Catherine glanced at the wooden cup in Ambrose's hand and asked skeptically, "The same wager as before?"

Ambrose replied casually, "Of course. As long as you can take that cup out of the city, I'll do whatever you say."

Catherine eyed him several times, then snatched the cup and strode quickly out of the tavern.

But before long, she returned with her head hanging. Slamming the cup on the table, she fumed, "You set me up! I got stopped again when I tried to leave the city. They said leaving so quickly made me look suspicious. When they searched me, the cup got smashed!"

Ambrose smiled faintly. "It wasn't my doing, but rather the arrangement of fate. After failing twice, you should understand by now: some things may look simple, but they're impossible to accomplish. You're probably thinking that if you'd just pushed through and rushed out of the city, you'd have won. But it wouldn't matter. Once fate is set, no one can change it, not even the gods."

Ambrose had used his Loom of Fate to weave two failures for Catherine. No matter how hard she tried, victory would never have been possible.

Of course, such manipulation only worked for trivial matters. Asking Ambrose to weave a destiny where the Lyon Empire collapsed tomorrow was impossible. Attempting that would almost certainly cause the spell to fail, and he would suffer backlash from fate itself.

The ability was much like dipping an oar into the river of destiny and nudging the current slightly. Stirring up a few small eddies was easy enough. But trying to stop the entire river with a single oar would only snap it in half. Unless Ambrose himself became a dam across the river, attempting to alter the destinies of massive forces would inevitably end with him battered and broken.

Though Catherine didn't have the same grasp of fate that Ambrose did, she accepted Ambrose's explanation. She sighed and dropped the subject of Naomi. "If that's really how it works, diviners have it rough. They're basically slaves to fate."

Ambrose: "..."

"Say one more word and I'll weave you a future where you go bald!" Ambrose snapped.

Catherine immediately clutched her head and fell silent. Baldness—now that was terrifying.

After a while, she asked again, "What now? Do we just wait here for Harvey?"

Ambrose nodded. Back then, Harvey had appeared in this very tavern when he brought Ambrose's phylactery to the city. Judging by the timing, he should show up within two days.

But before that, a few preparations were necessary.

"Catherine, we're going to pick up a commission."

"A commission? What kind?"

"Anything involving exploration. Underground ruins, monster caves, whatever. Take off your mask later and ask the bartender for a recommendation."

"But aren't we waiting here for your student?"

"Don't ask so many questions. You'll understand soon enough."

Left with no choice, Catherine obeyed. She walked to the bar and struck up a conversation with the orc bartender. Once she removed her mask, things went rather smoothly. Not only did the bartender recommend the best commission available, he also promised her free drinks at the tavern for a lifetime. Catherine proudly brought a glass of complimentary sea-buckthorn wine back to Ambrose, but the only response she received was a blank stare.

She clearly didn't understand the point of "free drinks."

Taverns offered beautiful women free drinks because their presence attracted men pent-up with sexual desire.

But seeing how delighted Catherine was, Ambrose didn't bother pointing that out. Instead, he began studying the commission.

Someone in Sweetdew City had posted a request to investigate a magical cave outside the city. Given the tense political situation and the possibility that the Lyon Empire might advance on Sweetdew City at any moment, exploration commissions were currently paying double their usual rate.

Catherine's beauty had certainly done its job. This mission practically guaranteed easy profit.

According to the notice, there might be subterranean sand lizards inhabiting the cave. Adventurers were needed to investigate and provide definitive proof of whether they existed or not. The reward was thirty gold coins.

Subterranean sand lizards were monsters from the Umbral Depths. Adult specimens could reach the legendary rank, though they were extremely rare. Since such creatures almost never appeared on the surface, mere investigation would be sufficient. Thirty gold was a generous price.

Ambrose didn't even need to visit the cave. A single roll of his dice of fate would confirm that there were no sand lizards there. Most likely, some other monster had left similar traces instead.

But Ambrose wasn't interested in the reward. He was preparing for Harvey's "death."

In the prophecy Harvey had seen, he would join an adventuring party exploring a dark location. There, the party would fall into a monster ambush, and Harvey himself would die in the attack.

But the prophecy had lacked detail, so he was only able to provide a vague description of what he saw to Ambrose.

What Ambrose intended to do was fabricate that prophecy and keep every part of it under his own control. An adventure? Fine. A party? Also fine. Monsters? Certainly. But death? Absolutely not.

The simplest approach was obvious: accept a commission himself and stage the entire scenario for Harvey, allowing him to step out from under the shadow of his destined death.

This sand-lizard investigation mission was perfect.

