Chapter 17: Chapter 14 – All According to Plan (?)

The Ministry of Magic was a lot closer to where I lived then I thought it would be, just a twenty-minute walk from my home. As expected of a government building, it was swarming with guards of both the mundane and fantastical. Mostly knights atop griffins and hippogriffs from above, and a collection of very colorful knights on foot.

"Royal Earth Guard," Arche commented, noticing my eyes on the cream gold-colored troops with their crimson red capes. "Elite knights that report directly to the Emperor."

"Is that armor enchanted," Something did seem different about these guys as opposed to the usual imperial knights, like I could feel a 'hum' of magic coming off them. A hum so quiet I could barely hear it.

"Yes," she nodded, "each suit has some of the most powerful enchantments the Ministry of Magic can provide. With them, the armor weighs barely anything and it can deflect armor piercing attacks."

"Did you learn about them during your time there?"

"Not as much as I would have liked," Arche sighed, "I had to…leave before we got properly into enchantments."

As expected, a knight immediately picked us out and addressed us. "Halt, what is your business at the Ministry?"

I have to admit they looked a bit gaudy in their gold and cream-colored plate armor. Maybe that was the point? To stand out I mean. The red capes were nice enough.

"My friend is here to see Master Paradyne," Arche spoke for me. "One of the Chosen came to her home earlier and said he wished to meet her."

"Master Paradyne, you say?" The guard looked at Arche, then to me, then glanced over to his companion who nodded. "Wait here, I shall send word to his lordship of your arrival."

We didn't have to wait long. A pair of cream-colored knights emerged from the building with an elderly man in tow.

"Greeting, young lady," his voice was old and wizen, with a long beard and wrinkles all across his face. In short, a stereotypical wizard. "I had been hoping to meet with you for some time now."

"So I've heard," I let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of my head. "I never thought I would ever meet you like this." Or ever.

"Indeed, though if I may ask, they said you were invited by one of my own students?"

"Yeah."

The man sighed, "it was Miss Noia wasn't it?"

"…yeah."

"I should have known. Though I should probably thank her for- Miss Furt?" Paradyne stopped his congratulations when he looked to my side to see Arche. "Miss Furt is that you?"

The wizard's sudden attention made Arche shrink into herself. "Y-yes sir," she stuttered.

"My goodness Miss Furt where have you been?" he questioned the former student. While he sounded curt, his tone was more akin to that of a teacher scolding their students. Given the situation, or more arcuately Arche's former situation, that's probably not a far-off assumption.

"I've been…busy," she wringed her fingers out and refused to meet his gaze, her eyes directed to the ground. Despite her reaction, I didn't get the impression that she was scared or that the two had parted on bad terms. In fact, it seemed like the old wizard was genuinely happy to see her, if annoyed about something.

"Busy? Miss Furt, I looked high and low for you for months after you left," the wizard explained. "I even paid your home a visit, but they had no knowledge of where you were."

"To be fair, they don't really know where I am most of the time," she tried to joke, not that it deterred Fluder from his probing questions.

"Miss Furt, you left the dormitories without a word in the dead of night. Some thought you had been abducted. The Earth Guard searched the grounds for the better part of the day before concluding you had left of your own volition."

"…I left a note that explained everything."

"A hastily written letter of several intertwined apologies hardly explains everything Miss Furt," Paradyne sighed. "If this is about your family's worsening financial situation I would have been more than willing to have such fees waived so you could continue your education. Few have the potential to join my disciples and I would rather not see such talent go to waste."

"I know sir," Arche mumbled, meeting his gaze for the briefest of moments, before looking away. "I know, but there was more…more than just my financial issues that made me leave. I'm sorry sir, but I'd rather not talk about this in…public." She eyed the gilded guards.

The elderly mage sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get anything else from her for now, "very well, but I expect a proper explanation as your circumstances when we meet again. And we will meet again in the near future Miss Furt. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir I understand," she nodded, then looked up to me with a reassuring smile. "And I should be leaving now. Good luck with whatever happens, Lilly."

