“Has Duke Cyril come to talk to you about removing Lucian as auxiliary to the Student Ambassadors?” Denzel asked Dean Mortimer.

  The old man looked unsettled. Denzel couldn’t exactly blame him. He was being crushed between four great powers, each with internal factions jostling him every which way. Dean Mortimer was a man for the battlefield, not for an administrative position. Frankly, he wasn’t up to the job.

  “Not… the Collegium doesn’t…” the dean grasped for words.

  “I think that it would be unfair to remove him until the trial has concluded. Keeping him on would demonstrate that the city of Verne is as committed to equity as its reputation establishes,” Denzel said with a flat stare. “Or at least, that’s the perspective of the imperial family.”

  The dean chewed on his lip, then nodded with a sigh. “I understand. He’ll stay on, then, no matter what.”

  ***

  Lucian and Denzel sat at a table together in a private establishment in Verne.

  “You think the Dean’ll stick to it? From all I’ve seen, Cyril is pretty good at putting up the pressure. I mean, he’s having me tried for murder,” Lucian pointed out.

  “It’s not Cyril alone,” Denzel said. “He was protecting you from trial, but even if he goes… this now has a momentum of its own.” The prince placed his hands on the table. “The dean is many things, but he at least tries to keep his word wherever possible. Now that I have his word, he won’t back down on it.”

  Lucian exhaled in relief. “I didn’t think that this would be a problem so simply solved. Thank you.”

  “That doesn’t guarantee that he won’t eventually push to have the dean replaced outright,” Denzel said. “But you’ll definitely be able to go on the next student mission. A revolt in our home… you were right. Too right. I never knew you had such a keen mind.”

  Lucian stood, stretching. “The briefing’s today, isn’t it?”

  “It is.”

  “I won’t be attending,” Lucian said.

  Denzel looked irritated. “Then why in the world did you make me go through all that trouble?”

  “I already know what they’re going to say,” Lucian explained. Denzel raised a skeptical brow. “We talked about this, didn’t we? Your father is unpopular, taxes are rising, and wages have been frozen by the government. A man named…” Lucian paused, then pulled out his Evercodex. “…Lombard is their ring leader.”

  “Even I don’t know about their leader yet. How could you?”

  “My patron,” Lucian said. Always an easy excuse. “Anyway, I have a briefing of my own to attend.”

  ***

  Lucian stood in the rural cottage Denzel had prepared for Aurelia and the monastics. Already, the place had been spruced up considerably, made livable. Aurelia was present alongside Brother Crane and a squad of brothers and sisters that answered directly to him. Most people, even his friends, continued to call him Brother Crane in full. Lucian was no exception. It felt right.

  Now that they were no longer in the colder mountains of the monastery, the monastics had donned more lightweight fur appearances, though the white coloration of their artificial clothes still made them stand out. To say the least, most of them weren’t suited for espionage operations. What they did, they did out in the open.

  Fortunately, Lucian already had the information. He just needed a hammer to slam the nail in.

  “My sources tell me that this mission the Student Ambassadors are going to embark on will be precisely as dangerous as the last,” Lucian said walking around the room as he talked. “But I don’t need you to worry about that. That’s going to be handled. Instead… just as I did with Metterand, I want to hunt them down. I want to strike directly at the demons.”

  Now that Lucian had changed the timeline slightly, he wasn’t going to take half measures. He intended to go all in, using his knowledge of the future to its utmost. Heavenwatch Monastery was amply needed to actually do that. Its divine beasts gave him power far beyond what he could exercise individually.

  “The network that the demons have is highly decentralized.” Lucian walked around. “Rather than having one giant web, they’ve weaved thousands of small webs around the continent, each with a shared goal. That ensures that uncovering one scheme doesn’t spiral off and kill all the others. But…” Lucian raised his finger. “There are still important figures in that network. People that, without them, it struggles to function well.” Lucian stared at Aurelia pointedly.

  She narrowed her eyes, then said, “Like Metterand.”

  “Yes. Like Metterand.” Lucian said, continuing to stare. “And like you, had I not intervened.” He turned away after lingering long enough to make Aurelia uncomfortable. “Anyway, for a major operation like this, I have no doubt a figure like that is going to be making an appearance here. We need to find them… and deal with them.”

