Dominante laughed. It was a harsh, barking sound devoid of humor. "Walk in the light? You think you can just wave a wand and make the Diamond Kingdom forget I exist? There is a bounty on my head large enough to buy a castle! There are assassins hunting me who make the Clover Knights look like children!"
She glared at him, her fear turning into anger.
"You're arrogant, boy. You have no idea what you're talking about."
"I know exactly what I'm talking about,"
Lencar countered, his voice hardening. "I know about the assassination squads. I know about the experiments. And I know that bounties are just numbers. And numbers can be erased."
He held up a gloved hand.
"Here is the offer. You work for me. Not as a slave, but as a specialist. You continue to make artifacts. But more importantly... you teach me."
"Teach you?" Dominante blinked.
"I want your knowledge," Lencar said. "I want to learn the syntax of the runes. I want to understand the structure of artifacts. I want you to teach me everything you know about mana engineering."
He paused, letting the weight of the request settle.
"And in exchange... I will take care of the bounty. I will make it disappear. I will ensure that the Diamond Kingdom stops looking for you. I will give you a life where you don't have to hide in a watermill. A life where you and Fanzell can live in a house, sleep in a bed, and walk down the street without fear."
Dominante stared at him. It sounded like a fairy tale. It sounded like a lie designed to trap a desperate woman.
"You can't do that," she said, shaking her head. "Nobody can do that. Not even the Wizard King."
"The Wizard King plays by the rules," Lencar said. "I don't. I have resources you can't imagine. I have networks that span borders."
He was bluffing slightly—he didn't have the networks yet, but he had the knowledge of the future. He knew the Diamond Kingdom was crumbling. He knew the political shifts that were coming. And he knew that if he grew strong enough, he could simply kill the assassins until they stopped coming.
"You're lying," Dominante said, but her voice lacked conviction. She wanted to believe him. God, she wanted to believe him.
"Test me," Lencar challenged. "What do you have to lose? You're already hiding. If I fail, you're in the same spot. If I succeed... you get your life back."
Dominante looked at Mariella. The assassin shrugged slightly, the ice fading from the air. Even the cold-blooded killer seemed intrigued by the audacity of the claim.
Dominante looked back at Lencar. She saw the mask. She saw the confidence. She saw the gold in her pocket.
A crooked, mocking smile touched her lips beneath her own mask.
"You talk big for a ghost," she scoffed, trying to regain some semblance of control. "Fine. You want to play hero? Go ahead. If you can actually get the Diamond dogs off my scent... if you can actually make it safe for me to show my face..."
She laughed again, shaking her head.
"Then I'll teach you whatever you want. I'll teach you how to write runes until your eyes bleed. I'll teach you how to build a golem out of mud and spit. But don't expect me to hold my breath waiting for you to deliver."
Lencar nodded. "That's all I ask. Skepticism is healthy. But preparation is better."
He pointed a finger at her.
"Start compiling your notes, Dominante. Organize your theories on Mana Method and Rune Syntax. Because when I deliver... and I will deliver... I expect you to be ready to start the lesson immediately. I don't like wasting time."
Dominante snorted. "You're a demanding boss for someone who hasn't done anything yet. But fine. I'll dig out my old journals. Assuming the rats haven't eaten them."
"Good."
Lencar stepped back. The tension in the clearing had dissipated, replaced by the strange, fragile atmosphere of a business deal made at gunpoint.
"Our business is concluded for tonight," Lencar said. "I have the gauntlets. You have the gold. And we have an accord."
"Yeah, yeah," Dominante waved him off, turning to leave. "Just don't get yourself killed trying to be a savior. Dead clients don't pay the balance."
She grabbed Mariella's arm. "Come on. Let's go before he decides he wants a refund."
The two women retreated into the shadows of the birch trees. Dominante glanced back once, her purple eyes lingering on Lencar with a mixture of hope and disbelief. Then, they vanished into the brush, moving with the silence of people who had spent a lifetime running.
Lencar stood alone on the roof of the shed.
He let out a long breath, the tension leaving his shoulders. He looked at the black iron gauntlets on his hands. They felt heavy, anchoring him to the reality of his plan.
Step one: Acquisition, he thought. Step two: Leverage.
He had planted the seed. Dominante didn't believe him yet, but she was desperate enough to wait and see. And once he started dismantling the Diamond threats—once he dealt with Mars in the dungeon—he would have the proof he needed to secure her loyalty forever.
He checked his internal map.
He could teleport home. It would be instant.
No, Lencar decided. Dominante is paranoid. She might have left a sensory trap or a familiar behind to watch me. If I use Spatial Magic now, she'll know I'm a high-level mage. She might think I'm a noble from the Clover Kingdom, which would complicate things. She hates nobles.
He needed to maintain the persona of the "Ghost Scholar." A man of mystery, not a known quantity.
He jumped down from the roof, his boots sinking into the soft mud of the riverbank.
"I'll walk," he whispered.
He pulled his cloak tighter around him. He began to trek through the woods, moving away from the mill, heading toward the main road that led back to Nairn.
He walked for two miles in the dark, listening to the owls and the rustle of the wind in the leaves. He let the solitude wash over him.
As he walked, his mind drifted from the negotiation to the gauntlets. He flexed his fingers.
These will let me fuse attributes, he thought. Wind and Fire. Water and Ice. I can start experimenting with compound spells without blowing my hands off.
He looked up at the moon through the canopy.
Dominante thinks I'm arrogant, Lencar mused. Maybe I am. But arrogance is just ambition without the data to back it up. And I have all the data.
He reached a bend in the road where the trees thinned out. He checked his [Sensory Domain]. No one was watching. The coast was clear.
"[Spatial Magic]: [Coordinate Shift]."
He vanished from the road, leaving only footprints in the mud that would be washed away by the morning rain.
He reappeared in his bedroom in the Scarlet household. He stripped off the gear, hid the gauntlets in the Void Vault, and climbed into bed.
The alarm vine on his ear withered and fell off as he deactivated the spell.
He closed his eyes, the image of the purple-eyed witch and the ice assassin etched into his mind. He had expanded his network again. He had acquired a teacher.
Now, all he had to do was achieve the impossible and make an entire hostile kingdom forget a bounty.
"Easy," Lencar muttered sleepily, burying his face in the pillow. "Just another variable to solve."