Two young women were standing out in front of Gilded Seat’s Obelisk, the towering structure of polished black metal.
“Do you recall the plan?” the dark-haired one said.
“If Sir Vincent asks, we were both at the largest magical item store in Gilded Seat,” the snow elf replied calmly. “You wanted to see if the Commission has a possibility as competitors using the Magisterial Treasure Emporium, while I wanted to view their purchasable books on magic and equipment. Afterwards, we had our afternoon meal at a well-known establishment, then returned to inspecting other shops.” She looked down at the indigo crystal in her hand. “When ‘we’ are together, I shall activate the spell within this crystal to summon an illusion of you to fool observers.”
Lucille nodded. “Good. You should be fine then.” She pointed at the gem. “I’d prefer if you didn’t break that. I can imagine it coming in handy in the future.”
Considering I worked all night to make a custom spell that can recreate my illusory constructs in spell form, I’d rather not lose all that progress.
“There may be one detail I am somewhat curious about,” Roa mentioned. “I am wondering why you have gone to such great lengths to mask your departure from the plane, even hiding it from your aide. From what I have seen, you both trust each other a great deal.”
Lucy looked over her shoulder to view the tall mansion appearing over the horizon. She turned back and smirked. “I will be visiting the Demon Realm in an attempt to obtain a skill that allows me to partially use demonic script.”
Trisroa’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something, but Lucy stalled her with a hand.
“I’m not forming a contract with a demon or something like that,” Lucy told her. “I’ve learned that there is an opportunity for me to gain that skill somewhere.” She pointed over her shoulder. “Vincent will try to either get someone else to follow me, or follow me himself. That’s too much trouble.”
Roa paused to consider it. “As a fellow scholar of magic, I can understand your interest. While I won’t ever connect with demons as I don’t want to be ostracised from my home plane, would you be able to share what you’ve learnt of their magical path in return for today?”
Lucille grinned. “Of course.” She gave the Commission one last look and then waved goodbye to the elven mage. “I’ll be off. Even if you’re doing this as a favour for me, I hope you enjoy yourself.”
The snow elf dipped her head. “I can see your spiritual strength, so I believe you’ll be fine. But even so, take care.”
After that, Lucy left Roa and entered the Obelisk. Her two snake swords were sheathed on either side of her belt in preparation for visiting the demon clan’s Stronghold after she went to the Daemonium Palace. And in her dimensional bag, she had the outfit of a certain other identity of hers…
She couldn’t leave immortal demon witnesses to the Aurelian Commission Head being involved in their destruction. Lucille had actually wanted to bring her briefcase, but it wasn’t practical for short trips, so she decided to only bring it for trips of several days or more.
Reciting her location of choice as she had done six months prior, her physical form was turned into white light and she disappeared from within the confines of the Obelisk space.
…
The first thing Lucille noticed after she went up the hellish climb of the front stairs, was the presence of multiple weaker demons.
‘Weaker’ was still enough to kill her with a sneeze, but compared to the Demon Emperor, they were barely mentionable. With her perception field shut down as she always did when visiting, she could only rely on her Field of Transmutational Mastery to detect people. It wasn’t that hard when one of the demons she sensed had the energy density of fifty thousand nuclear bombs. While suppressed.
“He did what?” a feminine voice hissed with bloodcurdling eeriness.
Lucille slowly stepped into the corridor past the throne room and crossed her arms as she observed the situation.
Abyssal Duchess Lilith Iona al’Abyssus was smiling coldly in all her demon glory. Leathery black wings outstretched, pitch-black demonic script coiling about her limbs, demonic energies leeching out of her into the surrounding air, curved goat-like horns…
Three weaker demons were grovelling on the floor in front of her, shivering violently under her terrifying presence.
“I see. Then I’ll have to resolve this myself,” Lilith announced with a gentle, melodious voice. She spun around on her heels and stopped when she saw Lucy. “Ah… well…” The demoness thought for a moment and the gave her a dismissive wave before walking past. “It’ll probably be fine to go find him.”
