It took a day and a half before the Azure Knights were able to search the catacombs and find the hidden chamber.
Ailn knew they were extensive, but studying the map clued him into how lucky Ceric really was. The man had strayed from both the access tunnels that went straight to the surface, and the string-marked paths the criminal ring had made. He’d been wandering completely aimlessly through a tunnel system whose labyrinthine paths sprawled for hundreds of miles.
T...
2025-02-13 12:03:53 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
2025-02-11 13:08:05 +0000 UTC
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It was almost funny. Almost.
Noué must have thought it was pure gold, shoving her flattened corpse in her audience’s face right after they watched her painted figure ‘hit the ground.’
Unfortunately, it was a mite too distasteful for Ailn. More to the point, it was throwing off his thinking. The woman had pulled out all the stops to unnerve whatever intrepid puzzlers had gotten this far, and even he let out a nervous chuckle.
The mummy’s mouth hung open. ...
2025-02-11 13:05:58 +0000 UTC
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Hope you guys enjoy!
2025-02-09 14:23:36 +0000 UTC
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Renea, turning pale, looked at the jars which contained organs.
“Wanna do the honors?” Ailn asked.
“Of course not,” Renea said. She put her hand to her mouth, her fingers lightly covering her nose. “That’s disgusting. This woman is demented…”
“How were you able to stand the north wall if you’re so prone to nausea?” Ailn asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Even if it was Sophie—”
“My stomach’s fine,” Renea snapped. The flicker of...
2025-02-09 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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enjoy, guys!
2025-02-06 12:25:26 +0000 UTC
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It was over a month ago that Kylian saw the mural. To grant Ailn and Renea entry—from their perspective escape—he had to destroy the front half of the sarcophagus that supposedly housed Noué Aregyni’s body.
The body missing and the lower chamber thus revealed, Kylian had returned with Ciecout to examine it. At the very least, they had to restore the panel painting stolen by the criminal ring back to its proper place.
Unfortunately, at the time they had only torchlight...
2025-02-06 12:21:33 +0000 UTC
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Hope you guys enjoy! Lmk if there are any issues!
2025-02-04 13:31:17 +0000 UTC
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Ever since Ailn heard that the deceased Noué Areygni’s eyes sometimes turned gold, he’d realized she was a reincarnator.
There were more than a few points of interest here. Most important was a question that bugged him: what exactly happened to a reincarnator’s jewel shard when they died? And how long exactly have reincarnators been coming to this world?
The thought occurred to him that if shards didn’t change possession after death, he would actually need to go gra...
2025-02-04 13:27:57 +0000 UTC
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Hope you guys enjoy! Released a little early today. As always if anything went away, just send me a message here or on discord. I'll be traveling so it might take me a sec. But things should be ok.
Have a good one!
2025-02-02 12:07:38 +0000 UTC
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Even Ceric Windrider had his limits, unfortunately, and he didn’t have much more hope to stay nourished.
That’s why he rationally considered which of his body parts he should eat, should it come to that. Clearly he couldn’t eat a leg, because there was no way he’d make it out of here on one leg. But he hated the idea of eating an arm too. And he wasn’t sure how much that would hamper his ability to properly cook it.
‘Q: Is there food down in these catac...
2025-02-02 12:03:06 +0000 UTC
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Hey! Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm gonna be traveling for two weeks.
So, I've already scheduled out the next two weeks of new posts. But it's worth saying that's only for new chapters. Essentially, that means chapter 64 onward will take care of themselves, and therefore the ace detective tier stuff is taken care of.
The thing is, the other tiers I just have to manually unlock. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do that just fine, but if things get wonky pl...
2025-01-30 16:44:53 +0000 UTC
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A long row of shops lined Varant’s main thoroughfare, each occupying its own building. Prestigious enough to afford the land and stand independently, these shops were neighbors to guild halls and centers of the city's administration.
Situated near the cathedral that was the centerpiece of Varant’s tourism, this upscale street was where the nobles liked to go shopping. Even the merchants came here to indulge themselves, so long as they were rich enough.
At odds with Varan...
2025-01-30 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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At first, Ailn’s rise to dukedom had him feeling more optimistic about his real mission. The office certainly testified to his new authority, with its mahogany desk restocked with fresh ink and parchment every day.
There was even a trolley of snacks, regularly brought in by maids, and Ailn found himself wondering how far the castle would go to indulge his whims.
In reality, luxury was just another form of captivity—a clever way to confine someone to long hours of work, a...
2025-01-28 15:16:03 +0000 UTC
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Hope you guys enjoy!
2025-01-26 16:34:52 +0000 UTC
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The same night that Marianne was paralyzed, Aaron became the head of the family. The headship ceremony which normally took hours was conducted in twenty minutes, and Aaron had returned to the battlefield before the sun had even risen.
It was a terrible era, and there were times it truly felt as if the Order, and by extension Varant, would be eradicated.
There was no Saintess to heal the knights, who had to search deep in their sinew for courage. Whatever way they could...
2025-01-26 16:32:27 +0000 UTC
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hope you guys enjoy!
