A contract (1)

The shot created quite a noise; echoes resounded within the four walls.

Everyone flinched at the scene. Blood spilled out of Linda's heart, her eyes opened wide. Their young master and future lord, Alfred, could be seen holding the gun nonchalantly.

No one expected him to open fire so fast and accurately at the same time. The hole where the bullet went through continued to ooze out blood continuously. Linda's fallen corpse with a large amount of blood around her was a terrifying sight to the castle maids who had lived a violent-free and comfortable life so far.

Nevertheless, Alfred did not care less about what the maids were feeling as he was busy covering his sister's ears. He only loosened his grip after that.

"If you want to look, it's fine. Though I don't think you'll enjoy the scene.", he mumbled.

Adelaide did not say anything, but she nodded in agreement.

'I'm still thinking about it, but that was so fucking cool, brother. It's a little extreme, but that bitch kept on blabbering non-stop. What is she? Some Elicia cult fanatic? Let's just say goodbye and part ways.'

Alfred Winford was not an ordinary older brother. He was your normal protective sibling, but he would not restrict his sister's needs and wants. His line of thought was simple – "Adelaide could do whatever she wants. I'll just deal with the consequences should anything happens."

No one was confident enough to meet Alfred's gaze when he looked up again. That fact did not affect him, so he broke the silence and spoke.

"As I said, what kind of maid hit her own master? This is not the medieval era where you can't refuse. No one forced you to work here. Not even the royal family would do such things to people and proudly talk about it."

"But since you love traditions so much, all I did was treat you the way they did to maids hundreds of years ago. Anyone else prefers doing things the traditional way? I don't mind."

The maids flinched once again at his words. No one dared to say a thing.

"It seems like you forgot that the Empire operates using a feudal system despite having human rights. Who gave her the audacity to interrupt me while I was speaking?"

"…"

"Is this how you improve yourself to better suit nobility, mother?"

Duchess Elicia was speechless, her lips quivered in terror.

Although Elicia was a commoner, she was spoiled by her parents. She got better with calculating and schemes after five years of marriage, but as someone sheltered by the duke, she had never witnessed a single political plot driven by ugly desires, let alone actual bloodshed.

Hell, she did not even know what the women in the Rustwell Duchy, the Eastern powerhouse, had up their sleeves. As they competed for Duke Rustwell's affection like how the Emperor's harem fought for power and children, even the smallest bit of carelessness could easily lead to a cold corpse or two.

It is no doubt that women can be scarier than men. They said women are driven by emotions, but they had no idea how emotions could turn into an ugly combination of both madness and sane.

However, she was still the duchess of Winford for five years, after all. She was indeed shaking, but she managed to remain dignified. Plus, her husband was the current lord of the land.

It did not take long for multiple organized footsteps to be heard heading their way from across the corridor. As they got closer, Adelaide could hear one set of footsteps that were heavier than the rest.

'He came. The duke.'

"What's all this commotion?" was what he said right after showing up at the door.

As Adelaide expected, Duke Charles was seen dead worried. He scanned the scene, gritted his teeth, and walk into the room with wide steps.

Adelaide's blue eyes glimmered as she observed his reaction from behind her brother's shoulder – Alfred had already stood up while carrying her.

She saw her new biological father looking straight at Alfred's face before lightly frowning his eyebrows. He was about to open his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately after seeing Adelaide's exposed scratches on her legs.

He looked uncomfortable.

Alfred, on the other hand, did not say a word either.

"..."

"..."

"D…Dear…"

Elicia's weak voice broke the silence. As if woken up from a dream, the duke quickly turned around and went to her side.

"Can you put me down, brother?"

Adelaide whispered in a small voice. She wanted to watch this show to the end. Various thoughts full of curiosity popped up in her head one after another as Alfred placed Adelaide down gently on her feet.

'How will that father deal with the situation? I know he'll do it, but I wonder how much benefit and guarantee could Alfred get for me from this? I'm sure the duke wants to cover up this matter as much as possible, but how about the twenty or so knights that have been looking all dumbfounded? Are all of them his people?'

'I really hope brother could mine as much gold as possible. If I were the duke, my brain would be running hot right now.'

Duke Charles walked to Duchess Elicia's side and held her hand. He wanted to console her somehow, but the grandfather clock's sweet melody interrupted his words.

His eyes shone with a weird gaze as the duke looked at his son and asked.

"It's eight now. Aren't you supposed to arrive at eight?"

'Good sense, I must say. However, it really doesn't matter even if you really smelled something.'

