Arthur blinked awake, groggy but no longer exhausted.
Instinctively, he reached out for the book, but to his surprise it was no longer there.
"Oh, I gave it to Lucien."
He murmured as the memories of the day came back to him.
"No matter, I was done with reading it."
Arthur stretched, letting out a yawn before getting off the bed.
But he stopped mid-stretch, the realization of his actions weighing down on him.
"Fuck."
'The book isn't really the most pressing issue, right now, the fact that I told Lucien that I knew he had the password to all of my accounts is.'
Because he was pissed off, Arthur made two mistakes.
One, he gave Lucien the note where he had written all the answers. This wasn't really a pressing issue as Lucien was destined to get first on the overall rankings, by the odd chance that he would actually read them, it wouldn't change much.
But it would make Lucien suspicious of how Arthur knew the answers.
Two, he told Lucien that he knew Lucien had all his passwords. This, by itself, wasn't bad as he could just wave it as him not pretending to know.
However, one was coupled with two.
How did Arthur know the questions, and that Lucien knew his passwords?
That would be the question Lucien would ask himself.
And Arthur didn't want to think of the crazy answers Lucien would come up with, because, that would only make the boy more distrustful of him. Then, there was also the low chance that he would actually get the answer.
"I don't even want to imagine that."
Art let out a sigh.
"And on top of all that, I even threatened him."
He let out another sigh before exiting the room.
Lucien was already awake. He sat in the lounge, sharpening his blade, every stroke of whetstone against steel steady and precise.
"....Oi."
Arthur muttered, his voice low.
"Awake?"
Lucien looked up, his expression unreadable as he spoke.
"You have a talent for stating the obvious."
Arthur clicked his tongue.
The silence settled again. Arthur rubbed the back of his neck.
'Why is this so hard?'
Never in both lives, had it been so hard to say sorry.
"Listen.... Lucien."
Arthur struggled to begin, each word dragging through his teeth.
The boy stopped sharpening his blade and looked up.
"About yesterday.... I— I— I." Arthur let out a shake exhale, grinding out the words like they were poison.
'When was apologizing this hard?!'
Art did not know.
It was as if his body, mind and soul refused to let the words come out.
"—I may have been a little.... a little over the top and said some.... mildly harmful things to you."
He clenched his jaw. "And for that.... I'm sor— I mean, I'm sor— I'm soggy."
Lucien tilted his head slightly, as if to say, 'Is that all?'.
"That's all."
Arthur said to affirm it.
"Well, young master, I feel honored that you feel 'soggy' for me, but, I didn't take your words to heart."
Lucien finally said.
Arthur frowned slightly.
"And why is that?"
He asked.
Lucien's expressionless facade was gone.
"Because I'm stronger than you," and that murderous glint in his gaze as there to replace it.
Arthur's frown slowly turned into a slight grin, and then he chuckled.
"If you kill me, I'll die as well, and I'm sure you still have some unfinished business to attend to before you die."
Arthur stood up, sighing one more time for today.
"Why did I even bother?"
He asked no one in particular before continuing.
"I'll be admiring myself in my room, don't call me until we arrive. What did you say we had left after reaching the border, six hours?"
"The jet is estimated to arrive in fifteen minutes."
Lucien's reply caught Arthur off-guard.
"Oh, I guess I'll do it in fifteen minutes then."
With those words, he left the lounge, heading back into the room.
'Why did I even bother?'
Arthur thought.
Saying 'sorry' was hard enough as it was, and then, Lucien returned his threat with a threat.
He shook his head.
'I suppose that I should really admire myself to pass the time."
At that moment Arthur froze, slowly turning his head towards the corner near the bed.
It took a lot of mental power to stop himself from hitting the wall.
.... There was no mirror in sight.
'Calm down, it's not the end of the world.'
But for Arthur, it certainly did seem like it.
....
Lavender Academy was situated above the Central Monarchy; it was inside the Monarchy so it could be considered a part of it.
But, it was headed by so many powerful individuals that if they were to go into war with the Central Monarchy, while the Monarchy wouldn't lose it would still take them down from the second strongest of the five Monarchies to the weakest.
It just so happened that the Central Monarchy had an abundance of resources.
If it was severely weakened, the other Monarchies would of course, wage war to claim the resources.
And it just so happened that the head of Lavender Academy wanted it to be its own separate state.
And where better to put it than at the center? Nowhere, actually.
Lavender Academy threatened to wage war against the Central Monarchy, and the Monarchy had no choice but to agree.
But they managed to negotiate.
'At least, that was the way the story presented it.'
His fellow gamers had managed to discover that it wasn't actually that.
Rather, the real reason was that the Central Monarchy wasn't willing to fight a battle that they would lose.
The thirteen founders were just that strong, strong enough to crush a Monarchy.
But, why was Arthur thinking about this while on top of his private jet as it slowly descended? One might find themself asking.
Well, he was currently thinking about stealing their treasures.... The problem was even he didn't know where it was.
'Whatever, I'll think of something.'
With those thoughts, Arthur jumped down from the jet.
He landed perfectly, as though he had practiced this for a long time.