The Hundred Reigns 182: Lux Vult (12)

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How?!

How did Louis escape? 

The question remained at the forefront of Simon’s mind as he oversaw his mages, scholars, and investigators checking every inch of the crown-prince’s quarters. Euphemia, Lauriane, and Shabram were among them, with the former sharing her husband’s frustration.

“Why?” Though Euphemia’s bruises from their argument had quickly healed, her face was now red with anger. “Why did no one sound the alarm?”

“It appears the guards were near-instantly incapacitated during the coronation ceremony,” Shabram replied with a contrite expression. “Their condition was only discovered by the new shift thirty minutes afterwards.”

All the guards and demons he had tasked with overseeing the crown-prince and his quarters had been found either asleep or in the same temporal stasis Euphemia used against him in a previous reign, no doubt because their deaths would have alerted Simon through their Devil Brands. This implied a well-prepared operation with earlier reconnaissance. 

I still should have sensed an intrusion, Simon thought. His Lord of the Demon Castle Perk immediately warned him whenever someone entered Frightwall. Learning that there was a crack in his omniscience bothered him. 

Although the question of how it happened remained a mystery, Simon had a good idea of who he should ‘thank’ for it. The guards he had sent after the suspicious individual he had spotted at the cathedral—who had infiltrated the ceremony under the guise of an assistant to Muse’s ambassador—failed to find the individual. As far as everyone could tell, he had simply disappeared after the wedding. 

It had to be Bert or Verney attending my coronation. Simon had ordered a crackdown on the Cobweb as soon as he took office, which included the seizure of all known Attic doors and bounties being issued on the Weavers save Voltobauta. He should have expected them to retaliate somehow. Were they ensuring I was occupied while they helped Louis escape?

He knew he should have had Louis killed on the spot, damn the consequences. His promise not to betray him or interfere with his rule always rang hollow. 

“Lady Barbatos and all of the crown-prince’s former collaborators are being interrogated, but they each have a valid alibi,” Shabram informed them. “I suspect a third party.”

“The Rogue,” Simon said. Silk had easily slipped past all of his security precautions time and time again. “The Rogue did it.”

“Rogue Classes could have bypassed the wards and magical alarms,” Lauriane agreed, stroking her chin. “But how did they slip Louis out?”

“Louis shouldn’t have been able to violate House Arrest without triggering the penalty,” Euphemia replied. “He should have been struck with a debilitating debuff and heavy damage had he left his quarters. I would have received a notification too, even if they had used a spell to somehow remove the effect.”

“Unless…” A worrying possibility wormed its way into Simon’s mind. “Unless he didn’t technically leave the premises.”

Euphemia frowned at him, before quickly catching on. “You speak of this Attic teleportation network?”

“Yes.” Simon glanced around Louis’ quarters, which included doors leading to the outside corridor, the private study, the privy, and so on. “Your House Arrest covered every room inside this space. Assuming any of those entrances was already compromised when you applied it, and that Louis stepped through one, then would it count as him violating our agreement’s terms?”

Euphemia’s scowl was an answer in itself. “No,” she admitted. “If the Attic was already connected to these quarters and overlapped with them, then my House Arrest might have treated the entire demiplane as an extension of his allocated space.”

Which meant that Louis likely simply stepped into the Attic and was still inside, which explained why their divinations failed to locate him. No doubt the Cobweb was working on finding a way to remove the lingering penalty, or they would have him step out of the pocket dimension in an area far away from here. 

My Lord of the Demon Castle only warns me if an intruder physically enters Frightwall, Simon thought. So someone standing on an Attic door’s threshold wouldn’t trigger it and they could still cast spells into the room. Chrom Cruak or Verney could have done it, and Silk could slip in without triggering an alarm. 

He suspected the Cobweb had kept an eye on Louis for some time. Verney and he had clashed in Magvolia, they had identified him as a possible host for the Lion Zodiac Fiend, and they had even allied in a previous reign. He also always found it odd that Louis tracked him down so soon after he prevented Silk from binding Asterion during his stint as a cult leader.

