Albrecht accepted her request for a more private venue of discussion, and she took them to the Pavilion area she had discussed her regression with Annaliese. The other nine Paladins were spread out, surveying the area for eavesdroppers and potential threats. Albrecht sat opposite Lucille at the table and Vincent stood behind her. She crossed her legs, the cane leaning against the table. She gestured to the brass jug and two teacups she had placed on the table.
“Would you like some?” she asked him politely.
He shook his head, so she shrugged and poured some for herself. She picked up the cup as she reclined in her chair. “I’ve introduced myself, but I haven’t heard your name yet, Sir Paladin,” she said.
“Jasten Albrecht,” he stated curtly. He crossed his arms. “I assume you know why we’re here.”
She closed her eyes as she took a sip of her tea. “I may, but just so we have the same awareness of the situation, could you please state exactly why you have come here?”
He gave a barely noticeable frown, but did as she asked. The other Paladins shot her dirty looks, clearly not liking her attitude. “I’m here for the Prophetess,” he stated calmly.
She opened her eyes and placed down the tea. Then she tilted her head curiously as she gazed at the man with a smile on her face. “To my understanding, the Prophetess is normally escorted by a Templar of Pledge. Unless you’re wearing Paladin armour for another reason…”
“I’m not a Templar,” he replied to her unsaid question. “However, I have been granted full authority to deal with this situation.”
“And your method of dealing with this situation was to turn up without notice in the reception hall of the Aurelian Commission’s Headquarters,” she said in turn, narrowing her eyes while keeping her smile steady.
He just gazed at her without any expression, so she spread her arms and gave a wide shrug. “Well, what can I do,” she told him. “I suppose I’ll just have to take you at your word, Sir Albrecht, and assume you do have the authority.”
“So, you’ll give us the Prophetess?” he tried to confirm.
She smirked and leaned back in her chair, her arms crossed. “No.”
The other Paladins put their hands on their weapons, ready to attack once she had said that, while Albrecht just frowned. “Yet you said this without guards, directly within earshot of nine other high-ranking Paladins of the Citadel, which is at odds with the implications of your answer.”
“I can’t ‘give’ you the Prophetess.” She shrugged.
“And why is that?” he asked, looking sternly at her.
She calmly sipped her drink. “Because I could only ‘give’ her to you as much as I could give you my aide standing right behind me,” she said, gesturing to Vincent. She inwardly grinned as she registered an eyebrow twitch on his face behind her. “In case you don’t know, slavery is illegal in the Empire. I don’t own the Prophetess in enough semblance of the word that I could ‘give’ her to you.”
He gazed at her for moment, before slowly nodding. “Of course. The Prophetess would never be beholden to the forced wishes of another. Then, will you allow her to leave?”
She smiled. “I have never stopped her from leaving if she so wished. You only had to come get her.”
He nodded again, uncrossing his arms. “Then where is she?”
She placed down her tea again and gestured with her cane to the entrance of the Pavilion zone. “I have already requested for her to come. She should be here within the minute. If she’s not, then you may go search for her as you please.”
He politely dipped his head to her. “Then we must thank the new Commission Head for her hospitality towards the Prophetess during these last few days.”
Lucille smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. “I am very glad to receive those words from the Highest-ranking Paladin of Pledge.”
His gaze changed as he regarded her with a slightly surprised expression. “You know who I am?”
“You did just introduce yourself as Jasten Albrecht,” she pointed out, grinning. His gaze didn’t waver, so she gave a light sigh, smiling widely. “The Paladin rankings are an event often paid attention to by the nobility of the Empire, as they can sometimes suggest who has a high likelihood of becoming a Templar.”
“That may be so,” he replied, regarding her with minute curiosity, “But-”
They turned when they heard the sounds of armoured footsteps approaching. Next to two Paladins was Annaliese, looking nervous as she walked between the two intimidating figures. They stopped before Albrecht.
“”We have found the Prophetess.“” The two armoured figures announced in sync, getting down on one knee.
