Chapter 3: Gray Haired Girl

"Anatol." Ciel replied. The Anatol kingdom, also known as the land of beauty, was on the other side of the ocean. Although it was a kingdom, it only occupied a small part of the eastern continent. The rest was a neutral land. It was the perfect place to go to avoid his father and play around before the story began.

However, Ciel's plans were shattered when the man's eyes flickered apologetically.

"I deeply apologize, Anatol is currently going through a turbulent period. The first and second princes of Anatol are currently fighting for the throne and it's currently almost impossible for outsiders to get in." "Almost impossible means that I can still go there." Ciel insisted.

"Correct. However, only clients who pay 100,000 gold coins for a gold order or higher can go there. Are you willing to pay?" The man's eyes squinted.

That was a whole 87,000 gold Ciel didn't have. He mentally slapped his head, 'This must be when Dominic, harem member number 3 is taking over. Hah… It doesn't matter, if going to Anatol was impossible, I would just have to disguise myself and travel beyond the Acyuta empire to the smaller kingdoms. Then I'll find an opportunity to go to Anatol later. With the fairy bloodline running through my veins, I have a long future in front of me.'

"Forget it then." Ciel got up, but the man stopped him. "What?"

The man held out his hand, "Payment for the cookie you ate."

Ciel pulled out a gold coin. He had forgotten to exchange his gold coins for copper or silver coins.

The man was about to pull his hand back when Ciel stopped him, "What?"

Ciel smiled under his hood, "A cookie isn't that expensive. Give me my change."

"There's no need to be so stingy."

"I'm a very poor person." Ciel cooly replied. 'Says the man who wants payment for a single cookie!'

"I'll give you 10 silver coins."

"A cookie isn't 90 silver coins. Give me 99 silver coins and 99 copper coins."

"50 silver coins."

"99 silver coins."

"60."

"99."

"80!"

"90. How expensive can a single cookie be?" Ciel played with a lock of his hair lazily.

Oops, now his hands were dusty.

"85 silver coins." The man gritted his teeth.

"85 then, and I want that ribbon around your hair." Ciel pointed at the man's hair. Ciel's hair had gotten too long for his liking, and he was only keeping himself from chopping most of it off because he could go to the barbershop later and sell it for money.

The man sullenly reached into his pockets and gave Ciel the money. Ciel smiled and pulled the ribbon from the man's hair. 'I can sell this later.'

He wasn't experienced with higher quality goods but the ribbon was decorated with intricate gold patterns and anything with gold on it wouldn't be a lower product.

Since he wasn't going to Anatol anymore, Ciel immediately went to a barbershop. On the way, he passed by a large gate.

'Smoke?' He frowned. He could definitely smell smoke. There was no food scent mixed in so it wasn't from a late-night barbecue. Ciel could sense that the fire was close by, but nothing was burning around him. He turned around, the smoky smell seemed to come from behind the mansion gates.

Digging into his memories, Ciel quickly tied his long hair into a braid with the new ribbon and climbed over the gate. As he expected, he felt himself pass through a barrier as he jumped off the wall. The perfectly intact mansion he had seen from behind the gate was now filled with dark red flames.

'If my memory is correct, during this time, Duke Apach's mansion was silently burned to the ground in the capital as an act of terrorism from a sub-organization under the demons. No one noticed the mansion burning until the next morning.

When the mansion appeared, it was as if it had burned down all in one second. All members of the household were massacred, leaving a nine-year-old heir behind. From then on, that child darkened and hated demons. He later became the loyal dog of the heroine's harem and was the bast*rd who suggested for the novel me to be left in the demon horde.'

Ciel covered his mouth and nose as he dived into the mansion.

'If I could save at least one of his parents, maybe he won't go dark and become the heroine's dog. Besides, I've never been in a burning mansion before. This should be interesting.' His eyes glinted with excitement.

By now, Ciel was starting to hear the screams of servants. There must have also been a sound barrier around the mansion.

Stepping into a room, Ciel frowned. Corpses wearing servant garbs were lying all over the floor, their hearts were neatly torn out of their chests, with crimson blood staining the floors. It was evident there were no living people here. Ciel stepped over their bodies, making his way down the burning blood-soaked halls.

'This sub-organization deserves their name of being the terrorism part of the demons.' He pulled the hood tighter over his head. From some various testing back in the tower, the white robe was self-cleaning, water resistant, fire resistant, had a temperature adjustment, and would adjust to the owner's body size. Other than being white and flashy, it was incredibly convenient, especially in a burning mansion.

As Ciel walked around, he admired the flames licking the walls. The air was hot, smoky, and uncomfortable while the fire's light was burning his eyes. However, the crimson-red color of the flames was beautiful. Ciel selectively ignored the corpses on the floor.

'Here it is.' Ciel stopped before an almost collapsed door. He easily kicked it down, not bothering to check if anyone was behind it. In the novel, the loyal dog said that he had dragged his parents close to the windows as his father tried to activate an alarm crystal before they all fainted due to the smoke. The window was in the back of the room.

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'Found them.' Next to the window, three unconscious people were heaped in a pile. A couple and a child under them. The man had his hand on an alarm crystal but had passed out before activating it. Fortunately, the arsonist had left, leaving the trio to die from the fire.

