G6 now occupied the entire bench, her body thrumming with irritation at Prince Dio's sudden and inexplicable behavior.
She lay sprawled across it, hands tucked behind her head as a makeshift pillow, her grey eyes staring blankly at the sky as if it held the answers to his absurdity.
"I wonder if Lady Reise is angry," Lilia whispered from the adjacent bench.
"She is," Tina confirmed, her voice low. "You know how intensely she despises being ordered about, let alone being manhandled without her consent."
I think… I don't need to keep up this charade of training anymore. I've learned enough. I'll build my stamina somewhere else, G6's thoughts ran, her gaze fixed on the passing clouds. Real battle is the only thing that truly forces the body to adapt. It's time.
"But how?" she murmured aloud.
A slow, cunning smile spread across her face, the previous irritation forgotten as a new plan took root. To keep the queen from getting suspicious, I'll do the usual drills here in the morning. But in the afternoon…
She sat up, swinging her legs down with a fluid motion. One boot remained planted firmly on the bench, her arm resting on her knee—a posture of pure, unladylike defiance. Her focus sharpened, zeroing in on Earl as he prepared Brenda and Zen for their session.
I have to get that Dimensional Vault. I need it. Her eyes narrowed. But how can I get it without waiting for him to finally deem me 'ready' to remove these stupid restraints?
"Hmm… are you planning to assassinate Earl?" Keith's voice cut through her scheming as he dropped onto the bench beside her, pushing her boot off with a nudge.
"How dare you," G6 said, her tone flat and dangerous.
"Your expression is murderous," he teased, though his eyes were watchful.
"Too bad for you, that particular thought hadn't crossed my mind," she barked back.
"What evil scheme are you concocting that involves him, then?" Keith asked, as if he could see the gears turning in her head.
"Nothing," G6 answered, her eyes now locking onto the simple silver stud in Keith's ear. "Hey, Keith. How do I get one of those without going through Earl?"
"Oh? This?" he asked, tapping the jewelry. "You can requisition one. You're Collegium staff. Just ask Brenda."
"Brenda? Doesn't she work in the library?"
"She does, but she handles acquisitions for our department. You got your training gear from her, didn't you? The storage cabinets for Omnia and Sanctum are linked. You just tap your professional identification card on the secure cabinet, and the respective department logs the transaction. It's for security," Keith explained.
So, I don't really need that jerk's help after all? Well, he did give me that book… the one we traded for. I still haven't read it.
"I see," was her short, calculated reply.
"Sir Keith, shall we not begin?" Eliza's gentle voice interrupted as she approached.
"Oh, right. Go on ahead to Earl; I'll follow," Keith said dismissively.
"I understand," Eliza said, turning her saccharine smile on G6. "Lady Reise, it seems you have finally regained your energy."
G6's head turned slowly, her gaze icy. "Don't talk to me," she stated, her voice devoid of all warmth.
The command was so cold it made Keith blink in sudden surprise.
This girl really ticks me off. Maybe her saintly aura is repelled by mine. Her face and attitude is screaming 'pick me'.
"Oh… I apologize, Lady Reise. That was improper of me," Eliza said, expertly layering her voice with a veneer of shame.
"What is happening here?" Prince Dio's voice intervened. He had returned, holding a bottle of chilled water.
"Nothing, Prince Dio…" Eliza said, her tone shifting to that of a subtly bullied victim. "It is just… I believe I have offended Lady Reise…"
Tch. This bitch. Just sleep with him and be done with it. Don't use me as your prop.
"I told her not to talk to me," G6 stated, rising to her feet. "She must keep forgetting that I am not nice." She took a step closer to Eliza, her presence suddenly overwhelming. "Unless you can offer me something worth my time, refrain from speaking to me." The dismissal was absolute, final. She shoved her hands into her pockets and strode toward her three servants, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.
Eliza stood perfectly still, radiating humiliated shock.
"Seems the gossip was right," Keith muttered. "Reise is in a foul mood today."
"Do not mind her. Focus on your task," Prince Dio said to Eliza, his tone neither comforting nor cold—merely a reminder of her purpose. "Keith, attend to your responsibility." With that, he followed G6.
