Chapter 4: The Plan
After class, Lucian buried himself in the study.
This was his daily ritual, as reliable as the sunrise: thinking through the future. For the benefit of anyone who asked, he was reading and improving himself as a nobleman. Both things happened to be true.
The study was small but kept in good order. A narrow window faced the back garden, and the afternoon sun came through at an angle, leaving a bright stripe across the surface of the oak desk. The occasional bird called outside. Inside, the silence was complete enough that he could hear himself breathe.
Lucian sat down, spread out a sheet of paper, and set the tip of his pen against it.
As someone who knew exactly how this story ended, he had to find a path forward for himself and for the family he had been born into.
The pen moved. Soft scratching sounds. Words appeared on the paper that had no business existing in this world, and were crossed out almost as quickly as they were written. Black ink layered over black ink, the page turning into something that looked like the record of a struggle.
It was worth noting that the paper itself was produced using first-tier magic. Any apprentice who had reached level seven could learn to make it without difficulty. Even so, for commoners, magic paper was a luxury item that never came into their hands. Commoners bought paper from workshops. Nobles used magic paper to demonstrate the family's means.
Finally, Lucian stopped writing. He held the heavily marked sheet over the candle flame.
Fire caught the edge. The ink twisted and curled in the heat, then the paper was gone entirely, the ash falling into the copper plate beneath it and crumbling at the first touch.
None of this could leave the room. A single translation spell applied to these notes would be enough to bring catastrophe down on Lucian and the entire Aindra family.
He watched the small pile of ash for a moment. Then he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling.
There was a fine crack running from the edge of the decorative plasterwork all the way to the base of the chandelier. He stared at it for a long time, the way someone stares at something when they are not really seeing it at all.
"Trying to stand against the Bone King. That's a fantasy."
Lucian shook his head. The corner of his mouth pulled up in something that was either a laugh at himself or an acceptance of defeat.
"I've clearly lost my mind. Cecilia-sensei and that chuunibyou sister of mine actually got to me."
Outside, the afternoon light was still warm, settling in a bright patch on the floor. Lucian's gaze drifted to it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could still smell the lilies from the classroom, still see his sister's eyes bright with conviction, still hear Cecilia-sensei saying courage and goodness.
He pulled his attention back.
"My mental age is older than both of them put together. How am I still reacting like someone young and impulsive?"
He paused, as if working out an excuse.
"Hormones? Children's hormone levels really do affect cognition, it seems."
His voice was very quiet, barely loud enough to fill the small room.
"Kindness and courage... worthless, in the end."
He said it. The room was quiet for a few seconds.
A bird called outside, clean and brief, and then there was nothing.
Lucian straightened up and spread out a fresh sheet.
In truth, the rough shape of the plan had existed for some time. The daily thinking sessions were only for refining the details. But today he walked through Plan C from the beginning again, and found, as before, that it offered no hope whatsoever. It was like running into a wall you could not see. Every angle produced the same result.
Plan A was still the most viable option.
Align with the Bone King.
He wrote those words down, and the handwriting was noticeably steadier than before.
Transmigrating as a noble in the Re-Estize Kingdom, and arriving with none of the power he should have brought with him -- that was the worst of the bad luck. But it was still better than most alternatives. The Re-Estize Kingdom was the first place the Bone King would make contact with the outside world. Get there early, and the Aindra family could end up like Carne Village in the original work -- not treated as disposable material, but protected, even given certain advantages.
The wise man knows when to work with the tide.
If the Slane Theocracy's designs against the Kingdom were properly leveraged, he could put the Aindra family in the Bone King's line of sight quickly. Then, with a demonstration of real ability at the right moment in front of the adventurer Momon, both the family and their domain's residents could come through intact.
If that still proved insufficient, he could reveal a portion of his innate ability.
Given how rare that ability was, and given the Bone King's well-documented fondness for collecting interesting specimens, protecting the Aindra family outright should be entirely achievable.
The cost was that the rest of the Kingdom, and the fate of the Slane Theocracy, would most likely remain unchanged from the original. Or worse.
Lucian set down his pen and looked at the sky beyond the window.
