"My Prince."
"Yes, Sir Arden? Is something the matter?"
Cassian carefully settled deeper into his plush velvet chair, adjusting the folds of his gray silk cloak.
From the perspective of everyone else in the massive stadium, the Crown Prince appeared completely focused on the intense competition of status taking place on the arena floor below. His silver-crimson eyes occasionally followed the fast movements of the competing students lurking around the arena field, waiting for the tournament to begin. And his expression remained as calm, cold, and composed as ever.
But in reality? His thoughts were nowhere near the tournament brackets.
Half of his attention was occupied with methods to acquire the legendary Scepter of the Sun King from its glass display casing if the Crimson Vanguard doesn't manage to reach his expectations.
"No, never mind," Lucien said after a long, heavy moment of hesitation. "We shall talk about this another time... privately."
Cassian immediately frowned, curiosity was actually biting into his flesh. "If it is something important, you had better talk now, Sir Arden."
Lucien paused, his jaw tightening.
"Sir Arden," Cassian continued casually, his tone dropping into a level baritone, "we may not tolerate each other most of the time, but while you are still designated as my personal knight for this period, it is best for you to be completely transparent with me. Tell me everything you want to tell me while you still can."
He casually crossed one leg over the other, leaning back. A very small, hidden smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
'Because I will eventually get rid of you and I also leave this entire empire behind in three months and go back to Earth,' Cassian thought to himself.
The thought alone almost made him laugh out loud. After all, according to his grand escape plan, everyone would soon go their separate ways once the artifacts were secured and now he already has two. That Sceptre of the Sun King was good as his by the end of the trial. And Lucien would return to his military northern border Citadel, or perhaps to his Duchy. Sora would remain safe and sound in a secluded hideout and Cassian would acquire his reality-bending tools; and, hopefully, nobody would try to execute him this time around. It was a perfect, completely optimized arrangement. At least in theory.
Lucien took a deep breath, his chest plate rising. Then he took another.
Beside Cassian, Sora immediately narrowed her dark eyes, her posture stiffening. He couldn't help but feel like trouble was heading their way.
"I am thinking of retiring from the Holy Order," Lucien stated clearly, his deep voice carrying an unyielding weight. "And I intend to remain as your personal knight for as long as—"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Cassian roared.
The entire royal box froze instantly. The surrounding stadium stands froze. Half of the thousands of spectators in the immediate quadrants turned around in sheer shock. Several wealthy noblewomen nearly dropped their expensive crystal opera glasses onto the stone steps below. A foreign prince from the Sultanates choked violently on his wine, coughing into a silk cloth. Even the magical tournament commentators stopped speaking into their amplification runes for a brief, confused moment.
Cassian himself seemed genuinely startled by the sheer volume and uncharacteristic emotion of his own voice.
"..."
"..."
"..."
He slowly, deliberately cleared his throat, his stoic mask slamming back into place. Then he sat back down in his chair, moving very carefully, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
Unfortunately for his peace of mind, nearly everyone in the upper pavilion was still staring at him with wide, scandalized eyes. And Cassian thoroughly ignored them all with a wave of his hand. Then, he fixed Lucien with a horrified, entirely uncharacteristic glare.
"Sir Arden, I am incredibly sorry for saying this," Cassian hissed in a low, furious whisper, "—but are you completely crazy?"
Lucien blinked, caught off guard.
"You are the premier Swordmaster of this entire Empire," Cassian's voice rose again in a harsh whisper. "The only truly chivalrous knight of our nation!"
A few high-ranking paladins sitting in the holy delegation box looked slightly offended by the comment. Cassian ignored them too.
"In fact, in the entirety of the Aetheria Continent, you are considered the premier hero of the Valemont Empire. Of Edrath as a whole."
Lucien's sharp eyes fixated on Cassian as he spoke. Just then Cassian pointed his charcoal quill dramatically at the knight's chest. "You are the sole, irreplaceable sword of the King."
More dramatic pointing. "Everyone in the lower houses looks up to you."
Even more pointing, his flat demeanor completely dissolving under the threat to his escape plan. "And so do I!"
Lucien looked genuinely surprised, his breath catching. Sora looked equally surprised, her head snapping toward Cassian with a pout. Several nearby noble daughters looked ready to faint from the sudden emotional display.
Cassian leaned forward desperately, his fingers gripping the edge of the table as his teeth lightly bit his lower lip. "Sir Arden... you cannot simply become a common personal knight for an undeserving, person like me."
Lucien stared down at him quietly, his ice-blue eyes unblinking. Then he spoke, his voice calm, steady, yet strangely heavy with emotion.
