Chapter 898: The Full Plan
"You're late..."
Adrien's voice echoed as he lightly glared at both Rey and Lucielle, who shamelessly stood before him a short distance from the museum, as if nothing was wrong.
They were all standing next to a fountain, their bodies completely cloaked due to a bunch of Skills and Spells. The look on Adrien's face was that of mild disapproval and disappointment, but both Rey and Lucielle had cheerful expressions for some reason.
-Even after arriving late!
Of course, their delay wasn't going to affect the plan in any meaningful way, but it was still tardiness.
"Sorry. We got carried away scouting the area..." Rey spoke calmly, a smile plastered on his face.
"Yeah. Just to be sure the coast is clear." Lucielle backed him up.
Adrien could feel a vein nearly pop on his forehead as he looked at the two of them and strained a smile. Even if he hadn't watched the two of them go into the Museum just earlier, he still wouldn't believe their obvious lies.
'They're not even trying to hide it... shameless people.' He shook his head. 'At the very least, it doesn't matter. Rey already guessed I knew about Lucielle's identity, so it wasn't very difficult integrating her into the plan. At this point, we are already plenty familiar with each other, so I'm glad the whole exchange didn't take too long.'
Now that all three of them were present and accounted for, it was time for the next phase of the plan.
"The Chamber of Ancients... it's time we discussed getting in."
The moment Adrien said this, the cheerful expression on both Rey and Lucielle's faces dissipated, replaced by a serious facade. The two clearly knew how important the current mission was, so there was no room for dawdling.
"Since there's been something of a curfew, security is pretty light today. Regular guards are on break and are probably watching the event from their homes" He began explaining. "Plus, any relatively powerful person will be in attendance at the event, since the social hierarchy of Dragons is determined by strength."
In essence, the site that they were headed to was practically deserted.
"Of course, there are barriers put in place, but taking into account our combined strength- no, just Rey's alone-we should be able to easily get past any defense that has been set up."
That much was a given.
"The Chamber of Ancients is considered a sacred monument—almost like a shrine. Every Dragon knows to revere it, so we shouldn't be getting any kind of interruption or surveillance from the outside. We'll be completely alone..."
"Alone for what exactly?" Lucielle finally spoke up.
She pretty much knew the gist of the plan, but there was an essential ingredient in all of it that she still hadn't been told and wasn't able to wrap her head around. Since they had pretty much reached the end point-or somewhere relatively close-she felt it was the perfect time to let her in on the purpose of the plan.
"You haven't told her yet?" Adrien raised his brow, turning to Rey while his expression displayed clear frustration.
"Nope!" Lucielle shook her head as she also turned to him.
In an instant, it was as if both of them turned on Rey-their intense gazes pressuring him as The leaked out a wry smile.
"I was going to get to that..."
"When?"
"... Eventually."
"Haaa... unbelievable." Adrien shook his head, clearly not willing to deal with the big reveal or the potential series of drama that would result from it.
"Mind if I make a guess?"
At this point, both of the boys looked at Lucielle. Her gleaming crimson eyes seemed to hide something, and it made them curious.
"Sure. I mean-"
"This is about finding a way back to Earth, right?" The moment Lucielle said this, both Rey and Adrien couldn't hide their surprise.
'So she isn't only good for Magic, huh...?' Adrien smiled to himself. 'Interesting...'
As for Rey, he opened his lips the second after Lucielle hit the nail right on its head. Even though his emotions were checked a moment later, he still felt the shock of her words for long enough to give an impulsive response.
"How did you know?!"
"I just made a guess... but it seems I was correct, huh?" She folded her arms and sighed. "Now I see why you've been so bummed out with Alicia and all..."
Lucielle was clearly hiding her complicated thought process, the main reason she was able to deduce their plans to such an extent, but neither boy could call her out on it. The truth was that she had been researching the Dragons and their history-enough to discover that their history of the world was much different from the human records.
She was also able to find landmarks and learn the various areas of significance of the Dragon Empire-including the Chamber of Ancients.
Of course, not all the details were available to a mere student like her, so her knowledge was still very limited. The most progress she made was when she became a disciple of the White Dragon Lord and learned even more things from the Lord's library-stuff that wasn't in the Academy's Library.
Ultimately, she pieced it all together and realized it probably had to do with reverse summoning.
"The Dragons arrived at H'Trae from that particular point... which is now referred to as the Chamber of Ancients, and so you want to use it to return to your original world." She smiled. "But, to do that... you need to have extensive knowledge on Magic-including how to tweak whatever formula is there so it goes flawlessly and connects to Earth and not somewhere else. That is why you wanted me to come with you, since I was in charge of summoning you to this world and should know the coordinates of your world, and how to properly calibrate the Magic so it works exactly how you want it to."
By the time Lucielle was done speaking, Rey and Adrien looked at each other, and then at her
with a unanimous nod.
"Did I miss anything?"
"No..." Rey said with a small smile. "You got it just right."
"I see..."
For another few seconds, there was silence among the three of them.
"So... what do you think? Will you help us?" Adrien cut through the silence, his focused gaze already laden with his intent to carry out the mission.
Even if Lucielle refused, he was certain there would be some other way. The point was to get the work done within the window of opportunity that they had-no more, no less. "Sure... why not?" Lucielle shrugged, making a casual smile. "You've shown me so many cool things already, so how could I refuse now? I'll consider this my fee."
Rey couldn't fully tell if Lucielle meant every word she said. It seemed like she did, but it also felt like she was hiding some of her feelings.
He could see it in her eyes... that she was hurt-hurt that he didn't tell her all this time.
"At least tell me this..." She whispered. "How many of you are leaving?"
Rey looked at Adrien and sighed.
"I'm not sure. Adrien is going, and so is Alicia. I don't know about the others... but we can't know for sure until we ask them. Personally, I'm doing this for Alicia... and Adrien and I are collaborating because he also wants to return to Earth."
"Really? Why?" Lucielle turned to Adrien. "You don't seem to be doing too bad for yourself
here."
In response to that, Adrien leaked out a light grin and spoke.
"I just want my home."
"I see..." Lucielle muttered, closing her eyes and inhaling very deeply as she processed all she
had just heard. After a few seconds, her eyes popped wide open and she arrived at her decision.
"Alright! Let's do this!"
Rey and Adrien instantly smiled and nodded to her in gratitude.
There were certainly other ways they could go about the plan without Lucielle's help, but things would certainly be much easier with her cooperation. Given the restraint of time that
they had, she was their safest bet.
"Thank you." Rey told her. "For real."
"I can't exactly complain or even get mad. After all... we took you all from your home world."
"Yeah..." Rey rubbed the base of his neck as he remembered the whole experience. He also remembered that they would have died in the accident if not for the summoning anyway.
So, in a sense, Lucielle actually saved their lives.
"Besides... I don't feel too bad knowing you're still going to be here with us."
Rey's eyes glimmered as soon as he heard that.
"Yeah! I'm not leaving."
"Good."
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After a few seconds of staring at each other, feeling the tense silence waft between the two of
them, they were interrupted by light groaning from Adrien.
"Alright, alright... let's do this already."
~VWUUUSH!~
With a snap of his fingers, space distorted around them and they arrived right in front of the
massive dome that was known by one name alone.
-The Chamber of Ancients.
"At long last..." The moment Rey took one step forward, however, he instantly noticed
something-no, someone already inside the building.
Worst of all... he recognized who it was.
'Why? Why are you here?!'
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[A/N]
Thanks for reading!
I believe you all know where this is all heading...