“And we are back!” Scytale exclaimed, jumping off of Lucille’s shoulders to glide to the floor.

They had just stepped into Headquarters, having returned from the Forerunner’s Event. They had entered through a side entrance, as the Faction Head disappearing without guards would draw too much attention if discovered, especially with Vincent having ordered all the staff to report to him if they see signs of Lucy leaving. Which irritated her to no end. She wasn’t some irresponsible teenager who was sneaking out without her parent’s permission to do questionable things.

…although Vincent might think otherwise if he heard she went to visit the Demon Emperor, whom no human had seen and come back alive during the last 300,000 years, all to form a contract with him, which would normally mean she’d become one of the most dangerous Users alive due to the ‘immense power’ she obtained through the contract. Which was the exact reason why she was not telling him what she did.

She went through the building, the staff giving her slight bows as she went. One of them ran off, presumably to tell Vincent she was back. She and Scytale took the lift and he went to her living room, while she went to her bedroom to get changed back into her usual clothes. Then she went back to the living room, slung her jacket over the back of a couch, and sat down. A few minutes later, Vincent opened her door. He stopped to stare at her for a couple of seconds, before shifting his glasses and sitting down opposite her.

“When the staff told me you had returned, I almost didn’t believe them,” he eventually said.

She gave him a flat look. “I’m a perfectly capable adult. Even if I didn’t turn up, I’d be fine.”

He narrowed his silver eyes. “Then wouldn’t a perfectly capable adult tell me what they were doing in the last week of September?’

“No, because it’s none of your business,” she retorted.

He sighed. “Lucy, of course, it’s my business. As soon as you became the Faction Head, your business became the entire Faction’s business.” He gestured to her. “You’re currently the controller of the entire Faction’s System operations. Like it or not, you’re the most important individual of the Commission.”

“You can just use Scytale as a replacement if I die,” she replied with a shrug.

Scytale, who had been trying to drag a large bowl of magical fruit from the kitchen into the living room, froze. “Uh… excuse me? I think I just heard you mention me in a context that sounds suspiciously similar to something like ‘work’, and that topic and me aren’t really on the best of terms…”

Vincent, with a strange expression on his face, gazed at Scytale and then turned back to Lucy. “Somehow, I don’t think that’ll work.”

She clicked her tongue. “Really? Oh well. I was kidding anyway. If I died, he would too.” She received a stare from Vincent, so she explained, “He’s a compeer bond. The end of my soul means the end of his.”

“Basically, she goes kaput, I go kaput.” The silvery snake flapped his wings to jump onto the couch next to Vincent. “Hey Lucy, can you use those creepy invisible limbs of yours to lift this up? I’m hungry, but the bowl just flips on top of me if I try to get to one of the fruits.”

She rolled her eyes. “I see you’ve already attempted it.” Then she narrowed her eyes at the amphiptere. “And what do you mean, you’re ‘hungry’? You ate an Ancient ranked natural treasure, and still haven’t finished digesting it.”

He blinked innocently. “But Lucy, there’s no food in my stomach. The fruit’s turned to pure mana.”

She sighed and used her spiritual telekinesis to lift the bowl up onto the coffee table between them, then got a fruit out for him. “At least you’re restraining yourself to the Common ranked ones.”

“Er… that was actually just what was in the bowl…”

She rubbed her temples as Vincent smirked. He crossed his arms as he gestured to her. “Anyway, was the trip successful?”

She nodded. “As successful as it could be, I suppose. All the other people from my world found out they weren’t doomed to be stuck in the Tower with no way home for the rest of eternity, while I managed to do what I needed to do.”

Vincent raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t know they could go back?”

“We weren’t told anything before we got teleported.” She shrugged. “I knew we would be assimilated eventually due to knowing about the System beforehand, so I never panicked.”

“Hmm.” He eyed her curiously, and then shook his head. “Well, anyway, there’s a more important question to ask here.”

She smirked and opened her dimensional bag to retrieve her brass jug and some cups. “Is there?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Yes, there is. Can you tell me what you needed to go to All-Aeon Athenaeum to find out?”

She smiled. “I can.”

Vincent scoffed. “Of course you- wait, did you say you can?” he repeated, stunned.

