Chapter 252: [Bonus Chapter]Working on Expanding the Kingdom (5)

After a few minutes of thinking, I decided to select foresight as I was extremely interested in it. It will balance out my low planning to a mediocre or even high planning skill. 

[You have selected Foresight] 

[Would you like to confirm?] 

Yes… 

[Foresight Selected]

[Abyss Magic panel has been granted] 

[Key Word: Abyss Status has been set] 

And just as I was about to check my newly acquired skill, I saw my maids come in with a chunk of obsidian which made Reyna's eyes light up in excitement. 

"Ah, this feels weird," I mutter as, as soon as I set the keyword for my [Abyss Magic], my eyes began to throb, but it didn't hurt. 

It was a strange feeling, as if it was pulsating but also tensing at the same time, causing the sclera of my eyes to fade from black to white to black again. 

"Mistress, are you alright?" One of my maids asks with an expression full of worry. 

"Y-yeah," 

"Don't mind her. This process will only take a few minutes so let me take a look at this first," Reyna says before the maids reluctantly gave her the chunk of obsidian after I gave them a nod of confirmation. 

A few minutes passed, and as soon as I let out a sigh of relief after the weird feeling in my eyes and the black in my sclera slowly disappeared, Reyna began to talk to me again. It seems she was intrigued by this new material which was extremely beautiful. 

"How much for this?" Reyna asks immediately, with her eyes glowing. 

"Huh? Why should I sell this to you?" I respond, causing Reyna to be flabbergasted. 

"B-but you said we are sisters now, and on top of that, our kingdoms are now going to be trading with each other, so why?" 

"Cause this is our most precious material… And you want to buy it with money? How about you find something of equal value first and then talk to me about trying to buy this," I respond while taking a sip of water. 

"You're so mean," Reyna says, wiping away non-existent tears before getting up and chugging the rest of her water. 

"Oh yeah, you're the older sister, by the way," I add just as Reyna was packing up to leave. 

"Really? I thought you were much, much older than me due to you being an intelligent monster and so powerful at that," Reyna responds. 

"Oh… well, I'm not even a year old yet," I say, making Reyna's jaw drop and her body freeze like a statue. 

I swear I even saw part of her begin to turn to stone as well. 

"S-so, does that mean I was chasing after a child?" Reyna asks, and just a nod from me seemed to make her fall apart and dramatically fall to the floor. 

"Not really," I respond, but I didn't want to dig myself a hole, so I just shut up even as Reyna tilted her head in confusion. 

"Anyway! At least I got a cute little sister!" Reyna shouts and immediately begins to hug me and stroke my hair. 

There's no way this is an effect of the [Pet] title… right? 

"Please stop," I say while removing Reyna's hand from my head, but she tried to continue petting my head, so I immediately ran down the hallway and left Reyna behind. 

"Mother, is something wrong?" I hear a familiar voice as soon as I lose sight of Reyna behind me. 

"Nothings wrong it's just that you got a new aunt, and she's quite weird," I say while turning towards Zehar, who just came out of one of the various unused rooms. 

"What were you doing in there?" I ask with a slight smile. 

"Oh, I was preparing a room for my girlfriend to stay," Zehar says bluntly, but I pretty much already knew, judging from how much he goes out to the kingdom without saying much. 

"Then you better treat her well and make sure you introduce her to me as well," I add. 

"Of course, in fact, she should be here in about 30 minutes," 

"Okay, well, I'm just going to help Mia with some work as I'm sure she is struggling again and while I'm out, I'll probably check on everybody and the kingdom so… Maybe introduce her to me tomorrow if I do end up coming back," I say before walking down the hallway to change into more appropriate clothes as I was currently in sweat pants and a sweatshirt.

… 

The rest of the day was pretty lackluster as I just checked on the kingdom and some of my subordinates who were hard at work but definitely needed a break, so I secretly hired some more people to replace them for a few days. 

Of course, my subordinates, which I checked on, Aimi, Aito, and Aiso, rejected it at first, but after saying it was an order, they had no choice but to take their well-deserved break. 

And, the people that I hired to replace my subordinates for a few days where being paid from my pockets, so of course, they were content with a few golden coins per day. 

Mid-afternoon rolled around once everything was sorted out with my subordinates, so I knew I had enough time to check my kingdom out and see what new things there were… and then after, I'd visit Mia. 

I was definitely procrastinating, but at least I wasn't procrastinating with something useless as there was a thing I wanted to check out no matter what. 

Normally, there is a higher archy system within kingdoms, with the queen and king usually residing at the top if there is no emperor or empress. 

But then, usually, there are tiers below that in the following order, prince or princess, duke or duchess, marquess or marchioness, earl or countess, viscount or viscountess, and then finally, baron or baroness. 

And I was on the search for these as maintaining the entire kingdom with just myself and my wives was borderline impossible, and once my kingdom expands ever further, it will be way past impossible. 

But, the cities that I'm planning to make outside of the kingdom and in the different regions of the [Mountain of Twilight] will have city lords who will, of course, take care of the city while I don't have to maintain them much. 

Tup Tup Tup 

As the sound of my heels against the dirt road echoed along with the large houses in a specific place of my kingdom, multiple residents came to greet me with obvious greedy intentions. 

There was a mix of all races, gender, and body type, but there was one major thing they all had in common… they were all greedy as hell. 

Each resident who came to greet me tried to earn my favor or at least kiss ass when they ever need it, they could call me to come to help them despite knowing how heartless I could be. 

But that was why I came here. I wanted greedy people like these as they would always try to push the limits of my kingdom to try and expand more… and then there's the chance where all of that could backfire, but if need be, I'll slaughter the ones who become overly greedy as most of the residents weren't that strong. 

After a few hours of searching and greeting everybody within the mostly rich area, I had finally finished but wasn't that exhausted, so I made my way to Mia, who was still hard at work but didn't look as tired as she got a new assistant. 

She was a 5'8 tall beastman with similar pink hair to Mia and an earnest attitude which complimented Mia well. 

But, as soon as I entered the room after observing them for a while with my own senses, the assistant lost all her cool as she began to panic and almost fainted at first sight of me. 

"W-w-w-w-would you like something to drink?" The assistant asks as I sit on the couch in Mia's office. 

She was currently still hard at work, and it seems she hasn't even noticed me yet. 

"What drinks do you have?" I ask. 

"I-I can get your highness something from outside if you would like," 

"Just get me some water, please," I say, which the assistant immediately bows quickly and deeply before scampering off through the doorway and into the hallway. 

"Yo, Mia, you there?" I ask as Mia seemed to be still absorbed into her work, so I walk up to her desk and take half the pile. 

"O-oh, your highness! Please forgive my rudeness-" 

But before Mia could apologize, I sat her back down in her chair and just took a pencil as I began to fill out the boring paperwork, which was stacked so high that it looked as if it could topple over at any moment.