Two figures were in a long corridor, decorated by paintings and expensive ornaments. Nobody else was around, the two individuals were in the middle of a private conversation. One was a girl with long black hair, wearing a violet suit, while the other was a man with platinum-blonde hair, dressed in a light grey suit.

“Keep in contact. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me for it.” The dark-haired girl with a half-mask smirked and held up her pocket watch. “This exists for a reason, you know.”

Efratel Vadel chuckled and nodded. “I’ll make sure to send you letters regularly. I’m not sure how willing I could be to use the privilege of the Aurelian Commission Head’s vault access very often, but if there’s anything important, I’ll ask for your support.” He bowed his head. “Again, thank you for everything, Lady Goldcroft.”

Lucille gave him a dismissive wave. “Just call me Lucy. I don’t need the formalities, and it doesn’t fit with my image to have someone I know from before I became the Head of the Faction call me by my last name,” she said with a sly smile.

He blinked, and then his expression became hesitant. “Right. Your… image,” he replied slowly.

She observed his reaction and then realised what the issue was. “You’re worried I don’t have the power to protect you and your cousin?” He looked a bit awkward when she said that, so she smiled. “That’s not an issue. The act I put on for the debut was my idea, after all. And even if the Counties stopped working with me for some reason…” She held up her pocket watch again and grinned. “I have enough money to push my agenda regardless.”

He stared at her and then shook his head wryly. “Of course. I keep forgetting. That’s probably a bad thing to forget.” He checked his wristwatch. “Well, I suppose I better head off now,” he said. Then he glanced at her, looking curious. “But I still can’t work out how you knew I was a manager of the Commission back then. It’s been revealed you came from an outer region, somewhere that shouldn’t know of the Commission, and then there was the thing with the Millennium Chapter Announcement…” He laughed. “Marellen still thinks you might be a time traveller.”

She put her hands on her hips and smirked. “He’ll have to see for himself when he meets me again. Maybe I’ll invite you guys sometime next year.”

Efratel smiled. “Then I’ll look forward to it. I’ll try to keep Marellen out of trouble until-”

“Efratel! Where could he possibly be? He said he’d be-” The source of the voice rounded a corner and spotted Efratel. “Oh, there you a…re….”

Hector Vadel stopped on the spot to stare at the blonde-haired man and Lucy, frozen stiff as he registered the situation. Turning the corner and following the Baron, Silas Vadel appeared and blinked as he saw who Efratel was talking to. Then the navy-haired battlemage turned his eyes away to avoid eye contact with Lucy, looking rather shifty. The Baron just glanced back and forth between Efratel and Lucy with wide eyes, very confused about why his son was talking to the new puppet Head of the Commission, someone very high up in the Faction hierarchy.

Lucille saw their reactions and grinned at Efratel. “I think there’s a discussion you need to have here.”

He coughed awkwardly into his fist. “Er, yeah, just maybe. Then, I’ll suppose I’ll take my leave.” He dipped his head. “Farewell, Commis-” He stopped and rephrased his words when he saw her raise an eyebrow. “Uh… Lucy…” he finished with a glance at his father’s reaction.

The Baron paled and then turned to look at the battlemage next to him, silently pleading for an answer. Silas Vadel just shrugged, looking rather sheepish.

Lucille smirked and waved goodbye. “Bye then, Efratel.” She turned around and walked away, but was listening to them through her perception field.

Hector Vadel marched up to his son once she was ‘out of hearing’ distance. “Efratel!” he hissed. “What in the realms were you doing!? Why were you talking to the Faction Head?!”

Efratel sighed with a wry smile on his lips as he walked next to his uncle and father towards the exit of the corridor. “About that, father… there’s something I’ve been struggling with how to explain to you…. You see, it turns out I’ve met the Faction Head before….”

Lucy shook her head as the sounds of the blonde-haired man trying to explain the events of the inn a few months ago slowly quietened and died out as they left her perception field. It was better that it happened this way though, because then the Baron would at least know his son was telling the truth instead of being sceptical of her transferal document. She stretched her arms above her head as she made for the nearest lift.

There were two people she needed to meet today.

…

“Huh. So this is what the Founder’s floor looks like,” a man with a blonde ponytail announced, hands on his hips. He was quickly shoved aside by a man with red-tipped straight silver hair, as he was blocking the entryway. Except the shorter man wasn’t quite able to get him to move completely.