The Abyssal Duchess marched out the door and then flew off, her speed creating a massive boom that shook the building. Lucille turned back to look at the other three demons, who were awkwardly getting up from the floor.
She made eye contact with one of them and then, almost by a former agreement, they went completely different paths and didn’t speak to each other.
If they tried something on her after the spectacle it would just be embarrassing, and as the only human allowed in the Daemonium Palace, nobody, not even Lucy knew what status she held.
I am curious what could’ve occurred to make Lilith so angry. The Demonic Dragon Duke of Draco Bestia is supposed to have a short temper, not her.
In the end, Lucille shrugged and followed the path she remembered to the study. It had nothing to do with her and it was best to avoid the Demon Duchess’s attention.
She knocked on the double doors. “Your Majesty, may I come in?”
There was no response, but Lucy just rolled her eyes and opened the door. She peeked in and… she sighed when faced with a strong sense of déjà vu.
…
Looking at the Demon Emperor lying on the only couch with his eyes closed and wearing his black silk dressing gown, Lucille couldn’t help thinking that he looked an awful lot like a marble statue.
This wasn’t some compliment of his appearance or anything. He literally looked like a statue because he didn’t breathe. And to someone used to normal human colouration skin, the combination of alabaster skin and blood-red irises was truthfully more than a little freaky.
She was sitting on the floor cross-legged, and she had propped her chin up and watched him, resigned to her fate of staying there until he decided to move first. She wanted to test something, anyway.
This brings me back to the few conversations I had with Lucius about the biology of a higher race. They don’t need to eat, they don’t need to drink, don’t need to breathe, don’t need to sleep- clearly, that doesn’t prevent the specimen in front of me from doing the latter, though. Lucius said that ‘biology’ isn’t a word that suited them because they don’t have ‘true’ organs.
Although, I’m pretty sure this demon is just trying to avoid the reality of interacting with me. I understand the sentiment, but if he could ignore me while sitting anywhere but the only available couch in the room, I’d appreciate it. Should I steal his armchair?
She also couldn’t help but note that the Demon Emperor, one of the few existences capable of true teleportation, chose to sleep on his couch instead of bothering to move himself to his bedroom. It wouldn’t even take a thought and he’d be there.
If he’s this lazy, then I don’t think he really tried to test me when I met him for the first time. He’s not the kind of person to do that. So then, why was he wear… don’t tell me…
…it would match his personality though.
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Her focus on analysing the mysterious and nonsensical motivations of the being in front of her was such that she nearly flinched when his hand finally moved to rub his neck as he sat up with a sigh.
His brow creased as he sensed her presence and he turned his malevolent ruby eyes to her, on the carpet. He gazed at her as if he was begrudging her very existence.
“If I’ve sat here for half an hour while you’ve been asleep, does that count towards our bi-annual contractual meetings, and if so, may I leave now?” Lucille asked pleasantly.
He squinted at her due to the undertones of snide in her voice, but after thinking about it, he whipped his head to the side to read some notification with rather offensive levels of enthusiasm. His expression darkened. “It doesn’t.”
“……dammit.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Hey.”
Lucy blinked. “My apologies, Your Majesty. Did I say something?”
The Demon Emperor scowled but didn’t seem to have it in him to start an argument with her just yet. He sighed and then looked down at himself. With a wave of his hand, his formal ensemble of imperial jacket with epaulettes on the shoulders of a long cloak formed. He glanced up and frowned when he saw she was still watching him. “What is it?”
“There has been something I’m curious about,” Lucy began, tilting her head. “When we first met, you arrived while wearing the same dressing gown you had on before. At first, I thought you were testing my attitude towards disrespect, but now I don’t know what to think. Why did you wear such casual clothing when meeting me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He gazed at her like she was stupid. “You woke me up.”
