Chapter 276 (1/2)

Humming to herself, Lucretia strolled through the streets of Deardun openly, ignoring the celebrating people, drinking themselves into fits of jubilation and contests of strength. To her eyes, it was extremely distasteful, but she didn’t really judge the average person for their strange ways of coping with life.

Because honestly, Lucretia had made her bread and butter playing to those people. Of warping their expectations and changing their lives.

In her chest, warm and icy and sweet Aether flowed, the fresh and extremely pure dose she had obtained from the Ghosthound. It still shocked her how potent the Aether she had obtained from him was. It was too much for her to handle at first. But the more she savored it, using it sparingly on a few pet projects she had long tinkered with, bringing them to fruition, the more she had a craving for more.

“All in good time…” She whispered to the air, stepping carefully over a man who was passed out on the street.

Lucretia dared walk openly here because although the highest powers in Deardun would give her pause, their attention wouldn’t waiver from the arena today. There was something in the air, a powderkeg about to blow, all related to the Ghosthound. Several groups wanted him dead, for various reasons, and their noose was slowly tightening, even though the boy didn’t know it.

Which was inconvenient for Lucretia, because she very much wanted more of this very pure Aether. So it was necessary to finally force her sleeping card to awake. Hopefully his time in the darkness had driven him a little off the edge, and make Shal more… amenable to her influence.

Very quickly, Lucretia arrived at the inn they were staying at, and looked up, smiling to find that her spell on Shal had faded to just a subconscious suggestion, allowing him to remain asleep, should he choose it. And sleeping he still was, just as she had intended.

Almost as if he was waiting for her, an elderly bald man was sitting in meditation in front of the inn, a spear across his knees.

Lucretia clicked her tongue. “How did you know? Very rarely are my comings and goings not seen as a surprise.”

The man chuckled as he straightened and stood, lowering his spear towards her. “...You probably do not remember it, but there was one night you snuck into Captain Aemont’s tent… I saw it. Even then, I had a knack for hearing the music of the soul… and now that ability has grown more than I thought possible. It was unavoidable that I would hear the rising crescendo of your involvement increasing.”

To her surprise, Lucretia was slightly happy that this man was here. It meant that she could share, just enough, just so he would know about how wide and deep her influence ran. Now, when she was so close to succeeding at so many things… it was a heady drug. But Lucretia was also guarded by a caution that had kept her alive for 300 years. There was no need to move quickly.

“Shal we head upstairs?” Lucretia said, wagging her eyebrows at Divveltian, hoping he would catch her invisible pun.

Unfortunately, he was supremely unamused, and unwilling to listen to her. “...I think not. Shall you draw your spear in the next few seconds or am I going to kill an unarmed woman with a clean conscience?”

Even before he finished speaking, he launched himself forward, rushing towards Lucretia. In her heart, she felt a small glow of admiration at his decisiveness. If he were a bit older, and gave her a murderous look like that while they weren’t on a public street… Lucretia was forced to fan herself with her hand, desperately dispelling her manufactured blush.

Of course, she already had a date to this ball.

Their spears crossed with a clang, Divveltian seemingly surprised to find the slightly charred corpse with a hole in its neck fighting against him, wielding a terrifying black spear. The eyes of the man were almost completely dead, without the slightest sign of life. But his spear was quick, impossibly quick, moving at a speed that seemed to tear some of the muscles of the body as it made the moves.

Narrowing his eyes, Divvet turned his attention to the new threat, a rising music filling the air, making Lucretia coo in amusement and bob her head. Truly, Divvet was a talented and dedicated spear user that had finally found his own, because he inflicted wound after wound on the wielder of the black spear.

But he earned several small wounds of his own. And the wounds of Black Spear were not bleeding, but there was an increasingly bright red light coming from the body’s eyes.

Lucretia laughed, ignoring the passersby who seemed to realize this wasn’t normal.

Divveltian hissed between his teeth. “What the fuck is this?!?! This body is from the Endless Heat Style, and yet-”