One of Augustinus's members appeared, donned in black recognizable by the others of the Hidden Order, whispering a message in his ears. Smoking his cigar, he gave a slight smile. Walking leisurely towards Lucas, some guards stood in his way, but he never stopped his stride.
One of the guards felt threatened enough to aim his spear at Augustinus, but the man didn't even notice it, fully focussed on Lucas. "Let him through.", Thurin said as he stood next to Lucas. "Your toys wouldn't be able to hurt me anyway.", he said with a massive grin.
"I'm just here to help you out, your majesty.", Augustinus made a perfect 90° bow before reaching for a pocket in his bathrobe. Pulling out a small crystal he presented it to Lucas.
"Here, you know what to do with this, don't you?", Augustinus gave him a gentleman's smile. Grabbing the crystal, Lucas regained some of his energy, enough to fight again, but not on the same level of course.
"You're helping us?", Lucas felt a bit perplexed, he didn't expect this from a man of his stature, or was his attack that convincing? No, that just couldn't be it.
"Of course, I never had any other intentions.", he said with the same fake smile.
"Then why send that brute.", Thurin interjected.
"Oh, your majesty, I was also surprised to see this man come out of nowhere. I don't know him nor do I have any relation from him. If I had power over him, I would've never sent him to fight you. That would be such a brutish move."
Thurin had some experience in politics after ruling over the Empire for so long, but he was mostly just looking for solutions. Rarely did he have to deal with someone on this level, for that he had Carian, and most of all, Lucas.
He was still physically exhausted, and his willpower and aura were drained, but that didn't mean he couldn't think anymore. Surprisingly, using all his aura and power into that attack, it seemed like he shot his emotional instability with it.
"I see, then I assume you're going to work with us now?"
"Why of course. You might not know this, but your old man and I go way back. You could even say we were friends.", Lucas was thinking about what this implicated, but Thurin couldn't believe it.
"Now you're just lying, my father never had friends, only business partners. I never saw you around the halls as well. How dare you call him your friend."
"Hahaha, my boy, don't you know about pen palls? We had plenty of communication with each other, almost every 5 cycles we would talk to each other.", the man spoke happily about the past as he smoked his cigar.
Lucas, who had gotten some time to think was starting to figure things out. "If I remember it correctly, it was only after Aurelian got the throne that you rose in power to become the king of the underworld. Are you saying you worked together?"
"Looks like you almost got it. Human beings, no matter where, always have desires that can't be satisfied with the typical markets. But the Emperor couldn't possibly rule over a bunch of brothels, casino's and assassination groups now, could he? That's where I come in!"
Thurin was surprised to hear his reasoning and couldn't immediately refute it. Lucas was also thinking things through and found quite an appealing proposition hidden in his words.
"While Thurin rules the Empire on the front stage, you gather information and manage the backstage."
"Exactly! Instead of letting all the black markets and illegal trade explode, we centered it around me. All requests for assassination or any kind of off the books trades go by me. How do you think the Emperor got rid of the internal war, all the corrupt nobles and uprisings? Why were only the good ones protected? "
Augustinus extended his hand towards Thurin. "We're not enemies, but partners. Why do you think the Hidden Order is so willing to help me out? So, how about it? Want to continue the deal I had with your father? If you do so, I'll even help you out with the current situation."
Thurin was suddenly overwhelmed. He came here to talk things out and perhaps threaten Augustinus into working with him, but the man had suddenly taken the lead in their negotiations. Hearing about the Hidden Order, he remembered what Carian mentioned.
"Someone from The Hidden Order said not to trust you and their group, telling us that they were debating whether to be loyal to you or me.", the members of the Hidden Order on both sides felt eyed.
The ones in Thurin's entourage almost felt the weapons of Nero and his posse in their sides, only held back by their lack of command from Thurin. The one on Augustinus's side stayed at the side in complete silence before moving forward.
"We were never loyal to Augustinus. We have been asked by Emperor Aurelian to help him out. I cannot say more."
"Well, there you have it.", Augustinus said with a large grin. Everything was going as he planned, or so it seemed.
He never spoke a word to Grok, distancing himself from the brute and helped Lucas recover, so even if he wanted to rebuke Augustinus, he didn't have any sort of proof. And unlike Lucas, he wouldn't forge it to make his point stand. Augustinus simply twisted the truth to fit his narrative.
Still, he couldn't just shake his hand, even if it did seem like a great proposal, there was a feeling in his heart that shaking his hand would be a bad decision.
"Could you write it out and send it to us? Then we'll go over it and sign it.", Lucas said, saving Thurin for the moment, giving him some time to relax. Augustinus smiled at Lucas, he felt that they were somewhat similar in their way of thinking.
"Hahaha! Fine by me. You can expect it in a few cycles. Now then, is there anything else you want to talk about, because I think we both have mountains of work to go through."
"I still have 3 questions left."
Augustinus smiled but acted as an open book, he had nothing to hide and acted as if he only spoke the exact truth and nothing else. "Go for it."
"Who is that other assassin?"
"Hmm? There was another one? Couldn't tell you, like I said, I'm not affiliated with him, or I guess them now.", Lucas couldn't even tell he was lying, he was certain of it, but he played it off so well that he was jealous of his acting.
"Fine, but if you were to guess, how many would there be? Considering you're knowledgeable about assassinations, you should be able to give us an estimation, couldn't you?", Lucas worded it a bit looser to get Augustinus to bite.
He smiled as nasty as a happy fox as he blew some smoke in the air. "I would guess one more."
