Chương 162: Chapter 161 - A Rats Race

Lucid reached the tavern breathing hard. His chest burned. His legs felt like water. The pastries Petra had given him were gone. Dropped somewhere in the alley when he ran. A shame. They had smelled good. He pushed through the door. The common room was half empty. A few drunks occupied corner tables. The innkeeper polished glasses behind the bar with the mechanical rhythm of someone who had given up caring about cleanliness and just went through motions. Ayame sat at their usual table near the back.

She saw him immediately. Her dark eyes tracked him from door to chair like a predator watching prey that had finally returned to the den. Arthur was not there. Lucid dropped into the chair across from her. His breath still came uneven. Sweat stuck his shirt to his back. Ayame said nothing. Just watched.

'She knows something happened. She always knows.'

"Where is Arthur?" Lucid asked when he caught enough breath to speak.

"Courthouse. Still registering us." Ayame's voice was flat. Stating facts.

"You are bleeding." Lucid looked down. His knuckles were scraped. Not from the cultists. From something else. Maybe from when he had grabbed a wall to turn a corner faster. Hard to remember.

"It is nothing."

"You ran. You are breathing like you ran."

"I did run."

"From what?" Lucid leaned back in his chair. Let his head rest against the wall behind him. Closed his eyes.

'How much do I tell her? How much does she need to know?' He opened his eyes. Met her gaze.

"I went to the slums. Found trouble. Stopped some cultists from burning down a bakery." Ayame's expression did not change but something shifted in her posture. A tension that had not been there before.

"Cultists. The same ones the queen sent us to handle."

"Yes."

"Did you kill them?"

"No. Just stopped them. Left them groaning on the ground." Lucid paused.

"But more showed up after. Followed me. Said they knew about the Mark. Said they knew we were here on the queen's orders." Now Ayame's eyes narrowed.

"They saw the Mark."

"Yes."

"That is bad."

"I know." She leaned forward. Placed both hands flat on the table.

"They threatened you." It was not a question. Just a statement waiting for confirmation.

"They threatened all of us. Said they would take you and Arthur as leverage. Make me leave Port Vexis." Ayame's hands curled into fists.

"I would like to see them try." Despite everything Lucid felt a smile tug at his mouth.

"I believe you would."

"What did you learn?"

'Here it is. The moment where I decide how much to share.' Lucid ran through what he knew. What he had heard from Petra and the older man. What the cultists had said. What connections he could make.

"The cultists work with House Maren. Some kind of partnership. House Maren wants the slums cleared. They are buying up property. Forcing sales. Anyone who resists gets a visit from the cultists."

"Typical nobility. Using fear as currency."

"But there is more." Lucid leaned forward. Dropped his voice even though the nearest drunk was three tables away and too far gone to care about anything except his next drink.

"Three weeks ago someone calling himself the Generous Scoundrel came to the slums. Started helping people. Gave loans. Set up businesses. Made it look like charity."

"But it was not."

"No. It was investment. He built infrastructure. Created dependency. Made people visible." Lucid paused.

"Then House Maren noticed. Decided they wanted their cut. When people could not pay, the cultists burned down an orphanage. Eight people died. Children." Ayame was silent for a moment. Her hands uncurled. Flattened against the table again.

"Where is this Generous Scoundrel now?"

"Disappeared. When things got dangerous he vanished."

"A coward then."

"Maybe. Or maybe smart. Hard to tell the difference sometimes." The innkeeper approached. Set down two mugs without asking. Water. Warm. Tasted like it had been sitting in the barrel too long. Lucid drank anyway. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Ayame did not touch hers. Just watched Lucid with that same unblinking intensity.

"What else?"

'She knows there is more. She always knows.'

"There is a relic," Lucid said.

"Everyone is looking for it. The cultists mentioned it when they chased me. Something about it being the reason for the increased activity in Port Vexis."

"What kind of relic?"

"I do not know. But it is valuable enough that multiple groups want it. Valuable enough to kill for." Ayame absorbed this.

"You think the cultists we were sent to stop are after this relic."

"Yes."

"And House Maren also wants it."

"Yes."

"Anyone else?" Lucid thought about the gathering he had not attended. The nobles on the eastern pier. The auction that had supposedly happened.

"Probably. This is Port Vexis. If something valuable exists, someone is trying to buy it, steal it, or burn it down out of spite." Ayame almost smiled. Almost.

"What do you plan to do?"

'Good question. What am I planning to do?' His first instinct was to find the relic before anyone else did. Secure it. Use it as leverage against the cultists. Force them out of Port Vexis and complete the mission. He set that instinct aside. His second thought was to let the various factions fight over it. Stay out of the way. Focus on the cultists directly instead of whatever treasure they were chasing. He set that aside too. What remained was something simpler. More direct.

"I need more information. About the relic. About who has it now. About why everyone wants it so badly." Lucid drained the rest of his water.

"The locals mentioned something. They said the Generous Scoundrel was looking for it too. That he came to Port Vexis specifically to find it."

"So we find him. Make him talk."

"If we can find him. He has been hiding for weeks. Either he is very good at it or someone is protecting him."

"Or he is dead."

"Also possible." Footsteps on the stairs. Heavy boots. Familiar rhythm. Arthur appeared from the upper floor. He looked tired. His hair was messier than usual. Ink stained his fingers from signing too many documents. He saw Lucid and stopped. His expression shifted from tired to alert in half a second.