How long had the Cobweb kept a backdoor into his quarters? Did Louis know? Were they in contact before Balzam’s assassination, or had they begun plotting his escape from day one? 

Simon struggled to contain his frustration. He should have expected Louis and the Cobweb to be in contact before the reigns even began and acted accordingly, or smote the agent in the Musan delegation on the spot, regardless of the consequences. His attempts to play it cautious only caused his enemies to exploit his restraint. 

And more importantly, did the Cobweb have other backdoors hidden away inside the castle? Simon found it unlikely they would only have one, which meant he couldn’t rule out the possibility of being assassinated at any given time. 

The same thought had clearly crossed Euphemia’s mind. “We must condemn these quarters and destroy all the doors,” she immediately decided. “The Cobweb might be able to reactivate the portals at any given time.”

“I have a better idea,” Lauriane suggested. “Let me study the doors. Our researchers might find a way to find other hidden ones, or forcefully reactivate them.”

Simon’s jaw clenched. “You think we could forcefully invade the Attic?”

“Possibly,” Lauriane replied. “Dimensional gateways almost always leave spatial scars that take a long time to fade. Our mages might be capable of opening them up again.”

“Then I will see that you have unlimited resources to pursue this project,” Simon decided as he immediately issued orders. “Shabram, increase the bounty on all the Weavers and everyone associated with the Cobweb, except for the Necromancer, then share all the intel we’ve gathered on them with Lore, Muse, and Valne. I want every ruffian across the world to know the empire will hunt down anyone associated with our enemies.”

“We should issue one on Louis too,” Euphemia suggested. “He fled into the night like a common criminal and should be treated as such.”

“He could have been abducted,” Lauriane weakly suggested, though Simon could tell from her tone she didn’t believe it herself.

“We would have seen traces of a fight,” Simon replied. Why was she loyal to their elder brother in spite of his crimes? While his sister’s love for her family was both her most honorable quality, it could verge into the absurd sometimes. “Louis spat on our mercy, Lauriane, and he will pay the price. I want him back by any means necessary, dead or alive.” 

He had granted Louis the benefit of the doubt, and he would never make that mistake again. 

—-----

Perhaps the only good thing about Louis’ escape was that it gave Simon a convenient excuse to tighten his grip on the imperial administration. 

Anyone who could have colluded on his escape, like Isabelle Barbatos or former Cobweb affiliates like Odette Kano, was required to take a set of Devil Brands to prove their loyalty to the regime. He only offered the standard package of Sloth, Lust, and Gluttony so he could drain them to death and check on them on a moment’s notice, but kept the Brand of Pride in reserve. Besides the risk involved, Simon had learned the limits of slave tattoo-powered loyalty, and he would rather win over his new subjects by getting them addicted to the benefits and powers he could provide them. 

Perhaps he would brand the entire imperial administration one day, once he figured out a way to prevent his enemies from exploiting them as Casval-Nodens and Maublanc did. It would certainly make things easier to manage if he could directly contact all officials and if everyone just did as he commanded.

As for those that refused…

“On so many rancid souls, the good Gourmand was well-fed!” Gourmand mused once introduced into the High Council’s room for a debriefing. He had only eaten a handful of stubborn Louis supporters, but that had been enough to cow the others into accepting his Devil Brands. “So many treacherous thoughts fill his belly. How they resented Your Majesty’s rule and waited for the day your brother would take back the Crimson Throne!”

“Yet not a single one colluded with the crown-prince,” Euphemia complained. 

“Imperial intelligence thoroughly checks the background of anyone stepping inside Frightwall, Your Grace,” Shabram said. “While mistakes do happen, as with Lord Malphas, I doubt the Cobweb or Illusea managed to plant too many agents inside our midst.”

