“Scytale!”

The snake, who was curled up below the table in Lucille’s living room, lazily opened one eye to peer at the blonde-haired girl who had marched into the room. Her blond guard was leaning against the back wall in his normal position. “Hi, Annaliese. Back again?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Where is Lucy? I know she’s been avoiding me! I haven’t been able to find her all day!”

“Sure says something about someone’s ego when their first thought, if they can’t find someone, is that they must be avoiding them…” Scytale muttered. He coughed and moved on before Annaliese registered what he had said. “Lucy isn’t even in the Commission Headquarters. She’s busy doing important noble-y work where she either screws someone over or ends up embarrassing someone so they become completely compliant.” He opened his mouth to yawn. “Eh, it’s probably both.”

“Wait… she’s not here at all?” Annaliese asked, stunned. When Scytale nodded she frowned and sat down on the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees. “But then how can I ask what I need to?”

“She’s on her way back, so just be patient, but…” The amphiptere tilted his head. “Do you have something important to ask? Like a request? Not sure what you’d need Lucy for when you’re the oh-so-mighty Prophetess of the Citadel and all that.”

“It’s about… politics…. I think…” She hesitated. “I didn’t bring it up last time because I was wondering how to discuss it, but I need to talk to Lucy before the Great Sage does something…”

“Urgh, it’s to do with the Great Sage? Never mind, I don’t want to help you.” He turned away and pretended to go back to sleep.

“Hey!” Annaliese scowled. “Don’t be mean about it!”

“…fiiiiine.” With a sigh, he turned back around and raised himself to tilt his head at her. “So, what politically icky thing do you need Lucy for?”

“Well…” Annaliese straightened out her legs and flattened her dress. “Gidelis Annador wants me to persuade Lucy to allow a subdivision of the Citadel to be built here.”

“Stretching out his greedy hands to access this goldmine of a city too, I see.” Scytale flickered his tongue. “He’s got to know that Lucy isn’t ‘allowed’ to do anything without Vincent’s permission though, right? I mean, that’s the whole impression Lucy has purposely tried to give everyone.”

The Prophetess nodded. “He just wants me to discuss it. I think he wants to see whether Vincent is going to do anything.”

“Huh. Well, if Vincent had his way, everyone from other planes, realms and Factions would be kicked out of Gilded Seat so he doesn’t have to deal with any politically volatile situations.” The winged snake shrugged.

The blonde-haired girl blinked. “Even me?”

“Yup. Sedric and Hargrave too. Sedric is a Legendary crafter and Hargrave is… well…”

“…is Hargrave important somehow?” she asked with suspicion.

The snake let out a fake cough and hastily turned away to avoid her even more suspicious gaze. “N-Now now, it’s not up to me to reveal other people’s secrets. Let’s return to you needing Lucy to accept your request.” He paused to consider something. “Does she need to accept your request? Or will the Great Old Fart- I mean, Sage be happy with just a ‘no’?”

Annaliese nearly grinned when she heard Scytale’s slip with his words but shook his head. “The thing is… I’ve kind of put it off for nearly two months… and if he waited all this time to find out Lucy eventually said no, I’m worried it will make him annoyed at Lucy.”

Scytale gave her a big nod and then flapped his wings boisterously. “Well, lucky for you, I am the majestic bond of the Aurelian Commission Head, and I have access to her innermost thoughts. I can assure you that Lucy in all her scheming capability has already planned on organising something like this, so you can go ahead and filch off her immensely rich coffers all you want!”

“What’s this?”

Annaliese and Scytale turned around to see a dark-haired woman walk in, a strange expression on her face as she gazed at her bond. “Why would I ever give her money and what for?”

Annaliese stood up. “Lucy! You’re back!”

“Yes, I am.” Lucille sat down on her couch with a sigh and reached for the brass jug on the table. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sipped it before raising an eyebrow at the Prophetess who sat opposite her. “It seems you have a request to make to me, something involving my finances?”

Annaliese thought for a moment and became confused. She turned to the snake who had switched to his humanoid form and decided to sit on the edge of the coffee table. “Scytale, why would it be money I’d need from Lucy?”