"Thanks," as we parted ways, I walked beside the elderly man into the Ministry building.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

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After leading me down a maze-like labyrinth of sublevels and basements, he directed me into a laboratory-like morgue with a single tarp-covered table at the center. Even so deep underground, magical lights lit everything.

Pulling the tarp aside, Fluder revealed a dreadfully pale corpse with black ooze pooling in small cuts across the body. The after effects of my [Black Blood] spell were obvious enough.

Oh fuck…

"Do you recognize this man?" He questioned, not accusatory but still very to the point.

How should I put this…

"Are asking if I know him, or that I remember doing …this to him?" I questioned back, my head already trying to run through all the possible things I could say that would not end up with me in a prison cell. Not that I was afraid of being incarcerated, I could either teleport out or

"There's no need to be defensive, I hardly brought you to my laboratory to simply have you arrested in some overcomplicated ploy for you to admit guilt over killing some vagrant," Fluder waved off my perceived concerns. "He could have been a prince and I would still not care. No, I'm far more preoccupied with understanding how you killed him."

"Never seen anything like it before then?" Okay, I can salvage this.

"More its application than the act itself," he clarified. "Few curses tend to leave a corpse so devoid of unaltered flesh. If I had to guess, I would say it was rapid transmutation of his blood into a corrosive like substance that eventually led to death. Am I correct, or am I looking at this from the wrong angle?

So he just wants to…talk shop? "Y-our right, it did change him like that, it's a spell called [Black Blood]," I have no idea if that's what Black Blood actually does.

"[Black Blood]," he mulled over the name, "apt as names go. And the spell itself, would I be wrong to assume it is of the third tier?"

"Yeah, how did you-"

"When you live as long as I have, you start to pick up things such as transmutation. I might be mistaken, but it looks as if a rapid transmutation occurs on a biological level beyond…" and he was off! He just kept talking and talking about magical formulas and catalysts and other stuff I had no idea about.

I just smiled, nodded, and offered the occasional input as this elderly man went on to fanboy over my work. Occasionally looking over to the clock to watch the hands slowly, but surely, tick by.

Ten minutes.

Twenty.

Thirty.

An Hour.

And he just kept talking.

But his rabid questioning and talking about magic did remind me what his role in the 'story' was. That's right, he betrayed the Empire to Ainz since to him Ainz was some kind of magic god who could teach him about magic. Not sure how that played out in the story given that Ainz has no idea how his magic works on a mechanical level beyond just knowing how to cast it. Not that I was any better, maybe even worse off since I didn't even know what spells I 'knew'.

Speaking of betrayal, is it even betrayal when the Empire eventually vassalized itself to Ainz's Sorcerer Kingdom? Retroactively, his actions would be seen as 'loyal' in such a case. Still-

Wait.

He betrayed the Empire because he thought Ainzs was some magic god thanks to his talent. What was it he said again, it's been years since I actually saw the source material. 'Peering off into the abyss' or something?

Still, the whole experience made him super loyal to Ainz, or loyal enough to go behind the Emperor's back and lead to the Worker invasion….

Foresight…and Arche…die in.

Does that have to happen again?

I am here with him, presumably, before Ainz ever stepped foot in the Empire.

And I do have a very powerful magical aura myself…I think.

Level ninety should at least be powerful enough to get his attention and, if I am lucky, poison the well a bit in regards to Nazarick. Or even start to build up my own little powerbase beyond Nazarick.

Inferior at would be in terms of objective power.

Maybe if I showed him my true power, he would listen to me instead of Ainz.

"Excuse me, just a quick question. Arche said you have the same talent as she does?" nice Segway. Smooth as a jackknife through traffic. "Is it true?"

He got himself out of 'lecture mode', a book in hand, and chuckled to himself. "Yes we share the same talent, [All Seeing Eyes], which allows users to observe the magical potential of other beings. Why, she say something about it beyond me sharing the same talent?"

"Well, when she used her talent on me, she said she could barely look at me since my 'aura' was too bright,"

"Oh, she told you that, did she?" Again, chuckling to himself, I saw his own eyes start to glow an ethereal blue just as Arche's did with her ability turned on. Yet unlike her, Fluder didn't even look fazed by my 'powerful aura'. "Easy to see why, your power is formidable indeed. It's how I found you to begin with."

