The girl spilled everything with hardly any prompting. It was clear she was merely a pawn to the wizards of the Light Tower, for whatever reason they kidnapped Sedric.

Sally Meyers herself only placed the item in Sedric’s workshop at the behest of her distant Baron uncle, someone who promised to bring her into his household and make her a noble if she completed the task. It was the girl’s assigned task that day to check the mana lock on the door of Sedric’s workshop, and for that task she had an amulet that would let her inside. The end result was the explosion and the wizards stationed nearby sensing the mana disruption, then taking advantage of the chaos with their Radiance abilities to teleport inside while the protection arrays were disabled.

There were many things to look into, including where on the plane the wizards had teleported from, who owned the building the light wizards had teleported from, identifying the assailants and determining if the warriors who accompanied them were hired help or from other clans.

Because of this, a small meeting was held between Lucille, Vincent, Scytale and Count Ravimoux in the Black Lily Casino. Due to the Headquarters’ wards being compromised, it was unsafe for them to reside there. Lucy had put all her belongings into her briefcase as she didn’t expect to be returning to the Headquarters for a few days at least.

Regulus Ravimoux broke the silence. “I sent messengers to the other Counts when I sent a messenger to the unnamed plane,” he explained. “I refrained from informing Alichanteu of this incident, but I’ll inform them if you wish me to, Count Goldcroft.”

“No, it’s better to leave them in the dark right now,” Lucy said, expressionless as she looked at the ground in thought. “We don’t want to complicate things.”

“Could this create a rift between you and Alichanteu’s central members?” Vincent asked with a frown. “Olden might see that as a weakness to exploit.”

She shook her head. “They can only accept that I’m not comfortable with telling anyone below the Alichanteu Count of the incident. All we need to do is mention the situation that occurred in the Permafrost Glacial Abode Region.” She traded looks with the two men. “You’re both aware of how this could be connected, yes?”

Count Ravimoux nodded. “A distraction, for the very same reason you set the Alichanteu visit to be this week. I doubt they knew you’re aware of the Permafrost Glacial Abode Region convoy, so this was done to cause a little chaos at the Commission, and possible delay your visit to Alichanteu’s County.” He held his chin. “Maybe Olden discovered the black market dimension plans... No. That can’t be it, I’d know if someone betrayed me. Regardless, this is likely a hostage situation for Radical. We all know Sedric Ferin’s background so Olden may want to use him against Radical and the Dawn Dissenters. Radical would want Sedric so their faction can gain your support - and by extension the Commission’s...”

“No.” Lucille stood up and walked over to a window. “I believe the ones behind this are aware that we set a trap in the Permafrost Glacial Abode Region.” She turned around and narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t Olden’s doing.”

Count Ravimoux looked surprised and Vincent nodded. The aide crossed his arms. “I expected as much.”

The dark-haired Count gazed at Vincent with confusion. “Am I missing something here?”

“Well...” Vincent snuck Lucy a look. “You could say that we... have experience with magic users wanting to do rash things...”

“Marellen Vadel is an... interesting personage, but it appears he’s taught Vincent that not everything has to be about politics,” Lucille remarked dryly. “The rash actions of the Light Tower wizards are the attitudes of arrogant men who want to get something done as quickly as possible. Sedric is no longer on this plane, correct? He was taken somewhere for a purpose. If it was a hostage situation, they would’ve stayed in Gilded Seat and demanded that both the Commission and Radical come forward as public stunt for all who might be watching, to make Radical and a major player of the Neutral faction submit before Olden. That is how Olden works.”

Lucy shrugged and sat back down. “I can’t confirm anything, but Sedric is valuable to them for some reason. I suppose this would be Olden’s doing if you looked at it generally, but that’s only because the Light Tower is associated with Olden.”

Count Ravimoux sighed and rubbed his temples. “Then who...?”

“Come on, even I can guess where Lucy is going with this,” Scytale piped up. “Who’s the one group outside of the Empire that know Lucy’s real age?”

Vincent’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me... Leng Xiuying? This is her doing?”

“Not her,” Lucille refuted. “A Sect Leader of the most ‘peaceful’ Sect can’t be seen sabotaging one of the Eternal Empire’s major forces. The group behind this even involved the best information and assassin Sect in the Heavenly Realm, which is only done by someone with many connections to the underworld. That’s not to say Leng Xiuying never told someone else.” She sighed and ran a hand through her fringe. “Whoever it is, they’re a part of the Profound Emergent Jade Lotus Sect. Everything from the Jade Rosewood found in the convoy to the traces of Dao left in their gift for me point to that Sect. But for whatever reason, they’re not blatantly hostile nor trying to use me.”

