1288 The Contrast Of Two
Meanwhile, Merov stood on an asteroid in a star system that's not too far from the Zion's central star.
Just like Rudolph predicted, Merov wanted to visit the capital right away and then smash everything into pieces.
But his 'teacher' who he accidentally found in a ring all those years ago firmly opposed his good idea.
Instead, he asked him to tour various star systems of Zion duchy in a strict disguise.
Merov didn't understand why. It was such an easy task. Zion duchy had two rank 7s in public records.
Sage Nevar: a mid rank 7.
Prince Xoler: a low rank 7.
That's it. Merov was confident, no, he was certain that he could just slap the strongest zions to death. There's no need for any thought here. It's as simple as it could get.
Still, respecting his teacher's opinion, he toured so many places all these hours. Thankfully, it ended now.
"Disciple, what is your plan next?" An old voice sounded in his head.
"I'll break their capital, then the big cities, miltiary garrisons. I'll make a statement that they should not have tried. Of course, record everything for the merit." Merov said with a shrug.
The old voice in his head sighed. "Never underestimate the enemy, especially when you're in the enemy land."
"But teacher, they're jus—"
"Have you seen the recent history of Zions in their own public records?"
"I skimmed through the records in that library. But yeah, nothing important in there." Merov crossed his arms.
"Again…" The old voice seemed helpless, seemingly knowing that this was going to happen yet disappointed when it did.
"Abyssals were driven to extinction and Zions paid a heavy price for it. Why do you think that happened?"
"How am I supposed to know? And are there two abyssals? The one at that discovered civilization and one here? Ugh, I don't care. Teacher, I just want to kill these bugs and get back home." Merov complained.
"…Rumors say abyssals had an interstellar formation and the Zion duke thought it was a threat to their security. And another interesting piece of information—the prince borne by the duke and the previous matriach was assassinated in daylight.
The funeral was grand. The coffin was said to be made of celestial wood. But the duke didn't even attend.
What does this say about him?" The old voice spoke in a calm tone, but one could feel its desperate hope for a proper answer.
"His son is a weakling. So, he's also probably a weakling." Merov nodded after answering, satisfied with his response.
As if speechless, the old voice fell silent for a few moments before replying in a defeated tone.
"…He's paranoid. And you just toured through some of the most famous and propserous business planets. But they all are bleak and dull. The news papers have stopped reporting about the economy.
That means, the situation had gone for a toss and the media is afraid even speaking about it would make it worse."
"Teacher, teacher, I don't care about all this stuff. Just tell me who to fight so I can grow even stronger, okay?" Prince Merov clutched his head and pleaded.
"If you want to be a king, no, even a prince, you need to be politically savvy. On that front, you have a lot to learn from your competitors."
"Like Rudolph? They praise him to heavens back home. That's the only thing that weakling can do." Merov snorted.
He hated Rudolph because he hated weaklings. He hated weaklings because they reminded him of his past self before he found Teacher.
'All weaklings should just die so the world can become a better place.'
"Prince Rudolph is indeed politically savy. But his arrogance is his enemy. So far, he had taken decisions with the advice of his council which keeps his arrogance in check. But the one you should learn from is…Princess Sonya."
"Huh?"
"She's a hundred or two hundred older than me and still weaker than me. I don't even know why she's still in the race. Worse, I don't know how someone can be so shameless to compete with someone so much younger.
If I had to face someone much younger than me and nearly as strong, if not, stronger than me despite me growing up in a better place since childhood, I'll just fucking kill myself.
She's probably the useless thing in the world."
"If she's just as useless as you think, then she'd have never come this far in the first place." The old voice sighed.
"Urgh, I guess you're right. Anyway, what should I do now?"
"Call your servants."
A few minutes later, Prince Merov snapped his fingers. Three lights, one from his hair, one from his arm and one from his leg shot out and formed three rank 7 creatures.
Merov's natal treasure created slave marks that directly imprinted themselves on the target's soul. As he grew, so did his natal treasure.
Now, he managed to have three rank 7 slaves, all pursing the path of < Paragon> .
" Ask them to…"
— — — —
"Hmm, if the ruler is this paranoid and his son just got assassinated, the capital should be filled with traps, right? This duchy's financial statements are all fake, they're hiding some big transactions.
The big businesses have all closed shop. The medium-sized are bankrupt. Half of the small ones were gone. They're hiding something big."
Princess Sonya tapped her chin and pondered her next step.
The assassin should likely be a rank 7 to escape so easily. So, the traps should also be for rank 7s.
If it's a normal duchy, they'd have bought traps that might kill at most a mid rank 7. But this one had a very paranoid ruler. So, Sonya couldn't rule off the possibility of a trap enough to kill a peak rank 7.
"Well," She brushed strands of pink hair behind her ears and curled her lips. "I'm neither a < Paragon Body > like Rudolph nor a < Life Force Controller> like Merov. But as a < Life Spirit >, don't have I it a bit too easy?"
A sweet laughter of genocide rang in the cafe, with every Zion in the store frozen like a statue with a blank gaze.
