Heels clacking against stone and metal shuffling underneath robes echoed across the otherwise empty path leading out of the academy as Lucina's group hurriedly made their exit. Even if Olivia was now wearing the slave collar, that didn't mean she was safe from James' whims or other people's schemes. "Where's the carriage?" Lucina felt tense with how easily they were able to leave without issue.
"Just outside the gate," one of her knights answered. "Peter's waiting there for us."
"We move to the first location as soon as Olivia and I are inside," Lucina ordered as her eyes fixated on the academy's iron gates. "It will be a long night, so make sure you-!?" Her words caught in her throat as a group of three knights emerged from the shadows to block their path. Their plate armor completely covered them and they didn't wear any crests signifying who they belonged to.
"Countess Sanguine," the knight in the middle spoke while drawing his longsword. "Hand over Lady Olivia and we will let you pass in peace. Failure to heed our words will result in death."
"Be quiet," Lucina annoyedly muttered as she used earth magic to cause stone spikes to erupt from the ground under the three knights. "…Hm?" But upon contact with the knights' armor, the stone spikes crumbled into dust and pebbles that harmlessly fell to the ground.
"Auristers," one of the Hellhounds muttered as he clenched his sword in a ready stance.
The leader of the three unknown knights brushed the dust off his shoulder and asked, "Is that your final answer?"
"…" Lucina ground her teeth together with how annoying things were becoming. She knew James' shadow knights were watching this whole ordeal, but the fact they weren't doing anything was cluing her in on who the knights belonged to. "It seems Prince Terence finally found useful shadows since he got tired of me roasting the others."
"…!" Lucina's probing guess worked as one of the knights flinched when Terence's name was mentioned.
"No wonder they aren't acting," Lucina sighed and rubbed her temples. If Terence's elite shadow knights beat Lucina then James wouldn't have to deal with her anymore and he could go after Terence for stealing Olivia. If Lucina beat the shadows then Terence would have three less Aurister shadow knights that were capable of dealing with wizards. It was a win-win for James so his shadows remained where they were and didn't interfere. Lucina noticed movement by the gate, past the knights, and she loudly ordered, "I don't have time for this. Deal with them, Peter."
"That man's preoccupied wit-!?!" the leader of the shadows tried to sound in control but his head was swiftly cut from his shoulders as a greatsword bathed in blue fire decapitated him. Peter stood tall while his aura's flames danced across his armor. He wasn't wearing his helmet which showed off a new short brown beard he was sporting.
"What!?!" The other two knights lunged at Peter to pincer attack him. Since he didn't have a helmet, the closest knight aimed a thrust at Peter's head to quickly take him out, but Peter deflected the blade with his own and stepped into the knight while sweeping his leg so the knight would stumble past and into his friend. "Woah!?" The second knight had to stop his arcing swing to catch his comrade or else they would have both fallen over.
"…" Now that both knights were directly next to each other, Peter continued his spin and stepped toward them, poured his aura into his greatsword, and bisected both men at their waists with a devastating horizontal slash. Their plate armor offered no resistance to Peter's blade which also ripped through their aura to end their lives. Blood painted the stone path and the knights' intestines poured out of their bodies when they hit the ground. "Apologies for the mess, Countess," Peter apologized while swishing his sword in a large arc to throw the blood off the blade before sheathing it.
"Are there any more?" Lucina asked as she continued her march toward the gate.
"There were a few who tried to attack us before your arrival, but we dealt with them," Peter responded after falling in line.
"Let His Highness deal with cleaning the mess, since all his people are doing is watching."
"…" Olivia was forced to follow but her eyes were fixated on the dead knights. Powerful Aurister knights trained enough to negate magic attacks, the perfect counter to Lucina, and they were dead within seconds. Even if there was a twinge of relief hearing that Terence had sent elite knights to rescue her, did it matter in the face of such power? What kind of life awaited her now? The slave collar weighed heavily on her neck as her thoughts darkened and she didn't even notice when they arrived at the carriage.
"…" Lucina waited a few moments for Olivia to get in, but when she didn't Lucina clenched her fists and reluctantly ordered, "Get in."
"…" Olivia entered the carriage and sat down next to Lucina. As soon as the door shut, the carriage rode off and made its way through the capital's streets. Olivia's body was still trembling and the tears stained her cheeks while her eyes stared blankly at the floor.
"…Here," Lucina said before getting up and sitting on the opposite side of the carriage and as far away from Olivia as she could. "I relinquish all active orders."
