Hanako didn't know it was the same affinity as Isuzu since the princes and princesses kept the values of their affinities secret from each other. Only their mother knew about it since they wanted her to appreciate them as eligible contenders for the throne.
"Hanako, sweetie. I hope you can keep my affinity with darkness to yourself and not tell anyone about it."
Kisuke's eyes shone with green eyes as he charmed her. He figured that Hanako didn't know it was the same as Isuzu's affinity since she didn't mention it. He didn't know if anyone else knew, but secrecy would always be better when he was guilty.
"Of course. What about your Fire affinity?"
Kisuke knew he didn't improve in that field, but he had to show it to her since she already knew he had an affinity with fire. He didn't want it to look like he didn't trust her.
"SS-56, it's a great affinity. You have three strong affinities; those are great news."
She smiled as she placed her hand on his biceps and stroke them with her hand. With those affinities, her mother wouldn't be against it if Hanako married him.
"Hanako, do you think I can still go and spar with Tanjirou?"
"You can, but remember, you don't have to do it anymore. You can have as many resources as you want simply by being my husband."
"Of course, thank you, dear. I was wondering if there is a place where I can strengthen myself using Darkness Mana without anyone sensing it so I can keep my affinity secret."
His eyes shone green as he activated his charm to make sure she wouldn't lie or hide anything. He was in a hostile dynasty, and he couldn't be too careful.
"Of course. You can use the training room in my house. I will teach you how to operate the magic circles so you can keep the mana inside and prevent the people outside from sensing it."
"What about people who come inside after I'm done?"
Hanako bit her lips for a moment. She hid it on purpose, but she felt horrible about it now. She should've never hidden anything from Kisuke.
"There's also a magic circle to purify the mana in the room from any element, I will teach you to use that as well."
"All right, thank you, darling."
The two headed to the training room and Hanako patiently taught him all about the magic circles in there herself. She loved being around him, so she preferred not to call someone else to do it for her.
"You can be here for as long as you want, I'll order the guards and the maids not to enter here until you're out. I'm going to practice with my teacher, I haven't trained with her in a while, and I don't want my progress to be stagnant."
Seeing Kisuke's improvement also motivated her to get stronger as soon as she could. She didn't want him to become stronger than her. Although he was an intermediate elite human, she wasn't that much behind as a lower elite human.
In fact, most of the princes and princesses were lower elite humans or intermediate elite humans. They practically showered in resources and were guided by the best teachers since they were born; the students of the academies couldn't compare to them.
Even in the Amistrys Empire, the imperial family was far better than the academies. Out of all the gold forces there, the imperial family was undoubtedly the strongest.
Not only they had the best resources and teachers, but the empress had SSS affinity with darkness and only married men with SS affinity or higher, making their genes the best they could be.
It was one of the ways the imperial families kept their statuses; they were simply the strongest. Although they couldn't suppress the whole empire if they rioted against them, they could win easily against any single force that tried to oppose them.
Kisuke and Hanako shared a hot, wet kiss, and Hanako left the house to meet with her teacher.
Kisuke activated the magic circles in the training room and took a deep breath to calm down before starting to strengthen himself with darkness.
A smile bloomed on his face as he felt the familiar sensation of the mana seeping into his body and strengthening it. He felt it in his muscles, blood vessels, organs, bones, and everything else.
The Darkness Mana made his body flexible and durable. He felt the Darkness Mana enhancing his senses in a way that no other element could. He could hear everything much more clearly, his eyes saw further, and his nostrils could discern smells better.
He felt his body improves and evolves for 7 hours straight until the process was finally over, and it was only the process for the fourth stage. He still didn't go through the strengthening process of the fifth stage.
'I probably don't have enough time to go through the strengthening process of the fifth stage before Hanako comes back. Eh, I will just lock the room and it should be enough to stop her from entering.'
