The God Among Them.

Frank walked behind the Shuzar estate's main manor into the path that led to the training grounds.

The sunset warmth from the sky still hadn't vanished completely, he looked around to see if anyone was looking. None he could detect was observing him. He looked up at the moon emerging from the sky slowly turning violet as the ambient blue mixed with the remnant of the sun's colors.

He leaped into the air, now perfectly capable and used to his flight ability, he went at a different height. Looking below at the hidden stairs that led to the window in Lia's room, he once went to it.

Frank peeked inside and there she was, fast asleep, the love of his life, his treasure. He smiled gently and leaped higher into the sky again, speeding toward Capitol Square.

Under the tree in the back gardens of the estate, his glasses glistened with the reflection of the rising moon as he slowly came out under the moonlight itself. Raymond stared up at the direction in which Frank had just flown away at the speed at which he could only imagine following him.

Sighing, he trudged into the main manor, turning the same corridor with the library and finally standing in front of the oak carved door, he knocked.

"It's Raymond, my lord."

"Come in," the playful voice of his lord greeted him back as he went inside shutting the door behind him.

"He went again today, where - I cannot fathom, how - He flew. The direction at least points to Capitol Square," Raymond said standing in front of the large table in front of Lloyd's large chair which wasn't currently occupied by its owner.

Turning around from the window, he smiled at Raymond and said," Much like the direction of that lake, I believe. He got his seals mysteriously undone in that lake. It would have been stranger if he hadn't returned there even once."

"A normal person usually gets too traumatized to visit the place again where he almost died, my lord," Raymond said as winced while looking up at the ceiling.

"A NORMAL PERSON if we assume. That brat is anything but normal, Raymond."

"But still a child. That's enough reason to take care of him. It's too much to treat him like some monster just because he has two mana cores or something. It's not like he chose to have them. He was born with them."

"Pfft..."

Raymond glared down at Lloyd as he(Lloyd) sat down back on his large chair. Lloyd managed to maintain a straight face while trembling with suppressed laughter.

"And I used to believe you were incapable of affection," Lloyd scoffed opening a book. "Well, it's time to discuss the real topic of tonight's meeting. What did the guard in charge during that accident while the festival say?"

Raymond sighed and said," He was still stuttering with fear when we asked him about that accident. That night a large part of the crowd got distracted by the sudden fight between Frank and Sir Sebastian. Only a few saw what happened at the fountain, and most of them don't remember the majority of it."

"What did the old lady say it was?"

"God it was, she said."

"How amusing, we have a cosplayer in our territory playing a God after some monster brat just found his way into my house," Lloyd scoffed as he wrote an order and put the seal on it.

"For God's sake, please don't call him a monster," Raymond muttered going forward to take the sealed paper.

"And for the sake of this very God, do find this cosplayer soon," Lloyd chuckled handing over the paper to Raymond.

"Ah, a spy from Behmuth reported something yesterday," Raymond said holding the paper and checking the contents.

"Hmm?" Lloyd tilted his head. "Behmuth's been relatively quiet for a while. What is it?"

"Prince Donovan made a move at the Whitlock family with the help of the church under charges of blasphemy for making forbidden artifacts." (Raymond)

"And he succeeded?"

"Of course not. It is said they never found anything like that at the Whitlock residence or anywhere in the duchy of Whitlock. Instead, the prince was held responsible under charges of defamation against the Whitlock family. The king is trying his best to keep prince Donovan from being pushed out of the succession rights. You know well that the Whitlock duchy holds a grudge against the imperial family because of the 9th queen." (Raymond)

"But this operation led by prince Donovan wasn't supposed to fail, was it?"

"No, it was supposed to be the fall of the Whitlock duchy. It's not easy to move the church with just a prince's authority. In other words, this was an operation backed by the king. It was supposed to remove a long stinging thorn as the Whitlock duchy along with promoting the second prince as the heir apparent." (Raymond)

"But it failed and took a nasty turn. How far did the Whitlock duchy go to damage the second prince?"

"That is the strangest part. They didn't do anything. It's not that they did literally nothing, but just six months of probation is too light a punishment for nobility defamation. It almost looked like the Whitlock duchy was pretending to take out the second prince." (Raymond)

"But they have neither reason nor obligation to support the second prince. If anything, they would support the 37th prince from the 9th queen...."

"Exactly, but there is too much competition right now. 37 isn't a small number. Who do you think is taking the strongest contenders out of the succession race right now in Behmuth?" (Raymond)

"The heir apparent, the second prince Donovan."

"The Whitlock duchy is just waiting until he takes out everyone else for them. The moment he's left alone as the crown prince...." (Raymond)

"They will start a rebellion."

"Exactly," Raymond said, smiling. "We need to be ready for that moment so we can calculate our benefits by deciding whom we should support while casually intervening in the impending civil war in Behmuth."

"Of course, it's the side that offers us greater profits," Lloyd said with his trademark 'all-know' smile.

Raymond felt a chill up his spine as he looked into Lloyd's eyes filled with greed as if he had seen a honey jar laying in front of him.

'He's feared as the financial monster for a reason,' Raymond thought as he shivered on his way back to his house behind the estate.