First Arrival and the Sixth Prince

Lister quickly searched the bodies. The three had brought nothing valuable with them on their assassination mission.

Even their equipment was fairly ordinary. After picking out a few things that were easy to carry, Lister set off again.

Fortunately, Count Connor had taken Kailina's body away, so Will II probably didn't know Lister's true strength.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the main quest and the companion crystal had greatly increased his strength.

Even if he faced Will II head-on now, Lister was confident he could put up a fight. At the very least, he could escape without trouble.

As for those trashy fourth-tier professionals, he hadn't taken them seriously at all.

A few days later, Lister finally reached the royal capital of the Kingdom of Lucian: the City of Bode, also known as the Royal City of Bode.

Lister had been familiar with the territory of the Kingdom of Lucian all along the way.

Standing outside the Royal City of Bode stirred even more feelings in him.

Although he hadn't teleported back here in a long time in the original game, this royal capital had been the players' main base in the second act, so he naturally knew quite a bit about the city.

But the City of Bode Lister knew was from more than twenty years in the future. He had no idea what the royal capital looked like at present.

He paid one gold coin to enter, and the atmosphere inside the city was indeed much like Lister remembered.

"Beep, beep!"

A rather crude steam train moved slowly through the city, serving as public transportation.

A wealthy person's steam tricycle drove past him as well.

The main road had several dedicated tracks, including a lane for horses like Lister's.

The road wasn't clean. On the contrary, it was somewhat muddy.

At intervals along the tracks, dedicated cleaners cleared blockages and rubbish.

The section of the outer city near the gate was often the area where the workload was heaviest.

The commoners' homes along the sides were a vast sprawl of stone and wooden houses, their roofs covered with thick layers of thatch.

Only a small number of the commoners' children were chasing one another and playing. Most were either helping their families work or studying!

The sound of steam engines echoed ceaselessly through the city.

That was right. Compared with the thoroughly traditional medieval Duchy of Will, the Kingdom of Lucian, and the Royal City of Bode in particular, had already entered the steam age.

Combined with the alchemical technology inherent to this act's setting, it had created the fantastical steam-and-alchemy dynasty of the present.

Before transmigrating, Lister had treated this place as nothing more than a starting point. If not for a few errand quests, he would never have paid it much attention.

Now, everything before him truly immersed him in it.

He rode into the city, and the farther inward he went, the better the surroundings became and the cleaner the streets grew.

A series of civic buildings appeared before him: a clock tower, a church, a school, a civil affairs hall, a tax office, factories, and more.

Many places differed from Lister's memories. For one thing, he hadn't remembered them all that clearly; for another, this was the royal capital from more than twenty years ago, after all.

Only when he revealed his identity as a professional and entered the inner city did the true upper reaches of the royal capital unfold before Lister.

A clean, spacious central avenue, an entire row of detached houses with gardens, and all kinds of buildings that looked unusual and distinctive yet possessed an artistic beauty.

The Professionals' Association building, the Pharmacists' Association building, and so on.

Lister's noble status in the Duchy of Will counted for nothing in the royal capital, so he decided to register with the Professionals' Association first.

A few minutes later, he pinned a three-pointed star brooch to his chest.

A third-tier professional counted as a mid-to-high-tier professional even in the inner city of the Kingdom of Lucian.

As he went along, most of the looks people gave him became ones of respect and recognition.

In a luxurious inn, Lister drank tea and weighed his options as he read through the information.

Even with something as good as offering a turquoise mine to the Lucian Royal Family, he had to meet them first, and he also had to make them believe him.

Quint had never had any contact with the Lucian Royal Family and had no connections at all.

The same went for Count Conner's Family. Although they had visited the Royal City of Bode, they had done their best to avoid contact with the royal family.

That responsibility fell squarely on Lister himself.

Going directly to the royal castle wasn't very feasible. He would most likely have to speak to the kingdom's administrators first, perhaps even just some of their deputies.

By the time word reached the royal family, the interests involved could be shifted around, and each additional person meant one more unpredictable factor.

Lister didn't dare take that risk!

He carefully studied the information in his hands, which he had purchased at a high price from the Professionals' Association.

"First Prince Hughes Lucian, 63 years old, fourth-tier professional, one of the kingdom's twelve chief day-to-day administrators..."

"Second Princess Amy Lucian, 57 years old, fourth-tier professional, administrator of Parker Province, currently residing in Parker Province..."

"Sixth Prince Carven Lucian, 27 years old, fourth-tier professional, professor? Student? At Lucian Professionals' University."

There were six heirs in all, and the longer Lister studied the list, the worse his headache became.

None was suitable. He had no easy way to approach the first or third prince.

The second and fourth princesses governed Rina Province and Tingen City respectively, the areas that would become their future fiefs.

Unlike the Duchy of Will, where the actual heir was shrouded in uncertainty, the Lucian Royal Family's heir was very clear.

It was the first prince, Hughes Lucian, who was already in power.

The old king, Kerry, was advanced in years and had stopped managing the kingdom's affairs two years ago.

Apart from retaining control of the army, he had handed all his other powers over to the first prince, Hughes.

According to Lister's memories of the future, First Prince Hughes, who had waited for most of his life, really did eventually ascend the throne and establish the Lucian Empire.

As for the remaining fifth prince, he lived in the Kingdom of Tyrande as a hostage during the peace between the Kingdom of Lucian and the Kingdom of Tyrande.

A prince of the Kingdom of Tyrande was likewise living and studying in the Kingdom of Lucian.

After looking through everything, Lister's only remaining choice was the sixth prince, Carven Lucian.

To be honest, Lister hadn't been so lucky in his previous life, either. His level and strength hadn't been high, and unlike the top players, he had never received a royal quest.

So he had never had any contact with the royal family. Of course, even if he had, he might not have bothered to observe and get to know them, since they had only been NPCs to him at the time.

But one thing puzzled Lister. Although he had never dealt with the royal family, he remembered that the Lucian Royal Family was supposed to have only five heirs in all.

He really had never heard of this extra Carven Lucian.

The name was familiar to him, though. After all, the parts of the game he remembered most clearly before transmigrating were the eighth and ninth acts.

During that period, a bishop of the Church of Mechanical Truth, a fairly famous cosmic faction, was also named Kavin.

But his full name seemed to be Carven Dill, and at the time, many mechanical-class players loved joining that faction above all others.

In fact, it wasn't a truly righteous church. According to the setting at the time, it could be called a cult: it would stop at nothing in pursuit of truth, and had even caused a galactic explosion.

They could be called genuine terrorists, though of course that didn't matter to the players.

Some people wanted to save the world in the game, and naturally others wanted to destroy it. In any case, by the later stages, the main story would advance at any time according to the players' progress.

Even if you wanted to destroy the entire universe, you needed the strength to do it first.

He set those thoughts aside for now. Lister suspected that he might have remembered incorrectly.

In any case, since this sixth prince existed and had spent years teaching and studying at the professionals' university, he was one of the royal family members Lister could most easily approach.

He soon settled on Carven Lucian as his first target.