When Nielle and the soldiers arrived at the chapel where the Infey were supposed to be, he ended up disappointed. Apart from the villagers, crying as they had just lost their source of luck, he found no one.

Nielle let search the nearest forest, though it was clear that once the Infey disappeared, they probably wouldn't be the easiest to find again. That's why he just started talking to the locals and had the situation explained to him. 

The villagers came to their senses pretty quickly when they noticed his white hair and understood that he would be from the royal family. Everyone fell silent and left the word to the innkeeper, who more or less ran the village. 

"Your Highness," he had no idea which prince Nielle was, but he knew that if he didn't want to get all village killed, he musn't show any disrespect, "What brings you here?"

"What a stupid question," Nielle laughed, "I believe you don't think I accidentally went into a chapel at the end of nowhere where kidnappings and other illegal things happen." he declared and sat down in one of the benches, whereupon the guy knelt down, as he didn't think it was appropriate to stand.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, sir...we came here today to worship Luck," he lied.

Nielle sighed deeply, "I don't have much patience today, you disturbed my pleasant plans," he looked at Shane, who was standing by the soldiers, "I know you kidnapped two men, I want to hear your reasons, if you kidnapped someone else, where are they and where did the pair go... every time you lie to me, I'll kill one of you, what do you say?" He suggested.

The innkeeper looked around at the villagers, who were kneeling on the ground with their eyes down in terror, and then looked at the prince again, "We...we're sorry, sir. We didn't want to. " 

"Don't apologize and answer the questions," Nielle said, "where did they go?"

"I don't know, one of them woke up and started arguing with the church messenger. He sent us out and when we came back there was no one inside," he said.

"A messenger of the church?" Niella didn't understand what the church had to do with it.

"Yes, sir...we were doing everything on his instructions," he said.

"What instructions?" Nielle didn't know.

The man hesitated for a moment before he said, "Every time the Lacrisans passed through the village, we were supposed to bring them to him...we drugged them and...and brought them...and he gave us yellow stones in exchange, which lasted us for a while ."

"Yellow stones?" Nielle looked at the large bag by the edge of the benches.

"You traded the Lacrisans for stones." Shane was almost in disbelief.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Nielle said.

"Nothing wrong?" Shane gave him an angry look. 

"You wanted to save the lives of the Rinselans, good choice," Nielle complimented him, continuing to ignore Shane.

"Th-thank you, sir," the innkeeper didn't know what to say.   

"However...when there is a similar situation, there is another option than to illegally kidnap people...if Lacris finds out about it, it would be a problem," he clarified, "when the village cannot afford yellow stones, they can apply to the capital, Prince Louis always fulfills requests." Nielle said. 

"I've never heard of that being a possibility, sir," he said.

"Didn't he hear?" Nielle sighed, "Never mind...where are the Lacrisans you were selling?"

The man seemed to hesitate: "I don't know."

"What did I say about lying?" Nielle asked sternly.

"I-I really don't know, sir...most of them disappeared without a trace, only a few we were tasked to transfer elsewhere," he said.

"Where?" he didn't understand.

"We came to the member of another church, sir," he said.

Nielle raised his eyebrows and asked, "So some were taken by the church of bad luck...and some were taken by the church of luck," he laughed, "I understand what the other church uses them for, but what's the church of luck doing?" he didn't understand.

Nielle knew that the second Church was quite secluded in Rinsel, but he wasn't stupid enough to tell himself that it was really weak. He was sure they were doing some illegal things behind everyone's backs, but he honestly never cared much about the functioning of the churches as he had many other responsibilities. However, since the religion of bad luck focused on selling bad luck to others, rather than drawing luck, he understood that the Lacrisans were the most advantageous targets.

However, the Church of Luck, focused only on the worship of Luck, neither needed to strengthen its influence nor the Lacrisans to function, so he didn't understand the significance of kidnapping them.

Anyway, Nielle didn't care about the Lacrisans…however, some church doing what they wanted in their land was something he had to discuss with his brother when he got home.

