The God of Jesters
Chapter 400 - 7.03.4 Wilhelm Faust.

Chapter 400: 7.03.4 Wilhelm Faust.

Born out of an affair with the daughter of a no-name Baron in the countryside, Wilhelm Faust was the bastard son of Viscount Gerald Faust from the Capital of Cynark, and also a stain on the Faust family name.

His existence was proof of Viscount Gerald’s weakness, his inability to control himself nor did he take any responsibility for his son until the whole Capital knew of the drama.

It was the reason after a few years had gone by, Wilhelm had become so hated in his family.

He was ridiculed by the adults, bullied by his cousins, and ignored by his very own father. Wilhelm Faust had come to face with his reality very early on. "They don’t want me here." There was a chance that he would have died if not for his maternal grandfather exposing the fact of his existence to the public early on.

However it doesn’t mean Wilhelm ever liked his grandfather, nor his mother. Just like his father, they didn’t want anything to do with this sinful child of theirs and the only reason they exposed the whole matter was to earn some money from the giant Faust family.

Making Faust realize that no one actually cared for him. And in turn, he cared for them even less.

This became one of the reasons why, at the age of nine, using some connections he barely built over the course of a month and sold some property off his Family home. Faust was able to escape his overbearing family who were obviously waiting for a chance to end him when the heat and attention on the drama died down.

Which was the greatest mistake he ever made.

Although it took him some struggle made him experience some of the ugliness this world has to offer. At the end of his two-year journey, just before turning Eleven years old, Faust finally reached Durum where he got to meet his master.

It should be his beauty, obviously borrowed from her mother’s bloodline, or the Knight’s bloodline of Bonework, that made him stronger and appear taller than his age, which attracted the attention of Venglebod The Tower Master of Transmutation, who wanted someone for his experiments.

And with his Bloodline of a Knight and no apparent bloodline, Wilhelm was the perfect candidate.

It’s how their relationship began. From test subject to student to direct disciple.

Wilhelm, who never had ever picked a book before, showed an almost inhuman level of talent in alchemy, becoming one of the greatest creations of Venglebod.

And there would have been a future where Wilhelm should already be helming the reigns of Tower of Transmutation, if not for his fallout with his master over a stupid little thing. "You are from that family?" There was horror on his master’s face before it turned into disappointment.

Of course, that was just the start of their strained relationship. And when things got really overbearing, Wilhelm left on his own, not intending to ruin the little remaining relationship he still had with his Master.

A master who was grievously injured during the Durum incident. And it’s also where he learned the weakness of his creations.

"Steam-powered is inefficient."

His Mage Armors were walking tanks of destruction, that ran on two power sources. One being the mages themselves and the second being expensive batteries which held an immense amount of magical energy with an electrical converter, that is then used to heat up a filament in the engine.

The mage armor produced so much heat during the most important part of the battle that most of the mages in their armor suffered from 2nd or even third-degree burns.

And the only reason no one died is due to them using their transmutation magic to actively disperse the excessive heat in their armor. Otherwise, if it was a normal human, they would have died already.

Which in turn became another issue. As directive came from above. "Make it possible for Knights to wear it." Not humans, but Knights.

Being’s who don’t even possess any Mana. How could they hope to operate it?

"It’s a machine impossible to work without a mage." It was a dilemma. There was no power source strong enough to handle the usage of the Armor. And even if there was, Wilhelm kept wondering why the Knights needed such armor to begin with.

Aren’t their physical bodies strong enough?

This armor was made to cover for a Mage’s weakness, which was their body. So why give such a weapon to a Knight who already possesses a strong body?

Such questions annoyed Wilhelm. His cold exterior hid his frustration as he worked on the expectations placed on him for the last three months since the base’s construction, showing little to no progress as he lacked a proper direction.

Made worse by the fact that yesterday, General Vera had told him about the new recruit. A Royal from the capital it seemed.

"I don’t have time to babysit."

Was his response, but after reading the file, and under the urging from General Vera, who promised a bigger budget for the next month, Wilhelm had relented.

But the most he will do is give this man a place to stay and do whatever he wishes to do, nothing more.

"He wishes to meet with me?" With his usual emotionless tone, Wilhelm asked Inaya, his secretary who he had sent on the job to deal with this young prince.

"Tell me, what kind of person does he seem?" Wilhelm was curious about this young Arrogant Prince who appeared oblivious to Wilhelm’s intentions.

Wasn’t he obvious by sending Inaya to him? Was he really so stupid?

Or was it something else? A truly smart man who really might have something to talk about.

And Wilhelm had expected it might as be the former. An arrogant fool who didn’t seem to understand a thing about his position. And Inaya said pretty much the same. "The Prince held no interest in anything other than to meet you... He even said some..."

Inaya spoke of her experience, which from her perspective made Amir appear as an arrogant and spoiled young man with no talent proven by the fact that Amir, being at his age, held zero interest in the mage armor that was kept in the facility. Instead, he directly ordered to meet up with Wilhelm.

But this was the point that actually made Wilhelm understand the kind of person this Prince was.

’Unaffected by beauty and toys around him... a strong will, or a foolish pig.’ The answer would be obvious as long as he meets Amir.

So with some thought, he agreed to it. Wanting to learn how this young Prince actually is.

******

"Things are not going as I expected, feels like my cousin is a no-show." A figure drenched in gold with a purple grape in his mouth commented with some disappointment. "It’s so sad."

The young man appeared feeble to the eyes, with a dark complexion and little to no table etiquette as he kept his feet on the table, much to the apprehension of his Butler, who sighed in disappointment over his Master’s simple slight.

"Oh don’t be grouchy Sanjay, I am tired after today’s expedition, I need to have some rest." Of course, the man ignored the fact that the expedition was to his toilet and not on the battlefield as one might have assumed due to his words.

"Master, I know you are a disappointment, but it isn’t an excuse to abandon the Eti.."

"Oh shut up, I am not disappointed with my cousin, if he had come here earlier like a dog, then I might have been disappointed. But it seems he is smart enough to not do such a thing. Good, good."

"What do you mean Master Ludwig?" Asked the Butler, curious over what his master had been thinking all this while. Or even why his master showed such an interest in this no-name prince who appeared out of nowhere.

"Prince Amir’s First Knight might have been injured, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anyone else... so why didn’t he bring them?"

"No, he didn’t even bring his Butler. He is all alone, first of his kind."

"I still don’t get it master..."

"This beautiful servant of mine needs to go to school some more..." Putting a grape in his mouth again and making a Muaah sound, Prince Ludwig continued. "This means, my cousin is pretty paranoid. He doesn’t trust anyone, and the fact that he is delaying our meeting so much must mean he is suspicious of us... well can’t blame him. Anyone would be suspicious of me if I go to them and tell them about how I can cure their injured knight."

Ludwig laughed, finding that he seemed to have panicked and made a simple mistake.

There was no need to rush things, and it would have been better if they both met organically.

"I still don’t understand, isn’t Master’s only intention to help him? Why won’t he come then?"

"It’s Simple Sanjay, he is wondering how I learned about the fate of his Knight. And how do I even possess a cure for a lacking heart... so many questions and I so wish to answer them. If only he comes here."

"... Master. If Prince Amir is so paranoid, there should be some reason why Prince turned out like that."

"Well, there is... and it’s why I am interested in him."

Ludwig laughed, he just laughed and didn’t bother to explain anything more to his butler. As there was no need to anymore.