"From what I can tell, the illustrious Stone family should have all of its members captured by the Filoan Empire, where the patriarch of your supposed family had a feud with a noble there. That makes me question your presence here." Jeanne commented as she waited for Darius' reply.

"Do you have a lie detector? Or someone with the ability to sieve through the truth of words objectively as a skill or talent?" Darius asked seriously.

Jeanne was temporarily thrown off by his answer, not expecting him to jump to such a different matter altogether. She furrowed her eyebrows and replied coldly.

"What does that have to do with my question?"

Darius smiled. "It has everything to do with it."

He raised a finger and twirled it around slowly, while placing his cheek on his clenched fist, gazing at Jeanne with mockery. "You see, your… audit… assumes that the information you are relying on is truthful and valid fact. I'm simply calling it into doubt."

Darius leaned forward. "Princess Jeanne, in the first place, you have no authority to question me. I've been playing along because I've been intrigued about the reason for your summon and subsequently because I found our 'battle' quite amusing."

"However, here is where I have to lock your traction to a halt. As it stands, no matter whatever document you put forth, without the stamp of various empires ascertaining it as fact, it is basically your word against mine."

"Of course, it's not like you would actually rely on information purchased from the Thieves and Assassins Guilds, which are two illegal entities in Andrato, now would you?" Darius chuckled softly.

The breathing of Junia Hu and Jania Hu hitched as their eyes tried to hide their growing anger at Darius. They had never seen someone act so insubordinate and sharp-tongued among the noble scions who had come to pander to the Crown Princess for her affection.

And yet Darius smiled even wider as he noticed that their Neutral affinity with him rose to Friendly lvl 1. Despite being angered by his behavior, their respect for him had unwillingly increased due to his composure and his intelligence.

As for Princess Jeanne, she remained silent for a long while. She eventually smiled lightly and remained composed as she ended her interrogation.

"Then it seems, there is no need to continue with this audit. Until I obtain concrete information that can satisfy Baron Stone's criteria, I shall make sure to keep my worries to myself."

"In the meantime, I would like to invite Baron Stone for a short meal so that we can discuss other matters," she offered kindly.

Darius rose from his seat and shook his head. "I'm not interested. I have much more pressing concerns at this time, and I believe the reason should have been made known to you by your faction."

Jeanne's face failed to remain rigid as a flash of disappointment showed up, but she still made another attempt. "That is understandable, and I apologize for summoning you during a busy period. However, should it be possible, would you like to visit the capital city and have a tour? I'm willing to personally escort you around Ando City."

Darius' expression remained that of a smile, but inwardly he was frowning in confusion. "That is something that can only be decided by fate, Crown Princess. For now, I'd rather take my leave with my servant."

Without looking at her twice, Darius took out a House Portal Scroll and opened it. In a flash of yellow light, both he and Gunner disappeared from the Crown Princess' bedroom, shocking the trio.

House Portal Scrolls existed in Faust, but were not available in the Andrato Kingdom due to how low it was on the food chain. Jania and Junia became alert, fearing some foul play.

If people could just teleport in and out of the royal castle, how could the Princess be kept safe? The royal castle had been fortified with many runic enchantments that should prevent such things, but what they didn't know was that their enchantments failed to prevent the utility of Darius' items.

Against the local Andrato folk, they were formidable, yet against items made by Transmutation which were at the highest possible quality for their stage/level, it was like wet paper.

Jeanne simply stared at where Darius had stood, a questioning light in her eyes. For the first time in a long time, her silver eyes dimmed as she didn't understand what had just happened… or what she was feeling.

.................

Darius and Gunner appeared in their suite in The Great Escape inn. Gunner lazily walked over to his bed and plopped down upon it, planning to nod off for a bit.

Darius though, went over to the bar, poured himself a chilled drink, and sat on a stool. As he usually did, he began to sip on the lovely concoction while thinking.

He had to admit, this visit had turned out to be far more interesting than he had initially expected. Spencely's remarks had been spot on, and at the same time, slightly off.

Then again, it was Darius' fault for not doing more in-depth research on the Princess' achievements and personality.

In his mind, there should have been time for that after the Quest, when he would have moved towards the cities to expand his influence in Andrato. This recent battle of the minds though, reminded him of his advantages and disadvantages.

On Earth, he had been able to bully everyone and was hailed a genius. With his quantified 21 Intellect, he had been twice as smart as the average man. Even against other geniuses, he had hardly lost.

From his own understanding of the Supreme System, they would have had somewhere between 15-20 Intellect, but that was just a guess based on how hard it had been for him to defeat them.

In Faust, even the princess of a low-tier kingdom could have 4.5 times the intelligence of the average man. As Darius climbed the ranks, he was bound to meet more potent fellows who had even higher Intellect.

Masters and Grandmasters would have much higher stats than Journeymen or Adepts. In fact, Darius stipulated that the criteria to go from Adept to Master was 100 points in Intellect.

At that point, one's brain would be so powerful that their fledgling Mind Power would evolve into true psychic ability.