“Sedric, is this really-” Hargrave stopped to cough as dust fell from the roof above them due to their footsteps. “…your house?” he finished weakly.

Scytale was curiously inspecting the shelves as Sedric sighed and walked behind the front benchtop. “It is. Lucille met me here a few months ago and offered me the opportunity to become her crafter. I eventually accepted.”

The ponytailed man scratched his neck. “I haven’t bothered to collect any of my stuff from here yet because she can buy me better stuff, but I thought I might finally check it all to see if there’s anything I want to keep. I was going to just ask Lucille to find someone to bring it all to me, but…” He directed a stare at the innocuous snake sneakily playing with the random gadgets around the place. “Someone said he wanted to come here.”

Hargrave looked around with his arms crossed, his head bent slightly so he could fit in the room. “But why did you live… here?” Then he hesitated. “Unless… you weren’t able to find someplace better to live…”

“Look, this place may be decrepit, but I wasn’t that broke,” Sedric stated flatly. “I wouldn’t have been in the upper end of society, but with the money and resources left to me, I still could’ve been part of the average to lower part of the middle class.” He frowned as he looked around. “My grandfather… the guy who left this place and the Legendary class to me was just more than a little not right in the head.”

Sedric marched up the stairs to go find the rest of his stuff. “Wait down there. I won’t be long.”

Scytale obviously wasn’t going to listen so he turned into his shrunken serpent form and flew up the stairs. “Woo! Secret hunting! Let’s go!”

“What? No- hey! Scytale?! I told you to stay down there!”

“Neener neener ner ner! You can’t catch me!”

Hargrave seemed to hesitate over listening to Sedric and respecting his wishes to stay on the first floor, or following them to ensure nothing happened to them. After a brief moment, he walked around the bench and came to the foot of the sunken stairs, eyeing them warily as if wondering whether they’d hold his weight. For Sedric it was fine, but those stairs weren’t exactly made to hold an over 100kg mercenary.

Upstairs, Sedric was busy trying to drag a certain amphiptere out of his box of random jewellery bits that he kept on hand to enchant.

“Oooh, shiny. Are these pearls real?” The winged snake flicked his tongue near the large white beads and promptly hissed at them. “Bah. They’re fakes! I always knew you were a fraud, Sedric!”

The crafter gave the snake an unimpressed look as he grabbed Scytale’s silver tail and tried to pull him out of the large chest. “I was kind of trying to make a living. An enchanted necklace made of real pearls would be worth more than what my clients would buy it for. Now, get out so I can start packing this stuff into my dimensional skill and additional dimensional bags Lucille gave me.”

Scytale flapped his large white-gold wings, obnoxiously causing small gems and beads to spray everywhere. Sedric covered his head to avoid being showered in the things.

“I don’t want to! I’m now the guardian beast of this treasure trove, and I claim this lair as my own.” He turned around and flared his wings once Sedric lost his grip on the tail. “What is a mere crafter going to do when faced with the Great Scytale now, hm? I’ll only release my lair if you defeat me in fair combat!”

Sedric stared incredulously. “I’m a crafter for goodness sake! How am I supposed to defeat you in ‘fair combat’?!”

Scytale shuffled his wings in an approximation of a shrug as if to say, ‘Not my problem’. Around his neck hung a thick heavy gold chain he had snuck on and a ‘crown’ in the form of a ruby-encrusted ring sat on his head. “Life is just unfair sometimes.”

“Do not give me tha-”

A loud crash and muffled curse startled the snake and crafter.

“Blighted-”

They looked behind them to find the source of the noise and Sedric quickly dashed over to the doorway to peer around it. He stared when he saw what had happened.

Scytale snuck around Sedric’s feet to see, his precious adornments still present, and let out a fake whistle with his mental transmission. “Seems like your building isn’t exactly up to code, Sedric. Hey Hargrave, you alright down there? Did any splinters get through your thick skin?”

