CHAPTER 107: LUCIEN IS RUTHLESS

"But-"

Sera still wanted to dissuade Lucien from being too reckless, but seeing his serious look, she knew he wouldn’t change his mind.

"Okay, I will let my subordinate do what you want. However, the meeting will be arranged on the outskirts of the Capital as there is no way such meetings could be held inside."

Since he had decided, Sera thought of just helping him like he wanted.

"So, are you sure you want to do this? Lionheart has clearly said that you will be killed if you leave the capital."

She asked, trying to remind Lucien what he was getting at.

"Yeah, don’t worry about that. I will take care of my safety. You just need to arrange everything just like I said."

Lucien nodded and then released Sera from his embrace, intending to let her go.

"Oh, and don’t tell anyone about this, not even Lilith, understand?"

He advised her, for unlike Sera, Lilith wasn’t truly close to him.

Sure, they had shared intimate moments and even played around together, but in the end, they were still, in a sense, enemies.

After all, the mark remained within his mind, as it did within Lilith’s.

"Hmm? Okay!"

Sera was stunned by Lucien’s words and then, as if understanding something, she suddenly smiled a little.

’He did say I am the first.’

Sera thought Lucien was favouring her over Lilith and couldn’t help but feel a little warm inside.

However, the reason was far from what she thought.

Unlike her, Lilith didn’t have such feelings toward Lucien, nor did Lucien toward her. If anything, their relationship existed only because of the Seed of Lust.

So, Lucien could never truly trust Lilith and even treated her as an enemy.

Not to mention, she had already managed to loot 200,000 gold, 500 mana stones, the Sealed Mana Vault, and many other things from his family.

"And by the way, what is the name of your subordinate who is responsible for retrieving the stolen goods?"

Speaking of the debtors’ list, Lucien suddenly remembered something and immediately asked.

"Subordinate? Her name is Clara, an Early Weaver rank Runemaster. Why do you ask?"

Sera replied while asking curiously. Then, as if she felt that Lucien might be doubting her subordinate, she hurriedly explained.

"Don’t worry, she has been with me since young. She is completely loyal to me and won’t do anything that I don’t want."

She said, affirming that there would be no problem with his plan.

"...Clara, huh.."

But Lucien didn’t listen to her promise; instead, he suddenly closed his eyes as if thinking.

’System, scan the debtors list and show me if there is anyone named Clara.’

However, what he was actually doing was ordering the system to scan the list.

He wanted to confirm something.

Ding!

[There is no debtor with the name ’Clara’ in either the Full or Partial Collections.]

’Sure enough!’

As soon as the system gave him the answer, Lucien nodded, finding it reasonable.

In his opinion, if the subordinate of Sera was hiding something from her for her own gain, her name should be above Sera’s in the debtors’ list.

But now that he scanned her name in the entire list and still couldn’t find her, he understood what probably happened here.

"Okay, it seems she is trustworthy enough."

Lucien suddenly said, looking at Sera, confusing her.

"But, you seem to have poor control over her. That’s not good."

"What do you mean?"

Sera asked, clearly not understanding his implications. However, when Lucien pointed at the mana ring on her hand and said the next thing, she immediately understood what had happened.

"The stuff inside that ring is incomplete, and some things are missing. You know what that means, right?"

Lucien lightly said, not explaining further. To be honest, his reasoning was too poor, as how would he know how much wealth there was supposed to be?

Not to mention, whether they lost it in the process of retrieving.

But he didn’t care whether Sera believed him or not. It wasn’t like she was betrayed by Clara.

But no matter what, Lucien didn’t like Sera being oblivious about her own situation.

That was a very deadly thing and clearly not good for someone who was close to him.

"What? How could it be?"

Sure enough, Sera immediately understood what Lucien meant and shook her head in denial.

"Clara would never do such things. She isn’t like this."

After all, she had spent far more time with Clara than with Lucien. How could she doubt her just because Lucien said so?

"I didn’t mean it in a bad way."

Lucien smiled at Sera being defensive, came close, and put his hand atop her hair lightly.

"It is a fact that the items inside are less than what they should be, and I am quite sure of it."

He said with a warm smile and continued,

"As for where it went, why don’t you ask her? I’m sure if she’s as trustworthy as you said, she won’t lie to you, right?"

"I just want everything to be under your control and nothing else."

He finally said what he really wanted from Sera, making her bite her lip in frustration.

