Gacha Sovereign
Chapter 60: Back

The king nodded, and his expression becomes carefree again, "Well, the purpose was done. Now, I heard that you call Raymond with 'Uncle'. Why you didn't call me that too?"

"..." Alex was speechless.

"Un...cle..."

"Haha..." The king laughed happily.

"Your majesty, you can't be like this. I just planned to introduce him to my daughter back home" Gilian protested.

"Hehe...let put aside that matter for now. What is this new idea you talk about?"

Gilian wants to protest again but, the duke cut in. "It was called 'Water Wheel"

"Oh...What is that?" The king and the rest were interested in it.

"This is a paper" Suddenly the education minister who was in silent all the time, spoke and give Alex a paper.

Alex was astonished by this person. He was thoughtful and seem can really support someone really well.

Alex then focused on the paper, he tried to draw a water wheel. "This is a water wheel, we connect this two-wheel with plates, so when the water stream flow in. It will rotate the wheel. If we connect the wheel with some mechanism, we can grind the flour automatically, I can't draw this mechanism now, I can somehow make a rough drawing for that in a week I think"

"Yes, you can take your time for that. I see this water wheel was really practical, it can be used in other areas" The king said.

Alex nodded, "Yes, but I can only think this one at the moment"

"Alexander... How is your view about education?" Suddenly, Adrian, the Education minister asked.

"Education..." Alex pondered for a moment, "How about making a school for learning to write and read first for commoners? If the citizen was smarter then many people will start to think and be creative. With that, many inventions can start to appear. Civilization will progress faster"

Adrian nodded, he also think about this, seeing Alex was said about this, he secretly happy.

The king thought a bit, "Sure, let's do that. I will leave the detail for you Adrian"

"Yes your Majesty, I won't disappoint you"

Then the king turned to Alex solemnly, "Alex"

Alex looks at the king's solemn face.

"I heard about the hero that will come in the next few weeks. Remember this, the kingdom will back you up. If they want to start a war, we will let them know why we are the strongest between the three kingdoms" The king said.

Alex was moved with this, He smiled and sincerely said "Thank you"

"Alright, The meeting for today was over" The king dismissed all of them.

All of them left. But Alex was grabbed by Gilian "Young Alex, Let's visit my home first. We can talk about our cooperation there"

"Stop! Sir Gilian, you can't snatch people like this. Are you going to kidnap him?" The duke intervened.

"Tch" Gilian then smiled "What do you mean about that? Kidnap him? Have your ears already become like that, you are still young, Raymond. I am inviting him"

"Then I turned you down on behalf of him"

"Can you really represent him?"

"Sir...Sir Gilian, I will visit your house next time. I still need to train myself" Alex rejected him

Gilian now dejected. Seeing Alex reject him, he then went home dejectedly. While the duke smiling smugly.

Alex and the duke went back. After saying goodbye, Alex goes back to his room and laid on his bed.

"I somehow manage to master the power throwing. But I can only use this technique on some spare spear, When I throw my spear, it means I am abandoning my spear. It will be dangerous if I abandon my weapon in the battle. I also need a melee combat spear technique, and maybe some movement techniques."

Alex sighed, "I can't be too greedy. One step at a time"

"I will start training my spin throwing tomorrow. And also need to spare some time to design the waterwheel. Well since there still time before night come, I should try to design the waterwheel"

He gets up to his desk and takes out some papers, in a few hours he manages to make two waterwheel's concepts. The two were the stream and undershot water wheel. The stream water wheel was used in a river with a strong flow. As for the undershot water wheel was good in a river's slope, utilizing the difference of height to make the river's water to flow.

Alex wants to make a water wheel that utilizes the waterfall but he never saw any waterfall so he will design it later. But the problem was the mechanism to utilize the energy from water wheel. He contemplated, he tried to connect some gears but he still can't make the design worked. Alex scratched his head, he looks at outside and just noticed the time, it was almost midnight.

He decided to stop and cultivate again. He does this process for a week, in the morning he woke up and practice his spin throwing until evening then went back to his room to come up with some ideas for the mechanism.

"Alex"

"Uncle, what happened?" Alex asked. he noticed that the duke seems to be in a hurry.

"I got a report that the hero will reach this city in a week."

"I see" Alex only nodded.

"And also, Alicia and the rest already on their way, they will arrive tomorrow night."

Alex's eyes brightened.

"I will inform you when they have arrived"

"Thank you"

Alex then went back to his training.

...

The next day, Alex practice until evening and didn't make some designs anymore. He waits patiently for Alicia.

In the evening, Alex, Duke, and Madam wait for them in the house's entrance. Soon there was a carriage that coming to them, the carriage stopped in front of them. the door was opened and Alicia, as well as Mia, get down from the carriage.

"Father-Mother" Alicia cheerfully hugged them.

