Chapter 197 - Athena, the Goddess of Strategy

  Damn Goddess of Strategy! She uncovered the identity of the person who wants to kill me in just five minutes of versation!

  I go the side and saw Athena beaming, sav a dessert Martha had prepared. She looked visibly happy, which, sidering the situation, was almost ical.

  "Oh, how wonderful this is!" she said with a mischievous smile. "Look at this froze! This thing called homemade ice cream is delightful! I’ll promote Martha to be my priestess!" She ughed while enjoying the dessert.

  I could only sigh.

  "Glutton..." I muttered, returning to my own ice cream.

  Athena had the ability to create a ghost copy of anything I touched. She used it to eat, and the stra part was that once she made a copy of the food and ate it, I couldn’t gee anhost copy of that dish for her. If she wanted more, I’d have to touch a different dish.

  Now, on top of everything, I’m forced to pamper this crazy woman as a reward for what she’s done...

  I looked away, trying to avoid seeing Athena’s satisfied smile while she ate. Watg my aremy making happy and cute faces while enjoying herself wasn’t a very pleasant sight for me.

  Nikous Wolves... so it’s you who wants me dead...

  I started thinking about the 35,000 gold s; it was a true fortune.

  My family earns 40,000 gold s annually, a siderably higher amount than the nobles around us. A marquis in an agricultural duchy bring in up to 8,000 gold s a year, but that figure is often reduced by nd maintenance costs. A t earween 3,000 to 5,000 gold s, while a vist gees between 2,000 to 3,000 s. Meanwhile, a baron usually has an annual ine of 1,000 to 2,000 gold s.

  I kept p.

  Noble merts, like the families of students studying in Apsalon, though they ck politiobility, earween 400 to 1,000 gold s per year. With the right es, their fortunes grow further, rivaling the earnings of some les. To amass 35,000 gold s for my head, this faust have pooled their wealth.

  The memory of st night’s versation with my family came to mind. I had shared Athena’s dedu with them, and everyone was surprised. Nikous Wolves had struck a peace deal with my aunt over 10 years ago and even supported her financial projects within the duchy. He even provided information on gang locations to our military, helping dismantle hideouts.

  I guess he was just eliminating his petition in the duchy...

  We always knew Nikous had ties to the underworld, but the truth is that most politiobles had some involvement in destine affairs. I’m not talking about major crimes but smuggling cigars, wine from neighb kingdoms, or terfeit artworks—minor offehat were part of the noble game. My aunt often turned a blio such activities, as we weren’t about to pursue a noble simply for smuggling a box of wio avoid taxes. It was sidered trivial.

  Even my family produced illicit substahrough Yusuf, but the goal was tthen me and aking us immuo addi and poison. Raiding a noble’s home just because they liked to indulge was never something we did.

  Nikous, however, raised the fg of peace a decade ago and pyed a crucial role in pacifying the nobles who opposed my aunt’s trol over the duchy.

  For years, we remained suspicious, but after my official reition as heir by the kingdom, he could ouch me. If he dared, his entire family would fanation. We never expected him to be so bold, yet here we are.

  Chloe was saddeo learn that the motive behind all of this... was to create the same crisis that arose when I wasn’t officially reized. With me out of the picture, and if these people could damage the duchy’s ey, they might attempt to force my aunt to marry her off once again.

  I hope my cousin’s future husband isn’t too shocked when he discovers a line of crazed nobles vying for her hand…

  I remember the look of sorrow on her face when she found out, and I sigh.

  I'll o talk to Chloe to reassure her… she's feeling guilty.

  When I presehe information, we had to discuss and assess all possible sarios. We couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone was trying to interfere with the duchy, f internal discord. Skilled assassins from a legitimate assassin anization had many ways of destabilizing a gover, and my aunt had told me stories of assassins usiion teiques to infiltrate and manipute nobles. However, most of these anizations were wiped out and are now just meraries.

  Only two families still honor the old assassin rules: mine and the Asalon family with their Night Killers. They don’t know my family was on a anization, as all of these groups were hunted down in the past because the Founding Emperor didn't want them among his nobility.

  This was one of the main reasons why our family maintaihe tradition of only marrying those within our circle. My father marrying my mother was an exception, even though my te uncle followed the rule by marrying Aunt Margie, who was a castle servant.

  After we raised the possibility that someone might be trying to sabotage our duchy, Athena came to me with a suggestion. She advised me to tell my aunt to iigate the finances of all noble families within the duchy, cheg for suspicious transas. It wouldn’t directly prove anything, but it could reveal whiobles had moved rge sums of money retly. After all, they would o use both illicit funds and their fortuo gather 35,000 gold s.

  Martha, ever practical, used an expensive device reserved for politiobility—a kind of magical scroll that allowed for message exge. It was costly and had limited use, being useless o reached its limit. She unicated with my aunt, shared our discoveries, and requested an iigation into the nobles' finances. I expected it to take at least a week, but to my surprise, by this m, after 12 intense hours of iigation, we already had an answer.

  It was exactly as Athena had predicted. Signifit financial movements were detected, to the point that Nikous Wolves himself was on the brink of financial trouble. And ironically, all the nobles who made rge transas were part of the fa that, ten years ago, wanted Chloe's hand in marriage.

  I sighed.

  Damn Goddess of Strategy… she thought of everything…

  A shiver ran down my spine as I recalled the time I faced Athena as an enemy. Her precision was relentless. To defeat her, I gathered all the powers of Olympus, resurrected os, enlisted the strength of the ean race, guided by the smartest Titan, my friend Prometheus... and still, that bastard almost defeated me in the end.

  "I'm not doing this for you, Icarus," she said while dev her ice cream with a mischievous grin.

  "And I don’t want your friendship either, you crazy psychopath. Let me guess, you only helped me because you became a fan of Martha?"

  "Of course! She’s perfect. If I were a man… I’d marry her," Athena replied with her usual taunt.

  I stood up, ign the goddess.

  I’m broken inside and barely lift a spoon… but she's right, this homemade ice cream is really good…

  I had to admit that Athena was right this time.

  I stop and realize that Athena solved the mystery of my enemy’s identity in five minutes just because she wao get back to dinner.

  These nobles made a mistake by messing with someone haunted by the damn Goddess of Strategy.