CHAPTER 557: CHAPTER 557 - EVENTFUL FIRST MONTH OF THE TERM (PART 1)

After the opening ceremony of the term, I felt that each day felt funny and novel. As expected, the next batch of priests including Clarence still had the same goals as the batch before them. They still wanted to seduce me into accepting at least one of them into my family so that the Church will gain a strong connection with me.

Obviously, the pope wanted me to choose Clarence eventually, being that is he is own grandson and all. He was sent to attend this school for two terms in a row too so that much was a given. As for the guy himself, he seemed to have made peace with the fact that I am just treating him as a friend or a schoolmate at least.

As for the other young priests, I treated everyone fairly as much as I can. I at least greet back politely towards whoever greeted me first along the corridors, inside classroom and other places inside the academe. In terms of having conversations though, I still prefer talking to Clarence since he is the one I have known the longest and I enjoy talking to him about many things comfortably so you can really say that we are at least friends now.

As for the investigation request I sent to Noir on the first day of the term, I got an answer within a short span of 2 days. This is quite impressive given that there were 7 individuals in total that need to be investigated and some of the men are not even from this empire.

Since any request from me will always be tagged as high priority by the organization, they even sent a high-ranking agent personally to give me the report inside the academe. The agent disguised himself as a local post office messenger assigned for urgent communications. It was just that it was yet another familiar face. It was none other than the Little Prince.

Upon arriving in front of me right by the front yard of my villa, he tried to keep his calm, reporting each detail as if doing it with just any other client but it is obvious that he was doing his best not to look into my eyes and keep his expression blank. It seems that the things that happened between us back at the construction site a few months back is still fresh in his memory and is affecting the way he treats me.

After he finished his entire report, I took the papers that contain the more detailed information from his hands then nodded once to confirm the completion of the request. I gave him a heavy bag of coins in return for completing the request quickly.

He looked stunned at the fact that I was paying him just like someone who really had a commission with the organization. He looked at the heavy bag of coins that I placed in his hands and it seemed that he was about to return them so I cut him off before he was able to do so. I told him matter-of-factly that he can look at it as a payment to the organization since my people (Richard and his gang) are still under the care and training of the HQ elders and instructors.

He absent-mindedly nodded his head, keeping the coins inside his clothes for safekeeping. He was about to turn around since all the matters regarding the request are considered done but I quickly caught his chin with my right hand, successfully stopping him in his tracks.

I lifted his face slowly, forcing him to look at me, our face only a few inches apart. My actions were too quick for him that he did not have the chance to evade my plan so he ended up staring wide-eyed and dumbly at me. Realizing what I just did to him and the current position we are in, his face, ears and neck gradually turned red in embarrassment.

He tried to take a step back and move his head to free his chin from my grasp but I kept him in place quite easily. He could only look away with only his eyes moving and asked, "Do you have any other requests for us, Your Highness?"

With an amused smile on my face, I asked him in a low voice, "Shouldn’t you be looking at the person you are talking to? Isn’t that part of your basic etiquette classes, Little Prince?"

I heard him take a deep, exasperated breath as if he was steeling his whole being just to answer my questions. He then closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds and when he looked at me, his eyes were cold and emotionless as he repeated his previous question as it is.

I smiled at him naughtily and I saw his pupils flinch a bit when he saw my smile but he was able to keep his facial expression from giving himself away even if he was nervousness away. It is just my ears are to keen to hear another beings’ changes in heartbeat, pulses and breathing.

I responded in an amused voice and teased him a bit more, "I don’t have other requests for now. I just missed seeing your handsome face and teasing you to make you feel uncomfortable."

With my short statement, I was able to successfully coax a reaction from him as his eyes widened which eventually turned into a glare. He opened his mouth as if about to answer back but I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He grunted and tried to push me away but his resistance only lasted for a few seconds before he eventually kissed me back. He is such a tsundere!

I eventually let him go after a couple of minutes, leaving him panting and dazed. I leaned towards his right ear and whispered, "A little reward for doing the request quickly. I want you to be the person to fulfill my requests for now on."

I released his chin after stating a few more instructions. I then added, "You are dismissed. I will see you again on my next request."

After that, I kept the documents in my storage and went my way back inside the villa. I can sense him from the inside of the villa and it seemed like he stood there for a good ten minutes before he decisively left the premises. I guess the kiss rattled him more than I expected. Isn’t he just too pure and cute?

As for Noir’s report, the details regarding the 7 men that I requested to be investigated was clearly and systematically listed. The first thing I was able to confirm was that the other six are indeed all soldiers from different places and they have high ranks even though they were still young. I already know Caius was a general so I really wanted just to confirm the other six on this item.

On the documents, each person was listed indicating their names, age, military rank and the location of their latest military assignment. It was then followed by the families they came from as well. With just one glance, she saw that most of them come from families that have served the military for many generations. In short, they have noble titles and the lowest one was even a viscount!

I checked other information in the documents, as expected, they have a few things in common. First, they are all have come of age for quite some time but were still unmarried. Second, they all received information from their families about me and my preferences in men. Third, they were either the first or second sons of their family (except for Caius that was the only child of his family) which means that they must have heard about me having no issues with bearing children.

I think they must have came into the conclusion about my preferences based on the men I married. I did marry Ioannis, Kayden, Dimitri and Lark. None of them are your typical thin, weak and gentle beauty that this world’s women liked. They were tall, a bit or the muscular build, definitely more manly looking than a beauty and definitely not docile in any way.

As for the reason these six are here, their families must have deemed that their children fit my preferences so they took a chance of enrolling their children here to try to get close to me. As for Caius, it may be a mix of vengeance and stubborness as to why he is here. I did escape the northern camp without us talking so I kind of expected he will hunt me down. I just did not know it was this soon and here I thought, he was too busy. (A/N: He’s never busy when it comes to chasing his wife. XD)

As for the fact if they genuinely like me or not, it is most definitely a no except for the stubborn Caius. These men were trained to follow orders and they must have deemed this trip to the academe as just an order from their families. They must be thinking that at least this order was not a matter of life or death. If I don’t like them then they simply have to abort the mission and return to their families to provide their failure to catch my fancy.