The Crown Prince In Hiding

Chapter 26

Bayern

The Paleontology Faculty Meeting Room.

Dan sat surrounded by all three professors and Senior Thomasin.

"Nora... a little help."

"Mr. Fury?"

"I didn't think they'd be presenting reports to me..."

"Of course they would. You're the owner now, aren't you?"

"Everton is."

"Everyone already knows who the real owner is... you need to stop fooling yourself, Mr. Fury."

"You practically live at my house, I fillet fish for you, can't you help me out with something this small?"

"It's not like I'm refusing."

The sound of Nora clicking a pen.

Nora crossed her legs and sat back.

The professors and Thomasin stared in quiet disbelief.

He was using Princess Nora as his personal secretary...?

Thomasin swallowed.

The budget presentation for the paleontology faculty began.

"And this... is the spending plan we intend to carry out this year..."

Thomasin walked Dan through the proposal.

When he saw the figure the professors had written on the check at the very first page —

it surprised him.

"And the remaining 20% of the budget will be allocated toward maintenance and—"

"Hold on."

The entire room fell nearly silent the moment Dan raised a hand to interrupt.

"...Yes?"

"Senior — how much has been drawn?"

Dan looked up from the documents.

"Is this the total amount you're working with?"

"...Yes... it is..."

"60,000 credits?"

The tension in the room sharpened immediately. Thomasin and the professors went pale.

They had assumed the figure they'd written on the blank check Dan provided was already too much — and honestly, it was understandable that they felt that way.

The faculty needed this money for building repairs, research equipment, labor costs, travel expenses, salaries, research funding, and more.

To build a career in this field, you had to publish constantly, give lectures, open exhibitions, or chase funding from the government.

It was not something most people took interest in. Getting by at all was already a challenge.

But the assumption that everyone in the room was making — that Dan would be displeased — turned out to be completely wrong. Because —

"How is this supposed to be enough for anything? Didn't I say to write whatever amount you needed on the check? What are you all afraid of?"

"Wh— what?"

Dan pulled the blank check from the documents and held out his open hand toward Nora. The Princess passed him the pen.

"Senior Thomasin, I don't think 60,000 credits is going to be enough to make Mr. Randy's vision a reality."

"Mr. Dan...?"

"You said those specimens need humidity control. We need the best humidity control equipment available in that storage room. We need proper locking cases for security, yes? Go and find them. Wherever they are in this world."

"Wh— if we did that, the cost would..."

"Mr. Randy wants only the best for his specimen storage. No compromises."

That sentence left Thomasin and the professors momentarily speechless.

It invoked the name of Randy Moss — but everyone in the room understood what it actually meant.

I want only the best for my specimen storage. No compromises.

"What is the best humidity control equipment in the industry, and how much does it cost?"

"...Around... 2,000,000 credits."

It was equipment used in the mana crystal mining industry, manufactured by a company registered in Mathema.

"2,000,000. And the best available storage cases?"

"500,000..."

That was already 2,500,000 credits — equivalent to somewhere between 400 and 500 million in the world Dan once knew.

"The building will need renovation as well, won't it?"

"Ah... yes."

Thomasin exchanged glances with the professors.

Dan wrote something on a notepad.

"What would it take — exactly — to make this building the finest facility possible for specimen preservation?"

Thomasin began to grow nervous. She swallowed.

"That would... require negotiations first."

"Understood."

Dan wrote a number on the check and handed it to Thomasin.

10,000,000 credits.

Every eye in the room went wide.

"I want only the best for our project, Senior Thomasin."

This was a budget that exceeded what some of the most well-funded academic departments in the world operated on.

Dan took the opportunity to turn toward the professors.

"Professors — we need the finest graduates. We need to give them a reason to be here. Find them the best accommodations possible. Those who do the research deserve to be rewarded in a way that matches the weight of the work."

Dan wrote with the pen, across the middle of the page.

Base stipend for all TAs in this faculty to be set at 60,000 credits. Excluding performance bonuses.

Thomasin's eyes went so wide she nearly fainted.

Until now, the average monthly salary for a TA in this faculty had been 3,000 credits.

But this was a directive from the new owner.

In an instant, salaries had been raised twentyfold — not counting performance bonuses.

"Wh— what did you just say...?"

Everyone turned to one another, voices rising with urgency.

The professors' faces were flustered.

The room filled with overlapping murmurs.

How was this possible?

How much money did someone have to burn before they'd pour this much into something and ask nothing in return?

Professor Pi'erre and Thomasin Mayfield looked at Dan.

This was not about money.

It was something else entirely. He lived for this.

Dan tapped the check lightly with his fingers.

"If 10 million isn't enough, write a new one. But send all expense reports to Randy's secretary as agreed. We need to be clear on this."