G6 tapped Edmund's shoulder, a silent command to make room for her on their bench.
"Are you quite angry, Lady Reise?" Lilia asked timidly from her side.
"I am not angry," G6 corrected, her voice still cool. "I am simply the type of person who shows no interest in things I deem unworthy of my attention."
"So it was not jealousy that she is encroaching upon your… territory?" Dio intervened, offering her the bottle of water.
Why does he keep approaching me? Was being a silent observer not enough?
"Shut up and get lost," G6 said, snatching the water from him. She opened it, giving it a cautious sniff before taking a drink—a habitual, professional check for contaminants.
"Reise…" Dio called, and his voice had changed. It was lower, more intent.
This is an interrogation.
"I'm not answering any questions," G6 shot back immediately.
"I have not asked one yet," he pointed out.
"You were about to," she retorted. "Now, can you move? I'd rather look at people with actual color in their faces instead of your pale mug."
Dio sighed, preparing to press his point, when G6 suddenly clutched her head, her face contorting in a sharp, silent gasp of pain.
"Reise! What is it?" Dio asked, his formal composure cracking as he stepped closer. Her three servants immediately stood, forming a protective, worried circle around her.
A high-pitched frequency, felt more than heard, screamed through her skull, drowning out all other sound.
Fuck. What is this violent ringing in my head? G6 thought,her fingers gripping her hair as if to physically tear the sensation out.
"Reise! Can you hear me?" Dio's voice called, but it sounded distant, muffled, as if she were submerged in water. The voices around her faded into a dull hum.
'The author died 50 years ago…'
'Witherby…'
'The Wonder of a Wonderful World?'
What is this? Why am I seeing Witherby's book… but in a place I've never seen before?
Echoes of a forgotten conversation and a flash of an ambiguous, unfamiliar memory—a stark, clear image that felt both alien and intimately connected—flashed behind her eyes.
"REISE!"
Dio's shout cut through the static as he gripped her shoulders, giving her a firm shake. The world snapped back into focus with jarring suddenness.
His yell had caught the attention of everyone in the arena. Keith and Earl immediately broke from their training and rushed over.
"What's wrong?" Earl asked, his scholarly tone replaced by genuine alarm.
"I…" G6 began, her voice uncharacteristically unsteady. She took a sharp breath, mastering herself. "I need to return to the West Villa. Immediately."
"What? Are you unwell?" Dio asked, his voice now layered with a concern that was entirely real.
G6 locked eyes with him where he knelt before her, his expression openly worried. For a fleeting second, the intensity of it gave her pause.
"Get your hands off me," she said, the command cold and automatic. She stood up, her movements deliberate as she fought for control.
"I was just reminded of a pressing matter I must attend to at the villa," she stated, layering her tone with a forced neutrality that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Lady Reise, you look pale," Lilia observed, her voice small.
"Are you certain you are alright?" Tina pressed, her brow furrowed.
The entire group watched her with undisguised worry.
"I am fine. I was merely reminded of something… important," she said, the confusion she felt still evident beneath the steel in her voice.
Without another word, she turned and walked swiftly toward the exit, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.
"What's happening to Lady Reise?" Lilia asked Tina, her voice trembling on the verge of tears at her mistress's sudden distress.
"I do not know…" Tina answered, her own composure shaken.
"Our lady is likely simply exhausted," Edmund stated, taking charge. "Tina, Lilia, gather our things from her office. I will ensure Lady Reise returns to the villa safely." He gave them a curt, decisive nod before striding off after his lady.
Tina and Lilia offered quick, flustered bows to the nobles and hurried away to their task.
"I wonder what that was all about," Keith mused aloud, watching them go.
"Is Lady Reise going to be alright?" Brenda asked, her usual sharpness softened by concern.
"Hmm. She was not her usual… neutral self," Earl added, adjusting his glasses as he analyzed the event.
"She must be exhausted," Dio said, his voice dropping to a low, accusatory tone as he turned a sharp gaze on Earl. "Someone pushed her far beyond her limits today."