"So, the greatest you've ever seen?"

"Not the greatest, no," he shook his head. "There is one other whose aura far outshines yours."

Wait, really?

"Yours is Still powerful though," he continued. "Prodigal even. A once in a century level of potential. You will go down in history young lady, that much I promise you."

Ah there's the praise I needed for my ego.

"Actually," I fiddle with the ring concealing my powers, "speaking of power, there is something I want to show you."

"Oh?" he looked intrigued. "Some powerful spell. Fourth….no fifth tier perhaps? It must be something quite impressive to be so circumspect about it."

I started to slide the ring off my finger, "more like something beyond your-"

"Apologies for the intrusion Master Paradyne," the door to the laboratory swung open and a woman in full armor walked in with a polearm somehow attached to her back. Long blonde hair covered half her face, her one exposed eye locked onto me before going to Fluder. "The Emperor has requested your presence."

Did I just get conspiracy cock blocked?

"What rotten timing," I heard the wizard mumbled under his breath before addressing the knight. "Very well, Lady Rockbruise. Give me a few moments to say my farewells to my college here and we can be off."

"Of course, Master Paradyne," while the knight was talking to the old man, I couldn't help but feel her one exposed eye stuck on me.

I heard the old man sigh, "matters of state can be so tiresome. I feel this summons will take up the entirety of my day. I apologize for the suddenness of our parting. We must continue our discussion soon, I have no doubt we can expand much on the transmutation of organic components if we were to pool our work together," he reassured me.

Wait…that's what he was talking about to me when I was thinking of how to subvert him before Ainz could subvert him?

I followed Fluder out, but the knight stopped me at the door, "apologies miss…"

"Lilly," finished for her.

"Miss Lilly then," she corrected herself.

"Is there a problem with my guest, Lady Rockbruise?" I heard Fluder ask.

"None Master Paradyne, I just want to ask her something while I have the chance," she replied.

Realization shone across Fluder's face, "ah…it's about that then?"

"Yes."

Wait what?

"Then you don't need to worry about escorting me, I'm more than capable of reaching his majesty on my own. And good day Miss Lilith," wait Lilith? Where did he get that- oh right, Lilly Lilith. Okay I can see how he reached that conclusion. "I see this as the beginning of a productive working relationship between us."

"Apologies for keeping you ma'am," the knight started, "but I need your help with lifting a curse."

"A curse?" what… "Is it…killing you or something?"

"No," she shook her head. "A curse that has plagued me for years and marred my face beyond decency." Rockbruise touched the part of her face concealed by hair, "it's so repulsive that I've had to cover the entire side of my face to keep others from feeling…uncomfortable in my presence."

"So it's just a skin condition?"

"Worse," she pulled her hair aside to show me.

She must be overreacting. How bad can some skin thing possibly be…

What the fuck is wrong with her face!

"That sort of reaction is common the first time people see it," she commented on my expression of disgust, putting her hair back down to block it and wiping some of the puss off her gauntlet. "As you can guess, I am eager to be free of this curse. Being a caster who uses curses, it stands to reason you know how to break them. Or am I mistaken?"

Now under normal circumstances, I would have explained to her that casting and curing curses are two very different things. Like how a knight knows how to swing a sword, but they might not know how to make one from scratch. Mostly because I didn't want to get involved with all this 'stuff'.

But then I got an idea.

This woman is one of the Emperor's guards right? Someone who will probably be by his side and, more importantly, hear what he hears. Like, a completely random example, say a hither unknown tomb being discovered? Maybe the first word of an attack on a certain Kingdom's capital city?

It would at least give me an idea of the timetable I have to work around. Granted I could probably just ask Demiurge and he'd start gushing about how 'amazing Ainz's plan' was. But I want to have an ear to the door of what the other side is talking about.

And if I couldn't get Fluder now, I could at least ingratiate myself to one of the emperor's guards.

