Chapter 48 - 46: A Stake in the Future
The massive gates of the Nine Residence swung open with a dull scrape, welcoming Victor and Lyra back into the quiet prestige of the Imperial Academy’s noble quarters.
Everything was infuriatingly normal.
Students strolled lazily along the manicured cobblestone pathways, laughing under the shade of ancient oak trees, discussing upcoming duel exams and petty academy politics. Not a single soul knew or cared where Victor had gone for the past week. The horrific depths of the dungeon Ruins, the harrowing Blood Trial, and the blood-soaked demise of Garrick’s mercenary band simply did not exist to the rest of the world.
Victor walked with his hands tucked in the pockets of his dark coat, his pitch-black eyes taking in the mundane scene.
The Church must be reacting behind the scenes, Victor thought privately, keeping his gait steady. Even if the general student body doesn’t care about our brief absence, the administrative eye of the academy and the Church’s informants certainly noticed my departure alongside Lyra and the Vesper siblings. They must have launched an investigation. I can only rely on Aria to gather intel from her networks and see how deeply they’re prying.
As they reached the heavy double doors of Victor’s personal manor, Lyra stepped up beside him, her silver eyes fixed on his calm face.
"Victor," she asked softly, unable to hold her curiosity any longer. "Why are you so obsessed with this mine? We just returned from a life-threatening adventure, yet you’re already moving toward Silas."
Victor unlocked the door and stepped into the cool, quiet foyer, turning to face her as the door clicked shut.
"The mine isn’t simply about money, Lyra," Victor said, his voice measured and sharp. "The mine is an investment in independence."
He walked toward his mahogany desk, unbuttoning his coat and leaning back against the edge of the polished wood.
"I cannot afford to rely on anyone," he explained smoothly. "The funds I seized from the Sunken Temple will eventually run out. I need a steady, independent source of wealth if we’re going to expand our influence."
Lyra nodded slowly, taking in his words, but Victor’s thoughts were running far deeper.
The future is becoming increasingly dangerous, Victor reasoned in the silence of his own mind. And as we saw in Oakhaven... the timeline is fractured and completely unreliable. Lyra can’t know the truth about the novel’s script, but in a world this distorted, I need my own self-sustaining source of income, resources, rare ores, magical materials, and eventually... my own private force of soldiers and mercenaries. That land will become the foundation of my private faction.
He paused, a dark spark passing through his eyes as he looked down at his ledger.
Silas wasn’t wrong about there being a labyrinth beneath that land, Victor thought to himself. He was just completely wrong about the context of what slumbers inside it. It isn’t just a basic abandoned mana deposit... there’s an ancient relic hidden deep in those lower shafts.
Victor sat down, pulling out his financial records to calculate his remaining assets.
Buying the vast, sprawling territory outright was financially impossible at his current standing without liquidating every scrap of treasure he had plundered. But a fifty-fifty joint operation? That was entirely viable.
He knew the exact location of the hidden mana ore deposit. Though if the timeline is so distorted that the ore isn’t even there... I’ll just figure something out on the fly. Or kill Silas out of pure spite.
Victor leaned back, mentally reviewing the original web novel’s detailed profile on Silas.
Silas was a desperate man a wealthy former merchant-lord whose entire fortune was being drained by a single, agonizing tragedy. His only daughter, Evelyn, suffered from a rare, incurable condition: Mana Core Shattering Disease. In the original timeline, Silas spent decades desperately funding expeditions into that barren land, only for a massive, extraordinarily valuable rare mana ore deposit to finally be discovered beneath the soil years down the line. Yet, even that unimaginable wave of newly acquired wealth couldn’t buy a cure for Evelyn. He had gained a kingdom’s worth of gold, only to watch his daughter wither away into a cold grave, leaving him a broken, depressed shell of a man.
The mine isn’t valuable because of what it produces today, Victor mused, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the polished wood. It’s valuable because of what will be discovered beneath it... and the ancient relic sleeping in its depths. Silas is financially ruined and completely desperate. I have the cure he would sell his soul for. It’s time to make the gamble.
Night fell over the imperial capital, casting long, menacing shadows across the wealthy residential district.
Having finalized their preparations, Victor and Lyra made their way toward the grand estate of Lord Silas. The air was thick with mist as they approached the looming iron gates of the manor.
"Stop right there!" a guard barked, stepping into the torchlight alongside three armored men, his hand resting tightly on the hilt of his sword. "Who goes there at this hour"
The guard paused, the color completely draining from his face as the torchlight illuminated Victor’s cold, pitch-black eyes and Lyra’s silver rapier.
Victor looked at the guard impassively. "Did you forget the beating I gave you the other day? Move aside."
The guards flinched, instinctively taking a step back as sweat broke out on their brows. They looked at each other nervously, gripping their weapons tightly but utterly terrified to draw them.