“Before you ask my bond anything, I’d rather be informed about what this request is,” Lucille interrupted.

The Paladin leaning against the back wall straightened up and walked forward. “Commission Head, it may be best if I explain the situation,” Jasten Albrecht interjected.

Lucy smirked. “Ah, so this is something involving the Citadel instead of just a selfish request of the young girl sitting opposite me.”

Annaliese glared at her. “Why are you picking on me right after seeing me for the first time this month?”

“…young girl? Count Goldcroft…” Jasten gave her a strange look. “Aren’t you only two years older than the Prophetess?”

Lucy gazed dully at the armoured man while Annaliese blinked and then slowly grinned. Scytale burst out laughing and Lucille shot her bond a glare. She pressed a gloved hand to her temple. “I’m… not… never mind.” She sighed, shook her head, and gestured to the Paladin. “What are the details surrounding this request?”

Sir Albrecht nodded and came up beside Annaliese. “His Eminence Great Sage Gidelis Annador tasked Prophetess Verdon with requesting that a subdivision of the Citadel be built in Gilded Seat.”

Lucy blinked. “Ah. I see.” She raised an eyebrow and glanced at the blonde-haired girl next to him. “I only caught the tail-end of your conversation in my perception field, but… nearly two months since he asked this? I doubt that you were actually using that whole time to think about how to approach me with this. You forgot to ask me last time, didn’t you?”

“Er… no…” Annaliese sheepishly avoided eye contact.

Lucy smirked and crossed her arms as she leaned back in her seat. “As luck would have it, I had envisioned a request like this being put forward eventually. It’s surprising timing, however, considering that my external debut will be in late June. But perhaps he wants to use my debut as an opportunity to demonstrate how the Citadel has ‘ties’ with the Commission.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Non-existent ties. The Aurelian Commission is neutral, and we like to avoid any forces with close connections to Olden like the Citadel of Fate.”

“But aren’t I considered a ‘tie’ you have with the Citadel?” Annaliese asked while pointing at herself.

Lucy considered it for a moment as she studied the girl. She gave her a dismissive wave of the hand. “You have no agency or political know-how whatsoever, so you’re irrelevant.”

Annaliese pouted as Lucille placed a hand on her chin and hummed. “But the question now would be where the subdivision would go…” She paused and turned to her bond. “Also, Scytale. It wouldn’t be finance that Annaliese would need from me. It’d be real estate.”

Scytale shrugged. “Whatever. Do you actually own any land on Gilded Seat that you can decide to place the Citadel on? Or does this fall under the ‘Counties will make it happen’ category?”

“Of course I own land on Gilded Seat. I’m the Aurelian Commission Head.” She snapped her fingers just as the door to the living room opened, and a servant came in with several rolled-up pieces of parchment in hand. He bowed as he placed them on the coffee table beside Scytale then retreated from the room.

Lucille leaned forward to pick one up and unfurled it to reveal it was a map of Gilded Seat, with all the districts labelled and named. She tapped on her chin as she studied it. “I’ve already informed you that the Founder’s vault contained many types of assets, correct? From the beginning of the establishment of the Commission, a vast portion of all districts on Gilded Seat have been under the management of the Headquarters, with their land deeds stored in the vault.”

Annaliese stood up to sit next to Lucy and watch her observe the map. Lucy tilted her head and traced a finger along one row of districts. “The Amber River District is well-known for its gorgeous scenery and design, so from that point of view it would befit a subdivision of the Citadel of Fate, but it was also called ‘Amber River’ because it’s a district for casinos and taverns where betting is highly popular…” She raised her eyes to watch the Paladin opposite them and quickly shook her head. “No, not that district.”

Jasten Albrecht coughed into his armoured fist and looked away, but Annaliese blinked. “What has betting got to do with the Citadel of Fate?”

Lucy smirked and poked her forehead. “Why don’t you think for a moment about how it would be a bad idea for a Supreme Institution known for its Fate and fortune manipulation and greedy members to be beside a location where vast quantities of money flow?”

