Chapter 78: Lucian the Cad
The light in the room had dimmed slightly.
Outside the windows, the sun had slipped behind thin cloud, and the light coming through the floor-to-ceiling glass shifted from bright gold to a softer, silvery white, as though a layer of very fine mist had settled over everything.
In that light, Renner's profile looked more sickly than usual. The colour that normally made her golden hair so striking had gone out of it, replaced by a greyed, subdued quality.
Lucian didn't answer.
His gaze rested on the empty teacup on the table. The tea residue at the bottom had dried and settled into a faint ring of pale brown.
The truth was, he genuinely had no idea how Gazef viewed him.
He had, over the years, deliberately avoided every situation that might have put them in the same room. At the Royal Tournament, he had claimed illness and stayed away. Any banquet in the capital where he heard Gazef would be present, he left early. Every time.
He could not allow himself to have any influence on Gazef Stronoff.
In the original story, Gazef was the first native of this world that Ainz had come to recognise and respect. That man needed to reach Ainz Ooal Gown exactly as he had been, unchanged, untouched by anything Lucian might have done to him.
Only then could the various coincidences that led to Shalltear's capture be reproduced as closely as possible.
So Lucian genuinely did not know what the Warrior Captain thought of him.
Seeing him say nothing, Renner tilted her head softly to one side.
"Lucian-chan, the Warrior Captain isn't as complicated as you think."
Lucian raised his eyes.
"For the Warrior Captain," Renner continued, each word enunciated with particular care, "you're something quite specific in his eyes. Someone who values commoners. Someone who keeps going back to the Dragon Kingdom." A faint pause. "He calls you a 'knight-lord.'"
Knight-lord.
The moment the word reached him, something shifted, quietly, in the space behind his ribs.
The fingers resting on his knee pressed inward without his deciding to move them. The tips dug into his palm. Warm. Solid.
Lucian had a clear enough picture of himself.
He wasn't anything like what Gazef apparently believed.
Valued commoners? He had pushed through domain reforms so he could bury the seeds of Enlightenment-era thought in their heads, so that if Ainz Ooal Gown ever did conquer this world, humanity would at least retain the instinct to push back.
Supported the Dragon Kingdom? That was for Sebas. For the plan. Full stop.
Every step he had taken was a calculation. Every choice that looked noble had a cold, functional purpose sitting behind it.
He just happened to be a considerably better option than the Kingdom's average run of noble garbage.
That was all.
The corner of Lucian's mouth curved. What settled there was a smile with more than a little self-deprecation in it.
"Ha ha."
His laugh was quiet, but in the stillness of the tea room it came through with unusual clarity.
"I'm relieved, at least, that the Warrior Captain doesn't have me filed under 'lolicon noble.'"
He kept his tone light, deflecting with a joking ease, as though the evaluation being discussed had nothing whatsoever to do with him.
Renner didn't laugh.
She simply looked at him. In those deep blue eyes, his face was reflected back at him.
"Really, Lucian." There was a trace of gentle reproach in her voice, and something underneath it that was closer to exasperation. "If you were actually a lolicon, you wouldn't have kept me at arm's length when we were small."
She blinked and tilted her head slightly, a sequence of movements entirely natural, lashes brushing softly down and up, and something girlish moved through it.
"I was quite adorable back then, I think."
Lucian's gaze settled on her face for a moment.
Then he looked away.
You're not bad now, either.
He thought it and said absolutely nothing.
He had no intention of finding out what that woman would do with a statement like that.
"Lucian-chan asked me to obtain that ring."
Renner's voice came again. Her tone had returned to its usual ease, as though the blink and the head-tilt had never happened.
"I told the Warrior Captain that you wanted it. He handed it over immediately."
Immediately.
Which meant Gazef hadn't asked what it was for. Hadn't hesitated.
Lucian dropped his gaze.
The light in the room had dimmed a little further. Outside, the thin cloud had thickened, pressing over the sun completely, and a flat grey-white tone spread across everything: the table, the walls, Renner's still hands.
