Chapter 52: The Season of the Minotaur (1)

Simon ensured that he settled all of his affairs before leaving Frightwall.

He first released Eole after warning her about Vouivre to ensure she wouldn’t return to Telluria. That meeting was a bit tenser than its previous iterations because Simon didn’t ask her to come with him, nor did he entertain the idea of going to her people’s Sanctuary in the sky. Tellingly, while she thanked him for her release, she didn’t offer him a feather as a token of friendship this time. Perhaps she could sense he was about to do something she would never agree with, or the wall Simon intentionally put between them.

It pained Simon to let her go like that, but he would rather have her leave as a stranger than as an enemy. He hoped to have the luxury of befriending her again when he had the power to do so without consequences in a future reign.

Afterwards, Simon took care of removing the backdoor in Belzemine’s slave brand on his way out. He simply didn’t have the heart to leave her in that state or to give Vouivre the slightest possibility of controlling her again.

Of course, he did so very ‘gently’ by reminding her he intended to keep her as his slave rather than free her.

“A sabotaged Brand of Pride is of no use to me, and it annoys me to see you bear the heraldry of masters other than me,” he told her when he stripped her of her former slave mark and bestowed his own in return. “I shall bestow other bindings on you until the day I can grow strong enough to reapply the Brand of Pride on you myself. Lady Shabram will provide you with fake ones so no one may see the switch.”

“As Your Majesty wishes,” Belzemine replied obediently. She was clearly uneasy about losing the Brand of Pride, but as sad as it sounded, being reminded that he still considered her his property brought her relief.

“You are to remain here and act as if this meeting never happened and hide the Brand of Pride’s absence until my return,” Simon ordered her. “You shall feign ignorance and pretend you have no knowledge of who the Overlord is. Some of my enemies may try to contact you. Act with them as you would normally.”

“I…” Belzemine looked at him with confusion. “I do not understand, Your Majesty.”

“I am not strong enough to claim the Crimson Throne yet. I need to gather more strength in secret first, so for now, all must believe the Overlord is gone.”

“I could come with you,” she insisted. “I can protect you. No man will harm you in my presence.”

Tell that to Thalas and all the others. “Believe me, you will serve me better by staying here and pretending everything is normal. I trust you to handle things on your own according to your own initiative until the day I return. It is that simple. As far as the world is concerned, everyone must believe the Overlord is missing, and Simon Magnos had nothing to do with it.”

The truth was that Simon had no idea what exactly unfolded between her and the Malphas family, although he had his suspicions, and he was wary of giving her more directions than he already had.

“But…” Belzemine grew more and more uneasy. “I… my place is at your side. What am I supposed to do in your absence?”

Simon took a deep breath and steeled his resolve. “Agnes, I need you here,” he said, hating every word coming out of his mouth. “So long as those brands burn on your skin, you belong to me unto eternity. You would not disappoint me by disobeying, would you?”

Belzemine straightened up, all hesitation gone from her face and replaced with her stone mask of stoicism. “No, Your Majesty. I would never disappoint you.”

“Then keep my secrets and act as you would under my father’s rule, and all will be fine until my return.”

Simon knew that was an empty promise, and he wished he could have taken her with him, but Agnes Firewand’s absence would bring too much attention from both the elves and imperial factions. He trusted Lady Shabram to take care of her in the meantime. He had extensively briefed the spymaster and intended to keep close tabs on her for this entire reign.

Their last meeting before his departure was also the best occasion for Simon to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while.

“The location of all Noble Crestones which the empire has yet to acquire, and intel on their holders?” Lady Shabram smiled at his request. “Is Your Majesty planning to go on a hunt?”

“Perhaps,” Simon replied. The Seasonal Key ritual should keep him busy this year, but he had a Devour Crestone Perk slot to fill. His clash with Thalas, Norbelle, and Antonine had convinced him that Noble Crestones had much to offer him. He might as well start looking into those outside the empire. “I know where the Paladin and Librarian are, but the rest elude me.”

“The Librarian?” Lady Shabram whistled with curiosity. “Color me surprised, that information eludes even me. Where is it, if I may ask?”

Simon shuddered upon recalling his ancestor. “In the hands of a level 100 lich, who we should not bother in any way.”

“Oh…” Lady Shabram was rarely rattled, but that information did seem to briefly disturb her. “I see. Yes, I can see why Your Majesty would want to focus on easier prey…”

“And the other Noble Classes?” Simon asked.

“I will not lie to Your Majesty, there are many reasons why certain Crestones remain out of our grasp. They have found their ways to dangerous holders more often than not, and while none are as powerful as the Librarian, I would not underestimate them either.” Lady Shabram removed files from her bookshelf and handed them to Simon. “As you probably know already, Queen Remedia of Cocagne is the Mage, and her consort, Lord Filip, is the current Ranger. The queen is estimated to be between levels 65 and 75, and her husband to be between level 45 and 58, according to our experts. We hope Lady Norbelle’s engagement will allow us to sneak in operatives that can ascertain their threat more closely and hopefully bring the holders into the imperial fold.”

