“Captain.”

“Somehow, no matter what my rank is, you always seem to slip up and call me Captain sometimes.”

Caspian Wharifin gave her an empty smile. “Force of habit I guess.” Then his smile slowly fell, and he gazed silently at her.

She observed the man in front of her. They had spent well over twenty years as superior and subordinate, but she hadn’t quite ever seen him in the mess he was now. The man only appeared in his late twenties, as she did as well, and his tousled sea-green hair had grown longer. But what drew her eye was his surroundings.

Empty glass bottles were strewn on the floor around him, and he was sitting on the ground. His clothes were crumpled and dishevelled, while the room was dark and the curtains weren’t open, although glass fragments were sprinkled on the ground below the curtains. He was sickly pale, looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and gripped tightly in his bare left hand was a jagged shard of bloodstained glass the length of his forearm. He didn’t seem to care about the fresh dark red blood rolling down his fist and dying his sleeve and ground below him.

She tilted her head. “This is interesting. It seems you’ve changed your height to be a few inches taller than me. Funny how your inferiority complex shows itself like this.”

The man frowned. “Why are you here, Captain?”

She tapped on her chin as she observed the rest of the room. Her eyes rested on a chest of drawers, and she walked over, picking up an object. “I heard a rumour that you seemed to be blaming yourself for what I caused. Not the outcome I expected, but interesting enough nonetheless.”

“You caused?” He stared at her.

She played with the Vice Admiral badge she had in her hands and glanced back at him. “Wharifin, you always were my smartest subordinate. Surely you should’ve worked this out by now.”

His eyes grew wider, and then he glared at her. The bleeding from his left hand increased as he clenched his fists. “I heard you were dead.”

She turned to face him. “But I’m not,” she replied, smirking slightly as she crossed her arms and leaned against the chest of drawers. “And you were supposed to know me best, weren’t you? You should know I would never really die.” She raised the badge and bit the edge of it. “Was this even real?”

He laughed bitterly. “You’re telling me that you caused everything during those 25 years in the Navy.”

“Not everything. I certainly had no control over what happened in our fifteenth year,” she replied, idly tossing the badge. “Still, I was plenty involved in the events with the original crew.”

He gazed at her and didn’t speak.

She walked forward and crouched on one knee before him, and then yanked on the collar of his shirt as she observed his state again. “What a wreck you have made of yourself,” she remarked. He glared at her, and she glanced at his left hand. “Do you want me to finish the job?”

His eyes widened as he stared at her, looking distressed. “We haven’t seen each other for twenty years, and that’s what you say to me?” he said, his voice wavering as he held back pent-up emotions.

She tilted her head and shrugged. “Just a question.” She stood up and tossed the Vice Admiral badge at him. “I’m surprised you kept that useless little memento. Well, I suppose the results of my experiment did leave quite an impact on us all.”

“E-Experiment?!” he stammered, incredulous and angry. “You’re calling all that just an experiment?!” He coughed as his voice grew raspy.

“I don’t believe I’m saying anything wrong,” she replied, putting her hands behind her back as she paced the room. “After all, none of you would’ve broken the way you did without me having my little part to play. You all did have very twisted emotions towards your wonderful Captain,” she said with a dark chuckle.

“Dais Twyla died,” he growled, glowering at her.

“She fell too soon. I shouldn’t have used her in that fight,” she replied, absentmindedly checking her nails.

“Charlene sacrificed herself!”

“She was stupid,” she stated flatly, looking at him with derision. “It was better off that she died than if she was going to keep acting that way.”

“…..Liliana was traumatised, and we never saw her again,” he whispered, his voice failing him.

She glanced at him and rolled her eyes. “She wasn’t able to distract Griffin for long enough. A woman with such a bleeding heart never should’ve joined the Navy.”

He stared wordlessly at her with bloodshot eyes, and his hands were beginning to tremble, whether it be from blood loss, lack of sleep, stress, or emotional turmoil, she did not know. He angrily raised his right hand and jabbed a shaky finger in her direction. “Don’t think you can fool me,” he spat. “We all know your relationship with Conlan.”

“Hm,” she mused, holding her chin as she looked around the room. She leaned against the wall and looked at him. “Yes, he was one of my few failures. At first, his eagerness was something I could use, but it got tiring fast.” She shrugged. “He was certainly useful though. I doubt half of what occurred would’ve happened without his instigation.”

His expression grew stormier and more emotional, anger, distress, sadness, and fear warring on his face at different intervals. His voice shook. “I-If all this was just an experiment, then tell me, what in the realms were you testing?!?”

