Extra's Harem: Invincibility Starts with Marriage and lots of Children

'An ember Qi user for a butler?'

Seated on the tree branch, Olea observed the mansion in front of her, not entering it as her gaze was already looking through the walls, penetrating them as well as an individual moving toward the direction from where the Ducal Prince was heading out of his room in the mansion.

Observing how several soldiers were guarding the mansion, a place enriched with a good amount of internal energy, she quickly realized why princes wanted to have this land.

While these were indeed environments that could be artificially created using artifacts within the capital city, the princess's frugal nature would likely prevent her from investing funds in such endeavors.

Instead of an artificial creation, she would prefer to have access to a natural resource located outside the capital city.

'Hm...'

Olea stood on the tree branch with her robe fluttering in the air, her eyes narrowed and hands folded as her attention settled on the prince of the Arcutus family.

Though legitimate, it didn't bother her considering there was a glint of hatred instinctively flaring in her eyes, but it got overshadowed under her rationality as she intentionally kept looking at him.

'Wasn't he in the 2nd layer?'

Observing the prince, she felt visible confusion, considering she could not sense any key or hint of internal energy from his body, as if he were simply a human, unlike what was officially reported.

Given the official documents were highly confirmed again and again, the chances of someone tampering with them were lower.

For an illegitimate prince who may have gone through several assassination attempts to lie about his strength to attract stronger cultivators would be a foolish decision, so either he was capable of hiding his strength or he somehow managed to deceive the whole power system through bribery.

'So, is this why the princess chose this weakling?'

For that moment, the whole image of this prince diminished in Olea's eyes.

Initially, she found him worthy, but now seeing and feeling his strength being at the second layer—not even at the beginning of cultivation—made her frown.

She realized the reason the princess seemed to hire her for his protection was most likely because she was aware of him being a normal human.

'How can someone from a noble family be...'

She was just considering the fact that normally even illegitimate sons from noble families at least were able to start the cultivation journey.

Even if someone were to be a swindler, they most probably knew how to work through internal energy and only showed their cultivation levels a small sublevel up in most cases, unlike this prince, who was not even initiated on the path of cultivation.

'!?!'

'Did he just—d-die?!'

Olea suddenly trembled, widening her eyes as there was a hint of surprise.

Observing the butler a moment ago, possessing ember Qi, suddenly falling on the floor.

While the servants considered him to have lost consciousness, she, clearly seeing his body becoming empty of internal energy, realized that he was dead.

Everything was too sudden as she just saw him having a conversation with the prince, but out of nowhere, he had fallen dead without any signs of poisoning or physical changes, as if his soul vanished.

Being from the ghost sect, they had killed so many individuals that she could confirm if they were alive or not, and the way they were killed.

And right now, observing that the prince had not even touched the man, and he somehow died while the prince appeared uncaring, ignoring the unconscious man, raised her suspicion.

'...How did he do it?'

Standing there as she observed him finally coming toward her after exiting the mansion while holding an uncaring expression, her eyes clearly tried to look through him, but it was all futile given she didn't sense any weapon or anything that could cause instant death of a cultivator.

'What the—did our eyes just meet?'

Olea, for the first time in her journey after killing who knows how many cultivators, felt her eyes meet with her target.

She was confident enough to see how that man had definitely looked at her, just as she saw the prince clearly looking at her.

'Heh?'

And even more amusing was the fact that how instantly, after widening his eyes and clearly showing a soft expression, he swiftly turned his gaze down.

As if not only sensing her presence but also aware of her identity, this led to his sudden soft expression and aversion of gaze, showing how he knew she would notice him looking at her.

It was fleeting, where at the start, she considered him without any cultivation.

Then suddenly, or coincidentally, someone dying beside him, without him even noticing it.

And now, him not only noticing her exact location but also knowing it was her from that shocked expression.

'How did—!'

Olea suddenly vanished from her location as she felt sudden killing intent directed toward the prince and a blade arrived near his face.

The moment was fleeting; imbued with internal energy, the speed of the dagger was swift, but as it arrived, she caught the kunai with her fingers.

Swish.

As her blurred figure arrived holding the kunai, she saw the prince somehow pushed by something directly falling on the floor.

Though he barely dodged the knife already held by her, her gaze turned toward the direction from where it came, before swiftly throwing it back while imbibing it with her energy.

SCHKLT.

"Kurrrrghhh!?"

The loud cry came from that direction as the flustering sound resonated, causing the soldiers nearby to flinch in action as they swiftly sprinted toward that direction.

"Protect the prince!" One of the soldiers yelled before swiftly arriving near Olea, taking out their spears and pointing them toward her as they yelled, "Reveal your identity, intruder!"

'....'

Olea, seeing that instead of catching the one who really attempted the assassination, these soldiers were pointing their weapons toward her, caused a cold glint to pass through her eyes, directly leading the soldiers to tremble as they took a step back due to the sudden chill.

"Thank you, Lady Olea, for saving me," suddenly, another voice came from behind her as she looked toward the prince, who spoke in a grateful tone, prompting her eyes to remain glued to him as he stood, dusting off his clothes.

'!?'

"L-lady Olea!?"

It was instant; the soldiers hearing the prince refer to this woman by that name and finding the two daggers in particular behind her back instantly realized her identity as the girl leader of the ghost sect, one of the renowned members who just a few days ago had ascended to the next layer, causing them to break into a sweat.

"I see, so the princess had sent you to protect me. She really cares for me," Leon stated as he could sense the heavy atmosphere created due to the soldiers pointing their weapons at her, with his intentions clearly to soothe everyone, including Olea, who would probably be here at the order of the princess rather than for assassination as she had just stopped one herself.

"...."

Olea remained silent, not replying to him as she kept looking at him without blinking or avoiding his gaze.

She had initially felt his image dropping in her eyes; she could see how he was trying to mention 'princess' just to confirm her direction of decisions on whether she should harm him, and also making her identity known to these soldiers, who would have died in the next moment anyway.

It was becoming confusing for her to understand this man who was weak but somehow mysterious and, at the same time, smart enough to leverage the situation in his favor.

While he was clearly unable to dodge that previous attack, or maybe he fell intentionally at the right time to fool her into thinking that he was indeed weak and could not evade the attack on himself, yet he did it in a coincidental way to deceive her.

Several questions were rising in her mind.

But again, it all comes down to the fact of why he was aware of her identity when he had never seen her face, which was covered in random colored masks each time, just like presently.

And it was not her two swords, which were common for other cultivators to use as well; he seemed too familiar with her identity.

"Have we met before?" she asked, her gaze steady and voice calm.

"No, but I do keep a list of the most beautiful women in the kingdom," he said, reciprocating her blank look. "And isn't it natural to recognize one at the top of it?"