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His eyeballs turned red in an instant. It was not mere bloodshotness; blood was actually flowing. A heavy silence settled over the surroundings. The prisoner took seven more steps.

Then he collapsed onto the floor with a thud. Bloody fluid streamed from his eyes, nose, and mouth, and Boromir swiftly checked whether the prisoner was dead. Thinking he was dead without fail, he turned to Louis and gave a short nod.

The corpse was removed, and the rest were bound on the spot. Inside, it sounded beyond noisy, as if a riot were about to break out. They were demanding an explanation from Raiden as to what in the world this all meant. The ones being dragged away shouted at Raiden along with claims of injustice.

“Y-You… traitor! You were the one who reported us! You dog bastard. Do you think it’ll be that easy just because you want to save your own skin…? Urk…!”

Ron took a punch to the stomach from Boromir, and fortunately or unfortunately, the hall was so chaotic that it was not properly heard, while the moment Raiden heard those words, he began denying it, claiming that the culprit had dared to start slandering him.

Steam rose thickly, wavering like a haze. Louis soaked his body deeply in the water. His field of vision filled with water. He could see the inside clearly, as though it had been engraved before him. Opening his eyes should have made them sting from the heat, but his remade body ignored most temperatures. Bubbling foam. And the legs of women standing here and there like pillars.

Plop.

For now, he did not regret at all having invested fifty thousand points into remaking his body. This matter as well had proven it. If Count Raiden had not sided with him, then in an unguarded state he would have had no choice but to put the Chilbosa to his lips. If he had had the body from just a short while ago, he would have died without question.

The System bestowed miracle-like benefits upon Louis, but that only mattered while he was alive. If he died, that would be the end of it. Rising to a higher position also meant receiving that much envy. Human desire did not always turn in goodwill. Thinking about it, although the exact reason had never been revealed, it seemed circumstantially certain that his father, Remitri, had been assassinated.

The only thing swaying in this vast hot spring bath was himself. Such was the power of authority. At present, Louis was the only person in the duchy who used a hot spring of this scale at all times. When he lifted his head, he could see the night sky. The arched ceiling rose in a curve, and above it the stars were set cleanly in place.

‘I wish human affairs were as simple as that.’

Being in the position of duke sometimes meant having to be extremely cold-hearted. The five nobles who had been seized on the spot had now been taken into the torture chamber. Even at this very moment, they were probably suffering terrible torment. In a way, they were like shrimp whose backs burst in a fight between whales. Seeing people die in war and seeing them die like this for political reasons felt somewhat new.

From what he had heard, about two of them seemed not entirely without grounds for grievance. It seemed Raiden had likely incited them. From Raiden’s point of view, if an assassination attempt broke out, it would rather benefit him because he wanted to win Louis’s trust, so it had to be seen as him making use of them.

‘Even so, I can’t let them off.’

Originally, this was a world where, if you were hit, everything was taken from you. Weak judgment created cracks, and those cracks could grow beyond control. The most important person in the Duchy of Eron right now was himself. And the most dangerous person as well was himself.

‘My judgment matters.’

He opened the eyes he had closed. He straightened his body as well. His skin looked as though pearls had been ground into it. If his arms were like this, then his face was probably even more so. There was less muscle on his body than before, but because his frame itself had lengthened, he did not look smaller than in the past, and instead his strength had grown. Considering that Sir Kaban Ferdinand, the Sword Master of the Duchy of Eron, maintained a muscular body even in his old age, it was almost absurd how thoroughly stripped of muscle Louis now was.

Mihoff was not very muscular either, but she was a woman. Because of that lack of muscle, there were subtle ways in which she could not take the lead in contests of strength. If Mihoff had been male, she would have possessed even greater skill than she did now.

And there were the covert gazes upon him. Women were standing throughout the hot spring. They were the young women he had received as gifts. There seemed to be around thirty of them, and Louis had embraced them all. Except for three, all of them were virgins. One held a tray of grapes, and the blonde, large-breasted woman on the right held red wine. She had been carrying it in an ice bucket to keep the red wine cold, but since Louis’s hand did not burn, it seemed the ice had already melted into the hot spring water.

Even so, fresh and cool-looking droplets of water clung distinctly to the bottle of red wine. As sweet as the women themselves. Despite the difference in status, many of the women dared to steal glances at Louis. In the status of slaves, they were not supposed to look at a duke so freely. Louis did not particularly care about that, but it was something that others around him—such as the butlers, Boromir, Kalbang, Anok, and the rest—emphasized to the surrounding soldiers and attendants.

Louis poured the red wine into himself, and (fortunately, this body could also get drunk. However, he could constantly regulate it to the extent that he could break it down immediately) as intoxication rose, desire was set ablaze. He had thought he might take it quietly today, but without fail, the thing below began asserting itself again today as well. Louis looked at the red-haired woman. For a long moment. That was the signal. The woman slowly walked toward Louis.

Then one thing came to mind. Batenberg Linsia. For no reason, he grew curious about what she was like within. Skin as white and soft as cheese gradually drew nearer. One good thing about his heightened eyesight was that it had become indescribably enjoyable to appreciate women. Fire flared in his blood vessels. He was hungry. Louis wetted his dry tongue.