The scarlet-haired man shot Scytale a flat look at the wording but sighed and shook his head. He was sitting on the ground on a pile of collapsed stairs with brooms and other cleaning supplies surrounding him as it was obvious he had fallen into the room under the stairwell. He dusted his palms and then stood up, brushing wood chips, sawdust and other bits and pieces out of his hair… or tried to at least. His expression darkened as he tried to extract them from his messy hair only to find more a few seconds later.

The irritation got to him and he roughly ruffled his hair, trying to shake all the chips out. When he finally threw his head back to get his hair out of his face it was sticking up in twenty thousand places it shouldn’t be, making him scowl.

“Uh… Hargrave?” Sedric called down.

“It’s- I’m fine,” the man said with another sigh. He placed his hands on his hips and looked around. “Was this the cleaning cupboard?”

“Yeah. I didn’t even plan on going in there,” Sedric said with a strange expression. He leaned over the edge to see how far of a drop there was. “But now I’m wondering how we’re going to get down.”

“What do you mean? It’s easy!” Scytale jumped down with his wings spread and glided to the ground next to Hargrave. He turned around and flapped his wings proudly. “See? All a superior species needs to do is use their natural talents. Oh, that’s right, I forgot you’re only a puny, pathetic mortal Sedric.”

Sedric glared at him. “Why do you pick on me all the time?! Hargrave hasn’t got wings either!”

Scytale turned to look at the tall ex-mercenary as if considering it for a second. He turned back to Sedric. “Nah, he’s going to end up with wings soon enough, so he’s okay in my books.”

“What? Why would Hargrave gain wings?”

“Because he’s going to-” Scytale’s words were interrupted by a very cross ex-mercenary picking him up and holding his head so the snake could see Hargrave’s amber eyes staring at him. The snake hesitated. “I mean, he might-”

“Scytale,” Hargrave growled.

The amphiptere shut up. He coughed and flapped his wings as he wriggled out of Hargrave’s grasp and flew to the floor. “Hargrave can fight but you can’t, so he’s just better than you. Anyhow, need help getting down?”

Sedric frowned and looked down at them. The stairs had completely collapsed from the third highest step downwards, so he was trapped. He looked behind him and groaned. “Just… let me pack up the rest of my stuff and then we can work this out. If I go down there I’m never coming back up here again.”

The other two nodded as he left, spending around fifteen minutes to put everything away. When Sedric came back he stared at the odd sight of a winged snake thrashing about on the ground as Hargrave kept a booted foot on one of the floorboards, his arms crossed. “…what are you doing?” the crafter asked.

“Let. Me. Open. Secret. Door! I. Want. Secret!” Scytale complained.

A second look allowed Sedric to see that the snake had actually wound part of his body around a large metal ring bolted to the ground and was trying to use his wings to pull on it. Hargrave was keeping his foot firmly on the floor, preventing the snake from accessing whatever it was that he wanted to open.

“Scytale found what looks to be another door down here, but I didn’t want to let him open it without your permission,” Hargrave stated flatly.

“…thanks for that.” Sedric frowned as he glanced at the square door and then looked around for a way to climb down. “But… I didn’t know the cleaning cupboard had a trapdoor. It must’ve been hidden behind the supplies.”

“See Hargrave? There’s a secret here!” Scytale said, stopping his motions to look up at the scarlet-haired man. “That’s why you need to let me open it! I can even taste the mystery in the air right now!” He flickered his tongue.

Hargrave sighed, not bothering to respond to the snake’s words. He didn’t remove his foot, causing Scytale to mimic the sound of clicking his tongue and transform into his human form. He groaned as he tried to pull on the ring but couldn’t do a thing.

“Hargrave, how heavy are you? As a magical beast opening this thing should be a piece of cake for me!” The humanoid snake paused and then pointed at the ex-mercenary. “Actually, this whole thing is your fault in the first place! The stairs broke because you tried to climb them, didn’t you?!”

Hargrave rubbed his temples and ignored Scytale’s attempts to argue with him. They paused and looked up at the top of the broken stairs when they heard a strangely high-pitched scream.

