Book 6: Chapter 319: The Hidden Crisis Within The Gould’s Grand Palace
Book 6: Chapter 319: The Hidden Crisis Within The Gould’s Grand Palace
The defenders guarding the city wall of Chapman City, one of the defending cities and a satellite city near Macnadix City, the Manasvir Empire’s capital, had not found any mutated demonic beings invading. Over the past decade, the connections between the cities in the empire’s capital region had been changed to adapt using Magic Teleportation Array; as such Human Races with no combat power didn’t dare to go to the wilderness.
Even the Human Races with combat power did not go to the wild unless it was the last resort. Nowadays, it was not safe even if they formed a team. The road leading to the capital city, Macnadix City, had long been deserted. No one could last for long on a road that hadn’t been maintained by anyone.
“Lowell, what are you looking at? Those girls don’t belong to the same world as us! Don’t think about it anymore; we are just ordinary imperial soldiers!”
“Marchi, you have to be a bit idealistic. Although… Although we have no money, we still need to have dreams!”
The two silver-armored patrolling imperial soldiers were chatting on the city walls. Their conversation topics included women and fine wine. Although the Manasvir Empire was known as the wealthiest empire on the continent, the wealth was severely unevenly distributed, and the soldiers’ salaries were almost nothing. Even as the soldiers of the imperial army who guarded the capital, they were not well paid. Due to that, many imperial soldiers chose to idle away as the military discipline was seriously corrupted.
“What’s wrong, that thing is…”
The two patrolling soldiers inadvertently looked outside the city. Under the city wall, they saw a demonic being in the shape of a black meatball. They hadn’t had time to react to what they saw before some of the mutated demonic beings started climbing up the city wall and launched a surprise attack. They jumped up and quickly knocked down the two silver-armored soldiers on patrol.
“Monster… Ah…”
“Someone come quickly; there are invaders here…”
It was complete chaos on the city wall. The combat abilities of the silver-armored imperial soldiers were a joke. The mutated demonic beings who climbed up the wall easily knocked them down to the ground. By the time the golden-armored imperial soldiers arrived to support them, the soldiers guarding the city wall were already in chaos.
While taking advantage of the melee on the city wall, many mutated demonic beings took advantage of the crisis and entered the city to prepare for an important attack mission. They did not choose the military camp as their goal. When Bella went to visit Grand Duke Gould’s residence, she asked Demon God Angel, who pretended to be a servant, to return and rest at the nameless military camp in the student residence of the Olsylvia Academy. This time, the upper-class social gathering didn’t allow the guests to bring along their attendants.
The mutated demonic beings didn’t dare go to the area where the two Demon Gods lived out of their inherent fear. They shifted their target to Chapman City’s landmark building, Duke Gould’s Grand Mansion, where many living people had gathered. Coupled with the fact that most of the Royal Guards had gone to support the city wall, there was obviously a lack of security forces there, which made it a good time to launch an attack.
The mansion of the Chapman City Lord, Duke Gould’s Grand Mansion, was holding a dinner party. Grand Duke Gould invited the students of the Olsylvia Academy, those from the royal families and various prestigious aristocrats, and the academy’s lead teachers. As Bishop Stanley, one of the person-in-charge, did not like to participate in this kind of swing; he excused himself from the banquet by saying that his body was unwell. The highest person-in-charge on the ground was Manasvir Empire’s Imperial First Class Clerical Officer McAdam.
“Dear students and teachers, we will give the route to exit the city tomorrow. Let me do the honors as the host now, cheers!”
The banquet’s organizer, Grand Duke Gould, sat in the banquet hall’s main table, while the Great Magister Orlando was sitting next to this bad friend. They were surrounded by a large circle of teachers from the Olsylvia Academy, and they were all grannies and grandpas. This made the playboys secretly angry. They had expected to be able to fool around some beautiful ladies in the banquet this time round. However, their hopes were all dashed. He raised his shivering hand to express the dissatisfaction of his master.
