After Stella finished her talks with Louise, the two left Meriel’s Haven for the Royal Palace. On the way, Stella made a pit stop in the office of the so-called ‘Kalthafen Metropolitan Police,’ which was the actual name of the city’s guard force. Their headquarters was in the city’s noble district, and it was a simple three-story building that was fifty meters wide, located on the side of the Poesie Avenue, a wide road that was bustling even when it was sundown.

  Inside, the lamps of the police headquarters were highly lit up by magical lamp lights; the interior was well-furnished and almost extravagant. It was quite the contrast between the guards' garrison Marcus was used to in other cities until he noticed that on the side, well-dressed noblemen and noblewomen were frequently talking with the uniformed personnel.

  Well, nobles, in my mind. They could be merchants or something else.

  He gained quite the attention since he entered the building. Officers and workers all turned to him, noticing his white mask and white cloak, which completely hid him. Of course, what was most striking was the fact that he was walking behind Stella, who was the center of attention. He remembered earlier when their carriage stopped in front of the building, when a few of the officers outside gasped upon laying eyes on her as they panicked to bow.

  It was the same in here. Stella, for her part, just tried to smile and tell the people around them to stay at ease. Marcus could see a few civilians seemingly trying to approach the princess, but one cold look from Marcus’s eyes put them away. He didn’t want anyone to disrupt their business here.

  “We’re going upstairs,” Stella said to Marcus. “I’m going to talk to the chief himself.”

  “You know, you could have just told your father about this?”

  “Mhm, but no.” She shook her head. “If I told my father about it, he’d be the one deciding how things would go from the get-go. I intend to talk to the chief myself so that I can give him specific instructions on how to deal with Martin.”

  “Including the fair trial?”

  “Including that, of course.”

  “I see. But, you know, your father can pull strings too anyway.”

  “That’s the thing. If Father tries to poke his business here, then he’ll know that I’ve already given instructions to his people. He’ll have to go against me if he does that. Secondarily, this is how it should go anyway. We’re going through proper channels. I’m going to the police so they can apprehend them, and then I’ll file a complaint of my own. The law and the court will deal with the rest. It would be ridiculous for my father to interfere with such a minor issue anyway.”

  “Huh…I see…”

  Marcus was quite intrigued by all this. Back in the old days, when they caught someone like Martin, and if he was a part of a group that attempted attacks against royalty, they’d just send him to the guards, the local noble would say, “Cut his head off,” and by tomorrow, his head would be off, and he would be presented to the town square as an example for the people.

  Laws and procedure only truly existed for the wealthy and the nobility, where courts would conduct themselves professionally to settle disputes between powerful houses. It wasn’t something that happened to commoners, especially criminals and terrorists like Martin. The fact that he was getting a fair trial already placed a sour taste in Marcus’s mouth, because what he was used to was swift and direct justice.

  But he knew that he should just keep his tongue tied. After all, Stella knew more about the world now than he did. It was why he left this matter in her hands. She was the one who should know how to deal with a cultist who surrendered, not Marcus.

  Later on, they reached the office of the police chief, who was a middle-aged man with sleek black hair and a very dignified poise. He was apparently a knight himself and a nobleman to boot. The meeting between him and Stella was quick and peaceful, and he even served the two with tea in his office, though Marcus of course didn’t pick it up.

  When Stella was done giving her complaints and instructions, the police chief sent officers straight to Meriel’s Haven. Marcus asked Stella later on as they exited the building if they should check on the orphanage, if things were safe, but she just shook her head.

  “They know their job,” Stella said. “Besides, Lady Louise is no slouch. That disarmed cultist stands no chance. I still have much work in the palace; that, and I want to sleep early tonight.”

  “I see, alright…” Marcus nodded. “Do you have any further trips tomorrow?”

  “Yes, I need to go to the headquarters of the Order of Wellness. I need to catch up with my friends and colleagues there, and I bet they’re also quite short on cash. Hah…it’s tiresome. I really need to raise a lot of money fast.”

  Marcus scowled. “Can’t your father just hand over some gold?”

  “I do not wish to ask from him. I’ll…find a way to raise this money myself.”

  “Hmph.”

  Marcus nodded as they walked to their waiting carriage on the side of the avenue. Indeed, even he wasn’t interested in asking that old man for money. Though, realistically, with Stella’s money stream from the Holy Church gone, he wondered how she would even manage to raise money anyway. Would she use her saintly powers commercially? Maybe curry favors from other nobles?

  Marcus didn’t know, but he thought he should help, somehow. He wished the children in Meriel’s Haven well after all, and while Louise was kind of strict and stiff for his liking, she was a good woman, and Marcus wanted to spare her headaches from trying to raise the children there. Not to mention, this Order of Wellness thing was a group of healers that routinely volunteered in Kalthafen and Sordale’s countryside to help poor people with injuries and hard-to-cure illnesses.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He curled his fist.

  “Hey, since I need to hone my magic anyway,” Marcus caught up to Stella. “Can we check out some dungeons? I remember that mages back then used to conquer dungeons to raise their levels, increase mastery of their spells, and much more?”

  “You mean, like adventurers? You want us to make money by adventuring?” Stella placed a finger on her chin. “It’s not a bad idea, I suppose. Considering the types of monsters we can target, the Adventurer’s Guild will have no choice but to open their coffers if we take the most important missions and finish them.”

  “Right, exactly,” Marcus grinned a bit.

  “But I was just planning on visiting the homes of my old friends and asking for support there.”