"I'd be happy to help," I put on the best smile my face can muster, hoping the thing didn't look as fake as it felt. "When are you free?"

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Rockbruise knocked on my door at noon the following day, as previously agreed upon. She wasn't wearing her imperial knight armor. Merely a simple, yet undeniably well made, tunic and trousers with a simple short sword at her side. Pretty sure the blade was enchanted in some way, but nothing that worried me.

And by knocking on my door at noon, I mean the exact moment the clock struck twelve. Given that she had also been standing outside my home for the better part of an hour before that, it's safe for me to assume she is very eager to see if I can cure her.

Of course, given that I have tons of Yggdrasil stuff, this is a matter of 'how' not 'can' I fix her. Game stuff is borderline godly to these people, I'm certain I have something or other that can help her.

"So how did you even get that anyway," I started with some small talk as the knight was led into a makeshift lab made out of a spare guest room since I was hardly going to use my real lab for this. Sitting the woman down in a chair, Mya and Eva could barely look at the woman, their faces scrunching up in disgust as she pulled her hair back so all could see her condition.

"I was cursed, I told you the other day," Rockbruise softly replied. She relaxed in her seat, accepting an offered towel by Mya to clean up the puss drippling down her face.

Glad I did not eat before this.

"I was thinking more about specifics," I clarified, my chair rolling across the room to the desk where I had a bunch of 'stuff' laid out. No idea what most of it was, beyond the potions I laid out the other day, but it looked pretty 'official' if I say so. "Why? When? How? That sort of stuff."

"Is that really important?"

"Well, curses are very annoying to deal with and more annoying to cure," I explained. Afterall I have to make it look like I didn't have a [Minor Curse Curse] Potion on my desk ready to go. "Annoying because they can be caused by either one thing or several things together.

Rock Bruise was quiet for a moment, then sighed, "it was during a mission with the Adventurers Guild. I killed a creature, some hunched over hag thing, never got the name of it, and it cursed me with its dying breath. When I returned home, my family threw me onto the streets the moment they caught sight of my marred face. I was cut off from my family, and my betrothed refused to marry a 'hideous' woman like me, and all my former acquaintances treated me like a leper from that day on."

"Betrothed?" Why was that the one part of it I was surprised by?

"I was…I am a noblewoman," the knight corrected herself. "My parents disowned me the day I came home with this," she gestured to her face, "but the emperor reinstated me when I joined the Imperial Knights. But back on topic, do you want me to describe the creature?"

"Hmmm, I don't think so," It's not important anyway. "Excuse my curiosity, but how are they doing now? Your parents and former betrothed I mean," I only realized how bad my attempt at small talk was after I asked the question.

"Dispossessed and dead," she said as if commenting on the weather, "the first of three boons I asked of the emperor when I entered his service."

"Ah," that's charming, still 'looking' for the right thing for her. "So, what are the other two things you asked for?"

"One other thing, my parents and former betrothed were each a boon to themselves," she corrected me. "The third boon is what I am here for, a cure to my curse."

"You think I can cure it?"

"To be honest, I doubt anything will come of this," she bluntly admitted. "If Fluder Paradyne cannot cure me, what chances does a girl like you have?"

"Then why ask for my help at all if you think it's pointless," I don't know why, but being told I couldn't do something was a tad more aggravating than I thought it would be. Even knowing full well I am far beyond the likes of someone like Fluder.

"Because I am that desperate," was all she said on the matter. "I've chased after soothsayers, herbalists, healers, priests, anyone and anything that is rumored to even possibly cure curses. I refuse to let even a single chance slip through my fingers, no matter how slim the odds are."

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"Right," At least she's honest?

Well, I think I have done enough small talk for now. I grab the potion first lined up on my desk, a simple [Minor Health Potion]. Maybe this curse is just some illness that can be 'healed' away.

"Drink this," I roll my chair over to her and hand her the small vial. She looked at the contents in inquisitive interest, moving the vial a bit to see the sanguine liquid swish about. "It's not blood if that's what you're-"

She drank the whole thing in a single sip, handing the empty vial back to me. "It wouldn't have mattered if it was."

