Lich for Hire

When Allen saw Ambrose, his mind went blank.

How was the lich here, of all places? Shouldn't he be off making life miserable for the elves at the Court of the Silver Moon?

Had he already swindled the elves into bankruptcy? Was he now eyeing Lyon's storehouses? Had he given up scams in favor of outright theft?

Ambrose was equally astonished. How had this kid gotten past the walls? Lavarun's defensive arrays weren't only tuned for liches. Lyon had plenty of enemies, and not all of them were undead—sometimes even other humans were Lyon's enemies, too.

The two of them stood in silence for a moment. Then, Ambrose opened his extradimensional space. "A patrol will be here soon enough. Let's talk inside."

Allen hesitated, then followed Ambrose through the rift.

Allen couldn't help but laugh at himself as he stepped into the lich's private space. Lyon had hailed him as a national hero; this lich had kidnapped him and held him captive. So why did he trust this lich so completely, and Lyon not at all? He'd even snuck into a Lyon city like a common criminal!

The world really was changing far too quickly.

Ambrose didn't bother with pleasantries, and neither did he pour Allen a cup of tea. He cut straight to the chase. "What are you doing infiltrating Lavarun? You're more or less a wanted man in Lyon by now. Aren't you afraid of being caught here and being deemed a traitor for real?"

Allen answered with a sigh. "I heard Lyon was about to march on the Unholy Kingdom. Once those Hellgates are detonated, it won't just be Lyon who suffers. The whole continent will be polluted by infernal energy. I can't stand by and do nothing, so I came to stop the offensive."

"All by yourself?"

It wasn't that Ambrose was underestimating Allen. Lyon was a colossal beast of an empire, and even he couldn't claim to be able to handle this on his own. Maybe the Elegiac Society reassembled in full could tear Lavarun apart. Though Allen had grown a great deal, he still wasn't capable of turning the tide single-handedly.

Allen wasn't bothered by Ambrose's mockery. "I know one person alone can't accomplish much, but that isn't a reason to do nothing."

"And what's your plan?" Ambrose asked, curious.

"To burn down their granaries and destroy their equipment. It'd delay them, at the very least."

"Crude but effective. Or, well... You know how robust Lyon's supply lines are. Whatever they lose, they'll be able to replace within a few days."

Lyon had been collecting on its dividends of faith for over a thousand years. Whatever else might be said about their extremism, Arthur Lyon had been an exemplar. Lyon nobles and commoners alike took pride in giving freely. Outsiders rarely heard of a Lyon noble convicted of greed. In their place, Lyon harbored numerous tales of family tragedies that came of pushing physically frail children into military service.

The behavior at the top set the tone all the way down. Lyon's military zeal was the reason for their thousand-year martial record, and the reason why their war stockpiles were always overflowing.

Burning down one warehouse—or ten—would barely register as a blip. Supplies would flow in from the rear via teleportation arrays, regardless of the cost.

And besides, Ambrose had already seen the future of the invasion in the prophecy.

That was why he hadn't bothered lighting any fires himself. It would simply be wasted effort.

Allen knew this perfectly well. But aside from arson, he couldn't think of any way to prevent the war.

"So you've decided to stop this war? You're not afraid of what it'll cost you?"

Allen nodded firmly. "This is an unjust war. We have no reason to invade the Unholy Kingdom. While I was still part of Lyon, I felt as though a fog clouded my mind. After wandering for so long, I can finally consider the situation from a position of true impartiality.

"There's no question about it. The wars Lyon has waged in the last five hundred years have all been unjust. My master saw this clearly long ago. But for whatever reason, he never resisted, even unto death."

By "master," it was clear that Allen was referring to the Silvermoon Knight, the most renowned paladin since Arthur Lyon himself.

"That's because the Silvermoon Knight was like your father. Neither of them knew how to change the empire. They were both men of high rank and great power. The moment they came into open conflict with the empire, the nation would have split. There's no telling how many would have died. They didn't dare make that decision—or perhaps they couldn't bring themselves to. Instead, wherever the empire developed a hole, they used their own lives to plug it.

"You're different, Allen. You carry less of that burden than they do, and your departure from Lyon won't cause the same instability. But for the same reason, your standing can't compare to that of the Silvermoon Knight or the High Inquisitor. If you want to change Lyon, the resistance you face will be that much greater."

This was precisely why Ambrose had always believed the key to changing Lyon lay with Allen rather than with his father. The older generation had become inseparable from the rigid structures of the empire. Those who might effect change were bound by their station.

That Allen had been able to leave Lyon and see the wider world was exactly what would make him capable of changing the empire in the future.

But at present, he was still far too young.

Allen reflected on what Ambrose had said. He hadn't expected the lich to make so much sense. He'd always thought of Ambrose as a con artist, but the lich was surprisingly clear-eyed as well. These were truths Allen had only sensed vaguely and never been able to fully articulate.

