-Minutes before-
“Good morning, Count Bentsen.”
The brown-haired aide of the Archduke looked up and blinked with surprise when he saw Lucille heading towards him. “Count Goldcroft! I nearly forgot you were due to visit today!”
“I’m sure it would be far easier on us both if I didn’t have to come, but we must respect the wishes of the Archduke,” she replied with a smile. “Have you been busy?”
He chuckled and gestured to the stack of documents in his arms. “Yes, quite. For the Duchies, it’s busy at all times of the year.”
Lucy nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to your work.” She looked in the direction of the owner of the palace’s study. “Is the Archduke in?”
Count Bentsen hesitated. “He is, but…” He frowned in thought for a moment and returned to a smile for her. “He wouldn’t be busy at the moment so even if there is no response when you knock, you should be free to enter his study.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Does the Archduke frequently not answer when someone knocks on his door? Thinking about his personality…
I could see him doing that, yes.
“I see. Then farewell for the moment, Count Bentsen,” she said with a bow.
“Farewell to you too, Count Goldcroft,” the Archduke’s aide replied.
She swiftly turned on her heels and headed towards the direction of the stairs that would take her to the next floor. She ignored the bowing servants on the way and only stopped when faced with the two blue doors of the Archduke’s room.
She rapped the back of her hand on the door. “Your Grace, it’s Count Goldcroft. We’re set to meet again today.”
As Count Bentsen had told her, there was no answer. She raised an eyebrow. “Your Grace? Archduke Eterial?”
There was still no response. After a slight moment of hesitation, she slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door forward to enter the room as quietly as she could.
Lucy frowned. She wasn’t using her spiritual perception in the mansion as the Archduke could no doubt detect it, which meant she could only use her eyes to locate the white-haired incognito Demon Emperor.
He’s not behind his desk. Then where is… hm?
She paused when she saw the brilliant white hair trailing over the edge of a couch armrest. Slowly moving around, she stopped when she saw that the Archduke was lying down on the couch with his feet kicked up and his eyes closed. He breathed slowly.
With his abilities he could definitely be able to detect I’m here, so either he’s ignoring me or cannot detect me for some reason. The first is the more likely situation, but…
She walked around to sit on the couch opposite the silent Archduke. Lucille tilted her head.
Is he asleep? In his main body I can only presume that he’d be passively aware of my presence because he’s a higher race, but if his Alter-Ego is part or mostly human… maybe he can still go unconscious?
But even Rank-5 humans never entered a state of complete unawareness of their surroundings the rare times they do sleep. Not unless they were extraordinarily deep sleepers who have learnt to ignore any sensory input whatsoever.
Thinking for a moment, she withdrew a pen from her dimensional bag and dropped it on the floor. It let out a dull thump as it hit the blue carpet. There was no response from the Archduke.
This might be an issue. I don’t want to be stuck here waiting for him to wake up, because who knows how long that will take?
She supposed he could still be ignoring her. She glanced around the room, looking for something she could do that would make him acknowledge her presence. An idea came to mind, but it made her hesitate.
If he gets mad then I might be in danger. But I can’t see another way to go about it.
Lucy slowly and carefully walked over to his desk. Glancing up to check he had yet to open his eyes, she slowly placed a gloved hand on the handle of a drawer and pulled it out. There was still no response, even when she pretended to rifle through the documents within.
Really? Not even now? Hm…
Her eyes drifted over to the empty fireplace in the room. Lucy walked over, grabbed the metal poker by the fire grate and hit it against the metal. A loud ringing noise sounded out but there wasn’t even a flinch from the individual lying on the couch. Lucy let out a sigh.
I’m nearly in awe at his ability to remain so completely unaware of his surroundings. Is this a skill he learnt to ignore his subordinates? But what should I do?
She walked back over to sit down on the empty couch and narrowed her eyes as she studied him. The Archduke had both hands behind his head and his legs crossed as he lay down on the couch. His expression was peaceful and there wasn’t so much as a twitch of an eyelid to indicate he knew she was watching.
Should I… shake him awake? But I don’t want to touch him… I don’t think he’d take kindly to being awoken with a fire poker though.
