Chapter 15 (2 of 2) Little noodle with big ambitions.
Infinityphoenix
Fantasizer
- Location
- Australia
Then Scytale broke the silence.
"Achoo!" he sneezed. He shuffled his wings as he shook his head and turned back to Sedric. "Ugh, I hate colds. Forget that part, how was my introduction?"
The dark brown-haired man gave a long, slow blink. He turned to Lucy for an explanation.
She pointed at the white-gold winged snake with a hand. "That thing is Scytale." She stated flatly.
Sedric stared at them both, his mouth slightly open. Then he blinked again and straightened up. "Are both of you sadistic or something?!" he exclaimed, incredulous.
The snake gave a harumph while Lucy gazed dully at the man.
"And he just ignored my words like I'm not here." He grumbled.
Lucille narrowed her eyes. "Let it be known that I would prefer not to be given that title, especially on behalf of my immature bond."
Then she gave an exasperated sigh and waved a hand to the man, who didn't seem to know what to do with himself. "Just sit down already. One of the staff members must have shown you here, am I correct?"
Sedric awkwardly sat down on the couch next to Scytale. He was wearing much nicer clothes today, his long-sleeved shirt actually being white this time, and his pants clean if not particularly stylish. His brown hair was untied, reaching past his shoulders to hang free, and he didn't have any grease marks on his face. He scratched the back of his neck.
"Uh… yeah. Your staff sure are weird though."
She raised an eyebrow as he continued.
"I turned up at the hall below, and none of the people I asked for help would even look at me except to give me a dismissive look, and even when I finally got to speak to a clerk, they kept trying to get me to leave, even when I said I knew you. Then I show them this." He held up his black card. "And they start panicking and fussing over me, like I'm royalty." He said, frowning in confusion.
She tilted her head as she looked at him. "Surely you're not asking me why staff of the famous Aurelian Commission would be so dismissive of you?"
He scowled at her. "I know it's because I'm a commoner. I'm not an idiot."
She remained silent as she thought about her memories of trying to subtly ask him about his class. She sipped her drink.
"What I want to know," he continued, "Is why exactly does this card give me such treatment?"
She gazed at him in silence for a moment, and set down the cup she held. "I suppose I better explain. Tea?" she said, gesturing to the brass jug.
He blinked, nonplussed, before hesitantly nodding. "Uh, sure. Why not."
She got up and poured him some tea, and the man cautiously picked up the teacup, doing strange motions with his hand like he was unsure how he was supposed to hold it. She sighed and decided to put the poor man out of his misery.
"I'm not a noble, you know. I don't particularly care how you hold it."
He jolted to catch the teacup that started to slip from his hands. He looked up in surprise. "You're… not?"
She shook her head. "I suppose I'll be one once I officially meet the Emperor and become an Honorary Count as is written in the law for the Head of the Commission, but as of currently, I do not hold a title, nor was I born into any sort of nobility."
"Then how come you sound so pretentious?" Sedric said, frowning deeply in thought.
Lucille stared at him, as he didn't seem to realise what he had just said, while at the same time the formerly silent Scytale flapped his wings and broke down into hearty guffaws, struggling to keep himself from laughing. Lucy's stare quickly switched into a glare as she looked at the chuckling snake. Scytale used his telepathy to talk through his laughing fit.
"Pretentious you say? Well I'll have you know, it stems from a particularly famous empire known for their tea in-"
"Scytale." Lucy said as her glare intensified. The snake ignored her as he kept laughing even more.
"-and their descendants retained this attitude through their accent, which is exacerbated in Lucy's case as she is the heir of a very wealthy-"
"Scytale. If you say even one more word, so help me I will strangle you so much you will wish that spirit had permanently locked you in that room for your own safety."
He stopped laughing, and settled back down.
"Uh, you know I was only kid-"
"One. More. Word." She hissed, holding up a finger.
He finally shut up and after making sure he wasn't going to speak up again, she sighed, pinching her nose bridge in frustration. Sedric was looking at the blank wall next to him with suspiciously strong interest, slowly sipping his tea as she threatened the snake. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"And you."
He flinched, spilling a bit of tea, and awkwardly turned back to her. She leaned back and crossed her arms, gazing at him with a complicated expression as he fidgeted in front of her. Eventually she just sighed again and waved a hand wearily. "Let's just talk about the card, shall we?" she said, smiling brightly. They both gave nervous nods under her narrowed eyes.
Reaching into her dimensional pouch, she withdrew her own black card and held it up for him to see. "Do you have a bank account?"
He frowned. "What commoner would have the excess money to waste on a bank?"
She ignored him after another pointed glare and placed her card on the table between them. "I'll take that as a no. This," she began, pointing to the card, "Will be what you use for all monetary expenditures from now on."
He turned his own card around in his hands, and raised an eyebrow at her. "What, does it have a dimensional pocket within it for me to store my gold inside?"
She shook her head. "Of course not. It's only a form of identification for you to use to purchase things."
The Tower didn't have any sort of infrastructure in place to switch to digital currency, so there was no such thing as credit cards. He frowned at the card. "How does it work?"
"Anything purchased by using this card will be financed by the Commission itself. It's normally a benefit given to members of the Faction, and the limit is dependent on how high your status is within the Faction."
She saw Sedric about to open his mouth again and sighed. "Yes, yes, I know you're not a member of the Faction, be patient will you? I don't want to have to explain this multiple times."
He gave an awkward nod, so she continued. "As the Head of the Faction itself, I am allowed to take some personal liberties when it comes to handing out the black cards, though at a cost. Unlike the coloured cards of the Counties, these cards do not have a hard limit. You could spend as much as you want with them."
His brown eyes widened, and he stared at the card in his hand with new eyes. She narrowed her eyes at his reaction. "Sedric Ferin."