Simon flipped through the files and read the information gathered on Cocagne’s leadership, which included both their recorded Perks, spells, and other critical pieces of knowledge like their psychological profiles and personal histories. He would have much to read up on during this reign.

“The current Rogue is suspected to be a mysterious mastermind known as the Prince of Spiders, who leads an international criminal ring called the Cobweb,” Shabram added, confirming Simon’s suspicions. “While their identity, level, and location remain unknown—if they are even a single person—we have singled out operatives that can provide that information under duress.”

“One of them is nicknamed Silk, I would assume?” Simon guessed.

“Your Majesty is well-informed,” Shabram complimented him. “We think she’s both the organization’s underboss and a level 60 Assassin constantly on the move. She would make for a dangerous foe, but imperial intelligence has been careful to cultivate alliances of convenience with the Cobweb in the hope of eventually identifying their leader.”

Level 60. Simon had pegged Silk to be of a high level, but not that high. She could probably pick a fight with some members of House Magnos, and her employer had to be stronger still.

Silk is in touch with Odette Kano, Simon thought. As much as he disliked the Cobweb for their treacherous ways, forming a business relationship with them in Whispermire might let him learn more about the organization and its leader. I’ll unravel that spider’s web one strand at a time.

“The current Necromancer is the newest self-proclaimed pirate king of Portempête in Valne, the vampire Amadeus Voltobauta,” Lady Shabram said. “Estimated to be around level 50 with secondary Artificer and Raider Classes, he commands the largest private fleet prowling the Dragonsea from his ship, the Ravenous.”

“I think I’ve heard of him,” Simon recalled from his memories in Valne. One of his raids had cost the Septic a lot of money. “He’s a plague on transcontinental shipping.”

“Indeed. The League of Valne barely tolerates him because they need his might to repel us, but we hope to inflame tensions until we can lure him into a trap.” Lady Shabram flipped some pages of Simon’s files and stopped on a drawing of a woman with silver hair. “The last known Adventurer is a Lorean woman called Alcyone Hyades… but true to her Class, her wanderlust keeps her constantly on the move. She’s been in contact with both Voltobauta, Ser Richard of Lore, the current Paladin suspect, and the Crafter.”

“Ser Richard isn’t the Paladin,” Simon corrected her. Shabram was well-informed, but still fallible. “He’s a decoy for Alphonse, his son.”

“Truly?” Lady Shabram immediately noted the information in a file. “I will keep that in mind. Planting spies around the family has proved exceedingly difficult due to Lore’s dedication to the White Unicorn and the Oracle’s meddling. In any case, Alcyone was last seen visiting the Crafter in Muse two months ago and buying herself an airship to become the world’s first ‘sky pirate’ as part of some bet with Voltobauta.”

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Simon scoffed. “A sky pirate? What, she raids airships in midair?”

“Or she plans to, at least.” Shabram chuckled. “Unfortunately, that’s when we lost track of her. Her current whereabouts, if she is even still alive, are currently unknown, but reports put her at around level 75.”

So, out of Simon’s league, even if he managed to find her. He wasn’t sure if it would be worth the effort anyway, considering he already had an exp-boosting Perk from the Adventurer’s Vassal Class anyway. “What of the Crafter?”

“The last holder of the Class was Carlo of Muse, the country’s chief artificer,” Lady Shabram said, hesitation breaking through her voice. “However, the man hasn’t left his Mechanical Tower in over forty years and interacts with the republic only through a few carefully selected apprentices and constructs, so I cannot confirm if he is still alive or if somebody else secretly replaced him.”

“Truly?” Such a gap in intelligence surprised Simon, especially considering his father’s knowledge. “Have we found no way inside the tower?”

“We’ve tried, but everyone who approaches the tower too close without permission ends up shot at with a magical weapon by a mysterious sniper. Even Rogue-type Vassal Classes have failed to break inside.”

Oh.

Oh, that explained some of Balzam Magnos’ deaths, then…

“The only people allowed inside the tower are the Crafter’s apprentices, and those go through an incredibly difficult selection process,” Shabram added. “Our attempts to infiltrate or bribe our way into that group have proved fruitless so far, and His Late Majesty told us not to bother. His plan was to crash an airship into the tower’s base during an invasion of Muse, watch it collapse, recover the Crafter Crestone from the debris, and then salt the earth behind us.”

“A rather radical solution to the sniper problem,” Simon replied dryly, with Shabram smiling back at him in response. “Which leaves the Oracle and the Beast.”