R-S Chapter 18 (Patreon)

He went on to explain a little more about enchanting to me but I knew I wasn’t getting anything out of this besides information. I’ll have to warn him earlier in the cycle and hope that he hadn’t started this project before this year. As it turned out, he was like me. With no family surname, Tobias spoke more about his mistreatment in the earlier classes until he learned more about enchanting.

Having seventy mana capacity baseline was an extremely rare thing. Less than one out of every twenty mages created now started above that and the requirements went up almost every single year to make sure fewer royals would enter. Over the past twenty-five years, the requirement has gone from needing fifty to seventy, even pushing the date back further because nobles were the only ones able to afford the ambrosia to reach the minimum amount.

The lower-cost spells were also removed and the entire curriculum for every single class was changed to accommodate the rich, the people backing the funding of the academy slowly altered the situation to be more advantageous towards them and the king didn’t care. He was just too powerful for too long. While he only had eleven acknowledged children, there were upward estimates in the hundreds for how many children he actually had.

Only the children he claimed could claim the throne but even then that was only while he was alive. Several of the noble factions must have had his bastards they’d puppet as the ‘ruler’ once he finally died. He and the previous five kings who ruled since the demon king was sealed all had nicknames to shorten their lengthy real names as shorthand.

Edwin Arthur of House Arthur was the Warrior King. Charles III Westex of House Westex was the Bloody King. Archibald Von Graft of House Westex was the Sage King. Edward Lionheart of House Lionheart was the Faithless King, also known as Edward the Kind. William the Fourth of House Lionheart was currently known as the Brave King… But after his death, I had no doubt he’d be known as the Fool King or Clown King for how poorly he handled the position. He was over two hundred years old and still behaved like a petulant child.

He didn’t do much ruling, instead giving most choices to his advisor who was slowly betraying him but now that his reign was coming to an end was trying to hold the kingdom together. The changes they made to the academy also took place all over the country, the lower-quality mages wouldn’t be able to protect the land. The hordes of wild invaders from the north and powerful barons to the south would start eating into our territory the moment this civil war kicked off.

Soon, we might not exist anymore and it was all the current king's fault. The poor wouldn’t see much change unless they were drafted. I doubt they’d have the people to enforce that after a bloody civil war. As foolish as the king was he was still surrounded by competent subordinates. Both sides didn’t want to make the first move because as it currently stood, neither side would come out on top…

Unless one side freed the demon king forcing the other to fight him while they stayed hidden and gathered their own power for after he was dealt with. Except he wouldn’t be, they heavily underestimated the demon king's strength. He’d wipe out the king’s forces and then the royal forces while only growing his own power in the process.

All of them were fools, the people who should be running the country weren’t. Instead, it was the children of the rich and powerful and it clearly showed. My goal wasn’t to win the war for the king, it was to stop the demon king from being released. If I warned them at the start of a reset I had no doubt they’d use the information I told them to set a trap and win, but then I’d go back to normal.

I couldn’t have the King's side win too early. That was why I didn’t care too much about who was going to win, either side wasn’t good for me. The longer I could stall out who won the longer I could keep getting stronger in this time loop. My plans were slowly altering as I needed to figure out the best route to get the most benefits for me.

The next few weeks I took it easy. Going from one brothel to the next, attempting to spend all the money I saved this time around compared to paying for all four years of my schooling at once, I only paid for a year. I had zell to spend. I was still saving some of my money… Just in case I had a psychotic episode and imagined the first three months of class.

The sex was fun but it just wasn’t the same as it was with the bunny girl… It was just better and I didn’t know why. I felt like I accomplished something when I made her cum. I didn’t get that feeling from anyone else I had sex with yet. I knew for sure if I didn’t go back now the price for a night with her was going to skyrocket. I could have just waited for the next time loop but I missed her.

I walked into the brothel with a smile on my face as I was greeted by the receptionist. We got here fairly early in the day last time which meant that most of the women weren’t busy. “Good afternoon mister. Are you looking for a specific lady of the night or what’s your price range?”

“That would be the pretty little bunny girl whenever she’s available please.” Her customer service smile broke for a second as she spoke. “I’m sorry sir. She no longer works at this establishment?” The smile dropped from my face as I asked. “Where did she go?” My question wasn’t answered by the receptionist but instead by the Madame of the brothel. “Please… Come upstairs to my office.”

Even though she was on the older side she oozed sex appeal. As she walked away from the railing, my eyes couldn’t help but drift down to her swaying ass. She managed to make the overexaggerated swaying of her ass look natural. She had decades of experience enticing the opposite sex. She only looked to be in her late forties but that couldn’t be right.

From what I understood, most Madames of these brothels, or any businesses for that matter were practitioners. It meant she was cycling for decades and was far stronger than she appeared to be. She may only look slightly old but she could be anywhere from eighty to two hundred and fifty depending on how much she cycled in her life. My best guess was the higher age. She just appeared to be well put together.

At that age, she might have served the previous king. Most kings lived hundreds of years but the current one was only in his early two hundred. She sat down and motioned for me to sit down. The facade she had on, the faint smile that she always kept on as a shield fell as I saw what lay behind the mask. Anger, her face was almost neutral but I could still see she was upset by something.

“I remember you. You were the one that Lola said she’d have liked to have visited her again. I normally don’t bring outsiders into the brothel's personal information but as you were one of the closest people to her I’ll tell you the truth. Lola didn’t leave the brothel business, she wasn’t bought to become the sex slave of a noble, a client murdered her.”