Mastemo seemed the angriest about this situation, but not necessarily because of Louis’ escape. “Must we truly use this beast, Your Majesty?” he asked, his steepled fingers radiating disgust at the mere sight of Gourmand. “This creature denies its victims the Light’s blessing and reincarnation. Few crimes deserve such a punishment.”

“It is a necessary evil,” Simon replied, though the High Confessor’s words bothered him. “Gourmand… what happens to souls you have fully digested?"

“They become part of the good Gourmand, Your Majesty,” the jester giddily replied. “Their memories become my memories, the parts added into the whole.”

“A pleasant way to say he consumes them utterly and beyond recovery,” Mastemo argued. 

Lauriane scoffed. “Even beyond your Light’s power, High Confessor?”

“There is no darkness that the Light cannot pierce,” Mastemo replied diplomatically, though Simon noticed his back had stiffened. “However, we should not make its work so… difficult.”

In short, he had no idea how to restore a devoured soul beyond wishful thinking. Simon’s glare settled on the jester as he gathered his breath. 

“Did my father feed you a certain Destra’s soul thirteen years prior?” he asked his jester, trying to suppress his anger.

A few of his councilors looked at him strangely, and Gourmand’s ghoulish smirk quickly faded away when he sensed the hostility in his master’s voice.

“Yes, Gourmand may have eaten a pure soul by that name…” Gourmand instantly prostrated in front of the High Council’s table when Simon’s glare glowed with hellfire. “The good Gourmand had no choice but to obey his liege, as he must obey you now! Had he known Your Majesty would become the new Overlord, the good Gourmand would have rather starved!”

“Yes, I understand…” Simon’s teeth clenched so hard they hurt. “Out of my sight.”

The clown wisely took his leave without a word, leaping towards the doorway…

“Gourmand.” The jester froze as Simon issued one last warning. “Never stop being useful to me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, of course,” the jester replied, hunching over as if he could shrink himself. “The good Gourmand is too droll to die.”

Simon contained his anger as he watched the demon flee. As much as he wanted to grind him to dust for helping Balzam rob his mother of her life and afterlife, Gourmand’s ability to interrogate dead souls and survive in the void between time was simply too important to waste. 

Moreover, if Mastemo was right and there was a way to recover a lost soul, however miraculous, then Simon had to find it. The fact spirits Gourmand devoured returned when a new reign began at least suggested it worked in linear time in spite of the Abyss’ causality-defying nature. 

“Simon,” Lauriane said, clearing her throat. “That woman–”

“I will tell you in private,” Simon said dryly, which dissuaded his other councilors from pushing the issue. He had no interest in discussing his mother in public. “We must assume the Cobweb still has one or two Attic doors, either in Frightwall or Marthrone. Finding them and Louis will be Imperial Intelligence’s key focus for the near future.”

“What of the Warrior Crestone?” Mastemo asked. “Is it still in our possession?”

“It is,” Simon confirmed. The Crestone was still safely trapped in his Inventory. “I have high hopes of using it to track my brother down in due time.”

“We cannot allow it to fall back into Louis’ possession,” Maublanc warned him. “It might be best for Your Majesty to keep the Crestone for now rather than assign it to someone new.”

“The traitor will be dealt with in time,” Euphemia said as she moved on to the next object on the agenda. “Have you and our new Marshal finished mapping out the Tellurian campaign?”

“Yes, we have,” Maublanc replied. “Based on the intelligence Your Majesty provided, the size of the airship fleet we’ve recovered, and the troops allocated to this theater of the front, I estimate we can bring most of the region to heel within four months, and fully secure it in three more.” 

“I shall lead it personally as soon as the foreign delegations return home,” Euphemia decided. While it had been agreed upon from the start, Simon wondered if she looked towards being away from him and the capital for some time. “I will deal with Vouivre myself.” 

Simon nodded in agreement, knowing the Judge would make short work of the wyrm. Vouivre had ties with the Cobweb, so eliminating or capturing her would be a blow to their operations.