"!?!" Olivia gasped as her voice listened to her and her body was once again hers to control. Her hands shot up to the collar and she tried to rip it off, but the magic collar was too strong for just her physical strength alone to break. "S-Sta-Status!" Olivia stammered out in her panic and breathed a slight sigh of relief once her stats page displayed in its usual pink semitransparent square. There was an effect on her stat page next to her aura.
(Aura: A- [Sealed])
(Sealed: The user is unable to use their aura because of a magic slave collar and a minor penalty will be applied to all physical stats. This effect and its penalties will be removed once the magic slave collar is taken off.)
"…" It was some comfort that she could still use her menus, and that the Sealed effect was straightforward without any surprises, but Olivia also found her situation strange. It would've made things easier if Lucina had kept the active orders going, or even given her more orders since she was forced to obey, but she didn't. Lucina removed the orders and was even sitting at the opposite end of the carriage as if to give Olivia some space to be more comfortable. "…What's…going on?" Olivia's voice was a shaky whisper as she pushed herself further into the corner of her seat.
"I'll tell you later," Lucina replied without looking at Olivia as Lucina's eyes were scanning the capital's streets outside the carriage's windows as if watching for something. Light would wash over them in waves as they rode past streetlights which were the only sources of illumination inside the carriage.
"Now!" Olivia demanded and raised her voice. "Tell me now!"
"…" Lucina turned toward Olivia and watched her flinch under her gaze. "Would you believe me?"
"…" Defeat infected Lucina's voice that sent an unease creeping through Olivia's spine. Why did she sound hurt? The more time went on the more this 'betrayal' wasn't feeling like one. "Then…are we going straight to Solfin?"
"Not yet," Lucina answered before looking back out the window. "We need to stop at my parent's mansion to pick up someone, first."
"…" Olivia didn't ask further as she wasn't sure she would get an answer to any of her remaining questions, so she decided to try and calm down her racing heart. So far, Lucina hadn't done anything to her and wasn't using the collar's orders to do anything other than get her out of the academy as quickly as possible. Lucina obviously had a plan, but it was one that Olivia couldn't even think of trying to figure out.
(Countess Lucina Sanguine is not your Ally.)
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The same results box appeared, so what was Lucina doing? Olivia's mind raced and distracted her so much that the next time she looked up they were at the Felswore's mansion.
"Lucina?" Elizabeth was wearing a coat over a casual dress as she called out to the carriage that stopped in front of the mansion's gates. "Is everything alright? We did what you asked, but what's going on?" She watched as the Hellhound knights rode their horses and circled around to ride past Elizabeth. Charles was standing beside his wife and brought her closer to him as the atmosphere around the knights made him nervous.
"Is she here?" Lucina asked as she opened the carriage door and got out.
"Y-Yes," Elizabeth responded uneasily. "We invited her like you asked, but why did you want to see her at this time of night when you should be at your graduation dance?" Olivia took a peek outside the open door and was stunned by who she saw with the Felswores.
"M-Mary?" Her personal maid, Mary, was standing behind Elizabeth.
"My La-!?!" Mary saw the slave collar around Olivia's neck and immediately rushed to the carriage. "My Lady!? What's going on!? Why do you have that terrible thing around your neck!?"
"Mary…" Olivia felt fresh tears start falling down her cheeks as Mary started fussing over her. "I-"
"Mary," Lucina's voice pierced the moment and redirected everyone's attention to the fact that the Hellhounds had their swords drawn and surrounded Mary with their horses. "While this may be rather sudden, I'll be kidnapping you."
"…What?" Mary took a step back and pressed her back against the carriage.
"Lucina!?" Elizabeth shouted in shock as Lucina hadn't told them why they were supposed to wait with Mary at their mansion's gates.
"…What's going on?" Charles asked as he kept a firm grasp on his wife's shoulders to stop her from running to Lucina and possibly escalating this unknown situation.
Lucina recited for her parents and Mary, "As per His Highness' decree: Olivia Ordrin is stripped of her place as his fiancé for the act of bullying Saintess Beatrice and is to serve repentance as my slave." She gestured to Mary and added, "Since you've served Olivia since she was born, I'll be using my authority in this matter to take you as well to continue caring for her. You won't be able to stay at the palace now, anyway, so get in the carriage." Even though she was speaking to Mary, Lucina's eyes kept glancing at the shadows that loomed in the trees around the mansion; their eyes always watching.
"…If this is an imperial decree, then I shall follow," Mary's voice was surprisingly composed as she did her best to not show how afraid she was at having heavily armored knights leveling their swords at her. She quickly got in the carriage, took a seat next to Olivia, and sat in a position to use her body as a shield from where Lucina would be sitting.
