As night gradually fell, inside the residence specially arranged for Lucian and Cipher by Aglaea, the warm lamplight quietly illuminated the spacious living room, casting a gentle glow across the surroundings and over Lucian himself, who was reclining leisurely in an armchair while calmly reading a book in silence.
It could be said that the atmosphere inside the room was peaceful, warm, and comfortable.
"Lucian!"
Just as Lucian casually turned the next page, Cipher suddenly swept into the room like a gust of wind and, as usual, pounced straight toward him without the slightest hesitation. Her slender arms wrapped tightly around his neck while her entire body hung from him intimately, her fluffy head affectionately nuzzling into the hollow of his neck as a bright and cheerful smile spread across her face.
Lucian lowered his gaze slightly toward the girl clinging to him.
"Did you have fun?"
"Mm!"
Hearing his question, Cipher immediately nodded vigorously, and then, as though she could not wait any longer, she hurriedly pulled something out of her pocket with an expression full of excitement, carefully holding it out like a child presenting a precious treasure she had finally obtained.
"Look! A gift for you!"
Cipher slowly opened her palm, revealing a gem roughly the size of a pigeon's egg.
It looked perfectly round and crystal clear, emitting a faint and gentle glow, as though it had gathered the starlight of the entire universe within itself. Under the warm lamplight, the surface of the gem shimmered beautifully, giving off an almost dreamlike brilliance.
It was none other than the 'Gem of All Worlds.'
Lucian's gaze quietly fell upon the gem, and his eyes shifted ever so slightly.
He naturally recognized it.
To the inhabitants of Amphoreus, the Gem of All Worlds was an incomparably precious treasure with extraordinary meaning and value, but to him, it was unfortunately worthless, since it was merely fragments shed from the Worldbearing Titan itself, no different from insignificant dandruff.
Still, regardless of its actual value, it was ultimately a gift personally prepared by his little cat, and for that reason alone, he naturally had to show that he liked it. More importantly, it was the thought, care, and affection she had poured into it that truly mattered, making the gift far more precious to him than its actual worth ever could.
"Umu, it's beautiful..." Lucian said with a faint smile before raising his hand to gently pat Cipher's head. "Thank you, I like it very much."
Even though the gem itself was useless and meaningless to him, Cipher's feelings were something entirely different.
As soon as she saw that Lucian genuinely accepted it, Cipher immediately became delighted as well. Her fluffy tail swayed happily from side to side behind her, unable to hide her excitement in the slightest.
However, after a brief moment, that faint trace of tension quietly surfaced on her face once again.
"Lucian... umm... if the scales of the Law Titan got broken, could you fix them?"
Cipher lightly licked her lips, her voice softening slightly as she asked the question in a cautious, tentative manner.
If she directly mentioned the Dawn Device, then it would mean Lucian would learn about the lie ahead of time, causing him to instinctively distrust her scheme and making the entire plan collapse before it could even truly begin.
For that reason, she had no choice but to test him indirectly in this manner instead.
In her eyes, the Law Titan's scales and the Worldbearing Titan's Dawn Device were both divine constructs of an extremely high order. If he possessed the ability to repair the scales of the Law Titan, then logically speaking, Lucian should also be capable of repairing the Dawn Device.
That way, Lucian would not notice anything unusual, nor would he immediately associate her strange question with the Dawn Device itself. Even if things truly reached the worst possible outcome, she could still carry out her final plan to save the world through the lies of Trickery.
Meanwhile, when Cipher suddenly asked that question, Lucian immediately turned his gaze toward her, directly gazing into her blue eyes.
Although she was trying her best to maintain a calm and composed appearance, the nervousness in her expression was already obvious to the point of almost resembling panic. Even the subtle stiffness in her posture and the unnatural hesitation in her voice exposed the unease she was desperately trying to hide.
Seeing Cipher acting that way, Lucian instantly understood everything.
Now that he thought about it, the fact that Cipher had even taken out the Gem of All Worlds meant that she had already gone to Okhema's Council of Elders beforehand. And now that she was asking such an oddly specific question, it was practically certain that she had already heard the prophecy concerning the Dawn Device.
