Several familiar knocking sounds echoed from the door to my royal bedroom as I woke up. "Mhmmn.. Is it noon already?" A maid took that as her cue to walk inside and bow towards me without even looking. She kept her mouth shut, despite my question, which was something that made me smile. You see, in these past two weeks, the number of servants in the castle has drastically decreased. Only those who knew how to properly read my moods were left, with the others either quitting for their own good or just being killed off one by one.

Many of the servants in my castle weren't peasants, but the children of lesser nobility. More than that, they were usually the third sons or daughters of their houses, left with no other choice but to belittle themselves as maids and butlers. And in my castle, such as it was, only the best among them could plausibly survive.

There were several hundred of them in total the day that I arrived. Now? Now, there were barely seventy. An equal number of both maids and butlers, excluding janitors and cooks.

I chuckled a bit before doing my morning stretches.

Cooks.

The kitchens...

That has to be the only damn place in the entire palace that I didn't prune. There were twenty-ish cooks there before and all of them managed to keep their jobs. Turns out, my deceased father loved to consume the meat of exotic animals, some of which had to be harvested while alive in order to preserve their flavour.

These included giants, trolls, centaurs, goblins and even orcs. Apparently, orcs have very delicious loins, which is something I desire to never taste in my entire life, thank you very much, no matter how good it may end up being. With that said, I can't imagine centaurs tasting any different from horses, but that may be slightly racist of me.

Anyway, I got out of my bed and promptly walked over to the mirror with a smirk. In a mere two weeks, my self-experimentation, refined diet and untold number of spells, have produced scientifically implausible results: a toned, muscular body that looked around seventeen years younger than I was before. To be perfectly honest, I do not look like the same person any more.

And if it wasn't for the portraits of myself that my previous self had made, I would not have believed that I am the same person myself. A lot has changed; my hair colour has become a bright blonde, my eyes flared an exotic orange, my skin, though it was still a pale white, no longer had a single blemish or scar upon it.

It wasn't just my appearance that changed drastically; the muscles weren't only there for show. I felt much better, much more energetic than normal. However, it has begun taking a noticeably larger portion of daily food intake in order to sustain this form, even without workouts. Eating my fill of medieval food meant that my jaw would feel like it would fall off at any moment, for even if it was delicious, it was still not quite up to par with the sustenance that I am used to.

Plus, there wasn't any way for me to measure my caloric intake apart from memory. This is why I have begun to only eat chicken breast, pork tenderloin and otherwise magically purified, but tasteless flesh from a variety of wildlife. Potatoes are a staple as well, their nutritional value is beyond important! But there's not much in terms of vegetables apart from the norm. Tomatoes are expensive, but I could order a specialized hothouse dedicated to fulfilling my personal needs. Yes, this might work out for the best.

"..ehn?" A yelp echoed throughout the room as I continued to check myself out, fully naked, in front of a mirror, with two women inside of my room. I turned around with a quirked eyebrow, only to find Vivian staring at my ass with an amused expression and the adorable, young maid covering her face with a piece of unwashed, white cloth. I can only assume that it was the maid which let out such an adorable sound. "You know, if I wasn't sold on that eternal youth spell of yours before, I definitely am now."

Vivian's amusement echoed through my ears as I shrugged and turned back around to enjoy my own perfection. "Hmph! The fact that you even doubted it is insulting." I could almost feel her smirking. "Indeed, indeed.. just, may I ask you a question, Klaus?" She chuckled with what was an obviously teasing tone, while the both of us did our best to ignore the adorably panicking maid in the corner, who in turn, did her best to shut off the entire world.

"Go ahead?" I questioned her with a quirked eyebrow as she comically covered her mouth and looked away while grinning. "Are you sure that this spell of eternal youth is the only enchantment magic you've cast on yourself?" She seemed to laugh as I blinked and tilted my head in confusion. "No? Obviously not. Why would I only enhance my youth when a whole world of possibility has opened itself up to me?"