"…Lucina?" Elizabeth, for the first time, was frightened of her daughter.
"When the Duke comes, make sure to tell him everything and that if he wants to talk he should come to Solfin," Lucina explained while holding back the urge to run into her mother's arms. It wasn't safe.
"…If that's what you want," Charles solemnly replied as he noticed what Lucina was constantly glancing at.
"Charles!?" Elizabeth was irate, but Charles quickly hugged her close to secretly whisper in her ear.
"I'll explain inside. Trust me." He realized what Lucina was doing: she was giving them deniability. As soon as Richard was made aware of what was going on, he would either storm directly to Solfin or he would come to the Felswores for answers. By using her Hellhounds to 'threaten' them into giving over Mary, Lucina ensured that her parents were also 'victims' and that the full blame would lie with her.
"Then, I bid you goodnight," Lucina gave a bow to her parents before quickly boarding the carriage and having it set off on their journey to Solfin. For a long time, the inside of the carriage was completely silent. Olivia was huddled in the corner with Mary's arms wrapped around her while Mary glared daggers at Lucina who silently waited for Olivia to muster up the courage to speak.
Eventually, once they were out of the city and Sailest's light was able to softly illuminate the inside of the carriage, Olivia found her voice and asked, "Now…can you tell me what's going on? That's the reason why you brought Mary, right?"
"…Right." Lucina took a deep breath before she started to explain, "As you've probably guessed, I made a deal with James that he would enslave and give you to me while he chases the skirt of the Saintess."
"Why?" Olivia felt a knife twist in her heart upon hearing her fears directly from Lucina's mouth.
"Because that's the only prophecy where you live, so I suggested it to him."
"What!?" Olivia's voice was filled with anger and she fought against Mary who tried to keep Olivia as far away from Lucina as possible; despite not knowing what Lucina meant or why Olivia was so particularly angry about it. "We were supposed to change that! Together! That was the whole point!"
"And it was impossible from the start!" Lucina's voice was raised, but not in anger. There was a depressed resignation and bitterness that gave Olivia pause as she watched Lucina rub her forehead and scratch her cheek in discomfort.
"…What do you mean?" Olivia was still angry, but also curious as to what Lucina would say.
"I only suggested the idea of enslavement to James because I overheard him and Andrew Mystyr talking alone in the student council room…" The memory was bitter, but Lucina forced herself to continue since Olivia deserved a proper explanation, "They… James was planning on hiring an assassin to kill you so he could marry the Saintess and was asking Andrew how much he believed it would cost."
"…" Olivia opened her mouth to speak but couldn't think of any words. Had it not been for Mary's arms around her, and her hands shakily holding her own, Olivia didn't think she would have the soundness of mind to keep pushing for answers. She tightened her grip on Mary's hand and asked the question she was dreading the answer to, "When?"
"..." Lucina hesitated and debated on giving a lie to make it hurt less, but decided that now was time for the truth, "The first day of school, after you introduced yourself to the Saintess and after we separated when class ended. James saw her out a window and was smitten by her looks."
"M-My Lady!?" Mary panicked because as soon as Olivia heard the answer she lost all her strength and went limp in Mary's arms. "Please, are you-?"
"Never…I…" Olivia was forced to come to terms with reality. "As soon as he saw her?... I never had a chance…did I?"
Lucina elaborated, "If I didn't step in and put the idea in his head, James would have gone through with trying to assassinate you; probably throughout the entire school year depending on if the first attempt failed and he could get away with it."
"…Why didn't you tell me?" There were so many conflicting emotions and feelings in Olivia's heart that she felt like she was about to throw up. "If you had told me…I-"
"Would have confronted James about it," Lucina interrupted and her words cut to the point and caused Olivia to fall silent. "You're…very direct about things that should be handled delicately. If I had told you the plan, you would have started acting differently to work around it or just asked James if he was planning to kill you, or for an annulment which would have hurt his ego if you were the one to suggest it and tipped him off. James has known you for years so I didn't want him picking up on any changes to how he thinks you would act… So I didn't say anything." Lucina's hands uncomfortably fidgeted as she forced herself to come clean and found it was surprisingly easy to do so as if some weight had lifted off her that normally would have kept her silent, "To trick James, I needed to trick you, too…I…" But the feeling was short-lived as Lucina's stomach churned to stop her from talking. Her mind was a mess.
"…What happens now?" Olivia forced the silence to break because she didn't want to be alone in her thoughts.
