Deep inside 24th Ward

Lucien finally arrived at the 24th Ward and was looking at the ruins of the Ward. Destroyed buildings everywhere and remains of behemoth-sized kakuja of Underground King the Naagaraji.

This person was actually a fascinating one. He was a member of the Washuu Clan, but he bore strong hatred for his own family and turned against them.

In some parts of his life, he even initiated an uprising against humanity. Most of these are just legends because this happened around a hundred years ago, but the fact remains that he was forced to flee to the underground, where he waited till ghouls could rise again and battle humanity.

Underground King wasn't a pure-blood ghoul but rather a One-eyed Ghoul who had his kakugan in his right eye.

As Lucien was admiring the beauty of forgotten times, he noticed the person standing not far from him. It was a man clothed in typical Aogiri red robes and wore a white mask featuring huge black lips, a huge mouth with equally massive teeth, and tiny slits for nostrils; his long black hair was tied up in a ponytail.

Noro, the second direct subordinate of the One-Eyed King.

Lucien looked at him, and Noro then turned around and walked somewhere. Lucien knew that this meant he should follow him. Noro only communicated through his actions, not words. They went through the long tunnel on whose end was a simple iron door.

Lucien opened the door and entered inside.

There was another small corridor and a wooden door on its end. Lucien entered the room and saw a very beautiful and luxuriously decorated chamber. Many books were on bookshelves, and there was one huge leather sofa in the room. Opposite the sofa were three leather armchairs with golden ornaments stationed around the oval wooden table.

Everything here looked so beautiful and old. Just as Lucien was looking at the furniture, he heard a gentle voice behind his back.

"Hi, there."

He turned around to see a beautiful young woman with a child-like appearance. She had long green hair, which was somewhat messy and uncombed; however, she radiated extraordinary charm.

"Hi, Lucien Etras di Aeon. It is a pleasure to meet you, beautiful lady."

Bowed Lucien as he introduced himself. Eto noted that he had very good manners and his name sounded very familiar.

Not from these times, but she heard it from Arima Kishou; he once mentioned that there exist ghouls with the surname Aeon, who is extremely powerful.

"Yoshimura Eto."

What surprised Lucien was that she wasn't wearing bandages to cover her identity or anything like that. This Lucien finds rather confusing, but this was probably just a way of showing sincerity during this meeting.

Eto was jumping around and examining Lucien from all sides, like scientists researching about the meteorite.

"We still need to wait for someone."

Eto said as she sat at one of the armchairs around the table. Lucien then sat down too, cause he didn't want to stand the whole time. When they were both sitting, Eto was intensively staring at Lucien without any pause for several minutes, thus creating a somewhat awkward atmosphere.

"Are you curious about something?"

Asked Lucien, when he already couldn't bear that staring.

"Hmmm, you look rather handsome."

She said out of nowhere. Lucien was caught up by surprise, but he still kept his composure. He then decided to say something to her too.

"That time, so that no one (not even Father) would notice, I secretly rewrote the summary. What cannot change can only be broken. This is so to me, who left behind everything necessary inside the womb."

Quoted Lucien one line from her book.

Yoshimura Eto, known in human society as Takatsuki Sen, is a famous Japanese novelist. She wrote many novels and was a very famous author, all of her works have deep meanings, and many of them are more philosophical works.

"Oya, you have read my books?"

Exclaimed Eto with surprise. Even though she was rather a famous author, she was famous mainly in Japan.

Lucien was clearly a foreigner, so she didn't expect from him that he had read her books.

This concrete quote came from her debut work "Dear Kafka".

It launched her career as Takatsuki Sen with 500,000 copies sold.

The title of this book is a reference to author Franz Kafka, who was a German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and short story writer. His works, which fuse elements of realism and fantasy, typically feature isolated protagonists faced with bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers and have been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, guilt, and absurdity. His most famous works include "The Metamorphosis", "The Trial" and "The Castle".

"Yes, all of your work under your name Takatsuki Sen. I liked them very much. Not many novelists are writing such interesting themes."

Lucien quite liked her novels. She chose bizarre settings for her work, and many of them varied based on her experience and life; this is one of the reasons why Lucien liked her novels.

"That's good to hear. Not many of our kind like literature and especially that with deeper meaning."

Stated Eto. It was rather true that most ghouls are very only obsessed with hunting for prey or escaping from CCG. Very few of them were interested in the noble art of literature.

The next hour they spent talking about various things like literature, books, and even fighting. Even though Eto was rated as S-Rate ghoul in her base form and SSS-Rate in her form as Owl she was just using brute force.

So Lucien explained her usage of some techniques.

Eto quickly became interested cause she heard that he provided something similar to Tatara, whose combat prowess rose to a higher level after one month of training.

Amidst their talking long-awaited third person finally arrived. Lucien saw a familiar man with snow-white hair and gray eyes.

Wearing a pair of thin-framed glasses and a pure white coat. Arima Kishou, White Reaper, Undefeated Ghoul Investigator, and the real One-Eyed King.

"I apologize for being late."

Siad Arima with composed posture and indifferent expression. He was always a very calm person who rarely showed anything other.

"It's an honor to meet you, White Reaper, One-Eyed King Arima Kishou."

Bowed Lucien. He knew that Arima was the One-Eyed King from his previous life. Arima wasn't caught by surprise and still had his calm and composed expression. In contrast, Eto had a face full of shock; she was wondering how he could know that Arima Kishou was, in reality, a One-Eyed King.

"It could be said the same about you, Lucien Etras di Aeon, of the Aeon House of Ghouls."

Said Arima in his typical stoic voice as he bowed to greet Lucien in a similar matter. Arima as a member of the Arima Clan, one of the branches of the Washuu Clan, and himself being the son of Washuu Tsuneyoshi, knew many confidential pieces of information.

For example existence of Aeon House, mortal enemies of the Washuu Clan, and he knew even that they couldn't leave that Island of theirs.

Over and above this, he was also rather a high-ranking member of Vasuki and the most powerful person of the Commission of Counter Ghoul. He knew that cooperation with someone from Aeon House could be very beneficial to them.

At least he could keep Washuu Clan and Vasuki in check when Aogiri would be bothering with CCG.

***

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