The Slate of Ten Commandments.
It was a powerful artifact found in the Ascent Isles.
More importantly, it was one of the few Academy relics whose effects persisted even outside the Apex Academy — unlike most other local relics, like the Key of Order, which only worked within Academy grounds.
The Slate’s function was simple — write an oath on it using your blood, and you’d be bound to it.
Naturally, there were conditions.
For starters, an oath could only be made between a minimum of one and a maximum of two individuals.
All parties had to agree of their own free will to be a part of an oath, completely uninfluenced — no threats, no bribes, no mind control, nothing.
Also, oaths could only be written inside the Academy and had to have a time limit — anywhere from three days to three years.
And once that time was up, you couldn’t reuse the same oath again.
Oh, and one last thing — breaking an oath made on the Slate wasn’t just difficult. It was physically impossible.
So, yeah. It wouldn’t take a genius to guess that I needed it to make a binding pact with Juliana.
“You… you know what that is?” Vince blinked from the floor, still pinned under Juliana’s foot. His expression shifted from surprise to disbelief. “Okay, but still! You can’t just take it!”
“I’m not taking it,” I scoffed. “I just need to make an oath.”
“Well, then say that, instead of breaking into my apartment!” he snapped. “Thank the Monarchs I was only bathing! What if you two had walked in on me while I was in a more compromising position?!”
Juliana and I gave him a hard look.
The man was soaking wet, straight out of the bath, and utterly naked with the only thing preserving his dignity being a towel barely wrapped around his waist.
…What the hell could be more compromising than that?
“Anyway,” Vince said with sudden calmness, dragging us back to the conversation. “Call your Shadow off. I mean, sure, I know most boys would kill to be stepped on by a hot dominatrix like her, but I’m not into— actually, you know what? I’m fine. This is fine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Juli, get away from the creep.”
But Juliana was already jumping back with a disgusted grunt, taking the kunai with her as she retreated.
Vince let out a laugh like he’d just delivered the punchline of a particularly clever joke.
…He hadn’t.
Then he stood up, one hand keeping the towel in place.
“So, sure. You can use the Slate,” he said, smiling the easy, slippery smile of a conman who’d sell you a fake relic and disappear before you realized it was plastic. “But it’ll cost you a few thousand Credits… depending on how long you want the oath to last, of course.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. “Yeah, buddy. I was going to pay you. But then I remembered how much profit you must’ve made from that betting ring you started during my title match.”
Vince stared at me. Silent. Still. Then he kept staring for a bit longer. And suddenly, he started sweating.
You see, that betting ring was illegal.
Why? Because it was organized by an underage first-year Cadet. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing the Cadet Council would ignore.
Finally, he stammered, “Y-You’ve got no proof it was me!”
I smiled and tapped a finger to my chin, feigning so much innocence that it would put a saint to shame. “You’re right. I don’t. But if I were to request an investigation on you from the Cadet Council… well, I wonder how many of your other little side hustles would come to light?”
“Alright, alright!” Vince threw his arms up in theatrical surrender, like I had a gun to his head. “You can use the damn Slate. No charges. Consider it a donation to the Samael-Not-Ruining-My-Life Foundation.”
I laughed. “See? That was so easy. And it’s precisely because I wanted to avoid this conversation that I tried breaking in.”
“Yes, because that was clearly the sane choice,” Vince muttered. “Not like breaking and entering is a crime or anything.”
It was funny for him to lecture someone on crimes, considering all the stunts he pulled in the game.
I chuckled again. “I thought you’d be at the Academy by now. Why are you still home? Running late?”
“No,” he sighed, checking the wall clock. “Today’s my first mission. My Squad will leave for that in an hour.”
“Ah. Good luck with that,” I said, turning around and placing the Slate gently on the bed.
“Careful,” Vince warned.
“Relax. It’s a relic, not a phone that would break so easily,” I replied with a wave of my hand.
He just shook his head in response and started taking out clothes to finally dress himself in. “No, I mean be careful with what you write. An oath written on that thing cannot be broken until the time runs out. No matter what.”
“I know,” I nodded, then frowned, curiosity slipping into my tone. “By the way, how did you even get your hands on this relic?”
That part was never shown in the game.
Vince’s lips curled into a crooked grin as he gave me a sly, side-long glance. “Won it from a third-year in a bet.”
I gave him a flat stare. “You mean you scammed someone.”
He clicked his tongue. “Scam is such an ugly word. I prefer aggressively negotiated with creative liberties.”
Yeah, that was just a fancy way of saying scam.
Juliana raised an eyebrow. “What was the scam?”
