Chapter 43 (1 of 2) Future dragon guy. (Patreon)

The Aurelian Commission Headquarters was filled with new rumours about the new guest of the Commission Head. The crafter was one thing, but the staff couldn’t understand why this other person was now there. They also couldn’t help but discuss possible reasons why the man had such a strange haircut.

The said ‘man with a strange haircut’ in question was sitting in his new room on his new bed, thinking. He had a dilemma.

Hargrave didn’t know how he was supposed to find out more about the Commission Head. He had chosen to accept staying at the Commission when he wasn’t levelling up so he could discover how she knew so much about him, but he had to admit to himself…

…maybe he should’ve planned his search for information a bit more thoroughly before choosing to live in the house of his observation target.

He knew where her part of the fortieth story was, because for some insane reason, he was told by the staff where she was, she knew where she worked, because, again, the staff told him where, and he had also been told what she normally did during the day, so he could find her if he needed her. All perfect information if he decided to assassinate her, but not so helpful when he wanted to discover other things about her.

…the Commission Head wasn’t suicidal, was she? It could explain why she didn’t fear his killing intent. Maybe it was a status thing that she offered him a contract allowing him to be here. He had heard nobles sometimes had strange hobbies and personality traits. Maybe she wanted to find the most interesting person possible to kill her so she died famously. Becoming the first noble victim of the future killer of the General of Blazing Iron.

That’s just stupid.

He shook his head to get rid of his strange thoughts and sighed, looking out of the window next to him. He obviously couldn’t walk up to her and ask her. She had no reason to answer him, and from his experience, keeping your cards close to you was one of the most important things someone needed to do when fighting, so with her being in a position of power over him now, he couldn’t do that.

Should he ask the Commission staff about her…..?

The thought made him involuntarily shudder and he quickly shook his head. Definitely not. All it would do would make for an awkward situation when the Commission Head found out he was trying to get information out of the people around her and would then bring it up. He also didn’t have much experience with obtaining information from people besides the normal methods used by mercenaries, and he doubted attempting that on the Commission staff would ensure the Commission Head kept his identity secret.

He didn’t really have much experience with starting conversations that began with anything other than a battle report either, so even if he wanted to start a conversation with the Commission Head, he wouldn’t know how to go about it. Plus, she was probably a busy person, so he didn’t want to make things difficult for himself by interrupting her too often…

He scratched the back of his neck and frowned as he considered what to do. Then Hargrave just sighed again as he fell back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was only a couple of hours since he’d arrived. He didn’t have to be too quick about this. He had seven years to find out, and he was sure some kind of event would eventually occur that would allow him to become more familiar with the Commission Head.

…

That opportunity came in the form of an unusually shiny winged snake seated outside his room’s front door. He gazed confusedly at the strange visitor, who was tilting its feather-crested head at him curiously.

“So, you’re the future dragon guy!” the snake exclaimed, the sound of a young boy resounding inside his head.

Hargrave stared. “Uh… what-”

“I mean, Lucy told me that she’d be getting a new guest, but I’m definitely surprised at who it actually was,” the serpent continued, talking over him. “If she was going to offer a contract to someone I expected them to be strong, but I didn’t think she’d decide to go ahead and meet with the guy who plans to literally become a dragon!”

“Hey, could you ple-”

“But anyway, hi future dragon guy! I’m Scytale, the most amazing and wonderful creature to be found within this building, so I decided to honour you with my presence to congratulate you on arriving at the Commission and- hm? What’s wrong?”

Hargrave was running a hand down his face as he considered how to get the snake to stop talking. When the snake finally did stop, he quickly waved a hand to interrupt any more speech.

“What was that you said earlier?” he asked weakly.

The snake blinked his golden eyes. “The thing about me being the most amazing thing here?”

“……no, before that.”

The serpent named Scytale tilted his head as he considered it. “Future dragon guy?”

“Yes, that!” Hargrave pointed a finger at him, and then hastily crossed his arms in front of himself in the shape of an X. “Please do not call me that. I don’t want to go around having everyone know what I want to do.”

The snake seemed to snicker before replying, “Then what do you want me to call you?”

Hargrave sighed. “Just Hargrave is fine.”

“Well then, Just Hargrave!” the winged serpent continued, ignoring his exasperated look, “You should come with me so I can take you to meet some other important people you should know about! Not as important as me, obviously, but considering you’ll probably end up meeting them at some point or another, you may as well see them now!”