It was deeply blue, a few thin clouds drawn across it like cotton pulled apart by careless fingers.
"The Slane Theocracy... Silshana..."
He paused. His lips moved but nothing came out for a few seconds.
"My apologies, Silshana. That's Tomoya's debt to you -- it has nothing to do with Lucian. If you need someone to blame, blame him."
He said it lightly, as if filing a formal disclaimer.
This was the most dependable version of Plan A, and the one Lucian leaned toward most strongly. The main problem it still needed to solve was the question of returning to the family's domain ahead of schedule. A sudden, unexplained return could draw Demiurge's attention.
Demiurge. Guardian of Nazarick's Seventh Floor. Maximum-level demon, level 100, known as the Hellfire Craftsman. Karma value negative five hundred, the absolute floor of evil. Built more for strategy and intelligence than direct combat, but that was more than enough to be dangerous.
The Aindra family, as one of the older noble houses in the Kingdom, held its own domain. But every head of the family going back generations had chosen to live in the royal capital and leave the domain's management to a steward.
"That probably has something to do with the royal family being so weak," Lucian said quietly to himself, mouth curving in something that was mostly contempt. "If this were the Baharuth Empire, Father would have put as much distance between himself and the capital as possible."
Breaking with family tradition and returning to the domain without good reason. He would need a solid justification for that.
He wrote the thought down and put a question mark next to it.
Plan A also had an aggressive variant.
Impersonate someone the Bone King's guild remembered from YGGDRASIL.
This path was one only Lucian could walk. If it succeeded, it would be a single step straight to the top.
He held the pen, the tips of his fingers pressing just slightly harder into it.
The Bone King's obsession with finding his old guildmates, in the early period after arriving, was one of the key things that kept him functioning as something close to human. Describe the right details about Touch Me, Peroroncino, or Bukubukuchagama, and convince the Bone King that Lucian was a friend they had known -- and his standing would clear every NPC in Nazarick entirely.
Lucian could almost picture it. The Floor Guardians lined up in respectful salute. Albedo lowering that proud head of hers. Demiurge showing that particular smile of his.
And then?
Lucian looked at the names on the paper. The handwriting was still neat. His hand had not released the pen.
Then there was the fatal flaw.
Memory Reading magic.
The moment the Bone King discovered that Lucian had been deceiving him, death would most likely be the best possible outcome available.
Based on everything Lucian knew of the Bone King's behavior in the original work, he probably would not move directly against someone who appeared to be a former friend of a guild member. But Demiurge would have a very high probability of acting on his own -- unless Lucian was impersonating a friend specifically of Ulbert, Demiurge's own creator.
And even setting aside direct action, Demiurge's tests would begin immediately. Given Demiurge's intelligence, Lucian could not guarantee passing all of them.
Because Lucian did not actually know these people.
He had heard of the Ainz Ooal Gown guild during his time in YGGDRASIL and had even attempted contact at some point. But that group of heteromorph players had been thoroughly hostile to any human player who approached them. At the time, Lucian had not imagined he would someday end up in a situation where that connection might have meant everything.
If only things had gone differently.
Touch Me was the one who had not shared the hostility toward humans. But impersonating a friend of Touch Me would probably make Demiurge's tests even more aggressive.
And then there was Albedo as a separate variable entirely.
Albedo. Overall supervisor of Nazarick's guardians, commanding all of them, second only to the Bone King in standing. And in private, the architect of a covert operation: the Supreme Being Hunting Party.
The moment Lucian made his move, Albedo might finish him with a casual basic attack before anyone else got a word in.
The light outside had shifted without him noticing. The bright stripe on the desk was gone. The study was darker now, a single shaft of afternoon light coming through the window at a low angle and cutting across the floor like a dividing line.
The aggressive variant. He had to let it go.
Lucian set down his pen and held the written pages over the candle.
The fire caught the edges. The names began to distort in the heat -- Touch Me, Peroroncino, Bukubukuchagama, Ulbert -- each one curling and blackening in the flame until there was nothing left but ash.
He watched it. He watched the last ember go dark.