Considering how big the town hall's drawing room was, Lucius found comfort in that he could keep some distance between him and Damien. He was not fond of the idea that they'd be too close for too long and Damien would spot something to blow his identity, but mostly he just didn't want to be close to the man at all.

In spite of this, Damien sat down on the chair next to Lucius, as if they were about to be friendly or something equally ridiculous.

"Is this... Your preferred side of the table, or something?" Lucius asked, giving the less than preferable space between them a sceptical glance. "I don't mind moving if so."

Damien measured the distance with his eyes as well, but was not bothered by it.

"There's no need to sit so far apart when it's just the two of us."

"I think anyone with manners would beg to differ," Lucius insisted. "I don't even have a chaperone with me."

"We're not that close." Damien had the nerve to scoff. "It's a good enough placement for a casual conversation."

Lucius released a dignified sigh and leaned back. He'd just won over the people of the town, so he supposed he could play nice.

Just not that nice.

"Very well, then. Let's talk." He gestured towards Damien. "I assume it will start with an apology."

Damien raised an eyebrow.

"An apology?"

"It was quite an unbecoming situation for you, and while you have my everlasting pity, you must realise I was put in a position of discomfort as well." Lucius hid a sneer. "Had it not been for your misguided idea that you can take the law in your own hands, I would not have been forced to play judge."

"The former judge never found any issue with how I handle things." Damien's eyes were more bored than cold. "It should not come as a surprise that this town means a lot of work for a man like him, and sometimes us higher ranking crowds can handle what slips through the cracks."

"You are a merchant, Lord Hargreaves," Lucius reminded him, trying to look equally bored by squinting a little. "A glorified one, but not the kind of person fit to make decisions like that."

"And you are?" Damien suddenly looked amused. "Let's not be hypocritical, Lady Cromwell."

Lucius curled his lip at the amusement.

"I don't like to do others' jobs, but I will not stand around and see potentially innocent girls being hanged on a mere whim."

"Even if it had been on a whim, you're in the wrong town if it's mercy you want." Damien nodded towards the window. "People want to see blood."

"People want to be entertained." Lucius didn't break eye contact. "But I imagine that with men like you in charge, death is the closest they've gotten."

Damien laughed softly.

"And you're planning on changing that, I assume?"

"I think it would be a pleasant change." Lucius smiled. "And from the looks of today, they don't seem to despise me as much as you've implied."

"They did seem... More amiable than usual," Damien admitted, a wrinkle forming between his eyebrows as he stared Lucius down. "That doesn't mean you should get too comfortable."

"I will do my best as usual, of course," Lucius said, letting his sophisticated voice slide into smug territory. "But it makes me wonder if I couldn't manage this town quite well."

His pleasant grin widened.

"Alone."

"So you're going to let one day of people agreeing not to hang someone stop you from going through with the marriage?" Damien didn't roll his eyes, but his voice suggested it was all he wanted at the time. "Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself?"

"I'm confident this recent support will last, Lord Hargreaves." Lucius acknowledged that his other identity appeared horribly naive with a statement like that, but then, using Scourge pacts as an argument seemed unwise.

"And I'm confident you're making a mistake, Lady Cromwell," Damien said, understandably. "Judge Crossfire may support you, but as you heard, he's still learning his profession as well and will not be enough to keep you afloat should something happen. You need someone who knows the town. The history, the societies, the unwritten rules. Not just things scribbled in a book."

"Well, I do know one person who'd support me with such things." Lucius leaned back further and folded his arms. "But you're sending him away."

"I told you, Anthony has no interest in women."

"Why does it have to be about marriage?" Lucius threw his hands out. "Anthony could support me without disrupting my love life because unlike you, he wouldn't use me for his own gain. You may be related but his heart is not as cold as yours."

Damien's eyes narrowed, and his gaze sank to the floor.

"You're right," he said, with a voice more strained than Lucius would have preferred. "His emotions often get the best of him. That's why he can't stay."

Frustration built in Lucius' throat. The lengths Damien went to just to keep Anthony and him apart were getting ridiculous.

"Listen, I don't know just what it's all about because Anthony won't tell me, but don't you think what you're doing is, well... drastic?"

"Sometimes drastic is the only thing that works," Damien said, eyes still turned away, and Lucius frowned.

"Me and his other friends aside, will you be alright with him leaving?" he asked. "I know if I had a son, I'd never push him away like that. I mean, what if something happens? What if I lost him? It could happen so quickly, after all."

A twitch in Damien's eye revealed that Lucius had struck the nerve he was going for, but he was far from done.

"Neither of us can imagine the pain of losing a son, I know, but don't you think it would destroy you?"

Damien drew a breath through his nose, actually failing to make his nod look nonchalant.

"It would."

A brief feeling of pity hit Lucius as he watched the man's cold expression shift further into anguish, but he quickly exchanged it with satisfaction. To think he'd found such an effective approach so quickly. All he'd had to do was imagine Damien had feelings.

"I know I'm just a loud-mouthed child with too much power in your eyes," Lucius said with a voice implying his non-existent pity. "Sort of like young Lord Clausson, I guess..."

The weak smile on Damien's lips suggesting there was some truth to it offended Lucius immensely, but he carried on with his sweet tone.

"... But your inaccurate claims about my incompetence aside, I do know about family." His mind reluctantly wandered back to the gallows, and the horrors he'd experienced there. "And... I know what it's like to lose it."

Lucius caught himself having lost track of what he was actually doing, seemingly having fallen for his own argument and begun reflecting on it as well.