He jumped at the tone in her voice and looked up.
"I hope you're not just planning on buying whatever you want with it?"
The expression on his face told her he had indeed been planning on using it that way, but she ignored it and fixated an intense gaze on the man before her. "The demerit of using those cards is that the money comes out of the Founder's vault. Do you know what that means? Those are my personal belongings. Every purchase you make using that card will be using my money."
Sedric gulped slightly and nodded. He gave a shaky smile as he tried to appease her, putting the card back into a pocket. "I- uh, of course, of course, I wouldn't dare waste your money unwisely. No plans for it now, nope, no siree." He stuttered, looking away.
She narrowed her eyes again but huffed and leaned back with her arms crossed. "If you ever plan on making a career in scamming, do try to learn to lie better."
He grimaced, then slowly nodded. She leaned forward to pick up her tea.
"Anyway, if you need materials or equipment not already in the Founder's vault, you can ask a staff member to send a craftsmen here for the order. Touching a thumb or finger to the central amethyst, inserting a bit of mana, and then stamping the thumb or finger on a contract will make it so the bill has official permission to be sent to the Commission, which then takes it out of my vault." She explained. "Food will be supplied while you're within here, and you can choose to stay within the Headquarters, or we could organise a house for you nearby. I'd suggest staying here on my floor as it is closer to your workroom."
Sedric did a double take. "Wait- here, here? As in, this level?"
She nodded, but sighed when he saw his odd expression. "We've had this conversation before when I gave you the card. This entire level is considered my 'house' as it were. My memory tells me it has fifty large bedrooms complete with an ensuite and bell pull access, and twenty living rooms. We could go entire weeks without seeing each other on this floor. If you take up a residence here, I may also let you have certain allowances in what non-essential objects you may buy."
She noticed how his eyes lit up with greed and she decided to curb his desires. "I will be requesting for and checking all records of purchases made using that card to ensure you are not stretching the limit of what is considered an 'allowance'."
He gave a suspicious cough. She gestured to the card in his pocket. "So, the reason why you were treated so different when you showed them the card?" She scowled. "They're all bootlicking scum, trying to climb up the Faction's hierarchy by clinging on to any conceivable minor or major relation to me. They want to butter you up."
"Ah… that makes a lot more sense now. I did think for a moment one of the female clerks was flirting with me…" he muttered.
She pretended not to hear that, so before Scytale could make any rude comment, she stood up and checked her pocket watch after taking it out. She turned to the two of them.
"Considering it's almost lunch time, how about we check out the place you'll be working while the staff prepare it for us." She said to them.
Sedric cocked an eyebrow at her. "But I haven't actually said I came here to accept it yet."
She gazed flatly at him before marching up to him, holding out a gloved palm. "So, you don't want the job? Hand it back then."
He hurriedly stood up and backed away, two hands covering his chest pocket with the card inside. "Wait, wait! I didn't say I wasn't going to accept it!"
She rolled her eyes and gestured to them to move, exasperated. "Then let's get going! Stop messing around."
Scytale slithered across the back edge of the couch to climb up Lucy's arm and onto her shoulders. Sedric followed as she opened the door and entered the white hallway of the fortieth floor. Most of the wallpaper of the Headquarters had the same beige and white floral theme, and the top floor had this but with added sections of light brown. The hanging lamps were miniature gold chandeliers containing the same warm yellow magical lamps of the reception hall.
The floors of the Counties had wallpaper in the colour of their noble clan, and the library and office areas for the permanent staff had different decorations. The doors on the fortieth were dark glossy brown oak, bordered by a gold frame. Occasionally paintings or vases and other decorations could be found, but it had the theme of a large and expensive manor, if it wasn't placed in the centre of a city.
The carried on walking for a bit until Lucille spotted a staff member straightening up a picture frame and went over to them. "Excuse me." She said. The staff member turned around and hastily gave a bow, placing a hand over her heart in the way of the Empire.
"I um- ah, yes Sir Head! I mean Miss- er, Lady-" stammered the young girl with short curly brown hair. She wore a neat white skirt and formal jacket, as was the uniform of the female staff in the Headquarters.
"Miss or Lady Goldcroft is fine. Even Lord." Lucy said, giving her a dismissive wave. "Would you be able to organise lunch for us three to occur in an hour or so?"
The girl straightened up and gave a firm nod, seemingly trying to please. "Absolutely Lady Goldcroft. Would you like it in your normal room?" she said, gesturing to the room they had come from.
Lucy thought for a bit. "Actually… do you know if anybody is using the rooftop for any event currently?"
The girl shook her head. "Nothing has been scheduled, and even if there had been, I'm sure we could rearrange things for you, Faction Head."
"Don't ever do that." Lucy responded, shaking her head absentmindedly. "It would be bad for the Commission's operations. Then can I ask if it can be brought up to the rooftop? Whatever has been arranged for lunch is fine."
The girl nodded again, but looked a bit awkward as she fidgeted with her hands. "Of course we can! Um… but you don't have to be so polite to someone like me, Miss… I'm not a high-ranked Faction member…"
Lucille looked at the girl for a moment. "Hmm… what's your name?"
"Um…" the girl was startled. "Sally Meyers, Miss."
Lucy smiled at her. "The staff of the Commission are not servants. You won't be here working as a caretaker forever, you'll become a proper clerk eventually. I shouldn't treat you like a servant."
Sally blinked as Lucy patted her on the shoulder as they went past, nonplussed. It was only when Lucy, Sedric and Scytale had gone down the hallway a bit that she jumped and hurriedly headed towards the elevators so she could organise the lunch.
Sedric looked at Lucy weirdly. "Why'd you do that?"
"Do what?" she responded, without looking at him.
He gestured to the area behind them in exasperation. "Y'know, the thing with the girl earlier. Treating her nicely and all."
