The next day, the rest of the world woke up with the rising sun in the East, as usual; but not Veridia. Most of the city was still either in slumber or grogging with a heavy collective hangover. However, the new Lord of Veridia was not among them. The first thing Lorian did upon waking up was check his collection of Mystic Coins. To his great surprise, the balance stood at a staggering 1,200 coins.
At first, he suspected it was a glitch or perhaps a surprise gift from his ‘partner’ Azal’Gul. However, he soon realized the truth- after Elmsworth’s death, the entire coffer of Veridia was his. The massive expenditures he had authorized over the past seven days- funerals, coronations, and grand feast, all had acted as a massive ‘transactional harvest’. Though for a moment he was tempted to pull the lever of the mystic slot machine immediately, he curbed his impulses for the time-being. There were more pressing matters at hand that needed his attention.
His first stop was the Whispering Door, where he was going to meet Grisel Gabon. His last meeting with Selena Stormhold the night before had left him uneasy. He found himself low-key lamenting the fact that he had forgotten his promise to himself and let his guard down. When he was granted this second chance at life, he had promised himself he would not repeat the mistakes of his past- and falling in love was at the top of that list.
He had tried his best to remain rigid. Even Bianca’s unearthly, divine beauty had not melted his heart. Compared to her, Selena was simple, plain, and even at first glance. But beneath that unassuming outside appearance, there was something extraordinary buried in her that had fascinated Lorian. This timid, soft-spoken girl possessed an exceptional mind and a resolve as strong as iron.
However, he was bothered by the secrecy surrounding her stay in Veridia. Even his own parents had been strangely protective of her. But her calling herself a “psycho” last night was the most jarring detail of all. Her vulnerability had indeed softened him in that moment, which sparked a protective instinct so fierce that he felt he could take on the world for her. But now in the morning, when his raging emotions of last night subsided, he felt like a fool. His objective today was to collect as much data as possible about the girl. If she truly was a ‘psycho’, her strategic brilliance would have made her a double-edged sword- a troublesome asset he needed to properly understand and ‘handle with care’.
To Lorian’s surprise, Grisel was already well-versed in the rumors surrounding Selena. He realized that in this world, Kings and Lords were the only celebrities, and their lives were the ‘juicy gossip’ of the common man. Because of the lack of media, most news spread as exaggerated rumors. Wise men had to separate the wheat from the chaff to find the grain of truth. Luckily for Lorian, Grisel was such a wise man, and he had already filtered the truth regarding Selena from all the rumors circulating about her.
Valoria was a militaristic city-state just like Aethelgard, but with a fundamental difference. While Aethelgard was founded by the mercenary leader Ivor Ironclad, Valoria was established by the gallant knight Silbas Stormhold. And the nature of the founders had imprinted on the DNA of both city-states. Both of them were specialized in mercenary dispatch, but their ‘clientele’ and assignments differed to a great extent. Valoria’s USP was its core of disciplined, noble knights who were proud of following a rigid, chivalric ideal.
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Selena Stormhold, however, was a complete outlier in this setting. She was infamous for her inclination towards brutal psychological warfare. During her ‘proving’ ceremony, she was tasked with a crackdown on a rebel camp. Instead of a traditional frontal assault, she poisoned the camp’s water source. She forced a total surrender with zero manpower loss on her side.
In Valoria, however, this strategy was perceived as cowardly and heinous. The Council of Paladins branded her a “psycho” and a "source of corruption", declaring her unfit for leadership. After several attempts on her life, her mother, Lady Seraphina, was forced to send her to Veridia, both for her safety and in the hope that the ‘innocence’ of the ‘Idiot Prince’ would rub off on her and tone down her darker traits.
As Grisel described her actions, Lorian noticed a suppressed excitement in the man's voice. Grisel indeed was a fan of her methods. Lorian, too, found himself increasingly drawn to her logic.
However, Selena was not the only item on the agenda. Lorian spoke in detail with Grisel about expanding their espionage network beyond Veridia’s borders. Veridia’s official intelligence network was very rigid, traditional, and focused more on information gathering,- not exactly what Lorian needed for his upcoming endeavors. His main target was the Underworld- a vast, borderless network spread across continent, and ignored the politics of the surface. He ordered Grisel to draft a detailed plan to tap the Underworld and calculate a budget for this expansion on an urgent basis.
On his way back to the Auric Spire, the city was finally beginning to wake. Upon return, he intended to speak with Selena, but he found her deeply disturbed and lost in thought. Lorian was not a nag by nature, so he did not press her.
Besides, he had to deal with Lyssian as well. Surprisingly, Lyssian, who was usually very composed and often very intense, seemed unusually relaxed today. He made some very unusual requests to Lorian upon meeting. He asked Lorian not to include him in any affairs of the realm.
He asked only for unimportant ‘scraps’ of info to pass to the Shroud to keep them satisfied while he focused on his hobbies and drinking. He had one specific request, however: when Lorian eventually took down the Shroud in the future, Azgar was to be left for Lyssian to deal with personally. Lorian agreed, though he resolved to keep his defenses up around the man.
The next names on Lorian’s list were his Special Guests. However, he was not aware that this meeting was destined to change the fate of the whole continent in ways even he had not yet anticipated.
