Little Pink Starfish

Eagle was about to leave, so naturally, he had no intention of quarreling with Sadin. However, ever since news arrived from the capital, this sword saint—who had always considered things from Burke Angre’s perspective—seemed to have sprouted some new thoughts.

To be honest, Eagle didn’t care about Leiser. In fact, he probably wanted to kill that guy—and he never tried to hide it. Many people knew that Eagle harbored a murderous intent toward Leiser.

This was quite normal. In the eyes of many nobles in the Kingdom of Esmia, Burke Angre died because of Leiser. Even though the continent of Yali wasn’t like the East, where avenging one’s father was considered the ultimate obligation, vengeance for a father was still an easily accepted reason.

But in truth, Eagle wasn’t seeking revenge for Burke Angre. He didn’t have any particularly deep feelings for Burke Angre.

He wanted to kill Leiser for his own reasons—up until now, only a very few people knew the secret reason why Bonfrese and Esmia had fallen out. Leiser wouldn’t make this matter public, and the King of Bonfrese certainly wouldn’t reveal such a disgraceful incident—his wife betraying her son to save their daughter, only to be harmed in the process.

People in the center of power rarely prioritized emotions. Ever since Carolina made that decision, the once-close King Bonfrese quickly placed the queen under house arrest. When he learned that Wendell’s eyes couldn’t be cured, he promptly gave up on the son he had once doted on.

Now, the confused and rescued Princess Sarina had become Bonfrese’s only heir. It was unclear whether she had any deep feelings for her brother like Wendell did for her. Wendell had become what he was now to save her. Yet this princess who had been rescued calmly returned to Bonfrese and hadn’t even thought about checking on her brother, who was still here in Red Maple Castle.

People really are different—even siblings born of the same mother can be worlds apart. But perhaps it was just because the princess was still too young and not as mature as Wendell had been.

Pei Sen looked at Sadin. “What exactly is going on in your head? I’d really like to know. Don’t tell me you’re thinking the young master should inherit the throne that belongs to Leiser?”

Not to mention that Leiser was still alive and probably had a good few years left. The capital was a swampy mess right now. Even if Eagle didn’t leave with him, Pei Sen wouldn’t advise him to wade into that cesspool.

Sadin was silent for a moment. “His Majesty Leiser’s physical health is indeed fine now, but apparently, his mind’s starting to go again.”

Eagle snorted. “Why don’t you just say he’s gone insane? I don’t think he’s just now gone mad—he was already a lunatic from the start. You get what I mean? That guy’s always had a few screws loose. He just managed to suppress it before because he was carrying a curse.”

Pei Sen asked curiously, “Why do you all say Leiser’s gone mad? What exactly did he do?”

Sadin answered calmly, “He wants to reclaim several nobles’ fiefs and no longer appoint lords over those lands in the future.”

“…So you’re saying he wants to centralize power?” Pei Sen listened and didn’t think that sounded insane at all. Compared to the feudal Eastern kingdoms, in Western-style kingdoms like this one where lords were scattered all over, a king’s authority was extremely diluted.

Of course, in the context of the Yali Continent, if Leiser started a war over something like this, to the natives, it would pretty much be indistinguishable from madness.

Moreover, the curse that had plagued Leiser for many years had taken a huge toll on him. Although he had maintained a firm grip on the throne, his actual control over power was not as strong as he believed. Especially after Burke Angre—who had practically been running half the kingdom’s affairs—died, the political situation had already become unstable.

For him to come up with this idea at such a time, it was no wonder people were calling him crazy behind his back.

Thinking of it that way, Burke Angre really had been a formidable figure. If he were still alive and teamed up with Leiser, they might truly have had a shot at success. But now? Pei Sen didn’t see even the faintest hope of that happening.

“No wonder…”

No wonder in the original timeline, not only were the players at each other’s throats across all of Esmia, but even the natives were engulfed in war.

Which also implied that in the original timeline, Burke Angre had probably died as well.

“Forget him. If this keeps up, he won’t live much longer anyway,” Eagle said coldly.

Pei Sen agreed wholeheartedly. That was just how it was. Even though he didn’t know exactly when Leiser would die, the man definitely didn’t live much longer, even if the curse that once posed the greatest threat to his life had already been lifted.

Sadin looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped. Pei Sen suddenly realized—he and Eagle were thinking along the same lines. Leiser had incurred public wrath. Many nobles might secretly be plotting against him.

If Leiser really wasn’t going to live much longer, then Eagle…

However, Eagle…

He felt that the reason Leiser had gone so far as to give large swaths of land from both the Special Dukedom and the Tulip Dukedom to Eagle was essentially a peace offering. He didn’t want someone with the potential to interfere getting involved while he was dealing with rebellious nobles.

Once Leiser truly made up his mind to start a war, all of Esmia… would be waiting in Red Maple to clean up his mess.

