What were you expecting?
Eric’s decided to give her a pop quiz, and his mistake is filling it with questions about player classes and skills, as well as the odd question about things like the number of factions in the capital, who members of the imperial family are, and other similar topics.
That shocked expression when brown eyes look over her answer sheets makes her grin in satisfaction, then she’s barely holding back laughter as the redhead clearly struggles with what to say next.
“Well done, my lady.” Ray being Ray, he’d realized his commander’s turmoil and stepped in to mitigate.
“Thanks, Ray!” Lexi’s in a great mood, because the test means she’s exempted from combat training today.
“The test was too easy.” Give it up, dude. I memorized anything I thought I’d need to stay alive. “I’ll prepare another, wait ten minutes.”
Rolling her eyes, Lexi signals to Mia - the freckled maid - to get her a fresh pot of coffee.
Deciding to stretch her legs during the break, she wanders off and browses the shelves of the library casually.
> Chronicles of Sage Icarian Forsberg
It’s the name of the late sage, the one Lexi’s recently learned she’d been brought in to replace, given his time of death matches the approximate timing of her arrival to this world.
It’s also the name of Oracle Kass Lorelai’s late lover, and judging from the crown prince’s expression when he’d mentioned that legendary rank player there’s clearly suspicion of foul play.
A black widow huh.
According to the maids, Oracle Kass is known for being extremely pretty, with gleaming white hair, sparkling golden eyes, a slender figure, and a face you could gaze at endlessly. It helps that he hasn’t aged a day since coming to Terra at 18 years old, the laws of the system preserving his youthful good looks for more than a century.
Something tells me that guy isn’t someone I want to mess with.
While she’d only recently gained the Intuition skill, Lexi’s own intuition has always been there - a subtle whisper, a delicate nudge - and every time she’d ignored it she’d learned her lessons the hard way.
Speaking of...
Eric’s condition for letting her out of the manor to follow Guide’s trail in the capital (with him and Ray and pretty much an entire army as escorts) had been for her to pass his test today.
If he moves the goalpost, I’m going on strike.
Exactly how she’d go on strike is something Lexi has yet to figure out.
“The test is ready.”
Rolling her eyes, she plucks the book off the shelf and strolls back to the table.
Give it up, bro.
Less than ten minutes later, Lexi can’t contain her laughter.
Ray and Mia congratulate her on another perfect score, while Eric looks absolutely shellshocked.
“So, when are we leaving?”
His grip on her test papers tightens momentarily, before a reluctant sigh escapes thin lips and the aristocrat turns to Mia.
“Prepare for Lady Lexi to explore the capital tomorrow.”
Lexi 2 - Eric 10,000
She’s finally getting somewhere.
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Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.
With so many knights accompanying them - the Tridentia Duchy’s coat of arms clearly emblazoned on their armor, seafoam green capes embroidered with gold thread fluttering in the wind - everyone gets out of their way but then lingers on the sidelines to stare and speculate.
Lexi tugs her hood lower over her face, but she knows there isn’t much point given it’s common knowledge ‘the Hargreaves’ is in the care of the Dawn Duke, and that the commander and vice-commander of the Hawk Legion are serving as her guards on the crown prince’s orders.
I’m surprised the emperor hasn’t made a move yet, though.
Or maybe he has, and that assassin was his doing.
The Hawks had investigated, and confirmed there’d been no request put to the underground guilds to have her taken care of, no other quest in the vicinity that would explain another player’s presence. Which means it’d been an off-the-books gig even in the black market - and whoever the client was, they’d have to have deep pockets in order to entice someone to go after a high ranking player protected by the two best knights in the country.
Beyond the money offered for the job, Lexi’s certain no one in their right mind would have accepted if they hadn’t believed their client powerful enough to ensure there’d be minimal repercussions. After all, if anything happens to her or Eric, the crown prince would likely do everything in his power to find the culprit.
Even if the prince hadn’t publicly announced the person responsible for his wife’s and child’s deaths, Eric had made sure Lexi knew very well who’d pulled the strings.