He stood up and walked over to his desk as Lucy continued to stare at him with utter disbelief.
I was right! My soul power would’ve woken him up as soon as I entered the Dominion, so… he really was just too lazy to get changed! I can’t believe this guy!
She slowly stood up and walked over to the couch.
Should I give up all hopes of him changing the System Contract? No, actually, this is much better. He’ll be too apathetic to get revenge if I ever do something wrong. Letting wraiths infiltrate the Demon Realm? He’ll be asleep. Destroy a Stronghold? He’ll be glad he has fewer demon clans to deal with. Summon an Eldritch abomination and wipe out all of humanity in the Mystical Realm? I bet he’d be delighted!
This was, of course, excluding the existence of the ‘entity’ behind him, one thought strand dutifully reminded her, but Lucille was too absorbed in the depths of her sarcasm to care. She sat on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
The Demon Emperor picked up his pen as he searched through his documents, but then stopped. “Where is the Abyssal Duchess?”
See, there he goes again. Asking me because he can’t be bothered to find out himself, even though he’s the one mentally connected to her.
“She seemed angry, but the most I heard was that ‘he’ had done something, whatever that means,” she replied indifferently. “Perhaps you’d have better luck asking her yourself.”
One of his eyebrows twitched but he did as she had said. When he received the message he huffed and pulled out a drawer to grab an inkwell. “Damage control. One of her descendants was caught seducing the heir of a Major Kingdom that has close ties to the Abyssal Duchy.”
How kind of him to explain without me asking first. Is he sick?
“I see.” Lucille placed an arm on the back of the couch and looked over at him. “I have an important request to make, Your Majesty. It’s about the House of Wordless Observers.”
The Demon Emperor paused for a second and then put a pen to a page to start working. “State your request.”
“The House wishes to destroy a Demon County under the Infernal Demons who have been supporting the Malediction Society,” she explained solemnly. “They’ve asked that I pass their request to freely enter and exit the realm for the duration of the attack to you on their behalf. Their contingent has the Tainted Peony Blademistress with them too.”
He glanced up at her and crossed his arms. “I haven’t ever forbidden a member of Tartarus from entering my realm. That includes the Court and Wordless Observers. Undead frequently come here for research.”
“I’m just relaying what they asked,” she replied with a shrug. “There has to be at least one reason why they haven’t decided to just enter without your explicit permission. It could be something to do with their ruler, as the House and Court are directly under his leadership.”
The Demon Emperor gazed unblinkingly at her, which she knew by now meant either she had said something he considered strange, or he was busy thinking of something unusual. He looked down and continued writing. “There’s nothing.”
So there is something. Maybe I should poke Lucius next time we meet. I’m sure it’ll be entertaining to hear about the Demon Emperor from another Paragon Anomaly.
“Would it trouble you to get your response in writing? I want to do things conventionally,” she asked calmly.
He glared at her for asking such an obvious question but clicked his tongue and set about writing the permission form. He stamped it with his seal – a shape vaguely reminiscent of an ‘A’ formed from two interlocking Vs – and teleported it onto the far side of the table in front of her.
Lucille didn’t hide her dull stare but he didn’t react, so she wordlessly stood up to retrieve it. She stuck it in her dimensional bag for safekeeping and then walked over to stand in front of his desk.
He gave her a tired look. “What.”
“Your Majesty, I will be destroying a Stronghold alongside the representatives of Tartarus, but… due to my ‘condition’, I can’t obtain rewards from Quests unless someone else grants them to me.” Her voice was cheerful, but she was expressionless. She placed her hands behind her back. “I believe the Authorizer of the Tower has the same duty to be fair as the System imposes on itself.”
He leaned back, looking suspicious. “You’re going to bring up the System Contract again.”
Lucy felt like smirking. “On the contrary, I won’t. But I do want you to reward me with something I need for conquering the Stronghold.”
“Why should I ‘reward’ you for something you chose to do of your own will?” he stated dryly.