The other 7 Paladins all got down on one knee, and dipped their heads toward the flustered Annaliese, who looked to Lucy pleadingly. She studiously avoided the girl’s gaze.
Albrecht stood up from his chair and then also kneeled down on one knee, one fist on the ground as he bowed his head. “High-ranked Paladin Jasten Albrecht greets the Prophetess of Fate,” he stated firmly. The other Paladin’s echoed his call, but left out their names to just say, “We greet the Prophetess of Fate.”
As Annaliese twisted the cloth of her dress in her hands, she had an awkward expression. “Um… hi?” she replied hesitantly.
Albrecht stood up and saluted her with one fist placed on his armoured chest. “I will be responsible for your protection until you have been transferred to the Citadel’s Division in the Imperial Capital, my lady. I am in charge of the escort contingent.”
The Prophetess blinked, and then gave him a cautious nod, unaware of the correct method to address the Paladins.
Albrecht turned to gaze at Lucy and Vincent with his steely eyes. Lucy nodded.
“I think I shall take my leave,” Lucille said with a smile, getting up from her seat and grabbing her black cane in her white-gloved hands. She gestured to Vincent and they began walking towards the Pavilion exit.
Annaliese went wide-eyed and panicky as she watched Lucy leave, and she took a step forward to try follow them. “What? But what am I-”
A metallic hand on her shoulder prevented her from moving, and she turned back around to see Albrecht slowly shaking his head. “They are leaving because we must have no outside forces observing us when we sign the contract for your officiation. Normally, we would do this in a Citadel subdivision location, but I have decided to do it as soon as possible.”
She stiffened, and then grimaced slightly, giving him another wary nod. He pulled out Lucy’s chair to help Annaliese sit in it, before sitting in the opposite seat himself. He gazed at the girl before him.
“Are you aware of the responsibilities of a Prophetess?” he asked her.
She shook her head, and Albrecht began talking her through what exactly she must do as the Prophetess, which included blessing some forces with Fate, or going to noble events as their representative.
“A more in-depth explanation will be given to you by the Great Sage himself, but for now, these details will suffice. Are there any more important questions you wish to ask?” he questioned.
She shook her head, so he nodded. She jumped, startled, when he reached his arm forward and it disappeared into a white hole that appeared in front of her eyes. He withdrew his arm to reveal a white stack of bound papers, and placed it down on the table. Opening it up revealed neat blue text. Albrecht pushed the stack towards Annaliese so she could see it. “This is the System-contract, the most binding contract used within the realms. Unless both forces wish for it, it can never be changed, and will be enforced by the System itself. Are there any requests you wish to have added to the contract?” he asked her.
Annaliese hesitated, eyes on the contract. Albrecht waited patiently as the girl worked up the courage to state her wished. She gulped as she finally spoke up. “P-Please ensure my brother is protected just as well as me,” she stammered. “No assassinations, no death threats, no using him as a hostage. I want his safety to be prioritised just as much as me,” she told him, staring up at the tall man with anxious eyes.
He rubbed his close-cut beard as he contemplated her words with a complicated expression. “As the Prophetess, you will always be guarded by at least 10 High-rank Paladins at all times, or a Rank-5. Your brother doesn’t necessarily need to have that high level of-”
He paused as she stubbornly shook her head. “No. If I have ten Paladins guarding me, then he needs to have ten Paladins guarding me, or a Rank-5 if I do. I value his life more than my own,” she stated, her voice trembling.
The Paladin regarded her with his grey-steel eyes, his expression unreadable. Then after a tense moment, he nodded. “Same priority of protection as the Prophetess. I will explicitly state there are to be no attempts on his life, and he is never to be held as a hostage against the Prophetess, regardless of the reasons. The Citadel will maintain his well being to the utmost limit they are capable of,” he stated with finality, placing a finger of his gauntlet on the paper. New blue text bloomed across the page as the updated contract was revealed, and he moved his hand away to let the Prophetess read it. She sagged with visible relief when she saw it had been added.
The first hurdle having been overcome, she spoke up with a bit more confidence. “I… also want to have official days off,” she continued.