He hesitated as he considered it for a couple of seconds, but considering this was likely his best chance to find out more about the Commission Head… also, he had something he really needed to ask the talkative magical beast in front of him. He shut the door of his room behind him as he followed the serpent.

“Why do you even know what I plan to do?” he asked.

“Because as Lucy’s bond, I know everything she does,” the snake replied, making him feel somewhat stupid because, in reality, that could really be the only reason why a young magical beast was hanging around the Commission.

“Well, okay, maybe not everything,” Scytale conceded, turning a corner, “Because she has a bunch of random magic knowledge and wacky secrets in her head that I can’t be bothered to devote much mental effort into learning about, but I get the gist of things. Also, nobody else knows your goals, if you’re wondering. All Lucy’s aide knows is that you want to do something involving draconic monsters.”

Considering the snake seemed happy to answer his questions, he thought about what else he could ask. “Then do you know why she wanted to offer that contract to me?”

“So you don’t die?” the silvery snake replied, shooting him a questioning look. “I mean, the contract was entirely about making sure you don’t get a bounty on your head or become hated by the Tower for killing dragons for their strength, so it feels kinda obvious to me what the intention behind it was. She’s even keeping your identity a secret and covering your tracks.”

Well, that may be so, but… “But why would she want me to not die?”

The snake paused to give him a stare with those golden eyes of his, before turning back to lead him to wherever it was he was going. “Yeah, uh… maybe you should ask Lucy that one.”

…but he didn’t want to ask the Commission Head. He gave a slight grimace, which luckily it seemed Scytale didn’t pick up on as he was led through the fortieth floor of the Commission’s Headquarters. The snake continued to talk even without his input.

“And here we have another living room like this building doesn’t have enough already. By the way, if you want, I can show you where the training room is later. It takes up, like, half the floor in itself, which just proves how massive this place is,” Scytale said, “And there’s not really anything in there besides the place just being hard to damage and lots of empty space, but still. Oh, we’re here!”

Hargrave hesitated as he saw where they were. “Isn’t this in front of the Commission Head’s study? Why are we here?”

“To introduce you to someone, of course!”

The snake used his nose to nudge wide the semi-opened door. Inside was a silver-haired man with half-moon glasses sitting in an armchair, who blinked and looked up when he heard them enter.

“Hey, Vincent!” Scytale exclaimed.

The silver-haired man raised an eyebrow. “Scytale? Why are you he- oh.” The man noticed Hargrave standing there, feeling confused about the situation.

“He’s not important right now!” the serpent said, making the two men give him strange looks. The snake slithered forward and narrowed his golden eyes at Vincent. “Someone’s told me that you seem to think my words are something you can just ignore.”

Vincent’s expression twitched as the snake reared up and flapped his wings angrily. “Then to correct your wrong opinion, I simply need to talk enough that the wonderful value of my speech is permanently instilled in your lacking mind!”

Hargrave felt bemused as the other man shot the snake an exasperated look, and then just sighed, rubbing his face. Vincent shook his head and then stepped forward to talk to Hargrave. “As it seems he has nothing important to say right now, I’ll make my introductions. I’m Vincent Evisenhardt,” the man explained, holding out a hand for him to shake. “And the aide of Lucille, the Commission Head.”

He shook the man’s hand. “…it’s Hargra-”

“Just Hargrave,” a winged serpent interrupted. They directed a stare at him as he blinked innocently. “That was what you said to me, wasn’t it?”

The silver-haired man ignored the snake as he nodded and stepped back. “I also would just like to say that thanks to a certain serpent’s bond,” he said, narrowing his eyes at the sneaky snake who ‘hid’ under a chair to avoid their gazes, “I don’t know much about her intentions for you, or know much about you either.”

Hargrave opened and closed his mouth as he hesitated over how to respond, because before accepting the offer he didn’t expect to be in a situation where he’d have to come up with a reasonable explanation for what he was doing.

Vincent crossed his arms as he saw his reaction and then shook his head. “I’m not asking you questions right now. My questions will be directed at Lucille because if there was anyone who needed to give us answers right now it would be her,” he muttered darkly.

That I can agree on.

Vincent looked down at the snake, still ‘hiding’ under a chair, even if his wings were too large to fit under it. “So, Scytale, did you actually come here for anything else, or was it just to bring Hargrave here?”

“Is Sedric still in his workshop?”

Vincent gave the serpent a strange look. “Did you really come here just to ask that? Of course he is. Sedric doesn’t ever step out of his room. Where else would he be?”

