Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Ti Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus
After listening to everything I said about granting the Southern Princess a seat on the Ti Vestige Council, Lucine fell silent. She wasn’t ignoring —she was thinking it through, weighing my words carefully.
The empty Southern Royal Family seat had been a burden on her mind for centuries now, especially with the growing tension between the Southern Royals and Morningstar University. She didn’t want to be the one under whose leadership a friendship—one that had lasted generations—finally broke. She understood that her duty required her to prioritize Morningstar University above all else, and her ancestors would never bla her for that. But they would surely be disappointed to see a bond they had nurtured for so long fade away.
So Lucine made up her mind quietly: the Southern Princess would get her seat on the Ti Vestige Council.
The boy was right. The Southern Princess had proven herself to all Five Regions through her leadership in the Southern Region and her efforts against the impending second demonic invasion. Soone like her should be welcod into the council with open arms—even if she’d been rejected once before.
This didn’t an the council had been wrong to reject the Southern Princess back then, nor did it an she was getting special treatnt now because of the boy’s threats. It simply ant that she had grown—far more than anyone expected—forcing the council to reevaluate her worthiness of the seat.
Yes, that was it.
Lucine nodded to herself as she reached this conclusion, convincing herself that adding the Southern Princess to the council was not only reasonable but beneficial. It didn’t signal that the council had lost its way. And even if they had been mistaken in rejecting her before, accepting her now would only prove that the council wasn’t afraid to acknowledge its missteps and correct them.
"Now that I think about it that way, I agree with you," Lucine said at last. "I see no reason the Southern Princess shouldn’t claim her ancestors’ seat on the council. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll give it a try."
In the end, she had agreed to my push—only after thoroughly talking herself into it.
"Not good enough. She will be on the council if the council wants to keep existing. There’s nothing to negotiate," I said, refusing to give Lucine even an inch. This was sothing they should’ve handled ages ago without needing to push them. It felt like soone demanding a tip for doing the job they were already paid to do. And besides, this was my return gift to the Southern Princess. Lucine saying she would ’try’ wasn’t going to cut it.
"Fine, I’ll make it happen. Is that good enough for you? Are you satisfied now? Or is there sothing else you don’t like?" Lucine snapped, attitude spilling over.
"Yes," I said. "I don’t like your tone. You’re acting like I’m forcing you to do sothing you weren’t already supposed to do." I flashed her a teasing grin, knowing full well that she understood the council had been in the wrong from the start. Yet here she was, trying to save face by pretending the current Southern Princess had only recently earned the right to be on the council—when, in truth, she’d been worthy since the day she first enrolled in Morningstar University.
"Y-you... weren’t you supposed to treat or sothing? Please hurry, I don’t have ti to argue with you," Lucine said, nearly losing her temper. But she swallowed it down—what else could she do? Fight ? Impossible. After seeing the kind of strength I could summon when pushed, she knew that challenging would be the sa as courting death. Argue with ? That was pointless too. I always managed to say sothing that got under her skin.
"About that," I said, shifting back to the real issue. "With this new information, I’ll need to revise the treatnt plan I had for you. I need a few more ingredients. I’ve already shared the list with your grimoire—have your people gather everything."
Lucine blinked, unable to fathom what I just said. ’Are you treating a Celestial disease or a common cold to change your treatnt willy-nilly? You sure you are not trying to kill ?’
"And," I continued, "it would help if you told the three ti-rule anings you’ve already comprehended to the ultimate tier and are trying to fuse them into a ti rule stream. Only if you don’t mind. If you’d rather not say, forget it. I’ll figure sothing out on my own."
Since Lucine couldn’t produce the amount of ti-rule power I needed for my original treatnt plan, I had no choice but to improvise. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much room to maneuver, so knowing which ti-rule anings she had comprehended might give the breathing space I needed.
Given what had just happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if she hesitated to share that information with . But at the sa ti... knowing her, I also wouldn’t be shocked if she told anyway. I honestly had no idea why. She was supposed to be good at keeping secrets—like the entire existence of the Ti Vestige Council—yet sohow she kept spilling everything to ... including the entire existence of the Ti Vestige Council.
"You really are sothing, aren’t you?" Lucine said, staring at in disbelief seeing expect her to share sensitive information about her strength after what I just did? After I used sothing she told in confidence about her against her?
"Well," I said, flashing her my most charming smile, "you’ve already revealed everything else to without aning to... so why stop now?"
"Actually, I did an to tell you those things, young man," Lucine said, lifting her chin as if she were about to unveil sothing profound. "Because the three ti-rule anings I’ve comprehended are Past Prowler, Parallel Present, and Future Finding."
She spoke the nas as though they alone justified every reckless confession she’d let slip, as though revealing them would suddenly make all her earlier decisions make perfect sense.
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