“Luuucccyyyy, how old are youuuuu?”

A dark-haired woman ignored the whiny voice of the Prophetess sitting on the couch opposite her. Lucille sipped her coffee and continued to read the documents she was holding.

Behind Annaliese was Sir Albrecht, standing guard with a look of confusion and bemusement on his face as he listened to the whinges of his ward for the past half hour.

“Lucy, stop ignoring me!”

Lucy rested the back of her head against the couch with a sigh. “I’ve told you this already. I’m eighteen. I turn nineteen in five months.”

“But you know that’s not what I mean!”

Sir Albrecht frowned at the girl. “Prophetess Annaliese, please stop bothering the Aurelian Commission Head with this question. She has given you an answer, and I can sense no lies in it.”

“But she hasn’t given me a real answer!” Annaliese exclaimed, jumping up from the couch to lean on the coffee table.

“I am a Rank-5 Paladin. I find it unlikely that you’re familiar enough with the light element to detect lies as well as I can,” Jasten Albrecht replied blandly.

“Then how come she’s still lying then!” she argued.

The Paladin sighed. “In these circumstances, the logical conclusion would be to think she is not lying.”

Annaliese hesitated. “Well… okay, she’s not really lying, but I know she’s not being fully truthful either.”

Her personal guard just shook his head with exasperation. Lucille continued to calmly drink her coffee until the Prophetess’s attention returned to her.

“I am still very sure you’ve been treating me as a little kid,” Annaliese complained with a frown. “I don’t like that at all.”

“If you came from my world then you’d still be considered a child,” Lucy commented.

Annaliese blinked. “Your world?”

Lucy ignored her and continued to read her paperwork. The blonde-haired girl scowled. “All you’ve done is brush me off and ignore me all day! Why do you keep treating me like this!”

Lucille sighed and put down her coffee to gaze wearily at the girl. “Because, Miss Prophetess, you came to the Commission’s Headquarters and disrupted my carefully planned schedule.”

Annaliese jabbed a finger at Lucy. “Annaliese!”

Lucy gave her a dull look as the Prophetess placed her hands on her hips. “I haven’t heard you call me by my first name once yet, during September and since I came here! No more Miss Prophetess, my name is Annaliese!”

Lucille raised an eyebrow and returned to flicking through her documents. “Fine. Annaliese then. It doesn’t change the fact that you came here to pester me about whether I’ve been treating you as a child or not.”

Annaliese frowned and crossed her arms. “I finally got you to say my first name but your reaction was disappointing.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and didn’t reply. Annaliese narrowed her eyes and kicked her feet up onto the edge of the couch, to her guard’s annoyance. She silently watched Lucy with irritation until someone else came to Lucy’s living room.

“Is Lucy-watching any more interesting than it was an hour ago?” a snake in human form said as he stuck his head through the doorway. “For me, watching Lucy is the most mind-numbingly boring experience imaginable because she shows as much emotion as you would expect a statue to.”

Lucy shot her bond a flat look but Annaliese turned to Scytale.

“Where’s Vincent and Raegan?” she asked curiously. “I thought they were with you.”

“Define ‘with’.” Scytale sat down next to Lucille. “Raegan dragged Vincent somewhere, likely to interrogate him about Lucy and me, so I came over to see what was happening.” He looked around. “Not much, it seems.”

Annaliese nodded. She shot Lucy a glare and then turned back to Scytale. “She’s not telling me how old she is.”

Scytale glanced at Lucy and then smirked. “Hey Annaliese, I never got to tell you this last time, but…” He stood up and walked behind Lucy to point at her. “I’m like Lucy.”

Annaliese blinked, nonplussed. She looked between them both. “Like… her…?” She kept staring at them both for a few seconds, until her eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, you mean-”

Scytale grinned as realisation dawned for the girl. Lucille tilted her head back to give the snake a flat look but he ignored it.

“Then…” Annaliese gazed expectantly at the snake. “How old are you both?”

“We’re…” Scytale stuck his tongue out. “Not telling.”

“That’s mean!”

Scytale smirked and looked at Lucy as the Prophetess glared at him. “But Lucy, aren’t you forgetting something? Or should I say, someone?”

Lucy raises an eyebrow. Scytale leaned against the back of the couch. “There was one more person who Annaliese met last year. I’m sure he’ll be positively overjoyed to see her again!”

Lucille stared at him as Annaliese let out an ‘Oh!’ of realisation. “Sedric is still here, right? Has he made any progress with his crafting?”