“Gotcha. Thanks.” Scytale moved over to the room’s entrance. “All right time to annoy- I mean, visit Sedric!”

“Although, Scytale,” Vincent spoke up, looking at the snake curiously. “Where’s Lucy? She wasn’t in her living room when I went looking earlier.”

“Getting a deflective snow globe out of the Founder’s vault.”

“…I won’t bother to ask what a snow globe is and instead just take it that she’s in the Founder’s vault then.”

“Anyway, Hargrave, come with me!”

Hargrave glanced between the snake and Vincent, who was watching them with a raised eyebrow, and hesitantly followed after the snake, feeling like he was getting caught up in the snake’s flow too much. “But who’s Sedric?”

“You’ll see!”

…

“Huzzah! O’ lowly crafter, I have arrived to grace you with my presence!” the snake exclaimed, spreading his wings as he sat on the platform’s barrier.

The brown-haired young man wearing strange goggles, working at a bench below their overlooking balcony, let out a loud groan and pushed the goggles up. “When did Lucille manage to key your mana to my workshop’s door?”

The presumed ‘Sedric’ below turned around and raised his head to look at them. He stared when he saw Hargrave. “There’s another one?”

Hargrave stared back when he heard the ponytailed man’s words. “…what do you mean there’s another one?”

Sedric scoffed as Hargrave and Scytale came down the stairs. “Oh, I don’t know… here, I have a question for you.” He pointed a hand at Hargrave. “Did you get offered a suspiciously good-sounding contract or she offered to protect or give you something while knowing a disturbingly high amount of information about you and your dangerous secrets?”

“I did get offered a contract, but…” Hargrave hesitated. “Do you mean this has happened before?”

Sedric rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah. I mean, she came to me, a Legendary crafter, and then barely a week later she goes and picks up the literal Prophetess of Fate.” The man replaced his goggles and turned back to his bench with a mutter. “What next, is she going to bring a dragon in here?”

…….that last statement hit just a little too close to home for Hargrave to feel entirely comfortable.

Then a certain silver snake, who had jumped up onto the bench, broke down laughing. Hargrave stared at the snake as Sedric gave Scytale a funny look. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, no, no, nothing, nothing at all~” the serpent replied, sniggering. “I’m definitely not laughing at the irony of your sentence. No way…”

Sedric seemed to decide to just ignore the noisy snake after judging that he wouldn’t explain himself, and returned to fiddling with the strange objects on his bench.

“Anyway, Sedric, this is Just Hargrave, and- oh, hang on, there was something I wanted to get before coming here first.” Scytale abruptly jumped off the bench and climbed back up the stairs to leave. “Be back in a second!”

They watched the snake go, and then only awkward silence remained as two people who didn’t know what to say to each other stood beside each other. Sedric shrugged and went back to his crafting.

Hargrave wavered over whether to ask Sedric a question but eventually decided to just do it. “So… you said the Commission Head knew a lot about you too…”

“Yes, I did say that,” the long-haired man replied, continuing to work with his goggles down.

“Do you know… if… she has a special reason for why she gave us offers?” Hargrave began hesitantly. “Such as whether… she’s… planning something…?” He internally winced at how badly he phrased his words.

Sedric slid his goggles up again and slowly turned around to stare at Hargrave with an indescribably strange expression, making Hargrave wonder what he did. Then suddenly, the man smirked and crossed his arms.

“Oh, she’s definitely planning something sketchy. Most definitely.” He gestured to the room around him as Hargrave blinked. “I mean, she suddenly arrived at the Aurelian Commission to become the leader of a Faction of merchant nobility, purposely getting involved with shady politicians and businessmen. If that doesn’t scream bad intentions, I don’t know what does.”

Sedric turned back to his bench as he continued, nodding to himself, “And with how she acts, could she be anything other than someone who enjoys manipulation and toying with people? She has that supremely annoying grin on her face whenever you ask her a question, and then there’s only ever a 50% chance she’ll answer it truthfully, so I bet she loves keeping people in the dark and feeling in control. Only such a messed-up personality could suit the Head of the Aurelian Commiss-”

“I’m back!” a snake interrupted a small object held within his mouth as he jumped off the overlooking balcony to glide down to Sedric’s bench. “Also, Lucy would like to suggest that you don’t waste your time and effort trying to work out whether she’s scheming something or not because she says if she was, she’d never let you discover it.”

Hargrave stared at the snake with wide eyes. “…was she outside? …did she hear me ask that?”