"Whoa. Someone can't seem to move on from that," Keith fired back, jumping to Earl's defense.
"It was a consensual training exercise for her advanced mana control," Earl retorted, his own temper fraying. "Nothing more."
"I suppose her sitting atop you was also a necessary part of her 'control'?" Dio snapped, the jealousy from earlier resurfacing with a vengeance.
"Both of you, shut up!" Brenda intervened, stepping between them. "Let us return to our training. And I need to conclude early today."
"Huh? This is your first day at the Bastion and you are already slacking?" Keith accused.
"I intend to visit the West Villa to ensure Lady Reise is well," Brenda stated firmly.
"Let's do that," Dio, Keith, and Earl said in unintended unison. They immediately threw suspicious glances at each other.
"Okay, shall we… begin then?" Zen interjected, the only voice of rationality left in the group.
"Ah, right. Reise is not here," Dio said, the fight draining out of him as he remembered her abrupt departure. "There is no further reason for me to stay. I will return to my office and attend to the remaining paperwork." With that, he turned and retreated, his own thoughts a turbulent mix of concern and frustration.
"Tch. That jerk!" Keith barked at Dio's retreating back.
"It seems Prince Dio is quite… interested in Lady Reise now," Eliza observed quietly, her words dripping with a subtle, poisonous sweetness.
The rest of the group turned to look at her, the unspoken tension thickening.
"She is to be his wife, after all," Zen stated flatly, his words a simple, indisputable fact that hung in the air like a verdict.
And so, the arena fell quiet, the morning's fierce energy dissipating into a cloud of confusion and concern. The sparks of rivalry and jealousy were left smoldering, overshadowed by a single, pressing question: what unseen ghost from her past had reached out so violently to reclaim the unflappable Lady Reise? The game had suddenly changed, and none of the players knew the new rules.
_____
[WEST VILLA]
G6 slammed the door to her room open, with Edmund hovering anxiously at her back.
That wasn't a memory. It felt like a summon. A direct call to that damn book.
She strode directly to her bedside table and yanked the drawer open. Her fingers closed around the worn leather cover of Witherby's book, the artifact that had followed her from her modern world into this one.
She flipped it open. The inscription on the first page was unchanged. But when she turned to the next, the once-blank parchment now bore a message, the ink seeming to gleam as if freshly written:
'The vessel nears its purpose. The call you hear is the echo of a door beginning to open. The truth you seek is a shadow stretching long in the setting sun, soon to be revealed. Fear not the unraveling of the unknown, for it is the price and the prize of a second dawn.'
-Witherby, a Resonance of the All-Seers
G6's eyes narrowed, her mind racing to dissect the cryptic poetry. "What the hell is this psychotic riddle supposed to mean?" she mused aloud, her voice a low growl of frustration. She threw the book back into the drawer and slammed it shut.
She stalked to the tea table and dropped into a chair, crossing her arms. Edmund remained a steady, silent presence near the foot of her bed.
"It's time," G6 stated abruptly.
"What do you mean, my lady?" Edmund asked, though a sense of foreboding told him he already knew.
"Didn't I tell you? I'd tell you when the time was right." G6's words dragged his mind back to their conversation on her very first day in the arena, to the dangerous understanding they had forged.
Edmund's eyes twitched slightly. He was fully aware of the dire consequences of aiding her in this double life. "I recall our conversation now, my lady."
"I want to go to the Adventurers' Guild."
"But, my lady… your body is still adjusting to the mana strain," Edmund cautioned, the loyal steward warring with the co-conspirator.
"My body will adapt faster under real threat. Coddling it in that arena is slowing me down," she countered, fixing him with a look of absolute seriousness. "There are too many things I need to find out, Edmund. That guild was just a curiosity before… but now it feels like something is actively pulling me there." Her gaze drifted toward the balcony, as if she could see the destination on the horizon.
"It will create significant complications if your absence is noted. Let alone the fact that Tina and Lilia would never permit it," Edmund reasoned.
