Chapter 82: Crucial Salt Road

The nobles left the Emerald Palace in clusters, and every cluster was talking about the same person.

"Escaped again. Did you see his face? He looked like he’d come for lunch."

"The Fifth Prince, the Fifth Prince, the Fifth Prince... I swear it’s all anyone talks about these days."

"Well, to be fair, it used to be like that, back when we called him the future of the kingdom."

"Yes, and we all know how that ended."

They’d made that mistake with the others too.

When they called the First Princess the future of the kingdom, they later found out she’s crazy.

Then the Second Prince, but that one never came home.

There’s the Third Prince, Leander, who’d gone mad.

And the First Prince who was now somewhat the future of the kingdom, acted strange these days.

So who was it, then?

Nobody could say anymore. They’d given up guessing and decided to wait a few decades to see who took the throne next.

What they did find funny was the money. The King had always claimed a fortune was wasted on the Fifth Prince’s head for the best education money could buy, and everyone had nodded along.

Now that "waste" looked like a lie. The boy had done too many things with too much charm, and that charm went far beyond his face. He was an intellectually stimulating man, and smart enough to negotiate one of the biggest trade routes in the eastern Magic Continent.

Well, negotiate was a generous word.

The files had arrived that afternoon.

They were thick, sealed with wax, and carried by three clerks who looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. The Fifth Prince was now officially made Holder of the White Road, a title that sounded far more impressive than the stack of paper made it feel.

Adonis flipped through the pages with one hand and a biscuit in the other.

The White Road was the primary trade route that brought salt, herbs and exotic spices up from the southern coastal territories of the Marsofian Union. It crossed the Azapita Mountain passes and ended in Gilishon City, where everything was packaged and sold to other developed cities and corporations across the nation.

In other words, it was the road that seasoned half the kingdom’s dinner tables.

And now it was his.

’Huh.’

He squinted at the map in the files.

Rensfell sat at the northern end of the mountain pass.

That meant the White Road ran right past a town that had never once tasted salt.

’Does Vesta really hate the Church and its people that badly? Talk about petty. He couldn’t even help a starving town sitting on his own route...’

He paused.

’Well. My route now.’

A greedy little smile crept across his face.

He rubbed his hands together.

Mweheheh, gold, spices, a monopoly...

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

A hand had taken hold of his ear and pulled hard.

"Don’t smile like a goblin around me~"

Minerva said sweetly, the way a crazy woman smiles when she is holding a knife behind her back.

"Or do you want me to get scared of you? Hmmm~?"

Adonis broke free of her grip, fixed his hair, and nursed his poor ear with gentle touches.

"Scared? You? Please."

They were sitting under their favorite gazebo, a nice spread laid out on the table. The maids who’d served the tea were glowing, so happy to see the Fifth Prince back in the castle they kept finding reasons to refill his cup.

Minerva ate a biscuit, sipped her tea, and ate another biscuit.

"How’s the wound on your finger?" she asked between chews.

"Fine."

She stopped chewing.

Then she leaned elegantly over the table, and the huge watermelons on her chest practically splashed out toward his face, barely held back by her black silk dress. Her smile was tight and knowing, and her eyes were relaxed.

"Mmmm~ I know you tricked my truth string, I just don’t know how you did it..."

She leaned in closer.

Boing! Boing!

Now her breasts were practically in his face, so Adonis just looked away and sipped his tea like a monk.

Minerva lounged back in her chair with her cup in hand.

"Hmph. Fine. Don’t tell me."

But she was smiling, and glanced at him from the side.

Adonis looked at the beautiful view and drank.

’This plan almost blew up in my face.’

He hadn’t even wanted the White Road at first.

But after he found out Vesta was in charge of the Seasonings sector, the rest was easy. House Vesta controlled three trade routes, and Adonis only needed one of them to tell what the others were based on deduction.

The silk and steel road brought high-end textiles and high-grade ores, so there was no way the court would hand that over.

The black road ran through Gilishon City’s underground waterways and connected to Lake Ribra. It was used for smuggling. It was the shadow economy, and untouchable.

That left the White Road. And since the southern ports of the Marsofian Union had always shipped salt, it made sense for him to own it. Prussia being his fiancée helped.

So he bought salt. A lot of salt, enough to make Vesta curious about the strange Baron Thale.

Then he made sure Father Rill knew about it.

A man like Rill couldn’t lie under questioning, and Vesta hated the Church so much he’d stretch every detail of Adonis’s crime until it looked like treason. All Adonis had to do was let the Count dig his own grave with his own enthusiasm.

The tricky part was the court. Trials took forever.

...But the lie detector made it eerily easy.

He’d nearly shat his pants when he first heard about it, but it seems Minerva’s magic worked like a polygraph. It read a person’s body: their heart rate, their stress.

When you lied, your heart spiked, right?

So it started with a baseline. The first few questions were meant to measure his heart when he told the truth and when he lied.

That’s where the toothpick came in.

While answering, he’d secretly jab himself, so the pain made his heart race on every answer.

Truth or lie, it didn’t matter. His baseline became useless, and every answer looked the same.

In the end, the court had no choice but to reward him, to save the face of the Count and the royal court alike.

Adonis finished his tea and got up from his chair with a sluggish stretch.

"Hahh~ If only it was this easy to get rich in my old life."

Minerva lifted a brow. "Hm?"

"Nothing."

He walked over to her and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead as his hand gently caressed her neck.

"I’ll come see you tomorrow."

It was supposed to be a short kiss.

But her hair began to glow red and her fangs elongated.

"Mmm~ I want more, my sweet ??"

And then Minerva was kissing his lips, then his neck, and then his lips again, as though the forehead kiss had flipped a switch somewhere inside her. She even grabbed his waist and pulled him closer with fervent lust.

"Wait, Erva... take it easy, not now—"

He was trying to pull away, he really was, but she kept kissing him more and more, already salivating.

That’s when Bradley saw them.

"MOTHER!"

...Eh? Minerva froze, her fangs still out.

"Adonis! Stop seducing my mother!"

Bradley pointed a trembling finger at him.

Adonis patted him on the shoulder, calm as a priest.

"You know how I feel about your mother, son."

Young Bradley screamed loud enough to scare the birds off the gazebo’s top.

...

Meanwhile, Count Vesta was storming out of the castle with a face like a furious boar.

"Count Vesta."

Old Hershant stepped into his path and stood there with his hands behind his back.

"What you did today was very foolish."

Vesta laughed in his face.

"Hah! Is the King’s personal doormat really lecturing me?"

Hershant only smiled. "Perhaps. But I’ve never been stepped on as badly as the Fifth Prince stepped on you. You lost an entire trade route to a boy, Count."

Vesta’s smile died.

He grabbed Hershant by the robe and yanked him close with a vicious grin on his face.

"Heheh... you think this is over? Oh noooo. I’ll make sure that bastard doesn’t get away with this."

"Oh? And how will you do that?"

"It’s more fun if you find out for yourself. Those orphanage brats. That village. Ahahaha!"

Vesta let go with a shove and laughed his head off.

"THEY’RE PROBABLY DEAD BY NOW!"