The biome was quiet for a moment, and then with a sigh that sent wind rustling through all the plants in the room, Ashale’viaf manifested with a flurry of petals in front of her.

He crossed his arms as he gazed at the serpent around her neck for a moment, and then raised his pink eyes to Lucille. “I haven’t been trying to avoid you. We just haven’t crossed paths,” he replied.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “The caretaker of the Aurelian Commission has direct authority over the Headquarters’ gardens, magic arrays, and the library. This includes the artificial biomes, the front gardens, the rooftop gardens, and the many interconnected magic systems within the main building of the Headquarters. You could manifest in front of me anywhere,” she stated wryly.

He avoided eye contact. “I’ve been busy-”

“Doing the same thing you’ve done for the last millennia and a half,” she interrupted flatly. “You hardly do anything, besides help the occasional Faction member find something in the library. Your presence is the only thing required for the gardens to flourish.”

He looked at her with a complex expression, then sighed. “I have… only incomplete memories of the Inheritance Trial. It seems my incarnation signed a contract with the System that meant I wouldn’t receive some information when the Inheritance closed,” he explained. Then he made a strange face. “But I know that nobody could use mana or spiritual energy within the trials unless required by the trial, so I understand why I did not see your…. soul.”

His semi-translucent manifestation distorted slightly, his visage becoming vague before it became defined again. Lucy smirked, knowing that was the equivalent of a shudder.

He stared at her with disbelief. “No, what even are you? There’s been a Rank-5 soul cultivator who visited the Commission before. But they don’t have a soul like yours. Yours is….” He flinched as he saw her smirk widen.

“I’m what?” she asked in a pleasant voice.

He gazed at her without moving for a moment, before sighing. “Why are you here at the Commission?” he asked wearily.

She narrowed her eyes and grinned, giving him a wide shrug. “I didn’t lie to you. I need resources. Money, skill books, elixirs, natural treasures, people. The Commission will come out better off for it.”

He furrowed his brows slightly when he saw all her words were true.

She took out her pocket watch and opened it, checking the time, then snapped it closed. “Anyway, I need to head back. Enjoy the peace and quiet without Scytale, because you’ll wish for it to still be here next month.” She smirked.

He groaned as she left the biome, heading back towards the Headquarters’ main building with her bond around her neck. Lucy considered what she had seen in her perception field.

In the third biome, the one Ashale’viaf was hiding from Scytale, and the largest biome, an enormous semi-translucent vivid green rose vine had filled the room. The stem of the vine was as thick and tall as a truck, winding and spiralling throughout the massive area, with enormous pink and white roses billowing rainbow essence blooming along its length. In the centre of the room, surrounded by the largest roses, a green crystalline orb larger than a person was slowly coalescing. She knew that as he attracted more mana, his vine would grow more and more solid as he became physically anchored to the realm.

Spirits were split into two categories, spirit guardians and spirit beasts. While both had a human form, spirit beasts could switch between beast and human form, but spirit guardians only had a human form. That was because a spirit guardian was someone from the mortal races, such as humans, elves, and dwarves, who gave up their body to become a spirit. Many great warriors in the past did this, because it enabled them to act as ‘guardian spirits’ for their force if they became bound to an item, like a powerful sword, and also allowed them to become ageless beings. This was how most sentient items were made. Sometimes they decide to go to the spirit realm instead, as was often in the case of magic users like Archmages, who wanted to explore the furthest reaches of magic.

Spirit beasts were the original residents of the spirit realm. Their strength ranking went from lesser, intermediate, greater, and then superior, similar to magical beasts in some ways. However, unlike magical beasts, they could only gain sapience at greater rank, the equivalent of a magical beast’s advanced rank. Superior was when they gained a human form, making spirit guardians automatically superior rank. It was also why one needed to have pinnacle-level strength before converting their entire body to mana and spiritual energy to become a spirit being.

Spirits had one level of strength after that, which was King. After that, they only needed time and mana, and then they could become immensely powerful beings. And spirits were the metaphysical opposite of demons. They shared many similarities, such as needing mana to manifest a physical body in the material realms, had astral bodies, and they also used contracts to bind themselves to mortal individuals.