“Nah.” Scytale deposited the object on the bench and turned to him. “Lucy uses spiritual energy, and so her perception covers this place. She couldn’t help overhearing you.”

That meant the snake’s bond with her was strong enough to send coherent messages by being bonded for a few years, which shouldn’t be possible if the snake was as young as he thought, the System not allowing bonds with those too young… but there was a more important detail he noticed about this. He turned to stare at Sedric, who was smirking and realised the crafter had known this from the start.

“She also says that there’s something she needs to show Hargrave after lunch, so any questions about her possible ‘scheming’ can be saved for later when you see her personally,” Scytale suddenly announced.

Hargrave buried his head in his hands. “…just kill me, please.” He felt like this day would permanently be engraved as his eternal shame and regret.

Scytale tilted his head. “I’m not sure she’s done enough yet for someone to react like that when told they would be seeing her.”

“No, that’s not-” He just groaned and shook his head. He ran a hand down his face. “I- uh, could we change the topic to something else? ….please?”

He wanted to get out of this embarrassing situation of having just asked whether the Commission Head had bad intentions for him while she was capable of hearing him as fast as he could.

The other two observed his reaction with slight curiosity, but then Sedric turned to Scytale. “Anyway, what’s this?” he asked, gesturing to the new object on his bench.

The three of them glanced at the device. It was long and thin, looking a bit like an ink pen but slightly too wide, and black in colour. Scytale looked at Sedric. “I got you a new binder pen! Be thankful, peasant!”

Sedric raised an eyebrow and leaned to the side to Inspect it, but…

“Nope.” Scytale shuffled in front of it, blocking Sedric’s view. “No need to Inspect it. Just pick it up and put it to work. It’s ready-for-use quality.”

Sedric narrowed his eyes and took a step to the side to try to see it. “I need to see if it’s good enough.”

Scytale spread his wings to block Sedric again. “Of course, it’s good enough! Do you think any gift given by me would be low class?!”

“I don’t trust that you’ve given me something decent for one second,” Sedric stated flatly, lowering himself to try to peek under the snake’s wings.

Scytale shuffled them, deflecting Sedric’s Inspection once more. “How could you say that about me when I’ve just gone out of my way to get you a present! Where’s the justice in this place!”

“I’ll give you justice if you just let me Inspect it.”

Hargrave, feeling slightly curious about why the snake was preventing the crafter from looking at the binder pen, Inspected it himself as the snake moved out of the way to block Sedric again on the other side of the table.

[Tool – Type: Crafting Pen, Cursed Item ]

Name: Failed Enchanter’s Grudge

Rarity: Uncommon

MP: 100/100

Desc:

This binder pen was used by a low-level dark-element crafter who attempted to create an item beyond his capabilities, changing his engravings over and over again to try to perfect the item. Unfortunately, he failed each and every time and so his emotions and dark-element mana gradually infused this pen to turn it into a cursed item.

Ability:

Unwanted Erasure – An erasable binder pen... but not in a way that’s useful.

• Curses the User to see a dark-element illusion when the item is used on engraving channels. Channels will appear filled until the dark-element illusion disappears to reveal the channels have not been filled with binder, as this pen doesn’t empty its contents at all. Curse illusion and curse lasts 30 minutes, mana cost varies on the amount of disguised engraving channels.

[ ]

…ah. Now he understood why the snake was hiding this from the crafter. For crafters, who often did very complicated spellwork and mentally tiring jobs, finding out they did all their work for nothing would make them very, very mad.

“Where did you obtain an item like this?” he asked Scytale.

Scytale turned to him. “Oh, they’re from the Commission’s Inheritance Trial. The first room is themed around cursed items, so because Lucy beat the whole trial, she got to obtain all the contents.”

Sedric frowned. “Cursed items?”

Scytale turned back to Sedric with wide eyes, realising his plot was going to be uncovered. Sedric and the snake had a silent stare-off, nobody saying a thing. Then Sedric scowled and dashed to the side to try to see the pen.

Scytale hastily tried to hide the item. “Nononono- There’s nothing to see here! This is definitely not a cursed item! I can swear on my light-element bloodline ancestors-”

“Will appear filled until the dark-element illusion spell disappears?!” Sedric exclaimed incredulously as he finally managed to read its Item Sheet. “You want me to waste my time working, only to find out I never made any progress in the first place?!” He glared at the snake as Scytale avoided eye contact.

