Chapter 14: Mind Blowing Information!
His foot connected with the figure’s face before they even registered movement above them.
Cartilage crunched. Blood sprayed.
’Nose should be broken. Good start.’
The figure staggered, one hand flying to their face — and Lucien’s new senses lit up, blood suddenly his to command, hovering, obedient.
He shaped it midair into thin, hardened needles and sent them flying at the figure’s eyes.
A forearm snapped up on reflex, catching the needles instead — but the distraction left their lower body completely undefended.
A second volley, low and fast, buried into thigh and calf.
The figure screamed, a raw, ragged sound, and dropped to one knee.
Lucien closed the distance in two steps and drove his boot into their face again.
The figure crumpled, unconscious.
Silence settled over the alley, broken only by Lucien’s own controlled breathing.
’Didn’t kill them yet, but they are unconscious, anyway — I need answers first.’
He crouched beside the fallen figure, groceries forgotten on the ground beside him, and reached for the edge of the hood.
’Assassin? Spy? Messenger? One of my wives’ lovely extended families, sending round two?’
His fingers closed around the fabric.
He pulled the hood back.
The hood fell back.
Scarlet-tinged skin. Sharp, angular features. A faint tribal marking curling along the jaw.
’An Asura.’
Lucien’s stomach tightened.
’Same race as the assassin last night probably and same target, probably.’
’Cute, real cute. Looks like somebody’s really committed to this.’
He didn’t waste time deliberating.
He hauled the unconscious body into one of his empty grocery sacks — undignified, sure, but efficient — slung it over his shoulder alongside the actual groceries, and started walking.
’Just a man. Carrying groceries. And also possibly a body. Totally normal day.’
Nobody stopped him. Nobody even looked twice.
Demon Continent city life, apparently, didn’t ask questions about lumpy sacks.
---
He dropped everything just inside the estate door — eggs first, thankfully unbroken, unconscious assassin second — and went to find Aurelia.
She was mid-form in the training yard, blade cutting clean arcs through the air, when he called her over.
"We’ve got a guest," he said.
"Unconscious and also an asura. Also, I’m fairly sure, here to finish what last night’s guy started."
Aurelia’s blade lowered slowly as she turned to him as he explained what happened.
"I see, looks like you are stronger than you let on husband. And they completely fell for it."
Lucien just scratched the back of his head while smiling like an idiot as he told her to follow him to the body.
She crouched over the bagged assassin, pulling back what was left of the hood, studying the face with a soldier’s cold thoroughness.
"...I don’t know him," she said finally.
"Not clan-recognized, at least. Could be hired muscle or maybe be someone kept off the official roster on purpose, likely someone’s secret army or something."
"Either way," Lucien said,
"somebody’s spending a lot of coin trying to make sure you don’t recover."
Aurelia’s jaw tightened.
She sat back on her heels, staring at nothing for a moment.
"You should know what actually happened," she said quietly.
"Before this goes further."
Lucien sat down across from her.
"I was the strongest of my generation," Aurelia said, voice flat, reciting facts rather than reliving them.
"Divine talent. Battle instinct nobody else in the clan could match. My uncle is the Archduke. My parents died when I was younger, and he never particularly cared to protect me — not out of malice. Just indifference. I wasn’t his child. Why would he spend political capital on me?"
"So when the other heir candidates decided I was a threat," she continued.
"There was no one to stop them. They didn’t even need to be subtle. Sabotaged my cultivation resources for months."
"Then, during a supposed ’friendly’ spar — my mana core shattered. My veins ruptured. Framed as an unstable breakthrough. Nobody investigated further. Nobody wanted to."
Her hands, Lucien noticed, had curled into fists against her knees.
"No backing," she said. "No one to speak for me. Easiest thing in the world to erase."
Something hot and ugly twisted in Lucien’s chest.
"That’s not going to happen again," he said.
"Not while I’m around."
Aurelia looked at him, something unreadable flickering behind her eyes.
"You say that a lot," she said. "For a man who was disowned two days ago for being talentless."
"I contain multitudes," Lucien said.
"Also I have a bloodline though weak, so my track record’s decent, I guess."
That, at least, got the ghost of something like a smile.
"There’s a decision to make regarding him," Aurelia said, business returning to her voice.
"Kill him so no leaks happen or wipe his memory of this encounter, if you have a method."
"Otherwise, whoever sent him learns you can fight back — and that you’re onto them. But either way they will send more."
Lucien’s stomach turned slightly at the first option.
’I don’t have a memory-wiping method. Do I?’
He checked mentally. Nothing in his abilities even remotely fit the bill.
’So it’s option one, then.’
’Dog eat dog world, right? Kill or be killed, apparently, so get it together Lucien, I’ll have to do it someday better now than later.’
Before he could fully commit to the thought.
Seraphina appeared in the doorway, cloth bag of herbs still in hand.
"I can make a memory-suppressing potion," she offered. "It’s not perfect, but with the right ingredients—"
"No," Lucien said, before she could finish.
"I appreciate it. But I’m going to have to kill someone eventually. Might as well be now, when the stakes are still small enough that I can afford to hesitate a little and still come out fine."
Seraphina studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly, not arguing.