"So," I gave a sideways glance to the pus ridden scar still on her face, "feel anything?"

She blinked, looking to the mirror then patting herself, "the bruise on my side seems to be gone. But other than that, nothing."

"Well, it's a good thing we still have some more stuff to try," I give her a good-natured laugh as she gives me a blank expression.

Eh, everyone's a critic.

Next in the line, a vial of [Minor Cure Disease]. "Try this one."

Unlike before, the knight did not hesitate in drinking the potion. Downing the contents, she shook her head a minute later.

No changes.

Hmmm. So, it is an actual curse.

"Right, third time's the charm," I go for the final potion laid out: [Minor Dispel Curse]. Why something like this is in liquid form, I can only guess. Probably Players with no magic and no magic casters around.

With a dull expression, she downs this vial as easily as the others. If this doesn't work, I'll just start casting spells since I refuse to believe there is not a spell that can get rid of something as minor as disgusting skin.

And I want my IN with the imperial court!

Seconds passed and nothing happened.

Another dud. Who knew Yggdrasil stuff would be so-

Rockbruise let out a pained gasp and hunched over in her chair. Puss dripped from the patch of skin as she covered her face, the skin itself hissing as if it was being burnt off by an unseen force. I couldn't see what was going on since she clapped her hand atop her skin, but I think I found a potion that was working.

She sat hunched over for a good minute, until the burning sound stopped.

She quickly examined herself in the mirror.

"Another…" she whispered.

"I'm sorry-"

Her arm slammed down on the desk, "give me another one of those potions now!" She pointed to her face, "whatever you gave me, it is the first time anything has ever affected the curse. Anything."

I reflexively grabbed a normal [Dispel Curse] potion from my item box. I have no idea how much stronger this is from the 'minor' variant, but it'll probably do something at least. She snatched it out of my hand, not even asking where the phial had come from (or how it appeared in my hand), and drank it to the last drop.

Just as before, it took seconds before she groaned in pain. The hissing sound of flesh burning returned. Grabbing the towel from before, she pressed it against the cursed skin to catch all the fluids starting to drip down her face. Unlike the minor variant, the normal dispel curse potion went on for longer.

So long in fact that I spied a stray golem silently poking its head through the doorway to see what all the noise was about. I gave the suit a 'shoo' motion for it to go back to looking like decoration.

As with before, the hissing and pained breathing eventually stopped.

Dropping the now yellow towel, she reached for the small mirror. Gasping in shock, she dropped the thing on the floor.

Walking over, I see what startled her.

Her face was scarred. Horribly scarred. Lines of red flesh wove through her skin like vines. Bits looked burnt as if cauterized by an open flame. It was a mess.

And yet there was no sign of the curse on her skin. These burned lines of dead skin looked more akin to a poorly healed wound compared to whatever the hell she was dealing with before was. Not a single drip of puss to be seen.

"It's….it's really…I…", Her bare fingers tentatively touched her scarred flesh, marveling at the change and tearing up at the sight. She looked like someone just told her she was going to survive a deadly disease.

While it looked far better than before, it could still be better. And I knew just the thing.

I grabbed another Minor Health Potion from the item box when she wasn't looking.

After all, scars were something that could heal.

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Emperor Jircniv Rune Farlord El-Nix, the Bloody Emperor, was at a loss for words at the disaster before him.

"Gods Leinas, look at you!"

The whole situation was simply a disaster.

"I never thought I would see the day, Lady Rockbruise."

Leinas Rockbruise returned from her little jaunt with the girl Fluder was all worked up about. Rather than the solemn woman who left his court that very morning, she returned with almost a second wind to herself. Her posture straighter, her eyes more filled with life, even her step seemed to seemed to have more surety to it.

But most of all, her hair was pulled back, showing smooth, unmarred skin, on both sides of her face. The string used to tie her hair down to keep her cursed skin hidden, now used to show her unobstructed face to the world.

"Thank you," she thanked the congratulations coming in from her fellow Imperial Knights. "I can hardly believe it myself."