  Lucian already knew who it was—a vicious woman, and Metterand’s superior in attributes by a large margin. Most of the First Emperor’s personal servants didn’t start entering direct combat until the end of the game. It would be easy enough to guide these divine beasts to the right target. Even still, if he were to give them an assassination target and tell them to go for it, he was worried they might start asking questions he couldn’t answer.

  “Aurelia volunteered to be my partner in this,” Lucian said, pointing right at Aurelia. “I recall you saying that you were very eager, no matter the danger. This’ll be dangerous. We’ll be risking our lives—indeed, death may be likely. But I know that you’re of such good nature, you’ll be an eager volunteer. That’s exactly the energy I need.”

  Aurelia looked a little stiff as she nodded. “Of course. You saved my life. Why wouldn’t I risk it for you?”

  “Not for me,” Lucian cautioned. “For the people.”

  “Ah. Yes. Them,” Aurelia smiled. “Yes, of course.”

  “As expected of two people with such pure holy affinity,” one of Crane’s people commented.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  As Lucian heard his dreaded phrase, he took some solace in the fact that he wasn’t suffering alone. Aurelia looked greatly concerned. Risking her life was her least favorite activity.

  ***

  “What were you talking about back there?” Aurelia asked of him once they were alone. “We’re going to be partners fighting someone like Metterand?”

  “I lied,” Lucian said, and Aurelia sighed in relief. “We won’t be partners. You’ll be my attack dog.”

  Aurelia scoffed, shaking her head.

  “You did volunteer to help me fight,” Lucian reminded her. “You fell to your knees, begging me, ‘please, please, spare me! I’ll do anything!’”

  Aurelia crossed her arms, not rising to his provocation. “Against someone as powerful as Metterand, I can’t win.”

  “You could’ve beaten Metterand alone, given time,” Lucian said dismissively. Her face looked strange when he said that. “And besides… you must be getting stronger, no? After all, you’re studying ways to raise your holy affinity.”

  “They told you about that?” Aurelia looked like a child caught stealing cookies only briefly. Lucian was glad they did—it showed he could trust the people watching her. “Is that something you’re concerned about? That my holy affinity will grow to the point I’ll exceed your ability to contain me?”

  “Not in the slightest.” Lucian walked to the window. “A lot of people have the misconception that personal character can influence affinity. I think it’s clear from you that simply isn’t true. You can be as rotten as imaginable. What decides it are your major decisions, and your baseline. You have an exceptional baseline affinity, and you haven’t actually done anything major—I stopped you.”

  One character’s side quest in War of Four divulged a lot of information about how affinities were changed. It wasn’t about the day to day of how someone conducted themselves. Instead, it all came down to those pivotal moments. And indeed, in War of Four, major player decisions were the primary driver for affinity change behind-the-scenes, in the code. For characters other than the protagonist, Rowan, their affinities naturally shifted as the player went through their personal quests.

  Fire required rashness—water calmness. Earth required stalwartness, and air adaptability. Dark required selfishness, and holy selflessness. The other elements like lightning were less straightforward. Simply put, for Aurelia’s affinity to change, she’d have to something majorly benevolent. That certainly wasn’t something he would oppose. Even if she did, it was inordinately difficult to raise elemental affinity above 95%. Without absurd min-maxing, he didn’t think she’d ever near 98%, which was his value.

  “If you want to try and raise your affinity, knock yourself out,” Lucian concluded. “You might need it. The person that we’re going to be up against is stronger than Metterand.”

  Aurelia’s face shifted with unease. Lucian left her to stew on that. Truthfully, he wasn’t worried about the boss. With Aurelia, and with proper potion preparations, things could be made somewhat trivial. What he was worried about was the changes that he might have caused in the scenario by what he’d done.

  If a certain white-haired former Inquisitor caught on to Lucian… it might as well be over.

  ***

  “I’m going to be watching over the proceedings,” the white-haired man with a mask on his face said to a woman with a veil over her face. They sat on benches near each other, but looked off into the distance.