Slightly nervous, Lucille stood up and walked closer. She kneeled on one knee, her face level with his.
Isn’t whatever entity is his master going to wake him up?
Lucy waited there for a few more minutes. Soon it became obvious that nothing was going to change and she ran a hand down her face.
I hope I don’t die from this.
Very hesitantly, she stretched forward a finger to tap the white-haired incognito Demon Emperor’s cheek. She snatched her hand back near-instantly just as his eyelids twitched and he opened his eyes with a frown.
The Archduke rubbed his face as he pushed himself up with one arm, and then his body stiffened as he noticed she was there. He slowly turned to stare at her and remained silent for a few seconds. “Did you just poke me?”
“It was the wind,” she answered on reflex.
The silence in the room was deafening. His Grace only continued to stare at her, and she stared back. Neither of them moved.
His neon-blue gaze bore into her like he was so utterly astounded at her audacity that he forgot he wanted to kill her at the moment. Which he probably had.
The silence drew longer as the only sound in the room was the slight breeze coming from the windows rustling the curtains. When it became clear that she would either speak first or have to wait until the incognito Demon Emperor remembered his opinion of her, she coughed into her first.
“Your Grace, as it’s the fifteenth, I arrived to meet with you again. Your aide gave me permission to enter your study if you didn’t reply,” she explained awkwardly. “As we’re both busy individuals and I have something I’d like to request, it might be best for us to begin our meeting straight away,”
The Archduke frowned in the direction of his study’s door but let out a slight sigh. “Yes, yes, we can begin it.” He gave her a mild look of disgust when he noticed how close they were and waved her off. “Get back.”
Lucy didn’t need to be told twice and sprung up to sit down on the opposite couch. The Archduke stood up and walked over to his desk to sit down at it with a frown. He pulled open a drawer – coincidentally the drawer that Lucy had mock-rifled through – and paused when he saw the contents had shifted places.
“…Your Grace, is something the matter?” she slowly asked.
Instead of replying he briefly glanced at her, and then slowly narrowed his eyes at the door to his room. He ignored her and returned to pulling out files from his desk.
Does he suspect someone other than me touched them? Who- oh. Sorry, Count Bentsen.
I hope the Demon Emperor’s ‘master’ decides not to reveal the truth to him.
The white-haired individual behind the desk eventually looked up and held out a thick stack of pages for her. “Do these first, Goldcroft. Then we can discuss your request.”
She eyed the pages but stood up and took them off him. Then she wordlessly retrieved a pen from her dimensional bag to begin working on them.
It appears due to my work efficiency, he’s willing to put up with my presence without scowling at me every few seconds. It’s better than him wanting to kill me every month, I suppose.
The first few reports were swiftly scanned and edited before anything happened. Lucille was glad she had her mental constructs to analyse the information as it allowed her to quickly bring herself up to speed on the issues mentioned in the reports and resolve them.
It likely made it easier that she couldn’t afford to add any of her own political bias when dealing with the Duchy’s work in case her soul was destroyed by a Demon Emperor or possibly the System itself, so all she had to do was do mundane work.
It was when she came to the fifth report, one that required substantially more writing than the others, that the shuffle of pages behind her alerted her to the fact that the Archduke had placed down his work and was staring at her.
“Goldcroft. Stop making so much noise,” he ordered harshly.
“Noise?” She looked over her shoulder. “Do you mean the sound of the paper?”
“No.” He frowned at her. “It’s your pen. The scratching is irritating.”
“…I see. Then I’ll endeavour to work quieter.” Lucille put her pen to her paper once more and continued writing.
Barely thirty seconds later the Archduke spoke up again with a scowl, “Goldcroft. I told you to stop making noise.”
“But I…” Her words died in her mouth when she saw his narrowed eyes and she suppressed a sigh. “Yes, Your Grace.”
She placed the tip of her pen against the paper.
“Goldcroft.”
She drew a single line, the pen barely making a whisper as it slid across the page.
“Goldcroft.”
Lucy let the pen fall onto the couch in frustration and she turned to stare at the incognito Demon Emperor. “My apologies, Your Grace. It seems this pen is too poor quality for your noble ears. Could I request I borrow one of yours?”