The confused Prophetess screwed up her face as she thought about it, but Lucy continued to study the map. “Truthfully, the entire plane is a city, so just about any district in the central sector would be fine for the subdivision. It will also depend on how large a subdivision the Great Sage wants to establish on the plane. As the Aurelian Commission Head, I need to consider how large a foreign militant base I can allow on this plane…”

“It will be a subdivision of Protection,” Sir Albrecht pointed out.

Lucy shook her head as she rolled up her map and opened a second one to view. “Oh, I don’t doubt it. But healers are a valuable resource to the Citadel and will come hand-in-hand with a contingent of rather powerful knights and possibly Paladins. True militant subdivision or not, no subdivision of the Citadel of Fate is ever defenceless.”

She rolled up the second map in her hands and reached for the third. “Not when even the weakest knight can draw upon their Thaumaturgic connection to the Primarch of Fate, Escalon.”

Sir Albrecht went silent with a slight frown on his face, which was surprisingly mirrored by the Prophetess in their midst. “Does Escalon even exist? I’ve never seen him.”

Lucy paused and gave the Prophetess a strange look.

Annaliese blinked. “What?”

Lucille exchanged a look with the silent Paladin opposite her and turned back to Annaliese. “It,” Lucy stated blandly. “It’s not a ‘he’, but an ‘it’. And yes, it exists. I find it difficult to believe that you haven’t been taught about the only surviving Primarch of the Mystical Realm during this era.”

“…it?” Annaliese asked quizzically. “Wait, are the myths of him- I mean, it being the first light element spirit true?”

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Lucy sighed and shot Jasten Albrecht a frown. “Escalon isn’t a light spirit. Contrary to the ‘myths’ and propaganda of the Citadel, Escalon isn’t the first ‘ray of light’ to land on a plane and given humanoid form when it became an elemental. Escalon is a construct of concepts and light mana, formed through ‘Conceptual Coalescence’ and the beliefs of mortals about him from the era before the Empire.” She shook her head and returned to scanning the third map. “Escalon is merely a weapon used by the Citadel to grant themselves greater authority over the light element than most due to their Thaumaturgic arts allowing them to connect with it.”

Jasten Albrecht narrowed his eyes at Lucy. “You should not demean the Primarch of Fate by referring to him as an ‘it’ and calling him a mere weapon, Commission Head.”

“But am I wrong?” she argued. “’He’ is only a force of condensed elemental power bound by strict rules and laws. As the highest-ranked Paladin, you must be able to summon an incarnation of him with your Penultimate skill. The ‘mind’ you may feel isn’t something that belongs to a living thing.”

Sir Albrecht crossed his arms with a pensive look on his face, but didn’t refute her words. Lucy turned back to Annaliese and studied her for a second. “You know what a religion is, right?”

Annaliese nodded. “Of course. I heard in the past many people worshipped the Season Court Kings and Queens, dragons and even the Death Monarch.”

“I see.” Lucille sighed and leaned back in her seat. “And you recall what I discussed about magic and how my illusion magic works last month, correct?”

Annaliese screwed up her nose. “You mean when you told me that everything I’ve ever known about mana and magic is all because we make it up in our head, yes, I remember that,” she stated flatly.

Lucy raised a finger. “Ah, Collective Conceptual Ideology doesn’t affect mana, only magic. The mysterious energy of the material realms will always exist and have certain rules.”

“I don’t care,” the blonde-haired girl retorted. “What has this got to do with Escalon?”

“Well, if a group of people begin to have a firm belief in something existing that formerly hadn’t… then it’s possible for it to form through a process called ‘Conceptual Coalescence’,” Lucy informed her. “Nearly all the ‘Great Beings’ are formed through that process, but Escalon is the only Great Being native to the Mystical Realm.”

“Great… being…?” Annaliese’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean like Primals?!?”

