Chapter 2: Making a Gift for Stepmother

The Grand Cathedral emptied out like a leaking wound.

High society traveled fast when there was fresh gossip to spread, and by sunset, the entire capital would know that the exceptionally beautiful Fifth Prince was nothing but a hollow vessel.

Just an [Enchanter] meant for backroom blacksmithing.

But Adonis wasn’t heading to the low-tier servant quarters he’d just been assigned. He was strolling through the black corridors of the Fourth Queen’s palace.

[Emergency System Alert!]

[Target: Queen Minerva]

[Current Volatility: 95% (CRITICAL)]

[Note: The target has currently locked herself in her chambers and is drawing a forbidden blood array.]

[Estimated time until Kingdom-wide Cataclysm: 4 hours]

Adonis kept his pace steady, but there was a very tired look on his face.

’Ninety-five percent? For fuck’s sake. She’s basically got one foot off the ledge. This woman must really be insane. Sure, I complain about how women never gave me the time of day in my past life, but I can’t imagine having an ex-girlfriend that’d become a terrorist if I break up with her.’

He shook his head and continued to walk at a slow and steady pace. He was using this chance to cook up what he’d say to this lady, who the original Adonis had barely ever spoken to for most of his childhood.

The Fourth Prince’s mother was a descendant of the Dralacs, a lineage of ancient witches.

In the original novel, the Third Prince had used her political influence and her body, only to cast her aside the moment a younger, breathtaking virgin from a powerful Duke’s family Mariella became available. Rejection didn’t just break a Blood Witch’s heart. It corrupted her mana.

Clack. Clack.

Adonis’s boots clicked against the tiles as he stopped right outside the heavy doors of her private chambers.

The two royal guards stationed outside were already dead—slumped against the wall, their faces pale, like every single drop of blood was squeezed out of them.

’But that tracks considering a Blood Witch would need human blood to create a blood array...’

He looked at his profile.

[Canon Role: Extra]

If he tried to talk to this stepmother sub-boss without a plan in hand, then she’d definitely kill him.

Adonis cleared his throat.

"Ahem, the goal is to survive."

He kept his shoulders high and proudly walked away like he’d already solved the problem.

...

An hour later.

Adonis was pacing back and forth in his servant’s quarters with a worried look on his face.

’How am I gonna fix this? I haven’t even been in this world for a week and someone’s already planning to genocide the entire kingdom. This is why you NEVER EVER mess with losing heroines!’

He flopped on the hard, dusty bed.

The quarters were quite big, though it was just half the size of his previous chambers. Maybe it only felt big because the five servants sharing this space decided to vacate the area out of respect for the Fifth Prince, who always treated them well.

A timer appeared before him.

[03:03:54]

That was the time left.

Adonis stroked his chin.

"The system did say that gifting my enchanted items to losing heroines can be a form of affection that seals their evil side and also brings me closer to them... but what exactly can I even enchant and gift a queen of all people..."

Ding! The system notified him to open his inventory.

Adonis swiped it open with a finger and saw the [Undine Blue Lotus] in his storage.

He pulled out the artifact from his spatial storage, and a deep-blue radiance emanated from it before it took shape in his palm. It was a blue-colored glass shaped like a lotus. It was gifted to him by the undines upon his birth for his beauty, and that was also what convinced the King that Adonis would be great.

Adonis tapped on the item and an info box appeared.

[Item: Undine Blue Lotus]

[Grade: Silver]

[Description: A gift from high-ranking water spirits. It currently possesses no special ability. Enchanting it will upgrade it to a Platinum-class artifact that can be gifted to Queen Minerva.]

Adonis snapped his fingers. "Genius!"

There were seven major levels used to rank almost anything in this novel: Iron, Bronze, Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Rainbow.

Iron-class items were basically entry-level items you could find on the roadside or in abundance. But Gold-class items and above were the height of wealth and power! Most of the strongest weapons, beasts, and spells in the novel were in this tier, and they couldn’t be acquired by a random shopping spree or a low-effort dungeon dive. They could only be gotten from powerful figures and key moments in the story.

’If anyone deserves a platinum-class item as a gift, then it’s a losing heroine...’

Adonis thought, stroking his chin.

’But it’s not like I’m even sure I can actually enchant the item to become one.’

He slapped his cheeks.

"No time to think about that!"

Adonis placed the [Undine Blue Lotus] on the table.

"I’m still a Copper-class enchanter, so I can’t upgrade this item to platinum at my current skill level. Consecutive trial and errors can also ruin the mana purity of an item, which diminishes the worth. I can’t believe I’ll have to use the Platinum Experience Card I got from the system so early."

He swiped open the system panel, clicked on the experience card, and suddenly, he felt the power of the world flowing through him.

This is what it means to be a platinum-class enchanter.

He put his hands over the artifact, poured his mana into it, and started to mentally inscribe it with complex layers of runes that upgraded the item more and more.

An Iron-class enchanter can only inscribe one rune layer, and a Bronze-class one could do three rune layers with enough grunt work. But a Platinum-class enchanter could cast over fifty complex rune layers with zero difficulty! As such, you could count all the platinum-class enchanters in the continent on one hand!

After inscribing the twentieth rune layer, the item emitted a brilliant blue light as it bloomed and morphed into a fist-sized, flawless sapphire!

[Congrats! You’ve successfully upgraded the item into a Platinum-class treasure known as ’Heart of the Blue Sea’!]

Adonis just stared in amazement as the hovering gem floated into his palms.

This item could buy a small nation outright.

...

Moments later, Adonis was back at the heavy doors of Queen Minerva’s chambers.

He thought about knocking first, but since he was an extra, she would probably just lash out and drain all the blood in his system from the comfort of her bedroom. So, he decided to push open the doors without knocking so she’d at least see who she was about to kill.

The air inside the room was freezing.

Red sigils floated in the air.

In the center of the room stood Queen Minerva. Her long raven hair floated wildly as if submerged in water, and her ruby eyes were bloodshot.

Tears streamed down her flawless cheeks.

"Who dares..."

Minerva spoke once, and her voice vibrated with enough power to crack the glass windows.

She snapped her head toward the door and suppressed her blood-magic the moment she saw her stepson.

"Adonis...?"

She looked a little confused. Since when were they so close that he could walk into her room uninvited? She’d never talked to him before, and neither did she talk to any of her other stepsons besides the Third Prince. The Third Prince had always seemed to be so attracted to her. He made her feel loved, especially after years of being married to a king who was madly obsessed with genes.

Queen Minerva turned her focus back to the blood array she’d drawn on the floor beneath her.

"Get out. I have no business with you."

She closed her eyes and tried to focus her magic, but suddenly, she felt a crotch press against her soft, largely curvy buttocks while two hands held her child-bearing hips.

The queen’s eyes flew wide open. "H... huh...?!"

She was about to look back when Adonis passionately pressed his body tighter against her soft, curvy motherly warmth, and whispered into her ear:

"Calm down, and let yourself be loved for once."

The blood witch gasped. "Eh?"