'Is she troubled by the prophecy? Or is she trying to see if I've got what it takes to solve it?'
Lucian could not help but feel a faint sense of relief in his heart.
At the very least, Cipher still knew how to rely on him, unlike in the original story, where she had chosen to lie outright before silently leaving home alone, abandoning Aglaea and everyone else behind without telling them anything.
Just as Lucian was about to tell Cipher that he already had a solution in mind, his eyes suddenly caught a trace of restless intent hidden deep within her gaze. Her eyes repeatedly drifted downward toward his upper thigh, only to quickly move away again as though she were trying to suppress certain thoughts from surfacing.
Apparently, she was hiding other thoughts as well.
'Could she be thinking, "Before I leave, I should give myself to him"?'
As that thought crossed his mind, a faint hint of amusement immediately flashed through Lucian's eyes, and he suddenly found himself interested in teasing her a little to see whether his guess was actually correct.
In the very next moment, he deliberately frowned slightly, revealing a distinctly 'troubled' expression, as though he had encountered a genuinely difficult problem.
"Fix them?" Lucian raised his brows before shaking his head with a helpless smile. "Nope. I'm only good at stealing and breaking stuff. Delicate repair work... yeah, that's one thing I really can't do."
"..."
As soon as Cipher heard Lucian's answer, the faint glimmer of hope that had barely remained within her eyes instantly dimmed completely, while her little face visibly fell as well. Her shoulders drooped slightly, and even the light within her eyes became noticeably weaker.
'So it really isn't gonna work... Even Lucian can't fix the Dawn Device...'
Cipher thought dejectedly as she slowly lowered her head.
'In that case... guess this is really the only way it's gonna end...'
A quiet silence soon filled the room.
In the end, after several long seconds of silence, Cipher slowly raised her head again, and by then, her expression had already shifted into a forced yet relaxed smile. However, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, the smile still looked somewhat strained and unnatural.
"I see... I thought you could do anything..." Cipher said softly before gently reaching out and taking Lucian's hand in hers. "C'mon! I still got... another gift for you!"
Immediately after saying that, she directly pulled Lucian along toward the bedroom without waiting for his response.
Forcefully led forward by Cipher, Lucian soon entered the warmly lit bedroom, where soft yellow light continuously poured down from above, quietly dyeing the entire room in a warm and intimate atmosphere, causing the mood between the two of them to gradually become subtly ambiguous.
After entering the room, Cipher gently closed the door behind her, then slowly turned around and leaned her back against the door, quietly gazing at the man standing before her.
"Lucian..."
Cipher called out softly, her beautiful blue eyes carrying an unusually gentle gaze while her voice sounded especially soft and emotional.
"Thank you... Thank you for everything you've done for me all these years..."
"I probably would've died a long time ago in some filthy ditch back in Dolos without you... And I never would've gotten the chance to experience days this happy and peaceful..."
"Meeting you was honestly the luckiest thing that ever happened to me..."
As Cipher spoke, Lucian's reflection remained clearly visible within her blue eyes the entire time. Her gaze was filled with deep attachment, heartfelt gratitude, and an unmistakable reluctance to part, as though she wanted to firmly engrave his appearance into the deepest part of her memory before she left.
"Fera, why're you suddenly saying all this?" Lucian looked at her with a puzzled expression, deliberately pretending not to get what she meant. "You're making it sound like you're about to run away from home and never come back..."
Hearing his unexpectedly accurate guess, Cipher's delicate body stiffened slightly, and even the cat ears atop her head twitched uneasily as she avoided his probing gaze.
"No... I... I just don't know how to repay you..."
Cipher said softly, her voice weak and uncertain.
In the end, she hesitated for a long moment before finally working up the courage to speak again, her voice trembling.
"If I told you I wanna give you my chastity as a gift... would you take it?"
As soon as those shameful yet sincere words left her lips, Cipher instantly felt all the strength drain from her body, while her heart pounded wildly and uncontrollably inside her chest.
Would Lucian accept her?
Or would Lucian find her cheap and distasteful?