2025-01-23 19:33:08 +0000 UTC
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So many years ago, in a cottage built by two knights and a squire—with what little leisure time they had—Duke Aaron, still a young man in his twenties, was starting a fire.
“Now, shall we indulge?” Aaron said. “What a quarry! And what a way to catch it. Has the duchy ever seen such a master hunter as I?”
They had caught an elk. Aaron was perhaps the only knight in the duchy fine enough with a bow to hunt one.
Lacking even herbs to flavor it, Aaron non...
2025-01-23 19:30:52 +0000 UTC
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Posted this on chapter 15 on RR, but just wanted to make sure you guys saw it too! Here's Renea in the Saintess outfit.
2025-01-21 21:50:24 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys. Posted new chapter today. Hope you enjoy it! A quick housekeeping note, and if you guys can comment and let me know what you can/can't see it would help me a lot.
Basically, I've been tentatively experimenting with schedulon, an app that helps with patreon scheduling. Partially because I'll be traveling in about a week.
So, technically the way schedulon works, it doesn't change the permissions on the original post, but actually makes a new post that only the selected ti...
2025-01-21 15:33:28 +0000 UTC
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Outside the amphitheater where the duel was to take place, Sir Fontaine sat on a stone bench built around a birch tree. There were a few of them—dormant birch trees with stone benches surrounding, yet Fontaine was one of the few taking advantage.
Since it was cold and snowy, Fontaine had wisely brought his own pelt.
As sergeant-prior, he nominally should have been directing the knights—especially now that the high marshal had been stripped of his position. Mercifully, Si...
2025-01-21 15:20:15 +0000 UTC
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It was afternoon by the time they got back, and Renea said her goodbyes before she returned to the castle.
“Thank you again—” Renea said, with a polite bow. Ailn felt a brief pause there. She was forcing herself to omit the nickname she’d given him, and maintaining her distance. “I won’t be able to leave the castle after this.”
Her hands fidgeted.
“But…” Renea paused. She looked guilty. “I don’t want to twist your arm, but… if you could ...
2025-01-21 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Thanks, and hope you guys enjoy. Let me know if there are any issues
2025-01-19 23:12:04 +0000 UTC
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By all accounts, Ailn was improving exceptionally fast.
He was under the tutelage of three exemplary knights, each of whom had a distinctive style. Camille’s was fluid, improvisational, and intuitive. Nicolas’s was plodding, yet domineering and suffocating.
And Kylian’s somehow managed to be adaptive, methodical, and incisive all at once. Sometimes Ailn felt as if Kylian was learning more than he was, the way his swordplay seemed to constantly morph. It was as if...
2025-01-19 23:10:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone. Don't worry, I won't always make this post every time tiers unlock/etc. Just touching base. I decided that in addition to the early access getting x chapters ahead, they also get them a day early! So, in accordance with that, every chapter is updated.
In the near future, the early releases'll be on Patreon at 6am the day before. I found an extension called Schedulon which helps me manage this stuff, but a lot of chapters were already uploaded so I'll be doing a lot of thi...
2025-01-17 00:47:42 +0000 UTC
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Irritated whispers sprang up around the knights, their eyes turning fiercely on Kylian. They assumed, quite correctly, that he had somehow played a role in spurring the young master’s absurd ambitions.
‘Perhaps it is Sir Kylian who has the serpent’s tongue…’
‘Does he wish to see the young master killed by His Highness, Sigurd?’
‘I never appreciated the manner in which Sir Kylian speaks!’
Kylian averted his eyes. In ret...
2025-01-17 00:39:01 +0000 UTC
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posted updates a little early. :) not sure if this is a lark or maybe i'll be doing this as another small bonus for early access members! if i made any mistakes in giving access to chapters please let me know! if you guys like having it the night before let me know too. and thank you to everyone who joined!
2025-01-15 04:08:37 +0000 UTC
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It was afternoon by the time they got back, and Renea said her goodbyes before she returned to the castle.
“Thank you again—” Renea said, with a polite bow. Ailn felt a brief pause there. She was forcing herself to omit the nickname she’d given him, and maintaining her distance. “I won’t be able to leave the castle after this.”
Her hands fidgeted.
“But…” Renea paused. She looked guilty. “I don’t want to twist your arm, but… if you could ...
2025-01-15 04:03:03 +0000 UTC
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A few weeks had passed since the inquisition, and they went rather uneventfully.
Aldous’s execution date was still a season away. Renea had been confined to the castle as a temporary measure, until Sigurd, the acting regent, returned and decided what to do with her.
Finally, the decision was promptly made to add Sophie to the family register. At the month’s turn, she would officially receive the surname eum-Creid, with the ceremony coinciding with one of Varant’s...
2025-01-11 07:45:13 +0000 UTC
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A visit from Ceric was all it took to send Ailn down a pessimistic spiral. Worse, it was a pessimistic spiral disguised as pragmatism.
It was late in the afternoon, the day before Kylian visited. Having checked all his traps and only found failures, Ailn had been forced to forage what little food he could from the snowy forest environment.
While he was boiling reindeer moss that he’d found, Ceric came knocking at the door.
With the castle’s ongoing conflict, and hi...
2025-01-11 07:44:18 +0000 UTC
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