Chapter 41: Lira’s choice

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Lira’s choice

Arclight didn’t waste time. Within the hour, Allan was escorted up a narrower staircase into a colder room higher in the house. No rugs existed, only bare stone that pulled warmth out through his boots and a fire banked too low to be effective. There was a man at the other end of a large table, and he didn’t stand when Allan, a noble baron, walked in.

He knew the authority present. It seemed he was a guard for this secret room only. Lord Arclight nodded towards the guard. The guard simply bowed and walked out, closing and locking the door behind him.

"Now we can speak much more freely."

"So words won’t fly away from here."

"Indeed."

From the corner, there was a crystal. The moment Lord Arclight touched it, it started to burn bright as a wave of sound started to echo from the mechanism the crystal was connected to.

"What is that?" Allan asked. "Some kind of telephone?"

"Telephone? I don’t know what that is, but this is the newest discovery, only given to the high nobles. Something that will make your wish come true."

Allan came closer as a voice started to echo from the crystal device. He hadn’t known such things existed, thinking communication was done through pigeons and owls like in the game.

"Sir Arclight," a voice echoed.

"Duke Sonar. I have some news, important news which you would like to know."

"Okay, that being?" the Duke replied.

Their noble dialogue started as Allan backed away a bit. After five minutes of talk and whispers, finally the Duke’s tone changed, colored with interest.

"Baron Allan, is it?" the Duke asked.

"Yes, my lord Duke," Allan answered.

"You’ve come to us with knowledge of an illness that only reaches nobility, and you say a group within the empire is orchestrating it," he replied.

"Indeed, I did," Allan continued, standing straight.

"Partial confirmation existed before, as we were too suspicious of this fact. This phenomenon has already affected the families of those close to the throne. You will explain how you know this and what else you’re holding back."

Allan gave what he had already decided to give: the pattern of the plague and what could solve it for the time being. He even told the herbs the Duke had ordered for the sickness of his daughter, even though they would be useless.

"In the end, this is not a plague, Lord Duke. This is magic, a combination of curse and venom," Allan said.

He did not give out their names yet, the cult’s names, because what he was trying to achieve needed the cult.

Suddenly, under his collar, a small heat developed against his skin like a coal turning over in a grate. He did not let it show, keeping his talk with the Duke.

The man listened as if he were being told a bedtime story. When Allan finished talking, there was a period of quiet that lasted longer than was comfortable.

"House Oakwood, the slavery house, was it?"

"No longer, my lord. We have dwelt in new business," he said, looking back at Lord Arclight.

"Interesting," the Duke said. "But House Oakwood is small," the voice was rough and cold.

"If what you say is wrong, the women under your roof can be made into examples. Your family name permanently dragged below the ground."

Allan clamped his jaw shut. He didn’t move his hands at his sides because that would have told this man something true.

"In addition to that," the man said, "if what you say is true, we can also give you what we ourselves are able to control. Names scheduled for the next round of a competition. A sample of the newly discovered devices. Or the identity of any target you want. Any one of those is worth more than most houses see in a generation, but the cost is simple. When you take it, you become part of the inside working on our lines regardless of whether you like their shape or not."

He saw the edge of his vision as the system window opened.

[High-Risk Investment Opportunity Identified.]

[Potential Return: Extreme.]

[Threat Level: Severe.]

He read it once and closed it, and for a moment he hated the fact that he trusted a scrollable ledger over a man’s voice.

He wanted to refuse. He couldn’t deny that. He only posed one question.

[Scoundrel of Yggdrasil, activated]

What he said next surprised himself.

That was a close call. I could have lost my neck out there, Allan thought, but it was done. The deal was made.

"Aaa!" He felt the jolt again. The burning sensation on his neck. "What is Lira doing?"

The mark warmed against his collar for the remainder of the trip home, a subtle reminder he could not remove with his coat out in public.

The guards at Oakwood gate let him pass without speaking. Two reliable hands were finishing up the night check-ins in an otherwise vacant courtyard. The lighting was already beginning to take on an amber color and low hue. He crossed it and went upstairs to enter the building without calling ahead.

Seris stood just by the long table, her hand resting against its edge as if she’d been waiting there some while and didn’t wish to appear to have done so.

Lira sat at the edge of a chair with her hands clenched tightly together in front of her lap. Her shoulders were drawn inward as well.

Allan closed the door and didn’t take a seat.

He pulled his collar down so he could show the mark.

"This is still annoying the hell out of me," he said, his voice flatter than what he actually meant. "Where is Lira? What is she doing right now? Did she lose control again?"

Lira arrived there in moments when she heard Allan was back. She heard his words and was surprised herself.

"The binding is still there? I ceased it the moment Seris discovered me."

"Initially she did not agree. We had a fight, and after some deep, uncomfortable silence, we stopped fighting. Then and only then did she go back to undo it."

Lira could feel the searing glow on Allan’s neck. In a hurry, she went back to her quarters, bringing his dark, ghoulish book.

"Here, I followed what was said here. It should be undone," she said.

Allan blinked, then blinked once more, not at Lira, but at what she was holding: the book. Like he was consciously trying to deny its existence.

"Wait, wait, that?" Allan said, coming closer. "How did you get that?"

"This?" she said, showing the book. "I got this for free, for your information."

"I get that, but where, how, why did you get that?" he said, taking the book from her hands.

[Book of the Covenant detected]

His system chimed in right after. He ignored it for the time being as he knew the book more than the system could tell, as it was a drop item from the witch boss before him.

Lira stepped back, the glare from Allan piercing her deep. "I got this from a lady. A lady who said she knew you and wanted to gift me this."

"Huh? Did she have a name?"

"She said you saved her from a cave in the hills, setting her free."

Allan remembered right after. He forgot her name, but he could still remember it clear as day. A chained woman with the symbol of the cult scratched all over her body. The lady who vanished right after when he took her out of the cave.

What is she trying to do? he thought.

But that wasn’t the issue here. The issue was whether he should let her continue the path of the SSS class witch or let her be normal, like Seris.

[Fate deviation point detected]