Lucian was seated at his desk in his drawing room, replying to Riley's invitation to go spend a week at her house in Hadrian, writing to tell her that he would be able to go, even though he hadn't asked for leave from his superiors yet. However, considering his great reputation and the extra knights shifts he had picked up during the year, he was sure that he would be granted as much leave as he wanted.
"Milord." Came the thin croaky voice of his head maid Mrs Drowdenia. "The cheesecake and apple pie from Sophie's café has been delivered. Would your lordship like for the treats to be served with tea when Prince Kristopher arrives?"
Lucian smiled at the thought of Riley's creamy buttery exquisite cheese cake. He grinned as he thought that only Riley would think of making a cake out of cheese. Sometimes he even thought that Riley was from another world because she was just so different from anyone in Girannon.
"Yes please do so Mrs Drowdenia." He replied while finishing off his letter to Riley.
The idea of spending a relaxing week in the calmer countryside of Girannon sounded very appealing. Especially since Lucian had grown up in a quieter country setting. At times he even found the busyness of the capital city overwhelming and longed to return to the lush green countryside and quiet forest. He wished that he could go for a longer trip than just a week but he could sense how hectic and busy life at the palace would get in preparation for the Four Great Kingdom Summit. And since Lucian was working directly under the second Prince Kristopher, he knew his life would also get much busier. Not to mention the most recent trouble with Fitz being demonized, which opened up a whole other terrifying can of worms.
Lucian grimaced as he thought of his friend chained up in a dark unmarked dungeon under the palace. At the moment Fitz would still be there, locked up in the most secure dungeon in the kingdom, with countless protective barriers and magic circles around him, suppressing any possible remaining Zeref in him, even though the Mage who came to examine him said that there was no more Zeref on him.
It was evident to Lucian that the Royals were extremely worried about the affects of Zeref on the people and were hence taking every precaution to make sure none of it spread. Although Lucian thought locking up Fitz was unfair because everything he did was not of his own will since the Zeref had driven him to do so, he understood the Royal family's extreme decision. If Zeref was able to leave a person void of any emotions or sympathy and turn them into killing machines, then such power had to be kept away from the people at all costs. Also Lucian remembered that Fitz had always been terrible at controlling his lightning magic and often told stories of how he almost electrocuted his sister. The Zeref had somehow managed to hugely increase his power level and Fitz was able to inflict so much damage onto the noble center. Lucian couldn't even imagine the disastrous effects if Fitz had exploded and if the Zeref had spread over the kingdom infecting many of the people. Thank the heavens that Riley was there.
"Milord." Came Mrs Drowdenia's voice again. "The Second Prince And Lord Braxton have arrived." She informed him.
Lucian nodded and got up from his seat and made his way to his tea room to find Prince Kristopher and Lord Braxton waiting for him. Kristopher had decided to help himself to the cheesecake.
"Your Highness." He bowed his greeting.
"Lord Braxton." Lucian bowed again.
They both nodded politely in reply.
"Mmmmhh." Kristopher groaned savoring a piece of creamy buttery cheesecake. "Where did you buy this wonderful cake?" Kristopher grinned.
"There is a cake shop in the harbor side called Sophie's café," Lucian intentionally left out that Riley was the owner since he knew that she didn't want people to know that it was her shop.
"Ah, I see, so Lady Delton is responsible for such a creation." Lucian went stiff. How could Kristopher know that it was Riley's cake shop?
"Your Highness, how did you know?" Lucian asked half impressed that Kristopher was able to find out that Riley owned the shop, half concerned that Kristopher could so easily acquire the information.
Kristopher didn't answer, he only grinned slyly.
Lucian should have known that the Royal family knew everything that was going on in their kingdom, from the appearance of demonized men right down to which noble owned which café.
"Lucian, is it true that you and Lady Riley are good friends?" Kristopher asked in a more serious tone.
"Yes." Lucian replied frowning, wondering where this question was taking him.
"Then I want you to be aware that my brother has sanctioned a special team to uncover the secrets of her identity."
Lucian's shoulders stiffened and he felt a wave of annoyance wash over him.
"Furthermore, if it is found out that she comes from a rivaling nation or a disreputable or exiled family, the implications for her will be dire. As a close associate of hers, the stain will also reach your reputation."
Kristopher wasn't trying to intimidate or press Lucian, he just wanted Lucian to understand the whole situation before it blew up in his face and caused his reputation harm.
Lucian didn't know what to think. He knew that there had to be more to the story than what Riley was telling him, but he couldn't believe that she was a spy or that she was from a rivaling kingdom.
"Hasn't Riley proved time and time again that she is not a threat to the kingdom? Hasn't she proved that she is in fact an asset?" Lucian Asked.