"That's just in case of traffic, father. Luckily, I got home early." Alfred's answer was accompanied by a business-like smile. He looked calm. If not for a tint of golden hue still lingering inside his irises, Adelaide would suspect him killing Linda was for a scheme, not anger.

In truth, there were at least hundreds of ways for Alfred to deal with Linda without making such a commotion. However, Adelaide could somehow understand why he pulled the trigger. It was not something that would result in problematic consequences, so it was fine doing it on an impulse.

"I see. How was the enrollment process?"

"It went well, father. Actually, it was faster than I expected. I'll head back to the academy in two days. At this rate, you can expect me to graduate at the age of seventeen. I'll be able to help you with the duchy's work and share your burden. Isn't that great, father?"

"Yes, I'm proud of you. Try your best and give it your all."

"Of course, Your Grace."

If not for the situation they were in, their conversation would sound like how a strict noble father was talking to his competent heir.

Except for the fact that this father's already stone-cold expression had a hint of reluctance in it.

'He's still suspicious of how timely brother is.'

According to the schedule, Alfred should be home by eight, but he actually arrived at a quarter to eight. Fifteen minutes may not be that much, but it was as if he came in and witnessed things at the right moment.

If Alfred was a little earlier, Adelaide would still be in her ridiculous self-harm act. If he was a little later, Duchess Elicia's minions, specialized in cleaning efficiently, would have tidied up the scene to a certain degree.

Coincidences do happen, but when it came to his son whose thoughts he could not fathom, Duke Charles the Ninth felt a headache coming.

In truth, Alfred did not fabricate his schedule, nor did he lie to the duke couple. He really should be home at eight.

As the enrollment process ended at six, it would usually take Alfred two hours to get home, including the use of a teleportation station at Portola. Alfred was the duchy's heir, so the level of security around him was tighter than Adelaide herself. Transporting him alone would not only mobilize knights, but also various escort vehicles.

As a result, traffic could happen, but unlikely. Normal people would not get close to them for no reason. Not because the knights were unfriendly, but because if something unfortunate happened, massive investigations would take place.

At the end of the day, no one wanted to get in trouble for their carelessness.

However, Western Imperial Academy and Eastern Imperial Academy were not the only schools. The Empire, like how its name had suggested, possessed generational foundation and wealth. Schools of different levels were spread across the country, so their breaks and 'back-to-school' days were all the same. Alfred's enrollment was a little early due to his personal special classes, but considering the possible traffic was nothing strange.

But still, how did he manage to get there just in time?

Like the head maid Susan had thought, Adelaide really did calculate the time. Her brother told her that it would take him two hours to get back, but he could shorten the time by fifteen minutes sharp if needed by using a time-travel device. It was one of his other holy artifacts.

Holy artifacts had names. This one was called Hour Inverter.

'Aren't holy artifacts supposed to be super rare? He already had two.'

Time has always been uncontrollable; such a heaven-defying device could only be used for a total of fifteen minutes back maximum in two months. It also could only bring two people back. The user's physical body would not be included in the reverse.

For instance, Alfred stood in the mansion and turned back time to fifteen minutes ago. He would go back to a quarter to eight, but he would still be standing in the duchy, not sitting in the car.

As for how one could explain the disappearance of said fifteen minutes where the cars and its people were supposed to be roaming on the streets, Adelaide had no idea. Her brother talked about some high-end knowledge regarding the link between physics, time, and magic itself, but she really could not bother less.

'It works, and that's that. I'm in a fantasy world, anything could happen.'

The holy artifact had a lot of restrictions, but it could be super useful if used well. She knew for a fact that if she were to give this to one of the Emperor's smart concubines, that person would squeal in delight and end up rising through the harem with unprecedented speed.

And so, Adelaide sent her brother a signal when she was sitting at the dinner table by quieting turning her ring three times to the right, then twice to the left. She then threw a crumpled tissue in, which made Alfred's ring heated up to notify him.

She had no idea how many minutes Alfred would use, but she was sure he would not use less than ten. So, she just assumed the five-minute error to be something she was taken care of by making a mess and stalling for time.

In short, no matter what happened, she must be restrained by the maids at seven forty-five for five minutes max. The scene must be kept as original as possible until her ally arrived.

Although the initial mess she intended did not happen due to the maids and Elicia standing still like Medusa's greatest piece of art, Adelaide was glad everything turned out well.

Just then, as Adelaide was mentally giving herself a pat on the back, she heard Alfred's question.

He was pressing the sensitive button, yet his tone was so relaxed.

"Your Grace, how should we solve this?"