"What are you doing here?" he couldn't help asking.

"Same as you. I want to stop Lyon from invading the Unholy Kingdom, though it looks like there's no way to prevent it now."

"W-What?"

That was the last answer Allen had expected. A lich trying to stop a war? It made no sense at all. It went against everything a lich was supposed to be.

"What's so surprising? I've done it before. Lyon gave me a commendation for it, remember?"

Allen belatedly remembered that Ambrose had stopped the war between the elves and the dwarves, though to this day no outsider knew exactly how he'd managed it.

He couldn't help asking. "Master Megaman, forgive me, but is the greed all an act? Is world peace your real undead fixation?"

Ambrose: "..."

Allen, it seemed, had developed quite a serious misunderstanding of him.

Still, since Allen had brought it up, Ambrose decided to introduce another senior who shared a fondness for saving the world.

"Allen, come with me. I want to show you something exciting."

Allen frowned. Ambrose's phrasing felt suspicious. He couldn't help but remember his first encounter with Ambrose, when he'd lost five thousand gold within three sentences. Was the lich about to swindle him again?

But he relaxed quickly enough. He didn't have a copper to his name at the moment. What was there to swindle?

Reassured, Allen followed Ambrose deeper into the space.

Before long, Ambrose led him to an hourglass radiating holy light.

"That's... an artifact?"

Allen could sense the powerful holy light emanating from the hourglass, the same kind of presence he'd felt in the artifacts in the capital.

Ambrose chuckled and turned to Allen with sudden gravity. "Brace yourself. You don't want to be caught off guard."

Allen replied with confidence, "I'm not the naive boy I once was. I've seen plenty during my travels. An artifact won't startle me."

"Good. I admire your confidence." Ambrose rubbed his fingertips together, crumbling the breath of his soul into threads that vanished into the hourglass. "Holy King, this young man is a lost sheep. He could use your guidance."

A silvery-white heroic spirit slowly took shape above the hourglass.

Allen had frozen at the words "Holy King." When he saw Arthur Lyon's heroic spirit, he was stupefied.

After a few seconds, he let out a child's piercing scream. "Aaahh! Your Majesty! I... you... Father..."

Every Lyon citizen idolized Arthur Lyon. Allen was so floored that he had lost all semblance of composure.

He didn't doubt for a moment that the heroic spirit was genuine. The holy light it commanded had the purity of the Silvermoon Knight's, and couldn't possibly be faked.

As genial as ever, Arthur Lyon greeted Allen warmly and tried to put the rattled young man at ease.

"Don't be nervous. I'm not really Arthur Lyon. I'm only a heroic spirit who inherited part of his memories. You don't need to treat me as though I were the great emperor himself."

Ambrose hurried to fill in the context. "Your Majesty, this is Allen Watson. He's a young man who recently defected from Lyon. He's grown disillusioned with the empire and wants to rebel. I thought he could use some advice from you."

Ambrose had overlooked this resource for some time. When it came to rebellion, no one understood it better than Arthur Lyon. The heroic spirit only carried the early portion of Arthur's memories, but that was precisely when Arthur had raised the banner of revolt against the Dragon Tyrant. The spirit's experience in leading a rebellion was unimpeachable.

Allen was so alarmed he nearly drew his sword on Ambrose. He hurried to explain, "Your Majesty, that isn't true. Don't listen to this lich's nonsense. I never thought of rebelling. I really didn't!"

He was so flustered he didn't even ask about the heroic spirit's origins. Explaining himself was more important.

Arthur Lyon smiled. "Allen, don't be nervous. I'm not blaming you. Watson, you said. Is James Watson your father?"

"Yes, sir. He's the current High Inquisitor of Lyon. I've been raised by my father's teachings since I was a child. I would never betray the empire."

Ambrose tossed in lightly, "Weren't you planning to burn down Lyon's armory and granaries?"

"That... I... Well—" Allen rounded on him, furious. "You damned lich, I challenge you to a duel!"

He couldn't bear being slandered in front of his idol, but he had no idea how to explain himself in the heat of the moment.

Arthur Lyon turned to Ambrose. "Enough. You're his senior by a few centuries. Aren't you ashamed of picking on a child like this?"

Ambrose laughed. "I'm testing him. If he won't even acknowledge what's in his own heart, what could you possibly teach him? Once upon a time, the Dragon Tyrant was the legitimate ruler of the world. To rise against him, you had to gather everyone's strength to rebel. In the same vein, Lyon has legitimacy on its side. If meeting you is sufficient to shake Allen's resolve, then he isn't fit to inherit your legacy."

Arthur Lyon couldn't argue with that. Ambrose's words were harsh, but the point stood.

A warrior who took up arms against a tyrant couldn't lose his footing the moment he met one of his predecessors.

Arthur Lyon turned back to Allen. "Young man, tell me the truth. Do you believe the Lyon of today is still worthy of your loyalty?"