Now it was my turn to grin and Vivian's turn to raise an inquisitive eyebrow, though she seemed disappointed as well for some reason. "Oh?"

"Passive muscle growth, bone strengthening, increased healing, body remodelling, nerve revitalization, boosting the immune system." I mused out loud as I made a fist and punched the air a couple times. A mere few days ago, this would result in the audible cracking of my joints. Now, there was not a sound but the thrumming of air as the power of my fist echoed forward. With the strength I could gain from infusing my muscles with mana, it wasn't much of a stretch to say that I could literally rip someone in half with my bare hands.

Hmm... perhaps, more experiments will be required. "All that you've described seem like those temporary boons that the adventurers adore. What do they call them again? Buffs?" I laughed at her as I noticed her gaze leaping around my body, particularly around my nether, but just as a smirk could etch itself on my expression, a revelation dawned upon me, causing me to frown and my eye to twitch. "A moment ago, when you asked me about the other enchantments I cast on myself..." A massive sigh was expelled as I performed a customary facepalm. "You were talking about me increasing the size of my dick, weren't you?"

Vivian flushed crimson, blinking in surprise before nodding and letting out a laugh. "Ah~, I got caught~!" And she does not even bother to deny it. I let out another sigh and nodded. "Yes, I did, in fact, increase my size. So what? If you had the power to make your boobs bigger, I bet you would do it too!"

She turned her head away with a smirk. "I never said I was judging you, Klaus~."

A soft onset of sobs caught our attention as the young maid in the corner pitifully touched her chest. I... honestly felt a little bad for her now, being as flat as she was. "Uhm, don't worry, young lady. You've still got plenty of years ahead of you. They'll grow!"

"... but my liege, I'm already twenty-two..." She replied with a somber tone and then went back to her work. I blinked and tilted my head in confusion before turning back to Vivian. "She definitely looks younger than that, right?"

"Most definitely, but why are you asking me that question~? Are you perhaps subtly telling me to leave the room so that you may comfort your maid so she does not wallow in her lack of confidence~?" I let out a massive sigh and shook my head. "Maybe some other day, but not right now."

My immediate reply seemed to make Vivian smirk and the maid to cheer up, even if only slightly. Another sigh escaped me as I continued my explanation. "Now, where was I?" Closing my eyes for a moment, I walked away from the mirror and opened up my drawer. "You compared my magic to some kind of buff, right? But buffs are temporary things and only increase ones power for a short period of time. My magic is permanent, but takes a while to produce results."

"I am not sure if anyone would say that trading two weeks for the perfect body is something that can be described as "taking a while to produce results", Klaus." Vivian turned back around and poured us both some herbal tea. Another commodity I have begun to use in order to improve my health. Thankfully, being the workaholic woman that she is, Vivian had quite the number of connections that served me well when it came to acquiring the good stuff. "Hmph. I would rather it was something instantaneous!" Despite my exclamation, I decided not to tell her about the fact that I plan to create a form of magic capable of instantly modifying my own body at will.

One should never allow themselves to be caught unaware if they can help it. Having multiple bodies suited for different purposes will greatly aid me in the long run, for certain!

Vivian, on the other hand, offered me a raised eyebrow, seeming surprised by my answer. "You can be surprisingly greedy at times, can't you? Other people would have to perform a service to a deity of beauty in order to possess that sort of magic. And even then, it usually does not come along with immortality."

"There is no such thing as immortality, woman." An instant answer, but one that she expected by now. "Yes, yes, everything may die. You're quite fanatical about that phrase, for whatever reason."

"Its just a way to keep myself humble." She smirked and quirked an eyebrow again. "Humble? You? Ha!" Then she drank a bit of her tea as I finished getting dressed. "Humility is not a trait that any decent king will be concerned about. Only weaklings and cowards are humble, covering behind their meekness as if it was some kind of idiotic virtue."

Humility is a virtue, though~.

Maybe not on this world, but it sure was on mine. Made it a lot easier to control other people when you praised them for their humility.