“Hey, it was one of the least bad options I could’ve chosen to give you. You should be glad I didn’t succumb to my desires and pick out a worse one-”

“So you’re admitting there are worse ones you have prepared!”

“...uh, well…”

Scytale was saved from having to answer by the door of Sedric’s workshop unlocking. They looked up and Hargrave stared, stunned, as a dark-haired girl with a mask suddenly stuck her head over the railing to look down at them.

“I came to inform you three that it’s lunchtime,” the Commission Head said. “We’re having it together in one of the dining rooms because there’s quite a few of us on this floor right now.”

Then she stepped back to leave. Scytale jumped off the table joyfully. “Yay! Free food!”

Hargrave watched the snake go, feeling mildly confused. He turned to the ponytailed brown-haired man next to him. “…why should the bond of the Aurelian Commission Head care about free food… offered by his own bond?”

Sedric scoffed. “Beats me,” he said, replacing his goggles over his eyes. He went back to the workbench. “Nobody can make sense of what that blighted snake says half the time. Anyway, enjoy your lunch. I’m going to go back to-”

“Sedric, it includes you too,” the Commission Head suddenly interrupted, sticking her head back over the railing with eyes narrowed at the young man. “You’re not getting another staff member to bring you down lunch. Get up here, and get out of your workshop.”

Sedric glared at the violet-eyed woman above them, but she just cocked an eyebrow. The long-haired man angrily pulled off his goggles, unbelted his tool belt, and took off his canvas apron, before storming up the steps. “Become my crafter she says… what do you even need me for if you won’t let me craft?” he muttered sourly.

The Commission Head rolled her eyes, clearly having heard the man’s words, and then Hargrave stiffened as her gaze landed on him. She tilted her head. “Are you coming?”

After a brief moment of hesitation, he began to follow them up the steps.

…and he was beginning to feel like the dynamic between the people on the Aurelian Commission Headquarters’ fortieth floor was a bit more complicated than he first thought.

_______________________________________________________________________________

“-a pen that only shows me an illusion of having completed my work, when in reality I wouldn’t have even done anything!”

“Hey, at least it was only a weak curse! That binder pen was Uncommon rarity, and the curse didn’t even last past half an hour!”

Lucy watched with amusement as Sedric and her bond bickered over the prank Scytale had attempted to pull on the crafter while they ate lunch. Vincent was also interested in the discussion, although the fifth member at their table…

The red-haired man looked quite lost and out of place as he watched them talk. Lucille had found his interactions with the other three earlier quite interesting, actually. It was funny how he seemed to have no idea how to deal with her. That would probably change as time goes on, because as the contract was going to last for seven years he’d have plenty of time to get used to being around her, but still. However, his reactions helped remind her that currently, she wasn’t dealing with the dangerous Plane Destroyer of Firebloom, but a man still in his mid-twenties who had yet to become the infamous figure she remembered.

She pointed a fork at her winged bond. “Scytale, you wasted your chance with the pen. You should’ve applied an illusion over it at least, so he was fooled long enough to try it out. Or brought it to me to apply the illusion if you thought yours wouldn’t trick him.”

Sedric glowered at her as Scytale turned to her in realisation. “Now that you mention it… well, that’s disappointing. I might’ve gotten my prank to work if I did that. I wonder how long it would’ve taken him to realise he wasn’t using any binder.”

“I’m estimating it would’ve been at least a couple of hours.” She smirked.

“Could you stop talking like I’m not here?” Sedric complained. “And both of you seem to think I’m much dumber than I actually am.”

“Yeah, but you still haven’t discovered ‘that’ yet,” Scytale replied.

He raised an eyebrow. “That?”

Scytale traded eye contact with Lucy, passing an unspoken message between them, and then she grinned. “Ah. That.”

Sedric glanced between them. “What are you both on about?” He hesitated. “Did you do something to my workshop? …or equipment…?”

Scytale snickered. “Yep. He still doesn’t know.”

She nodded. “He’s still clueless.”

Sedric’s gaze kept switching between them as he got increasingly more nervous and confused.

Vincent sighed. “I doubt they’ve done anything, Sedric. Lucy hasn’t had enough time to do something, with how busy we’ve been in preparation for next week, and Scytale…” He gestured at the amphiptere. “In case you haven’t realised, he doesn’t exactly have the physical capacity to do much, considering his lack of limbs.”

They all turned their gazes to the silvery snake, who hid behind his wings. “I’ll get them soon enough,” he grumbled.