Her lips curled up into a wide grin. “The fastest way to break something, of course.”

His face paled with anger in the silence, and then his expression grew steadily calmer as he took in her words. He rubbed his face with one hand and tilted his head back in silent laughter. “You’re a monster. You’re really saying these things to me.” He finally dropped the glass shard, and buried his head in his hands, ignoring the blood he got on his face. “Such a heartless person as you never should’ve been born, Captain.”

She spread her arms. “I could say similar things about you too, Wharifin. The soft-hearted demi-Atlantean of Captain Riftmire’s crew, who had to push himself each day just to breathe near a low-ranked monster. What were you trying to prove, or even, who to? I hope it wasn’t me. You had nothing left to prove to me.”

There was only silence.

When he didn’t respond, she marched up to him and yanked his head back, a handful of his sea-green hair clenched in her fist as he stared wide-eyed at her, stunned. She smirked cruelly as she spoke into his ear, “Do you think those girls would appreciate seeing you like this?”

He flinched and forcefully shoved her back, and she casually straightened up as the man began trembling with intense anger. “Oh dear, I hit a sore spot," she said cheerfully. “Are those the kind of thoughts you torment yourself with at night?”

Blood began trailing down his chin as he bit his lip in silent fury. His eyes began to get watery, and he furiously rubbed them. “Why are you here, Captain?” he asked again, his voice wavering.

She fell silent, and then her voice turned emotionless. “To see the conclusion of those events. The others had run their course, but you had not. And now I can say my experiment is finally over.”

She turned around and began heading towards the door, but glanced back when she heard him hurriedly scrabbling for the large bloody glass shard and shakily pointing it at her as he slowly stood up, stumbling slightly as he did so.

“Tell me, Captain,” he growled. “Everything was absolutely your doing?!”

She smirked and spread her arms wide in an exaggerated shrug. “Obviously. Why, don’t believe I could’ve done it?” Her smile widened. “I’ve told you before: I’m just too good of an actor.”

Stolen story; please report.

His eyes were wide before he held his head and tilted it back. He laughed hysterically. “No, of course, you could’ve! It even makes sense! Only the genius Admiral Riftmire could do something like this!”

She cocked her head at his reaction but didn’t say anything.

“Ha.” The green-haired man slowly lost his hysterical smile and waved the glass shard again. He looked like he might cry at any second. “If…. If I can’t find any proof that you didn’t do it, and there’s nothing else to explain it…..” He shuddered as a tear rolled down his cheek. “Then I’m going to have to kill you, Captain.”

She held her chin and smiled. “Well, it would make for a rather interesting final outcome. Try it if you wish.” She turned around and sent him a little wave. “Although you’ll need to get out of that ugly state if you want a chance.”

She took a step forward to grasp the door handle, then turned it. Then she paused as she heard him say something else.

“Adrianna… Please, tell me you didn’t do it…” he said, his face bearing the most fearful and hurt expression she had ever seen on him. “Just tell me you didn’t do it, and it doesn’t have to be like this!”

She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. “Fine. I didn’t do it.”

He seemed to slump in relief, but his face went white as a sheet as she said her next words.

“Keep taking comfort in that illusion for as long as you need.”

And with that, she shut the door behind her. While she walked away, she tried very hard not to hear the strangulated and choked sobs coming from the room as the last person she called a friend self-destructed in grief and the loss of betrayal.

………………..

Lucille opened her eyes. She blinked when she was faced with the white roof of her living room, registering where she was, and sighed as she threw an arm over her face, the other hanging limply over the edge of the couch.

She lay there for a long while, feeling drained. After some time, she took a deep breath and exhaled, slightly uncomfortable.

Now which accursed thought strand was responsible for that memory?

She dived into her soul space, rifling through the many soul strands, and checking her memories to see which one had led the feedback responsible for it. When she found it, she had it ruthlessly dissolved, the strand scattering into white particles that sunk into her spiritual sea. She withdrew part of her spiritual energy to replace it, and then set it back to what its purpose had originally been, according to her memories.

She rested both hands on her stomach as she gazed up at the roof.

I thought it would be fine to set up Adrianna with the personality I had at the time, but I can steadily feel my other self becoming more and more uncomfortable. In five days will be the day I make that request to Commander Arkenast, after all, and the prospect of seeing him again….

She sighed, and then sat up, leaning her arms on her knees as she slowly erased the emotional upset from her actual personality matrix so she wouldn’t be impaired for the day. She removed her mask and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

Well, the me in the past wouldn’t have a clue about what to do about the emotions I’m feeling currently. I wanted to avoid this, but it seems I can’t use that personality when dealing with him. Also… I think I’ve had enough of acting around him….

