Lucia looked around the room. “Now then, I just have one question. Were you involved in my assassination attempt?”

  “You can’t seriously think that-“

  “That wasn’t an option.” Lucia levered a glare at the sweaty man who tried to talk his way out of this. “Yes? Or no? Surely your peanut sized brain can figure that out.”

  ”No.” The man obviously denied the claim. “I’d never-“

  ”Next.” The CEO ignored whatever else he was going to say. “Albert. Yes or no?”

  ”No.” Albert simply replied.

  Lucia moved down the line, not missing a single person in the board room. She even asked me, the three she knew were clean, and Mr. Franz. Of course everyone said no. Only a fool would openly commit to such a conspiracy. Honestly, it was a surprise none of them did given the situation.

  She flashed a radiant smile. It was such a waste to smile at these people. “Ah, primo. Then none of you are filthy traitors.”

  “Of course we aren’t!” The Head of Marketing spoke up. “Dear, let me help you in ridding those by your side that wish to pollute your head and turn you against us. Why, you’re like a niece to me!”

  Lucia stared long and hard at the woman. Her eyes held absolute cold, growing colder with each word spoken. “Moon? If you’d please."

  “Yep.” She’d given me just two jobs before entering Cernobog Industries. One, stand there and look intimidating. Two, keep a close hand on a briefcase. I hadn’t set it down for a single moment. I placed the case before her and popped it open.

  The documents she pulled out were passed around the table. “As you can see, I have quite hard evidence… you have two options. Quit effective immediately, or you’re fired without severance.”

  ”This- this is circumstantial at best!” Carl’s face flushed red. “The word of a Mistress means nothing.”

  ”She’ll be so sad to hear you say that, Carl.” Lucia shook her head in a tsk tsk motion. “According to her, you were planning on divorcing your wife soon, is that right? Imagine how easily she’d crush you in the divorce court with even a fraction of what’s in that document.”

  “This is blackmail! This is illegal-“

  ”Assasination isn’t?” Lucia smirked.

  “You’ve got to give us something at least, Miss Lucia! You can’t just-“

  “Let me make this abundantly clear.” Lucia leaned forward, staring each and every member of the board in the eye. “The only reason none of you are in a trash bin is thanks to your dedication to my father when he was CEO. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have entered Cernobog today in anything but a body bag.”

  “We- we’ll counter-sue! This is just- just fabricated evidence.” Albert threw his hand out, completely dismissing the entire document and Lucia’s word of warning. “It’s our word against yours. Twelve versus one.”

  ”Alzheimers must be hitting you quite hard, Albert.” She laughed lightly. “There are fifteen of us in this room.”

  ”Still!” His face flushed red. “Twelve versus three, two of which are nobodies that’ll be laughed out of court. Moon? What kind of name is that? I bet the only combat you’ve seen is horizontal!”

  “…” Did- did he really just say that? I was older than his entire family line, and he threw that drivel at me? Come now, at least come up with something unique. Bland insults like those stopped working literal ages ago.

  As if that was the tipping point, he flushed even angrier and angrier. “Was your little magic trick supposed to scare us? It didn’t work! With just a call, I could get dozens of guards to come in here and beat you senseless, bitch!”

  Ah, poor Albert. Too caught up in his own delusions to see the truth of the matter. Magic trick? There was no magic… but I could show him one if he really wanted the experience.

  I summoned a string of ether to my side, subtly manipulating the substance. With a light pluck, a discordant tune faintly played out. Unlike resonant tunes, discordant ones were closer to curses. It was so quiet Albert’s rant completely overcame it.

  Fear, a common first string tune. It was weak, like most first strings were. Usually even dogs could shrug it off without any issue. Against such an empty-headed slag, surely it’d just make him go a bit pale? Then again, a dog would definetely have a better brain then—

  “ARRGH!” Albert screamed at the tops of his lungs and charged us like a raging bull. A tendril of Ebonshroud snaked up and splintered through his leg. He collapsed into a bleeding mess on the ground.

  Kruber grabbed the guy by the back of the head and slammed him into the table, instantly knocking the man out before I could do anything else. “Does anyone else feel like freaking out?”

