Ti flowed on. The days slipped by like a shuttle through a loom. Five days had passed since Ambrose parted ways with Catherine.
In that ti, Ambrose's underground dungeon had expanded significantly. Fortune favored him: the newly excavated area contained a surprising amount of gold, most of it fashioned into everyday utensils.
"This underground civilization was ridiculously extravagant… eating out of solid gold bowls, really?"
Ambrose held up a golden bowl larger than his own skull, musing that this must have been a civilization built by giants. Every object was enormous in scale.
Still, better giants than dwarves. The bigger the bowls, the more gold he could collect.
He directed his aberrant skeletons to keep digging, thoroughly enjoying the steady stream of treasure.
But the mont didn't last.
Three figures were approaching through the darkness of the dungeon.
Sensing their presence, Ambrose moved to et them.
Leading the way with a torch was a thoroughly bedraggled Harvey. Behind him followed the magical automaton Hastin and the rcury sli Hares.
The bruising around Harvey's eyes hadn't fully faded, but when he saw Ambrose, he broke into a grin. "Master… I'm back."
Hastin stiffened at those words.
"So he really was the master's student, huh… Guess I hit him a bit too hard," he thought to himself.
Ambrose looked at the three of them, puzzled. "How did you all end up together?"
He had known Harvey would survive, but how these three had gotten tangled up over the past few days was beyond him.
Harvey gave an awkward smile. "Master, do you mind if I rest first?"
He looked utterly miserable. His robes were caked in sand and dirt, and several wounds were still wrapped in crude bandages. He was clearly exhausted.
Ambrose cast a healing spell on him, then said, "Co with ."
Back in the laboratory, Ambrose handed Harvey several potions—healing, recovery, the works—and made him drink them all. Only then did the pallor vanish from Harvey's face.
"Alright," Ambrose said. "Explain."
Before Harvey could speak, Hastin jumped in. "Master, it's like this. We were trying to scrape together enough gold to cross the sandstorm barrier and pit ourselves against the paladins. Then we t your student. Harvey here was incredibly generous. Once he heard we were short on funds, he agreed to help us complete a high-paying bounty. We finished it, though he got a bit injured in the process."
Hares imdiately chid in, "Right, right! And since he was hurt, we couldn't just ignore him. He's your student, after all. We brought him back first. Now that he's safe, we should get back to our mission. Brother, let's go."
The two of them played off each other perfectly. They were already edging toward the exit.
Ambrose let out a cold laugh. "You dare lie to ? Try again after five centuries of practice. Go stand over there."
The brothers didn't dare argue. They imdiately shuffled to the corner and stood as still as statues.
Harvey stared at them in disbelief. As expected, his master was still far beyond him.
Ambrose turned toward Harvey, the flas in his eye sockets blazing intensely.
It would have been terrifying if Harvey hadn't long since gotten used to it. He calmly recounted everything that had happened over the past few days.
He'd been scamd, beaten, and only managed to escape because he ntioned Ambrose's other na and revealed his identity as a lich at a critical mont. That gave the brothers pause.
They'd been skeptical at first, but as Harvey revealed more and more details about Ambrose, they had no choice but to believe him.
Hastin and Hares were high-tier undead created by Ambrose, effectively his servants. Harvey, anwhile, was his student. The hierarchy among them was obvious.
By then, Harvey had already accepted his fate. Since he believed he was destined to die anyway, he didn't bother holding a grudge. Instead, he had the brothers take him to "complete" the sand lizard bounty.
The brothers didn't understand his enthusiasm for such a dangerous mission, but they didn't dare disobey. So the three of them entered the cave where the sand lizard lurked. Just as foretold, they were ambushed.
The monstrous sand lizard swallowed Harvey whole.
Harvey was certain this was it. The death he had foreseen had finally co. He closed his eyes and waited. And waited. Then ca a crack, and then a crunch.
Confused, Harvey opened his eyes. The sand lizard had been torn apart, literally dismantled by Hastin's bare hands. It wasn't even a real creature, just a crude construct of bones.
Harvey had suffered so injuries, but nothing close to fatal.
Harvey frowned. How could this have happened? His fated death…
"Back then… I started wondering if fate could actually be changed," Harvey said.
"And?" Ambrose asked.
Harvey gave a bitter smile. "At first, I didn't understand. But later, I figured it out. Master, you saved , didn't you? I don't know how you did it, but I'm guessing you went back in ti and fabricated this entire prophecy, perfectly recreating everything I experienced. That way, I wouldn't die from it… because it was never real to begin with."
At first, Harvey hadn't been sure. But when he examined the skeletal sand lizard and discovered the unnatural way its bones had been assembled, he imdiately realized that this was Ambrose's work.
There might be other liches in the world, but none who would make aberrant skeletons like this.
That clue had led Harvey straight to the truth.
Ambrose sighed. The kid really was too smart. It had taken him decades to figure out how to exploit fate like this, whereas Harvey had pieced it together in a matter of days.
"You're too clever for your own good," Ambrose muttered. "The mont you understood that logic, you prevented from using it on you again." He had originally planned to keep Harvey in the dark. As long as Harvey remained ignorant, he could repeat the trick.
Harvey didn't seem bothered. "I figured as much," he said calmly. "If fate cos for again, you probably won't be able to save a second ti anyway. Fate… isn't sothing you can negotiate with."
That much was true. The Goddess of Fate was unlikely to let the sa loophole be exploited twice. Still… "unlikely" wasn't the sa as impossible.
But even that slim chance had vanished.
"Don't worry about it, Master. Maybe one day, my own student will face the sa situation. If I hadn't figured this out, I'd have to watch them die helplessly. But now… I have a way to save them." He smiled. "You didn't just save my life. You gave the power to save others."
That was the paradox of the school of divination: only a less intelligent diviner could be saved. And the price of saving them… was the insight of a more intelligent one.
Ambrose scoffed. "Thinking about taking students already? At your level?"
Harvey didn't mind the criticism in the slightest. "That's why I ca back, isn't it? Master, I want to continue studying under you."
Ambrose let out a dry chuckle. "I've been waiting for you to say that." Then his tone turned cold. "From now on, you'll be working for for free, until you've paid off the one hundred and eighty million gold you owe ."
Harvey's smile froze. "…One hundred and eighty million? Where did that number co from?"
Ambrose replied icily, "You think going back in ti is free?! I already rounded it down for you. And don't think dying will get you out of it. I'll keep working you even after that!"
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