"Yes she has. However, in the face of the current situation there can be no unknown variables." Kristopher said, almost apologetically.
Lucian frowned. It was hard to believe that Riley was now going to be under suspicion, but what was even more troubling was that Prince Geoffrey was the one that gave the order to have her past uncovered. It actually made Lucian angry to think of how the first prince so shamelessly wooed her in public but in private was commanding searches and investigations to be done on her.
"Settle down Lucian." Said Kristopher, seeing that Lucian was getting angry.
"It is my brother's duty to the Kingdom to make sure that every figure in power has been checked and is operating in an appropriate manner."
Lucian scoffed at that.
"What about the Hestia's? Does the first prince really consider their line of business appropriate for a family of power?"
Kristopher stiffened at the mention of the Hestia's. A necessary but vile evil allowed to grow within the kingdom.
"You must see that that is completely different to Lady Riley's situation..." Kristopher urged Lucian to see, but Lucian only saw the first Prince's hypocrisy.
"How is it fair to try and prosecute someone pure and good like Riley, when filth like the Hestia family remain untouched?" Lucian gripped his chair angrily, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.
"You must see that we have no choice in that matter. Although Lady Delton halved their business by creating the healing potion. The Hestia's are still the best Healing mages in Girannon. So to put them on trial would mean that Gismead would have no more healing mages... Surely you understand that we can't leave Gismead with no healing mages at a critical time like this...?"
"So what, are you just going to let them continue their slave business?!" Lucian was simmering with anger at the thought of the Hestia family. The hatred within in him was boiling over to the point where he was losing control. After he had learned the truth about their 'family business' his hatred for the family had solidified, filling him with a need for justice.
Kristopher didn't have a good reply to Lucian so he just kept quiet for a while. Until he saw Lucian's tight fists and dark eyes, and realized just how emotional this subject was making Lucian, and he didn't understand why this issue was so personal to Lucian.
"Lucian." Kristopher spoke. "Be honest. Why do you care so much about this?"
Lucian's mouth went dry as a painful memory seeped into his mind from the back of his brain.
It was a warm Flowering day in Willow's town, the gentle breeze gliding through the trees made the hot sun enjoyable. The gravelly comforting sound of his father's voice was telling him to position his hand a certain way and to always stay focused when using wind magic to chop down a tree. They sold the wood they cut for a living, so it was important for young Lucian to learn how to chop the wood.
The father and son pair had a great day together. They chopped some wood and played in the forest and had a nice picnic. It was on their way home when Lucian's father stepped on a snake. The snake bit his father's ankle which caused the man to fall unconscious to the ground.
Little Lucian had burst into tears and had cried his lungs out before a stranger in a carriage stopped on the path next to them and said he wanted help Lucian father's. The man had pale blond hair and wore fancy clothes and talked like he was someone important.
The man immediately got to healing the snake bite and extracting the poison. After what felt like ages for little Lucian his father began to wake up, and was soon back on his feet. All smiles again.
Until the man that healed him started talking about his 'healing fee'. He wanted to be compensated for having healed Lucian's father. Lucian still couldn't remember how much the man had asked for, but he definitely remembered the words '...gold coins' coming from the strangers mouth. They were a poor family from a small village so gold coins weren't something they could ever get their hands on.
What began as a happy day soon turned into the worst day of Lucian life. That day his father had to leave with the pale haired man to go and pay off his debt. The pale haired man had promised Lucian that his father would be back home within a year.
Lucian was 9 years old at the time. It had been eleven years since then. He hadn't seen his father since.
"I care so much because my father was one of the people who couldn't afford the treatment Lord Hestia gave him. So my father unknowingly entered into a slave contract to farm medicine for the Hestia's to repay his debt. If he is still alive, he has been working trying to repay this debt for 11 years."
"I am sorry Lucian."
Kristopher said sincerely. Kristopher also hated the arrangement the King had made with the Hestia's to turn a blind eye, so long as they kept healing people in the kingdom.
"How does it make sense that evil people like them can go unprosecuted when good people like Riley are being persecuted?"
Lucian looked up at Kristopher, hoping that he had the answer. When Lucian saw that the prince didn't have the answers, Lucian hung his head in sadness.
"Instead of investigating Riley, you should have the kingdom support her and aid her in creating new healing potions and spells so that she can run the Hestia's out of business."
That thought struck a chord in Kristopher's mind. He would talk to his father and brother about that when he got back to the palace.
"Lucian I also came to give you a report."
Lucian closed his eyes and regained his focus, not wanting his feelings for the Hestia's to get in the way of his duties.