"I will handle Tina and Lilia. And don't worry; I'll still make my appearances at the arena to keep the Queen placated," G6 assured him, her plan already forming. "We will sneak out in the afternoons."
"Are you determined in this, my lady?" Edmund asked, his tone formal and grave.
G6 met his gaze without flinching. "I am."
"Then our first order of business is to construct a perfect alibi," Edmund said, seamlessly shifting into his role as her chief strategist. He moved to sit at the table across from her. "This is merely a suggestion… but why not use the pursuit of Utility Magic as your pretext?"
"How would that work?" G6 asked, leaning forward
"To master Utility Magic, one must train at its dedicated department. It is housed in a building nearly as large as the West Villa itself, situated on the main palace grounds but nearer the outer walls," he explained. "It is sparsely staffed and operates almost entirely under the authority of House Worthon."
"So you're suggesting I can manipulate them into vouching for my presence?" G6 asked. "Seems flimsy."
"You underestimate the loyalty of your House's workers, my lady. Their fealty is to the Worthon name first, the Crown a distant second," Edmund stated, his voice low and intent. "They are willing to do anything for the family, however absurd the request. Their discretion is absolute."
Hmm… So, deep-seated loyalty? Well-trained dogs. It's a trait I respect for its usefulness and despise for its blindness.
"And how does this keep Tina and Lilia away?"
"We will assign them tasks in your office—paperwork, inventory—enough to occupy them within those walls for an entire afternoon. The palace is vast, my lady; its grounds are equivalent to three small towns. The journey from here to the Utility Department alone takes thirty minutes on foot," he elaborated. "Teleportation magic tools are reserved solely for emergencies or royal summons to the main palace."
Edmund, you sly, brilliant little shit. A genuine, proud smile touched G6's lips—the look a master gives an exceptionally clever apprentice.
"Then it's settled. We address the main problem first," G6 said, the plan crystallizing. "We will go and see the Queen and inform her I will be spending half of my days at the Utility Department."
"Very well, Lady Reise. I will send an advanced notice to the Queen's chamber of your visit while you prepare," Edmund agreed.
A knock sounded at the door. It opened to reveal Tina and Lilia. "Lady Reise," Tina greeted, her expression still lined with concern.
"Perfect timing. Fetch my usual black dress and draw a bath. I am going to see the Queen," G6 commanded.
The Queen? Tina's thoughts swirled with confusion, but she offered only a curt nod and moved to obey.
"Lilia, tell Alistair to bring me something small to eat. I'm hungry," G6 said.
"Right away, Lady Reise!" Lilia chirped, her cheerfulness returning now that her mistress seemed restored.
"Then, I will see to my part," Edmund said, standing. He offered a deep, respectful bow, his eyes meeting hers with a glint of shared conspiracy before he took his leave.
Alone for a moment, G6 let her head fall back against the chair.
Witherby, a Resonance of the All-Seers… Maybe Pisces was right. Buying a book from that dusty antique shop in Cairo was a seriously bad idea.
She closed her eyes. The oddities and mysteries, it seemed, would get deeper before I could grasp any clue. The case board is a mess.
______
G6 strode through the palace corridors with purposeful speed, her black attire a slash of darkness against the sunlit stone. Her three servants followed in her wake, a silent, concerned entourage.
"I wonder what business Lady Reise has with Her Majesty," Lilia mused quietly to Tina.
"It is likely nothing of grave import. Do not trouble yourself over it," Edmund interjected smoothly, his tone leaving no room for further inquiry.
"What exactly does our lady require from the Queen?" Tina pressed, her voice low. She had been Edmund's counterpart for years; she could sense when he was being deliberately evasive.
"All will be made clear in due time," Edmund replied, his words a polite but firm dismissal.
Tina fell silent, though a faint frown of doubt remained on her face.
I hope this Witch doesn't get suspicious. It creeps me out every time, like she can see right through me.
G6's thoughts were a whirlwind of calculation as she walked, her face an impassive mask.
After a few minutes, they reached the end of a grand, arched pathway that opened into the private gardens leading to the Queen's personal residence—a veritable mansion nestled within the palace grounds.