“I’ve discovered the problem I went to All-Aeon Athenaeum’s Capital branch to solve is only going to be temporary, so yes, I can,” she stated, reaching for the brass jug to begin pouring some coffee.

“…huh. Then, what did you need to find out?” he asked curiously.

“Well, the reason why I needed to go to All-Aeon Athenaeum is because-”

Lucille paused, and with a slight frown, watched as someone who was dressed in black moved quickly through her level, directly towards her location.

Vincent watched her with narrowed eyes. “Lucy, what game are you playing n-” The words halted in his mouth when he noticed Scytale was looking at the door of the room as well as her.

The door opened and the person came in. The man, someone dressed in clothes with Ravimoux’s crest saw Lucille, and bowed to her, breathing heavily.

“Faction Head.”

Lucy gave him a wave. “Catch your breath first.”

He nodded, panting as he rested his hands on his knees. Vincent looked between Lucy and the man with confusion. The man eventually straightened up.

“The individual you requested to be contacted about has come to us,” he said.

Lucille stared at him for a bit, stunned, and then blinked, reaching into her dimensional bag. “He came to one of Ravimoux’s casinos? On which plane?”

The man shook his head. “He came to Black Lily. He’s currently still there, as we requested for him to wait so we could contact you.”

Lucy’s eyes widened, and she hastily stood up, grabbing her suit jacket to pull on. Vincent narrowed his eyes and stood up as she ran towards the door.

“My apologies, Vincent,” she told him, as she opened it and quickly looked back. “It seems our conversation will have to wait until I’ve dealt with this.”

“Can’t you at least explain-”

She had already left. He scowled, crossing his arms. “What good is being her aide if she doesn’t tell me what she’s doing?” he muttered.

“You do realise you could just ask me, right?” Scytale piped up.

Vincent flinched, then turned to stare at the snake with red juice around his mouth, which he had entirely forgotten the presence of.

“Then what is she doing?”

Scytale glanced at the door, then back at Vincent. “Well, I’m not sure how much she wants me to tell you, but… you could say she’s going to meet another Sedric.”

“Another… Sedric?” Vincent asked, frowning in confusion.

“Yeah. She wants to make another deal.”

…

Lucille stepped off the carriage, adjusting her jacket, and checking she had her pocket watch as she got ready to enter the casino. She turned to the man from Ravimoux.

“You said he’s still here?”

He nodded. “As soon as we noticed he perfectly matched your description, we decided to contact you. It’s probably only been twenty minutes since we asked him to wait.”

“Good. He’s not someone I want to keep waiting,” she replied quietly, before walking into Black Lily. The man from Ravimoux led her up the stairs at the end of the main hall and through the building, taking her to one of the private rooms. Eventually, he stopped in front of one, then gestured to it with a bow to her. She nodded as he left, and then, taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open.

Inside was a man she had met only once in the last timeline, and someone who she hoped to prevent the Hero from meeting, at all costs.

He had changed his hair and eye colour with a magical tool of some kind, he looked younger, and he didn’t have the inhuman aesthetics gained from becoming a nonmortal race as he was still human at the present, but there was no mistaking the intimidating build and strangely intense gem-like eye colour he had.

……or the terrible haircut that looked like someone had taken a kitchen knife to his hair and sheared off random sections spontaneously.

He was dressed in a plain white shirt with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, and his hair had been changed to brown, while his eyes were green. By his side was a massive spear almost his own height, wrapped tightly in leather straps that prevented her from seeing what it looked like. She could’ve used her spiritual energy to see through it, but she didn’t want to do anything that could risk ruining the chance she had. But standing near the spear was somewhat of a terrifying experience for her, considering what she knew about that particular demonic weapon’s capabilities.

The man looked up when she entered, and seemed to frown very slightly when he saw her, but uncrossed his arms and stopped leaning against the wall. She stepped forward and gave him a nod.

“I apologise for the wait. The Black Lily wanted to contact me before any deals proceed.” He focused his attention firmly on her as she gestured to the two armchairs on either side of a table in the room. “Please take a seat.”