“Correct.” Lucille nodded. “Escalon formed when a group of people began to believe in the existence of an extremely powerful light elemental who granted healing and protection abilities to strong warriors who formed a connection with him. Thaumaturgy works by Paladins, such as Sir Albrecht here…” She gestured to the man. “Forming Heroic Power and practising a special art that generates a Thaumaturgic bond with the Primarch. They can then summon incarnations of the Primarch, and I’ve been told that when they use their spatial element Radiance ability, they gain Escalon’s wings.”

Lucy spread her hands. “Escalon has slowly become more powerful and changed slightly over the ages, but he is the only Primarch of the Mystical Realm that still exists, if there were any others, to begin with. This is because the Citadel quickly roots out and disproves the existence of any other powerful ‘imaginary’ existences when a belief system in other parts of the Mystical Realm forms that has a chance of creating a Primarch.” She pointed at Annaliese. “You need to understand that because Primarchs are essentially something else created by the minds of mortals and the spiritual realm, they also get impacted by the gradual shift in Collective Conceptual Ideology.”

Her expression became slightly serious. “For all that the Eternal Empire might have complaints about the Citadel, the one thing they can be praised for is keeping their beliefs and practices the same for hundreds upon thousands of millennia. This is the only way that ‘Escalon’ has been able to uphold its image of a protector of mortals and saving force for so long. The Sages know how Escalon works and quickly eradicate all ‘factions’ of different beliefs that might form in the Citadel, because in the event that Escalon’s strict rules of behaviour break… that might shatter its mind and make it go insane. Then all the planes might be in danger.”

Then Lucille smiled brightly. “But the fact that the ‘Prophetess’ class apparently doesn’t need a connection with Escalon is very interesting, Sir Albrecht. This might mean that the Unique Prophetess of Fate class has no connections to the Citadel at all.”

The steely-eyed Paladin gazed solemnly at her. “…Commission Head, is there a specific answer you want to hear from me? Because I don’t think I can give you what you want.”

Lucy smirked and wryly shook her head. “No, there’s no need to respond. I already expected as much.” She crossed one leg over the other and lifted the map in her hands higher. “But now that I’ve shattered your worldview once again, I think it’s time to return to the original topic of where we’re going to be placing this Citadel subdivision.”

Annaliese pressed her hands to her temples on either side of a head, looking like she was trying to get rid of a headache. Eventually, she shook her head and leaned near Lucy’s shoulder to peer at the map. “Lucy… how many types of Great Beings are there? Because now I’ve heard of Primals and Primarchs, and I remember hearing that the Realm Rulers are also Great Beings…”

Lucille nodded absentmindedly. “There’s five. Primal beasts, Primarchs, Higher Races – which are the Great Being forms of most of the humanoid races and are fully sapient, and then there are Ancient Daemons…”

“Ancient Daemons?” Annaliese blinked.

“It’s very, very uncommon to hear about them let alone meet one,” Lucy explained. “Maybe I’ll talk about Ancient Daemons another day. But there’s also…” She fell silent and closed the map in her hands. She frowned slightly and shook her head. “Never mind.”

Annaliese narrowed her eyes. “Lucy, don’t avoid the subject.”

Instead of replying, Lucille looked over the back of the couch and opened the door of the sitting room with her spiritual telekinesis. “You three, you may as well come in. I know you’ve been standing outside and could overhear our conversation for the last half hour.”

The dark shadows she could see on the wall of the outside hallway flinched, and then two awkward faces of Sedric and Raegan could be seen peeking in.

“I… uh, couldn’t find the right time to enter,” Sedric replied sheepishly.

Raegan was just eyeing Lucy with a curious look in his eyes but a frown on his face, like he wasn’t willing to admit he was interested.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Hargrave?”

The face of the red-haired man soon joined the other two. “I was only waiting outside because of these two,” he said with a bemused look on his face. “But I didn’t really expect to hear those details about the Primarch of Fate today.”

Lucille smirked and pointed at him. “Also, I should mention this: the Primarch of Fate shouldn’t be called the Primarch of Fate because no Primarch has authority over Higher elements.”

“…huh.”

Scytale nodded proudly. “Welcome to the ‘mind blown by Lucy club’, everybody!”

