Lucille gazed coldly at the boy. She grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands off of her clothes. “No, Raegan Verdon, you listen to me.” She poked him in the chest and pushed him back. “You owe your life to me. I saved you, fully aware of what you are, and what you could become.” She took a step forward. “That means that your actions from now on, anything you do, is my responsibility. Raegan Verdon, do not make me regret saving you.”

Raegan looked uncomfortable with her statement. Lucy stepped back and sighed, wondering if she had said too much to someone who was still a thirteen-year-old boy. She shook her head and turned around.

“That said, I find it hard to believe that anything you plan to do will manage to get by Jasten Albrecht. He seems to have caught on to the real you.”

Raegan scoffed and followed after her. “Like he could stop me.” He followed her in silence for a while, seemingly preoccupied by something. Eventually, he spoke again. “And what about you? Are you the wondrous saint my sister has been fooled into thinking you are, or do you have other intentions under that guise?”

Lucy paused for a moment, then gave the boy an odd look. “Do you think I became the Aurelian Commission Head and an Honorary Count by being ‘a saint’ as you put it?”

That seemed to amuse Raegan, as he smirked and sped up his pace to walk alongside her. “That was one thing I never understood. For all Annaliese complained and praised you, not once did she say anything that could hint at what you want, why you’re here, or why I needed to be saved.”

“Then I suppose you’ll just have to observe me and find out,” she replied.

Raegan shook his head. “It’s not like I’m going to be able to learn much when we’ll never see each other again after this week.”

Lucy highly doubted that they’d never see each other again, but she wasn’t about to put ideas in the Prophetess’s head through her brother. But Lucille stopped and checked her pocket watch for the time.

“The others will be going to the rooftop to have lunch soon.” She gazed at Raegan and studied him silently for a bit. Then she stuck out a white-gloved hand.

Raegan raised an eyebrow. “What’s this for?”

“To propose a deal.” Lucille grinned and leaned down to look into his eyes. “You get to watch me to make sure I’m not involving Annaliese in some scheme, and I’ll observe you closely and stop you from taking the wrong path.”

Raegan gazed at her hand for a moment, then grabbed it with a smirk. “If you think you can stop me, you’re welcome to try.” He shook her hand and let go.

Lucy turned back around and straightened her jacket. “We’ll see. But first, it’s lunch time.”

…

-Several days later-

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Lucille muttered.

“Go, Lucy, go!”

Lucy gazed wearily in the direction of her overly enthusiastic cheering squad, consisting of one single Prophetess. They were in the training room on the 38th floor, accompanied by Annaliese, Raegan, Sir Albrecht, and Sedric, who had been unwillingly dragged there by her bond.

Scytale was facing her, ready to begin their first proper spar. He looked at their audience. “Hey, Raegan! Where’s my cheer squad?”

The dark-haired boy gave the snake a look of utter disgust. Scytale shook his head and turned back to Lucy. “Alright, so, today’s aim is to get some skills for me, right?”

She nodded. “Then you can tier up your class before we go to a Dungeon.”

“Gotcha.” Scytale crouched down. “How big can I go?”

“Please stick with only a factor of two. You’ll be too big to fight effectively in this room otherwise,” Lucille replied.

“Aww. Alright.” With a flash of gold, his body swelled and gained two massive wings. His thick silver body writhed with taught muscles as he got ready to begin the fight. “Time to bring out your weapons.”

Lucy grimaced and unsheathed Apophis and Ouroboros. The two snake-swords rippled with their respective auras, the dichotomy of peaceful spirit power and chaotic, tense demonic power conflicting. She didn’t extend them out very far, just another half-metre past their original length.

“Lucy, I don’t really know how to go easy on anyone, so…”

She shook her head. “Don’t go easy on me. Anybody out there wouldn’t hesitate to attack me with all their effort.”

“What does he mean, ‘I don’t know how to go easy on anyone,’?” Sedric said with contempt. “He’s a fifteen-year-old whose only talent is bragging!”

Scytale narrowed his eyes at the crafter while Lucy rolled hers. “Scytale, ignore him. Let’s get back on track.”

She raised Apophis and pointed it at her bond. “On the count of three, attack.” Lucy readied herself. “One… two…”

She leapt forward. “Three!”

Scytale gained a serpentine grin and swung his massive tail at her. Lucy switched her absorbed mana to wind mana, boosting her AGI to allow her to jump over the scaly limb. The AGI increase wasn’t instant, however, so she had to dive into a roll to barely dodge the blast of light shot by her bond.