G6 did not slow her pace, moving directly to the ornate main doors, which were opened by a pair of silent guards. Inside, servants bowed deeply as Leo, the Queen's impeccably dressed butler, glided forward to meet them.
"A pleasure to see you, Lady Reise," he greeted with a deep, formal bow.
"Is the Queen available?" G6 asked, dispensing with any preamble.
"She is in her study. Please, follow me," Leo said, gesturing toward a grand staircase.
G6 ascended, her servants following at a respectful distance. At the top, she walked down a long hallway to a set of imposing double doors at the end. Leo opened them without a sound, revealing the Queen seated behind an expansive, polished desk piled with documents.
The three servants immediately dropped into deep, respectful bows.
"Your Majesty," G6 stated, offering a curt, respectful nod instead of a bow.
"It is a rare sight to see you outside the Royal Collegium at this hour, Lady Reise," the Queen remarked, not looking up from the missive she was reading.
G6 took a seat on the plush couch facing the desk. "My control has improved. I can now cast my skills and magic with minimal physical strain," she said, layering her tone with a hint of pride that was only partially feigned.
"So I have been informed. Sir Keith was quite… enthusiastic in his report of your progress this morning," the Queen replied, finally setting down her paper.
That idiot. Why does he always run and tell my business to this old hag?
"It seems Keith is very fond of you. He seizes every opportunity to come here and pester his busy aunt," the Queen added, a knowing glint in her eye.
"He's just a simpleton," G6 dismissed. She would not be derailed. "I am here to inform you that I will be spending the latter half of my days at the Utility Magic Department."
The Queen's pen stilled. Her eyes lifted, sharp and assessing. "So you are not here to ask for my permission."
"I did not believe it was required," G6 replied, her voice a carefully crafted blend of respect and defiance. "However, it seemed appropriate to keep you apprised of my whereabouts." She allowed a faint, cold smile. "As you are my master, after all."
The Queen's lips curved into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "How thoughtful of you to show such consideration." She leaned forward slightly. "But what of the afternoon paperwork I assigned you at the Royal Collegium? The oversight of new inventions from the Sanctum and Omnia requires your opinion."
Ah. Right. After that prevention meeting, she dumped that bureaucratic busywork on me, claiming I needed to 'broaden my horizons.'
"Tina is more than capable of the initial review," G6 said, her voice utterly confident. "Her knowledge is extensive. After my sessions at the Utility Department, I will review her work and make any necessary corrections. The efficiency will be greater this way."
A slow, knowing smirk spread across the Queen's face. "It seems you have given this matter considerable thought."
"I have."
"Very well. If you have the matters of your office in hand, I have no objection," the Queen conceded, her tone light but her gaze heavy with unspoken scrutiny.
"Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty," G6 said, offering a smile that was all sharp edges and no warmth.
The scene was nothing less than a duel between two mischievous players, each trying to read the other's hidden cards.
"Then I will not take up more of your valuable time. You appear quite busy," G6 said, rising and offering another curt bow.
As she straightened, her eyes flickered to a specific, stark black ledger resting on the corner of the Queen's desk.
The Black Ledger. The name surfaced in G6's mind with the cold clarity of professional recognition.
"Until next time," the Queen said, her smile unwavering.
G6 turned and walked toward the door. But she paused on the threshold, glancing over her shoulder one last time at the book.
The aura coming from it is ridiculously familiar.
She continued her exit, the image of the ledger burning in her mind. Her old world's profession supplied the context her new one lacked. A book like that wasn't for accounting. It was a register. A list of names—individuals whose crimes were too monstrous for public justice, or whose positions were too powerful for a scandal. It was a hit list. A target roster for those who operated in the shadows.
The audience was concluded, the permission granted. But as G6 walked away, she knew the real discovery hadn't been her fabricated excuse, but the Queen's hidden ledger. A simple request had unearthed a far more tantalizing mystery: what sins, what secrets, were so grave they required a monarch to keep a personal record of them? The path to the Adventurers' Guild now seemed less like an escape and more like the first step toward a much darker truth.
— To be continued… —