Commercial Competition

Frederid limped into the study and reported dejectedly, "Your Highness, Duke Kemais has arrived at Bear King Palace. My father—no, I mean Viscount Shredder—has already gone to the palace gates to welcome him..."

Lorist closed the book in his hands and quietly looked at Frederid. "Did your father discipline you again?"

"No..." Frederid still tried to deny it.

"Then where did that footprint on your trousers come from? Apart from me, only your father is here, and nobody else would dare discipline you. Tell me, what good deed did you do this time to make your father so furious..." Lorist could tell at a glance that Frederid had clearly just been given a thorough beating by his father, Fatty Shi.

"Uh... Your Highness, Andbel and I painted several little bear sculptures gray and white, then pushed them into the corridor. My father didn't notice them when he passed by, tripped over them, and fell flat on his face. That's why he got so angry..." Frederid confessed truthfully.

"Alas..." Lorist rested a hand against his forehead and smiled bitterly. Fatty Shi's second son really was too wild. He lacked Ready's perseverance, Shiward's diligence, and Jenorio's steadiness. Put simply, he was a hyperactive, curious child who wanted to try everything. Perhaps it was because he had been spoiled by Fatty Shi's maternal grandfather, the First-rank Great Swordsman Yingjielieke, when he was young, which had made him fearless.

It was just as Miss Teresi, the headmaster of Nico Academy, had written in her evaluation of him: he was naturally kind, but far too curious; brave and bold; after four years at the academy, he had become its biggest troublemaker and the primary target of the instructors' strict supervision...

That was why, when they heard that Lorist planned to take Frederid away as his