He very slightly raised an eyebrow, making her cheeks tinge pink as she hastily shook her hands. “Not to be lazy, or things like that. I want to be able to have enough time to look after my brother…” she said, trying to justify why she wanted it. “He’s only twelve, so I want to make sure I can spend time with him and he doesn’t feel abandoned.” She looked down at the table. “C-Can I have a week of time each month?” she asked timidly.
He tilted his head as he considered it. “A week is too much. If it’s four days, then I could accept it.”
She shrunk down into her seat. “F-Five days?” she tried to negotiate.
He raised his eyebrows, but wryly shook his head. “Okay. Five days’ worth of time every month to visit your brother.” He went to add it to the contract, but Annaliese straightened up, making him pause his action.
“B-But what if I want to take him places, or go out to buy him a present? That time wouldn’t be spent visiting him…” she added hesitantly.
He gazed at her for a moment, and then let out a barely noticeable sigh. “Five days’ worth of time every month to spend however the Prophetess wishes, as long as it does not put her in danger,” he stated. He pressed down his finger again and raised his eyes to look at the Prophetess. “I’ll have to explain to the Sages that the reason behind it was that you intended its focus to be your brother,” he told her.
She nodded, and then sheepishly began fiddling with her fingers. “There is… one more thing. Or it’s more like a question…” she said, an odd expression on her face.
He tilted his head slightly as he observed her. “I will answer to the best of my ability.”
“I’ve heard that the Sages… don’t really like the Prophetess,” she began slowly. “Would… they stop me from giving my brother gifts, or won’t let me spend money on anything?”
The tiniest of smirks appeared on Albrecht’s face, before it disappeared near instantly. “I can put in a clause that can allow you access to all your inheritance so they can’t control it. You could spend it on whatever you want, if you so wish,” he replied.
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“Oh, please add that then,” she asked him. He altered the contract one final third time, and then nodded. “Then, shall we complete the contract?”
She slowly nodded, and so he flipped to the last page. He pushed the contract closer to her and pointed to the blank section at the end of the page. “To sign the contract, place your finger here, and then push your Fate energy into the paper, stating your name. With this, the contract will be complete.”
She took a breath, and placed her index finger on the spot, summoning her Fate energy with a golden glow in her eyes to insert into the paper. “Annaliese Verdon,” she stated as calmly as she could.
The text on the page lit up with a brilliant blue glow, and the stack of pages lifted itself up, hovering between them as two thin, white, semi-translucent chains extended from it, glowing as brightly as the text. Annaliese had to shield her eyes as the chains grew longer, one of them wrapping around Albrecht’s armoured wrist. She flinched as another chain shot out to wrap around her wrist, but she didn’t feel anything, the chains having no physical form. She felt a slight pressure build and then release in her mind. Then the chains splintered into fragments of light, and the page fell back down, the text now a silvery colour. Albrecht picked the contract back up, replacing it in his dimensional skill. He stood up from the table and offered a hand to her.
“Then, Miss Annaliese Verdon, our new Prophetess,” he said with the first true smile she had seen on him. “I believe it is time we now leave.”
…
Lucille and Vincent waited in the reception hall as the Paladins prepared to leave. All other staff had been told to remain out of the lobby area so as few issues could occur as possible. Scytale had decided to remain in her living room and watch through their bond, just to avoid complications, and he had said his goodbyes when he had told Annaliese to go to the Pavilion after the staff member brought her to their room. The blonde-haired girl was in the midst of the Paladins, looking rather intimidated by their height and armour. When orders had been given, Albrecht turned around and nodded to Lucy.
“Are all procedures in order for the transferal of her brother?” he asked.
Lucy nodded, smiling. “The hospital has already been informed that the Citadel will take over the treatment process. He’s been prepared for transport.”
“Very well then,” he replied. He took a step forward and gave her a serious nod, a hand on his chest. “As the highest-ranking member of the Citadel here, I thank the Commission Head for their generosity towards the Prophetess, and for watching over the welfare of her brother. The Citadel will always welcome you as a guest, and will repay you for saving the life of our Prophetess’s precious family member,” he stated solemnly.