I’ll have to keep a closer eye on Anna too, Simon thought. The Cobweb abducted her in a previous reign when they became aware of her existence and special significance, so he couldn’t exclude the possibility that they noticed her during the coronation ceremony too. I cannot take any chances. 

He was already working on crafting a necklace capable of casting Overlord Call should she be in danger, but he would rather increase her security detail further. Perhaps he could convince her to join his party as well? While not exactly high level, her strange powers might prove handy against the Zodiac Fiends with proper training…

The conversation moved on to the campaign’s military objectives and then towards the resources provided. The army was already stretched thin by its new conquests, but redirecting the forces assigned to the airship fleet and the Berwick Island’s troops to the Tellurian front should take care of the issue. Odette Kano had already budgeted the funds for this campaign, alongside other projects like the Darkblood Registry. Simon had set Duchar and Justine Eligos on this task in the hopes they could further their own research and hopefully glean useful information on how to strengthen his own Dark Visionary powers. 

“–funds have been successfully allocated to other projects such as the Darkwood crystal extraction and anti-Attic measures,” Odette summarized as she read her reports. “However, I have encountered unforeseen issues with Operation Deepground.”

“What kind of issues?” Euphemia asked. 

“After thoroughly comparing the previous administration’s records and matching them with Princess Lauriane’s own, alongside the intelligence shared by this assembly’s generals, I have noticed vast irregularities in the allocated budget and what was actually spent,” Odette explained. “After tracking down all the currently constructed vaults, I suspect ten remain unaccounted for. I couldn’t find any trace of them.”

“My father did keep at least one vault secret,” Simon said. The Tellurian Archive was proof of it. It wouldn’t surprise him if Balzam didn’t share the location of a few others with anyone else. “Could you track them down?”

“I have begun reconstituting the paper trail, but this may prove a long and tiresome process without a full department’s worth of investigators,” Odette replied. “I have also discovered vast sums were allocated to a certain ‘Biographer’ project whose nature I couldn’t identify. My predecessor indicated that he had no idea what purpose it served either.”

“Biographer?” Lauriane frowned. “That project was discontinued years ago.”

“Yet your departed father continued to funnel funds towards it prior to his assassination,” Odette replied upon handing Lauriane the documents. “Considering the money involved, I assumed it was some kind of advanced military weapon?”

“No, not at all… it was a Librarian Vassal Class project.” Lauriane blinked as she read. “Half a million gold a year? That is enormous!”

This caught Simon’s full interest. “What kind of Vassal?”

“Our father believed the Librarian Class could extract information directly from a book,” Lauriane explained. “Biographer was the codename of the Vassal Class capable of emulating that ability.”

Simon’s spine stiffened. “Any kind of book?”

“Yes.” Lauriane raised an eyebrow. “Why the question?”

Because it could explain where our father’s Abyssal Chronicle went, Simon thought, his pulse quickening. Finally, a lead. 

“What happened to the project?” Simon pushed.

“It was discontinued after we produced a functional prototype’s blueprints, which our father confiscated,” Lauriane replied, as she handed Odette back the documents. “But from what I’m reading here, he actually expanded its reach and accounts.”

“Are the scholars working on this project still reachable?” 

“Maybe…,” Lauriane replied hesitantly. “I recall that Father dispatched them on various other ventures.”

“I can assign investigators to track them down, but our resources are stretched thin between the Tellurian campaign, the hunt for Prince Louis, and our other counterintelligence operations,” Shabram warned him, “We may have to prioritize.”

“I understand,” Simon replied. They had too many problems to solve all at once. Even if he couldn’t track down the Abyssal Chronicle in this reign, all the research made during this one would shorten his search on the next. “We’ll focus on short-term problems first, but any progress on the matter is good.”

Indeed, checking the accounts showed a budget that could fuel multiple imperial legions; far too high to replicate a single Crestone, no matter how complex. 

Had Balzam Magnos been trying to share his Abyssal Chronicle’s information with outsiders?

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