Chương 148: Epilogue 5: Maria and Night Cloud.

Three years after the Coven agreement. Maria wasn't sure what the problem was with her spear practice. The only thing she knew was that she was doing it wrong. The dark-scaled lizard hissing with disapproval told her this much. A shame, because it was her daily practice and for once, she had full access to her mana. But she was a fuckup so of course any A-class would disapprove of her performance. The Red House was under the effect of a strange mana field that suppressed her, had suppressed her since her arrival.

It was as if by living here as a prisoner, some metaphysical mana effect took hold on her. It had something to do with the masked user operating the facility. On very few occasions, the rules were relaxed and she could train with all her strength. Such opportunities only came with a special visitor that made the very thought of escape moot. Shinran himself stood some distance away, working through records at speed that ought to be impossible. On occasion, the lizard cast a dark glare towards him.

Shinran didn't seem to mind. After a while, Maria realized that the lizard was slowly reproducing her own kata, deliberately showing her when she was wasting motions or giving bad openings which was nice and more than she deserved. Like this, they trained for their designated hour, yet when the time came to return to her cell, a newcomer walked into the courtyard. It was the fencer who'd held her back while Clytemnestra defeated her father.

"Follow me," the fencer demanded. Maria looked at Shinran who nodded his approval, and of course he would and she was stupid to doubt it. As if anyone could come up without his knowledge. She pushed back the voice in her mind calling her stupid and a failure. She was fine now. She was fine.

The fencer led Maria through several gates that opened and closed automatically, then to what could only be an interview room of sorts. Two cups of coffee waited. The fencer sat first, inviting Maria to join with a polite gesture. Now that they were close, Maria realized the fencer had grown to B-class as well. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"My name is Camille Nguyen. I am here as the representative of the Crossworld alliance and specifically House Palladian, one of its founding members. A month from now, you will have served the first three of your five years sentence. As you may know, Threshold maintains a reinsertion program for well-behaved prisoners with raiding expertise. You will soon receive an offer to join this program. I am here to offer you the opportunity to be sponsored. By me."

"By you?"

"By me," Camille confirmed.

"Your personal datasheet will be provided with a drive containing the reinsertion program's rules and conditions, a code of conduct, as well as our offer. To make it short, but not legally binding, you will be allowed to leave the Red House for raids, for which you will be compensated per open portals and per recovered loot at a fair price for a period of six months, then you will live in a secure dormitory with curfew and increased freedom for another six.

Should your performance be satisfactory, you will be released one year early and the money you earned will be returned to you. House Palladian will also offer employment." Maria couldn't quite believe her ears. Thresholders were showing mercy? Her father had always said they were weak. Perhaps this kind of weakness wasn't so bad?

"Hum. Thank you. Can I ask, did my sisters put you up to this?"

"I have their agreement, of course, but this is ultimately my decision." Maria hesitated.

"Why?"

"Because I was offered mercy as well. You can see it as my way to pass the favor along to someone else. I know you grew up in a culture where might makes right and you're either with us or against us, but you'll find that turning the enemies of yesterday into tomorrow's allies can make one very strong. Very strong indeed." Camille smiled. Maria was only asking questions out of formality. She already knew she was going to accept.

"I'm in."

"Excellent. Say, how do you feel about visiting other planets?"

Back in the courtyard, Night Cloud and Shinran faced off. The false monk grabbed a translator from his Bag of Plenty.

"I have a proposal," he started.

"I will never fight for you, human. I already told you so."

"We have found something new to bargain with. Something you thought lost, yet was found again." Night Cloud was intrigued if only because she was also very, very bored. She grabbed the datasheet with careful claws. The surface showed a rather bad image of a familiar figure. They sat in meditation above a world on fire. He looked older, tired but the scars on his left eye and the triple crest could not be imitated.

"He died with Elderbane."

"Elderbane didn't die. He has returned, found by the infiltrator you knew as Curious Gazer."

"Her!"

"Yes. Her people found your elders, those who survived anyway. They are scattered. We have a way to bring them back."

"With him, the tribe will thrive again."

"If…" the Red Titan said.

"... if we submit to you," Night Cloud bitterly noted.

"Not submission. Cooperation. Submission is the shortcut of the weak and the short-sighted."

"So you say," Night cloud mocked, yet it was clear he believed his own world.

"I will listen to your offer, canny warrior."