He studied her silently for a moment before he grabbed his spear and sat down. She prevented herself from showing any sort of behaviour that could be taken as discomfort from his action and sat in the chair opposite him. She intertwined her fingers and rested them on the table as she smiled at him.

“Before anything, I believe I should introduce myself. My name is Lucille Goldcroft, the current Head of the Aurelian Commission,” she stated, pulling out her pocket watch and pushing it forward on the table.

The man opposite eyed it, likely reading its Item Sheet. He returned his gaze to her face as he spoke, “What does the Aurelian Commission Head want with me?”

“I would like to make a deal with you,” she replied calmly. Her expression went serious. “I’ve been informed you asked Ravimoux’s information guild for the location of dragons of the six essential elements. Under normal circumstances, Ravimoux would have no issue supplying this information, as dragon hunting, while outlawed, is an extremely profitable venture for them to support.” She gestured to him. “I would like to suggest an alternative.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

When she had mentioned ‘dragon hunting’, he began to frown, and replied when she had finished her sentence, “An alternative?”

She nodded. “Yes. Because in seven years’ time, an Event hosted by the dragons called the Dragon’s Gate will occur, which only occurs every fifty years,” Lucy explained. “This Event enables draconic beasts with impure dragon lineage to go through a series of trials to become True Dragons of new draconic lineages. Someone doesn’t necessarily need to pass all the trials to become a True Dragon. This process was how the first elemental dragons were created. And I can enable you to use this method too.”

Reaching into her dimensional pouch while he watched her actions closely, she pulled out the brass cylinder extraction device she had obtained from the Founder’s vault and held it up. “This device is a component of a machine called the Bloodline Essence and Source Obtainment Catalyser and Purifier. The other components are stored in the Commission’s Headquarters, but when it’s powered, the Item Sheet becomes available. The device is used by someone to take the bloodline essence and source from a slain magical beast, then use it to gain the entirety of the beast’s abilities for themselves, becoming their exact sub-race, and shedding their own mortal race.”

She put it closer to him on the table. “This particular component is used for bloodline essence extraction, which was what these machines were typically used for because as it turns out, no mortals are capable of absorbing the immense power of a nonmortal race’s source.” She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. “Or almost no mortals.”

His gaze narrowed and he leaned forward to listen to her words, his full attention on her. Lucy tapped on the extraction cylinder. “The ‘purification’ part of the machine is the important part. Unlike several other machines of its type, this one is capable of purifying monster essence in a monster’s bloodline and source, so it reverts back to being a magical beast’s bloodline essence and source.”

She gave him a slight shrug. “And it’s not illegal to purify a monster’s bloodline to obtain their beast race. It’s actually very common, due to many people wishing to become beastmen of powerful bloodlines, but haven’t found a beast willing to lose some of their strength by bestowing bloodline essence on them. And some still like to attempt to absorb a purified source, although they never succeed.”

Lucille tapped her fingers on the table. “What I wish to propose, as the Head of the Aurelian Commission, is my full support in terms of intelligence, finance and resources, to allow you to hunt monstrous draconic beasts such as monstrous drakes, wyverns, wyrms, etcetera, of the six essential elements, so you can undergo the Dragon’s Gate trials and become a True Dragon.”

The man didn’t make a move to reply, just watching her wordlessly, so she decided to explain further, “With my status as the Aurelian Commission Head, over the seven years I can support you financially with magic items, elixirs, even armour if you wish, while also using the intelligence resources under me to find the locations of draconic monsters of the correct elements for you to hunt, purchasing the rights to hunt them and prevent other hunters from attempting to slay them…”

She leaned her chin on her hand as she narrowed her eyes at him. “And have Ravimoux cover any tracks relating to the individual named Hargrave Einar.”

She didn’t say anything more as she waited for his response. The silence was tense as he stared at her with his luminous eyes, and she went still, showing no emotion. Then, almost quicker than she could react, he was behind her, pointing the tip of his spear at her neck. She could see in her perception field that his eyes had gained the red-hued outline of killing intent as he spoke with a low voice.

“And why wouldn’t I kill you, when you’ve shown how much you know about me?” he growled, shifting the spear’s tip even closer to her neck. “Do you think I’m afraid of your status if I’m willing to become a dragon slayer?”