"Erithien and Malesh have reported a huge increase in the number of demonized creatures roaming into their kingdoms. Its beginning to look like someone or something is tampering with the balance and is purposefully spreading the Zeref."
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Riley
"Okay. Steady now... Just stay calm and it will fly." I was trying to reassure Briony who was the only one who hadn't been able to fly on the magical broomsticks I had cast for them.
I had gotten the idea from my trip to Azmeth when I had flown on my sceptre down to that pub. Flying was a great way to travel: it was faster, cheaper and less troublesome than a horse and carriage. So I had spent the morning teaching them to fly on the broomsticks I had cast and I had Bard, Auberon and Rudyard upgrade them with cushioned seats, trays and sacks to carry the goods, and a coat of pale pink paint to match the colour scheme of the café, as well as Sophie's cafe painted in black on the side.
Altogether I had fixed up 5, really functional flying broomsticks.
As of today, I had ten new employees working at the café: Henrietta, Blarthy, Verity, Suella, Roslynia, Castria, Lysandra, Nehemia, Lilura and Khione. All of them were now staying at my safe house.
Henrietta, Blarthy, Verity, Suella and Roslynia would be working in the café and serving customers, while the other five would be using the magical pink broomsticks to deliver ordered goods to their destinations. I thought that taking a carriage and horse for each delivery would be too much manpower, so just delivering the food by air would be much better. And cooler. All the ladies (besides Briony) seemed to think so too.
"Ahh!" Briony screeched as she fell off the broomstick to the grass with a loud ungraceful thud.
One of the customers from inside the café burst out laughing at the sight and couldn't find the strength to stop, even as he covered his mouth with his hand, trying to stop his loud laughs, Briony glared at the man viciously.
"Oh for goodness sake it's impossible!" Grumped Briony as she got up from the ground and violently brushed the grass of her pink skirt.
"Well it's not impossible dear... all the others can do it." Matilda said, trying to sound encouraging but instead her words seem to rub salt in Briony's wounds. Briony immediately stormed back into the café with a huff.
"Oh, dear. I think I've said too much..." giggled Matilda.
"Don't worry about it, she'll be back into a good mood as soon as the brownies are out of the oven." I told Matilda while patting her shoulder.
"Yes, I s'pose you're right." She chuckled.
"Well, then I have to get going. I'll leave you all to run the café, feel free to contact me by letter or even come to my mansion if there are any problems." I smiled at them.
But before I left I was just curious as to who ordered what.
"Have there been any particularly large orders so far?" I asked curiously.
"Oh yes, Milady. The Von Esterheim's ordered ten tubs of iced cream!" Matilda said sounding shocked.
"Ten!?"
I was also pretty shocked. I had definitely gotten that family hooked onto iced cream. Even to this day Sinjin still pestered me for the recipe.
"Yes Milady, ten!" Matilda rubbed her plump belly as she giggled.
"Also six boxes of chocolate/gocan cream cookies and another four boxes of the ginger snaps were ordered from the Royal Palace." Matilda recalled.
Riley wondered who in the palace was such a big fan of cookies.
"Quite a few people ordered cakes as well. The strawberry cream cakes are the most popular." Matilda finished off.
With that task done for the day, I was off to my shop in the noble centre to properly set up my artefact store.
Luckily one of the women I was housing in my safe house came from an artefact guild that had gone bankrupt due to bad management on her father's part. Her whole family had sunken into debt and were kicked out of their house. Her family consists of her father (who she doesn't speak to anymore) her husband, her teenage daughter who already started work as a maid in a noble house and her 11-year-old son. Since the rest of her family didn't have anywhere else to go, I let them all stay in the safe house and employed them in my artefact shop since they were all experience creators.
Even though broomsticks were a much easier transportation method, Agnes insisted that I travel by carriage because she didn't think broomsticks were appropriate. And so, Edna, Auberon and I rode in the long carriage ride to the noble centre where my shop was located. Today was particularly important because I wanted to store all the precious metals in the shop as well as put a protective barrier around the shop.
When we arrived we found the Kaltain family waiting for us outside the shopfront. Ezarah Kaltain was in very good shape and was a very pretty woman with a wholesome friendly look with dirty blonde hair and warm light brown eyes. Her husband, Jorah Kaltain, was a brawny well-built man with an impressively bushy beard and warm brown eyes. Their son Tierney Kaltain had their blonde hair but had a vibrant pair of green eyes that made him look alert and intelligent.
As I approached them Ezarah and Jorah immediately got down on their knees and began to thank me profusely for giving them jobs and giving them a place for their family to stay.
"A thousand times my deepest gratitude milady!" Ezarah Exclaimed as a small tear swelled up in her eye.
