Chapter 342: [He lied to us.]

’Ugghh... why is my life like this...’

Lucian groaned as he started to seriously question some of the decisions that had brought him here, to this dark, cramped and uncomfortable place.

Yes, he was folded inside the lower compartment of the service cart again, with his knees pulled awkwardly towards his chest again, and one shoulder pressed against the wooden wall while his neck remained tilted at a weird, uncomfortable angle again.

It had been fifteen minutes since he left Varek’s chamber.

After Varek gave him the location, Aurelia told him to leave.

Varek’s Ascension was close, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone came to check up on him. Lucian couldn’t have stayed there.

He had to leave.

He also couldn’t leave the restricted area entirely and return to his room since the location Varek told them was here as well.

So Lucian needed to stay in the restricted area, somewhere no one could see him.

And the solution Aurelia came up with was—

This.

The exit from Varek’s chamber was similar to the entry, Lucian moved inside the cart again, soon, Aurelia’s man came inside, wheeled the cart through the restricted underground corridors, passed through several checkpoints and eventually left the cart together with a few more empty carts inside what appeared to be some sort of storage corridor.

And... Lucian had been here since then.

The position was quite good, especially since there were more carts here. That made sure Lucian’s cart didn’t stand out. Lucian also noticed how no one visited this place, which made it even safer.

But Lucian...

He hated every second of it.

He was very, very, very uncomfortable and the worst part was that he couldn’t leave.

The worst part was that there were still around 45 minutes left.

Aurelia instantly recognised the place Varek mentioned, however, that didn’t mean she could move Lucian there instantly.

She needed time to arrange everything in order.

And as she did that, Lucian kept groaning as he waited and waited and waited even more, staring into the empty darkness, wondering if existence itself was worth the trouble, he was also thinking about stones.

How good would it be if he found a sword-shaped stone?

Do they even exist?

How long has it been?

Has an hour not passed yet?

Also, a sword-shaped stone has to be artificial, no? No way that’s real. But what if it is real? Vampires are real, one very beautiful one sat on his lap two days ago.

That really was an opportunity, huh...

Lucian still felt his heart bleed when he thought about how he let it go.

’All for the greater good.’

Lucian convinced himself.

What time was it again?

Has an hour not passed yet?

What if... instead of a sword-shaped stone, he could get... a perfectly round stone...?

That has to be real, no?

Boobies.

Hehe.

Lucian laughed at himself.

He truly didn’t seem like he was in the right state of mind.

He couldn’t be blamed either, an hour inside a food cart wasn’t thought-provoking.

Lucian mentally increased Aurelia’s debt.

It originally started as a joke, he thought about how he would charge her for the inconvenience she caused.

But now...

The joke was becoming increasingly serious.

One hundred favors.

No.

Too low.

Two hundred.

Maybe three hundred.

She owed him big time and once this was over and things did go the way he expected them to, he would get what he wanted, no matter what.

The look in Lucian’s eyes changed.

Then, he started thinking about something entirely new, something he had never thought of before.

If he was a worm, would Evelyn and Naomi love him as much as they do now?

He thought about it for a moment.

Then, he thought of something else.

’Should I do drugs?’

Yep, he definitely wasn’t in his right mind.

With how things were going, it didn’t seem like he would last very long. Fortunately, Lady Luck was on his side as Aurelia returned much faster than she said she would.

[Lucian.]

The instant she called his name, Lucian’s mind snapped back to reality. He instantly expanded his senses through the corridor and once he was sure no one was outside, he took the risk and complained in a very low voice.

"You took your sweet fucking time."

[I was gone for 15 minutes.]

Aurelia’s flat voice came from the other side.

"That was clearly a few days."

Lucian was very confident.

Aurelia didn’t say anything, so Lucian complained even more.

"My body is in pain. It wants compensation."

[You can have whatever you want later.]

"Really?"

A perverted smile appeared on his face.

Normally, Aurelia would have played along like she usually did, but this time—

[He lied to us.]

"...what?"

Lucian’s smile disappeared.

[I checked the place he mentioned. The Chamber exists, but there is nothing there.]

"What do you mean?"

He frowned.

[The location he described is beneath the Old Ancestral Hall.]

Lucian knew that name, he had read it in one of the books before.

It was one of the oldest buildings still standing inside the central Arcelis estate. Unlike the newer mansions and administrative halls, the Old Ancestral Hall hadn’t been modernized. It was preserved more as a historical structure.

A place connected to the earliest generations of House Arcelis.

According to the book he read, while the guests were allowed to visit the Old Ancestral Hall itself to admire its historical significance, they couldn’t wander around underneath it.

[It’s a foundation chamber.]

"That sounds exciting."

[It is not.]

Aurelia shook her head.

[It’s a circular room with six structural pillars, stone floor, stone walls and one entrance, nothing else.

It is one of the restricted zones, yes, but that is mostly because of its structural value. The area lies beneath one of the oldest sections of the estate and contains old infrastructure. There is nothing valuable there. In fact, the security there is much more lax than in most restricted areas.

There are even Veyr reports about its existence, so it isn’t exactly hidden either. Our people have been there, I even sent one of my people inside to make sure we did not miss anything when we initially inspected it in secret.

We did not.

It’s simply an abandoned side of the Arcelis Estate.]

"...did your people stand in one place for thirty minutes?"