But they used spiritual energy to do so, rather than demonic power. Spirits also had affinities, which caused their unique spirit magic to act like elemental magic in the material realms. This magic, when used with the power of mana, became extraordinarily powerful, as spirits had some of the highest understanding of natural elemental laws out of any sentient creature.

They didn’t use soul magic like the demons either, and their contracts functioned very differently. While the demons could form contracts with multiple individuals, a spirit only contracted one individual at a time. They didn’t absorb spiritual energy, and when they formed a contract, they devoted their entire power to their contractor, in exchange for a portion of their contractor’s mana each time a spell was cast, which they were able to keep after the contract. They also didn’t have a physical form in the spirit realm, which was a non-physical realm, but immaterial like the Demon Realm.

It was one of the main reasons they formed contracts, as with enough mana, they could fully materialise, and if they chose to forego a core, they could become elementals. These beings could form contracts, but they existed in the material realms and had bodies made out of pure elemental mana. If they chose to form a core, like Ashale’viaf seemed to be doing, they would become fully manifested Spirit Kings, and their domain would become a spirit gate that could passively summon their lesser kin. At that stage, within the jurisdiction of their core, they would have a proper physical body they could freely manifest anywhere.

This meant their blood and abilities could be passed down, giving their descendants a semi-mortal body. These descendants, who weren’t bound by their Spirit King's domain, were called fae. The domain of their origin Spirit King or Queen would be their ‘court’, a place which had a strange intersection with the semi-materialised spirit realm and its spirits. The fae could use spirit magic, which functioned in incomprehensible ways and was unlearnable by the mortal races, just like demonic spells and bloodline magic, and could also form contracts.

She assumed Ashale’viaf might be forming a core because the contract that bound him to the Mystical Realm as the caretaker of the Headquarters was running out. He had clearly gathered enough mana to begin the process, so he decided to make the Headquarters his permanent home. Maybe that was why he was scared of her, fearing she might be a change detrimental to him. The Commission was quite lucky, as a plant guardian spirit, especially a Spirit King, was very, very desired for noble gardens and magical plant cultivation, and they were exceptionally rare. Spirits that weren’t part of the six essential elements were the rarest varieties of spirits, and plant spirits, while not necessarily the most powerful, were venerated above them all.

That was because the Paragon Anomaly of the Mystical Realm, the World Tree, was a plant spirit. An extremely old and powerful one, but a plant spirit. While its main affinity was wood, a must for all plant spirits, it also had an affinity for all six essential elements, which made the World Tree the sole spirit gate for all the different types of spirits. To become a spirit guardian, you needed to go to Glenheim on the Great Fae plane, its home, and to contract the most powerful spirits, you also needed to go there. A summoning ritual wasn’t enough to contract superior spirits or higher.

But due to this natural spirit gate, the elves had made it their home. As a race with innately high mana and spiritual energy, it was perfect for them, and the spirits favoured them because of this in turn. The elves who contracted the most powerful spirits at the highest level of bond were the strongest sorcerers, gaining the physical features of their spirit’s humanoid form when they entered their elemental manifestation state.

And Trisroa Vel-Winteridge had managed to contract two Spirit Kings of contrasting elements, an ice and fire king. Still, being a mage granted her magic more utility, as a spirit couldn’t create new spirit magic. It was all innate. Lucille didn’t know how her path would progress this time, but if she could just prevent the girl from becoming hostile, that would likely be enough. The Hero would definitely try to find his second strongest party member again, and Lucille wouldn’t stop him otherwise it would seem suspicious, but she wouldn’t purposely try to place Trisroa in a situation where she could meet the Hero. Lucy honestly thought it was a bit of a waste she became a sorceress, because one time in the past, she had seen Trisroa cast an amazing spell that showed her high talent for magic. Family issues had nothing to do with just being good at what you do.

Thinking about the past had made her moody though, so she stopped ruminating over the mechanisms of spirits and their magic and instead stepped into a lift of the main building of the Headquarters to take her to the fortieth story. She had someone to visit.

…

For about half an hour, a dark-haired girl had watched a certain individual mess around with his equipment from the top balcony of his workshop and had been content to see his abilities, waiting for him to become alert to her presence.

Sedric was oblivious.