Before a fight could break out, the heavy front door of the manor swung open. A middle-aged butler hurried down the stone steps, bowing deeply before Victor.
"Forgive them, Sir Victor!" the butler pleaded anxiously, waving the guards back. "My master has given strict orders that you are permitted entry at any time within a week of your last meeting. Today is the fifth day."
Victor raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk touching his lips. So he took that one-week ultimatum really seriously, didn’t he? Then again, I was the one who spoke about curing his daughter within a week.
Without another word, Victor walked gracefully past the trembling guards and entered the manor, Lyra keeping stride at his side. The servants and house guards who had witnessed his brutal, violent rampage days prior watched in absolute shock as the fallen noble strolled through the grand marble hallway with immaculate, aristocratic elegance. There was no blood, no drawn weapons, and no violence.only an oppressive, terrifying air of absolute composure.
What made the grand entrance even more striking was the figure walking beside him. Lyra carried herself like an ethereal vision, her silver hair shimmering under the chandelier light like spun moonlight, her sharp silver eyes glowing with quiet lethality. Half the male servants in the corridor stood frozen, drooling in silent awe at her otherworldly beauty, completely captivated until the icy aura radiating from both Victor and Lyra snapped them back to reality.
The butler led them directly into the primary reception hall, where Silas sat waiting on a plush velvet couch, looking visibly gaunt and exhausted.
Victor walked in and took a seat on the couch directly across from him, crossing one leg over the other.
A heavy, suffocating silence stretched across the room until Victor finally broke it, setting his cold gaze on the desperate man.
"So," Victor began calmly. "Where is your daughter, Silas?"
Silas narrowed his eyes, his knuckles white as he clenched his fists resting on his knees. Paranoia and desperation warred behind his bloodshot eyes. "So you’re saying... you actually found the cure?"
"Yes," Victor replied smoothly. "Take me to her."
"Show me the cure first," Silas demanded, his voice trembling with a mix of authority and panic. "I won’t let a stranger near my dying child without proof!"
Victor stared at him, his face utterly devoid of emotion. "I can’t. Or better yet... I can simply stand up and leave. I don’t inherently need anything from you, Silas. If you want this cure, you follow my rules."
I could easily just invade those mines by force, slaughter the defense garrison, retrieve the relic, and siphon the mana myself, Victor calculated silently. But the Elixir of Life in my possession is far more valuable than a mindless massacre, provided I play this correctly.
The silence in the hall grew so thick that the flickering of the candlelight sounded like thunder. Silas swallowed hard, his breathing heavy.
Victor broke the tension, leaning forward slightly.
"I want the land," Victor declared softly, his voice echoing in the grand room. "You want your daughter alive. Show me the way."
Silas gasped softly, taken aback by the sheer bluntness of the proposal. He stared at Victor, looking for any trace of deceit, but found only a wall of chilling confidence.
"Very well," Silas rasped out, choosing to give in to the desperate faint glimmer of hope. He stood up, his voice turning cold as he issued a stern warning. "I will take you to her. But mark my words, Victor... if you try anything suspicious..."
CLAP.
Silas snapped his hands together sharply. Instantly, the ambient air inside the hall buckled under a sudden, suffocating pressure. A violent burst of high-density aura surged through the surrounding walls—a hidden bodyguard, radiating the unmistakable, lethal mana signature of a Tier 6 master warrior, was watching their every move from the shadows.
Victor’s eyes flickered upward for a fraction of a second. So he is prepared this time, huh? A Tier 6 combatant hidden in the structure.
Unbothered by the threat, Victor stood up. "Lead the way."
Silas guided them up a grand spiral staircase and down a quiet, dimly lit corridor at the rear of the estate. He pushed open a set of heavy mahogany doors, revealing a softly lit, immaculate bedroom scented with bitter herbs and medicinal incense.
Lying in the center of a massive canopy bed was a young girl.
Victor stepped inside, his eyes landing on Evelyn. She was breathtakingly beautiful,possessing smooth, pale skin like carved alabaster and hair as blue and radiant as a clear winter sky. She looked like a real-life Snow White, fast asleep in an enchanted slumber, though her shallow breathing and faint, shattered mana aura betrayed the deadly disease slowly eating away at her soul.
Victor gazed at the girl, a sharp, brilliant idea suddenly forming in his mind.
He turned around, facing Silas and Lyra at the doorway.
"Leave us," Victor ordered calmly.
Silas froze, his eyes widening in anger. "What?! Leave you alone with my bedridden daughter? Absolutely not!"
"If you want her cured, both of you need to step outside and close the door," Victor said, his tone leaving no room for negotiation. "This process requires absolute concentration and zero external interference. It is the only way she survives tonight."
Silas glared at Victor, his chest heaving as the aura of the hidden Tier 6 warrior flared dangerously in the corridor behind him.
Victor simply met his gaze, his pitch-black eyes cold, steady, and utterly unreadable.