"Thank you. Next, if you really were working with the previous Emperor, why the sudden shift? I never thought you were on our side, you only seemed to threaten Thurin and his position.", seeing him so friendly, Lucas wondered what the hell they had been doing up until now.
If Augustinus was on their side, why all the subtle threats?
"Oh that, well, I'm a man who makes a lot of deals, and I am pretty stubborn to follow them through. This time a very high level client made a request I had a hard time to refuse. They asked me to not take a stand and wait things out. Since I didn't know how great of a ruler you were, I simply waited. How the nobles interpreted this and how they act I have little influence over.", he smiled again, as he gave them both highly important information.
Both Thurin and Lucas were of course wondering who made the deal in the first place. Lucas knew that he did have influence over the nobles, but arguing about that now wouldn't lead them anywhere.
Thurin spoke up, "I assume you can't tell me your client's name, else you would have said it. So can you tell me what you consider as a high level client?"
Augustinus smiled like a sneaky fox, "Of course, a high level client is someone with enough power to rule over a country, for example, your late father was such a high level client, you as well."
Lucas and Thurin knew it had to be from the ruler of the barbarians. Considering they also had spies in this place, it wouldn't be a surprise for the ruler of them to also invade this place.
There was but one question left that plagued Lucas, "If you were to wait around and not take a stand. How come you send a messenger to Thurin when he went to train asking him to stay away from the capital? And why incite those two nobles to go to war?"
For once, Augustinus lost his smile for a mere moment before his eyes lit up. "Hahaha, I see, that was a smart move on their part. I guess this is how it feels to get stabbed in the back. I'll be completely honest, for the first part, I have no idea what you're talking about.", he spread his arms wide as he raised his shoulders.
"Those two nobles were always against the Emperor and Royal faction, they did ask me if I was planning on taking over, but I said I wasn't willing. I believe that they might've taken things in their own hands."
He smiled devilishly like he let some details behind to make it more interesting. Still, this trip couldn't have gone any better. Lucas was happy with the results of the talks with Augustinus but had mixed feelings about the fight just now.
He prided himself on being prepared for anything, yet couldn't even take care of a single mage. Yes, they had support, but if that mage actually fought together with Grok, would he even be breathing right now? No, most likely he would suffer a grievous wound while running away.
This was just him being lucky, extremely lucky. To not even handle a single mage, he felt terrible from that. He had a back-up plan, but would rather not use it. It only bolstered his idea to gain even more strength. To that end, he had a final question for Augustinus.
"Thank you for the information, I think I know how to move forward. But I still have a question for you."
"Oh, are you curious about how I know so much about you mages?"
"No, although that does interest me, I want to know where the Third Trial is located.", one of the things that Lucas had been searching for was the temple for the final trial. He couldn't find it in any documents, but the Emperor definitely did it so there had to be some clue.
If they were friends, there was a chance for Augustinus to know where it was located. The man stared at Lucas for a moment before holding his hand out.
"Punch me with just your basic strength, let me feel your tier.", it was a strange question, but Lucas didn't care. Using some Light magic to patch himself up, he launched a simple punch towards his hand. It was stopped the moment it hit him, which surprised Lucas.
He had achieved the Special Tier 2, there was basically nothing better unless they did the 3 trial, this only confirmed his suspicions that he had the info he needed.
"I see, Special Tier 2, well done, not many make it to that point."
"What? You know about the Special Tiers?", Lucas lost his poker face after getting hit with such a bombshell. As far as he knew, he was the first to achieve the Special Tier 1, so it was only logical for him to be the first to achieve Special Tier 2.
"Oh, I believe I know what you're thinking about. I'm not going to give you a lecture here, so I'll keep it short. The man who created the trials wanted people to achieve the best results. To that end he made the message as congratulatory as possible to make any person who achieved it to share and boast about their achievements. Everyone gets that message that they're the first so that they would share it."
Thurin, who had been listening in, felt that something was off. He knew that Lucas felt more powerful than a normal Tier 2, but didn't know about Special Tiers. He was able to patch it all together.
"Wait, the final question in that first trial is meant to be impossible.", that was the only thing that came to his mind. He answered the questions correctly and beat the fights fairly. The last question in the first trial was the one thing he couldn't answer, but that wasn't just him.
"Hahaha, young Lord, you're wrong. It's close to impossible, not impossible. If you gave it enough time and thought things through from different angles you would be able to answer it."
The man smiled widely as he pulled out a new cigar to smoke. He was confident about his own prowess and the fact that he came out of this whole debacle completely unscathed. It was actually praiseworthy thought Lucas. He was most likely the biggest winner out of everyone.
The only thing was, the man would never move on, he was content where he was, a big fish in a small pond. He knew this, yet he was still happy with how things were.
"The final trial is located far to the north, I'll send you the location a bit later. I'm not one to care for others, but I do want to give you a warning. If you don't need it, forget about it. That final trial was made as an experiment and the few people that did succeed came out as broken men."
"Speaking out of experience?"
"Sadly. Now get going, I still have a few deals I want to take care off, and you better hurry back as well. I don't think they'll sit still.", with that warning, Augustinus turned his back and left for his mansion.
Thurin looked at Lucas before nodding to each other. Time was of the essence as they hurried back. Keeping his willpower spread over a wide distance, Lucas paid close attention to anything magical, not wanting to be surprised by the other assassin. He didn't know where he was or what he looked like, but Lucas was certain he would be able to deal with them.
Their journey back was uneventful at best, but that might be for the best. While Lucas was extremely exhausted, having time to rest would be ridiculous, so he tried to recover his mana as best he could.