He hadn’t even noticed Lucille’s shadow that appeared over his table, too absorbed in his work, and making weird things with his equipment. Such as a strange gauntlet that looked like it injected medicine through the spikes on its knuckles when it punched something.

Or the helmet that had an extendable light fixing, like an anglerfish, that ignored the fact it would blind the wearer when they put it on, rather than illuminate their work.

Or the spider-like thing that hooked onto someone’s neck, forearm, or maybe thigh(?) and held up tools for the wearer to pick up, except the spider’s legs weren’t long enough to cling on to anything.

Or the- actually, never mind. Lucy wasn’t going to continue counting. They were all too dumb.

She understood he was probably spending time inventing stupid stuff because he lacked direction. He enjoyed what he was doing, but also had no idea what he could do to improve himself. Apart from trial and error and immense wastage of resources.

Narrowing her eyes, she decided to do something.

As Sedric dropped his binder pen and climbed under his table to look for it, she called out, “The pen’s behind you.”

Thunk!

“Ow!”

She watched with some amusement as he mumbled curses to himself, rubbing his sore head that he had hit against the workbench when he got startled. He slowly clambered out and stood up, then turned around. He looked up and crossed his arms with a sorely disgruntled look on his face.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Why are you here?” he asked sourly.

Lucy smirked as she leaned against the railing. “Because I own this floor. But that’s the wrong question.” She lifted the cane by her side to point at the unamused man. “Why are you still here?”

“…..I work here?” he said, looking at her oddly.

She gave him a flat stare. “Then how come I’ve received reports that you haven’t been to your area of the floor in more than two weeks.”

He scoffed. “You should be glad I’m so willing to work.”

I’ve had people tell me I don’t have a life outside of work. I understand and accept this point, as I can’t say I have any hobbies. But this man’s hobbies are also his work. I even socialise more than him somehow.

She narrowed her eyes at Sedric. “Work? As in, making proper functional items that people can use and are not just some vague recollection of a fever dream that you had the idiotic idea to recreate in reality?”

The dark-haired man gained an affronted look, but she ignored it to walk down the stairs. When she came to the workbench near him, she crossed her arms and sighed. “I understand that you haven’t got much to do. I haven’t given you anything to do, so of course you have nothing to spend your time on besides this.”

“So… are you finally here to give me something to do?” he asked curiously.

“No, I’m here to tell you to stop wasting my money building rubbish,” she deadpanned.

Sedric scowled. “It’s not rubbish, it’s-”

Crack.

He stared at Lucille, holding the broken shards of a binder pen in her gloved hands. She haphazardly chucked it over one shoulder. “Whoops,” she stated flatly.

He came closer. “What are you-”

Crack.

Lucy snapped a second binder pen she found on the workbench in half. She looked up at him. “These things are really flimsy, aren’t they?” she asked innocently.

Sedric’s eyes widened as he realised what she was doing. “Hey, I need tho-”

She grabbed three from a container.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

“How poor quality. What a waste of money,” she said with a wide shrug, an irritatingly bright smile on her face. “I’m not sure I should authorise you to buy new ones.”

Sedric glowered at her before his eyes slowly drifted to another spot on the workbench. She followed his gaze. He was looking at a box of binder pens.

There was a beat of silence.

Then they both dashed around either side of the workbench, trying to get to the box. Unfortunately, Sedric’s longer reach meant he got to them first, making her click her tongue as she was leaning across the table with one arm stretched out. Then she narrowed her eyes as he held the box high above her in triumph.

A sneaky strand of invisible spiritual energy extended from her as she physically picked up the strange anglerfish helmet he had made. “Tell me, have you ever actually used this?”

Distracted by his victory, he scoffed. “It’s still a work in progress,” he said, as the pens started to levitate above his head.

She put down the helmet. “Then what about these gauntlets,” she continued in a flat voice, pointing to the offending object in question.

That actually made him sheepish, and he turned his head away. “W-Well, those are just a concept-”

CRACK!

He whipped his head back to stare at her. The many splintered fragments of obtained binder pens rained down from her fingers onto the ground. “There we go,” she replied cheerily.

He turned his wide gaze to the box he was still holding above his head, which just so happened to be very empty. He dropped the box onto the table with a look of disgust on his face.