“No,” he stated coldly.
She prevented her expression from twitching. “Then could I please leave for a moment to obtain a pen from one of the servants?”
“No. You are to stay here. I’ll not have you wandering the Aethereal Palace doing whatever you please.”
System contract be damned, I will devote all my efforts after the Hero is gone into killing this demon if he keeps this up.
“Then I suppose this pen will have to make do,” she said with a very tight, fake smile. It was even more obvious that it was fake because she had turned her expression regulator off as she normally did around him. She returned to work and tried to ignore the icy gaze coming from the individual behind her.
Lucy blinked when the pen in her hand suddenly disappeared. She turned around to see the Archduke holding it in his hand. He observed it coldly and then made eye contact with her. Then he crushed the pen into dust.
She eyed the dust of her former writing utensil but instead of showing any anger she gained a wide smile. “It seems my pen was too weak for someone of your strength to use, Your Grace. It’s unfortunate that now that pen is gone, I can’t help you with your work anymore. That is unless you refrain from attempting to teleport- I mean use, this pen.”
She held up the new pen she had withdrawn from her dimensional bag. He scowled at her.
Lucille was feeling a small amount of satisfaction at her ‘victory’ when she was able to complete the rest of the paperwork without interruption. She knew that he was already adept at ignoring irritations, and he eventually stopped glaring at her to complete his own work. Although, the teleportation ability he used made her thoughtful.
That’s an ability of his main body. He’s a demon, or a type of ‘dimensional existence’, and only the Paragon Anomalies are known to have teleportation abilities. As an Aether manipulator, he wouldn’t use a spatial element either. He must have access to his main body’s powers somehow but in that case… if his Alter-Ego is a demon then how has he managed to hide his demonic power for so long?
Finally, after two hours, she had completed her allocated work. Lucille stood up to sit on the couch directly opposite the incognito Demon Emperor so she could talk to him properly. The Archduke didn’t like that idea, because he gave her a dull look as she crossed one leg over the other and rested both her hands on her knee.
“My work has been done. How is yours going?” she asked politely.
He glanced at the pile on his desk. “As mind-numbingly tedious as always,” he muttered. The Archduke shook his head and pushed his work aside. “It’s irrelevant. What annoying ‘request’ do you have for me?” He narrowed his neon-blue eyes at her. “I warn you, anything relating to the contract cannot be changed and I will refuse to discuss it.”
“Not to worry, it’s not about the contract,” Lucy replied brightly. “What I want to request is your aid in gaining access to a specific Old Era plane.”
He tilted his head slightly. “You want me to… use my authority to send you there?”
“It’s not a particularly important plane for the Athenaeum,” she explained. “There’s a person or, well, a creature I want to make contact with while there. Nearly all Athenaeum factioneers can go to that plane if they wish but as the Commission is unaffiliated with All-Aeon Athenaeum, it would be hard for them to allow me entry. They’d question my motives too much.”
“I question your motives,” the Archduke stated icily.
“There is some there I believe will be a useful resource and weapon for the Mystical Realm,” she stated. “In the original timeline, misunderstandings ensued and they were destroyed. As they are the only one left of their kind to my knowledge, I want to allow them to survive this time.”
“Useful resource… on an Old Era plane.” The Archduke glanced off to the side where Lucy assumed he had received a notification of some sort. He paused to read it and then turned back to her. “Fine. What plane is it?”
“The Ruby City plane.”
“Never heard of it,” he replied. The Archduke frowned as he looked down at his desk and then he fell silent. His brows furrowed with concentration and then he sighed. He gave her a wave. “I’ve ordered my aide to apply for access. You’ll have access within the next 24 hours, and the access will last 24 hours.”
Lucille stared at him. “Do you mean… you’ve ordered it… now? As in, just then?”
“Obviously,” he stated shortly.
She hesitated and coughed into her fist. “I was expecting it to be… in half a month or so, not exactly this week… I wanted time to prepare for the trip…”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re asking me to take back the order? Even after I’ve already been polite enough to listen to and fulfil your request?” The Archduke scowled at her. “Goldcroft, do you want to make me mad?”