"First, we'll head to Solfin," Lucina explained while her fingernails dug into her arm. "We'll be swapping carriages at certain checkpoints so we'll always be on the move to try and outrun any more assassins; I can more easily protect you in Solfin. I have a safe room in my mansion you'll stay in. There's plenty of-"
"I meant…about me." Olivia hesitantly clarified, "What are you going to do to me?" She still believed Lucina held some hatred in her because of the war and was curious as to what Lucina would make her do now that she was enslaved.
"…Nothing?" Lucina was taken aback by Olivia's question and stopped digging into her arm. "I'm not going to force you to do anything, other than stay inside where it's safe since James' shadows are on us like leaches and I don't want him taking you away with his Royal Grace authority."
"Royal Grace authority?"
Lucina nodded and explained, "Since you're a…special slave that requires a magic collar, the imperial family has the right to revoke my ownership of you during the first year of ownership if a valid reason is put forward; Royal Grace. I don't want James to be able to make up an excuse to use it and hurt you, so we'll be laying low in Solfin for the next year. B-But after the Grace is over, we can-!"
"Don't you hate me?"
"…Why would I hate you?" Lucina sounded desperate as she pleaded, "I've never hated you! I-…" The words caught in her throat and her stomach continued to churn. This was the worst possible time to say it, but Lucina wanted to make everything as clear as possible moving forward, "I meant what I said in the dance hall…" She forced herself to look Olivia in the eyes as she confessed, "I'm doing this because I love you."
"…Love?" Olivia's confusion and misunderstandings were catching up to her in her brain as she tried to make sense of what was going on, only to overthink things and end up back where she started. "You're…doing this because you love me?"
"…Yes," Lucina lowered her gaze and added, "I…tried confessing to you a few years ago, if you remember? Before the hunting competition that one year?"
"…!" Olivia recalled the memory of Lucina implying her feelings while kissing a lock of Olivia's hair, but she also remembered the results box that halted those thoughts. "…But…you…"
"I stopped pursuing you and held back after that because you seemed disgusted by the idea," that same somber resignation and bitterness reentered Lucina's voice. "I didn't want our friendship to end…so I brushed it off like a passing joke to not make you uncomfortable...which didn't work."
"…" Olivia couldn't believe what she was hearing, but also couldn't refute that the only reason she acted differently toward Lucina was because of the result box…the result box? "…Wait." Normally, in the game, status boxes would automatically appear during quests, when stats changed, or when capture targets affection changed, but Olivia always had to manually summon her menus. She assumed automatic boxes were a privilege of the main character that she didn't get since she was the villainess which meant she had to actively think about and manually check if something was different. She always believed herself confined to the same restrictions as the game since she had a system that was the exact same as the game's, but she also experienced that this world was real through her interactions with everyone; two conflicting ideologies that, looking back, would be the root cause of many misunderstandings. Even if she had a system, that didn't mean she was forced to follow the original game's rules. The original game didn't have homosexual relationship options, or allow Ally characters to become capture targets since the capture targets were fixed so she dismissed the idea of Lucina loving her in a romantic way. But this wasn't a game and, even if it was, the original plot was already over. If that was true, then…
"I know these feelings…this whole situation…will make you uncomfortable, so I'll do my best to interact with you as little as possible once we're in Solfin." Lucina resigned herself and forced a smile as she said, "You won't lack anything, and Mary will be taking care of you so you have someone you can trust by your side, but I will have to restrict your movements to throw James off. We'll also have to put on a few acts, now and again, so… It's fine if you hate me, I don't expect you to ever return my feelings after doing this to you but know that I'll do everything I can to keep you safe." Olivia noticed that, despite her face holding concern and hesitation, Lucina kept her eyes completely fixated on Olivia; eyes filled with a festering longing. "No matter what…"
(Display Capture Target: Countess Lucina Sanguine)
(Success)
(Name: Lucina Sanguine [Formerly: Felswore])
(Titles: Countess of Solfin, Harbinger of Zulm, Commander of the Hellhounds, Butcher of Toldrin)
(Health: 1000/1000)
(Magic Reserve: 9,993/10,000)
(Strength: C+)
(Agility: C)
(Stamina: B)
(Aura: N/A)
(Magic: S)
(Status Effects: War Exhaustion [Minor], Passive Magic Recovery)
(Unique Traits: Gravity Magic Specialization [Portal Master])
(Affection: [ERROR])
(ERROR: The Capture Target's affection for you is beyond the normal scope of this system and cannot be properly measured. Caution is advised as this level of affection is considered dangerous for you since the Capture Target may act in ways that are counterintuitive to your well-being while justifying the necessity. Using common terminology, examples of this level of affection may include but are not limited to: Stalkers, Stans, and Yanderes.)
"I love you, Olivia."