Lucy glanced between Scytale, Annaliese, and the bemused Jasten Albrecht. She placed her coffee and paperwork on the table, and then stood up, grabbing her cane. “You know what, let’s visit Sedric.”

“Now?” Annaliese asked with surprise.

“Now. Any paperwork can be left for later. This is more important.”

…

“Sedric! Open up! There’s someone who wants to see you!” Lucy yelled, knocking on his door.

“What ridiculous thing…” The sound of someone cursing as they fumbled with metal objects echoed into the hallway. Footsteps sounded until the door opened to reveal a grease-coated young man with a ponytail. “There’s nobody who would come to see me, stop being so-”

Sedric stared when he saw Annaliese, aghast. “Why is she here?!”

Lucille planted her hands on her hips and gave him a look of contempt as she pointed over her shoulder. “Because if I have to deal with her this week, then you have to deal with her too.”

The brown-haired crafter moved to shut the door. “I am a very busy craftsmen and don’t have time to deal with nosy young girls.”

Lucy’s hands stopped the door from closing and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Busy my foot. You haven’t even ordered the materials needed for those items yet.”

He gritted his teeth as he pushed the doorknob, entering a contest of strength with Lucy. The mana around her flared orange as she used her second main skill to enhance her strength by 70%.

“I. Don’t. Want. To. Be. Bothered,” Sedric hissed, pushing against the door to hold it closed.

“And I didn’t either, but look what happened,” Lucy replied in a dry voice, steadily overpowering the crafter and his low STR.

A sharp kick to the door sent both Sedric and Lucille stumbling as it gave way. Scytale grinned and pushed past them to enter the room. “We’ll be out of your hair in no time. It’s not like one of us will randomly throw a jug of water all over your work, will we?”

Sedric gave the snake a strange look until another voice called out, “Like you can talk!”

They all turned to see a grumpy-looking Raegan marching forward, Vincent following with a helpless smile on his face.

“Look! It’s my test subject!” Scytale said with a grin.

Raegan glared at him. “Don’t call me that!”

The snake snickered as the Paladin behind Annaliese ran a hand down his face.

Annaliese looked between them all and scowled at Sedric and Lucy. “Stop arguing like I’m not here! You’re making me feel really unwanted!”

Sedric sighed and turned to the girl. “Yes, yes, hi, hello. Now that the greetings are out of the way, please return to… wherever it is you came from, Annaliese.”

Annaliese crossed her arms and tilted her chin up. “You will address me as ‘Prophetess Verdon’.”

Jasten Albrecht shot her an incredulous look but Sedric gave her a look of disdain. “Yeah, sure, Lady Prophetess Verdon Miss or whatever, I don’t care, just leave me be.”

Annaliese went to nod with a smile, then hesitated with her mouth open. She shut it, and then frowned. “That… didn’t feel right somehow.”

“That’s because he was being sarcastic, Anna,” Raegan said with derision.

Annaliese’s eyes widened and she glared at the crafter. “Hey!”

Raegan rolled his eyes with a groan.

Scytale looked at them all, including the bemused Vincent, and shrugged. He turned to walk down into the workshop. “Well, I’m going to see what rubbish our resident crafter has cooked up now. Feel free to join me.”

Sedric whirled around to glower at the serpent and follow him down. “It is not rubbish!”

Lucille sighed and walked down the stairs, intending on limiting the worst of her bond’s mischief. Annaliese, Raegan, Vincent and Sir Albrecht traded glances. Raegan stepped forward first, followed by Annaliese, leaving the two men behind to shrug and likewise follow them down.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“And here you can see the spectacular view of our crafter’s aptly named ‘box of rubbish’, where he puts all his non-archetypal items inside, in other words every item because nothing he had made is better than a prototype-”

“It is not named the ‘box of rubbish’!” Sedric interrupted Scytale. “I crafted those to get a handle on the basic concepts Lucille taught me about.”

“So Lucy still teaches you about magic?” Annaliese asked curiously.

“Yup. Still as painfully conceited about it as well.” Sedric walked over to his bench to continue working on the items. “She just loooves to laud her knowledge over me.”

“If you’re going to lie, don’t do it in the presence of two people who have light element lie detection skills,” Lucille replied dryly.

Sedric coughed and pretended to ignore them as he fiddled with a metal case of some kind.

Lucy walked closer as the others either looked around the workshop or sat down on some of the stools near the workbenches.

