Due to the darkness and the lack of time, I couldn’t have a look what I had obtained when I got back at night.

“Let’s see. There are two kitchen knives of each size for a total of 48, 12 cooking pots, 5 frying pans, 9 mallets, 4 portable magic burners and three each of chopping boards, ladles, tongs, spatulas… This is a lot.”

After I checked the cooking utensils, I put them back one by one and checked the other things.

“Next is that sadist’s collection?”

In the fourth palace lay a secret collection the third prince from around eighty years ago. The secret room had a collection of all various eccentric items that couldn’t be made public in a location that was just as deserted as the nature of the items in the collection itself, so it was easy to get to it.

I managed to get all the items from the then-third prince’s collection, but if I had to go through the ones that were actually useful:

The serial killer “Tontons’ knife.”

A “curse scroll” made from human skin by a tribe of barbarians.

A “mummified mermaid.”

A “lamb skull” used for devil summoning.

“Necromancer Billy’s Grimoire,” which belonged to the one that was called the worst necromancer in history.

And lastly, A “magic stone that contains a soul,” which was good for black magic.

The rest were either well-made counterfeits or just useless trash. In the novel, it was some crazy female executive of Arcana that had entered that room and obtained these items, but now that I got it, I prevented my enemy from getting stronger.

I put those freaky items back inside and moved on. “Now then, next is the forgotten war funds.”

The king of 120 years ago, that is, Prince Yuan’s great grandfather, had secretly collected funds and supplies for the military and hid them in the seventh palace, afraid that a war may break out.

His prediction was proven to be true five years later, but the old king unfortunately died from a heart attack two prior. The officials that helped him gather those military funds knew about its existence, but only the king knew where it was hidden, so it was eventually forgotten.

The military funds that I found consisted of 20 boxes of gold bars, 30 boxes of silver bars, 250 boxes of magic stones, 500,000 arrowheads, 5,000 iron swords, a credit cheque that could be exchanged for 300,000 tons of wheat from the five great merchant guilds and finally, a credit cheque for a famous horse stable that could be used to get 1,000 horses.

After spending so much time and money to collect these things, they fought the war without it. It was surprising that this nation didn’t go down, but then again, that was the war in which Dallangta was drafted. There was a reason while the Wizzle family became a family of counts when they were just commoners before.

Rather than that, it was good that I asked Precia to keep watch outside. If she had seen what I had obtained, she would have definitely told me to cough it out to the royal family. I could easily estimate what her actions would be, she was a highly moral and noble knight that would even try to save her enemy that tried to hurt her.

“And lastly… this is nothing much.”

What I got from the eight palace was just a teddy bear that was accumulating dust in the warehouse. The teddy bear, which looked like it was used to hug to sleep, was an item gifted to the cathedral within the palace around 20 years ago when the church of the empire and the church of the kingdom had a cultural exchange.

The bishop back then gave it to the young princess as a gift but as princess grew older, the teddy bear naturally lost its use and was tossed into the warehouse. As for its effect, it acted as an amulet that drove demons away, and it was especially effective against the dream demons.

With the help of this teddy bear, Jade was able to defeat a succubus of quasi-duke rank. Apparently, for other demons, it was only enough to chase away low-level demons, so the effect was quite skewed.

“Well, fantasy novels are like that. It is more fun to get items that can be used just in specific situations.”

From the things I’ve experienced so far, there could be things not mentioned in the novel. For example, that goddamn Founder’s legacy or Aquila’s magic circuit which gave me the feeling of being scorched by fire.

Maybe there was some kind of timebomb ticking inside that I didn’t know of. The most suspicious things were the sadistic collection from the fourth palace but that was even more of a reason that I took everything. They were original items that the enemies obtained, so I could not leave behind any unknown risks that they might take advantage of.

“Your Highness, it is time.”

At Herion’s knock, I put the teddy bear in the inventory and closed it before stretching my arms out. The things I had obtained so far was not enough for my survival. There were many more things I had to acquire in advance from now on, whether it be items, or talents.

* * *

Queen Jamille Vuez di Vuarez von Duplion was heading to the reception room with a frown; there was a sudden visit for her during dinner. Seeing the queen in a bad mood, all of her attendants held their breaths, being careful to not get on her nerves.

If the queen, who was already famous for her terrible personality, was in a bad mood, handling her temper would be difficult even for the Mistress of the Robes whose emotions had dulled in her long years of work in the palace.

When the queen arrived at the reception room, she found a pink haired girl and a dark blue haired lady seated on the sofa for guests

The queen’s frown deepened. “Everyone, leave.”

At the queen’s command, all the attendants preparing tea and refreshments in the reception room left after quickly preparing the table. They prepared the table despite her orders because they knew they would be scolded later if they just left without making proper arrangements just because they were told so.

When only the queen and two guests were left in the room, the pink haired girl said playfully crossing her legs. “Wow! That’s so~ scary, Your Majesty, so fierce!”

As she giggled, the dark blue haired lady sitting next to her sighed and drank tea as if she was resigned to the situation.

Seeing those two, the queen yelled without taking a seat, “Why! Why are you here again! I did what you asked me to do! Why did you come here when you could not even take care of that fool!”

Hearing the queen’s furious shout, the pink haired girl laughed hard, grabbing her stomach.

“Nyahahahaha! Your Majesty! You’re so~ powerful! You’d do great even if you go to war right now~ don’t you think?”

When the girl asked for agreement, the blue-haired lady simply ignored her and spoke to the queen, “We are not here for that, so please calm down, Your Majesty. We are also not here to blame you.”

The queen’s eyebrows twitched as the lady’s words were getting on her nerves.

“Blame? You dare! Say that to the queen of this nation!”

The queen and Arcana had a strictly cooperative relationship out of necessity, and neither was subordinate to the other. Just seeing her use the word “blame” showed what the blue-haired lady thought of her.

