“Are you sure that artifact is safe?” a blonde-haired girl asked worriedly.

Lucille smiled and closed the lid of the casket. The ‘Aspect Bestowment’ disappeared in her hands and appeared in a list next to her Status, stored for her to use later. “For some people, it would be very beneficial. I believe I’m going to be using this artifact a few times if…” She turned to look at the members of her sponsored party. “Do you mind if I keep this?”

Marellen looked hesitant but Roa shook her head and swiftly backed away. “All artifacts we collected during our expedition that the Athenaeum has not taken away are yours, Count Goldcroft. I’m sure you will be far more responsible with the artifact than Marellen.”

“Er… Lucille…” the navy-haired mage spoke up, getting her attention. “Do you know what the artifact is?”

“Yes, I do,” Lucy replied with a smile. She tapped her cheek underneath her right eye. “In a way, you could say that I've become an appraiser due to the shard of an object within my eye. I’m capable of viewing the Item Sheet.”

Marellen’s eyes widened. “Does that mean you could appraise all the artifacts we have? No, wait.” He approached the casket and gestured to it. “What does it do?”

Lucille placed a hand on top of the casket. “This ‘Forbidden’ Legendary artifact consumes a small portion of my power and exchanges it for another form of power that it deems I ‘need’ the most. It’s likely that due to the arrival of the System, it has accommodated our Statuses and arranged for stat points to be the ‘power’ it takes.”

Lucy pulled out the ruby key and the casket locked shut by itself. “And it seems to select a ‘Keyholder’ whenever it loses its former Keyholder. This Keyholder is the individual who needs this artifact the most. I can only assume that I have been selected as its Keyholder because it teleported to my side and not yours today. I can give up ownership, but I don’t think I can select its next owner.”

The others stared at her. Lucy blinked and then let out a small ‘Ah’ when she realised what was wrong. She held the casket up. “Have you all never seen a Legendary artifact before?”

“I’m more shocked by the casualness you’re treating that artifact with,” Efratel replied.

“Legendary artifacts are supposed to be… uncommon, Lucille,” Hargrave said.

Vincent eyed the casket slightly warily and pushed up his glasses. “You also said it carries the ‘Forbidden’ rarity prefix – It might not be a cursed item but it is certainly dangerous.”

“It’s only dangerous if I use it the wrong way. I’m intelligent enough to refrain from abusing it.” Lucille placed the casket in her dimensional bag and looked at Annaliese, Raegan and Sir Albrecht. “The fact that the Aurelian Commission Head has obtained a Legendary Forbidden artifact is something that needs to be kept secret, so… please don’t inform the Citadel of this.”

“We won’t!” Annaliese replied confidently. Then she hesitated as she realised she wasn’t the one in control of the situation and looked at the blonde-haired Paladin next to her. “Uh… right, Sir Albrecht?”

“Ahhh…” Jasten Albrecht let out a long sigh as he covered his face with a hand, leaning against the table. He threw his hands up. “If the Sages don’t ask, they don’t get told. Fine. I’m nothing if not good at skirting around their lie-detection skills.”

“Good.” Lucy grinned and leaned on the table. “Life will be less difficult for you if you keep your mouth shut, Sir Paladin.”

Albrecht frowned at her. “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“True.” Lucille spun around and pointed at both Raegan and Marellen. “But you two… I think it’s time we begin our research, don’t you think?”

…

Raegan narrowed his eyes at the coin on his palm. “Is this really it?”

“We need to calculate the standard probabilities with and without your ability to influence things,” Lucy commented as she scrawled things down on a piece of paper. Marellen was looking over her shoulder and reading what she was writing with interest.

She stepped back and pointed to a glowing ring on the floor of the training hall that she had drawn out with illusion mana. “Stand there please.”

“…okay?” Raegan walked over and turned the coin over. His face screwed up. “Are you seriously treating a rose crown as pocket change?”

Lucille looked up. “What? That was all I had on hand.”

The boy rolled his eyes and Lucy pointed to him. “Okay, Raegan. Toss the coin on the count of three. One… two… three.”

The reddish-gold piece of metal flew through the air and landed about a meter away from Raegan. Before he could say anything, Lucy had run over and begun to draw lines with illusion mana, calculating the exact distance the coin landed from him.

Marellen blinked when he looked at the symbols she was drawing. “Lucille, what are you drawing? I’m not familiar with these symbols.”