I’m really sorry, your highness.
As a bona fide Daddy’s Girl, Lexi had only ever known love from her father.
Interestingly, it seems Shade Raphael had been touted as the perpetrator for awhile, though the crown prince himself had quashed the rumors and investigation with hard facts despite his grief.
Makes sense. Shade Raphael can control shadows, but the imperial palace is overflowing with magical items that can at least detect, if not defend against, a player’s powers.
Eric had told her that after that incident, the legendary player had started listening to more of the crown prince’s requests, where before the man would have completely ignored his highness.
Based on everything she’s heard, Shade Raphael is the kind of mercenary, manipulative man who’ll do anything to grow his wealth and status - even joining hands with the emperor against the crown prince as he had previously, before his allegiances turned more nebulous, decisions based solely on how much more he stood to gain from each side.
Stop giving the rest of us a bad name.
Lexi isn’t a saint, not by a long shot. But her father had raised her to at least believe a little bit in the factors that define right and wrong.
And some of the things Shade Raphael had allegedly done fall definitively into the category of ‘wrong’.
“My lady?”
Startled out of her introspection, Lexi jerks the reins slightly and Violet immediately comes to a stop.
Oh, right.
Looking around, she’s glad they’re right in front of the house Guide and Intuition have been leading her to.
“We’re here.”
Ray dismounts immediately and helps her down, as Eric signals to three of his family’s knights to follow her.
Now, let’s see what Guide wants me to find.
A pudgy, pockmarked man in his forties answers the door, bowing and stuttering when he sees the emblems on the knights’ armors, but Lexi’s eyes are focused entirely on the color above his head.
“Big red light.”
Instantly Ray draws his sword, and Eric and the Tridentia knights follow suit.
While Intuition at her level follows a simple color code, Lexi suspects the sizes of the lights indicate the amount of danger from the source.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Move.” Sir Aidan Browning pushes the trembling little man out of the way, Sir Felix Gaitz holding a sword to a thick, sweaty neck. Lexi follows Ray in, pointing silently towards where Guide and accompanying red lights are leading her.
Huh?
Guide is indicating she needs to go down, but the floor looks solid beneath the dining table. Pointing at where Guide’s trail ends, Lexi watches as knights tap and fiddle with the ground after shoving aside the table, eyes widening when a section swings away.
What is that SMELL?!
It’s disgusting - putrid, fetid, metallic, sour, stale, and overwhelming - and she hastily covers her nose and mouth as she tries not to gag.
“Pierce! Get Lady Lexi out of here!”
The people of the duchy, as well as the Hawk Legion, have taken to calling her that thanks to Eric.
Sir Pierce Montague, a solidly built knight of the Dawn Duke, attempts to shield her from the stench with his cape as he hurriedly escorts her out of the building.
“What is it?”
Eric is standing by the doorway, sword at the ready, and when Sir Pierce tells him about the hidden entrance as well as the scent of blood, sweat, excrement, and rot, those brown eyes narrow before the commander leads a group of his family’s warriors into the unassuming home.
“My lady! Please take a seat, I’ll get you some water.”
Mia had been officially assigned as her personal maid, and Lexi sometimes wonders if it’s because the girl just likes looking at crystal eyes.
There’s no denying that the freckled servant is good at her job, though.
Gulping down cool water that Mia has somehow managed to procure within seconds, Lexi tries to breathe and calm herself.
Six gulps. That was six gulps. Six six six.
Her attempts go out the window when she hears yells, and knights start running out and throwing up on the street.
What the hell is going on?!
Eric, Ray, are you two alright?
Panic drives her to her feet, though before she can get very far Ray bursts out calling for healers, gently cradling what looks like a person in his arms.
Healers? What...
Lexi joins some of the knights in expelling breakfast violently.
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Why? Why would anyone do this?
It hadn’t just been a human trafficking ring, or a slave ring, but an organization devoted to the most abhorrent acts against living, breathing human beings.
What did they ever do to you? What could you possibly gain from all that, besides a sick satisfaction?