"Why, do you have an issue with it?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow.
Surprisingly, he nodded. "Yeah. You gave that girl assurance that she'll eventually get a job as a proper member of the Commission." He scowled. "It's plain obvious she's a commoner. She'll never be treated like any of the proper noble members, and will never end up getting a real job here."
Lucy hummed as they turned a corner into a slightly wider corridor. "Do you hate the divide between commoners and nobles?"
Sedric scoffed as he swept a bit of brown hair out of his face. "I'm not answering that one. Don't make me out like I'm one of the Dissenters. It just feels at odds with your personality."
She stared at him for a moment before she let out an 'Ah.' in realisation. "You think I'm some manipulating, controlling megalomaniac that treats everyone with condescension." She stated flatly.
He scratched the back of his neck, looking a bit sheepish. "Those are, um, harsher words than I was going for…"
"Well sorry to disappoint your expectations." She continued dryly. "Also, I wasn't really being philanthropic in my actions, nor was I needlessly giving hope to someone about something that wasn't true."
He gave her a dubious look, so she explained. "It's written in the Faction's rules that every apprentice clerk will become a new clerk within 1 year. It can be extended up to 3 if their superior finds a reason they shouldn't become a clerk yet, but they will eventually have to let them become a clerk if they don't want to lose their job."
He frowned a bit. "But what about afterwards?"
She shrugged. "Any office would probably be happy to have a newcomer so their workload is lowered, so they wouldn't be kicked out very quickly. They do a lot for their wage. I suppose the head clerk would still suppress a new clerk, but only for a while to make sure they're not talented enough to replace them."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're saying you weren't being benevolent when you said that?"
The silent Scytale abruptly spoke up, chuckling. "Benevolent? I'm sorry, what you're saying couldn't be further from the truth. She's probably k-" He stopped because of a stare from Lucy, and rephrased his answer. "Uh… done things with way less emotion than even I ever could. Yeah, nah, not a description I've ever seen been applicable to her? She doesn't really even care about the commoner-noble divide much either."
The brown-haired craftsman frowned in thought, so before he could realise anything from Scytale's words, she let out a long, loud sigh and gazed at them both.
"In my experience," she said, sounding tired, "It is far easier to communicate with people when they don't have negative opinions of me, and easier to deal with a group when they're not apprehensive towards me. It's just freer of hassle."
Although, that wasn't why I treated the girl that way. Her attitude towards me was… not as terrible as it could be in a predominantly noble Faction I suppose, but definitely worse than I expected. If I want decent subordinates for my plans, I need to change the attitude of the Faction towards talented people and by extension commoners.
Sedric, however, was frowning even more. "There you go again. 'Freer of hassle'. Why don't you just say it's easier to talk to people who like me?"
She stared at him, incredulous, while Scytale started snickering again. "Are you doing this on purpose?"
"What?" he said, looking confused.
"Pffffft."
She facepalmed and let out a long groan as Scytale broke down into loud laughter.
"At least you'll be able to make me more magic items this way. No other noble would want to hire you with a head that dense." She sighed.
"Hey-"
"See Lucy, I told you all those years ago it wasn't worth it to keep talking like a noble."
The snake turned his head to look at Sedric with his golden eyes.
"Listen, let me tell you something: She used to be waaay worse than this. And I mean way worse. Lucy here is great at copying the mannerisms of people, but not so great at forgetting them, especially with her eidetic memory. Now," he said with a sly tone, ignoring the intense gaze coming from Lucy. "Let me tell you about the time she met a bunch of mercenaries in a frontier region. This was just before she met me."
After a few failed attempts from Lucy to try to get her bond to shut up, she gave up and resigned herself to listening to the snake reveal her dark past to the guy with no sense next to her. In reality, she didn't actually care too much. Maybe the concept that she hadn't appeared from thin air and did have a life would comfort the man a little, who seemed a little freaked out by her at times. Instead, she kept her mind busy by currently going over her personality analysis of him.
From what I've garnered from his first reaction to seeing me and his comments on the workings of society, he hates people. Or more actually, he detests them and everything about others. He's disillusioned with the world around him, and believes everyone's a threat. He may not actually have combat abilities, but his grumpy tone and harsh words when he does speak act as his shield to make others avoid him. Even now, I don't think he's actually dense, but is trying to make me reveal my 'true colours' as it were by testing me. Though maybe he accidently takes it a bit too far sometimes.
She took a short glance at his clothing and hairstyle.
He has his hair down. I don't think that's because he believes its more formal for this setting. He originally had his hair up, which is more practical for crafting, but the hair fell down on either side of his face. I think he did it as a way for him to hide his face and reduce attention on him, so when he's coming to a place where he'll be under even more scrutiny, he tried to hide his face more. Maybe keeping the long hair, even though it's impractical for crafting, is also an element of this. An interesting thing is after Scytale's spectacle, he commented on the staff first… after calling me sadistic. Hm.
She reviewed her memories of earlier, while helping Scytale refrain from revealing any details about her age not being what it seems through their bond.
He picked a group with a slight relation to me, but distant enough he wouldn't unduly offend me by insulting them…. I don't actually believe he meant to call us sadistic out loud. That was probably an outlier, but possibly a hint at his… not necessarily 'real', because he does hate people, but more comprehensive personality. I'll take that out of the equation for now. I'm actually surprised he knows about the 'Dissenters' as being an actual collective group rather than just random uprisings that sometimes occur that the general public know it as. He seemed to think I knew of them too, and this was after I told him I'm not a noble.
She blinked when she realised something.
Does he think I'm a Dissenter? Or at least a Dissenter supporter. That is actually a rather amusing connection for him to make. I've been mistakenly called that in the past by some groups, but have never actively tried to push for their agenda in the slightest. In fact, the Dissenters didn't want to have anything to do with me at all. Should I support his conclusion?