“Move you idiot. And why are you saying something so ridiculous? This place looks exactly the same as the floors below,” Caius Evisenhardt grumbled, trying to squeeze past the taller man.

Jacques Rouzet got out of the way, and Caius stumbled as he was finally free to move. He glared at the man before huffing and straightening up. He looked around. “This was where Vincent asked us to meet, right? The living room with four couches in the section opposite the Faction Head’s quarters?”

“Well if it’s not, who cares,” Jacques replied, casually sitting down on a couch. “Nobody can make me walk through any more hallways. This place is way too big.”

Caius clicked his tongue. “And this place isn’t yours. Don’t act so freely here,” he complained but likewise sat down.

“Meh. If the Faction Head hates it, then she can just fire me. It’s not like I ever wanted to work in the first place,” the man with a ponytail announced.

Caius glowered at Jacques. “Seriously, how did you get top marks with this attitude?” Then he considered it, a strange look on his face. “No, seriously, how did you? You said you barely earned a pass on all your subjects because of the exams, so how did you get top marks?”

“The final project was fun, so I did well,” Jacques told him. “And you know the Senior Academy only cares about the final project so they can copy the student’s ideas for their use. If letting them steal the credit let me leave that prison, I’d do it as many times as it takes.”

Caius rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever. Just don’t make things too difficult for Vincent.” He looked around the room. “Speaking of Vincent, where is-”

“I’m here. I see you’re both here as well,” the silver-haired man said, sticking his head around the doorway. Vincent walked in and sat down next to Caius on his couch.

“Ah, so this was the right room?” Caius asked, to Vincent’s nod. “I was worried Jacques here had already messed things up by acting like he owns the place.”

“Even if it was the wrong place, it wouldn’t matter,” Vincent replied, taking off his glasses and sighing. “She’d still be able to find us.”

“How?” Jacques asked sceptically. “This place is massive.”

Vincent glanced at him and then shook his head. “That’s a question you’ll have to ask her, I’m afraid.”

Jacques narrowed his eyes while Caius looked curious. “And when is she coming?”

“When she comes,” Vincent said with a shrug. “She won’t be long, but it might take a few minutes.”

“Oh yeah! The Faction Head!” Jacques suddenly exclaimed, leaning forward. Vincent and Caius gazed dubiously at him as he asked his question. “Why is an 18-year-old girl the Faction Head of the Aurelian Commission? I mean, the four founding Counties of the Commission listening to a girl only two years out of the Tutorial? It’s ridiculous.”

“3 and a half months, actually,” Vincent replied calmly. “She was teleported into the Tutorial at 18.”

“That makes it even worse though!” Jacques responded, looking at Vincent with a strange expression.

Vincent just spread his hands. “Ask her then. She might explain it if she feels like it. But I’m not telling you anything unless she says I can.”

Jacques scowled. “How quickly your loyalties switch from your friends of many years to some new lord of yours with a pretty face. Have you gotten her signature yet?”

Caius and Vincent stared at him with flat expressions for a long while. Eventually, Vincent spoke up. “I’m beginning to regret this,” he stated dryly.

Caius paused to contemplate the question. “If you’ve signed the contract to become her aide… then technically, you did get her signature.”

Vincent looked at the man next to him with mild exasperation as Jacques laughed and crossed his arms.

“See? I told you so,” he proclaimed smugly. The other two shook their heads, and then Caius turned to Vincent.

“Anyway, I want to ask something else,” Caius said to Vincent. “What kind of person is the Faction Head? She’s obviously not really like how she acted at the balls this week.”

Vincent blinked and then leaned back on the couch with his arms crossed, a complicated look on his face. “Hm. That… is a difficult question,” he replied after a moment. “I’m not sure how to answer that.” He held his chin. “Maybe it would be better if I explained my first experiences with her.”

He crossed one leg over the other, Jacques and Caius watching him with interest as he began to speak. “The first time we met, she immediately identified me as Vincent Evisenhardt, and ordered me to help her sort the Founder’s vault documents.”

They became confused. “…but even if you have silver hair, that doesn’t make you a direct member of the main bloodline,” Caius pointed out.

“Well, I’m pretty sure I know how she knew who I was,” Vincent responded. Then his expression went flat. “But she made me work through those documents with her for a full three days when I was originally only supposed to stay at Headquarters for a day to take a break, and in the end, I had to speak up to initiate the conversation so I could stop working.”

