Volcatia judged that enough time had been wasted.

She didn't wear an horologium.

Horologia were for those confined by time.

She stood up and stretched before putting her chair back into her Inventory skill, then dismissed it.

She wondered briefly what it would feel like to fuck on the chair.

It was a dangerous thought.

If it was too much fun, she might never want to stop.

She'd seen people who thought like that.

They were confined by their desires.

She rubbed her forehead as her thoughts shifted.

This seemed like a good spot.

She moved again.

The second level of the darkened workshop was boring.

It started with stairs, progressed into a floor, and ended in a wall covered in crates.

In the corner next to the crates was a chair.

She could see it in the darkness.

She didn't need more details than that.

A few steps closer and the faint sound of breathing became apparent.

It wasn't the breathing of a sleeping person.

It was the short gasps of someone who was afraid.

Volcatia decided to try being direct. "Hey. Why're you afraid?"

The girl gasped and jerked upright in her chair. "Vol?" she asked quietly after taking several deep breaths.

"Yeah."

"Are… Are you in her employ? Have you come to fetch me at last?"

"Do I look like a fucking canis?"

"So… You've not come on Emma's orders?"

Volcatia leaned in closer. "Is that a joke?"

Contrary to her expectations, the girl cringed back into her chair and covered her head with her arms, beginning to whimper.

Okay, she'd fucked that up somehow.

She stopped watching.

This was going to be harder than she'd expected.

She moved, then walked forward.

Volcatia decided to try being less direct this time. "Hey, Mina."

Mina came up, seeming to be fighting for breath.

"It's Vol."

"So you're the one she's sent."

"Emma didn't send me. Nobody—"

"I've known there was something suspicious about you from the start. Naturally you'd have been paid to spy on—"

"Would you fucking listen? I just came to talk."

The girl leaned forward. "There's no need for speaking. Simply take me to her and be done with it."

Volcatia stopped watching again.

She was trying to do this the friends way, so she really had to get everything perfect.

It would be a great way to waste time if it took time.

It was obvious that she was being mistaken for someone else.

Someone confined by orders.

Maybe she was going about this the wrong way.

She moved again. "I came to get you."

The girl whimpered. "Must I go?"

"Yeah. Why's she doing this anyway?"

Mina let out a long shuddering sigh. "She hates me. She's always hated me."

"Okay, yeah, but why's that mean you need to go somewhere?"

"If you try to take my treasure, I'll ban you," said Subodiosa.

"Fuck off. We're busy."

The dungeon core started to cackle quietly. "Ban, ban, ban!"

Volcatia rubbed her forehead. Maybe this wasn't worth the effort. "Mina, answer the question."

"WHY CAN'T I BAN YOU?!" the dungeon core shrieked.

Volcatia stopped watching immediately.

Fuck. Why was that dungeon core so annoying?

This was harder than she'd expected.

Maybe she'd think about it for a while before she tried again.

If she tried again.

It was hard to do anything when people thought you were someone you weren't.

Also, she and Carl might be friends, but she wasn't sure they were really close enough for her to be trying to fix his problems for him.

She wasn't very interested in doing that anyway.

She needed something to do again.

It was a common enough problem.

She was only twenty seven, but it had been a very long twenty seven years.

She'd done many, many, many things already.

It was late in the day though.

Yeah, she could move to other places and it would be earlier in the day, but she didn't want to live like that.

She was still human.

She was.

She kept telling herself that she was, and it helped remind her.

Volcatia sighed. There was probably only one person in the whole fucking city who was still awake and might be fun to talk to.

She'd been putting it off, but maybe it was time to pay her respects.

She moved again. Her head turned to the side, and she caught sight of an older, dark-haired woman sitting at a small desk reading from a stack of papers.

"You're back," said the woman as she wrote something down.

"Hey, Aquila. Just got—"

A book flew through the air with incredible speed towards her head. She caught it with one hand, not bothering to look and see what it was.

"Try again." The woman continued reading.

"Fine, I've been here a few days." Volcatia flounced to the nearby sofa and threw herself down onto it, covering her face with her hand and tossing the book onto the nearby table.

"Nearly a week, you mean."

The door to the room opened abruptly, and a brawny, cuirass-wearing man with thick metal bands around his biceps rushed in, instantly assuming a fighting stance. "Imperatrix, on your guard," he called as his gaze swept the room. "We—Oh, it's you."

"Mellitus." Volcatia waved, not bothering to get up. "It's been a while. How's that hasta of your hanging?"

The thirty nine year-old Herius Sentius Mellitus, currently ranked second of all gladiators, glowered at her. "You refused my challenge," he said, shutting the door behind himself.

She tossed a piece of reddish fruit from a bowl on the table at him, and he grabbed it easily. "Didn't know you were still a defeat-seeker. Looks like I should be congratulating you if you're here." She grabbed a plum and took a bite, enjoying the sweetness.

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Mellitus grinned. "My father retired three years ago, and I was chosen as his replacement."