Lucille narrowed her eyes but nodded in acknowledgement of his words, then gave an exaggerated shrug as she grinned. “Well, what can I say? I never expected the girl who’s brother I saved on a whim would turn out to be the Prophetess. It must be Escalon’s will.”
Lucy had to say she was impressed by the man’s ability to keep his expression perfectly still as he nodded too. “As Escalon wills.”
Annaliese had a complicated expression on her face as Albrecht went to gesture to the other Paladins, getting ready to move, before she gritted her teeth and ran from them to stand in front of Lucille, who blinked, nonplussed. Some of the Paladins went to bring her back, but Albrecht held out a hand to pause them, keenly watching the developing events with slightly narrowed eyes.
Lucy tilted her head as the girl stared at her for a moment, only a few metres away, before Annaliese gave a deep bow. “Thank you for saving my brother, Lucy,” she told her.
She was still bowing, so she didn’t see Lucy’s expression as the older girl hesitated, and then took a step forward. She placed a gloved hand on the Prophetess’s head… only to haphazardly ruffle her blonde hair, making a mess of it. Startled, Annaliese straightened up to stare at Lucille, who gazed at her expressionlessly.
“You are an idiot,” she stated flatly, poking her in the forehead. Then she took a step back and gestured with the gold-tipped cane to the wary Paladins behind her. “Go on, off with you. Leave before they think I’m going to attack you or something. Scytale gives me enough grief without you adding more to the basket.”
The blonde-haired girl blinked her golden eyes once, and then widened them, quickly spinning around to dash back to the Paladins, the realisation of their staring eyes following her making her flush pink and awkwardly fiddle with her hair, moving to stand next to Albrecht. Albrecht looked between the two with a strange expression on his face, before shaking his head with a sigh and saluting to Lucille. “Farewell then, Commission Head.”
Lucy nodded, and the Paladins started marching, Annaliese in their midst. Lucille and Vincent turned as well… to see a grimy, sooty Sedric coming into the hall with a confused expression on his face, scratching his head.
“There’s been a big commotion going on upstairs, so I went to ask where you were, and then they said you were down here, so I- wait, what’s going on?” he said, noticing the Paladins. “Why is Annaliese leaving? And isn’t that the Citadel of Fate?” he asked, becoming more and more bewildered. “Where’s she going?”
Lucy raised an eyebrow with a slight smirk and gestured to the girl. “She’s the Prophetess.”
He frowned. “The Prophetess? There’s no way that’s… poss..I..ble….” his eyes widened as he realised the implications of the blonde-haired girl getting escorted away by Paladins. He paled, shocked.
Coincidently, Annaliese chose this moment to look back, and noticed Sedric was there, looking dumbfounded. She realised what had happened, and so she stuck her tongue out at him. She grinned when she noticed the colour return to his face as he scowled at her, back to normal. Her steps became lighter as she followed the Paladins, not noticing that Albrecht had been watching their interaction with a questioning look beside her.
“She just poked her tongue out at me,” he muttered, incredulous. He turned to stare at Lucy. “Are you sure that thing is the Prophetess?!”
She just sighed as Vincent, standing behind her, bent slightly to tell her something. “You know she’s going to come back, don’t you,” he whispered with amusement.
She groaned. “Don’t jinx me,” she pleaded.
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Annaliese rested her chin on her hand as she gazed out the carriage window with an absent look. Jasten Albrecht was sitting opposite her as the strongest Paladin there, her safety now his priority. She considered all the things that had happened over the past week as the convoy headed to the hospital to pick up her brother for teleportation.
She had enjoyed her time there. The people were interesting. Lucille was interesting. Her face never changed until she said something, and when she did say something, it was either meaningful, or… just to poke fun at you. Which felt weird, but nice. Nobody had really treated her normally in her town, her looks either attracting too much attention, or her brother’s reputation and by extension hers also attracting too much attention. Her time at the Commission was different. Sedric seemed to just hate everyone in general, so he was an outlier, but Lucy and Scytale just didn’t care about any of that. Vincent didn’t care either, although he seemed a bit annoyed at Lucy sometimes. But Lucy seemed indifferent to other people’s attention. She had to wonder what kind of life gave someone that sort of temperament. After all, she was only…. oh.
