"What is it?" Aurelious asked.
Sarah gave a bow.
"Would you like to eat anything in particular, Your Highness?" she asked, and he frowned.
'Wait, how long did I sleep?'
He turned to the maid.
"How long was I out?" he asked.
"The whole day, Your Highness," she said.
His eyes widened.
'I SLEPT FOR AN ENTIRE DAY?!'
He quickly got off the bed.
"Why didn't you wake me?" he asked.
"The Lady Sheila thought it wise you weren't disturbed. She mentioned you may have been having trouble sleeping in recent times," Sarah responded, walking toward the huge windows and drawing back the curtains. The next instant golden rays of light flooded the room.
"...Sighs."
He squinted slightly.
"Where's Lancelot? And the slave I purchased?" he asked, once again shamelessly undressing himself in front of the otherwise thoroughly frustrated maid, who thought it wise to look away upon realizing that the prince's sense of shame no longer existed.
There was once a time he would get completely flustered if she so much as walked in on him mid-dress, something the prince had vehemently insisted on doing himself, and the young prince would turn as red as an apple. But now it was as though he actively wanted her to see his rather... commendable assets for his age.
"Cough."
She gave a thoroughly unnecessary cough to clear her mind before responding.
"Sir Lancelot is attending to important matters at the moment. As for the slave, if you are referring to his daughter as well, he had already brought her in some time ago. Both the slave and she are in the mansion as of this moment. Would you like for me to bring them here?" she asked.
The young prince waved a hand.
"Yes. And get them to put on some maid's dresses too... preferably the pink ones," he said.
"My Lord, that colour code is reserved for the Jade Mansion," she answered, giving the young prince a blank stare.
"What does it matter? Is Nirai coming to my mansion any time soon?" he asked, already heading for the bathroom.
Sarah gave a bow of compliance.
"It will be done," she said, then left.
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After testing the temperature of the water to make sure it was to his liking, the young prince slid into the tub and leaned back against it, both hands gripping the rim on either side.
"She was right. I really needed that sleep," he muttered.
Then he sank deeper into the water until it swallowed half his face, and closed his eyes.
'The Battle of Heirs should commence two years from now, which means I should have completed the first stage of building my Legion by then. I need ten members to form a Legion. With Liliana and Rebecca taken off the equation that leaves eight spots to fill.
Since I'll be using my bloodline to enslave my members instead of the orthodox method, I'll have to be extremely careful about who I choose. I can't tell how many I can use the soul bind on before it kills me, but I have a feeling five would already be pushing it.
So the first five members of my Legion will be bound to me through my bloodline. The last five... the last five should be people I can actually trust.
But who can I trust, aside from Sheila? And I can't make her a member of my Legion. I can't risk her life for something like this.
So who?
Sighs.'
He let his mind drift, but no matter how long he turned it over he couldn't think of a single soul he trusted enough to bring into his Legion without enslaving them first.
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"Y-Your Highness, please put on some clothes. This is unbecoming of you."
"Oh? You have quite the mouth for a common slave. Did your father not explain why you were brought here?"
Young Aurelius had, if anything, grown more degenerate since his bath. He wore a white garment, long-sleeved and extending from his shoulders to just above his ankles, but for some reason the young prince had refused to button it up, leaving everything beneath entirely visible to anyone in the room with functioning eyes.
The girl who had just spoken had midnight blue hair and deep sea blue eyes. Her hair was extraordinarily long, spilling over both shoulders even with the thick braids wound across her head like a crown.
"...What is your name?" the prince asked, then reached into his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of white trousers that were oddly oversized for him before turning to the other girl.
This one had her face flushed red, eyes fixed firmly on the ceiling, hands folded behind her back. She was dressed in a pink and white maid's dress much like the other girl, sporting uniquely light pink hair and amber eyes.
"What are your names?" he asked, pulling on the white trousers before making his way to the bed where he sat, his gaze alternating between the two of them.
"...I'm Rebecca Braveheart, daughter of Sir"
"Shut up. Your name is enough. I have no need for your titles," he said, then turned to the other girl.
"I... I don't"
"You don't have a name," Aurelious finished.
The girl nodded meekly.
That was the thing with most of these slaves. Their memories were often tampered with, something that could only be done to those who hadn't yet awakened. In her case however, it seemed to be the result of some traumatic event rather than deliberate interference.
"Y-yes," she said quietly.
"...You will be Number One from now on."
He turned.
"And you, Rebecca?"
"Y-yes?"
"You are Number Two."
He stood and reached back to scratch idly at his trousers.
"T-Two? But Your Highness, I"
"Rebecca." Aurelious asked it calmly. "Do you wish to be stripped naked and thrown into the underground dungeons filled with men?"
Rebecca's complexion drained to white.
"I... I do not," she stuttered.
"Good," he said simply.
"...B-but," she tried again.
He looked at her directly.
"...But what, Rebecca?" the prince asked with a pointed stare.
She clamped shut.
Then she turned to the other girl, dropping her voice to a frantic hush. "Aren't you going to say anything?"
The girl only smiled.
"Why though? I like it," she said.
Rebecca's eyes went wide as the realization settled over her that the girl standing beside her was not exactly right in the head.
"Your Highness, please! At the very least give me a proper name!"
She dropped to her knees.
Aurelious sighed.
He wasn't actually going to name them by numbers in the end. It did go against the laws of the empire, for one. But beyond that, the only reason he had wanted to change their names at all was because he could. It gave a certain feeling, like he was remaking them entirely from the ground up, completely different from the versions he remembered from the future.
He placed a hand beneath his chin and thought for a moment.
"You," he said, nodding to one, then to the other. "Name her. And you, name her as well."
He left the naming entirely to them.