Mia also hugged them.

"Alex" Alicia grinned and make a 'V' sign with her hand. "I Reach rank 3"

"Haha, good! This trip was really bountiful for you I guess" The duke happy that his daughters finally come home.

Different from the duke, Alex noticed that Alicia seems a bit maturer so he comes closer to her and gently smiled, "You have worked hard... and Welcome back"

Alicia surprised, but soon a big smile appeared on her face, "I'm Home"

"How is your progress, Mia?" The duke asked

"I almost reach rank 4" Mia nodded and said in low voice.

"Good, It seems you will follow your sister, Lea, to graduate as a rank 5. There are still more than one year to reach rank 5, keep working hard"

Mia nodded.

"Let's talk about it later, come in first and take a bath then we can talk after dinner" Madam said.

All of them then went in. After dinner,

"You girls have really worked hard this one and a half months." The duke said.

"Hehe..." Alicia embarrassed, while Mia only nodding her head.

"That's right, there are two news about the hero. First, he will reach this city in a week and the second is he will join our academy as a special student"

"That lecher?" Alicia shocked, she recalled when she meets the hero a year ago, he didn't bother to conceal his lust in his eyes, so she was displeased with the hero. But she soon looks at Alex.

Alex still calms so Alicia relieved.

After chatting a bit, they went back to their own room.

When Alex come back to his room, he sits on his desk and continued his designing. His mind seems refreshed after seeing Alicia but he didn't know why. And soon, he completed his design.

"Completed" Alex stretched his hands. This week hard work now bears the fruit.

'Knock knock'

Alex frowned, who will come to his room this late. He reaches the door and opened them. He surprised seeing Alicia.

"Alicia"

"Can I come in?" Alicia asked.

"Sure" Alex smiled. He let her in. She sat on the sofa.

"What happened? Is something bothering you?" Alex asked

"No, I just want to check you" Alicia shook her head

"Me? Why do you want to check on me?" Alex was perplexed.

"I mean, the hero and his companion will come here, right? So I was worried about you, since you..."

Alex only smiled at her, "Don't worry about it. It was the past, I'm not saying that I don't want to revenge, I'm sure I will do it. Actually, in the past, I really want to kill them."

"Then..." Before Alicia said another word, Alex stops her.

"I will kill them, but it will be bad if I kill them here. This kingdom will get dragged into it. But I will make them not having a nice stay in the academy" Alex said calmly.

Alicia observed his expression, Alex seems so calm so she was relieved. Alicia then looks at his table, there seems some paper. Even in the dormitory, Alex never uses the table. So she stood up and went to his table.

"Alicia?" Alex was confused about why she suddenly stood up and get closer to his desk.

"What are you drawing here?" Alicia was confused with the drawing on Alex's desk.

"Oh, this?"

Alicia went back to the sofa and place the paper on the table. She looking at Alex curiously.

"This is waterwheel"

"Water wheel?"

"Yes, when we traveled back then, I noticed that in this territory have some rivers with strong flow. So this one will work I thought. The principle was to use the water current to rotate this wheel and this rod will transfer the rotation to this equipment. Then this equipments will move automatically. I only design this for flour's processing though, since the minister has this problem."

"Hmm..." Alicia makes a thoughtful look. Then suddenly, "I don't really understand this device but I am sure there are many benefits for this even though I can't point that out"

Alex shook his head, He smiled. "Alicia"

"mmm...?" Alicia looks at him with a confused face.

Alex hesitated "... Nevermind"

"What is it? Alex, what is it?" Alicia looks at him with a curious face

"How about you tell me your experiences in the dungeon" he wants to change the topic

"Oh, you want to hear it? Alright, I will tell you. First...." Alicia told the whole story from the first day they got inside the dungeon.

After she finished her story, Alex looks at her gently, "You have worked hard"

Alicia look at him, surprised. Soon a big smile appeared on her face, "Then I want my reward."

"Reward?" Alex was surprised by this, he also didn't prepare anything for her.

But suddenly she laid down on the sofa, placing her head on top of Alex's lap. "Firia said, She always happy when she does this with her mother. Her mother will always stroke her head and she always likes the feeling"

Alex sweatdropped, He screamed inwardly "She did it with her mom! And I am a man"

Alicia looks at Alex with an expectant look. Alex soon resigned and start stroking her head gently. Feeling Alex's hand, Alicia was happy.

"She doesn't lie about this feeling." She muttered in low voice. She continued savoring this feeling, and after a few minutes, she slowly falls asleep.

"Huu..."

Alex looks at her, from her story. Alicia seems to experience a lot and become maturer. He slowly lifts her up and carried her to his bed. He covered her with a quilt. Looking at her sleeping face, he can't resist to bend down and kiss her forehead.

Alex was a bit surprised with his boldness but soon he shook his head, "Goodnight, my princess"