Lucy’s aide gestured to her. “She and Scytale were likely just messing with you.”

She gave Vincent a wide smile. “But are you sure we are? Are you certain?”

He rolled his eyes as Sedric took another look at both her and her bond, before groaning. “You guys are terrible. With how you guys treat me, it should be obvious why I don’t want to leave my workshop!”

Lucille fixed a flat stare on the crafter. “Sedric, we are all fully aware that regardless of our attitudes towards you, you wouldn’t want to leave your workshop. Don’t give us such a blatant lie as an excuse for being antisocial.”

He avoided eye contact. “It wasn’t that blatant…”

She shook her head as even Vincent and Scytale gave him dubious looks. Hargrave just kept watching them all silently, looking confused.

“Anyway, Vincent.” She turned to her aide. “I haven’t seen Jacques or Caius on the fortieth floor today. What are they doing?” she asked curiously.

“Ah.” He nodded, placing down his knife. “Jacques is currently discussing some arrangements with the crafters of the craftsmen zone. I assumed his familiarity with commoners would make things go smoother for us. And Caius has been negotiating some deals with a few of the upper nobility within the Commission, having lunch at an expensive restaurant within Gilded Seat.”

“Quick to pass that job off to someone else, I see,” she remarked wryly.

Vincent rolled his eyes. “Well, subordinates exist for a reason.”

“That they do,” Lucy agreed cheerily.

The silver-haired man narrowed his eyes at her as she turned back to Sedric. “And is there any more equipment you want before Vincent and I leave for the Empire’s banquet in a week, Sedric? We won’t be able to help you organise anything during the two weeks we’ll be gone.”

Sedric rubbed his chin as he considered it, but shook his head. “No. I should be fine. All I’m doing right now is practising putting those new enchantments and mana-circles you gave me into items, so there’s not much I need.” Then he frowned slightly. “Although, I’m getting pretty bored just doing that.”

Lucille nodded. “I have to apologise for that. These last few months have just been too busy for me to request anything, and I’m only Rank-0 right now.” She leaned back in her chair as she took a sip of coffee from her mug. “I’ll commission an item from you sometime in January, that I can promise you.”

He blinked and looked curious, but nodded. She looked around and stretched as she saw they had all finished lunch. “Well, considering we seem to be finished…” She looked at Hargrave, who seemed to freeze up slightly when he saw her gaze. “There’s something I need to show you, Hargrave. I’ve set it up in one of the rooms.”

“Oh yeah! The defective snow globe thing,” Scytale spoke up.

“Defective what now?” Sedric asked with a raised eyebrow.

She blinked and then considered if she should show Sedric what she did. “I suppose it might interest you to see the mana-circuit I set up, and you’ll probably pass by the device at one point or another…” She turned back to Hargrave. “Should I show him?”

The red-haired man just gave her a look of incomprehension, so she opened her dimensional bag to take out the extraction cylinder she had shown him when she gave him the offer a little more than a week ago. She held it up for him. “It’s to do with this.”

Hargrave paused when he saw the brass tube, and then slowly nodded. “I… guess he can.” It was clear the man was still unsure as to what exactly she was showing them, but he seemed to have some rough idea as he glanced at Sedric. “If he’s your personal crafter, then he’s probably going to find out what I’m doing eventually…” the man said with a slight frown.

Lucy glanced at the confused Sedric and shrugged. “Maybe if he learns to leave his workshop more often, then he might.”

“Would you stop talking about me leaving my workshop!”

She ignored Sedric’s angry outburst as Vincent spoke up with an eyebrow raised at her, “I’m curious as to what this is that you’ve ‘set up’ in one of the floor’s rooms.”

Lucy paused to stare at Vincent for a few seconds. Then she gave him a dismissive wave. “You’re probably too busy with work to bother with this right now. You can go see it later.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “I can take a break for a few minutes.”

She gave him a bright smile. “No, there’s no need for you to take time out of your day for this. Just go back to finishing off those documents.”

Vincent scowled at her. “No, I’m beginning to think this is something I really should go see.”

“Lucy, I don’t think you’re getting out of this,” Scytale said before she could reply to her aide. “And there’s no way you could hide it all before he sees it. Just show him before he accidentally discovers it one day and gets even more mad.”

Lucy resigned herself to her fate as Vincent went from having strong suspicion to utter certainty that she had done something he would not be pleased about.

“All right,” she said with a sigh, getting up from her chair as the others did the same. “Let me show you what is in the 3rd living room on the north side of the floor.”