Warning! Reading this book may make it more difficult for you to confront and defeat your heart demons. Read at your own peril.

  — Excerpt from On Sooting

  Day 382, 1:30 PM

  “Thank you, Master Dandelion,” Watcher handed me a much bigger and lighter sack than the usual reward. “This is a token of Lord Helmsworth’s appreciation. Your mission bounty still awaits at the adventurers’ guild. Lady Helmsworth also said she would send a gift at your lodgings once it is finished.”

  The cold, impersonal mask vanished, and the butler suddenly became a human being. “And I must thank you as well. While I am aware this is only a job for you, I have raised Young Master since he was a child, and seeing him genuinely happy and free for the first time in years warms my heart. Thank you.”

  Watcher gave me his hand, and I shook it. The firm squeeze told me everything I needed to know, both about him as a man and his strength as a mageknight.

  With the job done and fifty fourth realm crystals reward from the guild, I decided it was time to fully focus on sculpting my realm.

  In Thunderbluff, I worked hard, loop after loop, to make the lives of the common folk decent and the streets safe. In Glory City, even the lowest of the common folk could afford medical care impossible outside the walls. The poor didn’t exist by virtue of them not being able to survive in the first place. Should any resident of Glory City lack the funds to support themselves, the law enforcers summarily kicked them out with whatever money they had; which was usually sacks of gold, enough to see them through a comfortable life outside the city.

  This meant that instead of the majority of the residents knowing my face and name, I was a low-key individual, free to pursue my own interests.

  While I stayed in the city, my fifty fourth realm manarium crystals were decent wealth, but nothing anyone would kill me for, especially with the Helmsworths’ backing. Outside, it would be a completely different story. Instead of letting plotters endanger me, I needed to turn those funds into strength and knowledge before leaving. Better yet, I could attain the proper realm in which such wealth came naturally. The latter meant spending some two to three years in Glory City.

  While plans for the future lay heavily on my mind, I considered whether I should go to my room at the guild and check my reward, but the comfortably full sack wasn’t going anywhere, and I had my realm to sculpt.

  By the time I left the scribes’ guild, night had fallen, but that didn’t impact the adventurers’ guild. I arrived at the well-lit hall, turned my mission in, and got a bunch of manarium on my account. With the formalities settled, I headed for my room to finally check the sack’s contents in what privacy I could afford.

  The pouch turned out to be empty, yet when closed, remained in the shape as if it had something inside.

  Could this be?

  I sent a surge of mana into the sack, and it sucked it in.

  It is!

  I spent most of the rest of the night playing with the spatial pouch, binding it to myself and storing Batsy and other large items, such as my bed, into it, then pulling them out.

  A trickle of mana gave me an idea of how much space there was in the bag and allowed me to search for an item inside. Retrieving or storing an item drained mana from me through the connection I had established, but the drain was surprisingly humble, given I was storing an entire bed made for a seven-foot-tall person into a sack too small to fit a pair of boots.

  The novelty eventually ran off, leaving behind the wonder at the item’s craftsmanship. I sensed no magic from the bag when it should’ve been a bonfire of mana, and I found no runes or visible enchantments.

  For all intents and purposes, the spatial pouch was just a regular sack, comfortably filled with something relatively light.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  I’ve wasted a night’s rest. The sun would rise in an hour or two, so I had enough time for a nap before I headed out.

  Just as I shut my eyes, a knock came from the door, snapping me awake.

  “Master Dandelion, you have been summoned to the palace.”

  What? Lord Helmsworth’s promised referral came to mind immediately. I could only hope he didn’t set me up to treat the prince’s heart demons. An eighth realm imperial could accidentally crush me in an enraged outburst.

  Still, there was no avoiding imperial summons. “I’ll be right out.”

  I didn’t bother to freshen up, instead stepping out and coming face to face with the Glory City’s adventurers’ guildmaster. He handed me an envelope of gold with specs of green, the overwhelming amount of gold hinting at the prince’s high status within his family’s hierarchy.

  “Good luck,” the guildmaster said and left.

  I cracked open the seal of a man strangling a dragon and found a simple note. I was expected at the palace’s seventh garden at nine in the morning.

  Three hours, I realized after taking a moment to focus on my internal clock. My clothes were decent enough for the imperial city, but probably lacking for an imperial audience.

  I went back into my room to take a shower, wash my hair, and brush my teeth. Etiquette demanded perfect hygiene. Clean, pressed clothes would have been preferable, but I had none. Another knock came while I was in the middle of the shower. I wrapped my nethers with a towel, drew the water off my body, and opened the door.

  “Special delivery from the Infinite Spool, Your Lordship.” A man appearing to be in his fifties stood with a suit bag held in a fully extended arm, as if keeping the suit away from himself.

  “Must be a mistake; I’ve never heard of the Infinite Spool.”

  “Master Dandelion Blackfist?” the man asked, and I nodded.

  “It’s not a mistake, Your Lordship. This is the formal attire. Casual, training, and sportswear will be ready by tomorrow morning.”

  Lady Helmsworth also said she would send a gift at your lodgings once it is finished, I recalled Watcher’s words.

  “Very well, thank you. Might I inquire about the cost of the suit?”

  “Pardon, Your Lordship, I just run deliveries.” He gave me the bag, bowed, and left.

  I closed the door once more and opened the bag. Inside was a sky-blue suit, not a single crease on it. A faint aura of mana emanated from it, enchantments woven into the fabric.

  I don’t have time for this. Instead of inspecting the runework, I went to finish my grooming, then got dressed and left in a hurry.

  “Which bullet station is the closest to the palace?” I asked the guild official working the counter.

  “Take the coach, Sir, it’ll be faster. The palace complex doesn’t have a bullet station.”

  “Thanks.” I grabbed one of the coaches parked in front of the guild, the driver getting off his seat and bowing when I told him I was going to the palace.

  This place’s culture is so messed up. I wonder whether every prince’s city is like this? What about royal capitals?

  I looked out the window, but the fascinating architecture from when I had first arrived had grown mundane and boring. The architecture was the same everywhere, the building materials identical, and even the general layout of city blocks was similar with a handful of exceptions in the form of the guilds’ block and the one which housed the nobles and important personages.

  The road was impossibly smooth, or the coach’s suspension was incredible, because we didn’t hit a single bump during the entire ride to the palace.

  I looked out the window as we approached. I had around fifteen minutes left until my appointment when the walls came into view - solid gold framed with deep green columns equally spaced every twenty yards or so.

  The exact ratio of gold and green as on the envelope - I couldn’t help but notice. The entire city was a complex statement of status and power. The question was - why? Had the imperials really been so impossibly powerful compared to the other families, they wouldn’t need to make special statements, nor remind everyone of their power.

  I had also been an absolute ruler of the world, and I didn’t need to remind anyone about my power. Something about the situation didn’t sit well with me. What I was seeing was the work of insecure sons following in their fathers’ footsteps, rather than absolute power.

  A giant golden gate remained closed as the coach stopped in front of it.

  “I can’t go further, Your Lordship.”

  “That’s fine; how much was the fare?”

  “Five thousand nine hundred, Your Lordship.” Half the Thunderbluff’s population would’ve had a stroke hearing those words, but I paid in two notes, and left the carriage, letting the man keep the change.

  “Master Dandelion?” A guard stepped away from the unit standing before the colossal gate and approached me.

  “That would be me, Your Lordship,” I added the honorific just in case, since he was at the fifth realm.

  “Drop the formalities while I’m on duty and you’re a guest.”

  “Yes, Sir.” I nearly saluted from the way he snapped the words.

  “Now, follow me. The princess is waiting for you.”

  Princess?