The ultimate objective of this project is L.U.C.A.

I will do whatever it takes to find him.

I need all of you.

Fury had sent them off to rework the budget allocation and report back to him before his return. The other reason was that he needed time to let his mind recover before facing the numbers that were still ahead.

The young man leaned back, gazing up at the airships drifting over the metropolis through the hotel room window.

Nora stood quietly behind him, hands folded, watching.

"Mr. Fury... that was not a small amount of money."

"It's mine regardless... and I had nothing to spend it on. Do you have personal assets of your own?"

"I do, but there's nothing to spend them on either."

Because nearly everything in her life was already provided for.

In truth, he had wanted to use his own wealth to pay off the debt to Everton and be done with it entirely.

He could do it — immediately, even. But the contract, as it happened —

spelled out in large letters, in red ink, that every credit used to repay the debt must not originate from within the kingdom of Diablo.

"He really did seal off that loophole, didn't he."

"The contract doesn't specify how the money comes — only that it comes from outside the country."

"Meaning from someone else's pocket. A human's pocket."

"Precisely."

"Ruthless. Fitting for a demon of greed."

"A new title for it? I like it."

"And as for you —"

"Be kind."

"A demon of... ambition."

"Good or bad?"

"That's the question, isn't it."

"Go home. Leave."

Dan tossed the towel sitting on the bed at Nora. She lifted it from her head and set it on the cabinet with unhurried care.

"Mr. Fury — let's go out tonight."

"Where?"

"When you invited me along, I went ahead and reserved a dinner on an airship."

"On an airship?"

Dan pointed a finger upward.

"An airship?"

Nora nodded.

"Why are you only telling me now?"

"Surprise?"

"...Give me some warning next time. What if I had things to do afterward?"

"So you're free, then?"

"Do I look like I'm in a hurry?"

"Have you ever been on an airship before?"

"Only when someone was dropping bombs on it."

"The airship will fly across Bayern from east to west. We'll watch the sun sink below the horizon together, Mr. Fury."

Nora pointed out beyond the window with her thumb.

"I'm paying."

Princess Nora sat adjusting herself before the dressing table mirror. She changed from her casual black outfit into a formal black coat, dressed appropriately for where they were going.

Once satisfied that everything was in order, she crossed from her side of the room to the young man in the black and white suit who sat looking out at the view through the hotel window.

"Mr. Fury. Let's go."

"....."

"Mr. Fury?"

Princess Nora came around to look and found him asleep, chin dropped to his chest. The human body must have finally given in to the exhaustion of relentless travel.

That composed face was dozing quietly, soft sounds escaping from somewhere in his throat just barely audible.

The corners of her mouth curved upward. She reached out slowly, and her fingertip touched his cheek — a gentle press — then she whispered.

"Mr. Fury."

"?"

His eyes opened at the precise moment Nora drew her hand back.

"You've kept me waiting quite a while."

"I believe you."

He pressed himself slowly upright.

"In the time you spent on me, a bird could have turned into a whale."

"It needs to look natural. Otherwise everyone will figure out that Nadia is Princess Nora."

"And you'll still insist on using it."

The airship terminal stood at a launch platform in the heart of Bayern state, the surrounding architecture formed by the skyscrapers of the metropolis. The platform itself blended seamlessly — polished floors alternating with pale white marble, sectioned into square ports, ten of them spread across the expanse.

Warm amber gaslight cast a soft glow along the walkways, where rich red velvet carpeting ran beneath the feet of those who passed. The air carried the weight of expensive perfume and the faint metallic trace of ozone from magical machinery. The sound of enormous gears turning in steady, resonant rhythm filled the space.

At the end of the boarding bridge, an intricately engraved brass vessel rested in quiet composure. The airship's hull was polished silver, its balloons vast and magnificent — layered in deep navy silk woven through with iron thread, edged in gold. Stepping inside revealed soaring ceilings adorned with cut crystal that scattered light in every direction, like stars spread across a miniature sky.

The wooden floors, buffed to a high sheen and inlaid with brass metalwork, spoke of craftsmanship at its absolute finest. Staff in immaculate dark grey uniforms moved with practiced ease, arranging exquisite dishes and softly glowing drinks in the dining hall at the center of the vessel.

Along every side, enormous curved glass panels offered a panoramic view in all directions — transparent from within, opaque from without.

The moment a silver bell rang out to signal departure, the electromagnetic locks holding the vessel in place released with a clean click. A gentle tremor passed through the hull as the blue-crystal energy core at the stern began its powerful rotation. The airship rose from the platform with unhurried grace —

then tilted its bow westward along the horizon, leaving behind the glittering lights of Bayern spread far below, as the vessel climbed steadily into the deep violet clouds of the evening sky.