“Which item have you made the most progress on so far?” she asked, inspecting the items.

Sedric flicked down one of the glass circles on his goggles, then raised a strip of leather to inspect it. “The belt. Because of those mana-circles you’ve taught me about, the creation process is going much quicker for that. I still have no clue how to put spells into gemstones though.”

Scytale picked up a random object from the table and tossed it up and down. “What about the sheath things?”

Sedric scowled and snatched it back. “I’m struggling a bit more for those. I think I need to see the daggers to know how I should link the recharge mana circuit in them.”

Raegan, who had walked over to the corner of the room containing the chest full of Sedric’s failed creations and was sifting through them, looked back. “Daggers?”

“They’re snake-swords actually,” Scytale said with a grin.

Lucy shot the snake a glare as Annaliese walked over to her. “You have weapons? I thought you were a mage though, Lucy.”

Lucille sighed and pulled back her violet suit jacket to show the two sheaths. “I have two extendable weapons that have dagger dormant forms.” She looked down at them as Apophis started vibrating. “They’re also sentient. Apophis, even if I let you out there aren’t any windows for you to smash.”

There was a delay, before the black weapon began to vibrate again. Lucy narrowed her eyes at it but relented and took both weapons out. They hovered over Sedric’s workbench, glowing their respective vibrant sky blue and malevolent red.

Annaliese stepped closer and held out a hand to try to tap Apophis. “Sentient?”

“Don’t.” Lucy stopped her by holding out a gloved hand. “Last time someone tried to touch Apophis they got bitten by his snake ornament.”

Coincidentally, the black metallic snake with ruby eyes opened its jaws in a soundless hiss. Lucille sighed and gestured to the two weapons. “This one here is my demonic weapon Apophis, a lover of all things destruction related. This other one is Ouroboros, my spirit weapon and the calmest one of the two.” Lucy sent the weapons a flat look. “Of course, as a weapon herself, Ouroboros still enjoys her fair bit of destruction.”

Sedric held his chin as he studied them. “I’m… not too sure how you expect me to make sheaths for them with the attitude that demonic weapon is showing. I don’t want to get bitten.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, I’m sure the fact it means I’ll finally be going out and levelling up will make him more patient.”

“Lucy, I thought using a demonic weapon was really dangerous,” Annaliese said with worry. “I’ve heard they make you go insane.”

“Only if your soul isn’t strong enough to withstand the weapon’s bloodlust.” Lucille gestured to Apophis, who was beginning to roam around the room. “A normal demonic weapon isn’t sentient, and doesn’t have a soul inside of it. Those kind of weapons are made from demonic beast and plant materials. The chaotic demonic energies are extraordinarily hard to wield without a demonic bloodline.”

Lucille walked over to the daggers. Ouroboros floated up and circled her. “I have a strong soul due to my spiritual energy, and my bond with Ouroboros here prevents the demonic and spiritual energy balance from being upset.” She turned around and shrugged. “The souls inside of the weapons also wield the weapons’ abilities far better than I ever could.”

“Yeah, cool weapons and all, but I’m wondering what the heck this thing is,” Raegan said. He held up a pair of weird gauntlets with spikes on the knuckles. “What do these things do, inject drugs into the people you punch? It’s stupid.”

Sedric scowled. “Who’s the kid?”

“My brother.” Annaliese planted her hands on her hips and frowned at Raegan. “But Raegan, that’s rude. Just because something might be true, doesn’t mean you should say it.”

Sedric stared incredulously at her. “Hey!”

Lucy smirked but glanced at Sir Albrecht, who was studying the two floating daggers. It appeared they appealed to his interests as a warrior.

“Both are snake-swords?” the Paladin asked, stepping closer.

“They came from an inheritance trial. They’re made to be used together,” Lucille explained.

“And have you made any progress learning how to use them?” Vincent asked.

She sighed and looked at the two daggers. “No. It will take some time.”

Jasten Albrecht rubbed his chin. “The possibility that the Sword Major Discipline has several serpentine or whip-sword mana-arts exists. The Dagger Discipline may be able to instruct you on how to use them in their dormant form.”

“Unfortunately, their abilities only show their strength when in their true forms,” Lucy said with a shake of her head.

“Oh, Lucille.” Sedric glanced over his shoulder at her, the diagrams of the sheaths on the bench before him. “You never got around to explaining what that amplifier arm guard was for.”

Lucille picked up Apophis. “Stat enhancement. The details are complex so I’ll inform you of them another time.”