Caius and Jacques stared at him. Then Jacques broke out into laughter. “But isn’t that your fault for trying to beat her at her own game? If you had just spoken up before then, then you wouldn’t have needed to do all that extra work!”

He just sighed. “I was expecting her to give me different orders, trying to see how willing I would be to listen. Not just help her with work for twelve hours of the day. She didn’t even look at me as she passed me more forms to sort.” He shook his head ruefully and then continued, “Anyway, after that, she took me to the Pavilion’s gardens to go find her snake bond.”

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“Snake… bond?” Caius asked curiously, Jacques likewise looking interested.

Vincent blinked and then nodded. “Ah yes, that hasn’t become common knowledge yet. The Faction Head has a bond of equals with a winged snake hybrid named Scytale. I think he said he was called an ‘amphiptere’,” he added. He smiled slightly as he considered his interactions with the serpent. “Scytale is… also an interesting character.”

Then he chuckled. “But you can ignore him for the most part. He usually goes about the place, complaining about the Faction Head to whoever will listen, uses weird references and words nobody understands, and just talks too much in general, mostly empty bragging about himself.”

“How come nobody’s seen him then?” Jacques spoke up. “He doesn’t sound like the shy type.”

Vincent vaguely gestured in the direction of Lucy's room. “He’s in hibernation. He ate a strong natural treasure so he could become an advanced beast, so apparently he’ll be asleep for the next two weeks. I think Lucille said if things go well he’ll gain a human form in January.”

“Lucille?” Caius said, looking surprised. “You call her by her first name?”

Vincent nodded. “She doesn’t like formalities too much. She’ll probably ask you to call her Lucille or Lucy too.” He shot Jacques a smirk. “That’s why I’m not too worried about Jacques here. She’d be fine with him, even if his incredibly loud mouth started to run wild again.” Then he thought for a moment with a strange expression. “Although, he’ll likely be hit by a pen sometime in the future.”

“Why a pen?” Jacques asked confusedly.

“The Faction Head has a habit of throwing small objects at people when she thinks they have made a dumb statement,” Vincent stated flatly. “Normally that’s a pen because that’s what she has closest to her most of the time, but it can be anything from cutlery to a ball of crushed paper if it’s close enough.”

“… huh,” was all Jacques replied.

Caius gave Vincent a strange look. “And how many times has this happened to you that you can pinpoint this as a habit?”

“Er….” Vincent coughed into his fist. “Maybe it’s happened once or twice…”

Jacques smirked, while Caius just shook his head. “Right. Well, what else is she like?”

“Hmm.” Vincent contemplated it a bit. “She has a terrible sleep schedule. If she says you can go back, just accept the offer. It’s not worth trying to be nice by staying until she’s done her work.”

“You don’t have to worry about that!” Jacques replied with a smug grin. “I’ll be taking any chance to ditch work and leave as fast as I can.”

Vincent and Caius shot him mildly exasperated looks and then ignored him. Vincent held his chin as he considered something else. He frowned slightly. “And… she doesn’t smile much.”

Caius and Jacques blinked. “Really? I understand she was acting at the ball, but that seems a rather big contrast in personality if that’s the case,” Jacques said.

Vincent sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not that she doesn’t smile. She smiles quite a bit when talking to someone, and she’s not stern or harsh. But if she’s not talking to anyone, or if she’s alone, she goes completely expressionless.”

The two other men traded glances as they looked at Vincent, perplexed. “I’m pretty sure most people are naturally expressionless when alone though,” Caius commented. “Normally I don’t find myself smiling when nobody has said anything.”

“No, but-” Vincent hesitated and then sighed again. He rubbed his face as he struggled with how to explain it. “Sure, that’s normal for most people. But most people’s faces also show something now and then. It’s like she’s not even thinking anything when she does that.” He frowned at the ground as he crossed his arms. “It’s a little unnerving,” he muttered.

Caius and Jacques just looked at him, appearing unsure of what to make of his statement. Then Jacques shook his head. “You said she’s not stern or harsh, so then what is her personality actually like? I’m getting conflicting ideas here.”

“She’s sarcastic, whimsical, and loves to mess with people,” Vincent replied dryly. “You think you’ve got her figured out and the next day she does something just to prove that notion wrong. She’s stubborn and bull-headed, and nobody can ever stop her from doing what she wants. Her entertainment is most often obtained when she successfully annoys someone else. Usually me.”