She glanced out the living room window and rolled her eyes when she saw it was still dark. She stretched and got off the couch, then began heading for her room.

There’s clearlyno more rest for me tonight. I guess I’ll just go back to doing work. But first, a shower, and then after that: Coffee.

…

A little while after that, she navigated the quiet and empty halls of the Headquarters’ fortieth-floor hallways to make it to her study with a mug in hand. Due to the existence of protective mana-circle enchantments and Ashale’viaf, there was no need for guards inside, so it would still be around three more hours before the Headquarters staff got up at 6 and filled the floor with more people. She opened the door to her study. Feeling nostalgic, she leaned back in her tilted chair and kicked her feet up on her desk as she began working, drinking from her mug now and then and copying the mental renditions of her plans onto actual paper.

Sometime slightly after 6 a.m., a staff member entered her study and paused when he noticed she was in there. She looked up and gave him a dismissive wave. “Just skip this room for now. If you need to, you can come back later to clean.” He nodded and shut the door.

When it was around 7:15, she sensed Vincent enter the hallway through her perception field. She listened with some amusement as he stared incredulously at the staff member who had entered her study, the man having gestured to her aide in some way.

“She was in there before you got here again?” he asked disbelievingly, receiving a nod. The silver-haired man stared at the door of her study and then sighed. He entered her room.

“How regular is your sleep cycle?” he questioned, frowning slightly as he shut the door behind him.

“Pretty regular, actually,” she replied, not looking up.

“…..how?” he asked sceptically.

“It’s regular because it’s always irregular,” she said, smirking slightly.

He crossed his arms. “Lucy, how much sleep do you even get?”

She raised her eyes and shrugged. “Enough.”

He gazed at her and sighed. “Look, I know what your working speed is normally. And apart from making me feel self-conscious about my own handwriting neatness and speed…” he said, slightly disgruntled, “I can also gauge how long you’ve been up.” He pointed at her desk. “That’s about four hours’ worth.”

“Four hours of work you don’t have to do,” she replied, raising an eyebrow as she spun her pen.

“Lucy, you’ve been up since three,” Vincent responded, walking closer to lean against an armchair.

“Do I look like I’m tired?” she asked, continuing to work with her feet up on the desk.

“Urgh.” He pinched his nose bridge. “No, but that’s not my point. Do I really need to spell out what I’m saying?”

She put down her pen and crossed her arms. “I don’t know what you want me to do. Should I just knock myself out? That’s not a substitute for sleep. It would make me more tired than if I was to keep doing what I am.”

He stared at her as he realised what she meant. “You can do that?”

“Sure. With the ease of flipping a switch,” she replied, rubbing her neck as she twisted it to relax her stiff muscles.

“That’s…. well, whatever,” he said, looking bemused. “If you have insomnia, couldn’t you just take a sedative?”

“Why?” she asked, tilting her head. “I’ve been doing the same thing for nearly six months now, and I’m still fine.”

“….what?” He stared at her, stunned. “Are we still talking about sleep right now?”

“Mmhmm,” she said, smiling a little. “With my spiritual energy, it’s arguable that even if I reach Rank-3, I won’t be able to gain a better understanding of my body than I do now. I’m perfectly aware of my condition at all times.”

She took her feet off the desk and leaned forward, propping her chin up on the dark table. “Please don’t think that just because I’m in a younger body I’m the type of person to push myself beyond my limits, unaware of the damage I’m causing. I’m not.”

He gazed silently at her with an odd look on his face. She cocked an eyebrow. “Did you really think that about me?”

He avoided eye contact and awkwardly coughed into his fist. She gazed at him and then sighed. “Soul instability doesn’t work the way you think it does. My body isn’t hurt in any way by having a soul of my size within it. It’s only when I have to use it too much do I get hurt, but it’s not continuous. I’m not on a time limit here.”

He frowned slightly, looking at the ground. “I…. believed you were, actually. With how you described what would happen if you used your soul power again, I thought things could only get progressively worse for you.” He looked up at her. “Not that I thought you would die. But all this,” he said, gesturing vaguely at her pile of work, “Definitely made me think you were pushing yourself too much.”

“If I was pushing myself, you’d know it,” she replied, pushing back her chair, and standing up.

“Still, I’ve had this thought for a while now,” he said, tilting his head slightly as he watched her. “What is causing your soul instability? You just said your body is fine, which makes me think it’s not just the fact you’re in a new body that’s causing this.”