In the end, Sadin said nothing and turned to leave the study.

Though he had strongly insisted on going with Eagle, it was clearly impossible to change the young master’s mind. This was someone who had never been easily swayed since childhood.

“Pei Sen, let’s pack,” Eagle said naturally. He was, in fact, consciously refraining from placing Pei Sen in the role of a butler or servant anymore—but it was hard to break that habit overnight. Ever since Pei Sen started calling him “Eagle” directly, Eagle had been gradually changing his attitude toward him.

Pei Sen nodded. Eagle lived with an incredibly refined sense of luxury—who knew how much luggage he’d bring? In any case, bringing more was never a bad idea.

However, when Pei Sen saw the young master wearing six spatial rings, he was utterly shocked!

“Uh, young master, how much stuff are you planning to bring?”

“If this were a normal trip, wouldn’t you, as the butler, be making a packing list for me?” Eagle rested his chin on his hand, looking at him.

Pei Sen knew Eagle had already planned this out long ago. Those six spatial rings—all of them “high capacity”—said as much. Still, his comment was half in jest. “Young master, I told you—you can come back whenever you like.”

Maybe the tickets for the space-time train were outrageously expensive for players, but for Eagle, it was a mere pittance. Not to mention, just one of these spatial rings was worth more than who knew how many tickets!

“Yeah, but I think it’s better to bring a bit more.” Eagle said, “Too bad I commissioned an alchemist to turn a carriage into a magical item. Time’s too short—he won’t be able to deliver it in time.”

Pei Sen raised an eyebrow. He had only thought of a portable alchemy hut, but Eagle was more of a genius than him—turning a carriage into a magical alchemy item was indeed better for travel.

“You set a time with him?”

Eagle nodded. “I paid him double the price. He promised delivery within a month.”

Pei Sen: “…”

Young master, just because you have money doesn’t mean you should spend it like this! This thing already sounded insanely expensive, and you doubled the price?!

Please don’t tell him how much—it was better not to know.

“Oh, right. Even if the space inside these rings is huge, it’s still limited. Aijin also gave me this.” Eagle pulled out a slightly worn leather suitcase from the side. At first glance, it looked very ordinary—decent leather, slightly glossy from wear and tear. The bronze lock showed signs of age, and a small, exquisite family crest from the Ashkro family wasn’t particularly eye-catching. But that emblem alone indicated it was likely a family heirloom from Aijin’s lineage.

It was a magical item. Pei Sen had just tried putting it down and was startled. “He gave you this?”

“Mm,” Eagle said calmly. “I gave him a chance to restore his family’s glory. That’s more precious than anything else. Not just him—those who follow him also agreed with his decision.”

The reason for Pei Sen’s surprise was simple: he had never seen such a large-capacity item before.

This truly qualified as a treasure! And it was thanks to this very suitcase that when Aijin left his fief to throw his lot in with Eagle, he’d barely lost any wealth. The Ashkro family didn’t have legendary spatial rings, but all their riches had fit into this suitcase, carried personally by Aijin himself.

Also, the lock wasn’t just for show. Without the matching key, it was nearly impossible to force open. Tests had shown that even legendary mages and sword saints couldn’t break it.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Its biggest flaw was that despite being a small suitcase, no matter how much was stored inside—even if it was empty—it remained incredibly heavy. Pei Sen tried lifting it—it weighed at least forty kilograms. And due to its small size, as a magical spatial item, it couldn’t be stored inside another spatial container.

In other words, it had to be carried or placed somewhere. It couldn’t be put inside a storage ring.

Even more surprising for Pei Sen—when he tried putting it into his game backpack, he got the message: “This item cannot be stored in the backpack.” This meant the item’s tier must be extremely high—even Bix Magic Cube had to respect its rules.

Normally, in-game backpacks, skills, and settings often ignored conventional logic. The fact that this suitcase couldn’t be stored meant its creator had embedded extremely powerful rules into it.

Even if Eagle had hired the top alchemist on the continent of Yali to customize a magical alchemy carriage for him, there was no way that carriage would be too powerful to store in a ring or backpack.

“It’s fine. I’ll carry it,” Pei Sen said, thankful for his extremely high Strength stat on his game panel. At this point, the number was just that—a number—but at least lifting a suitcase like this was practically nothing. “But young master, with this, it’s more than enough. You could probably pack all of Red Maple Castle in here. Why the need for so many spatial rings?”

“Enough? Of course it’s not enough,” Eagle replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Just carriages alone—I’ve got nine. Then there’s all the necessary travel gear, food, clothing, living supplies. How could one suitcase be enough?”

Pei Sen: “……”

But this one suitcase could already fit the entire massive, towering, sprawling Red Maple Castle, young master!

And it still wasn’t enough?!