He leaned forward with exasperation. “She ordered her entire wardrobe in bright violet, and I’m pretty sure it was just to see my reaction. It’s ridiculous.”

“Wait, her entire wardrobe is that colour?” Jacques asked incredulously. “She really wears clothes like that all the time?”

“Yes!” Vincent complained, throwing his hands in the air. “Then she uses the excuse that she’s the ‘puppet head’ to wear them, saying she can wear whatever she wants. And she does. She also drinks this horridly bitter mundane drink from her home world called ‘coffee’. I tried it once.” He shuddered. “Never again, that’s a certainty.”

“Well, I’m sure with your tastes, you’d hate something like that,” Caius remarked with a smile.

Vincent stiffened as his expression became slightly awkward, and then he rubbed his nose. “Please don’t ever tell her about that,” he muttered.

“So… she was responsible for all those plans you announced on the first day?” Caius asked, raising an eyebrow.

Vincent nodded. “All of them. She says the ideas were taken from how her home world operates, but she’s clearly gone to the effort of adapting all of them to the Commission while ensuring the balance of power is maintained, so don’t believe she’s not capable. And just so you know, she also came up with the idea to act as a puppet head.”

Then he paused as he had a thought, and became serious as he looked at Caius and Jacques. “I have something important to say. If you ever see her trying to leave Headquarters without anyone else, you must find me as soon as you can, because it’s likely I will have no idea that she’s even trying to leave. Try to see if you can stall her, or find out where she’s going at the very least. I do not want a repetition of last month, but I have a very strong hunch she’s going to do it again.”

“Last month?” Jacques asked curiously.

Vincent just groaned and buried his face in his hands. “It was the worst. One morning she decided to completely run away without telling anyone and only came back several hours later, and the entire time not one of the staff members managed to catch sight of her doing so. And her bond was an accomplice too!” he said, looking up. “The number of times I had to run around to random locations that blighted snake had directed me to… only to find out that the very window I found him beneath in the morning was the one she escaped out of! I didn’t think she’d actually do that!”

He rested his head against the back of the couch as he shook his hands at the roof. “Why a window, for goodness sake?! Couldn’t she have just taken the front door if she could remain unseen by everyone? And it was even on the fortieth floor! Then I’ve managed to find her lying down in strange places that count among the least of them beneath a table, under a stairwell, in a bush, behind curtains, and even on the roof of a balcony!”

Caius and Jacques exchanged looks at his outburst. “You seem like you have some frustrations,” Caius said.

“Many, many of them,” Vincent replied flatly. “For instance, she got someone to craft her a magic staff in the shape of a cane. She doesn’t even need a cane. In fact, she doesn’t even need a magic staff either, as I’ve seen her easily cast spells without one before. I have no clue why she carries it around with her.” He rubbed his head. “And then there’s her weird sense of style….”

“You mean the men’s clothing? It suits her, and it’s not that strange to see in the Emp-” Jacques’s words were cut off as Vincent jabbed a finger at him.

“And it’s comments like that which will motivate her to continue! Seriously, do not say things like that around her, please,” Vincent said with exasperation. “But no, I’m talking about beforehand as well. All her clothing was pitch black, from the neck down. Maybe occasionally she’d switch to a different shirt of some varying shade between dark grey to vaguely brighter than black, but she still constantly wore this weird high-necked black coat that went to her ankles. That, or another shorter black overcoat.”

“To match the mask maybe?” Jacques wondered.

“But according to her serpent, that was all she wore before her mask,” Vincent muttered. “Does she mess with people to hide a bland personality, I wonder?”

Then he scowled before Caius or Jacques could respond. “And if it’s messing with people, I cannot believe what she did on that first day. I had explicitly said that she should not slide down the handrail of that staircase, and what did she do? She slid down it! What was even the point of her asking me whether she should do it in the first place!?” he exclaimed angrily.

“If you have this many complaints about her, then why haven’t you gone and spoken to her about this yet?” Jacques asked.

“Yes, I’ve been wondering how you were going to explain that, Vincent.”

There was silence as all three men stiffened. Lucy watched with amusement as they slowly turned to see her behind them, casually leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. Vincent scowled as she walked over and sat down on a couch opposite them.

She blinked and held up her hands as she saw their gazes.