Lucille glanced at him as she moved the forms on her desk to another table, and was silent long enough that he didn’t think she would answer. But she did, after sighing. “Soul shock.”

He frowned. “Soul…. shock? And that’s supposed to be…..”

“Just like how anyone could go into shock. And I’ve been putting it off for too long, and now have to deal with the consequences,” she said, rubbing her head. “I suppose the fact that Scytale’s asleep also means I’ve been left alone with my thoughts for a while now, and it’s not doing my mental state any favours.”

He gazed at her with a conflicted expression. “I’m…. not quite sure how bad what you’re describing is, or how it affects you, but… are you going to be okay?”

She gave him a dismissive wave. “Nothing a bit of time can’t fix. I’ve been through this before.” She shrugged. “This is the main reason I don’t want to rank up for another few months yet either. I’d prefer to be at my best state before I do the stages.”

And I need to work out how to fix my Origin Skill.

He glanced at her to make sure she was being honest and then sighed. “Just, don’t treat yourself badly, alright? If you could sleep for longer, do it.”

She eyed him and then rolled her eyes. “Being in a bad condition is detrimental to my ability to work, so there’s no reason why I would want to unduly strain my body in the first place.”

He looked at her with exasperation. “That’s probably the best I’m going to get from you, isn’t it,” he said wearily.

She smirked but gestured to him. “But what about you? You’re always here before eight. I know I haven’t explicitly set a time for you to work on the contract, but still. I’m not trying to make you work all day.”

He put on his glasses, which had been hanging around his neck, and sat down in the armchair to start working. “I’m naturally an early riser. Although, not get up at 3 a.m. in the morning early riser.”

“Ah, so that’s why you react badly when you have to work late,” she remarked wryly, heading back to her desk. “And here I thought you were just being grumpy because I made you do something you didn’t want to do.”

He shot her a flat look. “There’s a fair bit of that as well,” he said in a dry voice. “But usually, I don’t like to be kept at Headquarters until after 10. Again, I’m not sure how you do it. I’ve heard you don’t go to your quarters until around 11.”

Vincent didn’t stay at the Headquarters. He lived in one of his family’s estates in Gilded Seat and usually used a carriage to get to Headquarters. Generally, only the staff and the occasional lower nobility stayed there besides Lucy, Scytale and Sedric, and the lower nobility left soon enough once they had completed their business.

She shrugged and grinned. “But you’re Rank-2.”

“Regardless of my rank and how early I rise, I still want my sleep. Anyway, the final event is today, so we need to go over what you’ll be doing afterwards. In particular, the plans for the competition.” He adjusted his glasses and pulled a piece of paper towards him on the table. “The venue on the north side of the city is in the process of being prepared, so now we need to go over the rules. By the way,” he said, looking up. “Do you know who’ll come as Ravimoux’s representative?”

“Viscountess Femidela,” Lucy replied, picking up a fountain pen and dipping it in an inkwell. “Although I believe, as the Count’s poison master, that she’s here for another reason too.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Making sure no Olden or Radical spies get through, and ensuring that some… ongoing business is completed,” she responded, thinking back to the conversation she overheard.

“…..I’ll not ask what this business is,” he said with a complicated expression, likely beginning to understand what she meant. “Then, we have me, Rosaline, Viscountess Femidela, and who from Alichanteu? I can’t imagine Artair or Arwen allowing the other to come as the representative.”

She smirked. “I may or may not have stated that as the oldest son, Artair should go, but Arwen gets to select someone to go with him. I have to keep things fair, but I’m more than happy to make my point clear on my thoughts about his attitude towards me.”

He sighed. “Right. I still can’t believe him. That’s how you should treat someone of similar status and age, or lower. Not the Aurelian Commission Head, who’s soon to be an Honorary Count of the Aeternus plane, and is far older than him as well. Goodness,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, moving on then. It’s time we get working.”

They continued to work for a few more hours, going over their decisions for the three rounds of the competition, and how they would be judging them. To ensure her position as ‘puppet leader’ was still ongoing, the four representatives of the Counties would be publicly known as the ones with the ability to judge the competition. In truth, she would have the final say and would direct them with her spiritual transmission.

When there was a lapse in conversation, she put aside her work and intertwined her fingers on her desk as she looked at Vincent.

“On the day after the competition end date, I’ll have to go somewhere,” she said.

The scratch of a pen and paper paused as he slowed his writing, and he was still for a while, but then he held up a hand to tell her to wait as he finished what he was doing so he could focus on the conversation. When he was finally done, he pushed the papers on his desk away and crossed his arms as he gazed at her with a pensive look.

