Raiva let out a short chuckle before raising her head and looking at Lu. Lu didn't even have time to think before a smoky, almost translucent, black sword kissed the side of his neck.
"I'll give you one last chance. Answer the question, and I might spare you. Do or say anything that isn't what I want, and…I'm sure you can guess."
Raiva gave Lu a deathly cold stare.
Lu didn't even have to consider what to say.
"Mencer Lito asked me to help steal the Herald of Storms' Manifest! In exchange for bringing this guy inside so he could pick the art, I was free to take whatever I wanted from the treasury!"
What was the need to think when he could just dump all the blame on someone else?
Lu nervously looked at Raiva.
"And?"
Raiva didn't move the sword. She just raised an eyebrow as she prompted Lu to continue.
"The Prince of Leoso acted as a middleman since he's my indirect boss. He asked me to steal something for him."
Raiva's eyes imperceptibly narrowed as she got rid of the sword.
"Show me."
She gestured for Lu to bring out what the Prince had asked him to steal. With a sullen face, Lu obliged.
He retrieved the human skull with rubies for eyes and held it out to Raiva.
"I see. That's fine. It kind of belongs to the Byurick family anyway."
Raiva glanced at the fainted Baryt before turning to Lu again.
"You said the Herald of Storms' Manifest, right?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Lu nodded. He remembered it clearly.
Raiva looked at Mieve out of the corner of her eye.
"Looks like Baryt isn't the only future hope for Count Lito."
"Are you sure, mom? They've been wanting to retrieve the Manifest for generations. What makes this time different?"
Raiva smiled and looked at Lu.
"They were desperate enough to ask Leoso for help. They were also desperate enough to accept this cute young man's help. Mencer's Blessing is the Herald of Storms. If you can confirm it isn't, you don't have to join training for a year."
"Really?!"
Raiva nodded.
"Yeah."
Mieve was excited, but only for a moment before quickly deflating.
"If you're staking a year, it means you're certain."
"Sure am."
Mieve sighed.
"Do you want me to start looking for ways to get friendly with Mencer and Count Lito?"
Raiva shook her head.
"No need. Mencer will only be trouble if he gets the Manifest. Besides, we'll earn enough goodwill just by letting these cheeky guys go."
"I see…"
Raiva suddenly turned to Mieve, not at all worried about Lu overhearing their conversation. Lu felt an impending sense of doom. If they were that carefree, it could mean they were planning to kill him.
"What do you think, my dear daughter? Should we kill them and secure the Manifest, forever rendering Mencer useless? Or should we help them out of here to maybe put Mencer on our list of allies?"
Mieve entered deep thought as she stayed silent, weighing the options.
Seeing an opportunity, Lu carefully raised a hand.
Raiva looked at him. Since Mieve was busy thinking about the possible consequences of each decision, she might as well see what this flirtatious young man had to say.
"Yes?"
"Ahem. You won't only be gaining Mencer as an ally. For sparing me and helping Mencer get the Manifest, you will also make me and the Prince of Leoso into allies."
Raiva raised an eyebrow as she taunted Lu with a slight smile.
"Is that so? How wonderful. Who wouldn't want a cat burglar who's still wet behind the ears and a Prince exiled to a small and weak country as allies?"
The sarcasm in Raiva's words was tangible.
Lu forced a smile on his face. He really didn't like this situation.
"If that's what you think, it only shows your lacking insight. I won't say too much about the Prince. But me? I'm a walking bundle of great potential. The Eccentric Wanderer personally sought me out and taught me a couple of things only a few months after my Blessing Ceremony."
Raiva raised her eyebrows and looked at Lu with a gaze full of doubt.
"The Eccentric Wanderer sought you out?"
"Okay, that might have been a slight exaggeration."
"Mhm."
"But—Ah, wait. What if I do this?"
Lu closed his eyes and eased up on the Chameleon's Hiding Technique.
Raiva's eyes widened, and she knocked Lu out with a quick strike to his neck before he could fully release it. She also wrapped him in a veil of her own world essence.
Mieve's eyes opened wide as she looked at Lu, snapped out of her deep thinking.
"Mom, what…?"
"I don't think he was joking when he said he was a walking bundle of great potential. I knew he was hiding his world essence, but I thought I had already seen how much he was hiding. Looks like I was wrong."
Mieve's eyes opened wide in surprise as she looked at her mother. Raiva Bahsi was rarely wrong, and she rarely admitted it. But now she did so all because she had underestimated the world essence of a young man with fine features, a decently well-trained body, and dyed hair.
Mieve narrowed her eyes and looked at Lu with suspicion. She refused to admit that his words had reached Raiva. Just because he didn't know who she was, he had dared be incredibly rude and brash. That couldn't possibly affect the Bahsi Butcherer.
"This changes things."
Raiva nodded, agreeing with her daughter's statement.
"It does. But for better or worse? Who can tell?"
Raiva mused while still looking at Lu.
"I can. Let's kill them both, take the Manifest, get out of here, and pretend none of this happened."
"We can't forget why we came here in the first place. Besides, don't you think it's a shame?"
"A shame? It will be a shame if Count Yennet founds us in here because of that moron! It will be a shame if that moron grows up and holds a grudge or finds out who you are and decides that maybe a killing machine isn't that beautiful—!"
"..."
"I'm sorry, mom. You are beautiful. He's an idiot, but he was right about that. But you know how people are. All the people you've saved from Vantarung look at you like a monster. What about this guy from another country who doesn't even know how many invasions you've stopped?"
Raiva shrugged a shoulder as she leaned against her daughter with a complex smile as she looked at the unconscious Lu on the floor.
"Don't you think he might be different?"