“Oh, don’t mind me, I am perfectly happy to sit here and listen to my aide reveal all the annoyances he has about me to the two people who have to meet me for the first time today. Please continue with your conversation.”

The silence continued as Caius and Jacques awkwardly glanced between her and Vincent, who was glaring at her. Then her aide sighed and buried his face in his hands. “How long have you been there?”

“About five minutes,” she replied, propping her chin up against the armrest of the couch.

He removed his hands to look at her. “Which means you were fully capable of hearing our conversation since the very beginning,” he said sourly, looking very unhappy.

The other two men shot him confused looks, clearly wondering why she would be capable of hearing them when she wasn’t even in the room before then, but she ignored them and just smirked. “Maybe?”

He groaned and rubbed his face. “Couldn’t you have told us you were there earlier? Why did you have to wait until now?”

“But it was very interesting to listen to,” she said, crossing her legs. “Also, I’m glad to know my choice of attire suits me. Because I didn’t plan on ever changing it in the first place.”

It took a second for Jacques to realise she was talking to him, before the ponytailed man slowly grinned, and then started laughing. “Vincent, I think you just got caught by your boss. And after what you said about me not running my mouth…”

Vincent’s glare switched from her to Jacques as even Caius smirked at his situation. She smiled slightly as her aide eventually sighed and looked up at the roof, ignoring them all. She gestured to Caius and Jacques.

“Anyway, I’m Lucille Goldcroft, as I’m sure you no doubt know by now. But yes, call me Lucille or Lucy, because if I have to hear one more ‘Faction Head’, ‘Miss’ or ‘Lady Goldcroft’ this week, I just might curse someone,” she said, her expression going flat. “You don’t want that to be you.”

Caius and Jacques began staring at her with strange looks on their faces, likely feeling a sense of incongruity when comparing her behaviour of the current to how she acted during the week. They slowly nodded.

Vincent stopped staring at the ceiling in silent frustration to eye her dubiously. “Do you even know any curses?”

“I don’t make empty threats.”

He returned to glaring at her. “You shouldn’t even be threatening my friends. It was because of your orders that they’re here in the first place.”

She pointed at Caius and Jacques, who were watching their interaction, bemused about why they were the topic of the conversation. “Do they look like they’re the ones who are annoyed at my statement?” She paused as she considered something. “Is threatening your friends something else you plan to add to your list of frustrations about me?”

His face darkened. “Don’t bring that up,” he hissed.

She ignored him to tug on the sleeve of one of her gloves. “You need to stop being so angry. After all, you weren’t the one who had to listen to their aide freely complain about them to the people who are now going to be in frequent contact with them for at least the next year if not longer.” She looked up and shrugged. “By the way, I’m telling Scytale when he wakes up that you think you can ignore him. I’m sure he’ll quieten down after that.”

Vincent’s expression twitched as he crossed his arms to stare at her in silent irritation, but Jacques looked between them in astonishment.

“Wait, so you really were able to hear our conversation from the very start?” he asked, stunned. “How?”

Lucy and Vincent stopped having a silent stare-off to direct their gazes to Jacques instead. He slowly leaned back. “Uh, why are you looking at me like that?”

Vincent gave her a side-eye. “Are you going to tell them?”

Lucy held her chin as she contemplated it. “I wonder how long it would take for them to realise if I just left them to work it out themselves.”

“If you do that, I will be telling them, regardless of whether they believe me or not,” he stated flatly, not interested in letting her play her games.

She clicked her tongue. “You’re no fun when you’re grumpy.”

He scowled. “Hey, I am not-”

“I don’t particularly mind if you choose to keep Jacques in the dark,” Caius interjected, making Jacques glare at him. “But if this is something I need to know for my job, I would prefer to know….whatever this is that you’re talking about.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes at Lucille, making her sigh. “Yes, yes, okay, I’ll show them. I wasn’t actually planning on not telling them.”

She raised her hand to point at them. “This is going to feel rather strange.”

They all stared at her as the air suddenly rippled outward from her and she released her soul pressure, the light distorting within the room as they felt the immense presence of her soul descend on them. All three of them quickly went pale, and she withdrew her spiritual energy, not wanting to use it on them for long, nor risk destabilising her soul further. They were silent.

Then Vincent glared at her. “Did you have to use it on me too?”

She glanced at him with exasperation. “My soul pressure expands outwards in a circle. I can’t not include you if I wanted to reach them over there,” she said, gesturing to the two men. “This isn’t like the time with Silas Vadel.”

