The stakeout, as Holmes put it, was simply setting up a temporary workshop, which allowed them to observe Hecate at a safe distance. After consulting with the map, they settled on the town of Janus.

Janus was an ideal location for several reasons. It was a popular resting hub for mercenaries and agents, wanting a pit stop before the capital. The traffic would keep Etaceh guessing and provide them with a cover business. Its short distance from the capital granted opportunity for a quick information gathering without needing to consume much travel time. Finally, Janus had the infrastructure to support their activity.

It was the second perfect place to monitor Hecate. The perfect place was within Hecate itself, but going there was akin to delivering themselves gift-wrapped to Etaceh.

Thus, Holmes’ General Artificer opened its door as a small hut a short walk from Janus. They also sent a letter to Betty under Holmes’ name, baiting the woman into visiting. Being skilled artificers, Holmes and Ciel laid the shop’s backdoor workshop with an Ether-frying device, making sure no one could sneak in a remote-control artifact to spy on them.

It was called Operation Bitch Watch.

However, both Ciel and Holmes had another thing to keep them occupied.

…

Xia shaped the golden dust in her palm into a swirling mirage of a rapier.

Holmes looked at the weapon with multi-lens monocles. He kept swapping between each filter, investigating the ghostly sword with fascination.

“What is this?” Holmes asked. “The microstructure of the dust is unlike anything I have seen. They seem like crystallized Ether with metallic properties.” Holmes squinted. “Is it resonating with your Aura?”

“I think so,” Xia admitted. “It is one of the abilities I gain from Ciel, but its name is just a bunch of question marks.”

Ciel nodded and recalled that attack’s destructive power.

[???], it was the mysterious ability Xia obtained. In her climatic duel with Slomrath, Xia pulled out this skill in the raw moment of passion and blasted the Lord of Devouring Slime to nothingness with a rapier of light. The very attack scarred the earth in its wake and blasted apart the barrier covering the city of Cutler with its mere shock-waves.

It was the attack which proved the power of Ciel’s Authority wasn’t inferior to any Lord.

“So what kind of weapon is it, uncle Holmes?” Xia said. “It is powerful, but it took too much of my Aura.”

“Weapon?” Holmes lent his expert’s opinion. “It isn’t a weapon. There aren’t any forms or structures to associate it with a proper weapon. This is a raw material.” Holmes lined his hypothesis. “Your husband’s power took your aspect and forged it into a power. Your two other abilities amplify your White Magic and combat-sense. Following that assumption, this sword amplifies your Aura and compliments your sword-play. But here lies the problem: Ciel’s power has limits, creating a perfect blade for you out of the hat is material manipulation, not enhancing your power. The best it could do is create a perfect base-material to build your personal blade.”

“Can you forge it?” Xia asked.

“Yes, but I need your measurements,” Holmes wrote a list down, “And other raw materials. The more it can resonate with your ability, the better.”

“I can give you that,” Ciel said. “As for raw materials, I believe Xia has an entire domain to provide that.”

As Xia’s personal realm, Cave of Grace had a bonus ability. While Ciel’s Residence allowed him to produce the master gate and teleported and Amy’s cottage could manifest into the real dimension, Xia’s illusory cave’s bonus was its property as a nexus of White Mana. From that cave, they could fill an almost unlimited supply of holy water and holy stone. The domain even had a baptism pool of concentrated White Mana.

Both Ciel and his teacher believed this would be a long-term project. However, they both knew the project main difficulties wouldn’t be from the actual elbow greased.

No, it would be from the social butterfly.

…

“Hi uncle Holmes!” Betty opened the door to the shop. “I heard you are in the town! Are you coming back to us?”

Betty's greeting paused on the spot from the state inside Holmes’ shop.

When she heard Holmes was setting up shop in Janus, Betty descended from the capital in her favorite red dress and black jewel-encrusted heel, with her waist-length hair tied in an intricate knot worth featuring in the fashion magazine. Half of Janus already exploded from the all-popular bachelorette’s arrival.

