The Fourth Meeting

Within minutes, the Souls had burned away — along with the bottle itself, of course.

"… I should head back," the butler said, then looked in the direction of the manor. "Contact me if you need anything."

I nodded. "For now, just gather all the information you can about the prince, and tell me everything about him — especially his abilities and powers. Now that I think back on it, I should have interrogated those assassins instead of killing them outright. That was a blunder on my end."

"Worry not. I will look into this matter, and report back to you."

"Good. And also… prepare your mindset. If it comes down to it, we'll need to kill the prince and king both. At that time, if you hesitate, you'll get killed."

"…" The butler fell silent at this, and clenched his fists. "I'm aware."

"Then, sleep well, geezer."

The butler nodded and pulled out a pendant of some sort out of his clothes, handing it to me.