37 Shield and Sword

Next morning when Lucien woke up he thought Itori would have left, but to his surprise, she was right beside him. As he didn't want to wake her up but he wanted to leave, he was caught in a dilemma on what to do now. Finally, he just decided to wait for several minutes, for her to wake up. Fortunately, this plan has worked and after ten minutes or so Itori woke up.

"Good morning, Itori."

Greeted her Lucien at the same time as she woke up. She was looked at him, embarrassed a little that she stayed at his home overnight, even though nothing happened between them. She just kissed him and that was all.

"Good morning, Lucien."

She said with low voice. It was apparent that she was a little shy about this. Similarly to Lucien, she was too new to things like romantic relationships or dates. But in her nature, she was much bolder than Lucien. This shown up to its maximum when she kissed him yesterday from her own initiative.

"Came coffee would be ready."

Both of them stood up and went to the garden. In the garden was a smaller arbor, where Lucien always drank morning coffee as he watched all that beauty in the garden. Both of them drank coffee and talked about some things.

Then Lucien ordered from some of his bodyguards to drive Itori to Helter Skelter bar. When she was already ready to leave, she was grabbed by Lucien from behind and this time it was him who took initiative to kiss her lips. Compared from yesterday, today's it was more passionate. At first, she was taken by surprise but she returned his kiss with even more passion as their tongues met. After one minute or more they parted.

"I will be waiting for you at the bar."

Said Itori as she literary ran away from the place.

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Cross Crest, Charles Patricius: Out Transient Glory

Lucien was currently standing in grounds of his vessel Charles Patricius: Our Transient Glory. Now he finally understood what Administrator Kelemvor meant by saying that when will he reach Baron rank, he would be able to control it fully.

It meant even he could enter Cross Crest. Because Cross Crest was something like separate dimensional space. When Lucien firstly entered he was curious about it but soon he found out this place was similar to the outside space. It was just there wasn't any sky or anything but just black space above his head.

Lucien then walked to one of the side building, where was his Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace located and where were all materials stored. Currently, the entire place was very empty and only five quinques and bodies of three ghoul investigators were present.

He firstly examined those quinques to see their rank. But rank of CCG and not universal. Those used by those two First-Classes were around A-Rank and the remaining three were of B-Rank. Then Lucien grabbed on B-Rank quinque and tossed it to the Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace. The furnace started glowing and was actually absorbing the quinque itself. Because this concrete quinque was rather low-ranked the process was very quick. Lucien then looked at the record of his furnace.

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Name: Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace

Grade: Noble

Tier: 3nd

Uniquess: Growth - 5% (require special metals to increase tier and grade)

-

Description:

Mysterious growth type refining artifact with ability of refinement of bodies, flesh, blood and more to blood essences. As long as grade is high enough its able to refine almost everything.

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Even though it has grown only by 5% it was very good, considering that material was B-Ranked quinque. After he finished looking at the record, he tossed there one A-Ranked and one B-Ranked quinque. This timing process was longer but only by two minutes.

Seeing that nothing had happened and everything went smoothly he tossed there remaining A-Ranked and B-Ranked quinques and let the Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace absorb them.

After everything was finished he looked at the record again with great anticipation.

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Name: Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace

Grade: Noble

Tier: 3nd

Uniquess: Growth - 35% (require special metals to increase tier and grade)

-

Description:

Mysterious growth type refining artifact with ability of refinement of bodies, flesh, blood and more to blood essences. As long as grade is high enough its able to refine almost everything.

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The growth rate was at 35%. This was rather good news. This meant that B-Ranked quinque increase rate was 5% and A-Ranked quinque increase rate was 10%. Now every time he killed some ghoul investigators he would make sure to take their quinque cause they were the only way for him to evolve his Blood-Essence Sacred Refining Furnace.

After that, he walked through Charles Patricius: Our Transient Glory and admired the beauty of this place. It was nice to silence cause he was the only person here. After half an hour of walking, he exited the place and returned to his estate.

A month has already passed and Eto should be already at the 24th Ward. Now Lucien needed to go to the 20th Ward and then through Route V14 arrive at the 24th Ward. Route V14 is an underground passage leading to the 24th Ward, which is located below the 20th Ward.

Actually, 24th Ward encompassed the deepest parts of the large labyrinth that the ghouls dug in the underground of the Tokyo in the past. The 24th Ward could be described only as a huge underground place. It could house thousands of people with easy. But now only ruins remained there.

When Lucien returned to his estate he quickly found Darkwalker who was now lecturing new mercenaries. As he was obsessed with tight security almost entire mercenary band was here. All of them loyal to the Aeon House, cause it could be said that Aeon House helped this concrete mercenary band a lot during their early stages.

When all the people there saw Lucien they immediately saluted him.

"Welcome Lord Aeon!"

Hearing mass-salute from more than ten people sounded very dominating and was giving a feeling of power. After saluting to him all of them returned to training and practice.

"Darkwalker I am leaving for the 24th Ward. Be aware of CCG or V. But I don't think that somebody would actually come here but still. Especially be aware of those little messy doves, yesterday I have killed some of them so they would be in high alert. If they found out that this mansion is full of A-Rated and some S-Rated ghouls, it could be some troubles."

After that Lucien went to the 20th Ward to have his long-awaited meeting with Eto. If they could forge some kind of cooperation he could use Aogiri Tree as bait for the Washuu Clan and Aogiri could become his shield and sword to kill his targets.