“Ha! Feel my awesome power!” Scytale exclaimed, quickly leaning too far into his job as Lucy’s opposition.

“I felt nothing because you missed,” Lucille retorted, stepping back to gain some distance from the snake.

“Nah, I’m just going slow to let you get used to it.” He beat his wings, attempting to use the window to destabilise Lucy’s footing.

She narrowed her eyes and dashed forward, stretching out a hand.

“Earthen Shield!”

The brown mana-circle manifested in front of her and a semi-translucent wall of rocky brown mana formed to block Scytale’s next strike. The shield shattered instantaneously, but it gave her enough time to swing Apophis and whip the sword against Scytale as it extended.

The demonic weapon collided with Scytale’s wings, sending his golden haze of light mana into chaotic disarray, but Scytale flared his wings and flapped them, flying up.

Apophis was wrenched out of Lucy’s grip and then Scytale flew straight back down, diving for the ground. He slammed into the ground and the room shuddered.

“One skill down! I don’t think I need a secondary skill to help me ram things better but I’ll take it.”

He turned to face Lucy. “Now then…” He opened his four wings wide and indigo mana billowed out of him. “You should’ve used Ouroboros!”

Lucy’s eyes widened and she swung Ouroboros to intercept the illusion mana. The demonic power distortion of Apophis gave Scytale some difficulty, but he managed to summon ten illusory fireballs to fling at Lucy.

“…illusion mimicry?” Jasten Albrecht muttered.

Annaliese turned to her guard. “Sir Albrecht? Is something wrong?”

The wild-haired Paladin frowned. “A fifteen-year-old shouldn’t have the skills to use that advanced illusion technique.”

Annaliese blinked, confused, but then smiled and nodded. “My friends are special.”

He shot her an exasperated look. “This is not that easily explained.”

A flash of sky-blue light brought their attention back to the fight. Ouroboros’s shield had activated to defend against the bombardment of fireballs. The mana was sucked into the shield and Lucy ran forward again, trying to use her spiritual telekinesis to disentangle Apophis from Scytale’s wings. The only benefit of the lost weapon was that Scytale was having difficulty casting his spells properly.

“Ugh, of course it would be my bond who gained the realms’ most annoying weapon.” The silvery snake wriggled and writhed, trying to dislodge the rotating blade from his wings. Apophis fell to the ground and Scytale used his mouth to grab the handle, ignoring the sparks of abrasive demonic energy that conflicted against his scales. He tossed the blade back near Lucy. “Don’t lose it again. No enemy is going to be as nice as me and chuck you back your weapon.”

Lucille rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Mr State-The-Obvious.” Apophis retracted back into his base longsword form and white mana billowed around her. Her AGI had finished being enhanced, but it was slowly lowering as the elemental ratios within her body automatically stabilised.

To take advantage of her full 70% enhancement, she used the spare wind mana around her to cast a spell of the wind element that enhanced her speed further. She dashed forward and twisted her body to avoid the whip-like motion of Scytale’s tail. Her perception field tracked the position of her bond, the tensing of his muscles, and the movement of his mana.

Apophis should’ve been draining his mana, but Scytale is acting like he doesn’t feel a thing. Which is likely. The dunce wouldn’t feel a blade through his spine if the adrenaline rush was strong enough.

She looked up and watched the tip of Scytale’s wings move.

In 0.23 seconds he’ll move them again. Let’s try Ouroboros this time.

Intending for Ouroboros to chain down the flapping wings and restrict Scytale’s movement, she jumped over his tail and swung the silver blade. Ouroboros extended as she focused on her spiritual telekinesis to move the blade correctly-

Scytale’s tail suddenly swung into her side with immense force and slammed her into a wall of the room. Lucy spluttered from the force of the blow, a sharp ache forming along her ribs.

[-2000 HP]

[HP: 3850/5850]

“Woohoo! Two skills down! And nice, a skill to strengthen my whipping ability. This is way more helpful than- wait, Lucy?”

She groaned and let the two blades fall out of her hands. Touching her stomach, a shallow but long cut left by the serrated edges of Scytale’s scales left her hand covered in blood.

“Not again! Here let me heal you-” Scytale shrunk and flew over. He skidded to a stop and released his golden light mana. Annaliese was rushing over behind him.

