Chapter 1144: A Map

Chapter 1144 – A Map

Mira entered from the corridor, having caught the last part of the conversation. "You’re saying... we need to attack at the same time?"

Lux nodded. "Multiple locations. Simultaneous strikes."

The room grew quiet again.

This time, not from shock.

From calculation.

"Kaelmor has already opened the war," Lux said. "He’s using auditors to map our resources, investigators to pressure our allies, and royal soldiers to enforce his demands."

His gaze swept across them. "So we stop pretending this is a private dispute."

Sira smiled. The dangerous one. "You want soldiers."

"I want coordinated forces. Greed, Envy, and every house willing to resist the royal order."

Gula’s grin widened. "Finally. Something I can contribute to without pretending to understand accounting."

"Your food budget is still under investigation."

"Lux."

"An ongoing investigation."

She threw a cushion at him.

He caught it without looking.

A tiny improvement in morale.

Lux set the cushion aside. "We strike the prisons together. Rescue the captives. Destroy the siphons. Seize the records. Cut the supply routes. And make sure Kaelmor can’t move his prisoners the moment he realizes what we’re doing."

Lullaby tilted her head. "But we need to know where they are."

"Exactly."

That was the problem.

The enormous, inconvenient, potentially kingdom-ending problem.

Rava appeared near the doorway with a stack of documents tucked beneath her arm. "We found some clues," she said. "We’ve already sent people to investigate them."

Lux turned immediately. "How many locations?"

"A couple with credible leads. Several more possibilities, but nothing confirmed."

"Any prisoners identified?"

"Not yet."

Lux nodded slowly.

It was a start.

A miserable start.

But a start.

Fiera, who had been listening from beside the window, finally spoke. "What about the others?"

Everyone looked at her.

She gestured toward the documents in Rava’s hands. "If we only know a couple of locations, what happens to the prisoners we haven’t found?"

Silence.

The question settled over the room like a blade laid across a table.

Lux looked at the reports.

Then at the faces surrounding him.

They had soldiers.

They had allies.

They had an ancient goddess willing to stand beside him.

They even had a strategy.

But they didn’t have a map.

And attacking the wrong places first could give Kaelmor enough warning to empty every prison they hadn’t discovered.

Lux’s fingers tightened around the cushion.

For once, his system offered no sarcastic commentary.

Which was deeply inconsiderate.

He looked toward the darkening garden, where the last of the evening light slipped between the trees.

Somewhere out there, Kaelmor was preparing for war.

And somewhere else, prisoners were waiting in chambers nobody knew existed.

Lux slowly exhaled. "That’s the part," he said, "we still need to solve."

"Maybe I can help."

The voice came from the doorway.

Everyone turned.

Runa stood there, her cat ears slightly flattened, her tail curling around one leg. She held a folded blanket against her chest, although Lux suspected it was less about warmth and more about having something to grip.

For a woman who had survived being turned into a tower, she looked remarkably uncomfortable with being the center of attention.

Lux softened his expression. "Runa?"

She hesitated. "It wasn’t exact. And I don’t know whether it’s still there."

"Anything helps."

Runa looked down at the floor. "When Kaelmor kept me imprisoned, he sometimes came to check on me. Usually to talk about himself."

Lux winced. "Ah. Psychological warfare."

"He called it courtship."

"That’s worse."

Gula nodded solemnly. "Much worse."

Runa’s lips twitched, but the smile disappeared quickly. "He often carried a map. Sometimes he would spread it out while speaking to his guards."

Lux straightened. "A map?"

She nodded. "There were dots on it. Different colors. Some were connected by lines, and others were isolated."

The room went still.

Lux felt his Greed awaken. "Do you remember where the dots were?"

"Some of them." Runa swallowed. "I didn’t understand what they meant at the time. I only remember because he kept looking at the same places."

Lux approached her.

"Runa, that could be exactly what we need."

Her ears lifted slightly.

Before she could answer, a dark ripple opened beside the window.

Corvus stepped out of the shadows. "Zehar and I found some locations too."

Lux turned.

Corvus looked exhausted. The shadows beneath his eyes suggested he had been surviving on determination and questionable sleep.

Behind him, Zehar emerged with an expression that could only be described as professionally offended.

"We’ve been tailing Kaelmor’s guards," Corvus explained. "The ones who travel without royal insignia."

Zehar folded his arms. "Which was a nightmare, by the way. Following people who know they’re being followed, while making sure they don’t know they’re being followed."

"An excellent summary of surveillance."

"From a distance," Zehar continued. "A very long distance. Some of them changed routes three times. Others went through restricted corridors or used dimensional gates."

Corvus nodded.

"Most destinations were concealed. Underground facilities. Abandoned estates. Places that looked empty but had active wards."

"And we couldn’t just walk in," Zehar added. "We had to make sure they weren’t traps."

Lux studied them. "How many?"

Corvus produced a folded sheet. "Enough to make the effort worthwhile."

He spread it across the table.

Rava immediately brought over her own documents.

Runa approached hesitantly, peering at the marked locations.

Then her eyes widened.

"That one." She pointed. "I remember that dot."

Lux looked down.

Two independent leads.

One location.

His smile slowly returned.

Oh.

Now that was interesting.

"System," he murmured.

[Yes?]

"Open a new ledger."

[Designation?]

Lux glanced around the room.

Then he looked back at the map.

"Royal Asset Recovery."

[Ledger Created.]

Runa studied the map, her ears lowering again. "What if releasing those hostages isn’t enough?"

Lux’s grin faded.

A reasonable question.

Kaelmor had spent centuries accumulating power. Freeing his prisoners might weaken him, but there was no guarantee it would leave him helpless.

"Then..." Lux murmured.

He placed one finger over the royal palace on the map.

"I’ll siphon his power."

His smile returned, colder than before.

"I’ll dry him out."

Immortality without power?

Lux chuckled.

"Let’s see how His Majesty enjoys eternity when he has absolutely nothing left."