Jircniv had only let Leinas go seek out that girl's magical help because he believed it would be ultimately futile. If Fluder Paradyne couldn't cure a curse, then what were the odds some random mage could do it?

More importantly, this new turn of events meant that the woman's loyalty was no longer guaranteed. True, Leinas had always been up front with him about the transactional nature of their relationship. She would serve him so long as he did all in his power to search for a cure for her. For years he fulfilled his word to the letter, alerting her to every possible cure for her condition that came to his attention with her in turn serving him dutifully as one of his Imperial Knights. None ever worked, thus ensuring her loyalty to him. Again, transactional as it was.

But now that she was cured, and not by his hand but by some foreigner, what little loyalty that was there was thrown into serious question.

He wanted to kick himself for being so careless. Nothing Baziwood reported indicated the girl was anything out of the ordinary, beyond that magical power Fluder kept hemming and hawing about.

She was nothing more than a high-born girl, either running away from home or on some foreign tour, that was magically gifted and horrible at pretending she was not of noble birth. While hardly the keenest eye for courtly matters or fine intrigue, he trusted Baziwood to have done his best due diligence before reporting back to him. If he didn't see anything worthy of concern, there was nothing to be concerned about.

Except there was.

Leianis told a fanciful tale of a manor filled with magical oddities, foreign trinkets, miraculous potions, and small vials of Gods Blood. Or more specifically, Fluder concluding that the small vials of red potion must have been the mythical substance known as Gods Blood.

And that last one truly interested him. While there was every possibility this girl was like so many of the parasitic nobles of the Kingdom or his own Empire, wasting valuables on a whim, some gut feeling told him that was not the case. That such miraculous potions were simply common enough to use flippantly or even that the land the girl originated from could afford to waste such miraculous elixirs on such minor matters.

He hardly believed the wives tales that the vials held the actual blood of gods in them, but the art of creating such potions had been lost for ages.

So the world thought.

Somewhere they were being made, that much was clear now, even if in small numbers. Even thick-headed as he was in magical matters, he could feel the storm such a discovery would bring once the word got out.

"It's strange to walk around like this," Rockbruise admitted amidst the praise and congratulations that continued to flow to her as Jircniv mused to himself. "I doubt fate or divine providence led me to find Lady Lilith, none the less I am beyond grateful for what she has done for me."

Lady Lilith? Earlier that day, Rockbruise had referred to her only as 'that girl'.

"Forgive me, your Majesty," Rockbruise's voice broke Jircniv from his thoughts, the knight knelt before him. "I apologize for my brusqueness, but I must request a leave of absence from your service."

And here it begins, he expected as much the moment she walked through his doors unmarred by her curse. The only thing keeping her in his service was the hope of one day finding a cure for her affliction. Now that it was gone, there was nothing truly keeping her to his service.

And after that, then what?

How long until that girl left with Leinas in tow? How long until Leinas told said girl all the secrets she had accumulated about Empire in her years of serving him? How long until some foreign nation had knowledge of the inner workings of his Empire and used that to gain leverage over them?

There were so many variables at play it made him almost dizzy to think about them.

"So, you're basically going to rub it in your parents face right?"

"There are simply things I wish to do that I was unable to do for years on end," she did not deny Peshmel's jab. "Rest assured, I will return to service before the Gala begins. But after that, I am unsure of what I will do."

Ah yes, the Gala. A yearly event where he hosts the most important people from across the Empire in Arwintar and announces the start of the buildup for the Annual War with Re-Estize. A proclamation that is made loudly, repeatedly, and so clearly that even the Kingdom's dimwitted spy network could put two and two together.

While all he has to do is move a legion or two towards the Katze Plains, the Kingdom has to go through the messy song and dance of rising levies from the various feudal domains of the nation. Given that it will soon be the harvest season, and so many men will be on the march, food output will drop across the Kingdom before even the first arrow is loosed upon the battlefield. A consequence of conscripting most of the nation's farmers and not having a standing army.

Every year fewer and fewer farmers returned to their fields, and soon enough famine would eventually grip the Kingdom. The starving masses will start to rip the nation apart shortly thereafter. Corrupt and bloated as it already was, Re-Estize was barely holding together before the stress of his Annual Conflicts. Add in some famine, and their putrid order will come crashing down under its own weight.