She made sure to let out a sigh when Scytale tried to tell another 'embarrassing' part of her past to Sedric, who didn't seem to understand why the noisy snake kept talking to him.
For now, I won't, but I won't get rid of it either. It's not like there needs to be any sort of personal trust between us for the task I want him to do. I just need him to have trust that I'll keep my word. I'm sure he'd be a great ally if he was personally invested in my goals, but my main one is mostly just selfish, and the others he'd probably run away from screaming in fear.
I think it'll be better off if I act like I have been: that he's important, but I don't care about him individually too much. And I can't make him think his class is super important either. It is, but only in the sense that I can't spend much of my time crafting everything myself, and he's the only way I can do this without attracting attention from the Supreme Institutions. That was not fun last time.
She considered his class. The Runestarred Arcane Inaugurator was a Legendary non-combat class. Crafting classes came in many forms but from what she knew, his one was specifically an enchanting-smithing hybrid class, at least at his Rank. Of course, 'smithing' was very broad, there being jewelsmiths, blacksmiths, weaponsmiths and so forth, but it meant he was capable of using smithing techniques to create the main frame of the item. Using the right techniques and materials would make the item have power. While alchemy enabled one to create substances with innately magical effects, enchanting was the 'wiring' that allowed one to add effects like spells. And they didn't necessarily need to be in the form of a mana-circle to function, although he'd need to get to Rank-2 to get the 3rd primary skill related to his 'Runestarred' title.
There was a reason why she couldn't just go to any famous crafter and get them to craft stuff for her. The first reason was secrecy, but the second main reason was this: Sedric's class was purely for crafting accessories. And for most of the Tower's denizens, that wasn't actually a good thing. Unlike weapons, accessories didn't have attack values, and unlike armour, they didn't have defence values. They were essentially items that had a couple of skills attached, but because they weren't a User's skills, they wouldn't benefit from the stats of the User, besides possibly the power and density of their mana.
They did not, however, have those nebulous 'cooldowns' found on non-accessory items. 'Cooldown' varied from person to person, and was all based on how much strain the individual's physique and mind could sustain. If Lucy had to use a skill like that overcharge skill in the Tutorial, she would likely have a weeklong cooldown just so she didn't hurt herself irreparably. Someone ask her to cast that fireball spell from the Battalion Application? With her spiritual energy and computational power, in the right environment, she could theoretically cast it until the end of time.
But one thing that accessories didn't lack was their flexibility. If you could mana-bind enough magical items and switch them out quick enough, you'd have a vast array of tools with skills available to you. Some skills or spells just couldn't be cast by the sapient mind, like spatial spells. They needed a magic array or non-casted mana-circle. It was for these functions Lucy needed someone, and someone who would be able to craft them to her specifications. She didn't just plan on giving Sedric the blueprints and materials and just let him attempt to craft the items on repeat.
She was going to personally teach him each week so he would understand what she needed, and how to get his items to function. That included supporting him with the specific skills she knew he needed, and explaining more complex mana theory. He wouldn't quite be getting the 'unconditional support' he thought he was. If he found time to even spend one extra cent with that card, then good for him.
I suppose I'll just leave it to fate, the kind without Citadel's interference. If he wants to join me and become part of my plans in full, then I'll give him the chance. If he doesn't, then I'd be fine just leaving him alone. By the time we're done, considering his slower levelling speeds, I could craft everything else I need on my own. I'd also be strong enough that even if he does manage to leak my secrets somehow, it wouldn't affect me. But… I'll see if I can poke and prod him a bit to find out how he learnt of the Dissenters. Considering it's seemingly he's willing to stay here, I'll be able to interact with him often.
"-and that was how we met." Scytale finished up.
Sedric raised an eyebrow. "So, in summary, you ran away from home, and didn't even make it out of your enclave's territory before you had to be saved by her like some special princess and escorted back home. But not before you got her to unwillingly bond to you in some scheme involving illusion magic and an amazingly 'realistic' dying act."
"That is the gist of it, yep." The silver snake nodded happily.
"Well that sounds pathetic." Sedric responded flatly.
Lucy let out a barely suppressed snicker as the snake reared up and flapped his wings on her shoulders in offense. She felt all the stories had been worth it now.
"But I'm still confused." He said, frowning. "You've made this sound like it happened years ago, but Lucille is Rank-0 according to my Inspection skill, and you said you were 15." He looked between the two. "When exactly did this occur?"
"It's a secret." Scytale told him.
The man was about to say something else when Lucille abruptly stopped and he had to pause too.
"We're here." She told them. Standing in front of them were two intimidating grey steel doors. The wallpaper in this part of the floor had changed to become a light grey, and the lamps above and on either side of the corridor were no longer a warm yellow but clinical white light contained in a brass frame. The steel doors had no handles, but the centre did have a cut square containing tinted black glass with a handle to pull it up.
"This is... uh, more different than I thought, considering this floor is supposed to be your 'house'." Sedric said, looking at the doors in surprise.
"Half the floor isn't for living space." She replied, placing a palm on one of the doors. "It's actually a large training facility. The Founder was still a warrior, and didn't feel the need for large showy rooms. The original Counts still gave him a floor equivalent to the space inside a manor though."
She roused the surrounding mana within her spiritual field and directed it towards her, making sure it briefly entered her body before she fed it through her arm and into the door. On the centre of the doors, in front of the square of tinted glass, a silver-grey multi-layered decagonal mana-circle appeared and began rotating. While it technically wasn't a circle, the three layers rotated in different directions, making the edge seem circular in appearance. Then with a click, the tinted glass rolled up and the two doors swung inward.
There was a moment when the other side was dark, and then the dim glow of clinical white light appeared. Sedric narrowed his eyes as he tried to peer through, but he couldn't see much.
