—
After a private session with Master Fritjof—where Gustave was the only one present and his maids waited outside—he feels genuinely pleased to call Fritjof his master and teacher, thanks to the valuable lesson he received, unlike with the Dean. When he steps outside and sees his maids waiting for him, they look at him anxiously.
Looking around and finding no one else—Fritjof having already left—he focuses on his maids. Raising an eyebrow, he asks, "What's the matter? Is Ciri getting into trouble?"
"N-no, Your Highness. I-it's the girl from Angren. S-she… she…"
Frowning, sensing that Syanna seems to have emerged from her depression cocoon with full vengeance this time, he asks, wanting to know what happened, "She what?"
"S-she stole several pieces of jewelry from the nobles of our home. A-and she killed their own house knight in the process before disappearing."
Raising an eyebrow, and realizing that his benevolence and harmless behavior have worked well enough to avoid making himself a target of Syanna's vengeance, he now understands that the little piece has flown off to build a nest of her own.
She is probably already on her way toward the area near Toussaint to plan her revenge. Although he doesn't know whether she ever returns to Nazair like in the original timeline, he hopes she goes back to Angren—because if she doesn't, his plan to make Angren part of his alliance of countries will be ruined.
But he also knows that when dealing with this avatar of Lilit, he cannot be too obvious or too forceful in trying to make her part of his plans—otherwise, he risks becoming a beacon for Her in the Ethereal Plane, exposed down to every part of his being.
Not only that—unlike his mother and family, who trust him, he and Syanna are complete strangers. So he can only hope that by becoming a knight and defeating the "bad guys" in Angren, he managed to change her trajectory—ideally pushing her to take control of Angren so that he never encounters trouble there again, since it would be under her rule.
For now, he simply acknowledges the immediate benefit her actions brought by killing the knights and taking the nobles' gold with her.
By making the first move in opening the chessboard and drawing his kingdom's nobles' attention toward her—without any of it being linked back to his mother—Syanna has unintentionally allowed his mother to deal with rebellion without their interference.
Even though he knows their impact will be limited, since they crippled their own power back then, even a small distraction is useful. It is still help from Syanna nonetheless, drawing their attention, especially since cornered nobles may still have a few tricks up their sleeves if pushed too far.
As for any suspicion falling on him—suspicions that he orchestrated both Syanna's actions and the transformations happening back home, which will surely draw the nobles' attention—he doesn't care. He knows he has no motivation to commit such acts in the first place, given his mental age.
Even if there are people who have begun to suspect his intelligence, for the foreseeable future—at least until his mother grows older—he intends to remain in the background, or perhaps never step into the limelight at all, with his mother staying as the face of Lyria and Rivia.
Because he knows that—just like Samuel Brannan, who became the first millionaire of the Gold Rush era by selling tools rather than mining the gold himself—he intends to build an empire of the same nature.
An empire free from public judgment, operating from the shadows, yet capable of expanding into every field—one so essential that everyone becomes dependent on it, unable to separate themselves from it. That is why he knows the nobles' hatred toward Syanna will quickly fade, because he has done nothing but help her.
Instead, what he should truly worry about is his mother once that hatred fades. Inspired by his letter—which explains how society functions in the more advanced civilizations of his Earth—Gustave knows that his mother will begin centralizing power and stripping authority from the nobles, making her the target of every aristocrat in Lyria and Rivia.
Because the nobles will be too distracted to even think about Syanna, who merely stole a small amount of their gold. Their real concern will be their lifeline and influence being cut off, reducing them to little more than ordinary citizens—citizens who simply possess a bit more gold than the rest.
Thinking he might need to handle this more carefully and with greater sophistication for the plan to run smoothly, he said to his maids, "Give me the letter for the Queen Mother that I gave you. I need to revise it."
Taking the letters and returning to the private classroom, he adjusted the timeline in the letter from weeks to two years. Not because he wanted to add more content, but to make the transformation subtle yet bold—something that would draw the attention of the nobles of Lyria and Rivia, but not the attention of the entire world.
He also changed the wording from his previously too-advanced phrasing to more mumbled lines, slipping in one or two scholarly expressions to make his alibi of imitating the professor more convincing.
Not only that—he paused the pencil he was using to write, aware of the high chance that Syanna might try to get hold of this letter. He knew that when someone is given hope in the abyss of darkness, they tend to reach for the light of that hope again—in this case, the three-year-old toddler who wanted to become a knight and save the exiled princess in Angren.
So, although he didn't know if his deduction was correct, or how she would manage to steal a glance at the content before putting the letter back, Gustave still decided to include suggestive hints in the letter.
Not directed at his mother, but at Syanna—repeating over and over how Angren was not like Cintra and emphasizing other details to guide her toward the swampy, bandit-infested area.
This was meant to make his plan of extending influence from Lyria and Rivia to Skellige at least partially work, even though he no longer held high hopes for it. Adopting the mindset of just a man trying to survive in this world gave him a certain comfort.
With all of that done, he gave the letters back to his maids and instructed one of them—the first building block of the new Lyria and Rivia—to send them home. But he also knew it wasn't enough to rely solely on his mother's power. If he wanted to build the Lyria and Rivia he envisioned, he needed to create a shadow empire of his own.