Lucille glanced between the page and floating symbols, distracted. “Velocity and angular momentum, among other things. I need to gain a set of median values for Raegan’s coin tosses to compare it with his actions when he intentionally affects the outcome with his ability. I intend to use myself as a control set of values because Annaliese has already explained that I’m immune to Fate and fortune essences.” She blinked as an idea came to her and she snapped her fingers. “There. The symbols should now be in Imperial Common. It might take a bit of time to understand the formulas.”

Lucy picked the coin up and threw it back at Raegan. “Alright, Raegan. Let’s do this again. Ideally, we need to repeat this set about fifty times and then-” She realised something and then frowned at her scrawled pages. “Blight. I forgot to check the gravity acceleration constant for the plane. I’ve been working while basing it on my home world’s standard.”

The navy-haired mage’s eyes widened and brown elemental earth mana swirled above his hand before arranging itself into a mana-circle. He shifted his gold glasses and showed the result to Lucy. “9.87 meters per second squared on this Gilded Dome plane, apparently.”

She paused to look at his spell then glanced at him. Lucille put down her page and began writing words in the air with illusion mana. “Marellen, do you think you could cast these spells to check a few other variables for me while I work on analysing Raegan’s coin tosses?”

The mage studied the new spell diagrams with intense curiosity and nodded excitedly. “I always welcome the chance to learn new spells.”

“Good.” Lucy nodded and checked the results of Raegan’s newest coin toss. “We have a lot of calculations to make to work out what exactly is going on with Raegan’s abilities.”

They worked swiftly, documenting different details and factors with spells and calculations. When the two-hour mark ticked over, they only let Raegan go so they could continue discussing theories. The more time went by, the more it was clear that Marellen was in his element.

Meanwhile, the peanut gallery was staring at them like they were animals in a zoo.

“It’s only when I’m seeing Lucille like this do I remember she’s a mage,” Vincent said with bemusement. He was standing with Sedric, Annaliese, Roa and Scytale. The others had gone to different places.

“Yeaaaap.” Scytale leaned against the smooth stone wall with his arms crossed. “Probably best to leave them alone for a while… they’ll snap out of their trance. Eventually.”

Annaliese turned to look at Roa. “You don’t want to join them?”

Roa gave the girl an odd look. “Not every mage is like Marellen. I certainly prefer to strengthen my spellcraft by applying it to battle. It is for that very reason that I have never entertained the possibility of joining the Athenaeum.”

“If those two aren’t finishing up soon, then I may as well leave.” Sedric turned around and gave them a short wave. “Bye.”

Vincent glanced at Scytale. “Is Lucille really not going to be done for a while?”

“She has no plans of finishing at the moment.” The humanoid snake shrugged and followed Sedric out of the door. “I say just leave her and let her get it out of her system.”

…

“I believe I know how Raegan’s ability works,” Lucy announced early the next morning.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Anyone interested was gathered in front of her in the training room because Raegan had said he didn’t care who heard about his abilities. That meant everyone because someone who could cause bad luck was interesting to them all.

They were all staring at the mage sleeping on the fall, surrounded by pages, next to her. Lucy glanced down to see Marellen near her boot and nudged him awake. “Hey, Marellen. You don’t want to tell them what we found out?”

Snoring was her only response. Lucille shrugged and pulled Raegan out in front of them. “Our conclusion was that Raegan doesn’t have the ability to create bad luck at all,” she claimed.

Raegan gave her a dull look. “I’m pretty sure that someone breaking their leg when I use my ability on them counts as ‘bad luck’.”

Lucy raised a finger. “Not if that was just an act of the realm reversing the influence of Fate and fortune essences.”

“Lucy, what can Raegan do?” Annaliese asked. “I hope it’s useful.”

Lucille shrugged. “It’s usefulness is what you make of it. Raegan here has made very good use of it by instinctually reverting the effects of Fate and fortune on those affected by it, but for others, it may seem a completely useless ability. That’s because contrary to my prediction, Raegan doesn’t have the power of a unique Higher element, but erases Higher elements when he chooses.”

Raegan swatted her hand off his shoulder. “Get to the point and stop trying to sound mysterious, okay? We didn’t do this just so you could get an ego boost.”