Then Lucy gestured to the open doors. "Shall we have a look then?"
"Achoo!" he sneezed. He shuffled his wings as he shook his head and turned back to Sedric. "Ugh, I hate colds. Forget that part, how was my introduction?"
The dark brown-haired man gave a long, slow blink. He turned to Lucy for an explanation.
She pointed at the white-gold winged snake with a hand. "That thing is Scytale." She stated flatly.
Sedric stared at them both, his mouth slightly open. Then he blinked again and straightened up. "Are both of you sadistic or something?!" he exclaimed, incredulous.
The snake gave a harumph while Lucy gazed dully at the man.
"And he just ignored my words like I'm not here." He grumbled.
Lucille narrowed her eyes. "Let it be known that I would prefer not to be given that title, especially on behalf of my immature bond."
Then she gave an exasperated sigh and waved a hand to the man, who didn't seem to know what to do with himself. "Just sit down already. One of the staff members must have shown you here, am I correct?"
Sedric awkwardly sat down on the couch next to Scytale. He was wearing much nicer clothes today, his long-sleeved shirt actually being white this time, and his pants clean if not particularly stylish. His brown hair was untied, reaching past his shoulders to hang free, and he didn't have any grease marks on his face. He scratched the back of his neck.
"Uh… yeah. Your staff sure are weird though."
She raised an eyebrow as he continued.
"I turned up at the hall below, and none of the people I asked for help would even look at me except to give me a dismissive look, and even when I finally got to speak to a clerk, they kept trying to get me to leave, even when I said I knew you. Then I show them this." He held up his black card. "And they start panicking and fussing over me, like I'm royalty." He said, frowning in confusion.
She tilted her head as she looked at him. "Surely you're not asking me why staff of the famous Aurelian Commission would be so dismissive of you?"
He scowled at her. "I know it's because I'm a commoner. I'm not an idiot."
She remained silent as she thought about her memories of trying to subtly ask him about his class. She sipped her drink.
"What I want to know," he continued, "Is why exactly does this card give me such treatment?"
She gazed at him in silence for a moment, and set down the cup she held. "I suppose I better explain. Tea?" she said, gesturing to the brass jug.
He blinked, nonplussed, before hesitantly nodding. "Uh, sure. Why not."
She got up and poured him some tea, and the man cautiously picked up the teacup, doing strange motions with his hand like he was unsure how he was supposed to hold it. She sighed and decided to put the poor man out of his misery.
"I'm not a noble, you know. I don't particularly care how you hold it."
He jolted to catch the teacup that started to slip from his hands. He looked up in surprise. "You're… not?"
She shook her head. "I suppose I'll be one once I officially meet the Emperor and become an Honorary Count as is written in the law for the Head of the Commission, but as of currently, I do not hold a title, nor was I born into any sort of nobility."
"Then how come you sound so pretentious?" Sedric said, frowning deeply in thought.
Lucille stared at him, as he didn't seem to realise what he had just said, while at the same time the formerly silent Scytale flapped his wings and broke down into hearty guffaws, struggling to keep himself from laughing. Lucy's stare quickly switched into a glare as she looked at the chuckling snake. Scytale used his telepathy to talk through his laughing fit.
"Pretentious you say? Well I'll have you know, it stems from a particularly famous empire known for their tea in-"
"Scytale." Lucy said as her glare intensified. The snake ignored her as he kept laughing even more.
"-and their descendants retained this attitude through their accent, which is exacerbated in Lucy's case as she is the heir of a very wealthy-"
"Scytale. If you say even one more word, so help me I will strangle you so much you will wish that spirit had permanently locked you in that room for your own safety."
He stopped laughing, and settled back down.
"Uh, you know I was only kid-"
"One. More. Word." She hissed, holding up a finger.
He finally shut up and after making sure he wasn't going to speak up again, she sighed, pinching her nose bridge in frustration. Sedric was looking at the blank wall next to him with suspiciously strong interest, slowly sipping his tea as she threatened the snake. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"And you."
He flinched, spilling a bit of tea, and awkwardly turned back to her. She leaned back and crossed her arms, gazing at him with a complicated expression as he fidgeted in front of her. Eventually she just sighed again and waved a hand wearily. "Let's just talk about the card, shall we?" she said, smiling brightly. They both gave nervous nods under her narrowed eyes.
Reaching into her dimensional pouch, she withdrew her own black card and held it up for him to see. "Do you have a bank account?"
He frowned. "What commoner would have the excess money to waste on a bank?"
She ignored him after another pointed glare and placed her card on the table between them. "I'll take that as a no. This," she began, pointing to the card, "Will be what you use for all monetary expenditures from now on."
He turned his own card around in his hands, and raised an eyebrow at her. "What, does it have a dimensional pocket within it for me to store my gold inside?"
She shook her head. "Of course not. It's only a form of identification for you to use to purchase things."
The Tower didn't have any sort of infrastructure in place to switch to digital currency, so there was no such thing as credit cards. He frowned at the card. "How does it work?"
"Anything purchased by using this card will be financed by the Commission itself. It's normally a benefit given to members of the Faction, and the limit is dependent on how high your status is within the Faction."
She saw Sedric about to open his mouth again and sighed. "Yes, yes, I know you're not a member of the Faction, be patient will you? I don't want to have to explain this multiple times."
He gave an awkward nod, so she continued. "As the Head of the Faction itself, I am allowed to take some personal liberties when it comes to handing out the black cards, though at a cost. Unlike the coloured cards of the Counties, these cards do not have a hard limit. You could spend as much as you want with them."
His brown eyes widened, and he stared at the card in his hand with new eyes. She narrowed her eyes at his reaction. "Sedric Ferin."
He jumped at the tone in her voice and looked up.
"I hope you're not just planning on buying whatever you want with it?"