“Soul… pressure?” Caius muttered. He looked up from where he had been gazing at the ground. “So you have spiritual sense? Is that how you heard us?”

She sighed. “It’s not spiritual sense, but it’s close enough.” She blinked when Jacques, who had been staring at her, raised his hand to point at her.

“You’re not 18,” he stated.

Vincent looked surprised, while Caius just gazed at him in confusion. Lucy clapped her hands. “Thank you! Finally, someone I haven’t needed to explain it to myself.”

“Jacques, you know how soul presence works?” Vincent asked, Caius becoming even more confused.

Jacques furrowed his brows with a grimace. “Yep. A special instructor from the Heavenly Realm taught all the students at one point. He demonstrated his soul pressure to us as he was describing spiritual energy in these uselessly fanciful, obscure terms that made no sense and contained the ‘Heavenly Dao’ in every sentence, which I never got a straight answer on what that actually was.”

“Ah, the Heavenly Dao refers to the System. When the realm was assimilated, it took over the operations of the Heavenly Realm,” Lucy explained.

His eyes widened. “Woah, everything makes a hell of a lot more sense now.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Caius interrupted, holding up a hand. He gestured to her. “You mean to say she’s older than she looks?” He hesitated. “Have you changed your appearance? Wait, no, that can’t be it. You’re Rank-0, not Rank-3, and you’re human, right?” he asked.

She nodded, making him frown. “Then… how…”

“I’m pretty sure she’s physically 18. At least I think,” Jacques replied, shooting Vincent and Lucy a glance. They both nodded, so he continued. “But her soul is older. Quite a bit older,” he said with a strange expression. “Like, much, much, much, much-”

Vincent facepalmed as Lucy’s expression gradually grew flatter, Jacques going on and on without reading the room. Caius winced as the man continued to dig his grave. She pointed a finger at him.

“-much, much, much, much- Ack!” He choked as the mana orb shot him in the throat, and he doubled over, coughing. Vincent sighed, having expected that outcome.

“For your information,” Lucille began dryly, “I don’t care about my age. But as you have so kindly pointed out, my soul age is 249 years, leaving me without much patience for idiots.”

She rolled her eyes as the man shot her a sheepish grin, clearly not having taken her message very seriously. Caius looked between them both and then spoke up, “So the Counties are aware of this?”

“The main family members at the very least,” Vincent replied, nodding. “But the direct vassals are mostly still unaware, only knowing Lucy was the origin of the plans. Except for Count Ravimoux’s vassals, but they’re a different situation.”

“How come they haven’t killed you yet?” Jacques casually asked Lucy, already forgetting his most recent lesson about subtlety and its correlation to magic bullets.

She gave him a flat stare as she slowly held up her pocket watch. “Because this can ruin their foundations with the click of a button.”

“… ah.”

“The Counts are sure to bring this up eventually,” Vincent remarked, frowning slightly as he looked at the object.

She glanced at him and nodded. “Of course. But it would likely be when I visit the Counties personally in the future. They’ll likely want to avoid discussing the contents of their inheritances near the other County members, regardless of the lack of desire to sabotage each other. It’s just good political sense.”

“So you do plan on visiting them? When would that be?” he asked.

She thought about it and sighed. “It would have to be some time after the next debut, and will probably be one of the first things I do after that. We first have this competition, and then the end-of-year annual banquet, and the next year we have to begin the preparations for the external debut.” She frowned and looked down at the ground. “And then somehow I’m supposed to find time during that for me and Scytale to level up and learn skills. Oh, and I also need to level up my two swords, because they’re sentient weapons,” she complained.

“Weapons? Weren’t you a mage?” Jacques asked, confused.

Lucy’s expression twitched as Vincent smirked. She rubbed her face and then pulled back her jacket so they could see one of the two sheaths at her waist. “I have two soulbound transforming swords. Their dormant state is as daggers.” She paused and looked down at Ouroboros, whose snake ornament had begun wriggling as the weapon registered she was being talked about through their soulbond.

“Also…” She pulled the white blade out and let go, the dagger hovering in mid-air. She then did the same with Apophis, and then they all watched as the two weapons began slowly roaming around the four of them in a wide circle.

Vincent gave her an odd look. “Why are you using your telekinesis on them?”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not,” she stated shortly.