A few minutes later, his black sedan departed from Ashford Estate. Its destination was clear. The Valerion Institute of Behavioral Psychology. The drive to the center of Asterion took nearly forty minutes. Ashford Estate stood well outside the university district and the government quarter. For decades, the Ashford family had deliberately chosen to live on the outskirts of the city far from the crowds, yet still close enough to attend royal council sessions and important business meetings. Lucien sat in the back seat of the sedan, quietly watching the scenery through the window. Rows of stone buildings gradually replaced the endless stretch of trees. The streets became busier with university students walking toward campus. Some carried towering stacks of books. Others debated animatedly while pointing at their lecture notes. It was a sight that always brought Lucien a sense of calm. To him... A university was one of the few places where people could question almost anything without being considered disrespectful. The Royal University of Valerion was the oldest university in the Kingdom. Founded more than two centuries ago, it had become the birthplace of countless theories that would later shape the course of scientific progress throughout Terra Novus. Law. Economics. Medicine. Engineering. Psychology. Each faculty surrounded a vast central courtyard, connected by stone walkways and gardens that were almost always filled with students. Yet there was one building set slightly apart from the main campus. It wasn't large. Nor was it particularly grand. In fact, many first-year students mistook it for an ordinary administrative building. Mounted above the entrance was nothing more than a simple bronze plaque. Valerion Institute of Behavioral Psychology The institute had been established nearly ten years earlier, several years after the official publication of Behavioral Dominance Theory. Before then, all research had been conducted in a small laboratory within the Faculty of Psychology. But as the research expanded and the number of participants continued to grow, the university decided to establish a dedicated institute devoted to the study of human behavior. Even so, not every project conducted there revolved around Behavioral Dominance Theory. Quite the opposite. BDT was merely one among dozens of ongoing research projects. That decision had been intentional. From the very beginning, Morgan had refused to let the institute become synonymous with a single theory. To him, once an institution became too dependent on one idea, it also lost the courage to prove that the idea itself might be wrong. Lucien had once heard Morgan say exactly that during a seminar. «"If one day the evidence proves Behavioral Dominance Theory is wrong..."» «"...then a scientist's first responsibility is not to defend it."» «"...It's to improve it."» Those words had stirred quite a controversy. Several newspapers even ran headlines claiming that "the creator of BDT doubts his own theory." Morgan had simply laughed when he read them. He had never claimed his theory was wrong. He merely refused to treat science as something that should never be questioned. The sedan came to a stop at the foot of the institute's front steps. As soon as Lucien stepped out, his eyes were drawn to the small garden in front of the building. There were no statues of famous scientists. No towering monuments. Only a narrow stone path bordered by lavender bushes and a handful of wooden benches. At the center of the garden stood a gray granite stone. Carved into its surface was a sentence familiar to nearly every psychology student in Valerion. «Science begins where certainty ends.» Beneath the quotation was a single name. Professor Alistair Morgan A faint smile crossed Lucien's face. Ironically, Morgan's most famous quotation hadn't come from one of his academic papers. It had come from the short speech he delivered during the institute's inauguration. Several students walking through the garden paused briefly when they noticed Lucien. They recognized him. Not as the heir to the Ashford family. But as one of the longest-running participants in the Behavioral Dominance research program. Among psychology students, the name Lucien Ashford was well known. Some professors even used the progression of his evaluations as case studies in courses on longitudinal research methodology. Of course... All of the data had been thoroughly anonymized. Protecting participants' identities had always been one of the institute's highest priorities. For years, Morgan had insisted that scientific research should never come at the expense of a participant's private life. That was why a person's complete Behavioral Dominance Profile was never disclosed without their explicit consent. Not even to family members. Lucien had once witnessed a high-ranking royal official being refused access to the evaluation results of his own adult son. Morgan's reply had been remarkably brief. «"He's my research participant."» «"He doesn't belong to me."» «"And he certainly doesn't belong to you."» Lucien stepped inside the building. The institute's lobby was far from luxurious. Its walls were lined with bulletin boards displaying information about ongoing research projects. To the left was the Child Behavioral Observation Unit. To the right stood the Neurocognitive Laboratory. Farther inside were family counseling rooms, interview suites, and the research library. Every section was busy. Yet nothing felt noisy. The institute moved with a quiet rhythm. As though everyone understood that studying human beings required far more patience than studying numbers. Lucien climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. The corridor there was noticeably quieter. Most of the offices belonged to senior researchers. The walls were lined with framed copies of journals published by the institute. Lucien walked slowly. He had read nearly every one of them. Some he had even reviewed before publication as part of the institute's internal peer-review process. Fifteen years as a research participant had given him a deeper understanding of Behavioral Dominance Theory than most practicing psychologists. And because of that he understood something the public often overlooked. BDT was not a theory that provided many answers. Quite the opposite. Nearly every answer it uncovered gave birth to an entirely new question. Why weren't Dominant and Submissive individuals always attracted to one another? Why were many of the healthiest relationships actually formed between Neutral individuals? Could natural behavioral tendencies truly change with age? Or was it only the way people learned to manage those tendencies that changed? For more than thirty years not one of those questions had received a definitive answer and to Morgan that was the most fascinating part of science. At the far end of the corridor hung a large black-and-white photograph. It had been taken forty years earlier. A group of researchers stood shoulder to shoulder in front of a modest laboratory. At the center stood a young man wearing glasses, smiling broadly a striking contrast to the expression he wore today. Professor Alistair Morgan. Beneath the photograph was a small inscription. Behavioral Dominance Research Group Royal University of Valerion 1986 Lucien stopped for a few moments. His gaze shifted across the other faces in the photograph. Helena Strauss. Developmental psychologist. Victor Rowan. Neuroscientist. Daniel Hughes. Statistician. They had all come from different disciplines. Yet one shared question had brought them together. Not... 'How should human beings be categorized?' But rather... 'Why do a small number of people build their sense of security in fundamentally different ways?' It seemed like a simple question, but it had required seven years of research, hundreds of participants, and thousands of hours of observation before it finally gave rise to an entirely new theory. Lucien let out a quiet breath. Then he walked toward the final office at the end of the corridor. A small nameplate hung beside the door. Professor Alistair Morgan He knocked twice. Tok. Tok "Come in." The familiar deep voice he had known for the past fifteen years answered from inside. Lucien turned the doorknob. Then stepped into the room.