The expression on his face told her he had indeed been planning on using it that way, but she ignored it and fixated an intense gaze on the man before her. "The demerit of using those cards is that the money comes out of the Founder's vault. Do you know what that means? Those are my personal belongings. Every purchase you make using that card will be using my money."
Sedric gulped slightly and nodded. He gave a shaky smile as he tried to appease her, putting the card back into a pocket. "I- uh, of course, of course, I wouldn't dare waste your money unwisely. No plans for it now, nope, no siree." He stuttered, looking away.
She narrowed her eyes again but huffed and leaned back with her arms crossed. "If you ever plan on making a career in scamming, do try to learn to lie better."
He grimaced, then slowly nodded. She leaned forward to pick up her tea.
"Anyway, if you need materials or equipment not already in the Founder's vault, you can ask a staff member to send a craftsmen here for the order. Touching a thumb or finger to the central amethyst, inserting a bit of mana, and then stamping the thumb or finger on a contract will make it so the bill has official permission to be sent to the Commission, which then takes it out of my vault." She explained. "Food will be supplied while you're within here, and you can choose to stay within the Headquarters, or we could organise a house for you nearby. I'd suggest staying here on my floor as it is closer to your workroom."
Sedric did a double take. "Wait- here, here? As in, this level?"
She nodded, but sighed when he saw his odd expression. "We've had this conversation before when I gave you the card. This entire level is considered my 'house' as it were. My memory tells me it has fifty large bedrooms complete with an ensuite and bell pull access, and twenty living rooms. We could go entire weeks without seeing each other on this floor. If you take up a residence here, I may also let you have certain allowances in what non-essential objects you may buy."
She noticed how his eyes lit up with greed and she decided to curb his desires. "I will be requesting for and checking all records of purchases made using that card to ensure you are not stretching the limit of what is considered an 'allowance'."
He gave a suspicious cough. She gestured to the card in his pocket. "So, the reason why you were treated so different when you showed them the card?" She scowled. "They're all bootlicking scum, trying to climb up the Faction's hierarchy by clinging on to any conceivable minor or major relation to me. They want to butter you up."
"Ah… that makes a lot more sense now. I did think for a moment one of the female clerks was flirting with me…" he muttered.
She pretended not to hear that, so before Scytale could make any rude comment, she stood up and checked her pocket watch after taking it out. She turned to the two of them.
"Considering it's almost lunch time, how about we check out the place you'll be working while the staff prepare it for us." She said to them.
Sedric cocked an eyebrow at her. "But I haven't actually said I came here to accept it yet."
She gazed flatly at him before marching up to him, holding out a gloved palm. "So, you don't want the job? Hand it back then."
He hurriedly stood up and backed away, two hands covering his chest pocket with the card inside. "Wait, wait! I didn't say I wasn't going to accept it!"
She rolled her eyes and gestured to them to move, exasperated. "Then let's get going! Stop messing around."
Scytale slithered across the back edge of the couch to climb up Lucy's arm and onto her shoulders. Sedric followed as she opened the door and entered the white hallway of the fortieth floor. Most of the wallpaper of the Headquarters had the same beige and white floral theme, and the top floor had this but with added sections of light brown. The hanging lamps were miniature gold chandeliers containing the same warm yellow magical lamps of the reception hall.
The floors of the Counties had wallpaper in the colour of their noble clan, and the library and office areas for the permanent staff had different decorations. The doors on the fortieth were dark glossy brown oak, bordered by a gold frame. Occasionally paintings or vases and other decorations could be found, but it had the theme of a large and expensive manor, if it wasn't placed in the centre of a city.
The carried on walking for a bit until Lucille spotted a staff member straightening up a picture frame and went over to them. "Excuse me." She said. The staff member turned around and hastily gave a bow, placing a hand over her heart in the way of the Empire.
"I um- ah, yes Sir Head! I mean Miss- er, Lady-" stammered the young girl with short curly brown hair. She wore a neat white skirt and formal jacket, as was the uniform of the female staff in the Headquarters.
"Miss or Lady Goldcroft is fine. Even Lord." Lucy said, giving her a dismissive wave. "Would you be able to organise lunch for us three to occur in an hour or so?"
The girl straightened up and gave a firm nod, seemingly trying to please. "Absolutely Lady Goldcroft. Would you like it in your normal room?" she said, gesturing to the room they had come from.
Lucy thought for a bit. "Actually… do you know if anybody is using the rooftop for any event currently?"
The girl shook her head. "Nothing has been scheduled, and even if there had been, I'm sure we could rearrange things for you, Faction Head."
"Don't ever do that." Lucy responded, shaking her head absentmindedly. "It would be bad for the Commission's operations. Then can I ask if it can be brought up to the rooftop? Whatever has been arranged for lunch is fine."
The girl nodded again, but looked a bit awkward as she fidgeted with her hands. "Of course we can! Um… but you don't have to be so polite to someone like me, Miss… I'm not a high-ranked Faction member…"
Lucille looked at the girl for a moment. "Hmm… what's your name?"
"Um…" the girl was startled. "Sally Meyers, Miss."
Lucy smiled at her. "The staff of the Commission are not servants. You won't be here working as a caretaker forever, you'll become a proper clerk eventually. I shouldn't treat you like a servant."
Sally blinked as Lucy patted her on the shoulder as they went past, nonplussed. It was only when Lucy, Sedric and Scytale had gone down the hallway a bit that she jumped and hurriedly headed towards the elevators so she could organise the lunch.
Sedric looked at Lucy weirdly. "Why'd you do that?"
"Do what?" she responded, without looking at him.
He gestured to the area behind them in exasperation. "Y'know, the thing with the girl earlier. Treating her nicely and all."
"Why, do you have an issue with it?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow.
