100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 810 - Rest

Lucien returned from the Aevan world with more questions than answers.

That had become normal.

He settled into another quiet region and began organizing everything he had learned.

Time. Independent continuity. The strange density of the Aevans’ faith. The increasingly natural operation of his universe.

Each discovery seemed to create three more problems.

Lucien had just divided another question among his Parallel Thoughts when three familiar presences approached.

He opened his eyes.

Seraphine arrived first.

Lilith walked beside her.

Eirene followed with the expression of someone who had agreed to something and was already questioning the decision.

Lucien looked between them.

That alone was suspicious.

The three women had become surprisingly comfortable around one another after the time they had spent with Lucien recently.

Comfortable did not mean harmless.

"What happened?"

Seraphine smiled.

"Nothing."

Lucien became more suspicious.

Lilith laughed.

"You really shouldn’t answer like that."

"I answered honestly."

"That’s what makes it worse."

Eirene covered a small smile.

Lucien sighed.

He had been studying Time deeply enough to distinguish separate temporal references.

Apparently, none of that knowledge helped him understand the situation in front of him.

Seraphine stepped closer.

"As the person responsible for Lootwell’s medical network, I have authority over the health of our people."

Lucien nodded cautiously.

"And?"

"You are one of our people."

Lucien already knew where this was going.

Seraphine continued before he could escape.

"You’ve been preparing for war, reorganizing Lootwell, overseeing the continents, monitoring the Black Mass, and hiding whatever dangerous thing you’re about to do."

Lucien opened his mouth.

Seraphine raised one hand.

"That last part was not a question."

Lilith smiled.

Eirene looked away.

Seraphine finished her diagnosis.

"You need therapy."

Lucien stared.

"What kind?"

Seraphine’s smile became far too pleased.

"The kind involving three beautiful young women making sure you stop thinking for a few hours."

Lucien choked.

Lilith laughed immediately.

Even Eirene failed to suppress her reaction this time.

Lucien looked at Seraphine in disbelief.

"You’re abusing medical authority."

"I haven’t prescribed anything dangerous."

"That depends entirely on the three women."

Seraphine looked delighted.

Lilith laughed harder.

Eirene finally shook her head.

For the first time in days, Lucien stopped thinking about the past.

•••

They did not do anything extravagant.

That helped.

Lucien had spent so much time moving between crises, training grounds, meetings, and projects that sitting somewhere without a purpose initially felt unnatural.

They chose a quiet place inside his universe where a lake stretched beneath low hills.

There were no soldiers nearby, no formations demanding supervision, and no projections floating in the air.

Seraphine had apparently planned that deliberately.

Lucien realized after some time that none of them asked him what his real mission was.

None pressed him about his upcoming absence.

They already knew he was hiding something.

Tonight, they simply allowed him not to explain it.

Lilith talked about an argument between two of her forge teams that had somehow lasted three days because neither side would admit they had interpreted the same blueprint differently.

Eirene complained about a group of Lunarians who had redesigned one of her temporary arrays so thoroughly that the original purpose almost disappeared.

Seraphine contributed medical stories Lucien suspected had been carefully selected because nobody died in them.

Lucien listened.

Then he laughed.

It surprised him how much he needed that.

For a while, the future stopped pressing against him.

Seraphine eventually settled beside him with obvious satisfaction.

Her status as Lucien’s official lover had apparently become something she enjoyed reminding the other two about whenever an opportunity appeared.

She leaned against him with enough confidence that the message required no words.

Lilith’s expression soured slightly.

Eirene remained composed for several seconds before looking away.

Seraphine noticed both.

Her smile became unbearable.

Lucien pretended he had seen nothing.

He valued survival.

Lilith eventually sat closer anyway.

Eirene followed after enough time had passed for her to pretend the decision was unrelated.

Lucien stared out across the lake.

His life had become complicated in increasingly unexpected directions.

He decided this particular complication could wait.

There would be time.

At least, he hoped there would be.

That thought almost dragged him back toward Alanthuriel’s mission.

Seraphine squeezed his hand.

Lucien understood.

He let it go.

•••

The three women left much later.

Lucien assumed that would be the end of his enforced rest.

He was wrong.

His family arrived the following day.

Luke and Cienna came first.

Vivian, Virel and Aniel joined them.

Lucien looked at all five and immediately understood.

"This was organized."

Cienna smiled.

"Of course it was."

Lucien looked toward Vivian.

She showed no remorse.

Apparently, the people around him had formed an alliance dedicated to preventing him from working.

Considering the number of alliances he had created himself, Lucien could hardly complain.

So he surrendered.

For once, there was no formal gathering.

Nobody discussed command structures.

Luke did not ask about the path beyond Lucien’s current level.

Virel and Aniel did not question where he intended to disappear.

Vivian did not repeat that she knew he was hiding something.

They ate together, talked, and walked through several quiet places inside the inner universe.

Luke became interested in one of Lucien’s newer landscapes and spent far too long examining a mountain Lucien admitted he had created mostly because the previous horizon looked empty.

Cienna laughed at him.

Virel and Aniel argued over which of them had correctly predicted that Lucien would eventually start creating scenery simply because he could.

Vivian joined the wrong side intentionally just to make the argument worse.

Lucien watched all of them.

Then he laughed.

Not the brief amusement he usually allowed himself between tasks.

He genuinely laughed.

Months had passed since he had felt this relaxed.

Perhaps longer.

That realization bothered him slightly.

He ignored it.

They stayed together for most of the day.

At one point, Lucien caught Luke and Cienna watching him when they thought he was distracted.

Their expressions carried the same concern Vivian had shown during the meeting.

They knew their son well enough to understand that whatever he planned was more dangerous than he admitted.

They did not ask.

Lucien was grateful.

He was also guilty.

Both feelings could exist at once.

When evening came, they remained together beneath an artificial sky that had long ago stopped feeling artificial.

Stars emerged gradually overhead.

Lucien had created some of them.

Others had formed naturally as his universe matured.

He found himself wondering which were which.

For once, he did not inspect them to find out.

•••

Later, after everyone had left, Lucien remained alone beneath the stars.

The silence felt different now.

His worries had not disappeared.

Alanthuriel could call tomorrow.

The path might open months from now.

The Black Mass continued condensing.

The Primordial Incarnations were consolidating the Monster Continent.

Certain Abyssal Arch-Lords were preparing to interfere with history.

None of that had changed because Lucien spent two days enjoying himself.

He felt better anyway.

Perhaps Seraphine’s ridiculous therapy had worked.

Lucien would never tell her that.

She was already smug enough.

He closed his eyes.

The people around him had reminded him why the mission mattered.

He had spent so much time preparing to preserve a timeline that the timeline itself had begun feeling abstract.

It was not abstract.

It was Seraphine laughing too loudly because she had embarrassed him.

It was Lilith pretending she was not jealous.

It was Eirene hiding a smile.

It was Luke examining mountains.

Cienna teasing him.

Virel and Aniel arguing over something meaningless.

Vivian deliberately making the argument worse.

It was billions of ordinary lives continuing across worlds that had no idea how close history might come to threatening them.

Lucien opened his eyes.

Whatever waited in the past, he would remember that.

He returned to training the next morning.

His concentration settled more easily than before.

Time moved around him.

His inner universe continued living.

And somewhere beyond the present, a road into history was waiting to be opened.

Lucien had no idea when Alanthuriel would come.

Until he did, Lucien intended to use every moment he still possessed.