Chapter 548: DYSTOPIAN B*LLSHIT

“WHY DO you look so satisfied?” Nero asked Hanna. “Is the Gardening Club interesting?”

“It is,” Hanna, who was sitting across from him inside the royal carriage headed back to the palace, said excitedly. Her face was beaming, and she even showed him the black fingerless gloves that she was wearing. Those gloves weren’t a part of her usual outfit, since she was the type of student who would wear her uniform properly. “And I received these gloves from the club president.”

He tilted his head to one side. “I understand why you’d need gloves in gardening. But those aren’t the type of gloves I imagine you’d use, though. Moreover, why are they laced with magic?”

“As expected, you noticed it,” she said, her face still brimming with excitement. “These are customized gloves that the Gardening Club requested to the academy. After all, we need to be properly equipped when dealing with poisonous plants.”

His eyes went wide a little. “The Gardening Club handles poisonous plants?”

“It’s actually the reason why I joined the club,” she said, smiling. “Did you think it was an ordinary Gardening Club?”

He nodded in admittance. “I mean, I know you enjoy gardening. You almost put the royal gardener out of commission when you renovated the garden in the Luna Palace.”

.....

She laughed softly. “I still enjoy normal gardening, and I’ll continue doing so in the future. However, it doesn’t hurt to learn a new skill.”

“A new skill, you say?” he asked, smirking. “I can’t wait for the Shadow Queen to turn into Poison Queen soon.”

“I believe someone else already owns that title in the academy.”

“Then just steal it.”

Hanna just laughed it off. “Anyway, aren’t you going to join a club? We only have a few days left before the recruitment period ends.”

“I’m not going to join a club- I’m building one.”

She looked surprised. “Really? Do they allow freshman students to build a club?”

“Well, I’m the Crown Prince,” he said, shrugging. “The Royal Moon Academy was founded by my ancestors. Why would they deny me the right to make my own club?”

“Nero, you’re abusing your authority.”

“I am,” he said shamelessly. “But I use my privilege to do good things. After all, I want to make the empire a better and safer place for Neoma.”

Hanna let out a sigh while shaking her head. “What kind of club are you planning to make then?”

“A Neoma Fanclub where the members and I will spend our time worshipping Neoma.”

“You’re joking, right?”

He was about to say that of course, it was a joke. But...

“A Neoma Fanclub already exists in the palace,” she said with a straight face. “Why do you need to build one at school?”

His jaw dropped, surprised. “Who founded that club?”

Hanna looked at her hard, then she suddenly burst out laughing. “I was just joking, Nero. Moreover, I also know that you were joking about building a Neoma Fanclub. You hate sharing your precious twin sister with the world, so I don’t think you’d like seeing other people “worship” her.”

Well, she was right.

He would keep Neoma to himself if he could.

However, right at that very moment, he got distracted while watching Hanna laugh freely. She was very different from the Hanna he remembered.

When did she learn how to laugh so freely like that?

[The Hanna I remember is very reserved. She smiles politely, but she laughs as quietly as possible like how noblewomen were taught to behave. However, she’s laughing without inhibitions now.]

It was a nice change to see.

“You don’t have to tell me about your club until you’re ready to do so,” Hanna said, smiling. “As long as it’s a harmless club, I’ll support you.”

“Thank you,” he said, nodding. “I’ll invite you to join my club once the necessary preparations are complete.”

Their conversation ended when the royal carriage finally arrived at the Royal Palace.

He was surprised when he saw his father and mother waiting for them after he and Hanna stepped out of the royal carriage. Moreover, he noticed that the servants and the knights were standing as far away as possible from his parents. That made him think that his parents had something to say to them that the servants shouldn’t hear.

Of course, that made him worry right away.

[I hope nothing bad happened to Neoma.]

“Father, Mother,” Nero greeted his parents, then he got straight to the point. “Did you hear from Neoma?”

He had just sent Lewis and Jasper Hawthorne to the East Continent a few hours ago...

“It’s not about your sister,” his father said firmly. “Like we expected, the crows really attacked the queen of Hazelden Kingdom as soon as Kyle Sprouse escaped.”

That meant the former count leaked the secret of the new saint to the crows.

[Kyle Sprouse has really turned his back on Father.]

“The damage the attack caused is pretty severe,” his mother added worriedly. “Queen Brigitte is currently in a comatose state.”

He was shocked to hear that.