"Oh please don't thank me. You're here because of your skills and your determination, so there's no need to thank me." I tried to assure her before she started crying.
After a few minutes, I got her to calm down. I then unlocked the shop with my key and showed them around. The shopfront was nice and spacious with dark wooden finishings that were polished to the gleam. There was a large marble counter and display cases ready and waiting for artefacts to be mounted in them.
At the back of the shop was a brilliant state of the art magical workshop. Cupboards and storage spaces to store are the metals and jewels. A welding station a melting station, tools all prepped and ready for us, thanks to Geoffrey.
"It's beautiful..." I heard Tierney murmur before rushing forward to expect every book and cranny of the workshop. He aligned his eye with the counter, seeming to scan over every surface.
"Heavens Lady! how rich are you?" Tierney exclaimed after he was done inspecting.
"Tierney!" Ezarah scolded her son. "You will address Lady Delton by her surname!" She scolded, whacking the back of his head with her hand.
"Ouch!" He rubbed the back of his head where his mother had struck him and gave her a dirty look before darting off to the upstairs area of the shop.
"Please excuse our rude son, he hasn't ever spent much time with nobility so he doesn't actually know all the proper social norms yet." She explained.
"Oh don't worry it's no problem. I actually would prefer it if you all used my first name." She had the same shocked reaction as all the others when I requested the same of them. I brushed it off and had Auberon and Jorah start loading the metals and the jewels into their separate drawers.
After that was done, I started planning in the protective barrier I would put around the shop. Since I was planning on making and storing many valuable artefacts in this shop, the barrier around it had to be top-notch, even better than the one I put around my safe room. I also couldn't just throw all the types of magic at the shop since not all the elements agreed with each other and would work to cancel each other out and weaken the barrier. Water and fire magic, for instance, wouldn't be a good match for each other because the elements would cancel each other out since they were opposites.
The fact that I hadn't used my Earth or fire magic yet was ringing at the back of my mind. Since fire and earth magic was complementary elements, I decided to use these elements together.
I went to the back of the store to collect one of Sedgewick's crystalline scales that we had stored in one of the drawers. For the first time, I let the earth magic ripple through my body and through the stone. This earth magic sensation was different from the feeling of the other magic I used. This magic made me feel solid and heavy but string and fortified at the same time. While channelling the earth magic through my body I used one of my skills.
"Appraisal." My eyes were one again taken over by the super cool x-ray like vision. I screen popped up showing me the value and rarity of the stone I was holding. However, I wanted to see if I could combine the earth magic and Appraisal skill. While keeping my Appraisal eye on I channel my earth magic to my eyes and focused hard on trying to gain knowledge on the molecular structure of the crystalline. I was willing for my magic and my special skill to show me what I wanted. And it did!
I was literally beginning to see the special combination of atoms and bonds that formed crystalline. I was actually pretty shaken by my own abilities right now...
Although knowing the molecular structure couldn't help me actually replicate the rock, I could use my earth magic to create a kind of shadow replication of the structure to create a barrier as a string as crystalline (the hardest substance on Arteria). Now doesn't that sound super cool!
I then channelled more magic into my spell and created a kind of earth magic blanket that mirrored the structure of crystalline and cast it as a fishing net over the entire shop. As soon as I was satisfied that every corner of the shop had been covered, even the floor I released the spell and solidified the magic.
I turned around to see Mr and Mrs Kaltain looking at me expectantly, wanting to know what I had been doing.
I lead them all outside. I grinned eagerly as I asked Auberon to try and break the window of the shop with his sword. He frowned at me but he still did as I asked. He swung his sword far back and then swiftly brought it back to the windows surface, as the sword made contact with the window a horribly loud Clang! was heard, that attracted people walking down the street to stop and stare.
Everyone looksed dumbfound as there wasn't even a scratch on the window pane, Auberon's sword however shattered into pieces before us.
"Whaaaaaat! How the mighty crickets did you..." Tierney began shouting before his mother whacked the back of his head again.
"Boy mind your manners!" She scolded.
Then she turned to me, "Lady Riley, that was magnificent! You are truly as powerful as you are famed to be..." she looked at me with starry eyes and I felt myself blush.
After that, I quickly used some dark magic to allow all of us to access to the shop at any time, as well as however used the key to get inside. I also cast a spell on the key to make it vibrate if anyone ever tried to break into the shop by force.
With the security sorted and all the metals and jewels loaded into the shop as I wanted, I was done here for the day. So I asked the Kaltain's to meet me here tomorrow at 9 am so we could begin to create some artefacts.
On the journey home I was pleased to see a notification from God's Office:
Earth magic activated
New Spell: Crystalline shield - God level strength
God level strength huh... pretty impressive if I do say so myself.