Sedric was frantically moving his feet as he tried to look for a foothold, only his hands gripping the edge of the stairs. He yelled when his grip started slipping and then he dropped to the first floor, landing on his back. He let out a pained groan.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Scytale walked over and then crouched, raising an eyebrow at him. “Wow, Sedric. I didn’t know you had such a high vocal range. You could learn to mimic girls’ voices if you practice some more.”

“Shut up,” Sedric muttered darkly. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up with a grunt. When he finally got onto his feet he brushed the dust off of him and looked at the floor. “Alright. Point me to this ‘secret door’ or whatever.”

Hargrave stepped off of the square floorboard and Scytale backed away, allowing Sedric to see the silver ring bolted to the trapdoor.

Sedric kneeled near it and inspected the hoop, noticing the metal rings with perpendicular rotation around the hoop’s length. He smirked and let it drop to the ground, then turned to Scytale. “Ha, you wouldn’t have been able to open it even if Hargrave let you. It’s got a lock mechanism on the loop, fooling you into thinking it’s just a normal metal handle.”

“I already knew that. I’m not stupid,” Scytale said.

Sedric narrowed his eyes at the snake. “Then why did you act so dramatically before?”

“To make things more interesting,” Scytale replied with a shrug.

Sedric rolled his eyes and turned back to the loop to pick it up, fiddling with the mechanism. The rings lined up to form an acronym of his class name, ‘Runestarred Arcane Inaugurator’, and then glowed blue as it activated. A click sounded and the door lifted slightly, revealing it was unlocked.

“That was quick,” Scytale said with surprise.

“It’s my grandfather’s work. He put these locks on all his stuff because supposedly he had never told anyone his class name. Even I only found out when I inherited the class.” Sedric frowned. “Lucille somehow still knew it though.”

The humanoid snake looked away and whistled, making Sedric glare at him, but then the crafter sighed and lifted the door. He pulled a small boxy item out of his pocket and pressed a button that made it glow with bright light. He threw it down, nodding when he saw the distance to the ground and the ladder, then climbed down. “Time to see what new mess my gramps left for me.”

Scytale changed to his snake form to fly down and follow Sedric in. Hargrave crouched outside the entrance and looked down, waiting patiently.

Sedric raised an eyebrow as he saw the workbenches filled with strange rusty gadgets and corkboards pinned with plans and documents of some kind. On one wall the only thing visible was a lever behind a clear case that seemed to be locked. A skull symbol was on the top of the case.

Scytale narrowed his slitted eyes at the wall. “I want to pull that lever.”

“You will touch nothing.” Sedric went up to a workbench and picked up what looked like a half-finished item, holding it up close to his eye. “Dammit. I wish I brought my goggles.”

“Why would you want those ugly things? To look like a fly for eternity? Just get some new fancy magnifying glass or something.”

“They may have a terrible design but they’re actually an artifact,” Sedric retorted, placing the object back down. He kneeled to look under the workbench and see if there was anything else there then stood back up to turn around. “I can’t make heads or tails of what this stuff is. I knew my grandfather was half-mad before he even found me but it’s like each item here is a fusion of twenty different blueprints in whatever order he wanted-”

“Everything alright?”

“Eeep!”

Sedric jumped and placed a hand on his racing heart as he stared at the intimidating man with scarlet hair in front of him, his amber eyes flashing ominously in the darkness. “Hargrave?! You scared the crap out of me!” Sedric exclaimed. “Why do you have to have such creepy-looking eyes in the dark?!”

Hargrave frowned and put a hand up to his face. “My eyes…?”

“Hey, leave Hargrave alone and come check out the corkboards,” Scytale interrupted. He gestured to one of them with his tail. “I’d like to say that for a magical beast I’m well above average in literary ability, but is this stuff just crafter gobbledygook that common plebs like me can’t understand?”