“Lucy, Lucy, the spell isn’t working, how do I-”

“Shut up.” An arcane orb slamming into Scytale’s face quickly cut off any more words. Lucille put one hand to a temple as she sighed and rested her head against the back of the wall. “I have a headache, and you’re making things worse. Let go of your control over the spell.”

“What do you- oh. Ooooh.”

Scytale’s elemental spell deformed slightly as his mana signature was erased, but it quickly snapped back into place as Lucy obtained control of the mana. The yellow light flowed towards her wounds.

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[+50 HP]

[+50 HP]

[+50 HP]

[+50 H…]

Lucille opened her dimensional bag to take out a high-grade health potion. She swallowed it, repairing her wounds instantly.

[+10,000 HP]

[HP: 5850/5850]

“Lucy! Are you alright?!”

Lucy raised her eyes to see the worried Annaliese quickly rushing over. An exasperated Sir Albrecht was marching over too, followed by both Raegan and Sedric, who looked like they didn’t know what to do with themselves. Lucille sighed and sheathed Apophis and Ouroboros before standing up, using the wall to support herself.

“I’m fine,” Lucy replied, waving off the Prophetess’s attempts to help her up. “The potion already healed me, I’m just dealing with the phantom pain left behind when a wound heals too quickly.” Lucille straightened up and stretched, then crossed her arms to face her winged bond on the ground. “If this is how you’re going to react when you get a new skill I’d be worried for the allies around you on the battlefield.”

Scytale sheepishly avoided eye contact. “Uh… sorry. I got a bit too excited there.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and then winced from the sensation of the act. She frowned as she rubbed her neck. “I can’t say I’m too happy about my own performance.”

“That was amazing for a first time fighter!” Annaliese said, coming between Lucy and Scytale. Then she hesitated. “Or at least… I think it was amazing?” She turned to look at her private guard. “Sir Albrecht?”

Jasten Albrecht was looking at Lucille with a frown, deep in thought. She cocked an eyebrow. “Is the mighty personal Paladin of the Prophetess of Fate too high a status to bother judging the combat ability of mere middle nobility like me?”

Annaliese frowned at him. “Sir Albrecht, please.”

He shot the Prophetess an exasperated glance, gave Lucy a flat one, but sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Your technical ability is highly advanced. So advanced that I was questioning what I was looking at.” He crossed his arms and frowned. “But you think for too long before executing your attacks. You also don’t use simple attacks like slashing often enough. You’re bad at keeping the innate rhythm of your attacks going.”

Lucy looked down at her blades.

Well, as a battlemage, I’m more used to releasing singular powerful spells. But what kind of ‘simple’ attacks could I even use with these snake-swords?

“I don’t know what constitutes a ‘simple’ attack when it comes to me my two weapons,” she replied.

He shook his head. “And I can’t help you with that, unfortunately. I’ve never seen weapons like yours either.”

Lucille sighed and nodded. “I suppose I’ll have to find out on my own.” She pulled out her pocket watch to check the time. “I’ll need to return to work soon, so I think we should leave it here, and…” She looked up and narrowed her eyes. “What exactly do you two think you’re doing?”

Sedric and Raegan were glaring at each other. It was only when Scytale, Sir Albrecht and Annaliese turned to face them as well did they notice the eyes on them.

“He started it!” Raegan announced, pointing at the crafter.

Sedric gave the boy an incredulous look. “Excuse me, started what?!”

The dark-haired boy shrugged. “I don’t know. I just wanted to put the blame on you first.”

Sedric scowled as Lucy rubbed her temples. The crafter crossed his arms. “Every time I try to take a step forward to leave this place I trip, or stumble, or stub my toe.”

“And how is that my fault?” Raegan asked with a smirk.

Sedric threw his hands up. “I have no idea, but you always have that smug grin on your face, so I know you’re doing something!”

Lucy tilted her head as she watched them argue.

Raegan has better control over his ability than I expected. Even those with high elemental affinity don’t gain such an accurate ability to manifest their Origin Skill’s effects. Maybe I’ll use the shard to analyse his incomplete Origin Skill at a later date with his permission.

But she was getting annoyed by their fighting, so she loudly clapped her hands together. “Alright. Sedric, stop fighting with Raegan. He’s the Prophetess of Fate’s younger brother, so you can’t treat him as just anyone.”

Raegan’s smirk grew wider as Sedric scowled, but then the next words Lucille spoke made Raegan scowl too.