"What happened?"

"Long story," Lucid said. Arthur crossed to the table. Pulled out a chair. Sat down heavily.

"I have time. The courthouse is closed for the night anyway. Apparently there is a curfew because of recent violence." He looked at Lucid more closely.

"You have blood on your hands."

"I noticed."

"Yours or someone else's?"

"Someone else's. Mostly." Arthur sighed. The kind of sigh that said he had expected this but hoped he would be wrong.

"Start from the beginning." Lucid told the story again. The slums. The cultists. The bakery. Petra and her pastries. The older man's explanation. The chase. The threats. Arthur listened without interrupting. His expression grew darker as the story progressed. When Lucid finished Arthur was silent for a long moment. Then he spoke.

"The Mark. They saw it and recognized it."

"Yes."

"That means they know about the Transcendence. Know enough to identify participants."

"Yes."

"Which means this is bigger than local cultists causing trouble." Arthur's hands curled into fists on the table.

"This is organized. Connected to something larger." Ayame spoke.

"There is a relic. Everyone wants it." Arthur's eyes sharpened.

"What relic?" Lucid explained what little he knew. The mentions. The implications. The way multiple factions seemed to be moving toward the same goal. Arthur processed this quickly. His knight training had included strategy. Tactics. Understanding how pieces moved on boards most people could not see.

"If the cultists want this relic badly enough to coordinate with nobility. If they are willing to kill for it. Then it is not just valuable. It is powerful."

"Or dangerous," Ayame added.

"Or both." Lucid leaned back. Let his chair tilt onto two legs. Balanced there while his mind worked through possibilities.

'Everyone is after the same thing. The cultists. House Maren. Probably others we do not know about yet. And we walked right into the middle of it without knowing.'

"We are in a race," he said. Arthur and Ayame both looked at him.

"A race for what?" Arthur asked.

"For the relic. For whatever it is. For whatever power or value it holds." Lucid let his chair drop back to four legs.

"The cultists know we are here. They know we are marked by the Transcendence. Which means they will be watching us. Tracking us. Trying to figure out if we are competition or just interference."

"We are both," Ayame said.

"Exactly. Which gives us an advantage." Arthur frowned.

"How?"

"Because they do not know what we know. They do not know we talked to the locals. Do not know we learned about the Generous Scoundrel. Do not know we are starting to piece together the connections." Lucid stood. Paced to the window. Looked out at Port Vexis spreading below them in layers of shadow and scattered light.

"They think we are here to stop them. To disrupt their operations. To enforce whatever the queen wants enforced."

"We are," Arthur said.

"Yes. But we can also find the relic. Get to it first. Use it as leverage or destroy it or whatever makes the most sense when we know more about what it actually does."

"And if we cannot find it first?"

"Then we make sure whoever does find it cannot use it against us." Ayame stood. Moved to stand beside Lucid at the window.

"You have a plan."

"The beginning of one. We need more information first."

"The medic," Ayame said.

"Jing Xiu. You were going to see him."

"I did. He agreed to examine me. Said I should come back tomorrow or the day after for results."

"Will he have information about the relic?"

"Maybe. He practices Dao Dynasty medicine. He has been in Port Vexis for years based on his setup. If anyone knows the underground currents of this city it would be someone like him." Arthur joined them at the window. Three figures looking out at a city that had become more complicated in the span of a few hours.

"We should sleep," Arthur said.

"Rest. Make a proper plan in the morning when we are not exhausted."

"I will take first watch," Ayame said.

"You do not need to watch. We are in a tavern. There are locks on the doors."

"Locks can be picked. Doors can be broken. I will watch." Arthur looked like he wanted to argue. Then he saw her expression and decided against it.

"Fine. Wake me in four hours. I will take second watch."

"I do not need to be relieved."

"Ayame."

"Fine. Four hours." They moved away from the window. Arthur headed upstairs to the room they had rented. Three beds. More luxury than necessary but the price had been reasonable. Lucid followed. His body felt heavy now that the adrenaline had worn off. Every step took effort. Ayame stayed in the common room. She took up position in a chair that had clear sightlines to both the door and the stairs. Her hand rested near where her blade would materialize if needed. Lucid collapsed onto his bed fully clothed.

Kicked off his boots. Let his head sink into a pillow that smelled like old straw and regret. Arthur sat on his own bed. Pulled off his boots more carefully. Set them beside the bed aligned perfectly.

"Lucid," he said.

"Yeah?"

"This mission. It is more complicated than the queen told us."

"Most missions are."

"I am serious. We came here to stop cultists. Now we are in the middle of some kind of treasure hunt with multiple factions all competing for the same prize."

"I know."

"And you think we can win?" Lucid turned his head. Looked at Arthur across the dim room.

"I think we have to try. Because if we do not, someone else gets the relic. And whoever that is will use it for something. Maybe something bad. Maybe something worse than bad." Arthur nodded slowly.

"Then we find it first."

"Yes."

"And we figure out what it does."

"Yes."

"And we make sure it does not end up in the wrong hands."

"Yes." Arthur lay back on his bed. Stared at the ceiling.

"I hate treasure hunts," he said. Lucid smiled despite his exhaustion.

"Me too." Sleep came quickly after that.