Chapter 400: I Will Let You Live

It was the one thing that was super famous globally... well, at least relatively famous compared to other generic fish dishes.

It was none other than ’Fish and Chips’ from England. It was arguably the one single dish from England that he did not look down upon.

’But I genuinely wonder how the chefs here even thought about using batter for deep frying, especially for delicate fish,’ Adrian thought to himself in pleasant surprise. ’And also, to properly make this dish without bones, you need to expertly fillet the fish. Which I really don’t think goes well with the traditional butchery customs of this world. The butchers here usually just aggressively chop the whole fish into cross-sections like they’re chopping a radish into small cylinders.’

Feeling curious about who invented this, he turned his head to look at the waitress standing patiently by the table.

He opened his mouth to ask her about the chef, but he just paused. The question in his mind just didn’t come out.

He just looked closely at the girl in the uniform.

She didn’t look old enough to be working a full time shift. She looked incredibly young, almost like she was barely around fourteen or thirteen years old.

’Right, I completely forgot about the reality of this medieval world,’ Adrian sighed mentally. ’Kids... if they can find a safe place to make decent money to survive, they totally will. There are no laws against child labor stuff here. In fact, it’s expected for peasants.’

He softened his expression.

"How old are you?" Adrian asked gently.

The young waitress completely froze. Her entire body instantly stiffened up as she looked at Adrian, the Lord of the territory. The very first terrifying thought that flashed through her mind was the dark rumors and the strict warnings that her peasant parents had explicitly told her ever since she was a small child.

Bow your head when the Nobles are nearby, or they will steal you away in the night and do bad things to you.

She got incredibly nervous. Her hands started visibly shaking, and she started stammering in pure fear.

"My... m-my... my Lord," she stuttered weakly. "I’m... I’m fifteen."

Adrian was actually a little surprised by the answer, since he honestly thought that she was much younger. Maybe thirteen or fourteen at most.

’Oh right, I forgot,’ Adrian thought to himself in mild frustration. ’Most of these kids barely grow properly since childhood. Ah man, severe malnutrition is a really big, fucking annoying thing to fix in a medieval society. These kids have got to grow up healthy.’

He shook his head a little inwardly, pushing the problems aside for a moment.

"Why are you working here at such a young age?" Adrian asked curiously.

"I... I want to help my father and mother, my Lord," the girl answered nervously. "And we need to save up money for my marriage dowry in the future. I want to save up money for my marriage so that I don’t make them use the money they saved up on me... My.. my mom’s dream is to one day open a bakery..."

Adrian blinked.

"I see," Adrian muttered, completely caught off guard. "Marriage, huh?"

******

Roderick sat on a bed fit for an emperor.

But it was not a regular king-sized bed. Those couldn’t even compare. This thing was almost four times bigger, with a heavy frame made of solid gold mixed with other metals just to make it sturdier. The whole thing was covered in crazy carved designs, looking almost like a throne but in bed form. The mattress was stupidly soft too, and the covers were smooth.

And sitting on top of all that, Roderick looked down at the three people kneeling on the floor in front of him.

The one in the middle was his brother.

Maximillian had raw whip marks all over his back, and he was kneeling there in nothing but his underwear. On his right was his favorite wife, and she was kneeling too, but at least she was fully dressed. Tears streamed down her face, and the dried tracks from her earlier crying were obvious.

On Maximillian’s left was Vaneira, the sister of his favorite wife.

She wasn’t crying exactly, but she looked terrified. She had heard rumors about Roderick being the real power behind the throne. She had seen signs of it over the years too. But this was the first time she was actually seeing it with her own two eyes. Her sister had never mentioned anything, and everything Vaneira knew came from nobles gossiping in the parties she attended so often. She had never considered the rumors might be true since she just liked spreading them around because it gave her something to talk about.

Roderick looked down at Maximillian.

"Do you know why you are here in this situation right now?"

His voice was extremely calm.

That was the only thing that made Maximillian shiver. He had heard this tone only once before, and it was when Roderick killed his favorite brother. The only sibling who had actually been kind to him. Roderick had done it right in front of Maximillian’s eyes, and this was the exact same tone he used afterward.

Maximillian could picture it clearly even now.

It happened in a different bedroom, but the same palace. He was sitting at a small personal dining table, drinking wine with his brother, and talking about random stuff. Then Roderick just walked in, pulled out a dagger, and sliced his brother’s neck open.

Maximillian had to sit there and watch his brother bleed to death.

The fear in his brother’s eyes. The confusion, the anger, the disgust... all of it was there. But on the other hand, the murder Roderick’s eyes were dead. He was completely emotionless as he stared down at the struggling prince.

Then Roderick turned to look at Maximillian and said only a few words.

"You are too incompetent to be a problem for me, so I will let you live."

[A/N: We hit 400 Chapters!!]

[A/N: Also apologies for the recent inconsistent upload timings. For the past 4 days, my sleep has been bad. 4,2,3 and 3 hours respectively over the past 4 days. And now I even have a fever. Yay me! Anyways, once this passes, the upload timings will return back to normal.]