Epic Of The Demonic Sage

The next day, Lucius woke up feeling a bit groggy, but it was nothing that he couldn't handle. He had ended up spending extra time in making the spell matrix for the mark of obedience and had even asked for dinner to be delivered to his room directly.

Neta was the one who would serve him in the absence and Lucius had already told Kiana about him and the mark of obedience that he had as well. Lucius himself didn't really have any particular orders for Neta as of now and was just content with having a person that was unable to betray him, serve him.

Lucius knew how important it was to have loyal people close to you, whether they be your important soldiers or servants. Assassinations were common in the higher circles of power and the attack could come from anywhere, whether it be in the open or in secret.

Lucius walked down the stairs as the sound of his steps echoed through the stairwell. 

"I have the prisoners ready," Kiana who had been waiting for Lucius at the bottom, spoke after seeing him.

"Good, we'll head there soon." Lucius said before going to the dining hall.

There, they ate their breakfast and discussed some things with Lita and Gabriel, talking about their current plans and how other things were going.

Dionysia brewery was running very well and the next batch of wine was already sent out and was bought out instantly as well. There were a lot of fans that had been created upon the first sale of the wine a week ago, and it didn't seem like it would stop any time soon.

They had already gotten enough orders that it would take them over six months to produce them if they functioned at the same capacity that they had right now. Lucius had prepared a plan for expansion earlier, and they now realized that it would come in handy far quicker than expected.

But even if they wanted to expand it further, it would still take them at least four months more. As not only would they need new equipment, but they would also need the new building for it.

They already had the land for it though, so it was a plus point. Plus, they will need to find more workers to make the wine as well. Plus, these workers will need to undergo the same training others did and also need to be vetted for loyalty.

All these were things that could not be rushed and if they tried to do both things at once, there was a great chance they may instead suffer in what they were doing right now. Instead of that, Lucius decided that it was better to focus on what they were doing right now and, once a consumer base had been built, they would expand further.

Though one extra thing they did agree upon was the increase in price. Even the merchants were saying that they should increase the price and the demand from the public for the wine was unending as well.

"Then as greed, we shall increase the price of the wine from the next month. From the previous ten silver coins, it shall now be twenty silver coins." Lucius declared.

"I'll inform John and Alessa in the afternoon, you don't have to worry." Lita spoke with a smile.

She had been seeing how hard Lucius was working all the time and felt both worried and proud of him at the same time. 

Lucius put away the cutlery on the plates and stood up from the dining table.

"I shall take my leave then, Mother, father." Lucius spoke.

"Alright, don't worry about anything here. We'll take care of the rest." Gabriel said a few words of care before bidding him farewell.

Lucius quickly headed to the reeducation center to start the tests. A smile was on his face the entire time, and he couldn't wait to get his hands on some test subjects. He could almost say that his hands were itching to experiment.

"Who are the prisoners that have been brought this time?" Lucius questioned.

"We have filled the cells in the reeducation center by fifty percent as of now. Among those brought, over seventy of them are petty criminals and haven't really done much. Some of them are just those that could not pay the fines and thus were imprisoned. 

The more problematic ones though, are two who have rare ranked gifts." Kiana answered.

Lucius thought for a bit over Kiana's words and nodded.

"For the petty criminals that are only at the prison for inability to pay fines, you can start the counseling at a slow pace. As for the others who are there for multiple offenses, the counseling is to be done at full force." Lucius spoke and took a pause before continuing, "The notes that I wrote are ready, right?" he asked.

"Yes, we compiled the notes into booklets that the 'teachers' will be using to educate the criminals. They have already been distributed to them last night and most of them have already read it many times, while some of them have managed to memorize it as well." Kiana replied.

"Oh? Memorized… that's good. At least they are taking this seriously… I was half expecting there to be some discrepancies, but it is all going well." Lucius spoke freely.

"Haha…" Kiana suddenly chuckled.

"With the level of preparation and detailed planning you do, I would be more surprised if it failed instead. I don't think even the king's ministers do this much planning when they run the kingdom." Kiana joked.

"Hmm… we'll see how it all goes and perhaps one day we may get to meet those very ministers ourselves." Lucius stated.

The two of them lightly conversed while traveling to the reeducation center and Kiana, told Lucius more about the various prisoners. Lucius had particularly asked her about any interesting prisoners and their gifts.

He got to learn quite a bit about them and was even more excited to get to the center now.