"Not a difficult choice since Salonina prefers guarding the city," added Aquila.

"Urk, my pride," groaned Mellitus, staggering from an imagined wound to his stomach.

"Scipio, you've been in Onyxfell for six days, but it's only now that you've come to eat my plums?" asked Aquila as she finally turned around in her chair.

Volcatia shrugged. "I like plums."

Mellitus set his pomegranate back in the basket, moving close enough that she got a good look at his sculpted, hardened calves out of the corner of her eye.

Mellitus had great legs.

"To think I hoped the years would temper you," Aquila said, shaking her head. "You look a little older, I see you've cut your hair, and it seems you've learned a new skill, but you've only gone backwards, haven't you?"

For a moment, and a brief one at that, Volcatia considered taking the building out of her Inventory skill.

Just to see what their reactions would be.

She thought about protesting.

She'd learned far more than a single skill.

She'd also done more than cut her hair.

All of that was boring though.

She tipped her head back and sighed.

Maybe this hadn't been the great idea she'd imagined.

Had she really seen so much that even talking to a fucking Imperatrix was boring now?

"Mm. Perhaps not," said Aquila after a little while. "Mellitus, take a half hour to yourself. I expect I'll have no need for worry as long as Scipio's here."

Was that really true?

Volcatia supposed it was.

She still considered herself a citizen of Onyxfell.

It was part of her humanity.

"By your command." There was a short pause as the door opened. "Scipio, it's… Victory be upon you."

"Victory be upon you," Volcatia recited out of habit.

Victory could go fuck itself.

The door closed.

"What troubles you, Scipio?" Aquila asked soon after. "When I heard you'd returned, I wondered about it. Have you come to fight?"

"Nah, done that."

"What about the races?"

"Nah, don't care."

"So it's your vengeance, then."

"Nah, not yet. Maybe a few more years." Volcatia opened her eyes and saw the older woman standing over her.

She looked…

The Imperatrix was old, but she could have been mistaken for a woman near Mellitus's age. Her shoulder-length hair showed no signs of graying again, and her sharp gaze showed no signs of dullness. She wore no jewellery. Her shirt was comfortable rather than gaudy. Her figure…

Volcatia stopped looking the other woman over before she could be mistaken as being interested.

Imperatrix Aquila was a handsome woman, and she was likely to be skilled in the ways of fucking, but respect had to be shown.

Fine, that was an excuse.

She didn't fuck royalty, and she wouldn't fuck an Imperatrix.

That wasn't something humans did.

"Those points in Aeternus and Salubritas seem to be working really fucking well," Volcatia said. She took another bite of her plum, which tasted less sweet than she remembered.

"That they are," Aquila said in a slightly amused tone. She took a seat on the sofa on the opposite side of the table. "It's been a long time, Scipio. If you haven't come for any of those reasons, then why?" She leaned forward and selected a few strawberries with her rough fingers before leaning back. "Should I be worried?" She took a bite of a strawberry, her expression impassive.

Volcatia grimaced.

She'd forgotten something important earlier.

Humans also didn't randomly decide to go hang out with imperatrices.

She decided at that moment that she liked the feel of the phrase, even if she didn't know why it meant what it meant.

She used a lot of words and phrases that she liked the feel of.

It was too late to go back now though.

She'd already committed.

If it were anyone else in the world, Mellitus would have fought to the death—likely not his own given his prowess—to remove them from this room.

But he wouldn't fight Volcatia.

Not unless the Imperatrix commanded him to.

Which would never happen, obviously.

Urgh, this was a fucking mistake.

She rubbed her forehead. "I'm just bored," she admitted.

"Mm." The Imperatrix of the Stadal Empire chewed another strawberry. "And you've come to me in the hopes of…"

"Don't know." Volcatia took another bite and continued talking while she chewed, bouncing her foot over her knee. "Heard a lot of talk about how you never leave the palace anymore. Thought I'd see if you were still alive."

Maybe that was it.

Aquila laughed mockingly. "Your fault, in that case. As I grew younger, the citizens stopped recognizing me. There was talk of an impostor," she waved her hand. "Simpler to be mysterious. Especially since I'm not half the fighter I was before the System."

"Mellitus would let you kick him around a little if you asked."

Aquila guffawed. "I forgot how much I missed our talks, Scipio."

"So you're still alive. That's good."

It was.

Imperatrix Aquila was a good imperatrix.

Maybe.

Volcatia didn't really have anyone to compare to.

She'd learned some things about history, but after all she'd seen, how much of that shit could she really believe?

"I am, and it is." The Imperatrix lounged on her sofa for a time. "This might be what it's like for old friends to meet again after being apart for many years."

"Could be."

"Let's pretend. Have you been hale?"

"Eh. Be hard not to. You?"

"How thoughtful of you to ask. I managed to secure trade agreements with—"

"Yeah, I heard about that. What the fuck?"

"Mm. It was a battle on ice the first time, but now I feel like I'm back in the arena with my pugio."