“And why are you picking a fight with a little kid in the first place, Sedric? I thought you were above that.”

“Hey! I’m not that young!” Raegan angrily exclaimed.

Sedric snickered as Lucy turned around and headed towards the door. “I’ll see you all later. I have work to do.”

…

The scratching of a pen against paper filled Lucy’s study. The turning of the room’s doorknob made her look up with a raised eyebrow, as she knew exactly who was outside her door this late at night.

“Hey Lucy, get to bed!” Scytale said, sticking his head through the doorway. “It’s late.”

“Hmm.” Lucille leaned back and crossed her arms. “Then tell me, Scytale. Why are you still awake?”

Her bond placed his hands on his hips. “I’m responsible enough to go to bed when I want. I don’t need you to tell me off for staying awake.”

“Yet you happen to be ignoring the fact that the Scytale I know loves his sleep,” Lucy replied dryly. “There could only be one reason why you’re still up. Who did you choose to prank, Sedric or Raegan?”

He sheepishly looked away. “I didn’t prank anyone.”

Lucille rolled her eyes and stood up from the desk. “Be careful that the price you pay for messing with them isn’t more than you bargained for.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” He walked with his hands behind his head as he followed Lucy through the hallway. “By the way, what Dungeon do you have in mind for us?”

Lucy shot the snake a smirk. “Well, as one of only three time travellers, we need to take advantage of our knowledge, right?”

Scytale blinked and lowered his arms curiously. They went into her living room where they sat down on a couch. “Are you thinking of somewhere special?”

“If you mean I’m going to let us take credit for the discovery of another Ancient Dungeon then yes,” Lucy said with a grin.

His eyes widened. “Wait, are you planning on doing a Quest?”

“Not just that.” Lucille opened up her dimensional bag to retrieve her brass jug. “Ravimoux can help us with a throwaway identity, so we can access the Adventurer’s Guild’s Faction Quests and the System’s Quests at the same time.” She poured a drink of tea and raised the cup with a shrug. “We’ll also earn a percentage of the experience of all those who complete the System Quests derived from our initial Dungeon Discovery Quest. We could be earning xp from this months from now.”

“But aren’t you part of the Commission?” Scytale asked, confused.

Lucy held up her pocket watch. “This grants me Total Faction Authority of the Aurelian Commission. I’m a member of the Commission purely because I hold this item.” She shrugged again. “Nobody bothers to check if I have selected the ‘Member of the Aurelian Commission’ Title when I have absolute proof of my identity right here.” After taking a sip, she placed her cup down. “But I won’t be able to use this trick very often. Which is why Ravimoux will help me with my plan.”

“What do they get out of it though?” her bond asked.

Lucy cocked an eyebrow. “Only the Commission gaining the earliest access and information on the location of this Ancient Dungeon before anyone else, and exclusive right to share knowledge of this with Guilds they choose.” She smiled. “I’ve already given Ravimoux hints that I knew of this place from before my ‘reincarnation’ as they believe, so they think there’s a strong chance of this being a Dungeon. But we know it is one without a doubt.”

She gestured to the room’s window. “They bought the land and so according to Empire law, they get to control which Guilds can access the Dungeon. It’s on a Minor plane so the kingdom’s laws can’t restrict the Counties much, and the land price is also so cheap that it’s hardly anything for Ravimoux to buy it.”

Lucy shrugged and crossed her arms. “We get priority over all artifacts and special resources obtained from the Dungeon.”

“Huh.” Scytale thought for a moment. “Which Dungeon is this? Ancient Dungeons are pretty rare, with only several hundred across the entire realm. We also need to make sure the Hero doesn’t get suspicious because of us finding it.”

Lucille nodded. “I’ve already considered that. The Dungeon we’ll be heading to becomes found within the next two months. It was also on a Minor plane, so it took several years for news to spread to the central Empire. As luck would have it, this Dungeon entered the possession of the Commission in the past too, so this change shouldn’t be big enough to cause alarm.” Lucy picked up her drink again. “But this Dungeon wasn’t known for its artifacts and items. It was known for being the secret base of a school of earth elementalists from many millennia ago,” she said with a smirk. “We’re looking at one of the single largest collections of powerful gemstones in the entire Empire.”

Scytale let out a whistle. “Sedric is going to be happy. But why a Dungeon full of mana crystals and gemstones?” he asked. “Neither of us are the best at killing golems or whatever lies in that kind of Dungeon.”