"Did she hide some items before giving me the ring?"

Now that Lucien said in this way, Sera quickly understood what might have happened. From her expression, Lucien could see that this might not be the first time this had happened before.

Only, he didn’t care about her mumblings, though, as his attention was already on his mind,

’System, start full debt extraction on Eldest Princess Sera Edoria. Don’t extract stat if possible.’

He ordered seriously while still smiling warmly at Sera, caressing her hair with his hands.

From outside, he looked as amiable as before, clearly thinking about Sera’s feelings, but inside, he initiated the power of his system without a second thought.

Ding!

[Initiating the Debt extraction from the target, Sera Edoria.]

As soon as the system heard his order, it immediately began to do its work, not caring whether Lucien seemed ruthless this way.

After all, after sharing such an intimate moment with her and even confirming her feelings for him, he still gave the order to extract debt from Sera.

Lucien knew that whatever was extracted carried the risk of being lost on that person.

But still, he was collecting debt from Sera, knowing full well that she didn’t even steal from him.

So, if Lucien wasn’t ruthless, then who was?

Of course, he did show mercy by ordering the system not to extract the stat, didn’t he?

Ding!

[The realm gap between you and Sera isn’t that wide. You are eligible for full debt extractions.]

[Analyzing transactions...initiating collections...]

[Extracting compensation of the equivalent value...please wait...]

The system didn’t stop once he gave the order and immediately began the extraction process from Sera, who was completely oblivious to what was happening to her.

It didn’t take long for the system to give the notification that Lucien was waiting all along.

[Extraction successful!]

[Congratulations! You gained: +20 Loyalty, Fire Affinity: Rare, Skills: Phoenix Flame Control (SSS), Regeneration (S), Fire Immunity & Resistance (SS)]

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[Phoenix Flame Control (SSS Rank) – Active Skill: Allows you to manipulate intense phoenix flames for offense or area control.]

Effect: Incinerates targets in a wide area, causes severe burn damage, and can ignite surroundings. Highly effective against most physical and magical defenses.

Cooldown: 45 seconds

Cost: High mana consumption per use.

Note: Signature skill of a Phoenix-born. Damage scales with the user’s fire affinity and the source of Phoenix fire. Since the host does not possess a phoenix bloodline, it is advised that he acquire phoenix essence or blood to unlock the skill’s full potential.

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[Regeneration (S Rank) – Passive Skill: Rapidly heals wounds and restores vitality over time.]

Effect: Heals minor to severe injuries automatically. Accelerates recovery from poison, burns, or fatigue. Allows survival in otherwise fatal situations. The effect is greater if Phoenix flames are used during the healing process.

Cost: Continuous mana drain while regenerating.

Note: Efficiency increases with health loss; can trigger multiple times per battle.

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[Fire Immunity & Resistance (SS Rank) – Passive Skill: Grants complete immunity to fire and significantly reduces damage from heat-based attacks.]

Effect: Nullifies most fire-based attacks and greatly mitigates heat and flame magic damage.

Note: Exclusive to phoenix-born; synergizes with all flame-related abilities.

---

The moment the prompt from the system was finished, Lucien suddenly felt his entire body heating up strangely but evenly.

Then, without giving him a moment to react, a huge influx of information automatically imprinted in his mind related to the skills he had just gained.

He could already feel that something had changed within him, and his affinity with fire had increased tremendously out of nowhere.

However, what made him more surprised was the reaction from the Phoenix flame that was imprisoned inside the void by his skill, Devour.

He could already feel that, unlike sucking and isolating those flames before to save himself, now he could easily control those flames as if they were his own.

If Sera wasn’t here, he really wanted to test all the skills he had just earned.

’This is a good harvest.’

But Lucien controlled himself and just smiled, finding the situation to his liking.

’And she didn’t lose much either.’

What he liked more was how the system seemed to have really avoided harming Sera as much as possible.

After all, he already knew from Lilith that anything related to higher energy, the system couldn’t strip off from them but could only replicate the power.

So, although he gained those skills, Sera didn’t lose anything in the process.

Well, the only thing she seemed to have lost was Loyalty points that weren’t lost in the first place.

"Okay, it is time to go. Don’t think too much and be careful while deploying plans."

Now that he got what he wanted, Lucien smiled, signaled Sera to follow, and walked out of the room.

His mood was clearly better, having gained a lot today already, and there was more to come. To be honest, he couldn’t wait.