"And I'm supposed to believe that you care about any of that?" Damien asked, and Lucius couldn't help but feel a little hurt. Damien was the cold hearted one, not him.

"Lord Hargreaves, in terms of running this town, how much do I really gain from him staying? Yes, I could turn your proposal down and have Anthony support me the best he can, but we both know you'd still get in our way any chance you get. Mainly, I just don't want to lose a good friend."

Damien took a moment to think while Lucius readied himself to retaliate. He was on such a good roll, so whatever Damien would counter with next, he'd be ready.

"Maybe you're right," Damien said.

Lucius sat dumbstruck. Of all people, he'd gotten Damien to agree? What did that even mean?

To his further confusion, Damien seemed to have realised his words as well, and looked equally shocked. Or angry. Honestly, it was hard to tell.

"Lord Hargreaves?" Lucius finally mustered after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times. "Are... Are you feeling ill?"

"... No," Damien said, voice barely audible and with a look Lucius would only have expected to receive if he'd worn a deeply offensive hat.

"You... Certainly look a little, uh... Bothered, though."

"There's something wrong about you." Damien shook his head, and Lucius pursed his lips, suspecting Wrinkleface was attempting to sway more than just the everyday townsperson.

"Well, I do know how you feel about me from before, so... I won't take that too hard."

Damien didn't reply, but the fierce cold in his eyes was returning and Lucius found he'd almost missed it. Sad people just weren't as fun to destroy.

"Fine." Damien finally sighed. "I... Won't send him away."

Lucius' jaw fell open before he could stop it, but he quickly recovered.

"That's— That's very kind of you, Lord—"

"If you go through with the marriage," Damien continued before Lucius could get further.

"I... I'm sorry?"

"If your friendship is what's most important about him staying, then it should be worth it."

"You, uh... You're really fond of that marriage idea, huh." Lucius looked at Damien's leg, eager to kick it and disappointed he was not allowed to. "Yet we really don't get along. Don't you find that at least a little inconvenient?"

"Yes, we will be seeing each other a lot." Damien shared Lucius' pained expression. "But the manor is large, so you should have your privacy most of the time."

"The..." Lucius' stomach sank. "... Manor."

"Where else?" Damien frowned. "I can arrange for you to have a room near a back door, should you want to invite dalliances or similar inconveniences. Assuming you're discreet about it, of course."

"So what, my private life is only accessible through a back door?" Lucius wouldn't have it. "That's how you'd treat me? That's how you'd treat a wife?"

"Trust me, you won't have much time for those activities anyway." Damien gave him a scornful smile. "Not if you take your job seriously."

"I thought that's what I wouldn't have to do if I married you," Lucius muttered, and Damien nodded.

"As much as I'd love for you to not be around anything of importance, appearances do matter, and tragically I'm not the one who's town chief. You still need to be the one people see. I'll just be there to put out whatever you set on fire."

I'll set you on fire.

"And make decisions behind my back," Lucius filled in the unspoken. "Like executions of the innocent."

"Under the circumstances I'd be willing to compromise." Damien held up his hands in resignation. "Should cases like the one today show up, I'll tell you about them first. Then you can play judge all you want and we'll see what happens."

"Or, or..." Lucius held up his hands as well. "We let the judge play judge, at a trial. Like the civilised people we are."

Damien gave him a tired look, but sighed.

"We'll see."

"I guess we will," Lucius retaliated, crossing his arms again, and Damien raised his eyebrows.

"Will we?"

Lucius paled.

"I— I mean... No, you said— You're the one who said we'll see, and..." He pinched his lips together. What was he doing? He couldn't agree to it. He had no chance in the world to live at the BBT manor and be both Lucius and Lucia. He'd be caught before having a chance to unpack.

"And you don't want to share your power, do you?"

However unwelcome and impossible the Scourge's voice was, it was right. Lucius had fought for his power, and he was not about to give it away to someone else. Especially not Damien.

But then he'll send Anthony away...

"So that man stands in the way of your power once again. Would it not be for the best if he left?"

Lucius gritted his teeth. No. He'd already lost Anthony once. Whatever Damien would try, they could thwart it together.

"I... I guess I accept, then," he whispered, stifling a retch. "... I will marry you."

"Why, I'm over the moon," Damien said with a face suggesting he was, in fact, not. "I'll go inform the others then, before you can change your mind."

Lucius only hummed as a reply, and as Damien left he slowly got up to grab the chair he'd been sitting on.

"Are you alright, Lady Cromwell?" Bahman hurried in just a minute later. "What— What did he say?"

He paused as he watched Lucius, who was in the process of slowly bending the chair's legs apart with an embarrassing amount of effort.

"Uh, what... What are you doing, Lady Cromwell?"

Lucius looked up at him with dead eyes, and gestured down at the chair.

"It would seem I'm getting married, so I'm trying to break a chair while being ladylike enough to not make a scene."

Bahman uttered a low 'oh...' of sympathy, and awkwardly looked over his shoulder.

"Well... I suppose if sounds of a chair being smashed to pieces were to come from this room in the nearest future, I imagine it's simply my mind playing tricks on me. And no one else is nearby, so... Guess we'd be unaware of it ever happening. Should something like that occur."

Lucius managed a weak, appreciative smile.

"Thank you, Bahman."

Bahman nodded, pitying smile lasting as he turned towards the door, only for him to pause and look over his shoulder at the chair.

"It... Is part of a set though."

Lucius could not believe his ears.

"What is it with you people and chairs!?"