“My life is a lie,” Annaliese complained. When Lucille only shrugged, she pouted and looked at the map in the dark-haired girl’s hands again. “How much of Gilded Seat are you in charge of? When I just see a bunch of rectangles on a map, I can’t really picture it in my head.”

“Out of the 214 districts in Gilded Seat, I own 79,” Lucy explained.

Annaliese considered it. “So… a lot?”

Lucy huffed a laugh and closed the map. “I‘m struggling to form a cohesive mental image as well. It seems like I’m going to have to survey the land myself.”

Scytale raised his hand in the air. “Ooh! Bring me, bring me!”

She raised an eyebrow at her strangely eager bond. “Why?”

“Because I’m bored!” he announced loudly. “Also, I want to bring Annaliese and everyone else because it sounds fun.”

“Fun,” Lucy repeated dryly.

Sedric seemed to consider it while Raegan raised a hand. “I vote in favour of leaving this exhibit of extravagance.”

Lucy sighed and glanced at the Paladin among them. “Sir Albrecht?”

He scratched his beard pensively. “Hmm… it… should be fine…”

Lucy shook her head and pulled out her pocket watch to check the time. “It’s just about lunchtime, so I suppose we may as well eat out today…” She looked around. “Who’s coming?”

Scytale raised a hand high, as did Annaliese. Raegan did the same, and Sedric also copied, although he stayed at the back as if to hide it from the others. Hargrave hesitated and tried to back away into the hallway, but Annaliese spun around and gazed at him with expectant eyes. “Are you coming too, Hargrave?”

“I…” The words died in his mouth when faced with the intensity of her gaze and he ran a hand down his face. “Fine… I’ll come…”

“Come where?” Vincent stuck his head around the doorway and blinked when he saw everybody was inside. “Oh, good afternoon, everyone. Has Lucille been discussing anything interesting?”

“Vincent, come with us to buy a house!” Scytale ordered.

Vincent stared at him. “I beg your pardon?”

“What my bond means to say is that our local Prophetess has just officially requested on behalf of the Great Sage for me to allow a subdivision of the Citadel to be stationed in Gilded Seat,” Lucy informed him dryly. “We are about to inspect some of the districts I own, and Scytale wants to know if you wish to come.”

“Hmm…” Vincent checked his wristwatch. “I have time, if we’re back before mid-afternoon.”

“I see. That settles it then.” Lucy stood up and grabbed her cane from where it was leaning against the coffee table. “Then, everybody… should we go out today?”

…

A total of eight people with very colourful personalities could be seen walking down the streets of Gilded Seat by the citizens of the plane. One thing that confused them, however, was why a Paladin of a Supreme Institution had apparently joined them.

Annaliese was under an illusion spell cast by Lucy and had brown hair and blue eyes.

“So which of these do you own?” she curiously asked Lucille.

“Be patient. I’m taking you to a place where we can get a good view of it all.” Lucy paused when they came up to the multi-storied building seemingly made out of living trees. “Here. The Ancient Oak of Plenty. It’s a restaurant with a decent view of the districts, so I decided here would be best to have a meal.”

“It’s so pretty!” Annaliese exclaimed, looking up at the large fronds overshadowing them.

Lucille swiftly walked inside and gestured to one of the waiters. She took her pocket watch out of a pocket and hung it in front of him. “Private room for eight.”

The man quickly bowed and gestured down the main hall. “This way, Commission Head.”

“What is this place?” Raegan said, narrowing his eyes at everything around them. “Some druid’s happy society or something?”

“It’s a restaurant. Just one owned by elves,” Lucy replied. She pointed with her cane as she walked up the stairs. “We’ll have our meal up there.”

Once they got to the top of the stairs, the members of Lucy’s entourage all blinked to readjust themselves to the bright sunlight shining down through the glass roof. They were on the rooftop, where a long table grown out of wood was placed. They slowly took up seats on the high-backed chairs sprouting from the ground, except for Annaliese, who an over to the nearest balcony, much to her guard’s frustration.