“What Lucille is trying to say is that… you… have the ability to nullify Higher elements…”

They looked down to see Marellen pulling himself up with the help of a table. He let out a sigh as he leaned against it. “That means Fate.”

Raegan squinted at him. “How does that help me trip people over?”

“I didn’t quite understand it either until Lucille explained,” Marellen said with a shake of his head.

Lucy gestured around them. “Nearly everyone who is part of the Eternal Empire knows of the Citadel of Fate. Due to the existence of Fate essence, entire kingdoms and planes can have Fate, as well as individuals. When an individual gains more Fate, greater opportunities become open to them. The Sages and members of Providence have the ability to ‘limit’ someone’s Fate to ensure some outcomes are more probable.”

She pointed at them each. “Because of the existence of the Higher element of Fate, each one of you has been affected by Fate at some point in your lives. Just being born into a powerful noble family could grant you higher Fate. But Raegan can ‘delete’ or ‘erase’ artificially gained Fate and luck.” Lucille crossed her arms and looked at Raegan. “This manifests itself as bad luck in Raegan’s case, as the opportunities he deletes are random. Big and small opportunities can be erased, so your bad luck is usually a mixture of not obtaining the winning numbers for a lottery, as well as accidentally stubbing your toe on a corner.”

Sir Albrecht walked forward. “You claim this also impacts other Higher elements, yet we have yet to see evidence of this. What is your explanation?” he asked solemnly.

Marellen raised a hand to answer before Lucy could. “That would be because while the impact of his abilities on other Higher elements has not been tested, we believe it will have a lesser effect than it does on Fate essence. That’s because we theorise it will disintegrate Higher elements such as Nature into its elements of wood, water, light and earth with not much reduction in strength of the attack. For Fate essence, which is only composed of light mana and concepts, the effect is much stronger.”

“As for why Raegan can influence the fortune mid-level element… that’s a separate issue.” Lucille took out a strange orb-shaped crystal from her dimensional bag and held it out for Raegan. “If you would, Raegan. I know we’ve already done it, but just to show the others…”

The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes and placed a hand on the orb. It lit up with a glow that slowly faded until what could be seen within was a grey-coloured mote.

“While Raegan doesn’t have an elemental affinity for fortune, his aptitude for fortune-affecting hexes and the fortune element is high,” Lucy explained. “It’s likely his undeveloped Origin Skill has been causing issues regarding his affinity.”

Raegan raised an eyebrow. “So I can’t gain an affinity? What, does that mean I have no affinity now?”

Lucy shook her head. “No, from what we could tell you have a Major affinity for the dark element, a Minor affinity for the earth element and varying low ratios of the other four. You’re just innately talented at affecting fortune-altering effects, which is a different talent to your ‘Fate nullification’ ability.”

Annaliese’s face screwed up. “I don’t get any of this.”

Jasten Albrecht held his chin in contemplation. “Is there a way for him to prevent his Fate erasure abilities from occurring? All the Paladins around the Prophetess and her brother have to have their Fate refreshed by Prophetess Verdon on a regular basis.”

“Why would I want to help those egotistical jerks?” Raegan argued with disdain.

Lucy ignored him as Sir Albrecht glared at the boy. “I doubt he will be able to do anything until the time of his Origin Skill awakening draws closer,” she replied. “He has gained this ability as a contrasting force against the element of Fate to balance the energies of the realm. It’s possible that when he awakens his Origin Skill, he’ll be able to determine when and where his ability is needed most.”

Annaliese glanced between Lucy and her brother. “Will it be… dangerous for him?” she asked with slight worry.

Lucille raised an eyebrow and glanced at the dark-haired boy. “Only if he’s stupid with his abilities. His erasure abilities are nigh-on untraceable, so the only way he could find himself in danger is if he leaves obvious traces separate from his abilities. That, and he should avoid telling the Sages or any other noble who asks so they can’t use him as a scapegoat.”

The rest of them all looked at Raegan, looking pensive. Raegan glared at them all in return.

“You guys are one crazy pair of siblings,” Scytale announced with his arms crossed. “What are the odds of you guys being related? The enemy of the Citadel and his sister as the Prophetess.”

“I feel like it’s more surprising that Lucille met up with these two,” Marellen noted. “It seems she’s been involved in all manner of interesting things since we split up last year.”

Lucy smirked and pointed at him. “That’s what time travel knowledge does.”