However, instead of a warm welcome, she was met with a sparsely populated room of white plaster and plywood floorboard. Two men in space-suits and hazmat gears were running an experiment with a smoking red liquid. One of them was handling the beaker with a tong and while another was measuring its behavior with a barometer sat on a steel tripod. At the far-back of the room, a woman in similar protective gear noted down the reading of the thermometer nearby the door leading directly to the store’s inner workshop.

Betty stared at the scene from a nuclear reactor maintenance. She felt like she was being exposed to bioweapon research.

“Betty,” Holmes said from under the hazmat suit. “This is a delicate procedure that could kill you. Go—”

Betty silently closed the door and began calling her personal doctor for a check-up.

…

It took an hour later for the Capital Number 1 Bachelorette to be allowed inside the room. The dangerous experiment was gone. Instead, Betty got to sit on a plain wooden chair opposite a plain wooden counter with an empty shelf behind it.

Holmes offered her a cup of shoddily brewed coffee.

Betty didn’t take it, “Uncle Holmes, we both know your coffee sucks.”

Holmes bit back, “And we both know you are a disappointing student.” Holmes heard a noise from the door leading into the secret workshop. “Oh, and here comes the prodigal son.”

Ciel entered with a metal necklace, “Teacher, do you think this will work?”

Holmes produced a portable identification machine and took a peek.

…

Lord Necklace—1.2

Rank: ***

Option [1]: Health +2

Option [2]: Power +1

…

Betty saw that information and treated it with denial.

“You make an artifact with two enhancement options,” Betty was jealous. “It took me two years to do that!” She bit her lip and glared at Ciel. “Ciel, answer me! How long have you been making artifacts!”

“About a month,” Ciel knew if he said ‘three-week and a half,’ Betty would murder him.

Betty was petrified, “You must be joking.”

“He isn’t,” Holmes followed the script and hit Betty where it hurt. “He is, without a doubt, the best student I ever have.”

Betty looked like someone had just struck the back of her head with a shovel. The brain she was so proud of ceased to function.

It was then the door swung open and the second visitor of the day arrived.

“Hello,” the visitor was a girl with auburn hair and green highlights in revealing armor. “I want to have my weapon fixed before an expedition.” She presented a large bastard sword. “Am I interrupting something? Oh, and hello, Miss Elizabeth, what are you doing here?”

“You are not,” Holmes said. “Ciel, do the job.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth whispered to no one but herself, “I am here to persuade a friend and instead get my pride hurt.”

The girl, failing to hear Betty’s silent confession, walked over to the counter, where Ciel looked at her sword.

“What is wrong with it?” the girl nervously looked at her sword while she talked to Ciel. “Please tell me it is fine?”

Ciel answered, “You damage some inscriptions.” He took out a pot of ink from under the counter. “Nothing major. What is your name?”

“Lycane,” the girl replied. “I am a member of the Hecate Expeditionary Force.”

“Here on a regular survey,” Ciel scanned the girl up and down. “Quite a charming uniform you have there.”

Inside the Residence of Lord, the regular council convened.

Caislean: My master, she is an SR. Quite a catch.

However, the Harem’s brake disagreed.

Amy: Ciel, don’t trust her.

That grabbed the head wife’s attention.

Xia: What is the reason, Amy?

Amy: I don’t know. I have a terrible feeling about her.

Ciel shipped in mentally.

Ciel: Maybe she is Etaceh’s spies. I am going to do a reverse subterfuge.

“Hey,” Ciel finished his job and returned the sword. “Do you want to go out for a drink this afternoon?”

Lycane was pleased, “Sure, why not? And what should I call you?”

“My name is Ciel,” the Unity Lord offered his hand, “glad to meet you.”

“Me too,” Lycane shook Ciel’s hand and left.

Betty watched an entire exchange with a strange feeling. It couldn’t be jealousy because Ciel wasn’t that close to her. Maybe it was awe at how quickly Ciel asked a girl. If Betty was honest, she would admit Ciel’s natural smoothness had its charm. It was then Betty found her gripes. A prodigious artificer who was more talented than her, with a natural charisma, and favor from both her estranged sister and uncle? A demonic creature with a gaping maul of darkness and fire-breathing tentacle emerged from her heart. She forcefully attempted to wrestle the beast. Betty needed him to get to Xia, and Amy would kill her if she found out about Betty’s plan to ‘relocate’ the man into shark-infested water.