“Not a scam! I just told you!” Vince protested, already picking out a classy but comfortable suit to wear like he was attending a gala, not going on a mission. “But if you must know — it was a bet on who could get more free drinks from a bar on Eighth Street. The third-year I was up against was this really hot girl, and, well, dudes were lining up to offer her drinks like pilgrims bringing sacrifices to a divine altar.”
“And how did you win?” I asked, squinting.
Vince’s smile stretched into a grin. “I just bought the bar.”
Juliana looked actually taken aback. “Wait… what?! You bought a property? On Ascent Isles? At today’s prices? How the hell did you even afford that? And how did you get authorization? You’re underage!”
He waved it off like it was nothing. “Oh, I bought it under my guardian’s name and left it to myself in a will. Loopholes, baby. As for the money — well, before I came here to join the Academy, I took a detour to the Eastern Safe-Zone. There I met a nobleman who wanted a private skybridge to connect his estate to the city’s floating district. What was the problem? Private skybridges don’t exist.”
Vince leaned forward like a shady street magician about to reveal his greatest trick. “But that didn’t stop me. I ‘created’ an exclusive government-backed initiative. Faked the permits. Mocked up blueprints. Even hired actors to play government officials at the approval ceremony. I convinced the nobleman to invest half a million Credits upfront. Two months later, when he realized there was no bridge — I was already long gone. Poor guy tried to sue me. But the contract I wrote only promised ‘the possibility of a bridge in the future.’ Never said anything about it actually being built.”
Juliana and I stared at him like he’d grown a second head… and it had started reciting unholy revelations.
I finally facepalmed. “Okay, stop. Just stop talking before you end up confessing to federal-level crimes.”
“Technically, it wasn’t a crime,” Vince sounded genuinely offended — like I was in the wrong here. “The court found me not guilty. Sure, I had to pay a heft bribe for allegedly impersonating government officers, but that’s beside the point.”
Juliana looked like her entire worldview had just crashed. She was so close to pulling her hair. “Okay, but still! Buying a whole bar just to win a bet? Isn’t that a bit excessive?”
Vince shrugged, clothes in hand as he headed toward the other room. “It wasn’t about winning anymore. It was about putting that third-year girl in her place. Also, I was planning to invest in real estate here anyway.”
And with that, he walked out through the door, leaving us in stunned silence.
“That guy is… one hell of a character,” Juliana mumbled.
“Tell me about it,” I said with a short laugh. Then I turned serious. “Alright. Let’s do this. Give me your kunai.”
She handed it over wordlessly.
I took it, held it to the Slate’s surface, and paused.
The Slate looked deceptively plain — like a polished chunk of black stone, flat and unassuming.
But a closer look revealed faint crimson lines — sentences etched across the surface like they’d been written in red ink. Except, it wasn’t ink.
It was blood.
The blood of those who had written their oaths upon it.
And those oaths in question were quite interesting to read:
[1. For the next one year, I swear my loyalty to House Vael, acting as their agent within the Academy. In return, House Vael shall provide me safe passage out of the Ascent Isles once the term ends.
2. I vow to kill the High Inquisitor with my own hands within three years. Until then, I shall not harm any member of the Inquisition unless in self-defense.
3. For one week, I, Rynn the Red, vow not to prank Professor Langely during his wedding. In return, he shall not assign me cleaning duty for an entire year.
4. We swear to keep our relationship secret from the Houses and not speak of it to anyone, directly or indirectly, unless mutually agreed, for the next six months.]
I stared at that third oath for a long moment.
Just what kind of menace did a guy have to be for a professor to bind him in an absolute oath just to stop pulling pranks?
What a legend!
There were only four oaths on the Slate right now.
The rest must’ve faded — because oaths vanish the moment their duration ends.
So, I grabbed the kunai and began engraving the fifth.
I carved into the stone slowly, choosing my words carefully so they couldn’t be twisted out of context.
The best way to do that was to keep the oath simple and to the point.
[5. For the next three years, I vow to not harm the other party, directly or indirectly, or act against their interests through malicious intent.]
There.
Not too vague, not too specific. Simple, anonymous, and difficult to find a way around. It was the best I could do without revealing our identities.
I nicked my finger with the kunai and pressed it against the carved words, letting the blood seep into the grooves.
Juliana didn’t say a word. She just watched, her eyes unreadable.
I handed her back the kunai.
She mirrored my actions — cutting a neat little slice on her finger, then smearing the blood across the oath quietly.
A beat of silence passed.
She glanced at the Slate on the bed, then at me. “Is it done?”
“Try it,” I said with a shrug.
She waited a second. Then, with no warning, whipped her short blade at my face.
But her bandaged hand stopped mid-swing, long before the kunai could get anywhere near me.
“…Yeah, it’s done,” she muttered, lowering the blade.
Good.
And with that, everything I needed to accomplish in the first half of Act One of the game was finally finished.
I could rest now.