“No, I don’t,” Lucille replied firmly, remaining collected. “And you wouldn’t kill me, because you would be killing someone who’s shown no intent of wanting to kill you whatsoever.” He furrowed his brows when she said that, but there was something else she needed to address. “Also…”

With a slight bit of hesitance, she very gently placed a finger on the edge of the spear and slowly pushed it away from her. “You, ah, seem to have forgotten to unwrap your weapon.”

He stared silently at her for a couple of seconds, then raised the leather-wrapped spear upright to look at it. After a moment, he marched back over to his armchair and sat down with it with his arms crossed, frowning at the table. Then he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

…Lucy didn’t know for certain, but she thought he might have been a bit embarrassed.

She coughed to get rid of the building awkward silence and gestured to him again. “In return for any support you receive, I want the Aurelian Commission to have the rights to the rest of the draconic monster parts, besides the extracted bloodline essence and source. That means the draconic monster heart would go to you, as draconic monsters are the only monsters without cores. Having a draconic bloodline, even lesser, will make you an excellent dragon beast slayer, as those without draconic blood find it extremely difficult to survive the attacks and pierce the dragon scales of dragon beasts.”

She clasped her hands together and rested them on the table. “I would also like to mention that if you accept my support, I will try to find evolution materials for your demonic weapon.”

He glanced at the weapon beside him, then returned his attention to her. She continued further, “And if you choose to use the Dragon’s Gate to become a True Dragon, it will also deal with the issue of finding a dark-element dragon bloodline.”

He gave her an odd look. “Issue?”

Lucille nodded. “It’s not something many know outside of those with connections to dragons, such as dragon-blooded, but at any point in time, there is only ever one dark-element dragon. The black dragons, as they are called, are born each twenty thousand years, and can come from any of the dragon lineages,” she told him. “Many have tried to become dark-element dragon-blooded, but the black dragon’s abilities can’t be transferred in any way. Their abilities are unique each time and are a fundamental feature of the entire regal dragon race, so aren’t bloodline-linked. The current black dragon has a particularly troublesome trait of cloning, and is famous for his inability to be killed.”

The black dragon of the name Margotharel also had a particularly annoying personality, but that wasn’t a detail that was relevant to Lucy at the moment.

“However,” she continued, “Dark-element monstrous dragon bloodlines do exist, so you’ll be able to gain all six essential elements if you become a True Dragon.” She reached into her dimensional pouch and retrieved two contracts, placing them on the table side by side. “There are also two methods we could go about this if you accept. One could be a contract with me, the Aurelian Commission Head,” she said, pointing to the pocket watch, “Or with me, Lucille Goldcroft,” she added, pointing at herself.

He looked between the two contracts with a slight frown. “What’s the difference?”

“If we form an official contract with my authority as the Faction Head of the Commission, it will mean any support you receive is purely within the confines of the contract, and all based on fair trade,” she stated seriously. “Any finance, magical tools or evolution materials for your weapon given by me will be based on the estimated profit obtained from slaying a monstrous draconic beast. This also means that the instant you receive the bloodline essence and source of the sixth slain monster, the instant our contract ends, and we won’t have any more interaction.”

“If the circumstances were different, then perhaps I could justify an official contract extending right up to and beyond the Dragon’s Gate Event, but…” She leaned back in her chair. “For certain reasons, terminating our contact before then would likely be for the best.”

His expression seemed to grow slightly colder when she said that, but it didn’t seem to be directed towards her, more to her implications.

“As for a personal contract with me personally… I can support you up to the Dragon’s Gate,” she said, making him stare at her. “It will mean the finance and resources you receive don’t have to be proportionate to the value of the slain monsters. As it will be me and not the Commission who’s supporting you, I can use the contents of the Founder’s vault, my own personal belongings, and assets, to support you.”

He was still staring at her as she said one more thing. “You’ll also be able to stay in Headquarters, as my private guest, as much as you want. Your accommodation and necessities will be completely free, of course.”

She spread her hands. “So, if you form either of these contracts with me, you will have done nothing illegal, will still be entitled to the full protections of the law, and even if you don’t become a True Dragon through the Dragon’s Gate…”

Lucille gave him a serious look. “Then you can always return to your original plan.”