By the time the nobles even realize what he's doing, it'll already be too late.

Yet a thought occurred to him.

That's it!

"Loune," Jircniv called his personal scribe to his side.

"You're majesty?"

"Have an invitation to the Gala sent to this, Lady Lilith," Jircniv instructed his manservant.

"Oh, have an interest in her yourself now?" Fluder commented.

"Worried about being replaced?" Jircniv jokes, hiding the apprehension he felt for Leanis's imminent defection to a foreign national's service . "If she can perform magical feats even you can't do, maybe she ought to be my Court Mage."

The man huffed, "it would give me more time for my research, your majesty. Though she is somewhat young for the position."

Jircniv rolled his eyes at Fluder's reply. He never could get a rye out of the old man. Almost made him wish for the return of those sycophants at court who squirmed at the slightest hint of being replaced.

Almost.

Still, it was more than simple curiosity that moved him to invite this magic caster to the Gala. The invitation, or her attendance, served to advance three goals of his own.

First, it allowed him to ascertain the goals of this girl for himself. While he trusted Fluder's assessment of her magical prowess, with Leanis's miraculous recovery only adding credence to it, he needed to gather some information on her. Where was she from, what is that state's stance on the Empire, what was her stance on the Empire. In short, he wanted to know if this was simple naive altruism for its own sake, or the start of an insidious attempt to subvert members of his court.

Her age, regardless of what it may truly be, was hardly a limiting factor on ambition. Jircniv himself was only twelve when he successfully assumed his throne and started his purges.

Second, he could start forming the first line of communication with her homeland and the Empire. Even if it was nothing more than a single city in the middle of a desert with no natural resources of value, he could still gain the recipe for Gods Blood from them, either through mutual agreement or more stubble means.

And finally, if she was amenable, or malleable to his wishes, he would see if she was willing to take part in the Annual War itself in one form or another. He could think of a few ways curses and black magic could be used to accelerate his timetable for the collapse of Re-Estize.

For years he's tried to get Fluder to use his necromancy on the battlefield, to swarm the field with undead in such numbers they would bury the living. To his dismay, the old man refused outright. Something about it being 'too much of a bother'.

Not that his refusal changed his timeline for the Kingdom's collapse. Ten years, fifteen at most, until it fell apart. Assuming that despicable princess didn't somehow wring out some hitherto unseen reforms that makes everything he has been working towards irrelevant.

But the odds of that were, at the moment, so small he could hardly consider them realistic.

The Kingdom will fall.

It was merely a matter of when, not if.

Ah yes, he felt a smile curl on his lips as the last bits of his plan fell into place. He watched his knights talk amongst themselves and his scribe rushing out to fulfill his orders from atop his throne.

Everything seemed to be coming along nicely.

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"Send in the next one," Morrice Lotwon gestured for Gramm to get the door as the next worker waited to enter.

The current room was a tad smaller than what he was used to working with, there was hardly enough space for anything. Yet cramped as he was, he could never bring himself to step foot in his old office again.

He could still smell the blood, see it even, no matter how much the servants cleaned the room.

He finished up the bottle of wine he had been working on since that morning as his other men moved the next chest into place by his desk.

Hmmm, a fine vintage from a better time, he mused.

Led into the office was Erya Uzruth, the samurai leader of the worker team Tenmu. Though team was a strong word, give the other three members were his slaves. Still, with accomplishments that varied from suppressing a slave revolt in Sumerfurst, pushing back a warheard of beastmen that pushed deep into he Dragon Kingdom, to several commendations from the foreign office for deeds done against the Re-Estize Kingdom, he was more than competent regardless of his lack of 'true' teammates.

Why Morrice would wager that compared to his small security detail, maybe Gramm included, there wouldn't be any way to beat this man should he decide to kill them. The closed confines of this room certainly benefited the worker who specialized in speed.

