So it was like that.

The candles cast ugly shadows over the guard's crooked face, and Jace really, really wished to be somewhere else.

“Men, women, you are rather promiscuous according to the locals.” The guard spoke leisurely, nonchalantly, but his eyes kept tracking each of Jace’s reactions. “Though all of your rumored lovers had one thing in common—they were somebodies. Noble ladies recently widowed, rich merchants from foreign lands. Even your recent tryst, the one waiting for you. Is he not the famous Black-Armored Storm?”

The moniker was said with evident contempt.

“What are you implying?” Jace couldn’t keep silent any longer.

The guard leaned in. “You hate your life here,” he whispered, sharing an open secret. Jace clenched his jaw. “Your family is dead. The stench inside your late mother’s house has seeped into the walls. You are, as you said, a nobody. The only thing you have is that pretty face.” Relaxing back against his chair, the guard stretched his lips in a mockery of a kind smile. “So you hope that those widows and merchants will fall for it and pamper you. Take you away from the piss and shit you call home.”

Fisting and relaxing his hands, Jace glared.

“An ugly truth, I know,” the guard said, full of sympathy. As if he could fool anyone with that. “But I am not the one you should blame. On the contrary, I am giving you that helping hand.”

Jace didn’t hide the skepticism that crossed his face.

The guard laughed.

“You are a bit slow; you didn’t lie.” He tapped the scroll spread between them on the table. “Have you fully realized what the words written here mean?” he questioned. Without waiting for an answer, the guard replied himself, “It means that you can leave it all behind.”

Eyebrows knitted, Jace watched the words curving over the parchment.

“Forget relying on those people, not one of them ever saw you as anyone worthy,” the guard spoke confidently yet with a newfound caring lilt to his voice. “Think Black-Armored Storm will save you? He’s just a blood-hungry, glorified mercenary we allow to roam free. When he gets tired of you, he will leave you behind.”

Jace knew that, so what? He was not expecting anything from Liut. He was planning to leave first himself. None of the things the guard told him had any effect on him—he wasn’t the one who lived this shitty life. He had his own miserable existence to account for; he did not need to sympathize with the guy whose body he stole.

It was the other thing that made Jace consider what the guard was saying.

Because, really, his and Liut’s roads were inevitably about to part. And now it was clear that Jace was a person of interest for the Golden Guards. By all reasonable tropes and plots, Jace must be that said Remnant of the Celestial Blood. No point in wasting so many words on him if he wasn’t.

“Don’t you want to become a somebody yourself? Rely on yourself?” the guard continued. “Should you be a true Remnant, you will be directly under the king’s care. Private chambers in the Gilded Peaks, the best tutors to ensure your talent is utilized properly, fine foods and wines. Once you’re ready—” he pointed his finger to his own armor, richly decorated with intricate engravings of royal symbols— “you will put on a golden cloak and serve His Majesty proudly.”

Frowning, Jace thought it over.

Maybe he should use this opportunity? Maybe he should go with the Golden Guards, have his own training arc, get a bit stronger and hope to survive in this world now that he was no longer an irrelevant smut side piece? He could always switch allegiances later on and betray the king for the sake of helping Liut. His character could be a Chekhov’s gun type of thing.

As it stood now, Liut was an uncertain variable, but the Golden Guards were a sure way to live semi-comfortably for a few more years. Of course, it probably wouldn’t be as pompous and easy as that ugly shitstain described, but the Gilded Peaks were safe from the protagonist’s battles for the time being. Liut still needed to power up—a royal palace was not yet on his menu.

With a sigh, Jace looked at the Golden Guard and his preposterous armor.

“So what do you want me to do?” he asked.

A satisfied grin on his ugly face, the guard nodded.

“Clever choice,” he said, bathing in the glory of his victory over an orphaned prostitute. What an achievement, Jace grimaced internally. “We need to verify whether your bloodline belongs to the Celestial Remnants first.”

“And how will you verify it?” Jace repeated the question from before.

Would he need to bleed on a magic stone and wait for it to glow green? Or maybe some ancient artifact would allow him to wield itself? Please, let it be something painless and properly epic.

“By reawakening your Celestial blood, of course.”

Of course. Silly Jace. Poor idiot who didn’t have money to read paid chapters. Fuck you.

“Apologies, but I also don’t know how to reawaken it…” It took a considerable amount of willpower and acting skills to feign idiocy.

The guard laughed wholeheartedly, theatrically swiping an invisible tear from the corner of his eye.

“Oh, you silly thing! Almost no one does.” He shook his head, surely happy to stroke his ego by being privy to such rare information. What a small-minded, petty and self-conscious individual. “The knowledge was lost; only recently did the king rediscover the way and manage to reawaken a Remnant. That success proved that Celestials were real, their Remnants still roaming the human realm.”

“What is this way?”

It was getting on Jace’s nerves—how many times did he need to ask for basically the same thing? Was the guard written to be this obnoxious to expand the word count!?

“Actually, there are two.”

For fuck’s sake.

“Two?”

Jace was very, very close to committing a crime.

The guard lifted his hand, showing his clasped fist. He raised the index finger and said, “First one is out of our control, an Unfathomable Occurrence. A special conjunction of events that forces the dormant blood to reawaken in response.”

Finally, proper lore dumping! Thank you!

“And the second one?”

Lifting his middle finger, so now the guard looked like an idiot with a peace sign, he continued, “The second one is through a ritual, the one the king already ensured to be working. The ritual is simple, the magic ancient and straightforward.”

Ancient magic? Please. What, did Jace need to kill a virgin?

“You only need to kill a virgin, pure of heart and mind.”

…

This fuckass lazy writing!