Finished, she crossed her arms and waited patiently for him to say something. The man opposite her was frowning, holding his chin as he pondered over her offer. Eventually, he raised his eyes to look at her.

“And what happens if I don’t accept either of these? Will you arrange for my death?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied, shaking her head. “No, I’ll leave here after telling Ravimoux to give you the information you requested, and then we’ll never see each other again. You’ll receive no aid or additional help from me at all, and it will be like we never met.”

He fell silent when he heard her answer. Then, as the minutes passed by, he leaned forward to gaze solemnly at her. “The Allblaze Duchy.”

“You wish to know if I’ll want to tell the 4th Eternal Duchy of Solarmane about you?” she asked. He nodded, so she considered it with a strange expression, and then firmly shook her head. “No. For many reasons, including the fact the Aurelian Commission and the Allblaze Duchy have had little need for interaction, and that if I did, I’d be entangled in a situation of having both the Selwood clan and the Allblaze Duchy in my ‘debt’ as such, while both would deny it on their ends…”

Lucy hesitated, then sighed and gave him a wave, shaking her head again. “Look, I may be a member of a noble force, but there are some situations nobody needs to get into if they can avoid it. Duchy politics are above my qualifications. They’re too complicated.”

“And either way…” She pointed at herself with a slight smile, while he looked at her with a strange expression. “I’m currently the owner of an immense amount of wealth, and so I can’t imagine receiving any sort of ‘reward’ from them for telling them about you that would be valuable enough for me to waste my time and effort. Also, in the contracts I’ve specified I wouldn’t tell anyone what I or Ravimoux know about your past unless you want us to tell someone.”

Lucy gestured to the contracts. “If you wish to consider this further, I can give you some more time to think through my offer, and we can meet back here again.”

He looked between her and the contracts, then abruptly shook his head. “I don’t need that.”

She blinked, surprised, as he took the personal contract and read through it. He looked back up. “Do you have a pen?”

She smiled and opened her dimensional bag to pass him one. He took it, then swiftly signed it, pushing it back to her for her to sign. She did the same, the mana ink glowing briefly, and then she got out a copier item to scan the contract onto another page. She passed the original back to him, then stood up.

“Well then, if you have no more questions, from now on, you have the full support of the Aurelian Commission Head for seven years’ time,” she said with a wide smile. “I’ll organise the search for a draconic monster with you at a later date. And as one last thing…”

She pulled out a black access card with a purple amethyst on it, and passed it to him, who took it with a confused frown. “This will allow any of your purchases to be bought using my money, and give you access to my personal floor of Headquarters.”

She grinned as he stared at her with wide eyes. “Where you’ll be staying.”

“Hang on, what’s this about your personal-”

“Then, I’ll see you whenever you decide to come stay,” she said to him, walking towards the door to leave after putting away the pocket watch and extraction device. She gave him a smile. “Thank you for accepting my offer, Hargrave Einar.”

He gazed at her with mixed emotions, before sighing. “…it’s just Hargrave.”

She nodded, and then left the room, shutting the door behind her. She continued walking until she exited the Black Lily, and got into her carriage. Only when it began moving did she allow herself to take a deep breath while shuddering, and feeling very, very lucky, as well as slightly off balance after her second experience of meeting that man.

Because the man known as Hargrave Einar was the strongest User of his time, someone who had been titled the most powerful Rank-6, the Plane Destroyer of Firebloom, nemesis of the 4th Duchy, convicted dragon-slayer of six dragons and had become the only member of the strongest dragon bloodline after the Dragon Sovereign….

The Prismatic Dragon Ruler.

…

A silver-haired man with half-moon glasses glared at her with a very angry look on his face, hands planted on his hips. Scytale was noisily munching on a fruit beside them, watching the show with quite a bit of schadenfreude.

Lucy had her hands behind her back as she gazed out the window to the side. Her seeming lack of care made her aide scowl.

“Care to explain what ‘another Sedric’ means, oh Faction Head?” Vincent hissed.

“Whatever my bond has told you, he’s a lying liar, and his words hold no credibility,” she stated calmly.