Sedric walked past Hargrave and crossed his arms as he looked up at the blueprints, diagrams and sketches, a slight frown on his face. “…I can’t read this either,” he finally replied.

“Oh great, so it’s not just me who’s stupid. Wait a second, most of Lucy’s blueprints you can’t read anyway! What use is knowing that you can’t read this?!”

“-but I recognise the symbols,” Sedric continued. “My grandfather wrote everything crafting related in this text. As a kid, he just told me it was a different language, but the System translates all languages of Users so I’m pretty sure this is in code or something.”

“Blegh, you useless crafter. You should’ve learnt all your grandfather’s secrets while he was still alive! What good is being the grandson of a Legendary crafter if you don’t… wait.” Scytale stared at one of the diagrams on the board, and then switched his gaze to another one. He jumped off the bench and turned around, changing into his human form.

Sedric cocked an eyebrow. “Scytale?”

The humanoid snake gained an unusual look on his face for a moment before he turned to look at the pictures pinned to the second wall. He leaned down to look at one of the items on the benches. “…don’t tell me…” he muttered.

Sedric rolled his eyes. “If this is just another one of your attempts at being dramatic, please don’t bother.”

Scytale coughed and turned around. “Uh… anyway, if this is all in code, then I suggest going to Lucy about it. She’s good at working out this sort of thing.”

“I guess I’ll do that.” Sedric looked around again. “She’d have a better idea of what half the things in here are used for.” He grabbed the dimensional bag attached to his belt and rolled his shoulders, getting ready to pack it all away. “Move out of the way so I can collect all this stuff.”

“Sure thing…” Scytale’s words trailed off as something small and shiny caught his eye. Realising what it was, he quickly snatched it and put his hands in his pockets.

Sedric glanced over his shoulder with suspicion at the snake’s silence. “Scytale, what are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing~” The silver-haired boy began to slowly gravitate towards the wall with the lever.

Hargrave eyed the snake warily as Sedric returned to putting everything away. Once he was finally done he paused when he heard the evil snickers coming from a certain snake. Sedric spun around to stare at the boy who had managed to unlock the glass case of the lever with a key.

“Muhahaha! I have unsealed the weapon of mass destruction!” Scytale grinned wickedly.

Sedric scowled. “Scytale, don’t you dare-”

“Or you’ll do what?” Scytale asked smugly, propping his chin up with his elbow resting on the block the lever was sticking out of.

“Hargrave!” Sedric hissed.

Hargrave slowly began to move, ready to pull the snake away but then Scytale placed a finger on the lever. “Hargrave, if you move, then I’ll really push it!” he said with malicious glee.

Hargrave scowled as well and Scytale burst out laughing. “Come off it, do you guys really believe I’d push something this suspicious? It’s almost screaming ‘death trap, here I am’-”

Scytale’s elbow slipped and pushed the lever down with a click. His grin froze. “…oops.”

The other two stared at him in silent shock until the whole house began to rumble. Hargrave’s eyes widened and he pulled Sedric under a desk as Scytale enlarged himself and covered them all with his wings. “Watch out!”

The roof caved in on them as the whole house collapsed.

…

Three pairs of coughs sounded as ceramic roof tiles and planks of rotten wood were pushed away to reveal a scarlet-haired man, a ponytailed crafter, and one silver-haired young boy with hair sticking up at off angles. Scytale heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness we’re all safe.”

Hargrave and Sedric slowly turned to stare at him. Scytale blinked back. “What?”

“You destroyed my house,” Sedric stated.

Scytale thought about it for a moment. “It needed to be put out of its misery anyway.”

“Scytale, you destroyed my house!”

The humanoid snake yawned. “Man, I’m tired. Must’ve been because of all that effort I put into pushing the lever.”

Sedric’s expression slowly became unnervingly calm. Scytale flinched when he saw the crafter’s face.

“I am going to kill you,” Sedric said.

Scytale didn’t waste a moment and changed out of his human form to fly down the street. Sedric scrambled out of the rubble and bolted after the snake at full speed.