  [Nighteye’s whiskers twitch in amusement. Fear, eh?]

  Yep. I’ll admit it. That one’s completely on me. My bad. I was still getting used to the new sounds and tunes. That was Anger. Fear was down half a step from that.

  In my defense, it should’ve only been a drop of anger. He was on the verge of making a stupid decision all by himself. I just helped him along. Ah, wait! I should’ve used that as an excuse to skewer him more! I didn’t want to mess with Lucia’s plans though, so I went easy on the fool.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Mr. Franz snorted and stared down coldly at the unconscious form of Albert. “Warden Accords, article thirteen dash five dot three. Anyone know it?”

  Hawthorne, the elf Legal Head, spoke up. “It's the Contempt of Wardens clause. A civilian attacking a Warden unprovoked warrants the death penalty.”

  “You’re well read, Mr. Hawthorne.” Mr Franz complimented the Legal Head.

  The rest of the board silently watched. Eventually, one of the women grew brave enough to try his luck. ”As if! What are you going to do? Go cry to a Howler? Those useless bastards won’t do anything! Especially not with our money lining their pockets.”

  Howler was a derogatory term used to refer to Enforcers. Usually, it was only said in back alleys and in dark bars. Agents of Throne had a certain reputation that made people hesitant. They were like the Schalter-mick. If you made one step wrong, they could and would end your life in the most degrading way possible.

  [Nighteye’s ear perks up. Was that like the boogeyman?]

  “Hmm… Contempt of Throne is a much more serious crime.” Franz took of his fedora and idly plucked a hair off of it. “Keep talking?”

  “There’s no evidence-“

  Franz pulled a tie out of his pocket, staring at it in surprise. “Oh! I forgot my tie.”

  The entire room went still. I couldn’t exactly blame them. Enforcers wore red. Overseers wore blue. Uncaring about everyone’s eyes on him, Mr. Franz casually tied his tie. It was a deep ultramarine blue, specifically #4166f5. “I don’t think I introduced myself? Overseer Franz, at your service… Now, I believe you all have resignation letters to sign, yes? Ah, and you two have a very special place today!”

  In the end, none of them put up any further resistance. Only Albert, who was unconscious, got out of the room without signing a resignation letter. It sounded like Franz had other plans for him and the woman. That was of the guilty parties, of course. The heads of security, legal, and finance didn’t have to do anything of the sort.

  The Overseer watched them, only turning back to Lucia once the last of them left. Kruber carried out Albert and the struggling woman. “I’m impressed, Miss Lucia. If only your father could see you know, sitting at the head of Cernobog.”

  Lucia offered a small, sad smile. “Thank you for the help.”

  ”Of course. Your father was a dear friend of mine.” Overseer Franz pulled a pocket watch out and checked the time. “I really must be going now. Call me if you need me, my dear!”

  ”Oh! That other thing?” Lucia stopped the Overseer just before he could exit the room.

  The man smirked like a snake-oil vendor. “I imagine all nine are going to be met with some extensive fines. Assassination charges aren’t cheap these days. My Enforcers will take every penny within the next few weeks. They’ll be lucky to live off the streets.”

  ”Thank you, Uncle Franz!” Lucia cheerfully called out after the man. He simply waved over his shoulder and left. Lucia collapsed back into her chair, completely destroying the noble aura she once held. “I was so nervous!”

  “It’s good to see you in one piece.” Torvald, the old dwarf in charge of finances, smiled I think. His lips were lost in his heavy beard. He nodded his head to me and then left the room.

  “It’s good to be back.” Lucia twirled in the CEO chair, spinning around.

  Hawthorne waved his hand and headed for the door. “I need to go process these resignation letters. Call me if you need me.”

  She flashed a tired smile. “Thank you so much for all the help, Moon… We didn’t talk much about what’d happen afterward.”

  ”…” I shook my head. Her focus had single-handedly been on getting to this point.

  ”Would you become Cernobog’s official Warden? You won’t have to do anything you don’t want to!” She tightly wrung her hands together, and her entire body fidgeted around like she drank far too much coffee.