“…no, Your Grace.” Lucy hesitated for one more second before quickly standing up and giving him a low bow. “Thank you for accepting my request, Your Grace. If there is nothing else you want to discuss, I’ll take my leave and get out of your hair.”
She turned around, ready to leave, but then he spoke up.
“Stop there, Goldcroft.”
“…is there a problem, Your Grace?” She turned around and then paused when she saw him pointing to the thick stack of pages on his desk.
“Take these to Bentsen,” the Archduke ordered sternly. When he saw she didn’t move instantly, his gaze grew colder. “Take them, Goldcroft.”
Lucy hid her sigh. “Yes, Your Grace.” She walked forward to place them into her arms and turned away. She walked back to the double doors, opened them, and…
She stiffened as she registered there was a solid invisible object in the air before her head. Anyone else would find it nearly impossible to detect but with the shard in her right eye, almost every hidden ability could be seen by her.
In the open doorway, placed at exactly the point that she could hit her head on it when she walked out, was an Aether barrier. Lucille looked over her shoulder to gaze wearily at the culprit.
If the incognito Demon Emperor was disappointed she hadn’t hit her head, he didn’t show it. The white-haired individual only tilted his head as he silently watched her with that cold stare of his.
Lucy decided against saying anything and turned back to the doorway. She ducked under the invisible Aether barrier and pretended that nothing was the problem as she shut the door behind her. Then she set out to find the Archduke’s aide. All while thinking about the actions of the building’s owner.
The Archduke tried to make me hit my head on an Aether barrier when I left the room.
That is… unbelievably petty. Is that person really the ancient ruler of the Demon Realm?
Lucille shook her head and continued to walk down the finely decorated hallways of the Aethereal Palace. After stopping a servant to ask for directions, she was led to the study of Count Bentsen. She knocked on the door and announced her presence.
“Count Bentsen? It’s Count Goldcroft. The Archduke requested I pass some documents onto you,” she stated.
The door was quickly opened by the brown-haired man who stopped to frown at what she was holding. “What is he doing giving you a job like that? That should be left to the servants,” he muttered.
Lucy gave him a slightly tight smile. “If the Archduke requests for me to do this, then who am I to refuse? I’d rather not face his anger if I tried to argue.”
Count Bentsen paused to raise his eyes and study her. “…yes, that could cause quite the issue for you.” He shook his head and held out his arms. “Well, let me take these off of you to put away and I’ll walk you to the entrance.”
Lucille blinked. “Walk me to the entrance? Oh, thank you for the offer, but there’s really no reason for you to-”
“No, no, I insist. It’s the least I could do to make up for my lord’s lacking manners,” he replied cheerfully.
“…lacking?”
Count Bentsen walked past her as if he didn’t hear her, so she stopped thinking about that slip of tongue and followed him. In the back of her head she was feeling nervous that a certain light-mode Demon Emperor would suddenly appear to scowl at them for talking behind his back.
“Count Goldcroft, it seems you’re aware of the Archduke’s real personality,” the Count abruptly stated.
She stared at him, and then slowly turned around to stare down the hallway behind them. She gave the Archduke’s aide a wide-eyed look.
Count Bentsen blinked at her reaction and then smiled. “Oh, not to worry. He can’t hear us. His Grace doesn’t like to spread his senses too far as it bothers him.”
“…I see,” she slowly replied. Lucille let out a long sigh. “Then yes, I am aware that he has a much more… prickly nature than he shows outside of this palace.”
“I see you used much tamer words to describe his atrocious personality than I would,” the Count replied cheerily.
Lucy prevented a strange expression from forming on her voice when she heard the Count call the Archduke’s personality ‘atrocious’. She schooled it into a calm, neutral smile instead and walked beside the Count without reply.
Count Bentsen chuckled as he held his hands behind his back. “Very few people know that the Archduke actually considers most others as irrelevant and shows little emotion. Or… normally.” For some reason, he gave her a side eye. “Even anger is different compared to his usual.”
…I’m not sure I know where this is going.
“After you left during that first meeting we discovered we had our differences,” she said carefully.