‘Anticipation. Hesitance.’

Lucy looked over as she heard Ouroboros’s thoughts. She watched as the silver snake ornament unwound itself from the blade’s handle and moved towards Annaliese.

‘Greet.’

Annaliese blinked. Then she tilted her head. “Hello…?”

The dagger’s blue aura brightened.

‘Happiness! Pride! Satisfaction.’

Ouroboros floated near Lucy.

‘Expectance.’

Lucy huffed a laugh and picked up the blade. “Yes, good job.” She sheathed the two weapons and turned back to the others. “Ouroboros is proud to have sent her first message to someone other than me or Scytale.”

“It seems they must be natural souls, to sound so young,” Sir Albrecht mused.

Lucille nodded. “Their souls were formed with the completion of the weapons. Neither were demons or spirits before they gained awareness.”

“So… they’re kids?” Annaliese asked with surprise.

“Mostly correct. Their souls are much older than any of ours, but they haven’t had the opportunity to gain increased awareness until I bonded them,” Lucy explained.

Annaliese glanced at the two sheaths curiously. “So… you’re going to learn to fight with them? I thought you used magic though.”

Lucille smiled and placed a hand on the pommel of Apophis. “I intend on being a spellblade. Someone who wields weapons and uses magic in battle.”

“Is there anything great about a spellblade?” Raegan came up to the workbench with one of Sedric’s items in hand. “Sounds like a normal warrior who just does more complicated stuff than usual.”

Sir Albrecht shook his head, drawing everybody’s attention. “Spellblades are rare, even when counting Glory Pantheon’s members. Before the assimilation of the realm, they could be found in greater numbers, but…” The Paladin glanced at Lucy. “They have been largely replaced by the existence of warrior manipulators, those who dual class with a melee and elementalist class.”

“I recall hearing of spellblades among the Empire’s Battalions,” Vincent commented, giving the blonde-haired man a curious look.

Sir Albrecht shook his head again. “Battlemages of the battalions must be familiar with armed combat as well as magical combat. The younger members often call themselves ‘spellblades’, ‘spellswords’ or ‘magic swordsmen’ in reference to the times before the System, but they cannot be considered true spellblades as their spells aren’t used to enhance physical abilities.”

The Paladin gestured to Lucy. “With the existence of skills to accompany mana-arts, and sometimes replace mana-arts in the case of those not part of Glory Pantheon, the usefulness of a ‘spellblade’ is largely debatable.”

“I don’t intend on becoming fully focused on being a spellblade,” Lucille said with a smile. “It’s hard to determine whether ‘spellblade’ is even the right term for me. I just wish to find an alternative to locating possibly nonexistent battle skills for my two snake-swords.”

Raegan let out a short laugh. “What’s so special about those daggers? I bet every three out of five warriors has a dagger on hand all the time!”

Lucy eyed the boy, and then took out Apophis. She let the blade lengthen as it gained its bloody aura and it slowly rotated with a mechanical hum.

Raegan flinched as the levitating blade drifted near and looked away. “Uh, yeah, okay, never seen one of those before.”

Sedric stared at Apophis. “And you told me you weren’t sadistic.”

Lucille glared at the crafter as Scytale snickered. She sighed and put the blade away. “At the end of the day, I’ll need to use spells and skills compatible with both a demonic and spirit weapon,” she said. “Even among Glory Pantheon Mythos and Champions, you’d be hard pressed to find someone with either of those kinds of weapons. A ‘spellblade’ is currently the best definition for what I am and easiest path for me to take regarding the usage of my blades.”

“But what reason is there for the Aurelian Commission Head to need to become a spellblade?” Jasten Albrecht asked with a frown.

Vincent narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes, Lucille, I was also wondering that. Just how much combat do you think you’ll be doing?”

She sent her aide a flat look. “I intend on at least reaching the maximum level for Rank-3 by the beginning of the Millennium Chapter. While unlikely, it’s best to be prepared in case I end up on the battlefield.”

“I highly doubt such a situation will occur,” Sir Albrecht replied.

Lucy shrugged. “So be it. As a noble, it is still better for me to be stronger than weaker.”

Annaliese looked at her private guard. “Sir Albrecht, is there a way for me to become stronger too?”

He gave the blonde-haired girl a strange look. “No, Prophetess Verdon. As a Unique class wielder, you can neither gain levels nor fighting abilities.”

She pouted. “But why?”