And yet…

Shadows shifted in the furthest, darkest, corners of the office. The darkness bends and gives way to an even more umbral presence. If he hadn't watched those things skitter in earlier, he would have never thought anything was off.

How fortunate that he had such a generous…partner to send Morrice a powerful 'protector' after he effortlessly slaughtered a rank of his guards.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice. I have a job suitable for someone with your skills," the words were almost ingrained into his skull by this point. Repetition had its uses he supposed.

"My skills?" Eyra chuckled at Morrice's choice of words. "Which ones would those be, since I'm not exactly in the habit of working for scurrying criminals who are afraid of being stepped on by the city guard of all things."

"The skills that bring you to anyone's attention. Your swordsmanship, your combat arts, your spotless record of completing your assignments," he listed off the samurai' achievements, as instructed.

"Stuff that I tend to be pretty proud about," he added to the last point Morrice made. "So proud that I don't just offer my blade to anyone who asks.

"If you're worried about compensation, then put your mind at ease. I will be able to meet any price you set," he assured the worker, pointing to the chest by the desk.

"You sure, I have a pretty big imagination," Eyra boasted, sliding the chest over to himself, he flipped the padlock and looked inside. Rather than gold, the chest had a dozen bars of pressed platinum. Eyra's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at the sight of so much wealth in one place. Counties and Dukedoms could be bought with this amount in some places.

Morrice didn't even want to know where the creature found such wealth.

"It's yours, all of it, regardless of if you take the job or not," he commented, quoting the script he was given verbatim. A thick tome of all the 'correct' answers and talking points to use when confronted with any pushback. Morrice was 'encouraged' to follow it as closely as possible. "Think of it as a gesture to show how serious I am to have your services." He felt his stomach churn mentioning the demon, and for yet another worker falling for the 'bait' laid out for them. "Rest assured, all this and more await you should you sign up for the job."

"And that would be…" the worker's eyes never left the platinum.

"I'm not at liberty to say unless you sign," fetching a contact, he slid the document across his desk forward.

Morrice's heart sank as the man quickly grabbed the parchment and gleefully signed his own death warrant. He left soon after, several magnitudes wealthier than he entered, assuring Lowton he would arrive at the appointed time to receive his orders.

Morrice sighed. So far, none of the worker teams selected by Jaldaboath have refused the offer. Not a single damn one of them.

Shouldn't they be hearing that little voice in the back of their heads saying this was all too good to be true? No One just gives this amount of wealth away unless they expect it back in their own coffers in short order.

But this is what he was ordered to do, and so here he sits. Sitting in a small office, facilitating his own nation's destruction. Arwintar was to become a pyre whose flames would scorch the heavens themselves, all the while Re-Estize would be host to a demon invasion. All for an artifact and some girl's blood.

And for his role in this living nightmare? He doubted the reprieve Jaldaboath promised him and his men was genuine. A demon with that much power just letting a bunch of people who knew the inner workings of a grand design walk?

His, and by extension his men's, sole purpose was to facilitate a veil of anonymity for Jaldaboath oath as the demon moved the pieces into position.

For what good that would be in the long term. To be allowed to live, as if the very act of breathing was granted by the demon's grace, long enough to see the world burn?

He wishes he had ordered Gramm to beat that girl to death when he encountered her and burn her remains. Maybe he'd would have been killed afterward by Jaldaboath, but at least that creature wouldn't be using him like a damned marionette.

"Sir?" Gramm looked at him while the other pair slid the next chest of platinum into place beside his desk. He almost entertained the idea of telling Gramm to have the next applicant run off, if only to spare them from being a part of this horror show.

Almost.

He looked to the dark corner of the office. The eight-legged arachnid creature hiding the deepest depths of the shadows reminded him of his orders, of the strings he now wrapped around his limbs. Of the will he must obey for now.

'For now'…as if there was a way out…

In the end, Morrice didn't answer his right hand. Straightening his hair, he took one long sip of a new bottle of liquid courage. Putting the bottle out of sight, he gestured for Gramm to let the next person in. As the worker took their seat across from him, Morrice repeated the words he had spoken so many times that day.

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I have a job suited for someone with your skills."