Lucy drank the rest of her tea and placed the cup down. “Because both Sedric and I will eventually need powerful gemstones for crafting, developing the airships will require gemstones, and as a Dungeon delved purely for its raw resources, the Hero won’t consider conquering this Dungeon until he has formed his Guild,” she explained. “He wants items, weapons, armour, and treasure that can personally benefit him right now. There may be a chance he’ll become interested in the Dungeon in the future, but…” She gave her bond a smirk. “Just because I decline selling the Dungeon, doesn’t mean Deus Ex Machina will automatically consider me an enemy.”

“Oooh, so this is about him.” Scytale nodded. “I get it now. Because Ancient Dungeons disguise themselves as weak Dungeons too, it won’t be that hard at the start either.” He raised his arms above his head to stretch. “Well, we better head to the Obelisk sooner than later then. I need to tier up my class, and you wanted to get those last skills from Sauf-”

Scytale stopped talking when he felt a sense of urgency flow through their bond from Lucy. Lucille had placed a gloved finger against her lips to shush him. She frowned and looked in the direction of the sitting room’s door.

Her bond blinked. “Lucy? Why are you-”

The doorknob turned and the door slowly creaked open. A white-clad figure with wavy blonde hair stuck her head in, peeking around the edge-

-and then flinched when faced with the stares of both Lucy and Scytale. The door slammed shut, leaving the room in silence.

Lucille and Scytale traded glances. Barely suppressing a groan, Lucy rubbed her temples, then rested the back of her head against the couch. With a sigh, she said, “Annaliese, it’s too late to hide. You may as well come in.”

The door opened again and the Prophetess sheepishly stepped in. With a pillow held in one arm, the door clicked shut behind her. She held it close and sat down on the couch opposite Lucy.

“I- uh, wanted to get a glass of water from the kitchen,” Annaliese said.

Scytale shook his head as Lucy rolled her eyes. “Annaliese, Scytale has a lie detection skill, and I ensured your room had a private kitchen. You’ve also passed at least five smaller kitchens on the way to this room. I saw you skulking along the hallways the entire time.”

Annaliese shrunk down on the couch. “I… had a nightmare…?”

The look of utter disdain that appeared on the face of Lucy made the girl go pink and she angrily put the pillow down on her lap. “Alright, so I came here to find you! So what?! You shouldn’t make me feel bad about that!”

“It was all you that made you feel bad about that,” Lucille pointed out.

The blonde-haired girl glared at her. “No, it was you!”

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to go find Sir Albrecht to send you back to bed?”

Annaliese scowled, but Scytale let out a yawn. “Leave her alone, Lucy. If you keep going then Annaliese’s shouts will wake up everyone else.”

Lucille narrowed her eyes at her bond. “It seems someone else needs to be sent to bed.”

Scytale hurriedly covered his mouth to hide his yawn. “No, no, I’m fine, perfectly fine.”

Lucy huffed but leaned back on the couch. She sighed and gestured to the Prophetess. “Any particular reason why you came here late at night instead of the day? We might’ve possibly been asleep already.”

Annaliese gained a slightly awkward look. “Well… I thought that maybe I could talk to you without Sir Albrecht overhearing…”

Lucy glanced in the direction of the door as she could sense with her perception field that a very tired and cross-looking Paladin was marching towards her living room. She sent Annaliese a flat look. “You failed to consider the fact that a Rank-5 Paladin, someone with an Ancient class, doesn’t even need to sleep for three whole months.”

The blonde-haired girl stared at her. Then she buried her head into the pillow. “…he’s coming here, isn’t he?”

Lucille nodded silently. Annaliese groaned and Lucy raised an eyebrow at her. “Why did you bring the pillow with you?”

The girl frowned and tucked the pillow under her chin. “It’s comfy.”

“Yup. The Commission’s pillows are great,” Scytale replied, laying back on the couch with a pillow of his own under his head.

Lucille shook her head wryly. “If you say so. But I’m still curious as to what you wanted to discuss with me.”

Annaliese hesitated. She looked at the door, then at Lucy. “It’s just… do you really not want to see me again?”

Lucy gazed silently at her for a moment, and then sighed. “Look, Annaliese. You’re one of the most famous figures of a Supreme Institution known for destroying kingdoms with only a twist of Fate essence. It’s risky, for both you and me, to see each other.”

