It has been 4 days since I arrived here. The first day was spent trying to awaken me and planning what to do next. 2nd I informed the butler of my decision of wanting to join the compet.i.tion. 3rd day I informed my teachers that I will be suspending from my future studies, although they tried to advise me against, seeing my extreme progress in studies. After that, I got the doc.u.ments from butler Smith outlining my partic.i.p.ation in the race to join the compet.i.tion.Then I went to the library for the rest of the day and night, to do some research for making the virus and its cure. Although the materials for making the virus can"t be found in this world I can find some replacement materials. I spent so much time researching that I spent sleeping in the royal library.
Today I have decided to visit the empires administrator office, to get a general overview of where each resource for the empire is generated, the trading centre of the empire etc. I walked along the corridor leaving the wooded door to the library and entered the hallway to the administration office. After walking for 10 minutes I reached the area. The place was really noisy, I could hear shout and orders of people even with the doors closed.
I walked into the office, the place was ma.s.sive. Almost as big as a football field, although most of this is occupied by neatly arranged and labelled shelves with dusty doc.u.ments. This is to be expected as all information regarding the logistics and statistics of a ma.s.sive empire is processed in this room. There seem to be about 30 or 40 people working here. I walked to a desk that seemed relatively free of sky-high doc.u.ments, and with a plaque that says Admin Manager. There sat a man in his 40"s, with messy blonde hair and eyes that are surrounded by black bags.
"Excuse me?" The man looked up from his work. He noticed me and frowned.
"What is it, John?" If it was another world, calling a prince by his first name would have earned the ire of that prince or princess. But in this world, unless you receive the surname of your father, you won"t be addressed as a prince or princess. And him recognising me is quite normal as I was the only child ever to be seen in this palace since the age of 4, other than the crown prince.
"I need some doc.u.ments outlining the general trade centres, logistics, population, wealth and other things of kingdoms under the empire please, also if possible a map of the empire if possible as well?"
He scrutinised me for a few seconds before replying "Can I know why you want these doc.u.ments?"
"For the compet.i.tion. I have decided to start a business and I need to know the general outline of what is happening inside the empire, as I have never been out."
He observed me for a few more seconds before saying "All right, but all doc.u.ments shouldn"t leave this room, and no copying down or anything on the doc.u.ment must be written down. Also, you can only look at them if I am watching you."
That is to be expected as each doc.u.ment is very important, and if it goes into the hands of the wrong people, using it against the empire might make it easier. As for the reason why he didn"t suspect me for not using an award, is probably because the news that I am soulless has probably be made known to everyone in the palace and maybe outside world.
"That is fine, I just need to understand the general outline of the empire."
"Stay here, I will bring a chair and the doc.u.ment over." After saying that he left. I waited for a few minutes before I saw him again, dragging 2 trolleys stuffed high with the doc.u.ments. Then placing the trolley near the edge of the desk he went off to get a chair.
He placed the chair at the edge of the table then he sat down without bothering to ask or talk to me about anything and carried on working. He never even introduced himself. Shrugging I sat down and started flipping through the doc.u.ments one by one.
The brain and soul are so closely interlinked due to having the need to store memories of whatever the body does. Because of that, I am easily able to recall any memory of what I see due to having 100% control of my soul, even if my brain stores some information in the subconscious or unconscious mind. Therefore instead of reading through the doc.u.ments, I just skim through them, without arising the suspicion of the admin before me.
Hours pa.s.sed before it started turning dark outside, and I was halfway through the pile when the admin stood up and informed: "My shift is finished John, if you are not finished and are going to stay up all night then I will inform the night shift manager."
I nodded before another man came to take the seat. The previous manager said something to the night shift manager before he nodded and glanced at me. I presume all these managers are serious and non-talkative.
Similar to the previous manager he too started working on some doc.u.ments, as slowly people left the room and the night staffs started to pour in.
I spent the rest of the night flipping through the doc.u.ments before I finally finished just before dawn. I looked up to the night manager and said "I have finished. Thank you for your help." The night shift manager nodded as he got up to take the 2 trolleys worth of doc.u.ments back to wherever it went.
I got up to go to my room, to read everything properly I glanced the hours I spent here. Suddenly I felt lethargic and felt as if there were sharp pins of needles stabbing my legs. Darn it, I keep forgetting that this isn"t my soul body, and need to move about, as sitting still for hours is bad for the body and its blood circulation. I seriously need to get into my mind-set of eating regularly and doing all the thing that regular human body does. Otherwise, forget the condition of soulless, I might die of my improper treatment of my body.
After a few minutes of stretching, I went back to my room. On the way, I popped into the kitchen to get something to eat. All I saw was some weird food lying about, which I recognised as this worlds vegetables and nothing else here. But taking the vegetable I decided to make some vegetable soup, as my stomach hasn"t eaten anything for the past 24 hours, I need to make sure I need to eat something light. I spent half an hour cooking before the food was ready.
As usual, all food tastes bland to me. Probably due to me eating foods that were considered, legendary and worth dying for, as a snack every day of my life as a soul.
I went back to my room and made sure to close all windows and doors before putting up a chair against the door. I have guarded my room every night to make sure, that at least I can put up a fight when he comes again.
So far the a.s.sa.s.sin hasn"t struck again, I wonder why? I expected him to come back to complete his job as soon as he found out he failed.