She’d seen some of the bodies carried out by trembling knights gnawing at their own lips to stop the tears and vomit. And when Sir Aidan had been presenting his grim report in the duke’s study, Lexi had almost thrown up again after only six minutes. In the end, his grace had ordered for her to be brought to her room and kept away from any more details, for her own sake.
I’m being treated like a weakling.
Not that she can blame the duke or anyone else. Lexi’s always had a good imagination - she doesn’t need to have seen the bodies to ‘see’ what happened to them through words alone.
It’s a downward spiral after that of alcohol to cope, and a drunken mind wandering back into that hellhole.
Why? How? How could you?
That weak looking man had turned out to be the mastermind, a sadistic bastard of the highest degree who’d preyed on the desperate innocent seeking honest work, on those with no one to look for them.
Hell is too good for you.
Crown Prince Jordan had stepped in once a messenger had been sent to the palace, and from what she overhears of whispered conversations among maids, the city continues to be in an uproar at the fact that it’d taken the newest initiated player to dismantle such a vile operation.
What were the other alchemists and sages doing? Why didn’t they stop this? Is there a reason?
Guide is a skill available to both classes, which means there are 14 other people capable of seeing the sparkles. Even if Intuition is a sage-specific skill, it doesn’t change the fact that at least four other players could have done something before this.
Sage Elise, why didn’t you act? I haven’t heard anything bad about you, so surely…
Her mind is whirling and floating, scattering and roiling on waves caused by too much alcohol without any food for days.
Stop it. You’re not a ninny. Think, THINK.
Even my own world wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There were plenty of war crimes, plenty of sick bastards who committed the vilest acts against other people and animals on a daily basis just for shits and giggles. You’re not an innocent little fool, Lexi. You know that monsters in human skin roam free. You know what happens to players like yourself - remember what that viscount was planning to do to you? Just because the crown prince, Eric, Ray, and the Tridentia house have been good to you, doesn’t mean you can forget just how screwed up this world is - how screwed up any world with humans is.
She’s starting to calm down now, in that heavy way acceptance of cruel reality always sits in her chest and stomach, chains her mind to the mouth of the abyss.
Dad was an optimist, who always liked to look for the best in people. Didn’t you love and hate that about him?
Lexi had despaired at his kindness on many occasions, grumbled at him for constantly giving money away and changing absolutely nothing.
Stop thinking about him, or about him. Focus on now.
Guide comes into play when items and people of importance to a player’s journey are nearby. I don’t know the range of Intuition, but it seems limited to only what’s within sight, unless it pairs with Guide.
That means someone or something in that hellhole is important to me, but not to others, which is why there’s technically no way for them to have seen the Guide trail or red lights unless they happened to cross paths.
I need to tell the crown prince. He needs to stop the vitriol. I’m a player and a sage myself, so I can’t let us as a whole get blamed for this - there are enough people out for our blood as it is. And this outrage by the citizens could’ve been incited by those trying to blame players for not intervening sooner, because even though we’re not the perpetrators it’s easier to fault the outsiders.
“Mia!”
The young maid rushes in immediately, concern evident. “My lady! What do you need?”
…I suppose there are still some who aren’t completely rotten. Or maybe I’m just looking for what I want to see.
“Mia, I need to send word to the crown prince immediately.”
Doe-like eyes widen at that, before the maid rushes to bring Lexi pen and paper.
Once she’s sealed the letter and handed it over, Mia runs off to find the butler and have it delivered to the prince post-haste.
I know you can sort this out.
It takes his highness less than a day after receiving her note to deflect attention from all players, and despite herself Lexi is impressed.
To be able to control the narrative so easily...just how much groundwork have you laid?
Eric and Ray bring her to the hospital after she’s finally sobered up and had some food, and she quietly climbs the stairs while following Guide’s glitters, seeing only orange lights next to them.
So the murderous intent is dissipating?
They're in the section dedicated to survivors of that place - the scent of blood, herbs, and disinfectant too familiar for her liking - but the alternative is to think about the fact that the person she's here to find is someone who’s been through hell and is alive to tell the tale.