"I'm still not sure I believe the stories about you or any of the other imperials fighting as gladiators."

"Still? Want to find out if they're true?"

"Nah, striking down old women isn't one of my hobbies."

"I see you haven't lost your touch."

"Mm?"

"Still the Empire's best shit-talker, even after all this time."

"Oh. Yeah. People really call it that now?"

"They do."

"The longer I stay here, the more I think it was a mistake to come back."

"Then why come back at all? Why stay?"

"Sounds like you want me to leave if you say it like that."

"If I wanted you gone, I'd have said so. You may be you, but I'm still an imperatrix. Your imperatrix, unless you've decided otherwise."

"Haven't really thought about it. Never had reason to. The city looks good by the way. No more war?"

"That Char hero was right, it seems. People are tired of it. They'd rather fight in the arena or race their cars than seek glory on the battlefields."

"And you just let them?"

"They'll get bored sooner or later. A period of ten or twenty years without conflict matters less to me now."

"You're still a thousand fucking years old. Don't wait too long or you'll be shouting orders from your grave."

"I thought you said—"

"Yeah, probably another hundred or two, but if you have something you wanna do, you should do it now."

"Perhaps advice you should be taking, Scipio."

"Eh. Five or ten years maybe. You're not worried about the Char?"

"Should I be?"

"I don't know, you're the fucking Imperatrix. Aren't you supposed to be worried about this kind of shit?"

"What in particular am I supposed to be worried about?"

"Nobody would do all this shit for free."

"You sound worried yourself."

"Maybe a little."

"You could always do something about it and save me the trouble."

"Nah, not that interested. Unless you're gonna command me?"

"Would I survive if I did?"

"I might stop pretending we're friends."

"You're being difficult again, Scipio."

"My friends call me Vol."

"Ah, so you have friends?"

"Yeah. Maybe."

"What have you been doing for all these years, Vol?"

"Eh. Stupid shit mostly."

"I heard some incredible tales. Is it true that you got drunk on top of the Tower of Pride? I assumed that was you from the story."

"Yeah, that was a long time ago though."

"And challenged one of the archmages to a duel?"

"Urgh. Her concubine had amazing legs. Said he was unhappy."

"But you lost."

"Who said that?"

"Everyone."

"Huh. Not sure that's what happened."

"You don't remember?"

"I was really drunk. Got this keg of some dwarf shit and we drank way too much, then we fucked all day until she caught us."

"A model citizen of the Empire."

"Mm. Still don't think I'd lose though…"

"Where were you when you regained your senses?"

"An island, maybe. Or was that a different… Which archmage are you talking about?"

"Egrata. The one you dueled on top of the Tower of Pride."

"Didn't help as much as I thought it would."

"You had a lot of duels there, did you?"

"It was a really long time ago."

"She has flame-red hair? Or did on the occasion she visited, but that was fifty years ago."

"Red hair, red hair… Oh. Oh."

"You look like you remember now."

"Yeah, maybe I didn't win. But it was on purpose."

"You lost intentionally? You?"

"She said she'd force me to be her concubine if I lost. And she was wearing her archmage robe, and we were on top of the tower, and the wind blew just right, and—"

"And she had legs you admired."

"They were so smooth! And soft-looking!"

"Didn't you once tell me you preferred muscular legs?"

"I was an idiot when I was younger. Too obsessed with victory."

"Yes, you were much less refined back then. I need to hear the end of this story. You intentionally lost to archmage Egrata in a duel on top of the Tower of Pride. Then—"

"I didn't fucking lose. I just didn't try to win. It was a draw."

"Sateus would be proud."

"He can go fuck himself."

"You're very confident to be saying something like that here."

"Doesn't even have good legs."

"Don't sulk, Vol. Finish your story. You didn't challenge her because you wanted to take over the tower? You decided to become a concubine to an archmage?"

"What would I do with a tow… Yeah, for a year or so. She was gonna cast this lust enchantment shit on me to make sure I didn't run away. Seemed like a good way to take my mind off things."

"This isn't what I was expecting to hear if you ever returned."

"I got bored after a while. She was fun, but she started getting weird."

"Weird how?"

"Eh, she'd just stay in her chambers with me for weeks on end, even when the other archmages tried to make her go back to teaching or whatever the fuck she was supposed to be doing."

"You became lovers with an archmage for a year."

"If you wanna say it like that, sure. But I was feeling like I wanted to do something, and she wanted to keep me there forever, and even though her legs were really, really pretty—top three of all time easily, maybe even number one—it was still boring."

"And the enchantment?"

"I took it off."

"Shrugging off the enchantment of one of the most powerful archmages as easily as a strike in the arena. A great victory for the Empire. There were no lasting effects?"

"Nah, I'm fine. And she wasn't cruel about it. Gave me other enchantments to stop my menses and prevent pregnancy too while I was there."

Aquila shuddered. "You as a mother. That's a terrifying thought."

"It is, isn't it."