Marellen’s eyes widened as he stared at her while she walked off and out of the room. “Alright, I need to get back to work. I’ll see you guys later.”

…

“Show me your wings!” Annaliese exclaimed, sitting next to the flustered ex-mercenary with expectant eyes.

Hargrave choked on his water and stopped to cough as he placed the cup back down. “I’m sorry? Wings?” he asked weakly.

“You’re a dragon-blooded, right?” the blonde-haired girl replied, leaning forward. “A first generation beastman. Your hair colour can’t be the only thing that has changed!”

A winged snake snickered as he flapped his wings and landed on the couch opposite them. “Go on, Hargrave. Show her your fabulous new form. Not the big one though, I don’t think you’d fit in this room.”

Hargrave hesitated and looked up as if he only just realised that as a dragon beast, he had a beast body too. Lucy, who was in her study listening to their conversation, was 90% sure that the man only wanted to obtain the power of a dragon for physical enhancement and to show the General of Blazing Iron when he completed his revenge.

“Uh…” Hargrave looked down at his hands and then at Scytale. “How do I do this?”

Scytale shifted into his human form and then smirked as he pointed at himself. “Imagine yourself gaining the features of a dragon. Don’t imagine what a dragon looks like, or else you’ll… well, you know.”

“…okay.” Hargrave rubbed his temples, clearly attempting to do what the snake had said. He flinched when large scaly blue wings sprouted from his shoulder blades and he sprang up, with Annaliese barely managing to duck beneath the new appendages. Something hit the coffee table and he whirled around, then stared when he couldn’t see what had made the noise.

“Hargrave! You have a tail!”

At the Prophetess’s astonished outburst, his eyes widened and he looked over his shoulder to see the royal blue scaly limb swaying back and forth. He went to grab his hair and then froze as his hands touched something hard and heavy near his ears. Slowly running his calloused fingers against the rough surface, he realised that he was touching curled… horns.

Scytale burst out laughing at the man’s apparent distress and struggled to wipe the tears from his eyes as he summoned illusion mana to be Hargrave’s mirror.

Hargrave blanched when faced with his new appearance.

“I-If… you want to change back…” Scytale said, having collapsed to the floor. “Just… uh, think of them turning into mana and disappearing. It’s close enough to what actually happens.”

Hargrave didn’t immediately register what the humanoid amphiptere had said as he remained staring at his reflection. It was only when the impromptu mirror disappeared that he regained awareness and let out a visible sigh of relief when the wings, horns and tail managed to disappear.

“I am never using the partial form ever again,” he muttered quietly as he sat back down.

For some reason, Scytale began to laugh again. “O-Oh, this is amazing. Who’d ever think that the Prismat…” He stopped himself when a warning came through from Lucy, then he coughed and continued, “That you’d be most afraid of your own new appearance. Wouldn’t it be a bonus for you? Normal members of the mortal races can’t fly until Rank-4 anyway, and I’m sure you felt the strength boost.”

“I am still never using it,” Hargrave hissed.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Scytale put his hands behind his head once he got back onto the couch and kicked his feet up. “Don’t come running back to me asking for tips on being a magical beast when all your hundreds of enemies come chasing after you.”

“Enemies? For who? Hargrave?” Annaliese looked at the man next to her. “Why would you have enemies Hargrave?”

Hargrave scowled at the snake who avoided eye contact and then scratched the back of his head when he noticed Annaliese’s gaze. “I… no, I don’t have any enemies. I was just a… normal adventurer.”

Scytale raised an eyebrow and Lucy realised that Hargrave was trying to hide his past profession from the girl for some reason.

Lucille straightened the pages on her desk and spun her pen as she considered the man’s motives.

He seems to attach importance to Annaliese in some way. I wonder why…

…is it because she was the first to introduce him to the rest of my friends?

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

Another day in the Mystical Realm. My junior sisters would be shocked to hear the kind of work a successor of the Vast Longevity Glacier Sect is doing.

The girl with long dark hair and deep blue eyes straightened up, having completed her footwork practices for the morning. Zhang Mingxia sheathed her longsword and walked back inside the women’s dormitories of the building allocated to the Dawnlight’s crewmembers. When she found her room she picked up the Officer uniform on her bed and studied it uneasily.