She scowled. “I’m being tested by them. If that weren’t enough, they’ve switched to using the people around me. They’re made an enemy of me now, not an ally. I won’t stand for this.”

The others fell silent. Count Ravimoux’s eyes narrowed coldly.

“So… what next?” Scytale spoke up.

Lucy stood and began to pace. “Finding out where Sedric is. His safety is my responsibility, and I need to ensure he’ll come back unharmed.”

Vincent looked at the man seated next to him. “Count Ravimoux, have your subordinates reported back?”

The dark-haired man clicked his tongue. “We haven’t located them. We’ve only been looking into the planar arrays but not a lot of progress has been made.”

“Then how do we find out where Sedric has gone?” Vincent groaned. “He’s not even on the same plane for us to use a spell to track! None of us can cast Grand Spells to find what plane he is on…”

“It would be a ton easier if we could just talk to Sedric-” Scytale’s words died off and he looked at Lucy.

Lucille had already known a while ago what she had to do. The only issue was explaining it to Vincent.

‘Wait, wait, time out! I demand a private meeting!’ Scytale yelled mentally, eyes going wide.

Luce brought herself and her bond into the Simulacrum Realm, accelerating their consciousnesses so they had time to talk.

They were in the replica of her room in the Headquarters, overlooking the Simulacrum’s model of Gilded Seat. Lucille swung her legs over the shorn away section of the room, buildings directly below her feet.

“You’re actually planning on using the Simulacrum Realm to contact Sedric?!” the humanoid snake asked, shock on his features. “You’re willing to reveal it?”

“An ability that can contact people no matter the distance or realm is exceptionally rare, yes…” Lucille shook her head. “But it’s not a combat ability. And that is what matters to anyone who leaks the information. I’m not planning on revealing everything, and…” She looked down. “This may be a good lead into discussing the ‘secret dimension’ for the Dusky Undercroft Dungeon and how it ties into the black market dimension.”

“Yeah… but…” Scytale hesitated. “I don’t know, I feel like Vincent could start making a few weird connections once he learns of this…”

Lucy didn’t react. “That sounds like it’d be interesting.”

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She snapped her fingers and their consciousnesses were returned to real time. Lucille faced Vincent and Count Ravimoux. “I can contact Sedric.”

Vincent stared at her. “How?”

Scytale and her both glanced at the dark-haired Count. Regulus Ravimoux clued on and gave them a wry smile. “All of a sudden, I recall I had something to discuss with my subordinates.” He left the room and only stuck an arm back in to wave. “I won’t be far.”

Vincent coughed into his fist. “Er… are you comfortable with revealing what you meant now?”

“It’s simple. I can use my Origin Skill to contact Sedric.” She sat back down with her arms crossed. “My Origin Skill is linked to the spiritual realm so I can mentally communicate with anyone regardless of distant and dimensional barriers.”

He stared at her. “Wha…”

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”

“You don’t have an ability related to soul magic… or magic in general?” he asked, flabbergasted.

She blinked and then cupped her face with her gloved hands. “Any supposed Origin Skill-level ability I demonstrate regarding the soul or magic is all pure talent, unfortunately. So you can’t even blame your lacking intellect on luck.”

Vincent frowned. “I don’t believe this is the time to be making jokes like that.”

“I wasn’t joking, but never mind. You’re right.” Lucy stood up and checked her pocket watch. “I’ll contact Sedric to learn about his situation and denied he can lead us to where he is. I don’t expect us to be able to do that today however, and so…”

She traded glances with Scytale and he nodded. “We should complete the rest of the stages and reach Rank-2.”

Vincent looked between them. “…now?”

“We won’t be gone for more than an hour. Time doesn’t pass in the stages,” Lucy reminded him. “I want to receive the stat potions from the stage completion rewards and our next main skills.”

Vincent sighed and pushed up his glasses. “I understand.” He stood up. “I’ll keep the details vague for Count Ravimoux. But… the Alichanteu visit is in two and a half days, Lucille.”

“I know.” She tapped her fingers on the armrest of the couch. “We’re on a time limit. There is one thing I agree with Count Ravimoux on, and that’s that someone in Alichanteu wants to delay us. So, we need to betray their expectations and turn up to see what they wanted to hide.”

Her aide nodded and they gave her a small frown. “You’re planning on finding Sedric in person?”

“I don’t trust anyone else to consider him valuable enough to prioritise,” she stated flatly. “I like Count Ravimoux as a person, but putting Sedric’s safety into his hands isn’t something I want to do.”

“...it would likely be a great help if Hargrave was here to assist you,” Vincent murmured. He blinked as a thought came to him. “Is it only Sedric you can contact for some reason?”