The Paladin sighed. “It is my job to defend against anything that could harm you, Prophetess. While your abilities may be limited now, once you pass the Primarch’s Trials then you will gain more strength, although you’ll never be a combatant.”

Annaliese frowned but looked at her brother. “What about Raegan?”

The Paladin hesitated as he glanced at the other people in the room, including the curious Vincent. He went silent as he considered how to phrase his words. “The Citadel… doesn’t know what abilities your brother will have. His Constitution has indicated he has the potential to become a skilled magic user, however.”

Sedric scoffed and returned to his work. “I’d be surprised if the Citadel has any way of knowing the future Origin Skill of a ten-year-old kid.”

Raegan glared at him. “I’m thirteen!”

“Thirteen, ten, who cares. You’re still a kid.”

Lucille narrowed her eyes at Sedric in warning and he froze up and shut his mouth. She rubbed her temples as she considered what she would do if Sir Albrecht revealed to the Sages that her private crafter was being disrespectful to the Prophetess’s brother.

Scytale propped his chin up on the table as he looked at the object in Raegan’s hand. “What have you got there anyways, Raegan?”

Raegan glared at the snake. “I never said you could call me Raegan.”

“Then… my test subject?”

The boy scowled as Lucille facepalmed. Raegan turned away from the snake and held up the object. “I have no clue what this is. I just picked the crappiest item I could because it looked funny.”

Sedric glared at the boy and grabbed the item out of Raegan’s hands. “Give that back.” He frowned as he turned the item in his leather-gloved hands. “This is actually one of my working items, but my skills have improved since I made it so I didn’t bother to leave it around.”

Lucille stepped closer to have a look. She glanced at him. “Was this based off of the very first blueprint I gave you last year?”

Sedric rubbed his neck, looking awkward. “I’m… surprised you could even tell what it was. I tried to copy the part that used the results of an Arcane Scan spell to show an illusion-element replica of the object.” He shrugged. “I’m not familiar enough with the illusion element to do much else.”

Lucy hummed as she inspected the object Sedric had placed on the workbench.

He’s made further progress than I expected. It seems the amplification arm guard might take less time to create than I first thought.

She turned to face him. “The device that blueprint is for will be essential to the creation of the amplification arm guard, so it’s probably been very beneficial for you to have created this item.”

“Ugggh, Lucy, stop praising him,” Scytale complained. “It feels wrong to hear that coming from your mouth.”

Sedric glowered at the snake. “So I can’t receive praise now?”

“Yep.”

Lucy sighed and walked away as the snake and crafter began to bicker again. Vincent shook his head wryly while Annaliese looked around at all the gadgets on Sedric’s workbench. Lucy noted, with some amusement, that her Paladin guard held her back from looking at some of them. It seems Sir Albrecht wasn’t particularly trusting of Sedric’s crafting abilities.

Vincent checked his watch. “It appears that I might need to return to my work,” he said. “It’s been too long since I last met with the staff.”

Lucy nodded to him. “I’ll see you later.”

He nodded to both her and Sir Albrecht, then walked up the workshop stairs.

Lucille took out her pocket watch to check the time. “I believe it should be time for lunch. It’s been set up on the roof for today, so in around five minutes we-”

Scytale switched to his serpent form with a flash of gold light and flapped his wings to quickly fly to the top of the stairs. Lucy expression went cold, well aware he intended to eat food he was banned from this week.

She grabbed her cane, which she had leant against a workbench, and charged up the stairs. “Scytale, you are not getting away with eating them!”

She shut the door behind her, leaving Raegan, Annaliese, Sedric, and Sir Albrecht in the room together. Raegan glanced between them all, narrowed his eyes, then dashed up the stairs as well.

Sir Albrecht turned to stare at the boy. “Wait, Raegan, you shouldn’t be leaving without-”

He was interrupted by Annaliese picking up a box of gemstones from Sedric’s workbench.

“Sedric, as the Prophetess of Fate, I command you to make me some expensive jewellery with this!”

“No way. First, that was bought with Lucille’s money, secondly, I’m her crafter and her crafter only, and thirdly, why would you deserve me crafting jewellery for you? …in fact, doesn’t the Citadel only wear gold jewellery with clear or yellow gems? Not these other colours?”

“T-that’s beside the point. And what do you mean why would I deserve you crafting something for me! You’re not that special!”

“Excuse me, I’m a Legendary crafter!”

