Chatter filled the spacious yard while live music was amplified across the area. People walked around dancing, socializing, drinking, and eating. Judging from the clothing of the crowd, these were clearly evening festivities for nobles.

The calm spring breeze offered a chill energy to the party's atmosphere and participants relaxed, indulging in small talk. Quite a few moves were made but none of them would really turn out as anything other than a casual fling. No one here was looking for anything more.

"So then she told me that it wasn't Liliana that fucked Richard, it was Lucie. But then I asked Lucie and-"

"Noooooo.."

"Yessssss.."

"Why the fuck would you ask her?"

"Margret's literally always lying so I had to ask her 'cause I talked to Vivi and she said she was getting with Leo if Liliana got with Richard. So anyways, I asked Lucie and she was all like 'no it was Cherie.' But then Cherie told me it was you so I just wanted to hear your side of the story, you know."

"My side of the story is that Cherie should keep my name out of her mouth. I'm not slutty enough to fuck fucking Richard. I- uh excuse you? What the fuck?"

"No- Flor wait, that's Prince Arteau!"

"Oh, uh I-"

"No, it's fine." The crimson haired man turned back around to face the women he had bumped into. "I apologize."

Both women found it difficult to take the apology when the man's glowering face towered over them by more than a foot but they simply nodded. The man nodded, turned around, and kept walking.

His glare lessened slightly with each person he bumped into and had cower once they realized it was him: Prince Arteau Vaugeois of the Kingdom of Liyonne. Still, the frown remained fixed on his face as he continued his brisk walk.

After cutting through the crowd, he swerved into a nearby alley that led to a hidden underground passageway, all the while, making sure he wasn't being followed. Well, no one would dare try to follow him after knowing his identity.

He descended the dimly lit stairs, circulating his mana. The sounds of the party had completely vanished, replaced by the click of Arteau's shoes against stone.

After over a dozen clicks, Arteau stood on the rock solid ground, looking into the edge of a blade. "Oh for fucks' sake, my aura isn't enough?" His expression soured upon seeing the weapon pointed at his face.

The blade was immediately lowered.

"I'm sorry, sire. It's just that we've had some people go through and sabotage the network so we've had to be more precise."

A chuckle burst from Arteau's mouth. "You think anyone would truly imitate me? You think anyone could truly imitate me?"

"No, sire. We're more afraid that our judgment would be clouded and we would be made to believe it was your when it really wasn't."

"What fucking difference- never mind, fuck it. Have you gotten mail from Lisa?"

"No, sire."

Arteau's frown deepened and his mana steadily rose. The network guard could only flinch away from the steadily increasing wave of writhing mana.

"Give it a rest. Maybe she got tired of being your sixth choice and ditched you."

Arteau narrowed his eyes.

"She wouldn't. To not report to me would essentially be treason. She wouldn't give up her life for some dick."

The voice Arteau was speaking to chuckled. "Wasn't she already doing that?"

“Sonis.”

“Mmm?”

“Fuck off.”

“Mmm. Fine, well.. wait. We should at least get a proper place to talk. I’ll even help you find your side side side side-” Hearing Arteau growl, the voice chuckled before simply stating “Follow.”

Arteau narrowed his eyes at the command but silently followed the voice deeper into the underground tunnels. Despite the obscure location, the tunnels were clean and actually comfortable to walk through. There wasn't any traditional cave dampness or musty odor. The two passed checkpoints, guards, and a couple doors before stopping at one specific door.

Upon opening it and walking through, light shone upon the two, illuminating their figures for all within the room to see.

Arteau had a lean frame and a defined jawline that coupled with his height and short blood-red hair, crippled the thought processes of most women. Sonis usually went for the rest. The man's long sapphire hair complimented his oddly androgynous face.

Though the room was full of people, none of them paid the pair any attention. They were all running around, inspecting, burning, and reading letters.

Sonis ignored the commotion, walking into a side room while Arteau stopped to nod in appreciation of the massive self-sufficient chaos before following along.

Once inside, the noise from outside disappeared leaving silence for the two to sit and talk.

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“Not bad.”

“Not bad?” Sonis’ eyebrows flew up. “That’s almost a hundred people in just this one node.”

“Yeah, that’s why I said not bad.” Arteau’s matter-of-fact tone only made Sonis roll his eyes.

Suddenly, the two heard a knocking sound before the door opened, revealing a woman. She closed the door, silencing the noise she’d just let in before turning to face the two men.

“We’ve heard nothing about Lisa Belart thus far” was all she said before she turned and walked out.

Arteau could only turn to Sonis, a confused frown on his face.

“One mental link. I’d bet half the room got to work on it.”

The confused frown transitioned into an annoyed one. “And they don’t have any info? What was the point of telling us then?”

“It was just a report. Chill out. I trained them to do that. Better to know that work’s being done, at least.”

Arteau only issued a grunt in response, leaving a couple seconds of silence before Sonis suddenly smirked.

“Oh yeah, you actually liked Lisa?”

“Why are you saying ‘liked’ as if I’ll suddenly stop appreciating her as a person because I don’t know what’s happened to her?”

