Chapter 117 - Layla, Inferior Stage Grandmaster

"Do they really think that killing me would somehow make them eligible to become the next grand Duke? 

I don't even want the position in the first place."

Layla was the only child of the Eryrth grand ducal family. 

As such, if anything were to happen to her and the grand duchess, Iberis was unable to have other children, then Conrad would be forced to take one of her cousins and make him the heir of the Grand Duchy.

Conrad naturally saw through these schemes they had but ignored them simply because they were his brother's children.

It was also because Layla was neither weak nor foolish enough to fall for their schemes, he trained her not to after all.

If they really became a threat to her then Conrad would eliminate them, regardless of whose son they were.

"It's getting really annoying now."

Layla spoke as she poured a cup of tea for herself.

The tea in the cup served to her was the only one poisoned so she could drink the tea from the jug without fear.

She had her own tea cups in her room that were definitely not poisoned so she was able to pour tea for herself and her father.

"Here."

"Thank you."

Conrad thanked her before taking a sip of the tea. However, Layla's next words made him nearly spit it out.

"You and mu-, mother should have another child, I want a younger brother."

"Pffft!"

Layla stared at her father dumbfoundedly as she never expected him to be flustered by that statement at all. Conrad on the other hand, cleaned his lips with his handkerchief before replying.

"There's still a lot of time for that, no rush."

Devils were a race with a lifespan that allowed them to live a life as short as 200 years and depending on their level of existence, living for hundreds of millions of years was not impossible.

Conrad and Iberis had plenty of time to 'try' for a second child.

Finishing his tea hurriedly, Conrad stood up and turned to leave but he suddenly felt someone wrap the arms around him and hug him tightly.

Naturally, this was none other than Layla. 

At first, he wondered if she had anything to ask him, but a second later, he realized it was just his 13 year old daughter expressing her desire to be spoiled by her father, nothing more, nothing less.

He sighed and turned around to pat her head before saying.

"You just got back and had to deal with two nuisances, you should rest now."

As he spoke he activated basic sleeping magic on her, putting her to sleep almost instantly.

He then carried her off to her bed and placed her on it gently before taking off her shoes then covering her with a duvet.

After which, he silently walked out of the room and dismissed the maids standing in front of it.

On a side note, they did not hear the earlier gunshots because he had deployed a barrier around the entire room that prevented sounds from going out.

"Number 1."

"Yes my lord."

As Conrad spoke, a black clothed man emerged from the shadows and dropped down on one knee.

"I want high quality energy cores in her room the moment she wakes up, she should be able to advance now."

"It shall be done my Lord."

Number 1 replied before looking up at Conrad's face, seeing the light smile he had, Number 1 couldn't help but chuckle internally.

'It seems my Lord is quite proud of the young lady, grandmaster at 13 huh?'

Conrad, oblivious to the thoughts of his kneeling subordinate, walked back to his office with a lighter gait.

Upon arriving, he ended up being scolded by his wife who believed Layla should not have had to 'dirty' her hands with the blood of the 'maid' and said he should have taken care of it the moment she detected the poison but that is a story for another time.

◇　◇　◇

Upon waking up, Layla looked around her room in a daze for a few moments before remembering that she arrived home the day before.

'Ah, that's right.'

She looked at the table beside her bed and saw a box that was emitting an absurd amount of energy from within.

Standing up, she opened it to see it was filled with multiple superior stage master realm beast energy cores, there were some inferior stage grandmaster ones too.

"It's probably number 1 who brought this."

*KNOCK KNOCK

"Who is it?"

"You called my lady."

Hearing the voice on the other side of the door, Layla realized it was none other than the person she just spoke of.

"Come in, seriously how did you hear me anyway?"

"I left a clone by the lady's door."

The number 1 in front of her, was a clone as the real one followed Conrad almost everywhere.

"The lord said that he had renovated your training area, you could use it to test your strength after you advance."

"You guys are acting like it's a given that I'm gonna succeed."

Number 1 tilted his head to the side and asked with a genuinely curious tone.

"Is it not?"

Layla just sighed and told him to take the cores to the training area before ordering the head maid who was waiting outside to have her bath prepared.

◇　◇　◇

After having a bath and changing go her training gear, Layla moved over to her personal underground training area.

'It's bigger than I remember it.'

She didn't dwell on the size for long and looked around a bit before sitting down and taking out the energy cores.

She began absorbing them and used the energy held within to strengthen her body to make it strong enough to be able to hold grandmaster level energy.

This didn't take long as she was already halfway there, within half an hour she had reached the limit of what she could absorb and stopped immediately.

'Don't want to go over my capacity.'

Next she began circulating her energy through her energy circuit, she began slow, then gradually sped up the circulation speed.

Her body felt hot as the speed of circulation increased, her body reaching its limit after 10 minutes.

'Now!'

She used her energy to push through and forcefully break the limit of what her body could hold, elevating it to a higher level.

*BOOM

A wave of magic and aura poured out of her body as her energy level increased exponentially and her body was also strengthened even further.

She heaved a sigh as she inspected herself for any abnormalities. Seeing she was fine, she spoke up.

"Number 1, you there?"

"Yes my lady."

Like usual, number 1 appeared from the shadows, or to be more specific, her shadow, and dropped down on one knee in front of her.

"Congratulations my lady."

"Thanks, so you said something about testing my strength before…"

Number 1 realized what she was hinting at and nodded before standing up and constructing a sword with magic.

Layla smiled and stood up before pulling out her sword bayonet, one that was originally a 50 round assault rifle that she personally customized.

She fixed two pairs of holsters to her thighs and put pistols in them, each pistol having a different kind of bullet within.

Looking at number 1 in front of her, she asked hesitantly.

"…if I said you should not hold back, you won't agree right?"

"Of course I would not, this clone of mine is a superior stage epic realm, if I didn't hold back I might accidentally kill you."

Number 1, was an inferior stage high tier deity. The weakest of his clones were superior stage legendries, even then, he still had a high chance of accidentally killing Layla if he didn't hold back, not to talk of his epic realm clones.

Layla sighed as she knew fully well that although he could control his strength properly, it was better to not risk it in the first place.

"Fine…"

While number 1 was nodding in affirmation to Layla's reply, she suddenly dashed towards him at a frightening speed, however he just raised his sword to meet hers with a smile on his face.

"You're faster than before."

Layla didn't bother replying and just pulled the trigger of her gun, firing almost a quarter of the magazine in one go.

**PAPAPAPAPA!!

Naturally, all her bullets were blocked by a thin layer of magic that surrounded his entire body.

'Tsk…'

She clicked her tongue internally and launched a whip kick to his side, one which he easily back stepped to dodge.

Detaching the sword from the tip of the gun, she held it in one hand and dashed towards him again, this time even faster than before.

**CLANG!!

The two swords clashed multiple times as Layla attempted to at least get a hit in, however it was futile as he easily blocked each and every one of her strikes.

She took a step back and disappeared from his field of vision causing him to raise an eyebrow in surprise.