  Official Warden… That was just a Knight by another name, wasn’t it? “Yep.”

  An absolutely radiant grin spread across her face. It was bright enough for a moment I thought I was staring straight into the sun. “As your first job as Cernobog’s Warden… want to go get dinner? On me, of course. I can finally access my assets again.”

  ”Pizza?” The last time I had it, it was cold and soggy. I had a feeling it’d be much warmer this time around.

  “Sure!”

  — — —

  A week passed in quick succession. Just as she said, I didn’t have to do anything I didn't want to… or much at all, even. It was closer to an honorary position than anything. Security was all taken care of by the Tenok, and I was just left to roam around as I always did. I felt a little hollow now… was this Empty-Nest Syndrome?

  [Nighteye shakes her head in wonder. How is that you know what Empty-Nest Syndrome is, but you don’t know how to boil water?]

  Hurtful, okay? I knew how to boil water. Just set it on the fire until it starts bubbling. Oh! In a pot. Couldn’t forget the pot. I made that mistake one time and put out the fire… in the middle of a snowstorm. Heh- Elysia was so mad… Elysia…

  Ah! There was one change. Lucia no longer stayed in Kali and I’s apartment. It was sad to see her go. My days stretched on, and I once more lost my grip on time. For a few days, at least. As some things change, others stayed the same.

  ”Aylin, breakfast!” Kali called from the kitchen.

  I pushed Nivia to the side, gently tucked her into the blanket, and then stepped out of my room. Just before I could sit at the table, a knock came form the door. “…”

  I stood up and unlocked it, stepping back for our new neighbor to enter the place. “Morinng, Aylin. Kali! It smells delicious!”

  Yep, Lucia bought the apartment right next to ours. The entire apartment building, in fact. She wasn’t kidding about having access to her assets once more. She played it off as a real estate investment, but her true motives were easy to piece together. Especially when she moved into the apartment litterally next door, and every other apartment on this floor, the one above, and the one below was bought out by a couple of Tenok guards.

  “…” I moved back to the table just in time for Kali to flip a pancake onto the ceiling. It stuck there, holding on tightly to the roof for dear life… how the hell did she imbue life into a pancake?

  ”Maybe too much pepper?” Kali rubbed at her nose, smearing flour all over herself once more. “Ah! It was probably the gum.”

  [Nighteye covers her eyes in terror. What monstrosity was she going to create this time? It’s a surprise the Arbiters haven’t made a law preventing her from cooking yet.]

  Seriously. Could probably fell an S-class Anarch in the proces… though to be fair, it always tasted good. If the whole myth crafting and Mytheks were magic, then Kali’s cooking skills were definitely some kind of witchcraft.

  [Nighteye’s tail twitches in disbelief. She’ll have to take your word for it.]

  We had a quick breakfast, in which Lucia cheerfully talked about all sorts of boring stuff going on in the corporation. Most of it buzzed straight over my head, but Kali seemed like she was following along rather well. How enviable. I got lost as soon as profit-margins and production quotas for Epsilon popped up.

  After that, Lucia went off along with a squadron of chipped bodyguards to work. I returned back to my room-

  Kali stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “That’s it. No more moping! You were doing so good too.”

  “…!” I- I wasn’t moping… okay, maybe I was moping a teensy tiny little bit this time. She had a point. I hadn’t done anything all week.

  ”She just got a job. It isn’t like she died and left you forever.” Kali smirked. “And as I recall it, you have a job too. You may not have a bunch of duties, but you have an obligation to get stronger. An Official Warden’s strength directly reflects the corporation’s strength.”

  Right… right, I should start getting to work on progressing again. I’d stalled out, and there was definitely several dozen routes if I just looked for them. Starting with the Red Evo to evolve one of my Traits.” “Thanks.”

  ”No problem. Now get out there and show them how much of a menace my roommate really is!“ She threw her fist into the air triumphantly.

  Was that supposed to cheer me up? Hmm… Well, I needed somewhere to think, so I guess I could head up to my spot on the old wall. I headed for my room, gathered my Nyx stuff, and set off for the wall.