Anyway, she continued after another sip. "Your magic, though... while I did compare it to buffs, I must admit that you are right as none of it can be dispelled. All of it is just intended to cause some kind of passive benefit to your person or force your body to do something it wouldn't normally do.. both of these require an intricate understanding of the human body, which I suppose suits your former affiliation as a doctor, but I can't help but wonder..."

She rose her head as she looked directly at me. "Such understanding is often heavily regulated on Terravest, as the magic that requires it is normally abhorrent and vile. I can only equate your magic to that of blood mages, necromancers or soul weavers."

Humming for a bit, I shrugged and answered her as I took a seat opposite of her, leaning into a couch as I did, relaxing myself. "Well, of those that you mentioned, blood magic is likely the most similar to what I am doing. In fact, some of my enchantments are there to help my blood do what it normally does better."

Vivian seemed to quiver a bit. "Similar to blood mages, eh?..." She trailed off as I quirked an eyebrow at her. "Is blood magic really that horrible? I've never seen you shudder like that before, not even while taking you out of your cell."

She swallowed down hard before answering. "Blood mages are actively hunted by the church because of their tendency to make pacts with demon kind, often resulting in scorned children who burn their homes in order to feel their warmth, selling the souls of the slain to the demons that call themselves their patrons. Asmodeus, for instance, is the prime example of a blood mage." She turned towards a chair in the corner of the room, where the grand wizard spent quite some time sitting before being taken to his own private room, with a maid being assigned as the mentally challenged man's nurse for the time being.

This revelation caused me to blink. "And all blood mages sell their souls to demons?" She shook her head. "No, there are a rare few examples that reject the "gifts" of hell. However, these people are still hated and feared by the populace. The church, of course, makes no distinction between possible demon worshippers and actual demon worshippers, executing them on the spot..." She trailed off, then grimaced in disgust. ".. even children are killed by them. Better dead than demon, as the paladins often like to claim."

Now that is absolutely horrifying. "And they don't think that blood magic, when used for good, can be immensely helpful? Particularly as a tool for healing others?"

She turned towards me with a blink and an expression of utter confusion. "Blood magic? Healing? These two do not go together in the same sentence. The only people who can heal themselves using blood magic are vampires and even they do it by sacrificing the souls of their victims, not solely by using the blood as a reagent."

Blinking at her with a somewhat annoyed expression, I promptly took a silver knife and sliced open a vein in my right hand. "W-what the hell are you doing?!" Raising my other hand and not answering her directly, I flicked my fingers and channelled mana into the bleeding wound. The blood that managed to flow outwards rose in defiance of gravity itself, flowing backwards into the wound as the spell progressed, quickening my body's natural ability to heal and forming an immediate clot, then scab.

Within seconds, the area around my wound turned red with inflammation as my body cleaned and healed the damage, before the clot seemed to wither and die, falling off by itself and revealing a completely healed hand, without even a scar left to tell that there ever was a wound. "W.. what was that...?"

"Blood magic, I guess? Used for healing." She blinked and shook head head as she looked around the room. "You're lucky that the maid left."

I shrugged and smiled. "Even if she was here, I'd kill her before I allowed her to cause trouble for me."

Vivian's expression turned to panic as she swallowed. "What you just did.. you must never show it to anyone else, understand?! You don't know how this world works. If this spell of yours got out, you'd lose all support and people would sooner see your soul destroyed than allow you to sit on the throne again."

Humming in thought at her, I nodded to myself. "Your fear of this magic is astounding. I'll have to ask Rex to show me a real blood mage. Then, I will make my own choice and form a proper opinion on the matter." She didn't seem to like how easily I brushed her worries off, which made me feel a little bad.

"J-just.. be careful, alright?" She sighed and relented, shaking her head in disbelief as I took a calm sip of my tea. Come to think of it, this cup was right under me when I cut myself.. did some of my blood fall into the tea?... Oh well, the taste seems quite nice, better than usual, actually!