"Didn't any of you see where they went?" He asked.

"No, sir," the villagers admitted.

Nielle believed that they were telling the truth, so after a while he got up, "We came here for nothing...beautiful...we are going back to the camp," he told the soldiers.

"S-sir...wait!" the man stood up.

Nielle looked at him and moved his gaze to the villagers behind him. There were about fifty of them, among them a few whose skin was already beginning to be covered with black spots. Nielle just turned to the soldiers and said, "Take them to the camp," he commanded and headed out.

He had other more fun things planned for today. And since he had wasted enough time on the unnecessary journey, he didn't intend to stay here any longer. He glanced at Shane, who was greatly irritated by the local people's behavior, and laughed softly, "Let's go…we'll pick up where we left off, Lacrisan."

***   

He always knew when he was dreaming. During all those years in the cell, he managed to sort out in his head what were memories, what were dreams, and what was reality. That's why he knew he was sleeping. 

However, unlike the usual dreams, when he lived outside, when he ran in the meadow and had fun with Luck, today's dream was different. He couldn't decide what to do, he couldn't move as he wanted. All he could do was watch from his own body what was happening.

He didn't remember experiencing something like this, but something told him that it had happened once in the past. He sat at the end of the room next to the throne and smiled. He felt happy inside, though he didn't know why. There was a crowd of people around. The entire main hall of the royal palace was crowded with Infey, familiar, unfamiliar, but Rue didn't really recognize any of them.

Next to him the king sat, the only person whose face he would never forget, no matter what happened. Just looking at him made him feel strangely sad, although the body he was in was clearly excited.

"At the age of your twentieth birthday, the day has finally come when you become one of us with permission to walk among humans," the king said, "I know you've been looking forward to it, Rue. We're all pleased that you've lived up to the expectations you've been given."

The enthusiasm that filled him could be felt as he said, "Thank you, father, I can't wait to see the world outside, thank you for the opportunities I am getting."

The king nodded. The subsequent long turn that took place, Rue didn't remember at all. Sometimes he got the impression as if he really experienced a similar scene, sometimes he had the impression as if all the things really happened. In the end, however, he still couldn't find anything in his mind and just passively stared with the eyes of his body at the memories he couldn't remember.

A lot of people bowed to him, a lot of people spoke to him, gave gifts, and he just enthusiastically thanked him. But the next part was more important. The condition for highest Infey to enter the common people's land was to have a protector who always accompanied them. Today was finally the day he was going to get one and although Rue still didn't remember anything, at least he could relate to the joy. Because his protector was the only one from his past that he had at least dim memories of, that he never completely forgot.

"Among the twenty candidates, will you now choose one, have you chosen a method?" the king asked.

"I did," he nodded, "I want Luck to decide who will stay by my side." he said and stood up.

He slowly walked down the steps from the throne to the kneeling group of twenty middle-class children. 

"Luck?" the king didn't understand.

"Yes, I wanted Luck to play a major role in who I chose," Rue said, pulling two dice from his pocket. 

He slowly leaned towards the first of them, "Do you like games?" he asked the first boy.

"G-games?" he stammered, "I-I...I like games sir..." he looked nervous.

No one would be surprised if they even collapsed from nervousness. Today was the most important for them, especially knowing that only one of them would win Rue as the supreme, only one would get a piece of luck from him, and only one would become his companion.

No one spoke then, and everyone waited in suspense to see what Rue would come up with. Before the youths were even breathing, Rue examined them. All the middle Infey looked alike. They all had bright blue eyes, all had red or brown hair, exceptionally different colors. They seemed like normal people, and whoever he chose, the people outside would be able to tell them apart from the highest ones at a glance.

"We'll just play... we'll roll the dice... whoever rolls the biggest number against me or rolls a bigger one, I'll keep him, what do you say?" he smiled.

The boys, apparently between the ages of eight and ten, who had come today prepared to fight to the blood with each other in an attempt to gain a place by the side of the highest, looked at him in confusion. They all slowly nodded and when Rue was sure they understood, he walked over to the prepared table and invited the first one to join him for a game.