Lucille shook her head. “Anyone who has come in contact with my spiritual energy can be contacted. I know what you’re going to ask, but I won’t do that.”

He frowned. “Why not? Hargrave has shown plenty of times he’s willing to help you if you need it. Especially for something as important as this.”

“At this current stage, Hargrave’s only goal is revenge,” Lucy stated blandly. “Unless he acknowledges that his resolve has changed, I don’t want to bring him into this.” She crossed her arms and looked away. “He made an oath to never harm anyone who doesn’t try to harm him first, so his usefulness for this is debatable.”

They were all aware that even without Hargrave fighting, he could help them a lot, but Vincent clearly saw she had other reasons to not ask Hargrave to come.

...it was actually because she had felt the traces of a vampire’s blood mana in his amulet acting up before he left and she didn’t want to endanger anyone around her by calling him back. She trusted Hargrave to deal with it himself, but that didn’t mean she would be stupid and not take preventative measures.

Vincent sighed and took off his glasses to clean the lenses. “Then what about the four you sent to Tartarus? I’m sure that this would lie within the jurisdiction of working for you.”

Lucy considered it and nodded. “I’ll call them back. They should have completed their Rank-Ups and tasks, anyway.”

“Good. Then...” Vincent checked his wrist watch. “I need to contact Count Chavaret and my grandfather once I speak to Count Ravimoux. Once you’ve spoken to Sedric and shared the details with us, head to the Demon Realm and come back quick, please. We don’t need our Commission Head going missing too.”

“Hey, what about the Commission Head’s bond going missing?” Scytale complained. “Does nobody care about me?”

Vincent ignored the snake to walk out the VIP lounge. Lucille walked over to the windowsill and sat on its edge. “I think it’s time to see how our crafter is going over on the other side of this fiasco.”

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

In small room, furnished with only thick mattress, workbench and the bare minimum tools needed for a crafter to complete their work, a brown-haired man was asleep. One arm was flung over the side of the bed as a soft snore escaped him. Ugly metal goggles were slowly slipping off his head and he was still wearing a leather apron.

‘....edric.’

He snored louder.

‘Sedric?’

“...mhmMm... I’m not sleeping, I swear...” he mumbled.

‘Sedric, now is not the time to be asleep.’

“Shut up, Lucille...” Sedric rolled over and buried his head in a pillow. “Why are you even in my bedroom to begin with......?”

Something about that statement felt strange but he couldn’t ruminate on it as the voice of the enigmatic woman he called his boss grew louder.

‘You moron, Sedric! Get up! You’ve just been kidnapped for heaven’s sake, don’t you think this requires some urgency?!’

The sudden shout in his head made him jump and he accidentally fell out of bed, his back on the cold stone floor. He groaned as he shakily sat up, feeling the ache in his whole body. Sedric took off the goggles that had been slowly entangling themselves in his hair and looked around. “Uh... Lucille? Where are you?”

‘Look under your bed.’

Sedric’s eyes went wide and he stood up, then whirled around to check his bed. His expression went flat when he saw what he had been sleeping on.

‘I can’t believe you fell for that. You were sleeping on only a mattress.’

“I thought you said this requires urgency,” he bit back.

‘Unlike you, I can multi task, and make a fool out of you at the same time as saving your sorry backside.’

Sedric rolled his eyes and then frowned, crossing his arms. “For real this time. Where are you?”

‘Not here. Check your hand.’

His eyes narrowed. Sedric could almost see the eye roll that came with the heavy sigh in his mind.

‘This isn’t another joke. Look at your right hand.’

“Do I need to take my glove off or-” His voice faded as he saw the glowing golden symbol that hovered over the back of his hand, regardless of his gloves. It had the shape of a tesseract and no matter what angle he turned his arm at, it was visible. “What is this?”

‘Simply put, it’s the mark that appears on those I choose to strengthen my Origin Skill’s effect on. If it weren’t for the situation I never would’ve done this, but at least it allows us to have direct mental communication with one another. Only those I’ve done the same to can see this mark on you and vice versa.’

“Origin Skill?” Lucille’s Origin Skill... he was very curious, but he understood it wasn’t the time to ask questions-

Sedric immediately disregarded that thought when he realised something. “How did you know I wasn’t on a proper bed when you’re not here?”

‘I... set up a construct through my Origin Skill that projects the vision of who I’m connected to onto my own senses.’

Sedric wrapped his arms about himself and shuddered. “That’s creepy. You can see what I’m seeing?”

‘Do you want to return home or not?’

