position or talent, she thought that surely there would someone to replace him after he died.
Even if the Terrans lamented the fact that the new crown prince wasn't as talented or powerful as the previous one, eventually they would move on. As long as they failed to discover who killed him, Evelyn would be fine.
However, things changed drastically if he was truly 'irreplaceable'. The amount of effort the Terrans would put in to find the culprit was sure to be many times more than Evelyn had previously thought.
Aurora smiled as she ruffled the girl's pink hair. "Why do you look so worried now?"
Evelyn gulped. "T-Teacher, they won't find out I did it, right?"
The platinum blonde patted the girl's head with a smile. For some reason, she felt that her student looked most pleasing to the eye when she was distressed.
Aurora shook her head at that thought. 'How strange, I've never felt such a thing before. Did her teasing get to me?'
"Teacher?"
The platinum blonde shook off the distracting thoughts as she nodded. "It's unlikely they will find out you did it, as long as you don't expose yourself. Understand?"
Evelyn sighed out in relief. "I was worried they would have some mystical methods to find out who killed their prince or something."
Aurora shook her head disapprovingly. "Since you're so naughty, let me say this in advance. Don't kill the Aquan princess."
The pink haired girl blinked in shock. "Why would I do that?"
The platinum blonde frowned. "I wouldn't know why you do half the things you do, Evelyn. The Terrans don't have any way to track who killed their crown prince, but the Aquans are different. In their royal bloodline, there seems to be some way to track the murderer, though I'm not sure what it is either."
Evelyn couldn't help but pout. "Teacher, do you think I'm some murder machine who kills people left and right? But thanks for telling me."
Aurora gave her a blank look before she pointed at the trash strewn about her room. "Can you put it back?"
The pink haired girl coughed. "Oh, right. By the way, teacher, what are the odds of me being able to sell these back to their respective families to fetch a good price?"
Aurora sometimes wondered if had there been a ranking system for greed, would her student be able to even be contained within the scale? Anyway, she would certainly be at the top of the world.
She could only shake her head disapprovingly. "Don't be greedy."
Evelyn rubbed her nose in embarrassment. "I understand, teacher, guess it's too much to expect keeping such a thing a secret while negotiating at such a scale."
Before Aurora could sigh in relief that her student gave up on the preposterous thought so quickly, however, she once again broadened her horizons on her true level of greed.
"What about if I went directly to the girls in question? Can I take them for myself, given that these are supposedly 'promises'?"
Aurora blinked once, twice, three times before the thought finally finished processing in her head. "W-Why would you want to 'take' them?"
The pink haired girl coughed, looking a little embarrassed. "D-Don't get me wrong, it's not like I want to keep them as my wives or anything. I just want to see if they would be useful."
Aurora looked at her blankly, as if she considered it beneath herself to respond to such a question.
Obviously, Evelyn felt a little wronged at being looked at like a pervert by her teacher. She was clearly uninterested in any perverted stuff, but she was still being blamed like this, which was just unfair!
Her thought process was just that if those girls had promised to take the one who had their 'promise' as husband, wouldn't it work out in her favor if she could take them in for a while to see if some of them had any good abilities in exchange for returning such a precious item?
Obviously, she didn't want them to accept her as their husband. She would just defeat the ones that had desirable abilities in a duel, and send them all off. This would all have to be done in a way that wouldn't expose her identity though, which was the hardest part of the endeavor.
"I-I just want to meet them once and then I'll let them go?"
Aurora's frown turned deeper.
Evelyn gave her teacher an aggrieved look. "I'm really not a pervert!"
In the end, the platinum blonde couldn't help but sigh. "Alright, put this thought out of your mind. It's not worth the risk."
The pink haired girl could only begrudgingly accept her teacher's guidance as she nodded. "By the way, teacher, can you tell me more about the thing you were doing earlier?"
Aurora blinked. "You mean at the tower?"
Evelyn nodded. "If it's alright, I was just curious."
Of course, anyone would be curious if they saw such massive arrangements involving almost the entire academy, but few knew exactly what was going on. Even the prefects like Eula only knew there was some sort of array being practiced, but that too was just a conjecture on their part.
Aurora smiled. "I don't mind telling you, but you will have to keep it to yourself, understand?"
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Meanwhile, the King of Terrazyme almost exploded in rage as he looked at the scroll in his hand in disbelief.
"Who dares spout such bullshit?!"
The man who had carried the scroll in trembled on the ground in disbelief. "F-Forgive me, my king! This is just slander that has been spreading around the capital, I—"
The brown haired man stomped his feet on the palace floor, and a huge shockwave erupted from his sole, spreading in all directions.
Not to mention the man in front, even the other aides, guards, and palace maids were sent flying as they slammed into the walls of the chamber. Many coughed out blood, while some directly collapsed, their eyes rolling back to the back of their heads.
"Y-Your majesty!"
Of course, the king realized he had lost his cool as he took a deep breath to calm himself, raising his hand to settle down the rattled guards.
As for the man who had made his report, he would have already pissed his pants if he could, though that would also be a capital offense in front of the king.
"I want all these rumors squashed immediately, do you understand?"
Even before the man's words had finished reverberating through the hall, people had already sprung to action, and the man knew he could rest assured about the effects it would bring.
"Bring my Eruniel, and also the commander of the third legion. We shall march into the Wonderland of Doom… no, let's go straight to the Ancient Academy!"
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