“Hey! My words have plenty of credibility, thank you very much!” Scytale exclaimed.

“The words of a serpent should never be trusted.”

“That’s purely a stereotype! A stereotype!”

Vincent glowered at them both before she could respond to Scytale. “I know you’re both fully capable of carrying out your argument mentally, so could you please stop trying to side-track me with such immature fighting.”

Lucy clicked her tongue, making him sigh and walk over to the couch to sit down. She did the same opposite him.

“Please Lucille, can you just tell me what you left to do? All Scytale has told me is that you went to try to form another contract with someone,” Vincent said.

“He’s correct. That is what I did,” she replied, shrugging. Vincent shot her an unamused look, so she sighed and continued, “Yes, I made another magical contract with someone. Yes, I intend for them to stay at Headquarters like Sedric, although they won’t be here a lot of the time. The contract will last seven years.”

Vincent looked at her with a slight frown on his face. “But who are they?”

“His name is Hargrave,” Lucy said. “And he’s the person I asked Ravimoux to tell me about when we went to Black Lily to visit Count Ravimoux.”

“Ah… the note you gave him?” he asked, to her nod. “I remember you said the person you wanted to find was related to dragons somehow.”

“Not yet, but he will be. Because he wants to absorb dragon bloodlines,” she replied, reaching for her brass jug still on the table.

Her aide gazed at her with confusion. “Dragon… bloodlines? As in plural?”

Lucille hesitated as she brought her coffee to her lips. “It’s… complicated.” She took a sip and sighed. “Hargrave himself is an ex-mercenary who wields a spear, but what is important about him is not his past or current abilities, but his future potential.” She placed down her cup of coffee. “He has an incredibly powerful Origin Skill that will make him one of the strongest Users ever alive.”

Vincent stared silently at her for a couple of minutes. She just drank her coffee in the silence, Scytale having nothing to add. Vincent then crossed his arms and tapped on one of them with his fingers.

“Is this where you’ll bring up time travel again to explain your knowledge like the time with Sedric?”

Lucy blinked at the unexpected question and then gave him a wide grin. “What are you talking about, Vincent? Time travel is impossible. Of course I’m not a time traveller. I was lying back then.”

Her answer made him scoff. “What did I expect.” He shook his head. “I suppose you won’t tell me how you know what his Origin Skill is, so I’ll ask something else instead. What kind of person is this man?”

Lucy gained a strange expression as she considered it. “Actually… I don’t really know.”

“…you signed this type of contract with him and don’t even know what type of person he is?” Vincent asked incredulously.

She coughed. “Today was the first time we met. All I could see was that he was quiet, but that was likely because he was guarded against me. I do know, however, that he never attacks someone with no intention of attacking him, and…” She counted mentally for a second. “He should be either 25 or 26.”

The silver-haired man opposite her looked surprised by her answer. “I was expecting someone older if he’s an ex-mercenary. He would be younger than me then.”

“Yes, but he’s spent at least fourteen years on the battlefield, so don’t treat him as if he was a normal person,” she replied, reaching for her coffee.

Vincent frowned. “Fourteen… but…” His eyes widened. “He’s fought since he was twelve years old?”

She nodded, her silent reply making Vincent feel slightly disturbed and gaze at her with apprehension. “Lucille… child soldiers are highly, highly illegal. Just what is his background?”

She grimaced. “I- look, this is something better explained on another day, and you wanted to know about why I went to the Athenaeum, didn’t you?” she said. “He doesn’t want people to know his past, and I told him I would not reveal it to anyone unnecessarily.” She gestured to Vincent. “If circumstances change, or he even becomes willing for you to know, then I’ll tell you as my aide, but would we be able to leave this topic for now, please?” she asked.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “Fine. I’ll see what sort of person he is first before asking further.” He crossed his arms again. “So, why did you need to go to All-Aeon Athenaeum?”

“To find out a way to fix my own Origin Skill issues,” she said with a smile.

He stared at her. “…what?”

“You see, I’m incapable of using my Origin Skill due to several factors, and so I went to All-Aeon Athenaeum in the Capital to access their Archive so I could discover what the issue was. I ended up finding the solution, so now that I know that my Origin Skill isn’t going to be a permanent weakness, I can allow myself to tell you this,” she continued, her grin growing wider.