Annaliese realised what was off with Lucy’s answer when she had asked her what her age was. If Lucille had really been from the future, then she should’ve been older. She probably was physically 18, and she looked it, but if her mental age was different…. She narrowed her eyes slightly as she thought about it. So, Lucy had been treating her as a little girl. That irritated her quite a bit. She wasn’t that immature, was she?
….although, she was trying to come up with a plan to visit Lucy again in a way she couldn’t refuse. Maybe that was slightly petty and immature. But it was Lucy’s fault! She had, out of her own mouth, managed to tell Annaliese how to get free time to visit her! She could do it every month if she pushed. And stay for five days, at that. She could even bring her brother, who would likely be very interested to know there were two people who seemed like they couldn’t be affected by his powers.
Maybe Lucille could help him… she seemed to know a bit about what his power was. If her brother could protect himself with it, then the contract didn’t need to be relied on. It would be his own power. But the words Lucy had said about putting on the appearance of a naïve girl had struck a chord within her.
She didn’t think Lucy thought she was naïve. Both she and her brother had known about the tricks and cruelty the world could play on them from a young age. But getting people to underestimate her was a power she could use. It wasn’t a magical, Ascendant power, but she believed it was useful, and that she had what it takes to do it. And for that, she needed to play it safe and wait. She wouldn’t visit Lucy until her image was cemented in everyone else's’ minds.
But it was so annoying. No matter how she asked, Lucille seemed stuck on the idea of never seeing her again. At least not in any sort of close or private way. She had overheard her discussions between her and her aide about acting like the silver-haired man was the real leader, but that just meant Lucy was going to have a way of freely moving about and having fun without her. It was unfair. It also hurt a little, that for Lucy, she was just a passing figure, and not someone to spend much time with. She knew as the Prophetess she couldn’t be too close to the Commission leader, and Lucy had explained that being in debt to her was a really bad thing for Lucy, but even after Lucille shared her secret, was that knowledge so freely shared to whoever asks that it didn’t matter? She didn’t think a week was enough for a true friendship to properly form but….
She was curious. Curious on what Lucy thought about her, curious about the girl who seemed to know the answers to whatever you asked, curious about what Scytale knew about her past, curious about Scytale’s bloodline, curious about what Lucy wanted Sedric for, curious about what she did in the past, curious about what she needed the Commission for, needed money for and why Lucille needed a mask and why her eye was gold and how old she really was and…
She liked her time at Lucy’s place.
But her last thought as she drifted off to sleep was Sedric’s expression as she left. It was so funny….
----------------------------------------
It was strange. Jasten Albrecht watched the sleeping young girl in front of him as the carriage rolled through the streets of Gilded Seat.
Lucille Goldcroft had been…. strange. She had been an incredibly strange individual.
The Citadel obviously knew about the rumours of there being a new Head of the Aurelian Commission. As soon as Providence had felt the ripples in the river of Fate, they had weaved it and woven it in ways to find out what was the occurrence as soon as feasibly possible. They had discovered, thanks to a ‘lucky’ encounter with a staff member with particularly loose lips and lust for money, about the strange girl with a serpent beast bond that had turned up one day.
They had also discovered that the Commission’s Fate had soared to great heights, a sure sign of success in the future. What was unique about the situation was they didn’t find the change until she had already become the Commission Head. That shouldn’t have happened. They should’ve known as soon as she was about to get her hands on the inheritance item. Especially as a Rank-0, their ability to read her Fate would’ve been much higher.
But that was for Providence to puzzle out and not Jasten. No, he found the person themselves odd. He considered her interactions with him, and her aide. That girl was definitely not the puppet leader she was rumoured to be.