To be honest, he didn’t feel the need to send reinforcement to the Hazelden Kingdom since he thought Sire Glenn and Dahlia were enough to deal with the crows. Neoma also mentioned sending Manu, the Moon Priest, to protect the queen.

[And yet, they still suffered great damage?]

Then...

“Then how about Miss Dahlia?” Nero asked worriedly. “Is she alright?”

His parents looked at him strangely.

historical

And he understood why.

Even to his own ears, he sounded crazy worried about Dahlia.

[Tsk.]

Nero calmed himself down before he turned to Hanna who was standing a few steps behind him. “Hanna, please don’t misunderstand.”

“I’m not misunderstanding anything, Prince Nero” Hanna said, addressing him formally in front of his parents. She looked calm on the outside, yet she sounded cold and distant at the moment. “I believe Your Royal Highness has something important to discuss with His Majesty and Lady Roseheart. I’ll excuse myself now.”

Then Hanna politely said goodbye to his parents before leaving.

His father, the emperor, patted his shoulder out of sympathy.

“Son, aren’t you going to follow Hanna?” his mother asked carefully. “Your father and I will wait at the conference room to discuss our next move to protect Queen Brigitte and the new saint.”

“It’s alright, Mother,” Nero said firmly. He felt bad for Hanna, but he already decided to break their engagement soon. Maybe this was for the best. “The current crisis is more important than my personal affairs.”

***

NEOMA wanted to walk the flower road, not the bloody path.

However, at the moment, her children (with Greko’s exception) were literally painting the town red with their enemies’ blood.

Not really ‘enemies,’ per se.

But since they were obviously of noble blood, and this place was swarming with hardcore criminals, they didn’t have a choice but to spill blood.

After all, most criminals there wanted to either sexually assault them or sell them as prostitutes. She was glad that her children couldn’t fully understand the vulgar things that the criminals were saying while planning how to “ravish” each one of them. She wanted to spare her children the details.

Hence, she would only point at the bastards who wanted to harm them.

She only had two instructions for her children: first, cut off their tongues. Then their penises.

Killing those bastards was also an option, but that would make the entire town their enemies. And she didn’t have time for that. Hence, they only resorted to “self-defense.” She also didn’t want her children to expose their actual strength, so she asked the three to use normal swords laced with a small amount of their Mana.

[So noisy.]

She could ignore the violence that Juri, Paige, and Jeno were inflicting on the enemies.

However, the agonizing cries of the criminals were hurting her ears.

Of course, she didn’t feel bad for them. She just hated the noise. But she had to endure because if she snapped, she might kill everyone around them.

[I can’t open the Hellgate when I know that Regina and the other crows might be here.]

“Greko, we’re almost in the inn,” Neoma said. She was holding Greko’s hand while walking. “Don’t open your eyes until I say so.”

Greko was walking with his eyes closed because she told him to do that. “Okay, eomma.”

“You’re so protective, my wifey,” Trevor, who caught on that she was hiding the fact that she was a royal princess, “whined” while calling her “wifey.” Argh, so cringe. “Our youngest will grow weak if you dote on him too much. When I was his age, I already killed a few men-”

“Just because you experienced it doesn’t mean we should normalize traumatizing children,” Neoma snapped, cutting off Trevor who was walking beside her. “And stop calling me ‘wifey’ or else I’ll burn your oxygen mask.”

Trevor pouted while complaining. “So strict.”

She just rolled her eyes at the demon boy.

Thankfully, just before they reached the one and only inn on the island, the criminals around them finally gave up on them.

“Very good, children,” Neoma praised her children. “Let’s check in so you could get a warm and nice bath.”

.....

After all, her children were literally soaked with blood.

[I’m just glad that it’s not their blood.]

“You can’t enter the inn without buying air from us,” the old man, who was sitting beside the inn’s entrance, said. The old man, just like them, was wearing what seemed to be an oxygen mask. “I see that you already have your own mask. But, if you want to stay in this inn, then you must follow our rules.”

Hah.

Neoma couldn’t believe that on this island, people had to PAY just to be able to breathe clean air.

[What kind of dystopian bullshit is this?]

But the oxygen mask that the old man wore caught her attention.

To be precise, the air inside the small tank where the mask was attached looked familiar.

It was glowing with bluish balls of light.

[It’s divine power similar to mine,] Neoma wondered to herself. [There might be a divine being here.]

And that divine being was selling AIR?!

[My hand is itching to punch something...]

Preferably, a capitalist (divine) pig.

***

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