“What happened to her is she got dicked down. If it was my woman who left me for some other guy, then no, I wouldn’t continue to ‘appreciate her as a person’, whatever the fuck that means.”

“It means she’s still my woman! And no woman who ever dated you left you for a man.”

“Just because you couldn’t see I was a man doesn’t mean none of them couldn’t see it.”

Arteau’s mana immediately rose to Sonis’ laughter.

“How many times have I told you, you don’t wanna go there? And every.. single.. time, you go there.” Sonis was struggling to breathe at this point, barely stopping himself from falling over.

“Not my fault you look like a girl.”

“No, you’re just retarded. You didn’t believe it until you were staring right at my dick.”

Arteau badly wanted to include just one more retort but he knew Sonis would immediately shut it down. The sound of the girl..er.. man’s laughter wore down Arteau’s tolerance really quick, though.

“You even sound like a girl. It’s..” His words faded off, hearing the laughter change. It went from Sonis’ usually smooth voice to the guttural grunting of some sort of ogre.

“Fuck off. I hate when you do that.” Arteau glared at Sonis but to the latter, it only looked like overblown pouting, adding more fuel to his fire. Still, Sonis changed his voice back, the laughter fading down to a couple of chuckles before the sigh of bittersweet relief that the laughing fit was now over.

“I know.” He replied.

Before Arteau could retort, there was a knock on the door before it opened once more, revealing the same woman from before.

“She was at a small village called Heussel. That seemed to be one of her bases.”

“Well, where is she now?”

Sonis was a bit shocked to see Arteau actually cared quite a bit about the women he called his. Then again, Arteau never actually told him about them. He only ended up hearing about them after they’d broke up at which point Arteau would put on some fake demeanor that made it hard to distinguish how he actually felt about them.

“Heussel has been burnt to the ground so where exactly she went is unknown. There don’t seem to be any signs of her leaving the area either. It’s likely she was either killed or captured by the Cazenarches over in Guilm.” The woman’s matter-of-fact tone almost soothed Arteau.

Seeing she had nothing more to say, Sonis nodded at the woman, allowing her to leave.

“Pretty good” was all Arteau said, as he contemplated the information he’d received.

Sonis offered a small smile though Arteau didn’t see it with his head down.

He was about to get up when Arteau’s head of crimson hair shot up.

The man got up, his eyes glowing, both literally and figuratively. His mana had clearly risen to the surface.

“If that loser touches her, I’ll have his head on a fucking pike.. I need to get a letter to him.”

Sonis’ right eyebrow raised. “To who?”

“The Count of Guilm. Regis Cazenarch.”

Regis stood on his balcony, watching the town slowly fall asleep.

“Big world, isn’t it, Sercien?”

He turned around, looking at a tall man with dull wine colored eyes. The man didn’t respond, simply looking back at him.

Regis turned back around to face the world. “Two hundred and eleven people just died, yet none of them know. And even if they knew, their reaction would be of shock, sadness and disgust. Maybe a few sycophants would praise me. But no one would be afraid. You know, there’s a reason why I have this name. Regis. It evokes power, it is power: the power of a king. It’s an incredible.. I slipped into that speech again. It’s truly stuck in my memory.”

Silence took over.

The Count sighed before a small smile etched itself onto his face. “ Today was a good day. Let’s go down to see my brother once again. We’ll see your father as well, if you want to.”

Without waiting for the man to respond, Regis jumped over the balcony. He fell like a rock but his landing was soft, impossibly soft as if he hadn’t just fallen over several dozen feet.

He immediately looked up to see Sercien doing the exact same thing though not as soft. Still, though the landing clearly kicked up some dirt, the sound didn’t reach his ears.

The pair walked back into the castle before descending the stairs. The staircase seemed to go down infinitely but after a few levels downwards, Regis’ mana rapidly expanded before imploding.

Despite the massive effect it should’ve generated, the stairs barely changed. They only shifted in direction, showing a singular gate one level below them.

Regis unlocked the gate before entering a passageway. On both sides of the passageway stood 4 doors, every single one made of some sort of metal.

Regis immediately walked towards one before opening a slit on the side and knocking on the door.

Nothing replied to him.

He knocked again.

“You know, it’s not fitting of a king to go crying for his brother’s attention.”

“There are no tears on my face. And you can read my mind. The slit in the keyhole is big enough for you to see what I want to show you.

There was silence for a few seconds before there was a muted sigh.

“You’ll be the death of our dynasty. Don’t you see his talent? And you want to eat it all up?”

“You’ll die too. Even if I didn’t want to, it-”

“And what was the point of killing all of those people? What, exactly, did you think you achieved?”

“You know the answer.”

The man on the other side of the door chuckled though it wasn’t a light one of amusement but a hopeless one.

“A display of power.. to the Vaugeoises. Why did I have to be born?”

Regis shrugged. “Who knows? But Father wanted you to witness it all so you’ll witness it all before you die.”

“Even before you knew about Arae, you still wanted to obey him. And you think you can just call yourself a king. YOU-”

Regis immediately closed the slit before turning to Sercien. “Shall we talk to your father?”

Air swirled around him, projecting an amalgamation of sounds that sounded like a “no.”

“Fine.” Regis nodded back at the gate, “Let’s go, then.”