Firstly was the lack of signals they sent each other. Jasten was not the best at reading body language, but as a peak Rank-5 who had tiered up his Thaumaturgy skill to the maximum for his class, and had the highest amount of stats a Rank-5 for his class rarity could, the body language of a Rank-0 and a Rank-2 non-combat User would never be able to escape his senses. And it was the girl who had been leading the conversation the entire time, and seemed to intentionally do so.
He wasn’t going to tell anyone unless they asked very specifically though. That was their problem. He had managed to avoid politics with as much might as he was able to muster, and he wouldn’t aid the Sages by revealing this information needlessly. They hated him anyway, due to his unique capability of avoiding following the true intention of their orders but still technically doing as they asked, and therefore messing up their plans. He guessed this was what endeared him to Rolland Louveste somehow, but Louveste had not endeared himself to Jasten. Especially not after this mess.
He sighed and rubbed his temples, taking care the sound of his armour didn’t wake the sleeping girl opposite him. The Great Sage and the Templar of High Justice had….. an argument. It hadn’t been pretty.
While he knew the High Justice’s prejudice against cultivators had been getting progressively worse as he made new victories in battle against the specific Sects who dealt in their Fate manipulation and ‘devouring’, it hadn’t quite struck home until that conversation in the forest. He hadn’t liked Louveste from the start, well aware of his ‘hidden’ nature as an ambitious, power-hungry opportunist with racist bias covered by his ‘just’ disguise, but antagonising him would’ve been a bad decision, as Louveste had covered for him on several occasions to prevent the Sage’s ploys from affecting him. He had framed it as ‘looking out for a promising young Paladin’ (Jasten was already 31), but he had his suspicions on what he actually wanted. And it was proven true.
Successor of High Justice? No thanks. Jasten didn’t care for that. Give him a job as High Custodian, where he could actually protect people, that he would do. Not slaughtering millions just to further the ambitions of the Sages in their lofty towers. He had tried to do exactly the opposite, when the manipulation of a Sage would call for the destruction of a plane, or the ruin of a kingdom. Not because he was particularly righteous, or some unsung hero of some kind, but because he wouldn’t be the person responsible for the destroyed lives of those people. He would distort the meaning of their orders just enough to royally mess up their plans, and then he would come back in triumph after ‘successfully’ completing their missions.
But letting an innocent boy die was just wrong. So he had removed what little hesitation he had left, and decided to make the switch. And the chance came with the Prophetess’s contract.
What the High Truth and the 6th Templar had argued about was that little boy. When it became known that somehow the Aurelian Commission had become involved, and decided to take the boy to get him treated, Louveste had been adamant that they involve themselves. Send assassins, get a doctor to kill the boy while he was in hospital, immediately march over to the Commission and demand for the Prophetess and her brother, a whole host of ridiculous and plain stupid suggestions.
He was actually inwardly relieved to find out the Commission Head had removed all Citadel and light-element healers from around the boy. Which had some scary implications about what she knew about the boy, and suggested she knew the girl was the Prophetess before they met. That should be impossible, along with several other supposedly impossible details he discovered. But again, he wouldn’t voice that observation unless he was directly ordered to.
Louveste got mad. Really mad. He kept shouting that the boy, or the ‘antithesis’ as was apparently his unofficial name, class name unknown, would spell destruction for the Citadel. The Great Sage was more pragmatic. He believed this to be an opportunity. The antithesis had been born as a direct blood relation to the Prophetess for the first time in history, and he hadn’t awakened yet. He suggested that they support the antithesis so when he awakens, they could discover the true details of his class through his sister, and make sure he has goodwill towards the Citadel. If he learns to control his abilities, he could be an amazing weapon for the Citadel. But Louveste had refused the Great Sage.
And the Great Sage had not appreciated that. If anyone managed to fight through thick political battles to reach the top of an organisation like the Citadel, you know when they called you a ‘friend’ it was only for benefits. Louveste had grown too proud, and had challenged the High Truth’s authority. So, for the first time in several centuries, the Great Sage used his Institution Authority to order the Templar so he would leave the escort contingent, as he was deemed emotionally unfit for the job. The High Truth had decided to let Jasten be in charge, no Templar.