So, turning to his maids, he asked again, "Rosemary, Delilah, Brenna, and Mira—tell me again what you girls like. I want us to do something big this time. Big, but somewhat secretive, easily dismissed. Probably only Calanthe and her intelligence service will know about it."
Unable to follow the train of thought of their prince—from seemingly being unconcerned about the girl from Angren killing nobles in their home kingdom to suddenly asking what she likes—Rosemary decides not to think too deeply about it.
Trying to understand the mind of a monarch is exhausting even for her, someone who enjoys thinking far more than the rest of her fellow maids.
Delilah, suddenly excited and romanticizing all kinds of scenarios, asked, "Huh? I-is this going to be like an infiltration? A-are we going to steal from Cintra's treasury, Your Highness?"
Chuckling, Gustave shook his head and said, "No, it won't be that exciting. We'll probably just start earning money of our own—creating our own version of soap, for example," while adding to himself, 'that will eventually turn into a Unilever-like company or something.'
"Oh."
Seeing Delilah's romantic expectations deflate like a punctured balloon, he once again asked what they liked and what their skills were, so he could better understand which fields of his future empire each of them should handle. Thus, they began to tell him about their own unique skills, most of which had been passed down from their parents.
Rosemary was good at polishing and finishing metalwork from helping her father, a blacksmith. Delilah was very good at fishing, but because she detested her fisherman father, she said she wanted to focus on designing and making clothing instead.
Brenna had experience helping in the tavern her parents owned and already had the skills to create good beverages. And Mira, the orphan, did not have any particular inherited craft; her dedication was entirely to being a maid.
After thinking for a moment, Gustave decided that Rosemary would be assigned to handle the field of small luxury machinery—such as, for example, something akin to Rolex watches—to draw many successful merchants into his sphere of influence.
He knew it was better to spread his power rather than center it solely on himself, which would make him an easy target, being the only one holding everything together.
Thus, it would be best to create a company similar to Rolex, one whose customers would primarily be the elitist class. That way, if another major player attempted to take a piece of the market, they would be torn apart by the "hyenas" within the sphere of influence he had carefully built.
Perhaps he would even create some kind of event—something like this world's equivalent of Formula 1—so that the elite circle surrounding his luxury machinery company would become a tightly knit group, one that everyone else would envy and desperately try to enter.
As for Delilah, because he knew she had a tendency to become arrogant—her personality leaning dangerously close to that of a sorceress if left unchecked—he did not want her handling anything that catered to the elitist class.
He had no intention of creating a brand like Balenciaga for her, but rather something more grounded and accessible, like a world-spanning version of Uniqlo.
Because although he wanted an elitist class, he wanted one that contributed something meaningful to society—similar to how Formula 1 engineering eventually trickled down to benefit the masses—not one that merely indulged in the revelry of being at the top.
That was why he didn't want Delilah to hold the front where the elitists were. He knew she would easily fall into that temptation, and that would become a hindrance to the empire he wanted to build.
As for Brenna, who enjoyed making beverages, he wanted her to manage a field that was essentially a combination of Red Bull and Coca-Cola—something addictive enough that the masses would keep coming back for more.
At the same time, he wanted it to serve as a platform for people in this world who loved challenging themselves in dangerous situations, so that these adrenaline-seeking warriors would eventually—and unintentionally—become his private army, without anyone ever realizing it.
And lastly, for Mira, who had no particular craft, she would work closely with him as his secretary.
He intended to build this world's version of Amazon, where all logistics rested in the palm of his hand—starting first by opening a shop near where Zoltan lived to offer packaging services, or, if that felt too unrealistic for their first step, a simple store selling the quality-of-life products he planned to create.
So, turning to his maids, Gustave said, "Rosemary, go to our quarters and disassemble the RDBM completely—destroy it if you have to. I want to become the official creator of this machine later in the future. Mira, go down to the city—Forge Street, Ironmongers' Alley, Central Square of Adalia—find a home and a shop there, and buy them with the rest of our coin. The rest of you, come. Let's go to the university's alchemy station and make our first product."
As for why he accepted the possibility of Calanthe discovering something suspicious about him—such as the fact that, in just one day after arriving at Cintra, he had already bought a shop and created a quality-of-life product—it was because he only had seven years, and during that time he would inevitably have to make concessions under scrutiny.
He couldn't remain idle, as he had once wanted—waiting to become a teenager, lazily letting the main plot unfold. He could easily deduce that, after Cintra was wiped out, the majority of Northern mages perished, leaving Vilgefortz as the most powerful mage in the world.
With no Tissaia or Gerhart to curb his ambitions, he himself became a perfect, juicy target for experimentation by Vilgefortz and other mages—if his own beyonder abilities ever became known to the public.
That's why suspicion was inevitable. But at least this time, the environment was better for him, because he was surrounded by family he could trust—or at least by those who shared goals similar to his own.
Not only that, he knew that no matter how advanced his thought processing became after reaching Savant-level intelligence, he was still, at the end of the day, just a human who couldn't possibly account for every single scenario in the universe.