“Can I ask where?” he replied.

She nodded. “It’s in the Capital City on the Aeternus plane. I plan on taking Scytale. Although, you can’t come.”

He frowned slightly as he pushed up his glasses. “Why not?”

“Because it’s physically impossible,” she said with amusement. “It’s a Temporary Event with strict requirements.”

He held his chin as he looked at her with a dubious expression. “I don’t remember ever hearing about a Temporary Event being at the Capital before.”

She smirked. “Of course not. That’s because it’s never happened before. This time is a first.”

He stared at her silently, seemingly unsure about what to say or do. After a while, he rubbed his head and furrowed his brows. “….why, may I ask?”

She counted on her fingers. “Do you mean why is it happening, why do I need to go, or why I know it exists?”

Vincent groaned. “All three, if possible.”

“Well, it’s not dangerous or super important, just so you know,” she explained, leaning her chin on her hand. “I need to go because it’s a quest. That’s how I know about it too, and how Scytale can go, being my bond. As for why it’s happening… it’s an Event for all the people from my home world.”

Her answer caught him off guard, and he stared at her, stunned. “Huh,” he said after a while.

Lucy gave him a wry smile. “Yes, just to remind you, I do come from an outer region. I’ve already told you that I’m one of a thousand people who got teleported into the Tutorial, you know.”

“I can’t say that fact is ever normally at the front of my mind when talking to you,” he said, looking at her oddly. “You know a lot about the Supreme Institutions and how the Empire works in general, so it’s obvious an outer region isn’t where you’ve spent most of your life.” He paused as he had a thought. “You don’t want to contact anyone?”

“Just because they come from my home world, doesn’t mean I know any of them,” she replied, raising an eyebrow. “That’s a thousand people out of a world with 8 billion individuals. Who cares who they are.” She shrugged. “Also, they’re probably all hiding their identities. New environment, new culture, incredibly large worlds, they would be scared stiff.”

“8 billion?” he repeated, surprised. “I thought you said your world was about the size of a Great plane. They only have around 4 billion on average.”

She blinked and then realised why he was surprised.

Right. The population density of Earth is incredibly high for those of the Mystical realm. I mean, it went from less than 2 billion to over 8 billion from the beginning of the 1900s to 2023, so I get it.

“Many technological improvements and other events in the past mean my world has a lot of people,” she said, smiling. “I could explain it all, but we’re getting off-topic. And besides,” she continued, leaning back in her chair. “Even if you wanted to go, you can’t. It won’t be assimilated for almost another 5 years yet.”

“5 years…” he mused, rubbing his chin. He glanced at her. “Does that coincide with the Millennium Chapter?”

“Somewhat,” she replied, picking up a pen. “I have a counter on my Status that tells me when, but we know the actual duration of the Millennium Chapter isn’t determined until the second System Announcement of the Millennium Chapter, so it’s probably before.”

Although, that’s only a one-way entrance for Earth’s residents to come to the Tower. For everyone else, they’ll have to wait a bit. Unless I take people to that place…hm. Now that’s an idea. I’ll have to think about this later.

He nodded, and she pointed her pen at him. “Anyway, the Event won’t take up any time, as it’s a System Event. It will be under a time freeze. However, while I’m at the Capital, I want to take the chance to access the Athenaeum’s Archive for something.”

“Is this ‘something’ something you don’t want me to know about?” he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Yes. No. Maybe,” she said with a smirk. “I’m not sure how relevant it is at the moment, or whether it will have any long-term impact. Ask me again once I’ve checked out what it is that I want to.”

He looked at her and then rolled his eyes. “Fine then. I’ll make sure to do that. Although you’ve been remarkably forthcoming with information today, I have to say.” He held his chin in mock thought and then smiled. “What’s a Paragon Anomaly?”

She sent him a flat look. “Don’t test your luck.”

He shrugged with a slight grin. “Worth a try.”

She shook her head but went back to doing work. Until Vincent asked something else.

“Lucy, you said your world has a value equivalent to a Great plane, right?” he questioned.

She tilted her head curiously. “Yes, I did?”

“And that there’s a population of 8 billion on it. You also mentioned your grandfather and great uncle own 4% of every country’s stock market in your world, and that there was no such thing as nobility there.” He raised an eyebrow. “What was your status?”

She paused, and then her face split into a wide grin. “Not telling.”

He stared at her, and then groaned, resting his head against the back of the chair as he chuckled. “I should’ve expected that.”

They didn’t talk too much after that, and they continued to work until it was time for the last ball of her debut.