The Prophetess opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked upset, but then a very stupid snake decided to open his mouth.

“Don’t listen to what she says, Annaliese. Lucy already expected you to come back and has made heaps of plans to stop politics stuff from happening so you can keep coming here all you want-”

“Scytale!” Lucy interrupted, glaring at him.

The silver-haired boy shifted back into his serpent form and hastily sped towards the kitchen. “I’ll see you later!”

Lucille ran a hand down her face as Annaliese’s eyes widened. “You knew I’d come back?”

Lucy gazed wearily at the girl. “…what will you do if I say yes?”

Annaliese beamed. “Then I’ll have to use that knowledge so I can find out all your secrets, like your age!”

“My tip is to start with Vincent if that’s your goal. He knows almost as much as you do about Lucy,” the incredibly idiotic serpent interjected, sticking his snout around the kitchen doorway.

Lucy’s eyes widened and she stormed after the snake. “That’s it! I’ve had it with you!” Arcane Ball spells spun above her palms as she chased Scytale around the room. “Get back here, you foul loose-tongued beast, so I can finally knock some sense into you!”

“Those won’t knock sense into me, they’ll knock my brains out!”

“You think you have more than one puny, pitiful excuse for a thinking organ in there?!”

“It’s a turn of phrase!”

Annaliese smiled as she watched them argue, amused by Lucille’s reaction. Both Lucy and Scytale ran out into the kitchen, leaving her alone. Annaliese stood up, prepared to follow them, but…

…an armoured hand clamped down on her shoulder. She yelped and nervously looked back to see the scowling face of Sir Jasten Albrecht gazing at her.

“You, young girl, are coming with me.”

It seemed the Prophetess had her own enemy to run away from.

----------------------------------------

-The next day-

A blonde-haired girl walked through the hallways of the Commission, with Sir Albrecht and her brother following behind. She nervously glanced at the Paladin now and then, making his eyes narrow with suspicion, but nothing happened for a while as they headed to where they’d be having lunch.

Something finally occurred when they crossed paths with a snake in human form casually whistling as he walked. Scytale stopped and grinned when he saw them.

“It’s the Prophetess, her guard, and my wonderful test subject! I’m so glad to see you again, especially you, Raegan!”

Raegan scowled and quickly turned to take another corridor. “I’m not dealing with him.”

Sir Albrecht frowned and glanced between his two wards. He sighed and followed Raegan. “Raegan, you can’t just walk off without me. Come back here.” He turned and pointed to Annaliese. “You stay here for a moment.”

She nodded with a smile. “Yes, Sir Albrecht!”

The Paladin walked off, looking for Raegan, and Scytale let out several ‘tuts’ as he shook his head.

“Am I that scary?” the snake asked.

Annaliese glanced to the side where Jasten Albrecht had walked off, then quickly ran up to Scytale. She cupped a hand around her mouth as she leaned to whisper into his ear. “Scytale, can I ask you for a favour? Could you please go make Raegan angry so he chases you and distracts Sir Albrecht for a bit?”

Scytale blinked and then smirked. He gave her a thumbs up. “No worries. I was going to do that anyway!” He ran off after Raegan and Sir Albrecht.

“That’s good!” Annaliese called out. Then she hesitated. “At least I think that’s good.” She looked around to make sure nobody was near and then set off on a walk. “Now, where would Vincent be…”

…

“Vincent!”

The silver-haired man with a stack of papers in his arms blinked and turned around when he heard her voice. He shifted his silver half-moon glasses as he saw her. “Miss Verdon? Shouldn’t you be with your guard?”

“Sir Albrecht went after my brother, so he can’t right now,” Annaliese casually explained, walking beside him.

“Hmmm…” Vincent eyed her unsurely. “But now there’s nobody to attend you, Miss Verdon.”

She shrugged. “Then you’ll just have to attend me for now.”

He gave her a bemused look but shook his head wryly and continued walking. “I won’t be able to stay with you for long, however. I need to pass these to Lucille in a few minutes.”

“That’s fine,” Annaliese said with a nod.

They walked in comfortable silence for a while as Annaliese pondered over what to say. Eventually, she began with, “On the topic of Lucille… I wanted to talk to you about her for a moment.”

Vincent paused and shot her an odd look. “About Lucille? That is… an interesting request. I’m not quite sure how I can help you with that.”