The students in the banquet hall were divided into three groups. One consisted of all girls, one was a mixture of boys and girls, while the last was all boys. The seats for all boys were made up of the members of associations like the Fraternity. They sat closest to the rostrum. The seats for all girls were made up of girls from the Rose Society. They sat far away from the rostrum. Gould and Orlando, the two hedonistic boys, couldn’t even catch a clear glance of them from where they were seated.
Bella was sitting at the table with her five roommates, which included Kriss and the rest, along with President Isaman, who joined at the last moment. There were three female teachers who followed, Dragon Knight Ingrid, Dimension Type Magic Mentor Catalina, Chaos Type Magic Mentor Melvira, etc.
“Sister Melvira, is there a grease stain on my face? From the way you are staring at me, even if my face were very thick, I’d still be embarrassed!”
“No… nothing. Classmate Bella, you still need to pay attention to the occasion. Although I’m only one year older than your class teacher Catalina, it would still be more appropriate if you call me a teacher.”
At the banquet, Bella finally met the Magic Mentor Melvira. The beautiful teacher was only one year older than Mage Catalina and Dragon Knight Ingrid. However, she still looked like an affable big sister. Melvira belonged to the beauties who had black, long and straight hair. Her hair was long like black silk reaching to her waist, with elegant temperament. Her body was very hot, especially the bust area. As compared to Dragon Knight Ingrid and Catalina, her bust cup was one up from theirs.
Melvira’s pure black pupils were staring at Bella with an investigative look. Previously, Bella accidentally snapped up the fabric she was going to order, which made her angry. Only God knew how much trouble she had to go through to get that mysterious fabric. Although she received a small bag of demonic core from high-level demonic beasts as a thank you gift from Bella, Melvira still had a bit of emotion.
Sitting on the left and right side of Melvira were her junior schoolmate Catalina and Dragon Knight Ingrid. With both beautiful teachers present on site, it was not good for Melvira to look for any trouble from Bella in front of her colleagues. Catalina wanted to remind her senior to leave this table multiple times. Staying at this table would only repeat the same mistake of her falling into Bella’s “trap.”
However, the curiosity in Melvira’s eyes was the same as that of her own that time. It seemed that her senior was about to be pitted. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t let one’s own fertile water flow into other’s field.’ After Bella’s push, Catalina had unknowingly become an indirect “accomplice” of Bella’s strategy.
Bella raised her glass and carefully savored the wine at Grand Duke Gould’s banquet. She only drank the wine after she confirmed that the wine bottle had not been opened and that she saw Duke Gould drinking it first as a sign of respect. Bella was afraid that the opposite side would put all kinds of strange medicines in it. Even if it weren’t a Tsubaki medicine, it would still be embarrassing enough for her to get a pack of laxatives.
It seemed that Melvira hadn’t allowed her to call her sister now. However, the two around her had already allowed Bella to call them “sisters” whenever she liked. Taking advantage of the favorable time in the academy qualifying competition, she would try to push her to allow Bella to call her ‘sister.’ By that time, Bella would see if she’d acknowledge her as the “bad student sister.”
Bella’s girlfriends from Rose Society were all mainly seated around Bella. After all, they were all members of the same society, and they could take care of each other if something happened. The only people who didn’t come were the high-ranking female students from the St. Louis Church Academy, Pope’s Heiress, President Maria, the four Holy Maidens from Radiant Church, and Holy Swordsman Cynthia. They had to attend Radiant Church’s prayer day today. Hence it was inconvenient for them to attend the date. Bella had planned to let someone pack some food and drinks and deliver it to them later.
Grand Duke Gould’s mansion was built in a magnificent style. The splendorous and majestic design was comparable to a royal palace. No matter how one looked at it, it was a grand nobleman who liked to show off. Bella did not have any good impression of Grand Duke Gould. The first impression was very bad. His eyes were always scanning the beautiful girls who were present with bad intentions. The sight made Bella feel that they were the same kind, it caused her to dislike him very much.