“This is… uh, green,” Sedric said with surprise. Leafy vines covered the four pillars holding up the pane of glass above them.

Lucille sat down at one end of the table and spread her gloved hands. “Considering we journeyed out here in the context of finding the best land for the construction of a Protection subdivision, I picked the best building for us to view my properties.” She gestured to the table, which had menus made of fine parchment and gold lettering. “Go ahead and order whatever you want.” She smirked and crossed her arms. “I won’t make you pay this time.”

“This time?” Sedric asked incredulously. “You mean the person with near infinite money isn’t willing to just pay for our meals any other time?”

Lucy pointed at herself. “My money.”

“That you didn’t work for,” Vincent noted dryly. “Additionally, I recall you poking fun at my finances as a son of the Evisenhardt County, but similarities between our two circumstances can be seen.”

She looked away and whistled.

Annaliese, who had only just been dragged back from the balcony by Sir Albrecht, pointed at the scenery. “So… what do you own, Lucy?”

Lucille poured herself a cup of water from one of the jugs on the table and closed her eyes as she sipped it. “All of it.”

“…all?”

Lucy got up from the chair and walked over to the balcony. She observed the view with a hand on her chin for a moment, before pointing to the Aurelian Commission Headquarters in the distance. “This district is nearly everything you see across the road from there…” She moved her finger across the horizon to point at the System Obelisk in the distance. “…to there. And that is one of the 79 districts under my jurisdiction.”

Annaliese stared at everything with wide eyes, and then slowly turned to stare at Lucy. “Lucy, you might as well be a queen!” she exclaimed.

Lucille scoffed and returned to her seat. “Hardly. I live in the same building that’s the office for most Commission employees.”

“The Headquarters is a mansion though!” the blonde-haired girl argued.

“It’s an office complex,” Lucy stated flatly. “Just one with unusually expensive décor on many floors.”

“Look, Annaliese, you’re not going to win this one,” Scytale interrupted as he reached for one of the fruits left in a bowl on the table. “Lucy’s salty because in her home world, she also lived in a building where many people worked. Just on a higher floor.” He casually juggled multiple fruits as he thought about it. “I think she told me it was floor… 165?”

“It was 166,” she informed him.

Scytale snickered and placed the food back down. “Just five hundred off from being six six six. I always knew you were evil.”

Lucille sighed and turned away to look at the many buildings stretching out to the horizon. Smoke with many spectacular colours billowed out of chimneys, while mages and cultivators flew about in the sky.

“Well, if we’re to return to the topic of what land the subdivision should be built on, I should remind you that we need to consider the future ‘train station’ placement as well,” Vincent stated.

They all ignored the waiters as they entered the room to take their menus, which they had used the provided pens to circle their choices on. Lucy nodded thoughtfully. “True. Now that the crafters will begin the construction of the prototypes, the transportation lines should be worked out.”

“What the heck are ‘trains’?” Raegan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lucy snapped her fingers and the boy stared at the projection of the long mechanical construct she had summoned, as long as the entire table. “A form of transport that doesn’t use magical beasts,” she explained. “It’s based off of a technology on my home plane.”

Annaliese sat down next to Lucy at the table. “How different is your home plane from the Empire?”

“Hmm…” Lucy considered it, tilting her head, then smiled. “Very. But I won’t talk about it now.”

“Awww,” the girl whined.

“It feels like there’s a ton of stuff you could do with all that land though, Lucy,” Scytale spoke up.

Vincent adjusted his glasses as he looked out over the balcony. “The land deeds have been stored in the Founder’s vault for many years, so there has been little we could do with the districts by Empire law. But it might be profitable to use it for something.”

“Wait, let me think.” Scytale closed his eyes and pretended to consider something. “Public transport… train station… busy… lots of empty space… I got it!” He opened his eyes and pointed two fingers at Lucy. “Shopping mall! Right next to the train station!”

She raised an eyebrow. “I suppose that would be possible, but-”

“You could add a movie cinema to the top floor!” he interrupted, getting eager for some reason. “Introduce the realms to the concept of visual entertainment!”