Lucille casually brushed her hands together to remove her gloves from any lingering fragments and then picked up the cane leaning against the workbench side. She marched up to Sedric, and before he could react, hooked the handle of the cane around the back of his collar and yanked him after her. “Come on, we’re going somewhere,” she told him.

He coughed and spluttered as he stumbled back, trying to dislodge the handle. When he did, Lucy turned back and instead firmly yanked the sleeve of his shirt as she pulled him towards the stairs.

“W-Wait, it’s still during my working hours,” he tried to excuse himself, pulling against her.

She glanced back with a smirk on her face. “Didn’t you read the contract? All hours involving me count as work.” Then she eyed his black-stained top and grimy face with disdain. “And for heaven's sake Sedric, go take a shower.”

…

“Where are you taking me?” the dark-haired man complained, grumpy as he crossed his arms to glare at the girl with a mask across from him.

Lucille stopped gazing out the carriage window to look at him. “You’re making this sound like a kidnapping.”

“Might as well be,” he muttered and then flinched when he saw Lucy’s narrowed eyes.

“For your information,” she stated dryly, “I’m taking you to the Commission’s craftsmen zone. I could drop you off here, and let you walk back?” she added with a bright smile.

Sedric blinked. “The craftsmen zone? Isn’t that for Commission personnel only?” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly when he saw Lucille’s derisive look. “I meant Commission crafters,” he added. “Not, you know, me. And you’re different.”

“Well Sedric,” she began in a bright voice, “I am the Commission Head. And that means, blighted uppity Commission crafters or not, I will be letting in anybody I want into that zone, and nobody can stop me, tradition be damned.”

He looked taken aback by the harsher language coming from her. “You’re…. upset at them about something?” he asked curiously.

She frowned slightly as she checked her pocket watch. “The general crafters typically belong under Alichanteu’s authority. I’m expecting some people to try ‘gain my favour’ along with other dull political schemes.” She glanced at him. “I suggest you refuse any ‘tempting’ offers to spy on me for them. With how often you leave your workshop, it will be embarrassingly obvious if you’re trying to get information out of me.”

He glared at her but wisely didn’t comment. He moved on to another topic. “Where’s that uselessly shiny snake of yours?”

“Hibernating. He ate a powerful natural treasure and will be asleep for the next month,” she replied, leaning back in her seat. “He’ll finish digesting it sometime in January next year if he’s lucky, and will reach advanced rank.”

He narrowed his brown eyes at her for some reason, making her look at him weirdly. “What? I’m not kidding that he’s asleep. I’m not about to set him on you to get you to come out of your workshop each day.” She held her chin in thought. “Although now that I think about it, that’s not such a bad idea…” she mused.

He scowled but asked his question. “Don’t you have anything better to do than take me out on a day trip in Gilded Seat? I know your aide has complained about you ditching him before.”

She widened her eyes at him in mock shock. “You left your workshop long enough to talk to a human?”

“All right! I get it! Stop making a fuss about it!” he exclaimed in anger, finally having had it with her.

Like it hadn’t changed, Lucy’s expression instantly went back to being neutral. “To answer your question, Vincent is organising things with the staff. For reasons irrelevant to you, I can’t have much direct interaction with them at this stage.” She leaned her elbow against the window. “I could write more plans, but there’s only so much I could plan without receiving information on real-time changes. So, no, I don’t have much else to do right now,” she said with a bright smile.

He gazed at her sceptically, clearly not believing her. Then the carriage rolled to a stop and the coachman called out that they were there. They both got up and left the carriage, and stood before the crafter zone’s gates. Two red-haired guards who had been in the carriage followed them and stood several metres away from Lucy. Sedric glanced back at them in surprise.

“You have an escort?” he asked her.

“Hm? Oh. Yes. Two Rank-4s from a side family of Chavaret. They’re from the Mercenary Army,” she explained.

The two guards didn’t glance at her as she spoke about them. Lucille went back to observing the crafter zone in front of them.

Built in the style of a large trading show, the crafter zone was constructed under semi-permanent tent-like roofs, with different crafter sections built into rows, people coming and going between different areas and down the rows with deliveries or transporting materials. Magic arrays and mana-circles adorned the open wide buildings, used for a variety of purposes. The entire zone occupied ten districts, making it one of the largest sub-zones within Gilded Seat. It was the centre for all of the Commission’s manufacturing and was where all the items and materials produced in other planes or fiefdoms got transported before the Counties sold them in their businesses.