Anyway, she didn’t care about him since she had not eaten to her heart’s content yet. After Bella confirmed that Duke Gould only dared to look with his eyes, it would not be good to fuss with him on the spot. She could only decide after she had eaten some food. Although nothing was special about Duke Gould, the culinary skills of his mansion’s cooks were still worthy of recognition. The dishes they made were very tempting to Bella.
“Brother Orlando, you are still the smart one, so lucky with women! You are a teacher of Class Three of the Olsylvia Academy Magic Department, there are so many girls in that class! You have so many things to play with now, when will you introduce them to me?”
“You flatter me. I am a respectful teacher, Brother Gould. You can’t spout nonsense! The girls in my class are all ladies with status. I hope you don’t have any weird thoughts, I’m a good teacher.”
“Forget it, cheers! You rascal, it’s not the first time you ate by yourself anyway. It’s been so many years, I fully understand you.”
The private conversation between Grand Duke Gould and Prince Orlando took place by whispering. The other Olsylvia Academy’s teachers at their table were mostly alcoholics who loved wine as much as they loved their lives and were already knocked out from being drunk. As for the whispers between the two young hedonistic boys, they didn’t hear any of it.
Grand Duke Gould looked at Prince Orlando, who wore a “prudish” face, and had already berated this “scoundrel friend” in his heart. He was hypocritical. He knew what Orlando was capable of. He was also aware of the strange hobbies he developed after becoming a teacher. Although it was true that the girls in his class were indeed daughters of affluent families, they were not untouchable. As long as they didn’t play until they lost their virginity, members of their families would have no idea that their daughters were being toyed.
As the Great Magister, Prince Orlando was very good at hypnosis, which was classified as taboo magic. He hypnotized all the beautiful girls in his class and then did all kinds of strange things. As long as he did not take their virginity, very few people would discover this sin.
Grand Duke Gould had seen Prince Orlando bringing beautiful girls from his class to the hotels and other similar places to spend the night multiple times. Nine out of ten girls who were taken away were hypnotized by him. This hypocritical guy was a “sinister teacher,” yet he still pretended to be all serious and a good teacher.
Gould was drinking sullen wine. While pretending to go to the bathroom, he found his butler. That butler looked nothing like a good person at first glance. He posed as a treacherous villain. The two began to whisper in silence. Gould felt unjust, why should Orlando be able to hug beauties on his left and right while he had to follow him and act like a good person. It was simply unfathomable.
“Henry, you help me scatter the medicine into the hot springs. After seeing which girl fell into the trap, then you… Hey, you know what to do, I don’t have to spell it out.
“Your Excellency Grand Duke, these girls are … they have very high status. They are unlike the previous women. Are you sure you want to put the medicine in the hot spring? If anyone finds out, we will…”
“What are you afraid of, Henry? As long as we don’t do the last step, nobody will know! Hurry up and prepare. After everything’s done, I will give you an extra reward of ten thousand gold coins. That hypocrite, Orlando, had been playing for several years. I don’t believe it would topple when it’s my turn!”
“Your Excellency, you really are my role model. I will go and do it now!”
There was a large private hot spring in the Grand Duke Gould’s mansion. The entrance ticket to the hot spring was only issued to ladies, not for the men. This arrangement was not entirely due to Grand Duke Gould’s foul interest, but also because the hot spring was mainly used for beautifying purposes. It did not affect men even if they went; hence it was not issued to them.
Of course, as compensation, all men who attended the banquet were issued an overnight admission ticket to the Red Pavilion District. The nature of the Red Pavilion District was similar to the nightclubs on Earth, except the services here were superior to those on Earth. There were male and female waiters to meet the needs of the Fraternity members and normal men.
Honestly speaking, Bella almost wanted to find a random man present here and exchange for an overnight admission ticket. After she came to this Other World, she hadn’t had a chance to go to the Red Pavilion District, the “Holy Land” where every male traverser had to go and worship. It would be a pity if she didn’t go. Unfortunately, the admission ticket could not be exchanged. Bella could only give up. The girlfriends behind her also would not sit back and watch Bella go to that kind of place. It would be better for her to give up for now.