’Better now,’ Lucien told himself again.
’Better now than later, when hesitating gets one of them killed instead.’
---
The estate had cells, actual cells, buried beneath the main house — apparently even a "small run-down estate" came with a torture basement, because nobles were nothing if not consistent.
Lucien dragged the assassin down, propped him against the wall and chained him up with mana suppressing cuffs.
Then grabbed a bucket of cold water and splashed it over his head.
The man jolted awake, eyes wild, taking in his surroundings in half a second — chains, stone, Aurelia standing cold and silent in the corner.
"Who sent you," Lucien said with no preamble or games.
The assassin’s eyes darted between them.
Mostly lingering on Aurelia while looking terrified.
Aurelia stepped out from behind, her eyes reflecting the cold light of a dagger she pulled from her sleeve.
"If you do not answer Lucien’s question, I will peel the skin from your fingers one millimeter at a time,"
She whispered, her voice deadpan and entirely devoid of mercy.
"You will beg for the sweet relief of death long before your tongue finally decides to cooperate."
"Look buddy, I dont know about you but I don’t want to see that, so how about you just tell us what we want to know, okay?" Lucien said sincerely.
The assassin was already regretting taking on this mission, seeing these two devils before him playing good cop bad cop.
’Why? Why did I accept this as a low ranker, even after being warned about this woman by others?’
’Those bastards must have set me up telling me to take this as my first mission!’
"I—" His voice cracked.
"I don’t— if I talk, they’ll—"
"They’re not here," Lucien said.
"But she is, and right now, talking is the only thing keeping you alive."
The man’s breathing quickened, panic climbing.
"Fine," he gasped. "Fine, I’ll talk, it was—"
POP!
His head exploded.
With a sound resembling a champagne cork popping at high velocity.
No warning.
No sound beforehand.
Just a wet, violent burst, blood and bone spraying across the cell wall, the body slumping forward against its chains.
Lucien stood frozen, ears ringing slightly from the sheer suddenness of it.
"..."
"...What the hell."
Aurelia, disturbingly unbothered, crouched near the mess.
"Lools like a soul contract," she said.
"A tight one, whoever employed him bound his life to his silence. The moment he committed to speaking, it triggered."
"That’s..." Lucien exhaled hard.
"That’s messed up."
"It’s sage and efficient," Aurelia said.
"Whoever’s behind this doesn’t take chances."
’Great. So not only are they trying to kill her, they’re also willing to detonate their own employees rather than risk a leak.’
’Whoever this is, they’re not playing around.’
Lucien looked at the ruined cell, blood pooling across the stone floor, and felt something settle in his gut — the same predatory instinct from the bloodline evolution, stirring faintly at the smell.
’Waste not,’ he thought grimly, and reached out with Blood Manipulation.
The scattered blood rose in a slow, obedient sheet, gathering, compressing, drawing itself off the walls and floor until the cell looked almost clean again, save for the body itself.
Aurelia’s eyebrows lifted, just slightly.
"That’s... convenient."
"My bloodline comes with built-in cleanup services," Lucien said.
"Silver lining, I guess."
They dealt with the body quickly and quietly, then climbed back upstairs to find the light outside had shifted fully to evening.
"Guild’s closed by now," Lucien said, glancing at the darkening windows.
"Tomorrow it is, then."
---
Dinner came together fast, despite everything — Lucien’s hands moving on autopilot through the newly restocked ingredients, mind still faintly unsettled from the afternoon.
The moment forks touched food, the familiar chime rippled through his skull.
[Ding!]
[Aurelia — Bond 17% — ×14 — Reward: 7 Months Cultivation Progress]
[Seraphina — Bond 12% — ×10 — Reward: 5× Moonpetal Herb (Uncommon)]
[Evelisse — Bond 13% — ×7 — Reward: 1 Month Weapon Comprehension]
Lucien blinked at the last one.
’Weapon comprehension. Handy, given the sword manual situation.’
’System’s really leaning into the sword thing for her. Not bad.’
Dinner conversation stayed lighter than the afternoon deserved —
Evelisse complaining about sword-stance soreness.
Seraphina cataloguing herbs aloud like a woman falling quietly in love with her own expertise.
Aurelia mostly quiet, though something in her posture had eased since the confession earlier.
Afterward, they settled in front of the TV for a while, Evelisse commandeering the remote with the authority of a woman who’d fought and won that battle days ago.
Lucien mentally tallied the coin pouch again.
’Enough left for repairs, if we’re careful. Roof first. Then the west wing. One thing at a time.’
By the time exhaustion caught up with everyone, the house had gone quiet, lamps dimming one by one.
Lucien found himself drifting toward Seraphina’s room tonight, her door already cracked open in silent invitation.
She looked up when he entered, something soft and grateful in her expression, like she still hadn’t gotten used to being chosen first for anything.
He settled beside her, arm curling around her shoulders, the weight of the day finally starting to ease out of his muscles.
’Bloodline evolved, a talent acquired, enemy assassin dead. Aurelia’s past laid bare and the estate to slowly get fixed.’
’Not bad,’ he thought, eyes growing heavy.
’For day three of marriage life.’
***************
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