He quickly sat down on the mattress and shut his mouth. Not for long though. “Uh... I don’t want to be impatient or anything, but when are you guys going to come get me? This wizards make me feel glad we only have magic freak Marellen at the Commission, and I never thought I’d be saying that,” he complained.

‘We have a very minor problem with that, Sedric. You see... we don’t know where you are.’

He paused. “...what?”

‘Well, you were kidnapped, and then taken off-plane. The wizards of the Light Tower could’ve taken you any which way. It’s unlikely you’re even on the Aeternus plane, which means there are thousands of planes you could be on.’

He ran a hand down his face. “...right. But the wizards never told me anything about this place either.”

‘Let’s begin by finding out why they wanted you here in the first place. Is there something they want you to work on?’

“Uh... yeah, actually. Wait a sec.” Sedric stood up and walked over to the workbench in his room. He pulled out a drawer and held out a strange six-sided mechanism of some kind. Primitive mana-lines flowed to and from six gems of the essential elements. “They passed me this to study in my own time when I’m not allowed in the main room of this... place. The main room is some big control centre of some kind, I think this object is supposed to control the whole building but they can’t get it to unlock for some reason.”

‘Do you know how it works?’

“I mean...” He held it up and shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you just need someone who can control all six gems at once to use it, so of course none of the wizards here could use it, being so prideful of their lone affinities for light. I can’t use it either for the record, my class only deals in arcane mana unless I use runes. Runes don’t work with this clunky bit of tech – I think it’s an artifact.”

‘Have you told them this?’

“Not yet.”

‘Good. Don’t, so you can stall for time. Ask for equipment to do all the standard tests like I taught you regarding artifacts when you redesigned my dimension artifact. As much as it might infuriate you, you need to act submissive to the wizards. They don’t expect anything from you, and you want to keep it that way.’

“Alright.” Sedric sighed and flopped back down on his bed. “What else?”

‘Are there any distinct characteristics about this place you could tell me? There is very little I can observe just through your senses.’

“Hm.” He crossed his arms. “The mana is a bit weird. I’m not sure if it’s just this building or something, but it feels stagnant. No, stagnant isn’t the right word, it’s...” Sedric thought for a moment. “Sluggish. It feels very old and immoveable, like it’s been here for so long that nothing can change it. It’s also very intense, like... strong enough to be a Major plane, but unlike all the other planes I’ve visited, the mana here is completely different.”

‘Would you be able to use your mana sight skills on the mana here?’

He pulled on the force of his skill and observed the mana around him. Sluggish was definitely the correct descriptor, as the mana was so dense as to be slow moving but very deep in tone.

‘Huh. It looks like you’re on an Old Era plane. That’s... interesting.’

“Old Era... huh? Like the one Marellen went to?” Sedric asked, feeling confused.

‘Yes. I need to tell Vincent and Ravimoux this.’

Lucille fell silent for a moment before speaking again. ‘Just focus on the symbol and you can contact me whenever. I trust you’ll be fine. I need to contact Marellen and the others before we can try to find you in earnest. Scytale and I are heading to the Demon Realm to reach Rank-2 before we come find you.’

Sedric’s eyes went wide. “You’re coming to get me in person?”

‘Do you think I’ll stand for wizards kidnapping my personal crafter and getting away with it? Of course we’re coming. I don’t think anyone else has the intellect to find you in the first place.’

With that, he felt her presence leave his mind. Sedric rolled his eyes but was truthfully feeling quite happy. He looked down at the mechanism still held in his hands.

I’m pretty sure Marellen would be able to use this...

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

A silver-haired man ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he looked out the window. Vincent shook his head and walked down the halls of the Black Lily Casino. He felt out of place in the building, up in the higher levels were only the more powerful nobility went to have private gambling matches and meetings. Lucille and Scytale had left for the Obelisk.

One of Ravimoux’s servants came up to him, looking nervous. “Sir Evisenhardt... three people have arrived at the Casino saying they were guests of yours...”

Vincent scoffed. “I don’t have any guests. Turn them away.”

“I’m... afraid we can’t do that. We don’t have the ability to refuse members of a Supreme Institution.”

Vincent frowned. “What?”

...

Vincent threw the room’s doors open and stared when he saw the golden-eyed and golden-haired girl sitting next to her surly younger brother and the despondent Paladin, his head buried in his hands.

Annaliese beamed. “Hello, Vincent?”

“W-What?” Vincent asked, stunned. “W-Why?”

Annaliese grinned and rested her chin on her hand. “Sedric has gone missing, right?”

“How-”

“What do you mean, how?” Annaliese asked innocently. “I’m the Prophetess. I receive prophecies.” She smiled brightly. “And I know Lucille will need us... because Raegan’s hex can help us track Sedric down.”