She had never worn the uniform because, unlike her other crewmates, she was a temporary Officer and was there for political reasons. She was never required to wear the navy blue and black form-fitting uniform, so she continued wearing her dresses woven from spiritual Ice Silk. She had considered the protection from her Sect wear to be strong enough, but with the complications of mana in the Beast Realm…

Mingxia decided that she’d change into her uniform for the first time as Captain Riftmire had seemingly decided to make her a Squad Leader in the long term. When the pants, boots and outerwear were on, she plucked at the long-sleeved clothes, worried about their immodesty and how they clung tightly to her frame.

She picked up her longsword and twisted as she looked at herself, wondering where to tie the sash that acted as its sheath.

“Mingxia! Are you in?”

The Sect heir looked up when the call sounded out. She knew who it was and walked over to the door to open it. Liliana was standing in front and blinked when she saw her.

“You’re trying the uniform on today?” the brown-haired woman asked curiously.

Mingxia coughed and looked away. “I saw it fitting to attempt to follow the customs of the Navy as the Captain has seen fit to bestow me with greater authority. I know I am ill-suited to these types of wear, but I-”

“You look great!” Liliana replied with a smile. “It makes you look more mature. I think it’s a good idea to wear it now that you’re going to become the leader of some of us whenever we explore islands and fight.”

“I-I see…” Zhang Mingxia pushed past her friend and continued walking without looking back. “Where is our Captain? I have been told I must report to her today and she cannot be found within my spiritual sense.”

“Hmmm…” Liliana thought about it and pointed up. “I think she’s in her office on the top floor? I saw her there earlier this morning.”

Zhang Mingxia nodded. “I thank you for this information.”

“You don’t need to be so formal,” Liliana said with a grin. She grabbed Mingxia’s wrist and pulled her along. “Let’s go find Caspian – I think he’s heading up there too.”

…

“Here.”

Zhang Mingxia and Palin Zoc’uraghets caught the small bronze objects sent their way and blinked when they saw they were badges with the title ‘Squad Leader’ on the front.

Adrianna crossed her arms and leaned her back against her desk. “That’s all I needed you for. You’re free to go.”

“...is this all there is to our promotions?” Mingxia asked hesitantly.

The icy-blue eyed woman marginally raised an eyebrow. “Did you want me to stand on ceremony and pin that to your chest? Give you a pat on the shoulder too?”

Mingxia paused when the strange image came to mind and quickly shook her head. She saluted. “No, Captain. Thank you for this honour. I’ll do my best to meet your expectations.”

“Sure.” Adrianna waved them off with a hand and walked behind her desk. “Go and finish your preparations for the departure at three today and meet your squads. I’ll discuss your jobs in more detail tomorrow when we’re on the boat and-”

“Captain Riftmire.” The dark-skinned Palin Zoc’uraghets saluted and dipped his head respectfully. “I would like to decline this promotion to Squad Leader and give it to someone who desires it more than me.”

Caspian, who was leaning against a wall behind them, gave the man a look of surprise, but Adrianna paused before she sat down and gave Zoc’uraghets an unreadable look. “And who would this person be?”

“Conlan Griffin, Captain,” he replied. “In our team battle training drills, Griffin has shown greater leadership and combat ability than I. I believe he would be a better fit for the position if you granted him the opportunity to make up for his first mistake.”

Adrianna tapped her fingers on the desk as she watched the man silently. “Is this his request to you?”

Zoc’uraghets shook his head. “No. But he has a variant of pseudo-battle aura and sword aura. I feel it would be a waste to not utilise his talents more.”

Adrianna looked out the window and Zhang Mingxia stared as the cold woman’s lips tilted up in a strange smirk. “I guess that to fail you need to have opportunities to make mistakes…” their Captain murmured. She sat down at her desk and waved to him. “I’ll consider it and get back to you by the end of this month. If you’re still willing to give up your position and Griffin has demonstrated his willingness to make up for his errors, then I’ll transfer the position.”

Adrianna looked between them both. “If that is all, then I’ll continue my work. Please go down and check in with your squad members.”

“Yes, Captain!” They both saluted and left her room, splitting up when they reached the first change in hallways.

Zhang Mingxia’s brow creased slightly as she thought back to her experiences with Conlan Griffin.

It may be true that he is above average in strength among our crewmates, but my soul art always acts strangely around him. Not as if he has explicitly bad intentions, but… that his intentions are harmful to someone else on the ship.