Although Hanako had the option to open the training room by force, it would expose Kisuke's affinities to all the guards outside, and then the information would be reported to her siblings.
It was impossible to get only loyal guards. Everything in the palace was filled with schemes, bribes, and benefits, and everyone knew that some of their guards were selling their information to other princes and princesses for resources.
Those guards were loyal to the imperial family as a whole but not to any specific descendant. Although it might be a bad choice in the long run as they wouldn't have the support of any royalty as they climb the ranks, it provided them with a lot of benefits in the short term.
Kisuke started his next strengthening process, but this time there was another major difference. He felt his affinity with Darkness breaks through the SSS ranks, making him feel extremely close to the Darkness Mana.
He could feel he was much stronger and more sensitive than before. His perception rose to new heights after 10 more hours of going through the strengthening process.
His body was completely soaked in sweat, but luckily, he took off his new clothes before starting the strengthening process, so they were safe. He washed with water magic and dried himself with fire before using the magic circles to purify the air from Darkness Mana and checking his new affinity.
'SSS-4.'
It was even higher than his affinity with Wind Mana, and it was amazing. His body was now naturally harder to perceive and blended with the environment even if he didn't try to.
He could bet that if he walked down the market among the magicians there, many of them might not even notice him pass next to them.
After dressing up and purifying the air and the Darkness Orb from mana, he unlocked the doors and went out to get some food. He found Hanako sleeping in her bedroom, so he ate alone before going to sleep in his room.
-------
Kisuke was eating breakfast with Hanako as he thought of a way to get that red gem he was sent to the Chijakor Empire to find in the first place.
"Kisuke? I have some news for you."
"What is it?"
"Do you remember how when I attacked Isuzu, she died without defending herself?"
"Yes, what about it?"
"My mother talked to me yesterday while you were training. She said that according to her investigation, the only people who could pull something like that off are-"
"Some like what?"
"Like preventing Isuzu from defending herself when I attacked her. Anyway, I was saying, the only ones who can do it are the Assassin Order with a seventh-stage magus."
"That's quite far-fetched, isn't it?"
"No, because only a magus with Darkness affinity could slip under everyone's perception and do it."
"But I can't believe the Assassin Order are the only ones who have magi with Darkness affinity and a motive to kill the Isuzu. What about the other empires? The other dynasties? Magi from our dynasty?"
"With our strict checkpoints, it's nearly impossible for other empires to infiltrate our dynasty. Risking someone as valuable as a Darkness Magus to kill a princess that has around 80% of dying anyway doesn't sound like a good idea."
When she saw Kisuke's still doubtful face, she confessed.
"Well, we have a situation right now and one magus from the Amistrys Empire managed to slip inside our dynasty somehow, and we still don't know how. We still didn't find her, but we will interrogate her about it when we do. Anyway, the Empress has her own methods to discern it can't be them."
"I see. What about the other dynasties in our empire or the magi in our dynasty?"
"They're all under oaths not to kill or help to kill the descendants of the Empress until they broke through the Magus Phase."
"All right, this makes sense. So why are you telling me all this now?"
"She wants to teach the Assassin Order a lesson and use this chance to see the talent and potential of her new son-in-law. She wants to launch an attack on a base of the Order she found in our dynasty and kill some of them to remind them why they shouldn't provoke her."
"So I'm going to participate in this operation?"
"Yes. We are going in 2 days before they can find out about it and change their base."
--------
The Empress sat at the head seat of the dining table while her children were seated around it.
They were having a family meal and chatting merrily, pretending to be a happy and peaceful family.
"So, how many readers did each of you convince to review our novel?"
The Empress said with a cold voice and everyone's expressions froze. They knew their chance at ascending to the throne depended on their performance.
"We're... working on it."
They all mumbled while planning their heads to persuade readers to review the novel. Suddenly, The Empress spoke again.
"Make sure they write a descriptive review. I want to see them referring to the writing style, character development, and power system."
"Yes, Mother!"