“That’s it! That was the last straw, Scytale! Come here so I can throttle you and regain some peace of mind!”

“I’ll decline your generous offer, but thank you! Also, why aren’t you questioning why your house had a self-destruct lever?!”

“The self-destruct lever that you pushed!”

“Minor details!”

Hargrave looked around at the devastation and shook his head, getting up from the rubble. After checking to see if anyone was around, he shrugged and began to follow after Sedric and Scytale at a leisurely pace, likely aware that they’d tire out before long.

Feeling highly amused, Lucy finally removed her perception field from them and stepped onto the teleportation array that would take her to the first unranked plane she would visit since her return. But she received an interesting message from her bond before she left.

‘Hey, when were you going to tell me that Sedric’s the literal grandson of a rebel organisation leader?!’

She didn’t look back as the world twisted and bent around her.

It seems that the things they found in Sedric’s basement were a lot more incriminating than I first thought. But it serves Scytale right for all those times he ignored my explanations.

…

Lucille propped her chin up as she watched the town’s traffic pass underneath her balcony in the late afternoon. She stirred her tea and took a sip as she raised her eyes to look at the dark green pine forest outside the town, growing from rolling hills.

Now, I doubt it would work if I went around asking for a place like that, as he’s very protective of his children, but if he’s interested enough in me then he’ll find some way to lead me to him. He’ll already be aware that I’m in this town, after all.

She sighed and looked up at the sky.

If I assume the appearance he likes to use reflects the position he holds then what I’m looking for should be… a manor. I suppose it’s unlikely someone of his status would choose to live in an ordinary building, even with his approachable personality.

She shook her head and stood up from the table on the balcony, her tea finished.

I have no reason to draw this out, so I’ll let him know I want to meet him as soon as possible. Then we’ll go our separate ways and never meet again.

Lucille descended the stairs and made it to the bottom story of the café. After thanking the owner she placed her hands behind her back and whistled, walking through the streets. Soon she discovered someone was following her, although… it wasn’t anyone connected to the person she came to meet.

“Lady!”

Hearing the call, Lucy stopped and let the young boy run up to her. His clothes were scuffed, he had dirt on his face, and he only appeared ten years old, but he wasn’t overly skinny or injured in places, so he was being treated well. She leaned down so she could listen to him.

“Are you a visitor from another kingdom?” the boy asked brightly. “I’ve never seen clothes like yours before!”

“You could say that,” Lucille said with a smile. “I’m just visiting the town for a day. But if things go well then I might stay here longer.”

“I can be your tour guide if you wish! I know how to get around the town!” Then he fiddled with his hands. “Although… I’d like to be paid if I can…”

“Hmm… well, unfortunately, I don’t really need a tour guide. But,” she said, before the boy became too disappointed. “I’m thinking of buying a house in this town, so if you can take me to someone who might know the best places then I’ll happily follow you.” She took a bronze crown out of her dimensional bag and tossed it to him. “And that’s half of your payment.”

The boy grinned. “Yeah! I mean, right this way, Lady!”

Lucy followed the bubbly boy, who began to tell her about all the people he knew, their problems, every sketchy alley, which nobles liked people and which didn’t, the food they had for breakfast a fortnight ago and any other random detail that flitted through his scatterbrained head. They almost went past their stop until the boy recognised the place and pointed to the medium-sized building in front.

“Here we are! Lots of people come to this place if they want to know something,” the boy explained. “Many people come here if you want to buy a house, too. They might know about a place for you.”

“Well then, thank you very much, young sir.” She smiled and threw him the second coin. “Your second payment.”

“I hope you decide to live here!” he replied happily, running off into some alleyway to brag about his gains to his friends.

Lucy turned back to the building and hummed, then walked inside. A bell above the door announced her arrival and a man walked through a back door to meet her at the desk. “Ah, a new face. Haven’t had one of those here for a while,” he said with surprise.