Surprisingly, he nodded. "Yeah. You gave that girl assurance that she'll eventually get a job as a proper member of the Commission." He scowled. "It's plain obvious she's a commoner. She'll never be treated like any of the proper noble members, and will never end up getting a real job here."
Lucy hummed as they turned a corner into a slightly wider corridor. "Do you hate the divide between commoners and nobles?"
Sedric scoffed as he swept a bit of brown hair out of his face. "I'm not answering that one. Don't make me out like I'm one of the Dissenters. It just feels at odds with your personality."
She stared at him for a moment before she let out an 'Ah.' in realisation. "You think I'm some manipulating, controlling megalomaniac that treats everyone with condescension." She stated flatly.
He scratched the back of his neck, looking a bit sheepish. "Those are, um, harsher words than I was going for…"
"Well sorry to disappoint your expectations." She continued dryly. "Also, I wasn't really being philanthropic in my actions, nor was I needlessly giving hope to someone about something that wasn't true."
He gave her a dubious look, so she explained. "It's written in the Faction's rules that every apprentice clerk will become a new clerk within 1 year. It can be extended up to 3 if their superior finds a reason they shouldn't become a clerk yet, but they will eventually have to let them become a clerk if they don't want to lose their job."
He frowned a bit. "But what about afterwards?"
She shrugged. "Any office would probably be happy to have a newcomer so their workload is lowered, so they wouldn't be kicked out very quickly. They do a lot for their wage. I suppose the head clerk would still suppress a new clerk, but only for a while to make sure they're not talented enough to replace them."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're saying you weren't being benevolent when you said that?"
The silent Scytale abruptly spoke up, chuckling. "Benevolent? I'm sorry, what you're saying couldn't be further from the truth. She's probably k-" He stopped because of a stare from Lucy, and rephrased his answer. "Uh… done things with way less emotion than even I ever could. Yeah, nah, not a description I've ever seen been applicable to her? She doesn't really even care about the commoner-noble divide much either."
The brown-haired craftsman frowned in thought, so before he could realise anything from Scytale's words, she let out a long, loud sigh and gazed at them both.
"In my experience," she said, sounding tired, "It is far easier to communicate with people when they don't have negative opinions of me, and easier to deal with a group when they're not apprehensive towards me. It's just freer of hassle."
Although, that wasn't why I treated the girl that way. Her attitude towards me was… not as terrible as it could be in a predominantly noble Faction I suppose, but definitely worse than I expected. If I want decent subordinates for my plans, I need to change the attitude of the Faction towards talented people and by extension commoners.
Sedric, however, was frowning even more. "There you go again. 'Freer of hassle'. Why don't you just say it's easier to talk to people who like me?"
She stared at him, incredulous, while Scytale started snickering again. "Are you doing this on purpose?"
"What?" he said, looking confused.
"Pffffft."
She facepalmed and let out a long groan as Scytale broke down into loud laughter.
"At least you'll be able to make me more magic items this way. No other noble would want to hire you with a head that dense." She sighed.
"Hey-"
"See Lucy, I told you all those years ago it wasn't worth it to keep talking like a noble."
The snake turned his head to look at Sedric with his golden eyes.
"Listen, let me tell you something: She used to be waaay worse than this. And I mean way worse. Lucy here is great at copying the mannerisms of people, but not so great at forgetting them, especially with her eidetic memory. Now," he said with a sly tone, ignoring the intense gaze coming from Lucy. "Let me tell you about the time she met a bunch of mercenaries in a frontier region. This was just before she met me."
After a few failed attempts from Lucy to try to get her bond to shut up, she gave up and resigned herself to listening to the snake reveal her dark past to the guy with no sense next to her. In reality, she didn't actually care too much. Maybe the concept that she hadn't appeared from thin air and did have a life would comfort the man a little, who seemed a little freaked out by her at times. Instead, she kept her mind busy by currently going over her personality analysis of him.
From what I've garnered from his first reaction to seeing me and his comments on the workings of society, he hates people. Or more actually, he detests them and everything about others. He's disillusioned with the world around him, and believes everyone's a threat. He may not actually have combat abilities, but his grumpy tone and harsh words when he does speak act as his shield to make others avoid him. Even now, I don't think he's actually dense, but is trying to make me reveal my 'true colours' as it were by testing me. Though maybe he accidently takes it a bit too far sometimes.
She took a short glance at his clothing and hairstyle.
He has his hair down. I don't think that's because he believes its more formal for this setting. He originally had his hair up, which is more practical for crafting, but the hair fell down on either side of his face. I think he did it as a way for him to hide his face and reduce attention on him, so when he's coming to a place where he'll be under even more scrutiny, he tried to hide his face more. Maybe keeping the long hair, even though it's impractical for crafting, is also an element of this. An interesting thing is after Scytale's spectacle, he commented on the staff first… after calling me sadistic. Hm.
She reviewed her memories of earlier, while helping Scytale refrain from revealing any details about her age not being what it seems through their bond.
He picked a group with a slight relation to me, but distant enough he wouldn't unduly offend me by insulting them…. I don't actually believe he meant to call us sadistic out loud. That was probably an outlier, but possibly a hint at his… not necessarily 'real', because he does hate people, but more comprehensive personality. I'll take that out of the equation for now. I'm actually surprised he knows about the 'Dissenters' as being an actual collective group rather than just random uprisings that sometimes occur that the general public know it as. He seemed to think I knew of them too, and this was after I told him I'm not a noble.
She blinked when she realised something.
Does he think I'm a Dissenter? Or at least a Dissenter supporter. That is actually a rather amusing connection for him to make. I've been mistakenly called that in the past by some groups, but have never actively tried to push for their agenda in the slightest. In fact, the Dissenters didn't want to have anything to do with me at all. Should I support his conclusion?