  The woman looked uneased. “Have I done anything to warrant this? Have I displeased Him in the slightest?”

  The white-haired man looked around. “He is displeased, but not by you. We’ve simply had a lot of disruptions in the empire of late. A lot of affiliates in Golvenne died. Then, there was the incident with Metterand. If there’s some larger efforts mounting against us, he wants me to sus them out. I’ll be looking for anything suspicious, and dealing with it.”

  “I thought that you were responsible for setting up the grand future plans,” the woman said.

  “I am,” the man confirmed, looking at up at the sky. “It’s difficult to plan for the future if the present isn’t as it seems. I want to make sure nothing goes wrong anymore.” He rose to his feet, fixing his clothes. “Fret not, miss. I don’t intend on interfering with your revenge against the empire.”

  She nodded, contented. “Good.”

  At that, the two of them stood and walked separate ways.

  ***

  “It’s been a while,” noted Lucian as he and Miriam ate lunch in the mess hall.

  “Mmm… not especially,” she said. “I suppose it must have felt like a while, considering all that’s happened to you.”

  “Disinherited, demon-possessed brother-in-law, and now a trial for murder,” Lucian said. He shook his head. “Yeah, guess it has been a lot. You sure you wanna be seen with me?”

  “Even if you did murder someone, I’d still be sitting here,” Miriam said, and Lucian laughed. She was dead serious. “That’s no joke. What you did for me, with Charlton… I got the full story out of him. You didn’t just put my name in a hat. You practically got that apprenticeship for me.”

  Lucian said nothing, munching his sandwich.

  “And when I say he told me the full story… I do mean the full story,” Miriam said quietly.

  Lucian stopped for a moment, looking at her. That meant that he had probably shared he was a key component of the Black Bloom Initiative.

  “I don’t have the skills, yet, to help him with his other project,” she said, referring to the Black Bloom. She stared off into the distance for a moment before shaking her head and looking back at Lucian. “Anyway, you usually always need something from me. Not that I mind—rather, I’m glad this is mutually beneficial. What is it this time?”

  “The honor of your presence,” Lucian said. “I do need a few potions, but I’m trying to wean myself off them. Addictive stuff—might become dependent. Can’t have that.”

  “The honor of my presence, huh?” Miriam repeated skeptically.

  “I need capable people I can trust right now,” Lucian said. “And considering you just said you’d pick my side if I was a murderer, I think you fit the bill.”

  “Okay…” Miriam nodded. “Do you intend to kill again? I know plenty of decoctions that can dissolve a body. I can keep quiet. I’m all in. If it’s your father, I’d even clear my schedule.”

  Lucian looked around nervously, but fortunately for them no one sat within a long radius of them. “I’ve never murdered…” He paused. Did Metterand count? What about the bandits?

  “Did you just stop to think?” Miriam asked.

  “No, no. I didn’t kill him personally,” Lucian said, trying to play it off as a joke. He laughed unconvincingly, and Miriam stared at him skeptically as she ate. “Anyway, no. It’s not murder. I have other people for that.”

  “I’m hurt.”

  “It’s about… this thing.” Lucian produced a simple item—an eye made out of a gemstone. He quickly stowed it back away, considering its value. “I need you to help me use it.”

  “A… glass eye?” Miriam said. “You want me to cut out your eye and replace it?”

  “It’s a very old artifact. I know how to unlock it, but I can’t do it on my own. That’s where you come in,” he said, gesturing at her.

  In all honesty, Lucian felt a little terrified carrying that artifact around. It was the Jeweled Eye he’d taken from the mausoleum—the eye of the True Divine Beast. It had a certain ability pivotal to the plot: the ability to peer backward into the past. The thing was, Lucian already knew the valuable information it imparted to the protagonist. He didn’t need to use it in the conventional fashion.

  Lucian intended to use the Jeweled Eye to retrieve something invaluable from the past. If he could pull this ridiculous idea off, he’d finally close the distance of power between him and all of his fellow Student Ambassadors in one fell swoop.

  Lucian intended to take the prize the First Emperor sought to use the Jeweled Eye to obtain.