“Because my efforts to act as a mediator between you and the people from Tartarus are beneficial to the System.” She placed her hands on the edge of his desk and narrowed her eyes. “And because this will determine if I’m willing to continue doing this sort of thing for you in the future.”
He scowled and opened his mouth but Lucille interrupted him before he could say anything. “Yes, I’m aware that ‘I have to follow all orders given by the Authorizer relating to the preservation of the timeline’. But that contract said, ‘the Authorizer’. Not a name.”
She tilted her head. “The reason for that is more than symbolic, isn’t it? You are only the ‘Authorizer’ when given a direct order because it would be too much power for a Realm Ruler to hold. Which means, technically, I only have to follow orders explicitly given by… well, not you.”
His expression twitched, proving that she was right. Lucy straightened up and crossed her arms. “But relations between you and the Tartarus Realm have nothing to do with ‘the preservation of the timeline’.” She gave him a wide shrug. “Because, to my knowledge, the Court and the House still had nothing to do with you in the former timeline. This negotiation on their behalf may benefit the three tenets of the System, but it has nothing to do with our contracts, demonic or System.”
She pointed at herself. “Additionally, you haven’t been ordered to give me any true orders, have you? From my very first interaction with the System at the Inheritance Trials, it has already been proven that it’s taking a watch-and-wait stance. If I’m correct…” Lucille gave him a meaningful look. “This contract was never supposed to last longer than a couple of years, because the System only needed enough time to fully analyse my personality and make a predictive model. Was the informal end date after the Millennium Chapter?”
The Demon Emperor continued to stare at her, not saying a thing. Whatever notifications he was receiving, it was clear he didn’t want to admit she knew everything.
“Let’s put an end to all this, Your Majesty. I have two conditions.” Lucille leaned forward and pointed at his work. “One single line added to the contract. The System Contract will end at the same time as the Millennium Chapter. That’s all that’s needed, and I will never annoy you about the contract again.”
“…one line?” He put the pen down and intertwined his fingers, thinking about it. The seconds ticked by in the tense atmosphere, until he finally sighed. “Fine.”
He flicked his finger up and Lucille stilled as the cool sensation of the System Contract being summoned surrounded her. The floating white book appeared between them, and the Demon Emperor grabbed it. Blue text spooled onto the very last page.
“Ah, and please add that the Authorizer and all associated identities will not kill Lucille Goldcroft during or after the contract unless she breaches one of the Reality integrity protection measures,” she interjected.
“…why are you aware of those?” he asked sceptically.
She blinked. “Do you care enough to listen to my explanation?”
He considered it. “No,” he stated curtly. “I take it that was your second condition.”
Lucy shook her head. “No, my second condition isn’t related to the contract.”
The demon in front of her scowled. “Goldcroft…”
“Is there a problem? It’s only an extra sentence added using a conjunction.” Lucille shrugged. “Besides, I took great care to phrase it so that it would use as few words as possible for your sake. See, ‘breaches the protection measures’. Isn’t that much better than listing out another fifty terms of when I can be killed?”
He narrowed his ruby-red eyes at her, possibly sensing the mockery hidden in her sentence. He shook his head and shut the contract with a snap of his fingers. “Never mind. Just… don’t bring the contract up once more. This second condition is?”
“Please reward me with a skill after I conquer the Stronghold,” Lucy asked brightly. “Experience isn’t valuable enough for me right now, and I don’t have a class. As such, skills are more important to me right now.”
He pinched his nose bridge. “Fine.” The Demon Emperor looked up and gave her a flat stare. “Is that all, Goldcroft?”
Lucy clasped her hands together and gave him a low bow. “Thank you for your time, Your Majesty, the one and only Demon Emperor. If you will it, I shall see myself out of your study and return to my lowly position in the Mystical Realm. After meeting with the Tartarus Realm representatives, of course.”