Louveste’s anger had receded, because he believed Jasten was ‘on his side’ and would support his intentions, but he knew what the Great Sage was really suggesting. The Great Sage was offering him a choice, one where he chose between Louveste, and the High Truth. And by letting the Prophetess’s condition of giving the boy the same priority protection as her be implemented, he had demonstrated his choice. Now all he had to do was wait out the storm.
But he still felt that several things were definitely off about the situation with the Prophetess. Nothing was obviously dangerous or harmful in any way, but little details that didn’t add up. For one thing, the actual requests of the Prophetess. They were understandable things to be hearing from someone who seemed like a rather sweet and kind person, if nervous. But it was like she somehow knew exactly what to suggest that the Sages normally wouldn’t allow, while having the right justification for it too. That meant someone had prepared her for this, and which also meant that Lucille Goldcroft was willing to help the Prophetess. For what, he had no clue. It felt too beneficial to the Prophetess to come from someone from a merchant Faction, but nobody really knew what the new Commission Head was like yet.
But Lucille Goldcroft. He hadn’t known what he was looking at when he met her. That girl had no micro expressions. Unlike anyone else, the tiny expressions that revealed one’s thoughts were gone, her expression only exactly what she wanted. He didn’t think that was possible for a human. Maybe a demon, or a humanoid golem, but not a human. Even at high ranks nobody tried to control their physical body like that. It could possibly happen if they needed to be really careful at hiding their emotions, but they wouldn’t be capable of doing it for any extended period beyond a short second.
The biological instincts and normal functions of a human didn’t change as you ranked up, no matter how high your stats were. It was immensely taxing, physically, and mentally, to sustain such an intense level of control over your body. Unless you had an instinctive ability to control your body with high accuracy, it wasn’t worth it.
So, he couldn’t truly read her body language. That level of control extended to the way she moved her body, too. The aide was far easier to read, and it seemed he was utterly out of his depth when it came to the events developing at the time, so he based his observations off of him, but….
Jasten scratched his beard as he tried to think about what else was bothering him. Ah, her left eye. If someone lost an eye, they usually moved their head to compensate for the lost vision. It would be the little things, such as turning corners, but it occurred. He noticed this due to the fact that a lost right eye is a big weakness if you’re on the battlefield. Maybe the girl had perception skills, but that would mean she wouldn’t even need to look at him to see him, yet she acted like she didn’t have such a skill. While also not moving her left eye to compensate for any possible lost vision.
She also didn’t take her gloves off when giving him a handshake before leaving as was normally customary between those with titles of nobility, or a position equalling the power of nobility, like a High-ranked Paladin. It wasn’t necessarily relevant, but it was still another detail.
When he used his Battle Analysis skill to determine the likelihood of winning against her, it didn’t give any result, not even win, lose, or tie. It just returned: [Error: Cannot Calculate.]
He couldn’t sense the slightest bit of killing intent normally present in any living being, which meant she hadn’t killed anything, or was an expert at hiding it.
And his intuition was going wild, telling him there was something strangely wrong with her, but he couldn’t determine if it was strength, illness, or something else. He trusted his intuition on that part, but that didn’t mean it was being very helpful.
But in the end, she hadn’t harmed the Prophetess. And his light element lie-detection told him the Prophetess was genuinely thankful to the girl from the bottom of her heart….. that same lie-detection didn’t tell him if Lucille Goldcroft genuinely thought she was an idiot or not, though.
He raised his eyes to the blonde-haired girl sleeping opposite him, who had started to snore slightly as she leaned against the window. He sighed, and rubbed his eyes.
What was weird, was that he couldn’t stop thinking about the reaction Lucille Goldcroft had to the girl’s bow. The strange switch from that smile to absolutely zero expression whatsoever was very unnerving, true, but before that, and before she had ruffled the girl’s hair, her expression was very weird.
He didn’t think it would mean anything for him personally or likely affect the Citadel in the short term, but what he saw on her face seemed to be a little bit of guilt, regret, pity….
And sorrow.