Chapter 278 Increased Options And Increased Appetite

Lucius checked the time and discovered that it was a couple of hours after midnight. He had missed breakfast all the way to dinner.

"Kiana would have woken me up if there was anything of note, but I suppose everyone is still reeling from the aftermath of the war," Lucius muttered to himself.

He thought about his options, and while it was quite late, he didn't need any more sleep. He had already slept enough to recover and anymore was just wasteful.

In fact, Lucius believed it was much better to wake his body up and take a walk around. It was a much better use of his time.

"Maybe I'll go back to the laboratory again, check in with Kiana or determine which of my projects can be further worked on tonight." Lucius said to himself.

Although, truthfully, there wasn't much to be done right away. Lucius needed to report his findings with June's interrogation with Count Gabriel, but the man was still not around, and Lucius preferred to relay the information in person although a letter could have still worked out fine.

The Dionysia Brewery was self-sustainable and didn't need much of his judgment now that things were running smoothly and he had competent people working there. The same applied to the re-education center.

Gellor and his mercenary team hadn't exactly returned so the rune beast crystals that he wanted were still unavailable which meant that there wasn't much he could do in terms of upgrading John's gift.

The Mist Veil Beasts were tricky to catch, but Finch's gift would prove that there'd be no problems with the capture and Lucius had already given them information on how to deal with them.

There was the situation with the Plow Worms being a protected rune beast They were outlawed to hunt and thus he was still waiting for Kiana to update him on their whereabouts in nearby regions.

As for his three criminals, Arius and the other two had fulfilled his conditions by spreading chaos in the Drew Territory and were probably still biding their time before they could return due to the war.

And finally, the Church of Duran had still yet to find the body of their Arbitrator and so there wasn't much Lucius could do when they were incompetent in finding their own people. Lucius sighed and thought about other things he could work on.

The Ember Flash Firefly being found was notable, as some noble had probably paid an exorbitant amount to obtain one… but it was mostly for later. The whereabouts of Keith Drew were also something that Lucius wanted to discover, but there was bound to be some information coming up especially now that the army of Count Drew was eliminated.

"There is a chance that Viscount Drew might have asked for some help with his backer and that would reveal the changes of Keith to someone else, but there's not much I can do about it if my assumption is correct." Lucius sighed and finally walked out of his bedroom.

As soon as he stepped out, Lucius immediately noticed the presence of Neta outside. He was currently seated down and was reading a book, engrossed in it.

"What are you doing here?" Lucius asked.

Neta's eyes widened at the sound of his master and he quickly took the book away, hurriedly greeting him with a bow.

"P-pardon me for my intrusion, Lord Asher!" Neta said. "I hope that I have not disturbed you from resting. Miss Kiana has given me the instructions to wait here until you woke up."

"Is that so?" Lucius raised his brows.

"Y-yes, my lord."

'Hmmm, that means that she's not personally around to wait on me.' Lucius thought to himself.

He knew that Kiana preferred to serve him and wouldn't let other servants do it if given the chance. That meant that Kiana was either asleep or doing something else of importance. Although the latter was more likely than the first.

"Lord Asher, since you are awake now, may I perhaps serve you in the dining hall?" Neta politely asked.

"We did not know when you would wake up, but the chefs have prepared your meals or we could make them cook something else to your liking."

Lucius blinked and realized that he did in fact miss breakfast all the way to dinner, and while the Lucius of the past often did that while engrossed in his own studies and research… the same could not be said for Asher.

In fact, it reminded Lucius that he needed to take care of his current body more. For the purposes of growing in strength and power, the monotonous routine of taking care of his health was something that should be observed.

"Very well." Lucius said. "I'll eat something now."

Neta brought Lucius to the dining hall, pulling out his chair for him and then serving his lord with his meal. Lucius didn't put much thought into eating at first, being familiar enough to do even while he was preoccupied with other things on his mind, but then he realized that Neta had refilled his cup and looked at him.

"What is it?" Lucius raised a brow.

"Shall I bring you another serving of dinner, my lord?" Neta asked.

It actually surprised him that Asher ate his food so quickly, but it also made sense since the young lord hadn't for so long. Lucius looked down at his plate and found that it was already empty indeed and he was still holding his utensils instead of putting them down.

Normally that much amount of food would have sufficed him already, but then he found that his appetite was still looking for something to eat.

'Huh. This is strange.' Lucius thought. 'What exactly could have increased my appetite to this extent? There's a lot of possible explanations, but not something I can accurately pinpoint.'

"Alright, please get me another serving." Lucius finally said. "At once, my lord!" Neta quickly fulfilled his master's orders.

Lucius ate again until he had his fill, and once he was finished, the man finally decided where to go. Since it was already quite late, he'd just headed to the laboratory once more.