“Ciel, don’t trust her. I have a bad feeling,” said Betty. Those were all the words of concern she could muster as she tackled her inner evil.

“Jealous?” Ciel wasn’t about to admit Betty was right. An unhealthy boost to her ego was the last thing she required.

“No,” the miffed Betty walked out of the entrance. “Not at all.”

The bachelorette slammed the door shut.

That night, Betty would have trouble sleeping as the abomination in her heart screamed for vengeance.

…

That was the beginning of the weekly schedule.

Betty would visit Holmes’ shop to watch Ciel work. She didn’t know why she bothered. Her inner demonic beast would thrash every time Ciel produced an impressive work. Sick of Mr. Perfect, Betty tried to use a distraction ploy to at least get him to fail at some job. It was a petty attempt to prove that Mr. Untouchable was still a human underneath.

It backfired.

A sizable chunk of Lords were beauties of the highest order, and Ciel easily resisted their charm. Not to mention his resistance had only grown after bedding Xia, Betty’s very own sister, every night.

Then there was the existence of Lycane.

The girl visited every few days to flirt with Ciel, and seeing Ciel broke his workaholic focus to talk with Lycane struck Betty wrong. Betty tried her hardest to dig up a weakness of Ciel-the-heart-thorn, but Lycane-the-nobody was progressing in the road she was tumbling. Their rampant flirting was also dragging a knife across her status as a single.

Worst, the very fame and popularity of Betty were feeding Holmes’ General Artificer and attracting more business to Ciel. People far and wide suddenly found their artifact broken or needed to order a spare weapon. A line of customers would form to win princess Elizabeth La Louve’s favor, fouling Betty’s mood even more.

After a week, Betty was bordering on a mental-breakdown.

It was within Xia’s calculation.

…

“Hey, Betty,” Ciel finished the bow he was making and turned his attention to Betty, who was murdering her salad to vent her rage. “Can you come with me to find some inspiration?”

“What?” Betty stared at Ciel like he had grown a third head.

“Oh, so it is a no,” Ciel concluded sadly. “That is sad. I want to ask you something since you are also our teacher’s student.”

Betty’s mental state was in disarray, “Wait! I am going. When are we going to leave?”

…

The two left a few minutes later for a date through the town of Janus.

Betty didn’t know how Ciel did it. No man ever successfully asked her on a date. She should have seen this coming. She prepared for it. However, Ciel’s request came too suddenly. Betty was so intent on beating him, she couldn’t let this opportunity go.

During their short walk, Betty’s usual popularity showed itself in the countless people asking her for autographs and beauty-tips. However, Betty wasn’t focused on them. Instead, it was Ciel’s note on the artifact he planned to create which took her attention.

The sword — The Caliber Mk1 — was fantastic for his level. The calculation of the runes and the detail of the exploded-view drawing he made were incredible even from Holmes’ student.

“Hey,” at long last, Betty swallowed her pride. “Do you want to work for me?”

In Betty’s view, if she couldn’t eliminate Ciel, the next best option was to bring him under his fold.

“I would love to,” Ciel admitted. “But I can’t, for your sake.”

“For my sake?” Betty was incredulous.

“You need a friend to restrain your worst impulse, not a minion who follows your every whim,” Ciel replied.

“Ciel, I already have a lot of friends,” Betty argued.

“Yet, you somehow alienated all that matters the most,” Ciel said. “Betty, I am not distracted by the mask you put on.”

“What mask?” Betty tried to play dumb.

“The week of jealousy is pretty hard not to notice Betty,” Ciel confirmed the princess’ one-side rivalry was noticed.

“I am not jealous,” Betty refuted, despite knowing Ciel was spot-on.

It was at that point that Betty subconsciously removed Ciel from the night-uncrossable territory. It was a feat reserved to only a selected few in the entire Curtis.