“Illusions exist,” Lucy pointed out.

“Yeah, but nobody uses them for fun.” The humanoid snake spread his hands out. “Come see the spectacular movie, the Chronicles of the Truth-Seizing World-Ender! You could even invent popcorn and coke, just to make it really authentic.”

She considered it with a hand on her chin. “A dish like popcorn already exists in a Minor plane.”

Scytale hesitated. “Well… fine, steal the recipe from them or employ them in the cinema or something. But they don’t have coke here yet.”

Sedric leaned near Hargrave. “Isn’t coke a type of fuel that you burn?” he asked quietly.

Hargrave gave the snake a bemused look. “That’s what I thought too, but they seem to think it can be turned into a drink somehow.”

The amphiptere heard what they were discussing and waved a hand at them. “Okay, coke is the nickname, but it’s actually called cola.”

Raegan gave the snake a disdainful look as waiters arrived to give them their dishes. “Speak real words, please. The rest of us normal people feel oppressed by your insanity.”

Scytale smirked and crossed his arms as he looked at his bond. “And because I suggested this amazing idea to you, I should receive 90% of all profits from the mall.”

She paused and then pointed at him. “Now, I could give you credit for coming up with the idea of implementing a shopping complex, but that’s going too far.”

He clicked his tongue. “Fine. 90% of all profits of the top five stories.”

“No.”

“Ugh, 90% of the profits of the cinema?”

“Make it 2% and I might agree.”

“70%.”

“2%.”

“50%?”

“2%.”

“25%?”

“2%.”

“Okay, my last offer: 5%.”

“1%.”

He stood up and pointed at her. “That’s less than you said before!”

She shrugged with a smirk on her face. “You’re talking to a merchant and heir of a business conglomerate here, Scytale. Take the opportunity given to you when it comes.”

“Shopping ‘mall’? ‘Cin-em-a’?” Annaliese looked between them both. “What are you talking about?”

Lucy shook her head with a wry smile. “Nothing important. I don’t intend to start constructing this ‘shopping mall’ for a few years if I end up doing it at all.”

“What, you’re not going to use my idea?” Scytale complained. “I thought it was genius!”

She rolled her eyes. “There’s no way you’d be willing to own shares in the shopping centre, Scytale. You just want to laze around and running a cinema would require paperwork.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Right. I don’t want to do any work. Nope, no siree.”

“We have another issue here, however,” Lucy announced. She turned to the Prophetess. “You need to select the block where the subdivision will be built.”

Annaliese stared at her. “Wait, me?!”

“Of course.” Lucy leaned her hand on her chin with a lazy smile. “This is my gift as the Aurelian Commission Head to the Prophetess of Fate. I have no connection with the Great Sage, so I wouldn’t be gifting the land to him. No, it’s up to you to choose where it should go.” She gestured to the land before them. “Take your pick. I took us to this restaurant because I already intend on allowing the Citadel to build a subdivision here, but the exact lot of land is your decision to make.”

“I…” Annaliese directed her stare to Jasten Albrecht. “Could you help me, Sir Albrecht?” She glanced back at Lucy. “Is that allowed?”

Lucille shrugged. “It’s your decision, not mine.”

Annaliese slowly nodded while Sedric crossed his arms and scowled. “You know, if you have this much land, then why don’t you compensate me for my house by building me a new one? It’s your bond who destroyed my house, after all.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow, and Raegan’s eyes went wide. “You destroyed his house already? That’s a step up from your past fights.”

“Scytale will compensate you with the money he earns from his cinema,” Lucy replied calmly.

Scytale stared at her and then raised his hands in surrender when Sedric stood up and leaned forward to eye the snake with scepticism. “Oh really? Then Scytale, you better tell me more about this ‘cinema’ thing.”

Lucille closed her eyes and drank the rest of her water as the others began to watch Scytale make excuses. She glanced over the balcony and absent-mindedly touched a hand to the black letter inside her suit jacket. She smiled and refocused her attention on the conversation.

A visit to Lucius’s manor in a week… I wonder how it will go.