Lucille walked up, with the long-haired Sedric trailing behind, to one of the two overseers at the gate who were writing in ledgers, recording who was entering and who was leaving that specific gate. He looked up and had a slight frown on his face when he saw Lucy.

“What are you doing here, girl? We don’t have anyone like you who needs to come in,” the man said.

She gave him a wide smile and then pulled out her pocket watch. “Can the Commission Head enter?” she asked pleasantly.

The man, who wore glasses, shifted them with a deeper frown as he inspected the object. Then his eyes widened as he saw its item sheet, and he blanched. He backed up and gave a deep bow.

“Ah, c-certainly, milor- milady.” He straightened up. “Would you like someone to show you around? I can organise it if you give me a moment…”

She shook her head and held up a hand. “No thank you, I know where I want to go.”

He gave her an uncertain nod, slowly returning to his normal position beside the gate.

Lucille walked through, Sedric following behind.

And the overseer just called over someone to go send word that I’m here. How wonderful. Time to leave.

“So… do you actually have a place you want to go to or are you just trying to make sure they don’t follow you?” he asked dubiously.

She didn’t look at him as she navigated down the busy street. “Obviously the latter. If you see something that interests you we could stop to look. Just keep in mind all the items here already have places they need to be transported to, so we shouldn’t ask for anything, even if I’m the Commission Head.”

He looked around curiously after that, watching the different types of mana-circles and magic arrays being used, and the different kinds of magic items being sorted and checked. After some time, he spoke up when he saw something strange.

“Hang on, what’s that weird cart there?” he asked, pointing to an interesting structure made of brass and silver metal.

It had four wheels and carried what looked like a boiler on its back, but glowing vein-like circuits ran along channels on its sides and over the metal. Three carts were hooked in a line behind it, and it thrummed with energy as the boiler on its back released clouds of multi-coloured mana every few seconds.

“Ah,” Lucille said, noticing the cart as well. “That would be an alchemical engine from the Coalition.”

“The Coalition?” he asked, frowning. “How is that a golem or puppet?”

She gestured for him to follow as they came closer. A man, presumably its owner, was discussing details with around five people on the other side, showing off the engine and seemingly advertising its utility to the interested craftsmen.

“Firstly, it’s neither a golem nor a puppet,” she explained, gesturing to the engine. “Golems have cores that contain metal or earth spirits within to give them minor intelligence, but this device is purely controlled using the magic engineering mechanisms. And it’s not a puppet because an individual’s mana doesn’t need to interact with it either.”

She used her cane to point to the boiler structure. “It uses a special alchemical solution to fuel the mana-circle and components within, which generates mechanical energy to push it forward. I believe he’s showing this off to advertise the utility of machine power because you can see how it could easily pull more carts than any human.”

“A low-ranked magical beast could pull that much if they were strong enough though,” Sedric rebutted.

“Does the engine look like something that needs feeding, cleaning or shelter?” she said, raising an eyebrow at him. “And because it’s made of metal, if it gets damaged you only need to replace parts and find a crafter who could do so. Although,” she continued, holding her chin as she observed it, “I do not believe it was very well thought out by the representative to try to showcase this particular model.”

“Oh? Why?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“Well, the alchemical solution that fuels it, as well as the type that runs through its mana circuits is jealously guarded by the Coalition,” she told him. “They keep the specific recipe, which is used to make puppets, safe and secure. Which makes it horrendously expensive to obtain when not a member of the Coalition.”

“Doesn’t the Commission have the money to buy the solution?” he replied.

“Yes, but he’s not talking to the nobles who could afford to waste money on that,” Lucy explained. “He’s talking to the mostly commoner crafters, who are much more pragmatic and well-learned when it comes to feasibility and calculating costs of things. Look,” she said, pointing with her cane. “Three of those head crafters have just walked off once they heard the price.”

“I’m also sceptical on whether he has the authority to organise a trade deal large enough for the Commission,” she continued, leaning on her cane. “Sure, these devices would make logistics much, much easier and faster, but two hundred engines isn’t enough for even one business directly owned by Alichanteu. He’d be looking at several thousand, if not more orders and the Coalition has strict limits on how much of their technology can be exported outside of their Great plane.”