"Your Highness... if I remain a Holy Knight of the Order any longer, then I am afraid I would be completely contradicting my own personal beliefs and the Holy See's direct teachings."
"..."
"I have committed incredibly great sins as of late," Lucien murmured, his voice dropping into a rough whisper.
Sora immediately bit his lower lip dramatically, leaning back against the velvet cushions. Lucien completely ignored him.
"And I am afraid that my heart pains every single time I try to justify my actions..." The knight's jaw tightened, his hand resting heavily on the pommel of his sword. "My actions, and the exact way I feel toward you and this—"
His intense gaze slid sharply toward Sora. The look of deep, traditional disdain was immediate.
Sora scoffed loudly, crossing his arms and turning his face away with a sharp flare of his aura. "Hmph."
Lucien's left eye twitched. Sora's right eye twitched. A silent, localized war of mana nearly began right over the prince's paperwork.
Cassian watched both of them, his own eye twitching in sheer exhaustion as he internally sighed. 'This cruel motherfuvkwr...' Cassian clicked his tongue in irritation. 'Is the fact that he isn't able to comfortably decapitate Sora and me right now the great, unforgivable sin he cannot live with?' He shook his head.
'Cruel. Very cruel.'
He turned his focus back toward the arena, his posture relaxing into his usual detached state.
"Well then, Sir Arden. If keeping your holy vows is that much of a psychological burden to you, then you may certainly retire from the Order."
Lucien blinked, surprised by the sudden concession.
"But once you do," Cassian continued casually, a dangerous, highly satisfied smile slowly spreading across his face, "I am afraid you will have to immediately return to the West of Edrath and fulfill your formal duties as the Lord to the Dukedom."
Sora suddenly became deeply interested in the conversation, her ears perking up. Lucien became visibly nervous. Cassian became incredibly excited. It was a terrible, chaotic combination for anyone standing in their way.
"Father might even find you a prominent noble wife for that exact administrative purpose," Cassian added thoughtfully, nodding his head.
Lucien's concern immediately doubled. "Ah."
"—And I already do have a wonderful, highly compatible woman in mind for you," Cassian said, his smile widening.
Lucien's internal alarm bells went off, his concern tripling.
"She is a member of a great noble house," Cassian noted.
Quadrupled.
"A remarkably beautiful woman."
Quintupled.
"And I am absolutely certain you will like her metrics."
Lucien looked as though someone had just formally informed him of an incoming, unavoidable natural disaster heading directly for his border territories.
Meanwhile, Cassian was internally celebrating with absolute glee.
'And she is the exact female lead you supposedly fell in love with in the original novel's plot!' His internal mood improved by a thousand percent.
'But because of the Holy See's strict restraints and your vows as a Paladin, you couldn't legally be with her in those timelines. But now that you are retiring...'
A beautiful, completely clear future unfolded before his eyes. Lucien would marry the heroine, move to the far western edges of the continent, manage his massive duchy, raise an army of children, stay incredibly occupied with agricultural policies, and—most importantly—stay very, very, very far away from Cassian's path.
'Goodness,' Cassian nearly laughed out loud. 'It will all work out perfectly. After this tournament is concluded, we will find the woman, marry Lucien off, and send him away to the west. And I will finally be entirely free from being watched twenty-four hours a day.'
Meanwhile, Lucien stood in total silence, completely unaware that his entire romantic and professional future was being planned without his executive consent.
"My Prince," Lucien said, his tone turning incredibly serious, his blue eyes locking onto the prince with terrifying intensity. "The duties of the dukedom can wait a little longer."
Cassian's brilliant smile faltered. "What?"
"I still have many things to do with you," Lucien stated firmly.
The smile began to vanish from Cassian's lips.
"Things that I cannot voice out easily in this court, but I must show you through my actions."
The smile on Cassian's face died completely, replaced by a cold sweat.
"And besides," Lucien added, his gaze sliding sideways toward the half-elf, "you and that little elf still clearly need me around here."
"Little?!" Sora repeated sharply, his raven lashes flaring.
"You need me around," Lucien repeated, completely ignoring the interruption.
"With the current political state of the Empire still being highly hostile toward elves and the deployment of unoptimized dark magic."
"Little?!" Sora silently repeated to himself, his fingers digging into the velvet.
Lucien didn't acknowledge his existence.
"You need me around," Lucien's voice lowered into a deep, resonant whisper that carried a strange warmth. "So instead of me belonging to an Empire that could easily turn its blades against you tomorrow..." For the very first time since their meeting, his words carried an unmistakable, absolute conviction. "...—let me be the individual that protects you."