He kept staring at her. “No, Lucy, I don’t-”

“I can even let you have a look if you want,” she said, his eyes growing wider. “Share User Lucille Goldcroft’s Origin Skill main page with User Vincentimo Evisenhardt-”

“Lucille, please stop-”

[Sharing User Lucille Goldcroft’s Origin Skill main page with User Vincentimo Evisenhardt]

“There, you see?” she finished, pointing to the screen just as it was appearing.

“No!” Vincent put a hand over his eyes and turned away. “Please do not show me this! I don’t want to know about your Origin Skill! Let alone the fact that is very personal information regarding your own strength, I don’t want to be kidnapped for this information, so could you please put that away for me!”

She smirked. “I don’t see the problem, Vincent. Haven’t I said before I left that my condition was only going to be temporary, so I could tell you? And besides, even if you saw it, you wouldn’t be able to gain any useful information about my Origin Skill. That’s because my Origin Skill has no subskills.”

“No… subskills?” After what seemed like a brief battle between self-restraint and curiosity, Vincent hesitantly lowered his hands to see the skill sheet.

[Origin Skill: -___- | Type: /null/

* Desc: user.blank/data{^*}->all

* Subskills: ---------------

* Awakening: 0 ]

He gained a strange expression as he tried to make sense of it. “What in the realms…?”

“I told you so,” she replied with a casual shrug. “My Origin Skill is incomplete. I have no abilities from it yet.”

He glanced between her and the skill. He narrowed his eyes. “You seemed to be having great fun at my expense.”

Lucy grinned. “Your evidence, Vincent?”

He just sighed and took another look at the skill. “An incomplete Origin Skill… no one would ever believe me if I told them about this… but how will you use-” He paused, and then looked at her. “You said this was temporary?”

She nodded with a smile. “Indeed. All-Aeon Athenaeum recorded one individual in the past with this problem. The solution will be given to me in the form of a System item obtained through the Beast Realm’s stage rewards.”

[Do you want to close this screen? Yes/No]

She selected [Yes], closing the Origin Skill information.

“Stage rewards…” Vincent held his chin and nodded. “That makes becoming Rank-1 an even bigger priority then.”

“Yes. Scytale and I plan to complete the stages as soon as the Empire’s banquet is over,” she replied. She finished her coffee and placed it down. “After we both reach Lvl 10, of course.”

And when I become Rank-1, I can finally start eating stat-boosting foods. My body just can’t absorb the mana as it is.

He gave her a weary look. “You still haven’t reached the max of Rank-0 yet?”

She spread her hands. “Nope. We’re both Level 1. Haven’t even killed a single monster yet.”

“And you call yourselves combatants…” he complained, running a hand down his face. He paused to give her a meaningful look. “You are going to be a combatant, correct?”

She smirked. “Certainly. Do you think I need any skill to amplify my mental abilities or want access to the many pages of System information granted to a noble with a governing class?” Lucy shook her head. “I’ll have my hands full reorganising the Faction Authority permissions, and as an Honorary Count, I won’t have any land to rule.” She tapped on her chin as she considered something. “I’ll likely end up as a hybrid class User, however.” She shrugged. “I have no need for all my primary skills to be combat-orientated.”

Well, for people who couldn’t see her Status, she’d seem like a hybrid classer. But she had no plans of ever taking a class, even with the decreased stat points she’d receive, because with her ultimate plan to solve her lack of strength… but that wasn’t something she could do for quite a few years yet. Until after she became Rank-3, at the very least.

“That is what the rest of the Counties assumed, and have no complaints with.” Vincent nodded. “A non-combat class will enable you to increase your level with less risk as well.”

She nodded, even if that wasn’t actually the case for her. She raised her hands and stretched. “Well, do you have any more questions?”

“I don’t suppose you know how you ended up with such an Origin Skill?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If I knew that, then I wouldn’t need the System to fix it for me.” She shrugged.

He chuckled. “So you don’t know everything then.”

She rolled her eyes, and they began the first of their discussions about what she would do during the Empire’s banquet, Scytale having fallen asleep beside them.