She made sure to let out a sigh when Scytale tried to tell another 'embarrassing' part of her past to Sedric, who didn't seem to understand why the noisy snake kept talking to him.
For now, I won't, but I won't get rid of it either. It's not like there needs to be any sort of personal trust between us for the task I want him to do. I just need him to have trust that I'll keep my word. I'm sure he'd be a great ally if he was personally invested in my goals, but my main one is mostly just selfish, and the others he'd probably run away from screaming in fear.
I think it'll be better off if I act like I have been: that he's important, but I don't care about him individually too much. And I can't make him think his class is super important either. It is, but only in the sense that I can't spend much of my time crafting everything myself, and he's the only way I can do this without attracting attention from the Supreme Institutions. That was not fun last time.
She considered his class. The Runestarred Arcane Inaugurator was a Legendary non-combat class. Crafting classes came in many forms but from what she knew, his one was specifically an enchanting-smithing hybrid class, at least at his Rank. Of course, 'smithing' was very broad, there being jewelsmiths, blacksmiths, weaponsmiths and so forth, but it meant he was capable of using smithing techniques to create the main frame of the item. Using the right techniques and materials would make the item have power. While alchemy enabled one to create substances with innately magical effects, enchanting was the 'wiring' that allowed one to add effects like spells. And they didn't necessarily need to be in the form of a mana-circle to function, although he'd need to get to Rank-2 to get the 3rd primary skill related to his 'Runestarred' title.
There was a reason why she couldn't just go to any famous crafter and get them to craft stuff for her. The first reason was secrecy, but the second main reason was this: Sedric's class was purely for crafting accessories. And for most of the Tower's denizens, that wasn't actually a good thing. Unlike weapons, accessories didn't have attack values, and unlike armour, they didn't have defence values. They were essentially items that had a couple of skills attached, but because they weren't a User's skills, they wouldn't benefit from the stats of the User, besides possibly the power and density of their mana.
They did not, however, have those nebulous 'cooldowns' found on non-accessory items. 'Cooldown' varied from person to person, and was all based on how much strain the individual's physique and mind could sustain. If Lucy had to use a skill like that overcharge skill in the Tutorial, she would likely have a weeklong cooldown just so she didn't hurt herself irreparably. Someone ask her to cast that fireball spell from the Battalion Application? With her spiritual energy and computational power, in the right environment, she could theoretically cast it until the end of time.
But one thing that accessories didn't lack was their flexibility. If you could mana-bind enough magical items and switch them out quick enough, you'd have a vast array of tools with skills available to you. Some skills or spells just couldn't be cast by the sapient mind, like spatial spells. They needed a magic array or non-casted mana-circle. It was for these functions Lucy needed someone, and someone who would be able to craft them to her specifications. She didn't just plan on giving Sedric the blueprints and materials and just let him attempt to craft the items on repeat.
She was going to personally teach him each week so he would understand what she needed, and how to get his items to function. That included supporting him with the specific skills she knew he needed, and explaining more complex mana theory. He wouldn't quite be getting the 'unconditional support' he thought he was. If he found time to even spend one extra cent with that card, then good for him.
I suppose I'll just leave it to fate, the kind without Citadel's interference. If he wants to join me and become part of my plans in full, then I'll give him the chance. If he doesn't, then I'd be fine just leaving him alone. By the time we're done, considering his slower levelling speeds, I could craft everything else I need on my own. I'd also be strong enough that even if he does manage to leak my secrets somehow, it wouldn't affect me. But… I'll see if I can poke and prod him a bit to find out how he learnt of the Dissenters. Considering it's seemingly he's willing to stay here, I'll be able to interact with him often.
"-and that was how we met." Scytale finished up.
Sedric raised an eyebrow. "So, in summary, you ran away from home, and didn't even make it out of your enclave's territory before you had to be saved by her like some special princess and escorted back home. But not before you got her to unwillingly bond to you in some scheme involving illusion magic and an amazingly 'realistic' dying act."
"That is the gist of it, yep." The silver snake nodded happily.
"Well that sounds pathetic." Sedric responded flatly.
Lucy let out a barely suppressed snicker as the snake reared up and flapped his wings on her shoulders in offense. She felt all the stories had been worth it now.
"But I'm still confused." He said, frowning. "You've made this sound like it happened years ago, but Lucille is Rank-0 according to my Inspection skill, and you said you were 15." He looked between the two. "When exactly did this occur?"
"It's a secret." Scytale told him.
The man was about to say something else when Lucille abruptly stopped and he had to pause too.
"We're here." She told them. Standing in front of them were two intimidating grey steel doors. The wallpaper in this part of the floor had changed to become a light grey, and the lamps above and on either side of the corridor were no longer a warm yellow but clinical white light contained in a brass frame. The steel doors had no handles, but the centre did have a cut square containing tinted black glass with a handle to pull it up.
"This is... uh, more different than I thought, considering this floor is supposed to be your 'house'." Sedric said, looking at the doors in surprise.
"Half the floor isn't for living space." She replied, placing a palm on one of the doors. "It's actually a large training facility. The Founder was still a warrior, and didn't feel the need for large showy rooms. The original Counts still gave him a floor equivalent to the space inside a manor though."
She roused the surrounding mana within her spiritual field and directed it towards her, making sure it briefly entered her body before she fed it through her arm and into the door. On the centre of the doors, in front of the square of tinted glass, a silver-grey multi-layered decagonal mana-circle appeared and began rotating. While it technically wasn't a circle, the three layers rotated in different directions, making the edge seem circular in appearance. Then with a click, the tinted glass rolled up and the two doors swung inward.
There was a moment when the other side was dark, and then the dim glow of clinical white light appeared. Sedric narrowed his eyes as he tried to peer through, but he couldn't see much.
Then Lucy gestured to the open doors. "Shall we have a look then?"