The entire atmosphere within the royal box shifted instantly. The light-hearted joking vanished. The roar of the arena crowds below suddenly felt incredibly distant and muffled.
Cassian stared up at his knight, his crimson eyes wide. "Sir Arden... do you truly comprehend the sheer weight of those words?"
"Of course I do, Your Highness," Lucien replied without a single second of hesitation. "By choosing to align myself with you over the See, I am actively risking every single thing I have worked hard to achieve since my youth."
His large hands tightened slightly against his silver armor. "I am discarding my entire identity just to remain on your side as your designated knight."
A long, suffocating silence followed his declaration. Even Sora stopped her angry interruptions, staring at the knight with a complex expression.
"Yet, even knowing that risk, you still—"
"You have grown on me, Cassian Valemont," Lucien interrupted softly.
And the Crown Prince froze entirely. Lucien rarely, if ever, used his actual name without a royal title attached.
"I do not possess the proper words to explain it to you right now," the knight murmured, his unwavering gaze never leaving Cassian's face. "But just know that I do not hate your presence as much as you think I do."
Cassian's eyes widened by a fraction of an inch.
"And for someone who is currently considering sacrificing that much for your sake..." A very faint, uncharacteristic smile appeared on Lucien's face as his voice softened further. "My entire public identity and my status. Don't you think I deserve even a tiny bit of your consideration?"
The smile became almost teasing, a rare display of emotion from the stoic holy warrior.
"Do not turn me away so abruptly, my prince. At least pretend to think about it, for once try to take my existence seriously."
Cassian let out a heavy, exhausted sigh, raising a hand to rub his aching temples. One massive headache. Then another. Then a third.
'Right...' his modern thoughts wandered as he evaluated the whole situation.
'It is an undeniable fact that Lucien is no longer hostile toward my presence in this timeline.' That much was completely verified by his actions.
'If anything, our operational distance has become significantly closer.' It was a strange realization—one that he wasn't entirely comfortable with given his history. 'And it is true that protecting Sora and me from the public is already a massive sacrifice for a prominent Holy Knight.'
He glanced up at Lucien's steady frame. 'But it is just so uncomfortable keeping him around my perimeter.' The dark memories of his previous regressions still lingered vividly in his mind. Too many failed timelines. Too many cold blades. Too many executions. 'He is the exact person who executed me in all of my past lives. It feels as if he could eventually change his mind, optimize his loyalty, and do it all over again.' His chest tightened slightly at the thought.
Then, a quieter, more grounded thought surfaced in his mind. He looked at Lucien again. The knight's expression remained completely honest, completely unwavering, lacking any deceit.
'Or perhaps I'm being overly paranoid... perhaps I should finally acknowledge that this specific timeline's metrics are entirely different. And Lucien never lies.'
Finally, Cassian exhaled a long breath, dropping his hand. "Very well then, Sir Arden."
Lucien instantly straightened his spine, a spark of sudden hope appearing deep within his ice-blue eyes.
"I shall keep your retirement for my sake in mind," Cassian nodded slowly. "And once this continental tournament is finally concluded... let us sit down and talk about the details again, properly and privately."
Lucien offered a deep, flawless military bow. Then—he smiled.
It was a real smile. Not a polite court smile. Not a rigid knightly smile. An actual, smile even though it was curt and slightly chilling.
Cassian stared in disbelief. Sora stared. The nearby nobles who were sneaking glances stared in absolute shock. Even the royal servants holding the wine trays froze in place. Nobody in the capital had ever seen the stern, frozen Demon of the North smile before.
"This humble knight swells with absolute gratitude, Your Highness," Lucien's voice sounded almost happy, the rough edge entirely gone. "I shall wait for the conclusion of the tournament with the Crimson Vanguard's total victory in mind."
Cassian remained stunned for another second before his own classic, confident smirk returned to his face. "Naturally."
Sora looked between the two of them, his expression slightly twisting. Then he looked away, then looked back, letting out a low, silent sigh. "Wonderful," he muttered to himself, slumping against the armrest. "I am now officially the third wheel of this whole situation."
Neither man paid any attention to him.
"The child and I are being completely replaced by a silver wall," he grumbled under his breath.
Ignored again.
Lucien actually let out a low, genuine mocking smirk at his antics.
Meanwhile, Sora crossed his arms tightly over his feminine featured chest, letting out one final, sharp, "Hmph."
Yet, for the very first time all day, the three of them simply sat together in relative, peaceful quiet. Their shared attention smoothly returned to the massive arena floor below, watching the black-and-crimson uniforms of the Vanguard dominate the field as the sun climbed higher into the sky.
*****