He scowled. “If that is all, Goldcroft, then leave.”
Lucy didn’t say another word and swiftly left his room. She felt quite pleased with herself for managing to reach this point.
Would you look at that? I’ve finally broken the Demon Emperor’s stubborn streak. I have definitive proof that we no longer need to be involved after the Millennium Chapter. Now I just have to deal with him for…
She counted up the remaining months and rolled her eyes.
Even if I’ve lived a while, that’s more time than I want to spend with him. Oh well. Maybe if he’s lucky, I won’t annoy him too much during this time. But I still need to get revenge for the way he treated me when we met at the Empire’s Banquet.
Whistling with her hands behind her back, she found the descension of the steps to be almost enjoyable, even if it took half an hour. But it was when she placed a foot on the very last step…
…that she found herself teleported to the very beginning of the stairs, right at the front doors of the Daemonium Palace. She turned around and stared at the building.
Was he that irritated by my good mood that he decided to be petty and make me do the walk again?!?!
…
Lucille recalled the rendezvous point instructions and took the winding route suggested by the Wordless Observers to access it. Nobody was outside the building, but she slowly pushed the unlocked door open.
The unusually placid souls of the death race made themselves known to her senses, but she calmly raised her hands in silent surrender when an alien soul brushed up against hers. A blade as cold as ice pressed against her neck.
“Thy nameth and occupation,” the low, cool female voice announced. Her tone commanded respect and attention, while tinged with a strange ancient dialect like the ones the Fae spoke in. It revealed her age and era, when people spoke the same language as the Fae.
“Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft, the Aurelian Commission Head,” Lucy replied politely.
After a pause, the person retracted their blade. “Maketh thy acquaintance.”
Lucille turned around and got down on one knee. “My Lady, it is my greatest honour to meet with the Ruby Blade Queen herself, who slayed an army of ten thousand in one day. I hold great pride in that a member of the Court visited me themselves.”
“Curious. Usually, someone speaks of mine own heritage before aught else,” the vampire replied.
“Who doesn’t know that you are the granddaughter of the original Blood Patriarch himself?” Lucy looked up and smiled. “But the achievements of the individual should be mentioned first when praising them.”
Lucille took in the appearance of the ancient vampire sword master for the first time. With ghostly pale skin marbled by blue veins and sanguine irises studying her expressionlessly, there was no doubt that she was the apex predator of all creatures with blood in their veins. She didn’t breathe nor did her heart beat, no doubt due to her nature as an undead.
Rouge Ellsinore had a long, raven pixie cut with a singular ruby ornament on a chain hanging from an earlobe. Her lips were painted blood red, and she wore a black tailcoat trimmed with silver embroidery on top of a white ruffle blouse. On her right hip was the sheath of a thin rapier. Her gloved hand rested on the rapier’s pommel. Her body showed not a single sign of life.
“Hast the master of daemons permitted it?” Ellsinore asked.
Lucy withdrew the permission form and handed it to her. The sword master nodded.
“I wisheth to maketh haste,” the vampire announced. “We shall leaveth anon.”
Lucy didn’t question how the member of the Court was going to take her to a distant Dominion, thousands of kilometres away from the Daemonium Palace Stronghold, but just stood up and brushed herself off.
Ellsinore raised a single hand and a dome of red mist formed around all of them, a total of six people. Lucille stiffened up as she felt them cross megametres in a mere instant. She looked down to find them all floating above a castle surrounded by a glowing violet moat.
Lucy paused when she noticed the vampire was staring at her. “My Lady? she asked politely.
“Our lord is as wise as he is mighty, but the matter of the Blood Patriarch is not his domain,” Ellsinore announced loudly. “Cometh, alloweth us duel to seeth if it be true thee has't the strength did need to conquer this stronghold alongside us, and if it be true this cycleth's blood patriarch deserves thee by his side.”
…Judging by the wary looks of the other four wraiths, Lucy didn’t think this had been in the script.