“I was referred here by a young boy,” Lucille explained. “I wanted to see if I could buy a house in this town.”

“Well, I might know something,” the man mused. He gestured for her to follow him to one side of the desk as he flipped open a book and scanned it. “Here’s where I have a list of all the places the people I know are selling, so tell me if something catches your eye.”

Lucy waited patiently and treated the man as if she were a real customer. After a while, she tapped her fingers against the desk. “It’s unfortunate that there’s no house in the forest. It seems like nobody lives there judging by all the houses you have listed here.”

“The forest?” He looked up with a strange expression. “Technically there is, I guess, but it’s not for sale nor would I sell it to anyone. It’s a good hour walk away from the town, with no clear path and would probably collapse if a bird landed on its roof.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is the view good from where the house is? I can’t think of any other reason why they’d build it so far from other people.”

“It’s a manor,” he corrected. “And I remember it having a good view, but the last time I went there was fifteen years ago when I was hanging out with teenage friends who all wanted to see if the rumour that it was haunted was true, so… I can’t say I have up to date info.” He pointed out the front window of the shop, straight ahead. “It’s that way from what I remember. You could check it out if you want. Everyone in this town considers visiting the manor as a sort of ‘rite of passage’ of some kind.” He smirked. “Who knows, if you do buy a house here then you might be accepted here sooner because of that.”

She smiled. “I have fancied the idea of a nice walk in the forest ever since I came here. I might just do that. But first…” She placed a handful of silver crowns on the bench. “Payment for your time.”

He nodded. “A pleasure, my Lady.”

After saying goodbye, she took a deep breath and began walking in the direction he mentioned. She was somewhat curious to know what the life of her ‘acquaintance’ was like before the time when she had met him.

…

Passing through a section of tall trees and undergrowth, she looked up and paused when she saw the large clearing ahead. Her perception field had been turned off for politeness’ sake.

The manor was sitting at the end of a long road with neat hedges on either side. It didn’t look abandoned in the slightest, and was made of dark wood and brick. Smoke was escaping the chimneys on the roof. It looked like it had three floors and possibly an attic. A wooden fence bordered the manor, its gate opposite her.

When she stepped onto the road and walked down it a bit, she spotted the figure of a young girl at the opposite end of the road, wearing her blonde hair in pigtails. She was in a pink dress and had her feet on the lowest section of the fence so she could see over it. She froze slightly when she made eye contact with Lucy and then jumped down to run to the manor. Then she opened one of the two double doors, slipped inside, and shut it.

That was one of his kids, I assume. She’s rather brave for someone who was supposed to have never seen a stranger approaching the manor in her entire life.

Lucille paused when a second figure opened the front door and leaned against the banister with his arms crossed, observing her. Knowing that this was the person she had come to meet, she kept walking towards the manor at a casual pace. When she came to the closed gate she gave him a smile and a wave.

He blinked and then seemed to chuckle. With a gesture of his hand, the gate unlatched and swung open.

I take it that’s permission to enter.

She stepped onto the neatly cut grass lawn and approached the man. When she came to the front steps she placed a hand on her chest in an Empire salute.

“Good afternoon, sir,” she said calmly.

He tilted his head and smiled. “Good afternoon to you too, young lady. It’s a surprise to see you here. We don’t get many guests at this manor.”

Lucy smiled back and nodded. “I don’t want to bother you for long. But is it possible I may discuss something with you? I believe it’s important for you to hear.”

“I haven’t even heard your name yet though,” he said with slight amusement. Then he walked down the stairs. “But where are my manners? I haven’t introduced myself either.” He placed a hand on his chest and bowed slightly. “My name is Lucius Erebus Farrow.”

Lucy held out a gloved hand for him to shake. “…I’m Lucille,” she replied with a smile. She didn’t need to give him her full name, and… she wanted to make it clear that she was here for reasons unrelated to her identity.

Lucy took a moment to observe Lucius Erebus Farrow, one of her few ‘friends’ outside of subordinates that she knew in the former timeline.