“Even so…” He fell silent for a moment and his smile dimmed slightly. Count Bentsen stopped walking and turned to face her directly. “Count Lucille Goldcroft, the Archduke isn’t as… happy a person as he presents himself,” he stated seriously. “He avoids the servants, barely meets with me more than once a day, and as you likely saw when you entered his room… anytime he’s not working is spent sleeping. He doesn’t have any interests, hobbies, or passions. Every day is spent doing exactly the same thing.”
He crossed his arms and studied her. “But for some reason with you, it’s different. He shows emotion.”
Oh… no, no, no, no.
“Count Bentsen… I think you’re very mistaken about our relationship,” she told him wearily. “The Archduke hates me.”
“He doesn’t,” the Count replied firmly. He shook his head. “His Grace can’t be bothered to deal with everyday life, never mind mustering up the energy to feel hatred for anyone longer than a few seconds. Maybe he’s mad at you now, but soon he’ll remember he detests putting effort into anything, including feeling emotions,” Count Bentsen stated with strange confidence. “If he hated you then he would’ve already begun to give you a slow, torturous death in the most humiliating and degrading way possible.”
Lucille hesitated.
That’s… okay, maybe I should give Count Bentsen more credit. He wasn’t going where I thought he was. And he seems to be very familiar with the personality of the Archduke.
“I just wanted to ask that whatever it is you’ve been doing… keep doing it,” Count Bentsen finished. He raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t meant to be a short-term thing, is it?”
Lucy shook her head. “No. Our meetings are planned to last up to at least the Millennium Chapter.”
He nodded. “Good.” Before he could say anything more, a servant quickly came up to him and said something to him. The Count frowned, sighed, and gave her an apologetic bow. “I’m sorry, Count Goldcroft. I’ve been summoned by my lord. It seems I won’t be able to fulfil my promise to escort you to the door.”
“It’s not an issue,” Lucy replied with a smile. “Take care, Count Bentsen.”
“You too, Count Goldcroft. It was a pleasure to meet again.” Giving her one last bow, he turned around and walked off.
Lucille watched him leave and then headed off towards the main entrance. Her mind was busy contemplating the words of the Archduke’s aide.
I still think he has a misunderstanding of what our relationship is like, but… it’s not as bad as I thought. But…
She turned around to stare in the direction of the leaving Count.
I’m ninety nine per cent sure he just called the Demon Emperor depressed.
Something about that concept filled her with wonder and made her feel incredibly amused.
The Demon Emperor just got called depressed by his aide. And Count Bentsen said it to me, someone who he wants to kill. This is… hilarious.
I want to tell him. Should I do it next time we meet?
She raised her eyes to the roof, feeling conflicted.
I really, really want to tell the Archduke that his aide just called him depressed so I can see his response. But I’m more likely to get killed.
She pinched her nose bridge and turned back around with a sigh.
No, forget it. I’m not ready to die yet. Maybe when the contract is nearly up I’ll have the confidence to reveal that to him.
Lucy found out two months later that when it came to the Demon Emperor she had pretty bad impulse control.
[Alectis… that was really petty.]
The incognito Demon Emperor ignored the sound echoing in his head and continued to fill out his forms.
[Like, so, so, so, so petty. Unbelievably so.]
A slight sigh left the Archduke but he tried his hardest to continue working.
[Come on, what person would believe me if I told them that the Primordial Demon, a Paragon Anomaly, ruler of the most hostile realm and someone rumoured to be stronger than both the Dragon Sovereign and the Death Monarch was annoyed by a girl less than 0.01% of his age so he tried to make her slam her head against a barrier?! How absurd does that sound?!]
The Archduke dropped his pen and looked to the side to give the hovering notification box a dull look, but the voice was relentless.
[Do you have the maturity of an eight-year-old?! No wonder your aide considers you so troublesome to deal with! And don’t forget me! I have to put up with a non-compliant demon who thinks sleeping is the next best thing after… nothing, actually! You have no sense of responsibility!]
The white-haired Alter-Ego of the Demon Emperor covered his face with a hand and rested the back of his head against his chair, but the voice still had more to say.
[And don’t think I’m going to let your sleeping habits fly in the years leading up to the Millennium Chapter. Nuh uh. If you don’t start getting on top of your work then I’m going to employ the use of Lucille to start interrupting you every day-]