And that's not even counting the gods and demons of this world—Gaunter O'Dimm himself cannot possess true omniscience, as he admitted.
From the start, if he could have acted normally, he would have done so already, avoiding such a high-stakes battle of wits.
But at least now he accepted that he might blunder, acknowledged the flaws he would inevitably have, and planned to patch them as best he could—so that his version of the Iron Man armor could be upgraded to prevent the same mistakes from happening again.
Still, he knew this suspicion wouldn't arise immediately. For the first few products, he would essentially follow the trajectory of a prodigy toddler. Later on, as he got closer to the Nilfgaardian invasion—which would open the stage for every major power on the Continent—he would need to accelerate his plans, eventually revealing his intelligence to a select few.
Even though he knew he would still vehemently deny having exceptional intelligence if questioned or suspected later, he also knew that by the time the common masses might call him a "spawn of the devil," he would have accumulated enough capital to defend himself.
Moreover, by building a shadow empire whose products people could not separate themselves from, he would not even need to lift a finger to defend himself. Many would support him willingly, creating his own form of propaganda—unlike Nilfgaard, which relied on the Great Sun religion.
"Your Highness, I found a laboratory that is free for us to use."
Nodding and walking to the laboratory Delilah had found, Gustave entered to find someone already inside. Sighing at the sight of Master Mirror—who was able to locate him simply because of a passing thought—he just nodded in greeting to the Devil, saying, "Master Mirror."
Turning to his maids, he said, "Come on, girls, let's make soap, with the main ingredient being Celandine," ignoring the Devil entirely, as if He were thin air.
"B-but, Your Highness, y-you… H-he…"
"Remember what I said about my God of Steam and Machinery. He is similar to that. So just ignore Him, and don't think too much about it."
Smiling, Master Mirror remarked, "You see… locating you is no simple task. Lara is exceedingly protective."
Once again completely ignoring the Devil, Gustave opened his notebook—specialized for alchemy purposes—which was now filled only with the knowledge from Master Fritjof.
Knowing that he wanted to create a soap that people would repeatedly buy to heal skin injuries persisting from old wounds, he began by considering how celandine extract could be combined with Aer Elemental power.
And because he also knew that Aer was essentially a mixture of all atmospheric gases, he first wanted to test each gas individually to determine which reacted most effectively with the celandine extract, in order to target long-standing injuries that typical healing salves could not fully resolve.
But since he didn't yet have the celandine extract—to essentially "download" the mystical information directly into his brain using his [Knowledge] ability—and there was no celandine available to start the alchemy experiment, he instructed Delilah to retrieve stalks of celandine from the university alchemical vault.
"Delilah, could you take a bunch of celandine stalks from the storage room? Come on, don't just stand there."
"Y-yes, Your Highness."
Turning to Brenna, he said, "Brenna, help me heat up the alembic and bring the water. I want to extract the essence of the celandine first, before anything else."
"Y-yes."
Sighing dejectedly, Master Mirror remarked, "I foresaw this outcome long ago. Your presence… was inevitable."
"I know."
Surprised by the bold declaration even without the gift of sight, he chuckled to himself. Gazing in a certain direction, he smiled and said, "Ah, the hour has come for me to depart. See you on the Other Side, Son of Steam. It was a pleasure meeting you."
[8th Madness Barrier: 3.5 → 3.2]
[Controlled Madness: 3.2]
"You too, Master Mirror."
Turning around and heating up the alembic, Gustave shivered for a moment, facing someone clearly above his weight class, before resuming his work on researching the celandine soap. Not long after, a booming sound echoed from the palace, followed by a green-tinted energy that spread across all of Cintra, before dimming shortly after, as if nothing had ever happened.
Seeing that Ciri's magical training would begin earlier than in the original timeline, and knowing that the magical transformation in Cintra would eventually become public knowledge in the near future, Gustave didn't dwell on it. When it came to dealing with the devil, the best course of action was simply not to engage.
So, treating this incident as just another challenge he would eventually have to handle, he continued his research in his mind while waiting for the main ingredients to be brought, as if nothing had happened.
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References may break immersion. Just go ahead to the next chapter.
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References
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Yes, Odimm said it himself—he isn't omniscient—during his first meeting with Geralt.
Odimm: "At their camp. She rode in there—dark of night, black and white, gooseberries… yes, I know. Had a terse exchange with the garrison commander and raced off."
Geralt: "Where to?"
Odimm: "I am not omniscient. Ask the garrison."
I also recall him saying that he doesn't know whether witchers have emotions or certain aspects of a witcher's nature, or something along those lines. This means that if he isn't actively looking for the information, he simply doesn't know it—at least, that's my take. Ah, here's the passage:
Geralt: "I was subjected to mutations. Stripped me of all kinds of human compunctions."
Odimm: "Hmm. Interesting bit of information. We shall discuss it at length later."
Moreover, because he himself said that he cannot lie and never cheats, when he says he is not omniscient, he literally means it—even though he can essentially know wherever Geralt is. From this, I conclude that if he is not actively searching for certain information, he will not know it.