Gazef Stronoff.
The Kingdom's Warrior Captain.
More straightforward than Lucian had ever allowed himself to picture.
By comparison, Lucian thought, he himself looked considerably more like the villain here.
"Is that ring particularly special, Lucian-chan?"
Renner's voice came from across the table. Both hands rested folded in her lap, her posture immaculate. That refined face held a faint curiosity, the look of someone listening to a story they were enjoying.
Lucian raised his eyes.
He let his expression settle back into its usual composed warmth.
"It is, yes."
His tone was measured. Valuable, but not irreplaceable.
"It enhances my abilities somewhat. Against the beastmen, it gives me a meaningful edge."
He was not going to give Renner the full picture.
That ring had originally been in the Platinum Dragon Lord's possession. The Platinum Dragon Lord had passed it to Rigrit, a former member of Blue Roses. Rigrit had then passed it to Gazef, as a successor of sorts.
The ring had been forged through Wild Magic. For warrior classes, it produced a "+1 level" effect.
At low levels, the result was modest: the difference between an ordinary person and a very slightly less ordinary person. Nothing that would change a battle.
But at high levels, the significance was entirely different.
Applied to a level-100 warrior, it could push them past the ceiling. To level 101.
Lucian was not about to leave something like that for Ainz to find.
By now, the ring had already been routed through the Theocracy's capital network and passed to Antirin. A piece of equipment with that kind of effect on high-level combat power belonged on the strongest fighter available.
He was still reviewing this when something stopped him.
His own sequence of events, laid out plainly.
He had gone to a woman. Asked her to obtain a ring from someone on his behalf.
And then given that ring to another woman.
Which was.
Kind of exactly what a scoundrel would do.
Lucian looked at Renner's eyes.
A very specific, uncomfortable feeling settled in his chest.
Under Renner's deep blue gaze, he felt, for the first time he could remember - the particular unease of someone who knows they have something to hide.
He worked to keep his expression open. But under that gaze, his eyes drifted slightly, of their own accord, to one side.
"Lucian-chan."
Her voice was light. Effortless.
And yet it carried the quality of a hunter watching prey step cleanly into the trap.
"You didn't... give that ring to another woman, did you?"
Lucian's pupils contracted. Imperceptibly, but they did.
This woman is a monster.
His face showed nothing.
"Your Highness is teasing me." Lucian's voice came out steady, carrying just the right measure of confused protest. "That ring matters to me. Why would I give it to someone else?"
Renner looked at him for a long time.
A very faint smile settled at the corner of her mouth. But in those deep blue eyes, there was no smile anywhere at all.
"Is that so."
Her voice was as light as a feather landing on still water.
"Good."
She lifted the teacup in front of her and took a small, unhurried sip. Graceful. Composed. As though the question had been nothing more than idle conversation.
But Lucian noticed.
The fingers holding the teacup were pressing inward. At the knuckles, faint white.
"Your Highness." Lucian inclined slightly forward, right hand placed over his chest, and offered the standard noble bow. "The hour is getting late. I'll take my leave."
In situations like this, running was without question the single wisest move available. He was entirely certain of this.
Renner raised her eyes and looked at him.
"Already, Lucian-chan?" Her voice was soft, carrying a quality that was difficult to name precisely. "You're leaving so soon?"
"There are preparations to make." Lucian's tone was respectful. "Regarding the Eight Fingers operation, I need to go and arrange a few things."
Renner gave a small nod, as though she accepted this explanation.
"Of course. Take care on the road, Lucian."
Lucian straightened and walked toward the door, his pace slightly faster than usual.
He moved through the corridor, through the central courtyard, through the great gates of Lorente Castle. Servants and guards along the way inclined their heads toward him, and he returned each acknowledgment with a brief nod and nothing more.
It wasn't until he had stepped fully outside Lorente Castle's walls that he finally stopped.
"I should keep my distance from Renner after this," he said, quietly, to no one.
That woman was terrifying.
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