Chapter 323: Are they… doing it again?

"Then I would hate to keep you, Mr. Cross."

Aurelia smiled and Lucian—

"Lucian."

He spoke up.

"Hm?"

"Please call me Lucian.

I think we are past the point of using last names."

Aurelia paused at that, then her smile widened.

"Lucian."

Lucian smiled.

"You should go now."

The Vampire smiled and the Incubus nodded. Then, he turned around and walked away. Though before disappearing, he looked back one more time.

The Vampire wasn’t looking at him, she was actually arranging the books Lucian read, Lucian, of course, knew she was only pretending to look busy, she may not be looking at him directly, but she could definitely feel his gaze.

’She is dangerous.’

He muttered inwardly and this time—

Her being dangerous had nothing to do with her strength.

She was... dangerous in a very different way.

Though in the end, Lucian did not think too strongly about this, he walked away in order to attend to his ’urgent matter’.

Once he was out of sight, the light, amused smile on Aurelia’s face disappeared completely. Her crimson eyes moved towards the books she was holding and her mind started thinking about everything they discussed today.

The possibility of Cassian going against her direct order...

Just the thought of that made her face dangerously cold.

Aurelia...

She had work to do.

A lot of it.

...

On the other side, Lucian was already standing in that familiar dark space again. Yes, he was dreaming again. After his conversation with Aurelia, he instantly returned to his room and jumped on his bed.

He wasn’t exhausted, nor did he want to sleep.

But...

He had gained quite a lot today. He now knew about Neroth, his connection to House Arcelis, how Cassian Arcelis might have hidden the Archdemon’s Heart instead of burning it, House Arcelis’s strange purchases that they tried to hide.

It all felt like progress.

And...

Lucian had this strange feeling that with everything he now knew, if he slept, the voice would talk to him again and considering he was in this now familiar darkness again—

It seemed like he was right.

"Alright, you can start talking now."

He spoke out loud as he looked around, even when there was nothing to look at.

"Helloooo?"

Lucian raised his voice again when he didn’t get an answer.

The rules were the same as the ones he created before. He would say something, wait for it to answer, if it didn’t say anything in ten seconds, he would say something else.

So when ten more seconds passed and Lucian still didn’t get anything—

"What? Are you not going to speak? I’ll leave if that’s how you’ll play. I am not sure how, but I will find a way to wake my body. Don’t test me."

He gave an outright threat and that worked.

"They kept what they were supposed to burn."

The instant he heard those words, Lucian’s smile vanished.

That was... specific.

Very specific.

There was only one thing that fit.

"Neroth?"

Lucian asked but again...

The voice did not say anything.

"Neroth Vhalzaryn?"

This time, Lucian tried the full name but again, nothing.

"Whatever, I didn’t have much hope with this one."

Lucian shrugged and then changed his question.

"You mentioned Varek last time. You said I would end up like him if I stayed here. You want to talk about that?"

But again, no answer.

That made Lucian sigh.

The answer could have made all this a lot easier, not that he could be the chooser here. He just stared into the darkness instead and—

"How does Neroth’s Heart connect to Varek?"

He asked another question.

Again, no answer.

"What happened to Varek?"

Still nothing.

"Did Neroth’s Heart corrupt him?"

"Is Neroth possessing him?"

Lucian asked a few more questions and... the voice did not answer any of them.

That made Lucian frown.

Lucian knew that it wasn’t that the voice did not wish to talk, if that was the case, it would have simply exiled him like it did before.

There was something it wanted to tell him, he just needed to ask the right question.

So Lucian started thinking.

He stopped throwing random questions at it and asked what had been bothering him for a while now.

"Did House Arcelis cause it?"

He asked.

He didn’t get any answer and this time, Lucian clarified his question instead of asking another one.

"Varek’s Contract, was House Arcelis involved in him forming it?"

And this time—

"...yes."

The voice answered.

Lucian turned silent, his expression changed.

So House Arcelis really was involved.

"So it was Neroth..."

That confirmed it.

The connection was too obvious for him to ignore.

If House Arcelis was behind the Contract, that would mean they were behind Neroth’s survival in the first place.

How else would Neroth even be alive?

It was clear now.

House Arcelis betrayed Aurelia’s direct orders and kept Neroth’s Heart alive, later making Varek form a Contract with the said Archdemon.

House Arcelis didn’t just know Varek formed the Contract with an Archdemon, they were the ones who somehow facilitated it.

The new question now was...

"Why?"

Lucian asked.

The voice didn’t answer.

So Lucian changed the question.

"What exactly is House Arcelis doing? What are they trying to accomplish?"

He asked.

Honestly, he wasn’t even expecting an answer. Considering how picky the voice was, what he had now seemed more than enough but then—

"Experiment."

The voice gave a vague answer and Lucian’s face changed.

His mind instantly connected the word with everything Aurelia said.

"What sort of experiment? What is the experiment about?"

He asked.

But of course, the voice did not answer.

Lucian changed the question.

"Are you saying Varek was an experiment?"

No answer again.

"What are they experimenting on?"

"Is it Neroth’s Heart?"

"What did they do to Varek?"

"Are Varek and Neroth connected in any way other than their Contract?"

He asked a few more questions but the voice did not say anything else. Lucian did not give up, he asked another question, this one was more important than the others.

"Are they... doing it again?"

He asked carefully, somewhat not ready for the answer.

But then—

The darkness disappeared and Lucian’s eyes snapped open.

He was back in his room.

He was exiled.

"...dammit."