I’m sorry.
Lexi isn’t the kind to take responsibility like this, isn't the kind who believes she can save the world by being Lawful Good, doesn't believe the world can be saved most days. But the fact remains that if she’d taken action earlier instead of choosing to go on the quest first, at least these people would have been spared an extra twenty days of torment.
Which makes their additional suffering my fault.
She’d seen the sparkles from Guide on her way out of the city before, but on her return the memory of the attempted assassination had weighed on her to the extent Lexi had ignored everything else and rushed to make her report at the Guild - grabbing the bag of coins without even checking to make sure they’d paid her properly - before hiding out in the duke’s palatial estate.
If I’d just taken a look around, especially now that I have Intuition...
I can’t change the past. I don’t have the Reverse skill yet. I need to level up as soon as possible so I can unlock the ultimate skills.
...would the system really just let me go back and change the past though? I never got to see what Reverse actually does, and what penalties or restrictions it may have since that damned welcome package was like a game of roulette.
Maybe I can ask Sage Elise for help. She should know what to do, since she’s definitely at a higher level than me.
For now, I need to meet this person I could’ve saved earlier but chose not to. That’s my burden to bear.
When she spots the small figure on the bed, Lexi can’t help but gasp.
A kid?
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Vena, the half-elf with Guide’s glitters around her head, is fifty years old but looks only ten thanks to elven blood. She’d been caught by slave traders a year ago when she’d ventured into another territory to look for herbs, hoping to be of aid to her ailing mother.
They’d forced her to watch as her mother - still beautiful despite the wasting disease, because an elf is always beautiful - had been gangraped and mutilated by the cruel human men, forced her to watch as they’d burned the little wooden house her human father had built to the ground, her mother still breathing inside.
There’s a bit of a commotion in the duke’s manor at first, seeing as elves are rare on the central continent except for the occasional trade ship that ventures close to their shores before anchoring, doing business, and leaving. Some of the more curious elves reportedly disembark and choose to wander around human cities, but such individuals are few and far between.
Eventually, the employees’ hearts go out to this child - never mind her real age - and Vena is showered with treats constantly.
Lexi can’t bring herself to look at the girl, not when she'd read the full report on Vena's time in hell (it’d taken a lot of arguing with Eric, but she’d prevailed and then spent another day completely intoxicated while throwing up regularly). It’s hard not feeling guilty when she knows she could have done something sooner, when she knows she only helped because Guide told her that someone in that house is important to her own journey.
Facts are facts. I could have helped earlier, and was in a position to. I didn't because I'm selfish, and all these people - including Vena - suffered for longer than they had to.
It’s the crown prince who snaps her out of it, barging into her room while covering his eyes to preserve her modesty.
You’ll trip and fall if you keep doing that.
She’d known he’s coming anyway, since an additional Guide-line had suddenly appeared with little yellow lights dancing around the twinkling indicators.
His highness had been staying away since that fight with Eric. According to Ray, it’s because the redhead had told him to stop looking at Lexi as his late wife’s replacement (Ray had also mentioned her that the fight had started with Eric questioning the crown prince about which part of her resembles Princess Lucretia, because it seems only his highness looks at her and sees his departed spouse), and that both warms Lexi’s heart while hurting it since she knows that Eric was a friend of the late princess.
When the prince is safely seated on a chair next to her bed, hand still over his eyes, he apologizes for his absence, apologizes for behaving so selfishly - that stings because she knows what it’s like to seek out the slightest hint of a lost loved one - before gently chiding her.
”My lady, I believe I know better than most what it’s like to be responsible for others. So I hope you’ll consider my words when I say that none of this is your fault. You’re doing the best you can, in a foreign world, and anyone who blames you doesn’t deserve your attention.”
While she can argue he’s biased thanks to his misguided belief that she resembles his late wife, it’s touching that he’d come all this way to try and reassure her despite his busy schedule.
She still asks Eric to arrange for her to meet Sage Elise though, and despite his concerns the redhead agrees. He needs to have items identified, anyway.
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CHAPTER 12 END