When the queen’s anger peaked, the little girl again grabbed her stomach and laughed rolling on the sofa. “Nyahahahahaha! Nibel, you are still as terrible with your choice of words! Nyahahaha!”

“Shut up, Alisa! Please forgive me. I just wanted to say that the previous failure was not Your Majesty’s fault, so…”

Watching the lady called Nibel being flustered and speak hurriedly, the girl named Alisa wiped away her tears and stopped laughing.

“Phew! It’s been such a long time since I laughed like this.”

“But you laughed in the middle of the market right before we arrived!”

“Aah~! Did I? Well, let’s move on. Your Majesty, please forgive Nibel’s slip of the tongue. She only has experience dealing with people lower than her, so she can’t express her respect for others quite well, okay?”

The queen expressed her displeasure at Alisa’s words but realized that a useless scuffle would only waste her time and sat down. “So then, if you aren’t here for what happened last week, then why are you here?”

Nibel answered the queen’s question. “We are here to inform you that the failure this time has made the king unsettled, and thus we will be holding off the assassination of the first prince for the time being. Also, it is highly likely that the king will use this opportunity to deal with you, Your Maj—”

Bang!

“What was that?! Say that again!”

Alisa grabbed her stomach once again and laughed when the queen slammed down the table and glared at Nibel with bloodshot eyes. “Nyahahahaha! As expected of Nibel! Nyahahaha!”

“Oh! No, I just meant that…”

Alisa buried her face in the sofa and laughed out louder at embarrassed Nibel.

“Alisa!”

Alisa barely held back her laughter at Nibel’s earnest stare and spoke in her stead. “Nyaahahaha! Phew! Nibel means to say that we’re willing to help you out, since it looks like the king intends to put you in heck from how he called the first prince to dinner.”

Despite Alisa’s explanation, the queen’s anger did not subside. “I don’t need your help for a matter of that level! Get out right now!”

Alisa rose from her seat laughing like a lunatic seeing the angry queen.

“Nyahahaha! Nibel you ruined it~! You ruined it~!”

“Alisa! What are you doing making matters worse, much less helping!”

When the two looked like they were about to argue, the queen snapped out even further. “Haven’t you left already?! And next time, send someone else, not you two!”

The queen’s anger was justified. But her wishes didn’t come true.

* * *

At the appointed time, I headed to the first palace—the central palace. On the way there, I asked, “Herion, how much money can I use right now?”

Although I got my hands on the hidden military funds, it was ultimately money belonging to the royal family. While the money was no longer remembered by anyone, using that money would be considered misappropriate use of state funds, so I couldn’t use it so openly.

As soon as I used an amount of money beyond what I had, the queen who kept an eye on everything would naturally investigate the source of that money.

“We have 60,000 duples left of your personal funds, Your Highness, and around 50,000 for the budget for the palace for the first half of the year.”

Personal funds meant my allowance, and budget for the palace was the money used for maintenance and management of the detached palace. The salaries of the attendants and guards were separate.

The price of rye bread of the size of my head was about 3 duples, which would be around one US dollar. Based on that, my allowances was 20,000 dollars, and the maintenance fee was 16,600 dollars.

Putting my allowances aside for now, the maintenance fee for the detached palace was way too low. No matter how small the palace I lived in was when compared to other palaces, that budget was ridiculously insufficient to maintain a building.

There should be at least three times that amount for the palace to be maintained properly. It seemed that Herion was having a hard time.

“Wait. I don’t remember spending money in particular.”

Even in the memories of Prince Yuan, he only played in the garden and read books. There were no memories of him spending any money on luxury items.

“How much money do I get per year?”

“Seven thousand duples, Your Highness.”

“Seven thousand…!?”

This damned woman! How could a member of the royalty get less than 2,500 dollars a year for upkeeping appearances!

I was wondering why the prince didn’t have many attires used for social events, and it turned out it was her fault. If it was known that a member of an upper social gathering turned out to be changing between a few sets of clothes, or were wearing just one set continuously, they would likely receive a huge humiliation.

So, in other words, the queen basically prevented me from debuting in high society by drastically reducing my allowance. Preventing a prince who didn’t have firm support from entering the high society… it was obvious what her aims were.

“I’m surprised that I managed to save up 60 thousand with a puny income like that.”

Herion smiled in bitterness at my genuine exclamation before quickly hiding his expression. “That is because you are diligent, Your Highness.”

“Really? But I’m not anymore.”

Precia and Herion looked at me in surprise as I smiled full of mischief. “I will talk to my father about the maintenance fee for the palace today. Then we’ll be allocated enough money so that you don’t have to be worried anymore.”

Of course, the increase in the maintenance fee for the palace didn’t mean that we could use it. Even if the king were to increase the budget, it was the queen who carried out the accounting for the palaces. If the queen were to start cutting down the budget little by little, I would be back to zero in no time.

Hearing my words, Herion was startled out of his wits and stopped me. “No, I am fine, so if you are going to ask for something from His Majesty, you should ask something for yourself.”

I smirked at his advice. “Don’t be mistaken. This is for my sake too.”

No matter how hard I thought, simply changing the diet and exercising weren’t going to cut it to transform this trashy body. I felt that I’d at least have to get some of the elixirs that appeared in the novel regularly to get on the level of a normal person.

But to do that, I would have to spend money as if I am pouring money into my blood vessels.

“Your Highness…”

It wasn’t something I intended, everyone, including not just Herion and Precia, but also the other knights who were temporarily assigned to escort me, looked at me from afar with admiration.

You’re making me embarrassed if you look at me like that.

“It seems we’ve arrived.”

I smacked my lips looking at the biggest building in the royal palace.

Okay then, shall I start my extortion?