Jasten Albrecht sighed as he listened to the Prophetess bicker with Sedric. He frowned in the direction of where Raegan went, but decided that dealing with his other ward’s argument was priority.

…

Chasing after her bond, and unsuccessfully catching up to him, Lucille walked the hallways of the Commission’s Headquarters, heading towards the nearest lift to the rooftop. Through her perception field, a small boy with dark hair and bags under his eyes stalked her, hiding behind corridor corners in an attempt to skirt her vision. He had to know that she had spiritual perception, but maybe he didn’t think hers was very large.

Wondering what to do, she eventually took a path into a large central living room. She stepped to the side of the doorway and waited for her little follower to enter the room.

Raegan, with a serious look on his face, slowly stepped into the living room. Then he frowned. “Where did she-”

“Behind you.”

Raegan yelped and jumped a mile as he started. He whirled around to see her gazing at him with her arms crossed.

“Now, what exactly are you up to?” Lucy asked in a dry voice. “You know the way to the rooftop gardens, so I highly doubt you’re looking for my bond.”

He frowned at her.

Lucille cocked an eyebrow. “May I remind you that it was you who followed me here, so the one needing an explanation in this situation is me?”

Raegan stayed silent. Lucy gazed at him for a while longer before she huffed and turned around to continue walking. “If you’re not going to reply, then I’ll be on my way.”

“What do you want with Anna?”

Lucy glanced over her shoulder with an eyebrow raised.

Raegan scowled and crossed his arms. “You heard me. What do you want with Anna, Annaliese, my sister, the Prophetess. She’s been stuck on visiting you again ever since she left the Commission’s Headquarters. It stinks of something fishy.”

Lucy sighed and continued walking. “I recall mentioning, quite clearly and several times, that it was your sister who wanted to see me again and not the other way around.”

Raegan narrowed his eyes at her and followed after her. “Then why does she want to see you again so badly?”

“Because she bears a grudge against me for potentially treating her as a youngster,” Lucille stated blandly. “That, and she believes I know some way of understanding your abilities.”

“Oh yeah? And how much do you really know about me? I doubt it’s enough.”

Lucille stopped walking. Then she slowly turned around. She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward so her eyes were level with Raegan’s. He stepped back.

“How much do I know? I wonder…” Lucy tilted her head. “The antithesis, the ancient enemy of the Citadel of Fate. The people around you have their fate and fortune drained, their lives descend into misery as all prosperity leaves them. Your sister and the people who meet you might be fooled, but I know the truth.”

She poked his chest. “An Origin Skill is born from someone’s experiences, talents and personality. The culmination of their life before they awaken. The ability to ruin other people’s lives must be something the individual deeply desires and wishes to accomplish. They say the antithesis is far more mature than others of their age due to their experiences.”

Lucille straightened up and crossed her arms as she gazed expressionlessly at Raegan. “I heard that a boy who picked on you fell into the river. Did you feel a sense of satisfaction seeing those who demeaned you suffer? That man who broke his leg, did you feel a sense of justice to know it was your ability that gave him pain?” She took a step closer, placed her hands on her hips, and lowered her head to face him again. “Raegan Verdon, did you think you could fool me?”

The boy had stayed silent the entire time as Lucy stated her observations. He didn’t say a word.

Then suddenly, a vicious, lopsided smirk appeared on his face. “I’ll admit, the river incident was an accident and the first time I used my abilities, but that man who broke his leg?” His smirk became cruel, in a way that appeared alien on his young face. “I heard his screams and felt that all my efforts leading up to that point had been worth it.”

Lucy straightened up and clicked her tongue with a look of disdain. “Look at you. Not cute at all. You don’t even try to hide your foul personality.”

The dark-haired boy gave a wide shrug. “What do I care? Should I keep a fake smile on my face like all the Citadel members who want me dead? I’d rather kill myself than be like them.”

“Ha.” Lucille shook her head and turned away. “Polar opposites indeed. Scytale was right. Does Annaliese know what her brother is really like?”

“She might have suspicions, but it doesn’t matter,” Raegan replied with gritted teeth. “She’s too trusting, so I’ll be the one who makes sure she keeps smiling. I’d gladly die if it means she’ll survive.”

Raegan marched up to her. “You know I know everything you told Annaliese right? Then you should know what happened to her after I was gone. Listen.” He grabbed onto her jacket and glared at her. “If anything happens to her because of your actions then I don’t care how immune you are to her and my abilities…” His expression went dark. “I will make you pay.”