From the novel, Ciel knew that the arsonists had injured the Apache couple enough so that they would die slowly, but not immediately. He didn't know whether it was to give them a chance or if it was a sick joke—to have misguided hope was painful.

He checked the trio's breathing, they were all still alive. 'I wonder how the couple died in the novel. From their body condition, even in a smoky area, they should be able to survive until they are found the next morning.'

From his space ring, he took out the bed sheets he had taken from the tower and tore them into strips before wrapping up the trio's bloodiest wounds; there wasn't time to properly treat them, so Ciel opted to stop the blood from flowing out.

After he finished, he grabbed the alarm crystal. It would send an emergency help signal to the other holder of the crystal as soon as any mana was injected inside of it. Ciel inserted his mana inside. The crystal instantly lit up before vanishing.

Crack.

Ciel looked up at the sound above his head. 'Sh*t!' He quickly formed a non-attribute mana barrier as the roof caved in—he couldn't risk tainting his blood with rubble. Tainted blood couldn't return to his body, so he would lose a lot of blood if he had formed a blood barrier.

'So this was how they died. The loyal dog only survived because they had been protecting him with their bodies.' He remembered the couple's postures when he had first found them and sighed, 'How come I don't have such good parents? One is a psycho and one is dead.'

Using his remaining miniscule amount of mana, Ciel started to dig an opening in the rubble above his barrier. Help should come soon since anyone who would receive a help signal from the duke would be an influential and powerful noble. That was good for the Apache family but bad for him.

Due to Caesar's love for his wife, he had shown her to all the aristocrats, and Ciel had inherited almost all her features, giving him androgynous features even when he was a boy. Anyone with a brain would be able to tell he was her son.

That would potentially land Ciel back into the Emperor's hands. Since the Apache family was secure, he should leave.

With another shove, the rubble was cleared away. When Ciel popped his head out, it was pouring rain. He quickly cut his hand and spun the blood that poured out into thin strings to carry the family of three carefully under a large tree a distance from the ruins of the mansion.

His physical condition as a weak nine-year-old didn't permit him to carry them with his body alone, and non-attribute magic could only do so much. After thinking about it, Ciel thoughtfully left the remains of his bedsheet on them and left.

The bed sheets were unusable anyway. Why would he carry them around? He still had curtains as emergency bandages anyway. Besides, he reasoned, injured people needed to be kept warm and dry.

Just as Ciel left the Apache premises, a lone figure rushed to the scene.

He approached the ruins quickly before noticing the family of three under the tree. He checked their breathing and sighed in relief when he found they were only unconscious.

'They're alone?' He looked around suspiciously, grasping the activated alarm crystal in his hands. The mana inside was not any of the Apache family member's mana. Every mage had their own unique mana signature that would be left behind when they used mana. The man was familiar with most of the mage signatures from his empire and none of them matched the mana in the alarm crystal.

'Was it a foreign mage passing by?' He bent down, the bandaging was hurried but it was of good quality. Whoever did this was clearly experienced.

'I'll be able to recognize them from their mana signature if I ever meet them. I'll repay them at that time.' The dark purple-haired man snapped his fingers and the weather cleared up, revealing a dark night sky. Another man had also just arrived at the scene.

"My dear emperor, why did you clear up the weather just after I got drenched?" He shook off the water droplets from his sopping-wet golden hair. 

"Shiva, you didn't sense anything when the attackers came in?" Caesar, who was referred to as 'dear emperor' jerked his head towards the ruins of the house.

Shiva's expression darkened as he shook his head, "Nothing at all."

"I'll deal with the aftermath, you can't rest until you find a way to prevent this from happening again. As the knight commander of the first order, this shouldn't have happened on your watch." Caesar's tone was cold, stopping Shiva's complaints before he could even start.

Shiva sighed, "Understood."

"Emperor?" A small voice weakly came from the side. The child who had been unconscious next to his parents woke up.

"Andrea? How are you feeling?" Caesar bent down, his face was expressionless but his tone was warm.

"Where's the girl?" Andrea looked around in confusion.

"Girl?"

"Yeah, the hooded girl with long gray hair," Andrea replied innocently.

***

Meanwhile, Ciel arrived at his original destination, the barbershop.

"Excuse me, sorry to intrude on you so late at night. But you haven't closed yet. So how much can this be sold for?" He took off his hood, showcasing his gray hair. The shop owner who was about to close his shop for the night looked over irritatedly.

"It has a nice length, but it's not well taken care of. Its dull gray color isn't welcomed much by the people who want to buy wigs either. I'll give you two copper coins." He bent down to Ciel's height.

"My hair's just dirty. It's actually a pure white color. White's an elegant color, and it's easy to dye. I should have at least five copper coins." Ciel saw how the shop owner frowned and added, "If you don't believe me, how about you wash it and see for yourself? I know that natural white hair is rare and many nobles want white hair to commemorate the late empress. Hair this long is also not easy to see." He had purposely left his hair long, knowing that it would be valuable. On the other hand, a kitchen knife wasn't exactly a good hair cutting tool.

The shop owner sighed, "Fine, on the account of your young age and ragged state, come in. I'd like to check for myself how this ash gray color can turn white." Ciel had taken his white robe off after he had left, leaving only his makeshift clothes he had made himself from the curtains after he had outgrown his other clothing, making him seem like a kid from the streets.

Ciel smiled, 'Nice, I got someone to wash my hair for me and a paid haircut.'

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