  “A princess asking for money?” Marcus grumbled, feeling like he didn’t want Stella to do that. The last thing he wanted was for the girl he liked to go door-to-door begging for some gold. What kind of a man would he be in that case?

  Stella lazily waved her finger, as if lecturing him. “Marcus, it’s not ‘asking for money’; it’s asking for support. My prestige and reputation are enough to secure me a few financiers for my projects, and it’s a conditional deal. They support my works, and they will have favors with me. Not to mention, most noble families wouldn’t pass up a chance to improve their relationship with royalty just for some spare change.”

  “You two sure are discussing quite the dreary subject,” Phoebe, who was waiting on the side of the carriage, said with her prim voice. “Sir Marcus, I can’t believe you’d suggest that Stella will partake in a brute’s way of making money. But I suppose I should expect it to come from you.”

  The maid let out an audible sigh.

  “Isn’t fighting for your own gold more dignified than begging for cash?” Marcus asked, astounded. “I thought dignity is how the world of you bluebloods works.”

  “My, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. It makes me feel bad.”

  Stella looked between the two with a nervous smile. “Phoebe, again, stop messing with him, please. He’s got his heart in the right direction, nevertheless. Besides, I wouldn’t mind taking his suggestion to meet the rest of my obligations that I can’t meet by my standard methods.”

  “The princess is going down dungeon diving?” Phoebe pouted. “Dungeons must be quite an unsightly place. I’d have to go there too, and from what I’ve heard, it reeks down there.”

  “You can just stay back.”

  “Never. Where Her Highness goes, I will go,” Phoebe pouted, adamant. “If you get in trouble, I’ll be sure to be close by to help!”

  Stella just sighed, but a smile was on her face. “You sure can be a handful sometimes.”

  She walked close to Phoebe before placing her hand over the maid’s head. Phoebe’s cheeks turned reddish as Stella gently patted her.

  “Please don’t do this in public.”

  “Heh. Now it’s your turn to get embarrassed.”

  Marcus just watched them, stupified. He never imagined that Phoebe could be tamed just by doing that.

  The next day, Stella and her servants seemed to have woken up early, surprisingly, considering the work the trio had to do in her office last night. Marcus, for his part, went straight to bed after a hearty dinner, which consisted of a fine stew, some light fruit drinks, and a few pastries that weren’t too demanding on the stomach. It was why, tired after a whole day of work, he easily slept.

  Yet, somehow, he woke up quite late. It was a strange phenomenon, Marcus thought, but since he got into this palace, where he stayed inside Stella’s chambers, he seemed to be getting the full eight hours of healthy sleep, according to old books he read. It was why, by the time he finished taking a bath and dressing up, Stella and the two maids had already left the palace.

  He was left here for the day. She left him a note detailing that she was going to the southern side of Kalthafen to visit the Order of Wellness. Stella gave him instructions about where her library was for magecraft, alongside the direction for the training courtyard. It seemed that she wanted to give him a chance to work on his magic today.

  Marcus yawned a bit as he looked at the piece of paper, mindlessly stuffing a piece of bread in his mouth as he sat inside the dining room, where his breakfast was seemingly left for him. As he did so, suddenly, something landed on top of his head.

  “There, there,” Siris giggled melodically. “It seems that you’re ready for the day, aren’t you? Had a good sleep, perchance?”

  “Way too much sleep, you could say,” Marcus frowned, not bothering to look up at the great spirit. “Why are you here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping watch of Stella.”

  “Well, relatively for me, getting from here to Stella’s location is essentially a minute of flight time, maybe even less if I’m determined.” Siris herself also yawned. “Since we’re connected, we can talk telepathically at this range too. It’s no big deal.”

  “I see. So you stayed here to mess with me.”

  “As if!” The great spirit flew and landed on the table, near Marcus’s plate. “So, you’re planning on honing your magecraft further? Would you like some help?”

  “All I intend to do today is get my spell mastery up,” Marcus said. “So I’ll probably just conduct trial-and-error experiments until I get the knack of it.”

  Mostly, Marcus only wanted to train his [Dispel] spell, or well, in this case, skill. It was upgraded earlier from [Weak Dispel] after he ranked up as a generalist mage. On his stat display, he still appeared to be a [Mage], as it was the base form of the class. Most of his skills also didn’t change in their names, but they had to be stronger now that he was an iron-ranked mage.

  After seeing Siris’s dispel spell, I need that. I know that Stella said that it probably won’t work so easily against that cockroach, but, if I have a strong enough dispel spell, and I’m close to whatever crap she uses to power her revival magic…

  It might work?

  Marcus wasn’t sure. He looked at Siris.

  “Alright. Please teach me the best way to dismantle that spell I told you that the Minister of Wholesome Love has.”

  Siris’s eyes narrowed.

  “Quite frankly, the truth is, I don’t have an idea on how to do that,” Siris said. “Not until I see the full nature of the ritual she uses to connect herself to her vessels and transfer her soul into their bodies.”

  “...Well, anything stopgap will do. Are there any specialist spells out there that might be related to countering that kind of spell? I’ll take what I can take.”

  Siris groaned. “I told you, I don’t know what will even work. But…I suppose I can teach you something. Don’t rely on it though; learning the fundamentals of magecraft so that you can rewrite any spell or ritual to dismantle it is probably better.”

  “Yes, yes, but give me a general weaponized spell that can, I don’t know, disrupt crap.”

  “Fine. Then let me teach you how to do [Ultimate Universal Dispel].”