So it was completed. It had been completed faster than expected. Louis also used soldiers as engineers. Rather than raising them as specialists, he had used soldiers in simple building work in ordinary times to make practical use of them in many ways, and so in non-wartime situations the soldiers ended up taking on the role of engineers. They might have had complaints, but Louis was paying for that compensation properly in money. Money silenced complaints. The finances collected through taxes were still not merely abundant, but overflowing.

After eating lunch in the afternoon, one mage arrived. She was wearing her hood pulled deeply down, but no matter how one looked at her, she quite obviously looked like a mage. She was Euclid’s youngest disciple, and she was a woman. Her name was Oren. What made her unusual was that for a mage—or rather, for a woman—she was very tall. The soldiers inside were probably looking at her for a different reason.

She looked tense, and carefully put a hand to her robe before slowly removing her hood. Her bare face was revealed. Her eyes were large, and her features were distinct. Naturally, her face fell short compared to the female slaves Louis had received as gifts, but the incomparable fact was that she was a mage. Her face was red like a carrot, and her makeup looked awkward somehow. Since she was a mage, she probably did not usually wear makeup well. Oren, Euclid’s young disciple, blinked once, then respectfully bowed to Louis.

“It is an honor to meet Your Grace. I heard that you went through an unfortunate incident. I am truly sorry for it. My name is….”

Louis cut her off.

“Thank you. I know your name. You are Oren, disciple of Lord Euclid.”

Perhaps because she was flustered, or perhaps pleased, she widened her eyes and said to Louis,

“That is correct. The reason I came is….”

“That the aqueduct has been completed, I presume.”

“Hehe…. So you already knew. I thought I came as quickly as possible….”

“This afternoon. We shall depart together. I will have a place prepared for you to rest, so stay and recover from your fatigue. Boromir.”

“Yes. Understood. Follow me, Mage.”

She gave Louis a small bow and followed Boromir out. Louis watched her plump buttocks for a moment, then turned his gaze away. I should confirm it before departing. Louis rose to his feet. The place Louis moved to was the deepest cave even within the livable and prosperous duchy. One characteristic of the cave was its high humidity, and because of that, slime ran down the walls. Fine roots were deeply entangled here and there like cracked glass, and rough stone walls had been densely jammed in over them.

Such a labyrinth continued farther and farther downward. The duchy, as old as its long history, was a place fully prepared to confine criminals in hell. Perhaps the barbarians who threw people into cursed lands to become monster feed were the more merciful ones. This place was filthy and reeked terribly. Louis had no choice but to control his senses. Once he did so, the smell eased considerably.

Whenever Louis descended with the soldiers, prisoners on both sides peered through the gaps beneath their doors to see whether something was happening, and rusty chains screamed out. Knowing that Louis had come, they cried out, “Please, just hear me out. I am innocent,” and perhaps because that became the spark, the surroundings grew extremely noisy. The soldiers’ expressions crumpled sharply. This was a place where only the worst murderers with secured evidence were gathered, so the chance that they were not murderers was not even five percent.

“Your Grace. I will quiet them down a little. I am truly sorry.”

Annoyed by the incessant clanking of chains, Louis nodded, and soon the burly soldiers on either side broke open the doors and went inside, beginning to beat the prisoners like dogs. With the doors open and the sounds of flesh bursting filling the air, unless one was a complete lunatic with his head gone, there was no way he would keep flapping his mouth, and the prison became as quiet as a cat on the hearth, as though nothing had happened.

“Hoo. These trash finally fell silent. Your Grace, I apologize. I will give them additional discipline separately. Please go on ahead.”

The bald jailer had a rather ferocious appearance, with as many as five scars on his face and neck, and with a worried expression that perhaps Louis might find him unpleasant to look at, he covered his neck with one hand and bowed obsequiously.

Louis gave a short nod. Since he was subtly irritated, Louis’s mana and Charisma trait started acting up again. As he pressed down tightly on the surroundings, the bald jailer broke into repeated cold sweats, pulled a handkerchief from his chest, wiped his forehead, and hurried along the frozen soldier holding the torch. He was telling him to move forward.

When they went farther inside, a place appeared that even the bastards in here would shudder at. This was the torture chamber. As it happened, the torturer had come out to catch his breath, and hearing Louis’s footsteps, he dropped to his knees before Louis the moment he arrived, as if he had been waiting a long time. Fresh blood was streaked all across his face in a way that made it easy to guess what he had just been doing, making him another terrifying bastard.

“Your Grace. For you to grace this place with your presence, I do not know how to repay such an honor.”

Louis glanced at the fishy blood and at the gaps in the half-open iron bars, then shook his head and said to him,

“The progress?”

“Two are done. As for the rest, just a little more…. If you give me just a little more time, I will satisfy you, Your Grace.”

“I plan to inspect the aqueduct. One week. No more.”

“Mm…. If you give me just a little more time….”

“One week. Three more days for recovery.”

“Yes. I will accomplish it by whatever means necessary.”