Things had been peaceful at the McBride house since Lincoln had left. It had become rather lonely, to be perfectly honest, but at least the family knew that wherever Lincoln was now, he was in good company.

For now, they kept working on their farm, brewing their potions and just trying to continue their lives as best as they could. Despite the loneliness, everything seemed fine...

And then someone came knocking at their door.

"Yes, hello?" Howard greeted as he opened the door. "What can we-"

Then, the man froze upon seeing who was standing right outside; the man could be recognized as the prince of the Great Lakes Kingdom, Bobby Santiago, but the other person was a woman wearing a purple knight outfit that covered her body, with a longsword on her back.

"You're members of Lori's guild, right?" Howard asked worriedly. "What-what brings you to our house?"

"We came here for your son," the blonde woman stated.

"Wow, Carol, just-just wow," Bobby chided with the same tone a mother would use while scolding a child. "You didn't even try to sugarcoat it a little? Try to let them know easy and slow?"

"They recognize we're part of Lori's guild," Carol pointed out. "To try delay the inevitable would be to patronize them. And that would also look bad on Lori, so-"

"Back on topic!" Harold interjected, suddenly appearing next to his husband. "What do you mean you're here for our son?!"

"As you probably know, Lincoln Loud was disowned from the Loud family several years ago and was sent here in order to distance himself from the family," Carol started. "However, since the succession of the Loud family has been in... an awkward position since then, to keep a long story short, Lori Loud desires to have your son act as a representative of Lincoln, for the position of duke."

"And what makes you think our son is a good replacement for Lincoln?" Howard frowned. "Don't get us wrong, we love our son and believe he might actually do this, but why put so much pressure on him?"

"We agree, but unfortunately we don't have a say in convincing Lori to rethink her decision," Bobby sighed. "The most we can do is follow along with her plan and pray that she convinces herself there must be another way."

"May we look at your son?" Carol asked.

"He's tending to the fields right now," Harold stated. "He's very busy right now, so if you'd be kind enough to wait to come another day?"

"... Alright."

And with those words spoken, Carol turned around and began to walk away, Bobby glancing between her and the couple before he joined her, the McBrides closing the door shortly afterwards.

"Wait, are you really going to leave it like this?" Bobby asked. "I mean, I'm all up for leaving the poor McBrides alone, but Lori isn't going to like this-"

"Precisely."

Bobby raised an eyebrow.

"We can only do so much being simple subordinates to Lori, but as a guild leader, her words carry a lot of weight," Carol explained. "Not only that, but she's extra influential due to being part of the Loud Family. If she gives them the order to hand over Clyde, they'll have to comply or face her wrath."

Carol paused and lowered her eyelids. "And even if she decides to do nothing, we can always ask another Loud for help..."

"Well, well, well well, well well well well well well well well!"

Lucy lost her shadow as she stood in the middle of a sealed room, which morphed into a large doppleganger of her with simplistic features resembling a humanoid. The humanoid then opened her eyes and looked down at Lucy, speaking:

"The one who's in front of me, what's it about? Could it perhaps be, that you're Lucy Loud?"

Lucy gulped and took a deep breath. "Great Grandma Harriet, I've come for my training session to better prepare for my eventual acquisition of your power-"

"Ugh, so wordy! So talkative!" the shadow whined out loud. "Just be clear and precise; I want a training arc to learn how to control your power! There, I said it, all in under one hour!"

Lucy blushed slightly. "I'm not that talkative."

"Sure, that's the part worth pointing out," Harriet smirked. "And not your obvious aura of utter doubt."

Lucy winced and took a step back, but quickly regained her composure and stomped the ground. "Stop fooling around, Harriet! I've already been decided as the heir to your power, and as the spirit of the urn I'll inherit, the least you can do is teach me how to use your power! That's your sole duty!"

"Duty, schmuty, with a side of booty," Harriet giggled. "But alright, I get it, it's really not a shock. The fact you wanna learn how to control..."

The shadow opened their palm, and a black fireball emerged from it.

"Bad luck."

Lucy, however, remained calm as she extended her hand forward, and faced the girl with narrowed eyes. Seeing how serious her descendant was, Harriet snickered and shook hands with her, causing the realm around them to go blank before reforming... into the same room, but with a monochromatic color scheme.

"Hello, and welcome to your mental dominion!" Harriet chirped with a giggle. "The one place controlled entirely by your opinion! I'm Harriet Loud, bad luck user extraordinaire! And let me tell you, this training, I won't let you foreswear."

"Could you please stop it with your rhyming?" Lucy asked sternly. "It's starting to get on my nerves."

"That's the point, genius," Harriet cackled. "But it is starting to wear me out as well, so I'll cut it out. But I wasn't kidding before; this training isn't something I'm going to let you just up and quit whenever you want; once it starts, you're not leaving until you've gotten an idea on how to wield my power. Understood?"

Lucy clenched her fists. "Got it."

Finally, at the outskirts of the Great Lakes Kingdom, a group of cloaked figures stood on top of a hill, looking down at it as their leader, a brunette girl by the name of Sid Chang, stated:

"Alright, company, we're almost at our destination," Sid stated. "Remember, we need to be quick and swift about this assassination attempt. Lady Lori will be greatly displeased if we don't bring her Lincoln's head."

"Excuse me, Master Sid," one of the cloaked figures blurted. "May I ask something before we head in?"

Sid rolled her eyes. "What is it?"

"By Lincoln..."

The figure took off her hood, revealing herself to be a blonde girl with lavender eyes.

"Do you mean Lincoln Loud?"