Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Plow worms were vastly large creatures and it was why Lucius had thought of them as the perfect beasts to exact his revenge on the Bergan's Band.

However, that was why Kiana's concern also made sense.

"While the Rune Crystal does degrade quickly within a corpse and trying to find it in its body is something difficult to do through normal means, I have my own way of retrieving it." Lucius said.

Kiana couldn't help but wonder if Asher would make use of the Lost to quickly search for the rune crystals, either way, she trusted that he'll be able to obtain them as he wanted.

"Now to exact this plan, we need to obtain the location of a Plow Worm first. I would like you to take care of it. I've previously asked you to check where they reside, haven't I?" Lucius said.

Kiana nodded. "Yes, now that you've mentioned the Bergan's Band. I recall that a number of Plow worms can be found in the land of the Aisse territory, Asher. But I'll quickly set to work in pinpointing the exact location of one."

"Good, in addition to that, it'll be easy to put the blame on the Aisse territory once the Plow Worm incident occurs." Lucius nodded in satisfaction. "How long do you think it'll take before you can give me the location of a Plow worms?"

"I'll be able to get it quickly." Kiana informed him. "The location of Plow worms are known by many due to the fact that plenty of mining areas that people work in are because of the Plow worms unearthing the materials."

"That's good. You're free to take care of this right away." Lucius nodded as he finally finished his breakfast as well.

"Then I'll be taking this." Kiana picked up the meal tray but then looked at Asher. "Do you intend to leave today or go on any errands that I should know about?"

"Hmmm… well, until we get the information about the Plow worm's location and for father to return and give us his permission, we won't exactly be able to move forward with any plans, so I'm currently going to rest."

Truth be told, Lucius wasn't exactly pleased to sit around and wait for permission, especially with the chance that the Count might disagree with him, but in the long run, it was much better to get on the man's good side.

"And you're not going to the Dionysia Brewery, re-education center or to your laboratory at all?" Kiana raised her brows, an unconvinced look on her face.

Lucius sometimes forgot that Kiana believed herself to be the older one between the two of them, that even when 'Asher' had proved himself as a competent young man, she and the rest of his family were still protective.

It was always a strange thing, especially when Lucius had murdered his own siblings back in the Great Barrom Clan and thus had no particular attachment to people even related to him by blood.

"Asher?" Kiana asked again.

"Very well. I will simply offer myself the books in the library here and refresh my mind on Plow worms and the like." Lucius declared. "As long as you get the information that I need as quickly as possible, I find no reason to not cooperate."

Kiana let out an audible sigh but smiled at him.

"You've really changed Asher. You haven't even considered to contact Paul or Andrew to hang around with them, and while you've shown interest in artifacts before… never to the extent of making one yourself."

Lucius found no reason to associate with the youth but knew that his 'change' was drastic for people who knew him for a long time indeed.

"Circumstances have changed, Kiana." Lucius said. "And even if I were to make social calls with these two. It's not really a good idea to call for them, especially after a recent assassination attempt. Who knows how much interest the Bergan's Band have in attacking me?"

Kiana blinked and realized her mistake.

"Apologies for speaking out of turn, Asher. I know that you've changed especially with the loss of your memory… and it must be tiring to hear me remind you of the past that you can't recall. I'll excuse myself now."

Lucius watched Kiana leave the room, and while he could have lingered on her sentiments about the 'old' Asher… he really didn't care as long as she remained useful and loyal to him.

Attachment was a good way to keep people in control. Although there were chances of it backfiring too. Hence why Lucius had the Mark of Loyalty on Kiana.

Either way, Lucius was indeed still exhausted after the Soul Scry spell and really had planned on recovering. He seemed idle right now, but it was simply him biding his time.

When Kiana finally visited him the day after, she had the documents about the Plow Worms.

"A local ore supplier has the locations right here." Kiana offered Asher the paper who then took his time to read it.

"Hmmm… there's one right at the very border of the Aisse territory." Lucius said, pleased with the discovery. This specific Plow worm was the one that he'll be targeting.

"What's your next step, Asher?" Kiana asked.

"It would be good to have plans for setting out at the ready." Lucius said. "While the Count is still not yet here, it's better to be able to leave at a moment's notice."

"I'll have the preparations be done then." Kiana nodded.

"Thank you." Lucius said.

More or less, things were going accordingly well to plan and all that Lucius needed to do was wait.

It was easy to get impatient, but Lucius knew that the Count was about to return since the Countess had also sent him a message regarding the assassination.

In the meantime, Lucius was able to recover from the taxing costs of the spell and knew that he was in perfect condition to work again.

And soon enough, the next day after, the Count arrived with an interesting group of warriors.