System's POV

Chapter 1274: Infiltrating The Palace [Part 1]

Following dinner, Thirteen prepared the dessert he’d promised the chef. He settled with a Chocolate Mug Cake, which needed only a handful of simple ingredients.

However, the ratio of ingredients he used, the techniques he used to mix and process them, and the timing and temperature of baking them ensured that it would be the best desert the Avior Family would’ve tasted in their lives.

As a System, everything was done perfectly without any margin for error.

The maids then served Thirteen’s desert to the dining table, and Carina’s eyes turned into crescents after eating the first bite.

“Delicious!” Carina said in disbelief. “This is more delicious than the chocolate cake I had for my birthday!”

Even Rana couldn’t find anything bad to say since the simple cake was truly delicious. She had a sweet tooth like her daughter, so desserts were one of her few weaknesses.

With that said, she was a critic herself, and yet she had nothing to say to the teenage boy’s culinary skills.

“It seems that I have underestimated you.” Rana smiled sweetly after finishing her mug cake. “Your name is Zion, right? How about I hire you to become one of the chefs in the palace? Don’t worry. I will make sure that you’re satisfied with your salary.”

“Thank you for the offer, Your Excellency, but I think I’ll pass,” Thirteen answered. “I’m still in the middle of my journey to see the bigger world.

“My master said that I should wait for six more years before I reach a stage where I can serve someone without embarrassing myself and my teacher.”

“Then, may I know who your teacher is?” Rana asked. “If his apprentice is at this level, he must be very famous.”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, but his name is Zao Jun,” Thirteen answered.

Rana tried to recall if she ever heard of the name Zao Jun. Even her family members were doing the same.

Thirteen smiled faintly, knowing they were most likely unfamiliar with the name. After all, Zao Jun was a God of Cooking worshiped in another world.

A few minutes later, Rana sighed and asked Zion if it was possible to meet his Master, so she could invite him to become their special culinary guest in the palace.

“It will be hard to do that because one of the tasks that my Master have asked of me was to find him when my training is over,” Thirteen stated. “It’s my graduation of sorts, and he said I will only be able to find him after six years. Until then, no matter how hard I try to look for him, I wouldn’t be able to find him.”

“A shame.” Caelum sighed in disappointment because after tasting the simple dessert, he understood that all the desserts he had eaten in his life would no longer be able to satisfy him.

“See, mother?” Carina patted her chest. “Aren’t you glad I brought Zion here with me?”

The young lady had completely forgotten the fact that she had called the teenage boy a bully earlier.

In fact, she was so proud of herself that she was half tempted to say that she was the one who raised Zion, which was of course, physically impossible.

After the meal ended, Rana asked Zion to stay for the night because he was their VIP Guest.

Thirteen was more than happy to accept the offer and followed a maid to the guest room.

Once he was inside, he talked to Tiona telepathically, who was currently with Cranky.

He told her that he had successfully infiltrated the Palace and would now work on the Runic Formation inside his room.

He asked her to tell Cranky to be prepared to bail him out just in case someone detected what he was doing.

The Runic Formation that he was going to inscribe inside the guest room was actually a teleportation circle.

This would allow them to infiltrate the palace directly, bypassing its many outer defenses.

If he had enough time, he would be able to connect this teleportation circle with the Arcanis Mountain Range.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to do that, so he settled for a runic formation that he could use for emergencies.

The teenage boy had also summoned a few demons, who acted as his eyes and ears to look outside of his room.

It was then that he saw two palace guards standing just outside of his room, making sure he wouldn’t be going anywhere during his stay.

He already anticipated this scenario, so he wasn’t too bothered by it.

As long as the guards didn’t open the door, none of them would discover what he was planning to do.

To prepare for any emergencies, Thirteen wrote the runes with his feet. That way, if anyone walked in, it would simply look like he was practicing footwork.

As if waiting for that moment, one of his demons saw Carina walking toward his room, followed by her maids.

Thirteen immediately abandoned his task and moved closer to the window, feigning to admire the scenery of the city.

“Zion!” Carina shouted as she opened the door without even bothering to knock. “I want you to show Mother, and Father, the performance you did in the Bazaar.”

Thirteen blinked as he looked at the young lady who grabbed his hand and was about to drag him outside of the room.

“I’m a little tired today, My Lady,” Thirteen stated. “How about we do it some other time?”

“No!” Carina acted spoiled and looked at him with a puppy look. “You need to do it now. Let’s go outside to the fountain of the palace!”

Carina’s maids looked pitifully at the young man, who had now become a victim of their Mistress.

In the end, Thirteen managed to convince the young lady that he wouldn’t be able to give her parents an impressive performance because he was very exhausted.

“Do you want me to give your parents a subpar performance?” Thirteen asked. “Is that really what you want?”

After a compromise, Carina reluctantly agreed to do the performance another day and left the room with her maids.

However, she made Zion promise to stay in the palace for a few days, so she could play with him after classes ended.

Thirteen was quite amused by the young lady’s attempt to make him her playmate.

But since it would give him an opportunity to complete his teleportation circle, as well as allow him to get a better understanding of his target, Rana, he thought it wasn’t a bad thing to accept Carina’s proposal.

Right now, he was in the place where he needed to be, and if he managed to convince her to become an ally, then his mission would be a resounding success.