The young boy stumbled on the way to the table, how shaky his legs were, slowly sat down and waited without making eye contact with him.

"Which one do you like better?" Rue asked, pointing to the dice. One black with gold dots, the other gold with black dots.

"The one you would give me, sir," the boy said.

Rue didn't remember the following moments at all and therefore watched them carefully. However, despite the fact that it was a dream, that he had experienced it in the past, and that he tried to concentrate, he couldn't see everything clearly. He felt like he was losing consciousness at times and couldn't stay fully aware of his surrounding, as if his memories were fading and fading again.

He saw the first fight where the young man threw a one against his six, he saw the second fight that ended with the number two, he didn't see the third, but he saw the fourth fight that ended with the number one...and then he didn't see a few more. 

He didn't know how many had played before his memories gently cleared again and he welcomed another child to the table. His red hair was similar to that of his predecessors, his bright blue eyes on his young face looked like they didn't know where to look, as the stress was filling him.

"Don't be nervous," Rue said gently, placing the dice on the table, "Which one do you like better?" he asked. 

Young Infey looked up at Rue's hesitant gaze and swallowed dryly, "B-black...I like black."

Rue smiled gently, "Good luck with you," he handed him the dice, "you can roll." he said.

The boy nervously took the dice. He hesitated for a while, wanted to throw it, but hesitated again. That's why, after a while, Rue smiled gently and said, "I'll roll first, just calm down." He threw the dice, which, as always, ended up on the number six and didn't calm Infey at all.  

However, he couldn't wait forever, so after a while he also threw the dice and waited to see what luck would bring. Everyone watched as he inadvertently put more force into it, watching as the cube slammed into the other and spun it violently. The boy blinked in surprise as the number four appeared on his own black dice while the gold dice turned to the number three. 

Everyone fell silent in shock.

No one spoke for a while before the king stood up sharply: "Insolent." 

"Calm down, father...I said I'd let luck decide, you saw it...a clear stroke of luck." Rue smiled and slowly stood up. He walked over to Infey who looked like he was going to collapse from the stress as he had no idea if he just didn't do something that will cost him his neck.  

"I'm Rue, nice to meet you," he said, to which the boy looked at him, "luck is on your side, you won today's game. Would you like to be my guard? We'll be able to play more often, what do you say?" he asked.

Infey raised his bright blue eyes at him and the moment he realized the meaning of his words, he just stood up abruptly. He dropped to his knees in a second and bowed at Rue's feet, "I w-want...want...please...I want so much."

The hall was then filled with hostility from the rest of the boys along with their panic, but since it wasn't up to them to choose whom the highest would choose, they couldn't say anything.

Rue bent down to the boy on the ground and said, "If you agree, today will be your first day by my side, your new name will be Qie," he said.

Infey nodded and stood up slowly at the instruction, Rue touched his palm which made Infey feel embarrassed and surprised to feel that he put something in it.  

"Take care of it...it's our first thing we share, don't lose it…as long as you have it, we'll always be able to play again." Rue smiled softly.

Infey looked at the black cube with gold dots in his palm and looked at his new highest incomprehensibly, "T-thank you, sir…t-thank you." He looked like he still couldn't believe he made it out of today.

"Thank Luck, Qie," Rue stroked his orange hair.

"T-thank you... Good luck to you too, sir... I won't let you down," he stuttered. 

"I know you won't," he stroked him gently, "feel free to call me Rue," he smiled and straightened again, "May Luck allow us to live a thousand years happily," he said contentedly.

The words he said, even though they were his own, filled the dreamer Rue with a strange sadness. Qie was one of the few people he remembered. He didn't remember all their experiences, he didn't remember his face, he didn't remember what happened in detail after that...but he remembered the basics. Therefore, he knew that his wish at that time hadn't come true.

Because it didn't take even one whole century before everything was shattered to pieces...completely.