“Well… Scytale told me you know as much about her as I do, sort of,” Annaliese explained. “I wanted to know what you thought about her secret.”

The silver-haired man’s steps slowed to a complete stop. He turned to face her, regarding her silently. Then he smirked. “I will say that is a discussion I am very interested to have. There’s only one Lucille, after all, and her secret is… one of the rarer kinds among the realms.”

Annaliese smiled. “Maybe even the rarest.”

“Indeed.” Vincent nodded. He gave her a curious look. “When did Lucy tell you about it?”

Annaliese hummed in thought. “She never really tried to hide it. Now that I think back, there were many clues that could point to her identity.”

Vincent chuckled and began walking again. “Yes, she has always presented herself in a very distinct way.”

Annaliese, feeling happy that she could talk to Vincent about Lucy, walked with him. “It explains how she knows so much too! I feel like any time I ask a question she always has an answer.”

“Well, she seemed to have an interesting work history at least,” Vincent commented. “A professor of the Academy and a former mercenary…”

“Professor? Wasn’t she an Admiral?” Annaliese asked with confusion.

Vincent stopped to stare at her. “Sorry? An Admiral? And Admiral of what?”

“The Distorted Depths! That was when she became a battlemage!” Annaliese replied. Then she hesitated and tilted her head. “Did… she never tell you that? Actually, I never heard that she was a professor or mercenary…”

“…no, she never told me she was a former Admiral…” Vincent muttered.

Their conversation stopped for a minute as they walked in silence. Vincent had a pensive expression, and the atmosphere didn’t feel quite right. Annaliese shook her head and decided to change the subject slightly. “But I can’t believe there’s even two of them! Scytale only told me recently that he’s the same!”

“Ah yes, Lucy’s bond informed me that it was his young body influencing his actions that made him seem immature,” Vincent recalled. “They make quite the pair.”

“That explains a lot! Still, I’d like to know what kind of things they’ve seen,” Annaliese mused. “It must be pretty amazing.”

Vincent cocked an eyebrow at her. “It could hardly be much different from now, can it? The Empire has stayed the same for millennia.”

Annaliese quickly shook her head. “Yes, but they even know the outcome of the Millennium Chapter! I thought only I as the Prophetess should know that.”

Vincent stopped on the spot. It was so abrupt that Annaliese continued past him for a second before blinking and realising he wasn’t moving. She turned to face him. “Vincent?”

Vincent gazed at her strangely. “Miss Verdon, how could Lucy possibly…” He hesitated, then frowned and held his chin. He looked back up. “Miss Verdon, are there… any more details about Lucy that I might possibly not know, such as the Admiral information?”

Annaliese blinked, feeling confused, but thought about it. “Uh… well… because she’s ‘dead’ to Fate, that was the whole reason why I never knew she was coming?” she answered hesitantly. “She even expected it, which allowed her to use her knowledge to guess the Paladins wouldn’t pick me up until a week later. The ‘secret’ is the entire reason why my brother could be saved.”

Vincent went silent again. “I… have the distinct feeling, Miss Verdon, that the secrets we both think we know about Lucille are not the same,” he replied quietly.

Annaliese didn’t know how to respond. They stayed silent, until Vincent coughed and gestured to her with his free hand. “Then… let’s share our ‘secrets’ to see what we’re both talking about. You go first, and I’ll tell you mine straight after. We should do it while your guard isn’t here.”

Annaliese nodded. “I’m talking about the fact she’s a time traveller of course! She came back from the future, which is how she found me! Isn’t that what she told you?” She registered the blank stare from Vincent and tilted her head hesitantly. “Was… that not what she told you? What about your ‘secret’?”

“I believe my ‘secret’ is a lot less interesting than yours, Miss Verdon,” Vincent slowly replied in a tight voice. He adjusted his glasses as he continued to stare at her.

“Umm…” Annaliese blinked. “Then what did she tell you?”

“…that she’s two hundred and forty-nine years old.”

They continued staring at each other for a few more minutes. Then Annaliese looked down the hallway she came from, looked at the hallway leading towards Lucille’s office, and looked back at Vincent.

And then she turned bright red with anger. “I knew she was treating me as a kid!” She picked up her dress and began running down the hallway. “Lucille!”

Vincent glanced down at the documents in his arms, then swiftly threw them over one shoulder. He stormed off after Annaliese with a dark look on his face as he muttered, “I want to see how she’ll try to explain herself this time.”