Cipher tightly shut her eyes, not daring to look at Lucian's expression at all, only daring to nervously wait for his answer in suffocating silence.
"..."
Lucian quietly looked at the brave yet shy catgirl standing before him—at her deeply flushed cheeks, her moist and trembling eyes, and the slightly quivering cat ears on top of her head—before a gentle and indulgent smile slowly appeared on his face.
He slowly raised his hand and gently cupped her burning cheeks, his warm fingertips lightly brushing across her smooth and delicate skin, causing her body to tremble even more noticeably.
"Why wouldn't I?"
Lucian responded in a low, gentle voice filled with a calming magnetism capable of soothing people's hearts as his thumb softly stroked Cipher's cheek.
"You're my favorite kitty. Always have been. And now you're actually offering yourself to me... how am I supposed to say no? Compared to some cold treasure or a bunch of pointless riches, I'd way rather have you, Fera."
As his tender words fell upon her ears, Cipher felt as though something had struck the deepest part of her heart, causing an indescribable surge of sourness, sweetness, warmth, and swelling emotion to spread violently through her chest until it became so overwhelmingly intense that it nearly overflowed completely.
"Lucian…"
Cipher murmured, her voice carrying a faint tremble as she slowly rose onto her tiptoes on her own initiative. Her soft pink lips parted ever so slightly beneath the dim lighting, as if silently inviting him closer.
Seeing that, Lucian hesitated no longer.
He gently leaned forward and softly captured those delicate lips with his own, his movements careful and tender, as though he feared breaking the fragile atmosphere between them.
In that instant, both of them clearly felt the warmth and softness of each other's lips, causing their bodies to tremble ever so faintly from the intimate contact.
Just like that, the quiet bedroom gradually became filled with an ambiguous warmth.
Soon enough, their clothes slipped away one piece after another like a receding tide, falling silently onto the carpet beside the bed, while the dim yellow light filling the room outlined their overlapping bare bodies.
Beneath the hazy moonlight, their swaying shadows stretched across the wall, intertwining as though silently dancing together within the night, and as time passed, the temperature within the bedroom steadily rose, causing their breathing to gradually grow heavier and more uneven as it blended together within the quiet atmosphere of the room.
No one knew how much time had passed before the storm within the bedroom finally began to slowly subside.
At this moment, Cipher already lay limply within Lucian's embrace without a single piece of fabric covering her body. Her fair skin still retained a faint lingering flush of warmth, while the blush upon her cheeks had yet to fully fade.
However, if one looked carefully into her eyes, instead of satisfaction and joy, her gaze held a complicated sorrow mixed with hesitation and reluctance.
'At least I've got no regrets now...'
After remaining silent for a long while, Cipher finally raised her head slightly and quietly looked at Lucian's handsome face from close range, as though trying to deeply memorize every detail of him within her heart.
"Lucian…"
Cipher softly called out again, her slightly hoarse voice sounding gentler than usual.
"I'm... I'm gonna head out for a while... don't come looking for me. I'm gonna go be a hero for a bit. You don't gotta worry about me, okay?"
After saying that, Cipher paused for a moment before looking straight into Lucian's eyes, the pleading look in them impossible to hide.
"I'm sorry I can't tell you the details, but this means a lot to me, so... can you promise me?"
Seeing her act like that, Lucian froze for a moment.
'Why does this scene feel so strangely familiar?'
Overcome by a strong sense of deja vu, Lucian lowered his gaze and pondered seriously for a long moment before finally arriving at the answer.
'Ah... the script...'
In all the previous scripts, it had always been him saying goodbye to his lovers before turning around and leaving on his own. Yet now, the roles had somehow become completely reversed, with Cipher unexpectedly taking over his role instead.
Lucian could not help but let out a helpless sigh, increasingly feeling that it was finally time to come clean about everything. If Cipher genuinely misunderstood the situation and suddenly disappeared without ever returning, the aftermath would definitely become awkward and troublesome later on.
"You're leaving?"
"Just because you're scared I'll see through the lie behind the Dawn Device, you're really gonna ditch me like this?"
"You bad kitty."
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