There was a reason why Sylus insisted on Zani sleeping in the same room as him.
One of the bases was that he didn't want Erica doing anything to Zani while he wasn't there.
In fact, he had intentionally been avoiding his sister for days for that very same reason.
The second reason was something he uncovered later on.
Every night, when Zani finally fell asleep, she tended to cry.
Not in a way that woke everybody up from their sleep, but in tiny whimpers.
Originally, he thought she was having a bad dream, like everyone else does sometimes.
His worries only grew when it began happening every night, without fail.
Zani, while fast asleep, would cry for hours until she woke up the next day.
Sylus didn't like that.
One night, he decided to hug her as a way to convey his affection. When he did this, she instantly calmed down, even hugging him back.
Eventually, realizing his hug could stop her bad dreams, he began doing it every night.
And not once did he mention it to Zani—until now.
With her head still relaxing on his shoulder, Zani's heart pounded heavily after hearing her prince had been embracing her to sleep.
She wished for the ground to swallow her whole.
While she couldn't deny that listening to Sylus's heartbeat gave her some kind of amenity, she still felt it was unbecoming of her as a slave.
After a while, Sylus uttered,
"Do you feel better now?" he asked.
Zani nodded her head.
"Good."
He then stood up, looking at her while stretching his arm.
"You should go bathe and get something to eat. Don't branch anywhere; return to the room once you're done. And speak to no one as well."
Zani understood why he gave her these instructions; they were the same ones he had been giving her every day.
If the princess were to have an encounter with her after what happened the other day, it could cause an uproar.
Zani stood up, bowed her head, and then walked away.
As he watched her struggle to open and close the door, Sylus couldn't help but sigh.
'I feel like I have become a father.'
Without wasting any time, he carried his car sculpture and placed it in the middle of the bed before he also climbed in.
Now seated on the bed, Sylus pulled out a small book and pen from his pocket.
There, he had a drawing and a blueprint plan for the vehicle he wanted to build.
Analyzing the situation, it was fairly easy to determine what the problem was.
The cold that took over the main trade route was killing both the soldiers and their horses; as such, most of them were forced to turn back.
That much was understood.
Solution: build something that could either withstand the cold or produce heat to battle it.
But for Sylus,
"Why not both?"
For the past two days, Sylus had been studying spell writing.
What took some years to learn, he did in two days.
He learned the language that was used in spell writing, called the P-word.
The more he learned, the more he realized it was quite similar to a particular language in his former world.
Programming language.
Though Sylus didn't know much about it, he had studied enough when he tried to register as an employee at a café.
And from everything he studied, he was able to determine that the P-word language used for spell writing was just incomplete JavaScript mixed with other diverse programming languages and random symbols.
The symbols were different but had the same sequences and patterns.
Only a few had the right characters, like int, var, and object.
'This was why the runes were limited to two to three commands.'
Sylus had his arms folded.
'Since the program itself is incomplete, it caused the results to act based on what it received. Then again, I might be reaching far; I won't know until I try.'
He turned his gaze to his book, where he had written down some programs he remembered.
Using the pattern of the P-word, he would insert the codes in a sequence that followed and see if it worked.
Not something easy, as it would take many tries, but once he figured out which symbols were for a single code program, he would create his own—the original and complete method of spell writing.
He already had over 50 code sequences written in the book; all that was missing was for him to try them out.
'I doubt Father will listen to me if I told him I need a magic pen and a brown sheet.'
He sighed, closing the book.
Sylus was about to come down from the bed when he noticed the doorknob twist a bit.
'She's done bathing already?'
Turning his gaze to the door, he was surprised to see Erica standing there, her silver hair packed in a ponytail.
A suspicious look quickly made its way onto his face.
"What did you do?"
Rolling her eyes, Erica closed the door and then hopped on his bed.
With her legs shaking, she lay on her tummy, both hands cupping her cheeks.
"What is this? Are you upset with me? That's so mean."
Sylus sighed, trying to control himself.
Any slip-up and he was sure he would smack her in the face.
It wasn't that he hated her; he just couldn't stand her face for some reason.
"Where is Zani?"
For a brief second, one could see the frown on Erica's face.
She turned, now lying on her back.
"I saw her in the bathroom; I must say, she is quite pretty. Makes you think she comes from royalty."
'She didn't do anything to her.'
Relief washed over him.
Now he could ignore her without any worries. Sylus picked up the book and began flipping through the pages.
At first, it seemed as though Erica didn't care, as she was busy moving like a snake on the bed.
Then out of nowhere, she moved forward, using her hand to push Sylus's book down while her face was dangerously close to his.
"Are you in love with your slave, brother?"
....
[A/N: Please let me know what you think of the chapters so far, i'll truly appreciate your support.]