CHAPTER 57: TRUTH BEGETS MYSTERY

The cold wind tugged gently at the hem of Vlad’s coat as he walked the open streets of Skyreach. The artificial lights of the city pulsed softly overhead, scattering across polished steel balconies and snow-dusted rooftops.

Distant noises echoed from the inner city boulevards, where the wealthy were just now settling into their pleasures for the night. Flickering lights from theatres, gladiator duels, and skyboard racing lounges were all alive with activity.

But Vlad’s mind wasn’t on the city.

Vlad had left Naoemi’s home a few minutes ago, leaving without saying anything about the artifact in the Duke’s treasury, which he needed, not because he had forgotten.

But it was now clear that Noemi had already told him everything she could.

Whatever her connection to this ’Kyle,’ which was likely a made-up name, her reluctance to speak about him was definitely due to her being under oath, unable to speak even if he had wanted to.

That meant she couldn’t be used to achieve what he had planned.

If the Deceiver truly was developing some dark alchemical cure for that individual, then it was highly likely he also visited the palace every now and then.

It also meant that this secret was under the direct protection of House Aetherwing.

It was likely that the oath prevented Noemi and any other individual who knew about the person from speaking anything related to him, which included any clues about the Doctor’s work to cure him.

So, even if Noemi knew something and wanted to help, she couldn’t give him any clues to the Deceiver.

Now, the only possible way of finding the whereabouts of the Deciver was to enter the palace and acquire them on his own.

There were two methods available.

The first was to utilize his fame, a simple and straightforward approach. As the hero who stopped a world event, he could present himself to the Duke with a noble pretense.

Perhaps feign interest in one of the Duke’s daughters, offer a trade selling the Duke some undiscovered mineral mines and stay in the palace as a guest, or simply use ten other excuses to gain entry into the palace.

That method had its merits, it was easy and direct, but it also came with its risks.

If there was a sick person the Duke wished to hide from the world, then surely he wouldn’t be easy to find, and with an outsider in their home, Vlad would be watched.

Vlad was also confident that he could maneuver around a few layers of surveillance, infiltrating the protected areas with some preparation, and even if he was caught, he could salvage the situation.

But then the Decivier could be alerted and vanish, leaving no clues about where he could be found next, and Vlad had no interest in gambling when safer means were available.

This left the second option.

Vlad had to infiltrate the palace and use not just stealth but completely change his avatar, and he knew of a perfect item to help him out.

Though the item would come at a great price.

There was a mask called Persona, an artifact of legendary quality that allowed its wielder to assume the form of another with such perfection that even the best detection means failed to differentiate.

The good thing was that the mask wasn’t hidden in some imperial vault, nor was it in possession of some legendary thief.

It lay dormant, waiting, inside a hidden cave in a ravine in the Olympian mountain range east of the city of Dawnfront. The location was accessible to anyone lucky enough to find it, and the entrance was not protected by some ancient terror or sealed.

As for why Vlad did not doubt this information even though it seemed too good to be true, it was because the person who found it was a streamer who had accidentally stumbled onto the cave live in his attention-seeking challenges.

While it could have been a staged event, Vlad knew it was not since the streamer had signed a death contract to prove it was not staged, thereby proving it was an event of pure luck.

However, while it was as easy as going there and picking the mask, the legendary mask itself came with a bag full of troubles.

The mask offered its chosen finder a quest to make it completely their own, and if the person accepted it, then they could start using the mask from that moment.

However, once the quest was accepted, one had to either complete it and keep the mask or fail it and suffer the penalty.

The quest required the chosen person to make Duke Lucien Viremont, one of the three Dukes of the Dukedom of Eldrith, lose his status and be imprisoned for life.

The time was one year, and failure meant permanent transformation into Lucien’s image, loss of one’s identity, and destruction of the mana core.

The penalty was the same as living death.

However, the reward was worth the trouble, as the mask not only altered the user’s body but also copied the target’s skills, traits, bloodline, and even their aura.

Vlad was unaware of its restriction, but what he knew was more than enough to prove that the mask was one of the few broken items in the game.

If Vlad could infiltrate the palace wearing the guise of a trusted retainer, guard, or even servant, he could move freely, listen, find the Deceiver’s tracks, and end him from the dark.

The streamer had sold the mask, never revealing the restriction placed on it, and the player who successfully completed the quest in his last life did so by exposing that Lucien was brainwashing soldiers of his army using an unknown skill, slowly turning them into puppets who did his bidding when the time came.

Lucien was thrown in jail for conspiring against the empire, but it was not confirmed why he was building an army loyal only to him; however, Vlad knew the truth.

Lucien was serving the second prince, Altharion Sylaris, who was the true mastermind behind Lucien’s actions, and he was also the person who possessed the shard of Dominion.

In Vlad’s past life, Altharion was the one responsible for enslaving a third of the empire’s powers to his will and starting a war so that he could one day usurp his father and become the ruler.

However, Vlad knew it was too early for Altharion to have accumulated enough power to have Lucien, a proud Void Ascendant, a fifth Rank powerhouse, a figure who was one of the strongest individuals on the continent, do his bidding.

Maybe Altharion already had the shard in his possession, but he definitely did not have the power to command such authority.

So Vlad had to find or create dirt on Duke Lucien to not suffer from the quest penalty, and from what he knew about Lucien, the pale sword demon, achieving it was going to be terribly hard.

However, no matter the risk, Vlad had to take it because not only did he need to secure the mask, but it was also the best item that could give him the perfect chance to infiltrate a Duke’s palace and find the Deceiver.

Sure, he could use some other equipment to infiltrate the palace and probably wouldn’t get found, but if he made a mistake, the Deceiver could be gone, only repeating when he had grown much, much stronger.

Vlad was so hell-bent on finding the Decivier and eliminating him because he was the easiest target to get a shard. All the other six shards were either in the possession of untouchable people to whom he couldn’t even get close or had yet to make their appearance.

The mask came with a troublesome quest, but it was not impossible to complete. The good thing was that it could be picked up at any time and used without a problem.

Now that his decision was made, Vlad decided to collect the mask first thing in the morning, while in the meantime, he could gather information on Duke’s family tree.

The information was easy to find, as players had already purchased such general information from the information ring or gathered it on their own and sold it on the game’s website for a few credits or game points per copy.

Vlad bought the one with the most amount of detail; much of it was going to be useless, but maybe it would help when he infiltrated the palace.

He learned a lot, such as that the Duke had eight children, with three of them being bastard children with their mothers unknown. Celestyn, his second wife, had two children, one of them being a fellow named Azekyle.

There was little doubt in his mind that Aze-kyle was the same Kyle that Naoemi referred to as her lover.

But there was a problem with this Azekyle because, according to the information, that young man had died six years ago at the age of fourteen after being attacked by a rouge spirit in the wilds.