Grand Duke Gould’s mind was entirely focused on his corrupted thoughts. He was oblivious to the chaotic fighting situation outside the city gate. During his evening banquet, public officials were prohibited from entering the hall to report to him. The royal guards’ liaison that came to report the abnormal situation was blocked to enter by the guards of the Grand Duke Gould’s Mansion, and they could only return without success.
Butler Henry and Grand Duke Gould belonged to the same category of human. He did not inform Grand Duke Gould of the matter. After a round of suppression, the city wall was back under the imperial royal guards’ control. The situation was now considered stable. Occasionally, one or two mutated demonic beings would appear on the wall, but the royal guards would soon suppress them.
Since everything was alright, Henry would naturally not report this matter to Grand Duke Gould. It was better not to mention this kind of thing that would dampen the master’s spirit during the dinner. Thinking of this, Henry left the night banquet and began preparing what the master had arranged him to do.
Although it was said to be a night banquet, Gould’s dinner was held at five-thirty in the afternoon, and it would be more accurate to say that it was an evening banquet. Bella looked at the current situation and estimated that it was going to last all night. She was unwilling to bear such a long duration. The fine wine offered by Grand Duke Gould’s mansion was not worth a second cup, it was easy to get sick of it. Bella had tasted all kinds of fine wine, which was offered as tribute from her subordinate demonic beings. She had a very picky taste. Normally she would get tired of the normal fine wine by the Human Races just by drinking one bottle.
“Sister Melvira, are you full already? Why are you so fast…”
“Catalina, you guys go on! I sweat a little too much on my body, I will be fine once I wash up.”
“Is it okay for you to go alone? Or should I let some girls…”
“There’s no need for that. My students, Florentine and Emiga, seemed to have gone somewhere too. I will just go and find them.”
After seeing Melvira leave, Bella was a little tempted. The last two beautiful “Emerald Sixth Chapter” Florentine and “Golden Eighth Chapter” Emiga, of the Magic Department “Eight Chapters” beauty mages, were students from Melvira’s Magic Class Two. Bella had long wanted to see their beautiful faces, it was just nice that she got the chance to see them all at once.
To be less obvious, Bella only pretended to leave her seat to go to the washroom half an hour after Melvira left. The night banquet had entered the chaotic atmosphere where people drank and played guessing games. Many people were entering and exiting the hall. No one would notice Bella’s departure.
The tables on the girls’ side were better. Everyone was female there. For the sake of their own image, they would not be completely drunk. Even if there were drunk girls occasionally, they would only quietly lean against their seats with their red drunk face and closed their eyes to refresh themselves. Things were going a bit overboard on the side of the mixed-gender and male groups. It was unknown if the group of guys had been banned from drinking in the academy. They were drinking alcohol as if it were water.
It was unknown when the two hedonistic men, Grand Duke Gould and Prince Orlando, happily disappeared to. The seats on the main table were only left with a bunch of old drunkards who were completely knocked out. When Bella left the banquet, she informed Lisha, Kriss, and all the other girlfriends to avoid them “accidentally catching her in adultery” later. That would be embarrassing.
After exiting the main door of the night banquet hall, Bella was ready to rush towards the hot spring. When she came out, there was a cold wind blowing in her face, which allowed Bella to sober up. The feeling of being drunk was blown away by the strange cold wind. It was during this time when Bella embarrassingly found out that she had forgotten that she was a person with a poor sense of direction. She had no idea about the direction of the hot spring.
She had no idea what the Grand Duke Gould’s mansion was doing. There wasn’t a single lighting insight. He couldn’t be that poor to be unable to afford candles. There was a faint smell of blood in the air. Out of the Demon King’s instinct, Bella could smell it vaguely. Just when Bella was hesitating, a person came up behind her.
“This sister… Are you going to the hot spring?”