She shrugged. “He’s likely only here to reveal a ‘new technology’ that is being developed on the Coalition’s plane. It’s not technology that would be truly feasible until the next few years or so.”

“It seems like you’re familiar with the Coalition, miss,” a new voice spoke up.

They turned to see a young blonde man in his early twenties behind them. It appeared like he had just come out of the workshop behind them. He held out a hand for them to shake. “Sameul,” he introduced himself.

“I’ve been before,” Lucy said with a smile. “I’m Lucy.” She elbowed the brown-haired man beside her to get Sedric to uncross his arms. “This grumpy man is Sedric,” she told him.

Sedric scowled at her but Sameul just smirked and nodded. He walked forward to stand beside Lucy and gazed at the engine.

“Y’know,” he said. “I’ve been observing that man try to show off the alchemical engine for the past hour now, and it’s a bit laughable really.” He turned to them. “I come from the Coalition myself. It was one of my tickets to becoming the junior head crafter for this section,” he said with a grin.

“Has more of the Coalition’s technology been coming into this place recently?” Lucille asked curiously.

He rubbed his chin and nodded. “It wasn’t quite so pronounced up until the past month and a bit or so. I think it coincides with the rumours about when the Commission Head first arrived?” he mused.

Sedric glanced at Lucy but she just nodded, looking at the ground in thought. “Are they trying to gain the Head’s support?”

Sameul shrugged. “Might be. It’s not exactly something I’ve been considering. I’ve got my hands full preparing to enter the Faction Head’s competition in November.”

Sedric’s expression went strange, but Lucy blinked. She gave him an analysis look. “Considering you’re already a junior head crafter, then you should easily be able to get past the preliminaries at least.”

“Oh. Well, thanks for the confidence at least-”

“But,” she interrupted him, a wide smile on her face. “Would you like a recommendation that will let you bypass the preliminaries and enter the first competition?”

Sameul stared at her for a second, nonplussed, and then his eyes widened. “Wait, you can do that?” Then he hesitated. “Are you a noble?”

“Technically not,” she told him before he could start apologising for any ‘offence’. “But I have a high enough position in the Commission that I could give you one.” She reached into her dimensional pouch on her belt and withdrew a thick white envelope with a purple seal on the front. She handed it to him. “The preliminaries are mostly just to remove the worst of the entrants. There’s no harm in giving this to someone who’s already demonstrated their talent.”

“Then… thank you very much,” he replied, surprised.

Lucy took out her pocket watch to check the time and turned to Sedric. “We better get going.” She turned back to Sameul. “It was good to meet you. I hope you do well in the competition. I’ll see you there.” Then she began walking off, her two escorts still a few metres away.

Sameul paused. “Wait, why would I see you there?”

Lucille glanced back and put away her pocket watch. “It will probably just be a lucky coincidence,” she said with a grin.

He gazed after her, confused, but shrugged and went back inside his workshop.

Sedric crossed his arms as he followed her. “What was that about?” he asked her.

She used her thumb to point behind them. “It would be a shame if, by some accident or emergency, he couldn’t progress past the preliminaries. If he has the talent to reach the status of junior head crafter at his age, I may as well let him try. Besides, there is a reason why the Coalition is known for the best crafters,” she replied. She took another glance around and then turned to Sedric. “I should probably warn you that it would be bad to leave the fortieth floor for the next few weeks.”

“I mean, I didn’t plan to, but….” he said, confused.

“This week the nobles for my debut will be arriving,” she explained. “If you don’t want to get caught up in commoner-noble drama and want your life to remain hassle-free, don’t be seen by them.”

His face automatically screwed up, but as he contemplated it, he seemed to understand that he really did not want to deal with that. “Uh… yeah. Okay. No leaving the floor. Got it.”

She gave him a flat stare and poked him with the cane. “That does not mean not leaving your workshop.” She narrowed her eyes as he avoided eye contact. “If you keep this up, you’ll begin speaking in grunts, and then nothing else.” She paused slightly to consider her statement. “Actually, I think that symptom has already begun to show its early stages.”

She smirked as Sedric yelled “Hey!”, and she turned around, continuing to explore the rest of the craftsmen zone.