Chapter 96: Blue Roses
The noise in the inn stilled for exactly one moment. Curious eyes turned as one toward the entrance.
Lucian didn't mind. He walked straight toward the stairs.
Most of the clientele were high-ranking Kingdom adventurers, and quite a few recognized him — a noble whose name carried real weight in the Kingdom. Looks of warmth and a certain deference followed him across the room.
Adventurers might keep themselves out of wars and political struggles, but for a noble with the kind of reputation Lucian had built, there was a natural base of goodwill.
It wasn't until his figure had disappeared up the stairs that the noise gradually resumed.
He knocked.
"Come in."
Lakyus's voice, immediately familiar, from inside.
He pushed the door open.
All of Blue Roses was seated around a single table.
Besides Lakyus at the head, there was Tina, whom he'd met before. Of the remaining three, one was a woman who looked nearly identical to Tina.
The only way to tell them apart was the color of their headbands and the small details of their clothing. Tina's was fire-red. Hers was ice-blue.
This was Tia.
The resemblance was genuinely startling — not just their faces, but the way they sat, the way their fingers rested on the table's edge. All of it was the same. Like the same person reflected in a mirror, only the colors had been swapped.
Lucian noted this privately and moved his gaze to the other two.
One was small, covered head to foot in a black robe that left nothing exposed. The face was hidden — not by the lighting, but by a strange mask set with a crimson jewel at the brow, covering her completely. Only a narrow horizontal slit remained at eye level, and even through that, the color of the eyes beneath was impossible to make out.
This was Blue Roses' arcane magic caster: Evileye.
The other was a woman of exceptional size, the word that surfaced being boulder. Arms like logs, a neck whose diameter could have doubled as structural support, a jaw that had squared outward from a lifetime of putting full force into it, eyes that swept the room with the quality of a hunting animal.
Her gold hair was cut close to the skull. Pure function.
Blue Roses' warrior: Gagaran.
The room held all five members of one of the Kingdom's two Adamantite-ranked teams. At this particular moment, they were gathered around an ordinary table with half-finished plates of pastries sitting in front of them, in an atmosphere that had all the drama of a casual morning gathering.
Most of Blue Roses already knew Lucian. Only Tia was meeting him for the first time.
He had barely finished his greeting before Gagaran's voice filled the room.
"Hey, lolicon."
Lucian's expression went flat immediately.
"It's been a while, Gagaran." He adjusted his face and kept his tone politely even. "You haven't lost your sense of humor."
"Ha. Long time no see. So what's this — you finally come to your senses? Ready to give this a real shot?"
Gagaran tilted her chin at him — an invitation to sit down — while her square face produced a grin that would have made enemies step back three paces on a battlefield. In the context of an ordinary hotel room, the dissonance it created was impressive.
"Gagaran."
Lakyus directed a sharp look at her, applying visible effort to shut this down.
Lucian gave his sister silent points. He was, after all, no Osk — the Empire's arena impresario with his famously particular tastes.
Gagaran scratched the back of her close-cropped hair, her tone pulling back a few degrees. "Captain, relax."
A beat, and she nudged Evileye in the ribs with one elbow, a knowing curve at her mouth.
"Maybe the captain's brother would do better to consider Evileye."
Lakyus didn't answer this one. But something invisible and extremely hot had ignited around her.
Gagaran was a tested Adamantite-rank adventurer. She wasn't looking at Lakyus. She felt it anyway.
She picked up her water cup and drained it in one pull — physically sealing her own mouth.
Silence held for a moment.
Lucian pulled out a chair and sat. His gaze moved across the faces around the table without dwelling on any of them.
Tina had the same unbothered look as always — one hand propping her face, a faintly entertained light in her eyes.
Tia sat beside her. Her expression was quieter than her sister's, but those eyes rested on Lucian without any attempt to conceal the assessment. She was taking stock of the elder brother she had never met.
Lucian gave Tia a small nod — the appropriate greeting for a first meeting.
Evileye sat in the corner. Behind the mask, nothing showed. But the gaze through that narrow slit remained where it was — on Lucian's face — without Gagaran's aggression, and without any evasion either.
Lucian brought his attention back and held his usual even smile, giving Lakyus a slight nod to tell her she could stand down.
Lakyus pressed her lips together. The tension in her face eased slightly, but she still looked at him with clear concern.
Lucian let out a quiet internal sigh.
Really. This little confidence in her own brother? She actually thinks Evileye's stature is going to get to me?
Being miscategorized as a lolicon by his own sister stung in its own particular way.
Though, thinking about it properly — Evileye genuinely had no obvious flaws. Appearance. Values. That cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside quality. Nothing actually wrong there.
If not for the shadow the Bone King cast over everything, the nation-ending loli might have been worth considering seriously.
A very soft voice came from the corner just then, like something that had slipped out without permission.
"...Pervert."
Evileye's voice.
As though she could hear the inside of his head and had passed judgment on it directly.
Lucian went slightly cold. I don't remember Evileye being able to read minds.
A brief silence.
Lakyus spoke.
"Brother. You came by so suddenly..." Her voice carried the weight of someone who knew him. "Is something the matter?"
She understood him well enough to know this. Lucian didn't do pointless things. If he had shown up at this hour without warning, there was a reason.
"Yes." Lucian gave a nod. "The deployment against Eight Fingers needs to change."
The moment those words settled, the atmosphere in the room changed quietly but completely.
Tina, who had been draped back against her chair, sat up. Tia's expression sharpened in an instant. Gagaran, who had been sitting with her arms folded, let them fall to her sides without making anything of it. The careless energy on her square face pulled back to almost nothing.
Even Evileye drew her gaze in.
All of Blue Roses entered operational mode at the same time.
The pastries were cleared to one side. Lakyus produced a rolled map and spread it across the table.
On it were marked Eight Fingers' various strongholds across the capital.