No wonder he had brought Catherine along. Thank the gods: everything had clearly been arranged by fate.

After a few drinks, Ambrose took Catherine out of Sweetdew City and headed for the monster cave. After a brief inspection, he quickly reached a conclusion.

These weren't sand lizards at all, just a nest of sandworms.

Their names might sound similar, but the creatures were entirely different.

A subterranean sand lizard capable of hunting on its own would be at least fifteen meters long. With its jaws open, it could swallow even the strongest orc whole. Its teeth carried deadly venom, and its scales were so tough that even a paladin would need several Sacred Slashes just to break through its defenses.

The creature could also burrow underground and launch surprise attacks. Most adventurers would be swallowed whole before they even glimpsed what attacked them.

Sandworms, on the other hand, were weak desert creatures almost harmless to humans. They tended to burrow underground as well, and a large swarm crawling beneath the sand could easily leave tracks resembling those of a sand lizard.

Ambrose could have simply caught a few sandworms and turned in the mission, but of course he had no intention of doing that.

Instead, he opened his extradimensional space and hauled out a pile of pale bones.

Catherine wrinkled her nose. The bones reeked of rot.

"Those are... bones from a deep routh?" she asked.

"Correct. A friend gave them to me. I used some of them to assemble a few skeleton tanks and gave some paladins quite a memorable lesson. But now I'm going to assemble something else."

Ambrose worked quickly. One bone after another clicked into place under his control, forming the skeleton of a massive lizard.

Since the routh were herbivores, he added a few human canines to create a mouth full of vicious fangs.

Then he activated Mimetic Soul and stuffed the artificial soul into the skeleton.

The "sand lizard" shuddered and began to move. Its motions were clumsy, but it carried a certain imposing presence.

Next, Ambrose cast Leyla's True Illusion upon it, coating the skeleton with a perfectly convincing layer of sand-lizard flesh. It looked almost identical to the real thing.

Catherine clicked her tongue in amazement. If she hadn't seen the fabrication process herself, she would have believed it was genuine.

In reality, though, it was merely a large, low-level undead. A few solid hammer blows would probably scatter it to pieces.

Ambrose examined it carefully, refining the details until he was satisfied. "This should be enough to fool people. Now burrow underground and take a nap, little one. It's not your time to shine yet."

At his command, the undead sand lizard awkwardly dug into the sand and buried itself.

It was far slower than a real sand lizard, but once hidden beneath the sand, it would be difficult to detect.

His preparations complete, Ambrose returned to the tavern with Catherine and submitted "evidence" of subterranean sand lizard activity.

The evidence was simple: a damaged sand-lizard scale, something from Ambrose's personal collection.

The scales of such monsters were obscure alchemical materials, and he happened to have a few in stock.

The orc bartender couldn't tell how old the scale was. After reporting the findings, Ambrose quickly received the thirty gold promised. The original investigation mission was then upgraded to a full extermination request, with the reward raised to one thousand gold.

Unfortunately, none of the tavern's adventurers were willing to take it.

An adult sand lizard was a legendary monster. Who would risk fighting that for only a thousand gold?

But the client couldn't just offer legendary-tier pay outright, either. What if the creature wasn't a legend after all?

Someone would eventually take the commission if it stayed posted long enough, anyway.

Everything unfolded exactly as Ambrose had planned, so smoothly that even he found it hard to believe.

Two days later, just as Ambrose had anticipated, Harvey appeared in the tavern in Sweetdew City.

Dirty, yellowing bandages were wrapped around his head, and his right arm hung in a sling. It looked as though he'd been severely beaten.

And Harvey wasn't alone.

Catherine frowned as she watched the female orc supporting him into the tavern. "That's a half-elven orc."

The young, dark-skinned orc had the long ears of an elf and the tusks of an orc. Her features were softer than an orc's but rougher than an elf's, and she was clearly a mix of both races.

But elves rarely interbred with other races. When they did, it was usually with humans, and almost always with an attractive partner.

A child born from an elf and an orc usually meant only one thing: some unfortunate elf had been captured by orcs and... Only then would such a hybrid be born.

In other words, this girl's existence represented a tragic fate.

Catherine clenched her fists. As the elven queen, merely imagining what had happened filled her with anguish.

Ambrose comforted her. "Don't be sad. Maybe she's half drow."

Catherine shot him a glare. His remark felt morally questionable, but strangely enough, the thought did ease her mind a little. She wasn't sure whether to call him cruel or considerate.

Ambrose, for his part, had no time to worry about such matters. Harvey had finally appeared. Once he became aware of his fated death, his redemption could begin.