I must praise the cooks some more, later. "On that note, Vivian." My tone caught her attention as she looked up, directly into my eyes, seemingly expecting some form of deep question. I let out a chuckle. "Why do you care so much about my well-being? Am I not your tormentor? Your great rival and enemy?"

She seemed to freeze due to my question for a brief moment, before seemingly raising an eyebrow of her own. "I could ask you the exact same thing, Klaus. I thought you hated me and yet, here we are; drinking tea together and revealing potentially dangerous information to one another like trusted friends."

Vivian then let out a chuckle, continuing her speech before I could answer. "You also gave me the secret to eternal youth like it was nothing. Like, oh, yeah, sorry I forgot to cast this spell on you before, so here you go, BOOM!; you're not gonna age any more and be forever youthful from now on!" She made several dramatic movements with her hands to indicate just how ludicrous of a situation we were in, before putting a hand on her withered chest. "Not to mention how you're actively helping me undo all the damage that you caused."

I clicked my tongue. "Physical damage, sure. However, that wasn't the only form of dama-"

"And you think that talking to me, treating me like a person despite how I look, showering me with care and affection like nothing is wrong... you think that these have no effect on my mental health?" She let out a laugh full of disbelief as she shook her head. "Klaus, I was broken. I am still, broken. When you came to my cell, I became immensely happy because I thought you were finally going to kill me. I had an escape! I would finally die!" Rising from her seated position, her exclamations became louder and louder until she caught herself and sat back down. "I was dead... and you, the person that I fully expected would be my killer, saved me instead."

She chuckled morosely as she turned her head away. "Heh.. life's full of surprises, don't you think?" Then she looked back towards me. "So tell me; why do you care? Why did you save me? Because you remembered my name? Because you thought that I was someone important to you?"

Blinking at her and tilting my head in confusion, I answered. "Well, yes?"

"Then, now that you know the full story of that, why haven't you ditched me yet? Why haven't you killed me off and went on your merry way?" She seemed to adopt a begging tone, almost as if this had been bothering her for a long time now, as I merely shrugged in response. "Vivian, I did not remove you for the same, simple reason why everyone else in this castle is still alive: you are useful to me."

Not that I will ever tell her the exact details of her usefulness to me, but hey, its still the truth!

Vivian seemed to ponder this for a moment. "So that is what I am to you, then? Just a tool?"

Shrugging and yawning, I replied as I got up. "Tool, potential wife and queen, an immensely potent source of information and amusement..." I trailed off and smirked towards her. "You're lots of things to me, Vivian."

The woman flushed crimson before catching herself and shaking her head out of a stupor before replying. "I see." Her lips curved upwards with a smirk. "A potential wife and queen, he says." An uncharacteristic snort escaped her as I was walking towards the door. "The fact that you would even consider me now, disgusting as I am, is astonishing." She whispered the last word but I heard it just the same.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my dear." Now it was my turn to smirk. "Besides, I didn't exactly hear you say "no" just now~."

Her eyes went wide in surprise and embarrassment as I grinned and walked out of the room, ready to meet the day with an amused expression and high hopes as I left my childhood friend alone to adorably stew in what was likely a myriad of rampaging emotions, which in turn made me whisper out with a silent cheer. "You still got it, Klaus~!"

In any case, I looked on through the hallway with an imminent sense of dread which managed to slightly diminish my joy.

You see, I will definitely need my current good mood for today's activities, for today is the first day of the Regina Festival, which means I'll be forced to meet a number of women from varying social strata, with each of them hoping to become a queen... while expecting me to do all the work for them. Holy hell, its like the nobles expect me to look at a candidate and seduce myself. Its all very belittling if I have to be honest.

Let us hope that I don't murder too many of them in the process. In fact, that they would actively come to my castle in order to invite me to private gatherings, even after all the culling I've done is astounding. Although, that could also mean the women that do arrive are beautiful and confident enough to think that my murderous tendencies will not affect them?

A shame for them, really.

Confident and dominant women are just not my thing~.