To use the stick on the people he was teaching, Adrian went to Evran, who was still suffering from nightmares of the night they had tortured Donald Stump.
Seeing him in such a pathetic condition, Adrian thought,
How will I have this bastard eliminate rivals for me ?
If he is this badly hurt from just torture, I think he’s the type to draw the lines, not assassinating everyone he’s told to.
He won’t cut it.
I need to find myself a fanatic who would have cross every line to follow my orders.
That was what Adrian decided.
But Evran was all Adrian had at the moment, so he thought he should use him as much as he could.
He told Evran that he needed some heinous criminals to be punished via decapitation.
Evran agreed to the request.
Soon enough, he found ten of them and gave the list to the Prince.
“Should I eliminate them all?”
Adrian shook his head.
“No. They are more beneficial to me alive than dead.”
So, Adrian raided three of those criminals with his guards and captured them.
One was responsible for murder.
Another was responsible for fraud.
The last was responsible for cannibalism.
Adrian looked at the three of them.
“Perfect.”
He was now very excited for the next day.
The next morning, before the class gathered, Adrian sent Ronald out on an errand.
He knew Ronald would have far too many questions once he saw what was about to happen.
Adrian also didn’t give anyone in the class any meals beforehand because he knew it would become a mess afterward.
Then he took those three criminals and chained them to chairs in front of the class, with their mouths tightly covered with cloth.
Marcus stood before the students and, on Adrian’s orders, began reading out their crimes.
The first criminal had betrayed the Prince by revealing his information to someone else.
As soon as Marcus finished reading, the man’s neck fell down, and blood splattered everywhere.
Seeing that much blood, several people immediately vomited.
Adrian was not very happy about that.
Marcus then continued.
He pointed toward the second criminal.
“This one tried to steal from the Prince.”
Once again, as soon as he finished reading, the man’s limbs were severed.
After few minutes, he died of blood loss.
That was enough to make even more of the students vomit.
Seeing the fate of the first two criminals, the entire class was stunned by the consequences of betraying the Prince. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Then came the third criminal.
But before Marcus could read out his crimes, the man suddenly collapsed.
He was dead.
He suddenly stopped any movement like the other two did and when Adiran checked him, he came to the conclusion that he is dead.
The third criminal hadn’t even been able to imagine what awaited him at the hands of the Prince.
He had been so terrified that his heart had simply given out before Adrian could even order his execution.
Marcus looked toward Adrian.
Adrian raised his hand.
“Don’t bother.”
There was no point in reading the man’s crimes anymore.
He was already dead.
The students stared at the body.
They had no idea what the man’s crime had been.
Adrian was disappointed that he had not been able to sentence the third man himself.
But then he thought about it.
Perhaps the fear of his unknown crimes will be even more useful.
If someone ever tried to poach his people away, they would remember that there was a criminal whose crimes had been so terrible that even the Prince hadn’t bothered revealing them.
Before starting the day’s class began, Adrian ordered someone to clean all the blood, bodies, and vomit.
Once everything had been cleaned, he finally began teaching the class again.
During the lesson, Adrian intentionally made a mistake.
Then he waited.
He wanted to see if anyone would point it out.
But his theatrical display of barbarism had been a little too powerful.
Even Adrian realized that.
His stick had become much more powerful than he had actually intended.
So he addressed the entire class.
“You are allowed to disagree with me.
You are allowed to point out my mistakes.
“But you are not allowed to challenge my authority.
“That display was for you to understand what happens when you betray me, not when you disagree with me.”
He looked around the room.
“Now, who will point out my mistake?”
There was complete silence.
One minute passed.
Then another.
Five minutes passed in absolute silence and Adrian was just staring at them wondering when will anyone ever even if gather the courage to speak up.
Finally, one girl slowly raised her hand.
She pointed out Adrian’s mistake.
“Good.”
He praised her for her honesty and rewarded her.
Then Adrian reinforced the carrot once again.
“Those who eventually work for me will receive my protection and a salary of five gold coins a month.”
The use of royal currency had not yet reached the outer regions of the central area, so gold and silver coins were still the most prominent forms of currency used there.
Time passed.
The year 107 of the Valcrestian calendar arrived.
Which meant that it has been now begun 107th year since the Valcrestian dynasty came to power in the kingdom of Asterra.
Adrian was now six years old.
The entire staff of the bank had been trained and selected, and the bank was ready to begin functioning at any moment.
Adrian had also released the middle ten students into the open market.
All ten of them were hired by Aldren Morcant.
Aldren was planning to open a rival bank to Adrian’s.
Adrian didn’t like it much.
But he was bound by his own words.
He had promised that the middle ten would be allowed to work in the market as they saw fit.
Therefore, he did not threaten any of them to prevent them from joining Aldren.
The drought had also finally ended.
Agricultural taxes were reestablished and Aldren was paid back every penny he had lent for the royal tribute with intrest.
Adrian’s bank, named the Royal Bank, officially began its operations.
But there was a big problem heading his way.
Most of the people of Valewood were uneducated.
The educated and wealthy people didn’t trust Adrian enough to put their money into his bank after his stunt with Donald Stump.
Meanwhile, Aldren’s bank, named the Valewood Bank, was booming.
Almost all the rich people were part of Aldren’s network and avoided Adrian.
The people who trusted Adrian were the poor.
Unfortunately, most of them were illiterate and had very little money to deposit.
As a result, Adrian’s bank was becoming a complete flop.
He was losing money.
Meanwhile, Aldren was enjoying wealth greater than he had ever dreamed of.
Adrian was not taking this well at all.
He wanted to slit that bastard’s throat this instant.
But he couldn’t.
And so, Adrian made a decision.
He decided that he was going to destroy everything that Aldren Morcant had before killing him.